Key Images from the Wrath & Judgment Texts of Revelation

Well I am thrilled, thrilled to be able to be with you today to talk about Revelation, one of my favorite books. When it all came together it was different than normal and what I mean by that is usually when René needs a sub for a sermon he makes an appointment, he wants to sit down with you, he wants to go over the text and relay what he wants you to get across.

Well this time it was a little odd rather than the meeting I just got a quick little email, "Hey can you preach on you know that weekend coming up?" I thought, "Huh, this again is a bit odd, it's out of ordinary," and I thought his cryptic nature here, his little subtle move, it wouldn't be because we were now getting into a more difficult part of Revelation could it? It wouldn't be because of the judgment text coming up could it? And if you know my brother Mark who is typically first out of the bullpen for subbing for René, Mark knows an awful lot about this little coincidence that when tough texts come up René goes missing.

For example, for example I mined the TLC sermon archive and I came up with actual sermon titles by René and by Mark to show you what I'm talking about. First René, living for great purpose, Mark living with loss, René the good life, Mark, why does God allow suffering and evil? René, the hope experience, Mark sailing into uncertainty. René, seeing myself as God's child, Mark, when the facts are contrary to the promise. René, the optimism factor, Mark, if you get nothing else and you'll be happy about it. And of course René, every Easter Resurrection Day sermon, Mark, every crucifixion Good Friday. Those are actual sermon titles.

Now I'm poking fun at René, he really doesn't duck stuff but there is a little bit of a theme going on there. And again, my assigned texts today for René are some of the judgment texts of Revelation, not the most fun in the Bible obviously, but actually some that are very encouraging once we get into them. Seriously, it's not as bad as you think as far as the big picture.

Now as we get into it though we have to remember something. Revelation among all the books in the Bible is the one we must most especially consider the context. Because if you dealt with Revelation you can cherry-pick this and that and you can make it say anything you want. Pick up popular prophecy books and people make millions out of making this book say things. I just think I don't think it ever was intended to say that.

Again you can make it say anything kind of like how a clever editor took a very popular movie, chopped it up, moved it around and made it say something totally different. Watch the screen. Yeah, I think you see what I mean. You people are really odd, I mean you're laughing at a horror movie. That's really kinda creepy. Well you get the point, context is everything, especially in Revelation.

A few more Revelation reminders as we dive into this. A Revelation, the very first verse starts off with this. The apocalypse, that means Revelation, of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means, apocalypse means to come back. If I had a big curtain here and I could open the curtain for you, it means to unveil, it means to reveal. That's all apocalypse or Revelation means. And interestingly, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not necessarily the end times. Most of us never even thought about that. I know I didn't for many, many years. So keep that in mind, this is more about Jesus than anything else.

Also, Revelation makes more use of the Old Testament. Catch this now. Revelation has 404 verses total. Almost 300 of those verses make allusions to the Old Testament. What does that tell you? It tells us that if we don't consider the Old Testament origins that populate Revelation, we will be totally lost in trying to make sense of these crazy images and beasts and all of these wild things it talks about. So it's really helpful. In fact, it's a must to go to the Old Testament to figure out these cosmic disturbances.

I mean, it talks about stars falling on the planet, which if you know anything about space and astronomy, you know that stars are a lot bigger than Earth. If one star hit us, it'd be like a basketball hitting a baby, right? It would be pretty much over. So that can't be literal. What is that talking about? Well, it's talking about something we still do today. We talk about as the Oscars are coming up, "Hey, that person's movie did well. Their star is rising. They're a star." But then also we say, "Oh, they're not doing so well in the box office. Their star is pretty much diminished. They're done in Hollywood." So we still say that about people today.

In the Bible, in the Old Testament, in Revelation, to say that your star fell would mean that your country was going down or your leader was going down. In simple terms, if your star gets put out in Revelation, God is saying, "I'm punching your lights out. You're done." And it's gonna be well deserved, as you'll see. So those are the things we need to look for and just remember as we go through Revelation.

But here's the good news. Amongst all that judgment stuff and the bad stuff that we have to get into, Revelation is trying to impart hope, as we'll see today, as what's to impart hope. For every one of us here, hope in the midst of whatever trial you're going through. It's not just about the global trials. And it has crazy numbers and things like seals and trumpets and bowls. What is that all about? Well, Revelation is 22 chapters long. Introduction chapter, seven churches, as we're gonna need chapters two and three. Chapters about worship and then chapters six to 19. That's the meat of what scholars term the great tribulation chapters of Revelation. This is a time of terrible, terrible times.

Now most scholars believe this tribulation is talking about something yet future. Some believe this tribulation talked about in Revelation anyway, is actually talking about something in the past. Back at 70 AD when Rome just obliterated Israel and Jerusalem. Still others think it's not pointing to any specific time, but Revelation is saying, hey Christian, whatever you're going through, whenever you're going through it, God's gonna be there for you. You're gonna suffer, but God's gonna be greater than you're suffering in the long run.

And as a pastoral staff, we've decided the correct view is, well we don't know. We debate it in house, and we have people in all three of those camps by the way, and we get along just fine and don't split over that. Because more importantly people, more importantly, you may have come today and said, I don't know, this seven stuff, seals, trumpets, judgments, you don't know my life Paul, I don't. But more importantly, I want you to know this today. This book is for you and me today.

I mean, if you follow the news, you hear about shootings and viruses and ISIS and global things where you just wanna turn it off and say no more, I've had it. And then if you're a person with feelings, you must think God, do you care about these things? The world seems to be going crazy. Are you there Lord, do you care? And I know some of you probably think, you know in light of all the global biggies out there that God has to pay attention to, does he care about my little problems compared to global ones? Especially living here in Santa Cruz, the land of comfort compared to the rest of the world?

Or maybe you walked in today and you go, I'm not comfortable Paul. I've got a child that is wayward and causes me no end of pain. My marriage is on the rocks. It seems hopeless. My boss just seems to live to put me down. I never get promoted. Or maybe you're out of work altogether. Maybe that's it. Does God care about those things too in light of the big macro stuff? Yes. Revelation says yes to all of that. He cares, he's active and he's doing something. We're gonna look at that today. It's gonna be very exciting.

These images in the book of Revelation are really designed to give us encouragement. So here's our big idea today. The big idea is God is acting in history. And I'll watch this. He actually wants you and me to partner with him in bringing about change for good. He's acting in history and he wants us to team up and make a difference. That's our big, big picture, big idea today. And we will get that today if we do what John did. Now John is the author of this book. And in chapter 10 he's told it to be something really bizarre. He's told, the voice from heaven says John, I want you to eat this book.

Wow. I don't know how much syrup or amount of seasoning you would need to eat a book. And do you boil it, barbecue? I don't know. But that seems just awful. Well, it's not literally intended to mean eat a book. What he's saying is this message, this revelation message people, for all of us should be so embraced and digested in our hearts that it becomes part of our very nature. That is what John is told to do in eating it. That's what we're told to do in eating it. So are you hungry today? Yeah. Let's go eat this book.

Well, like I said, there's a lot of sevens in this book. And I'll start with chapter eight verse one, which says, in your notes you can follow along, it says, when he, this is John, or the angel, opened up the seventh seal. There was silence in heaven for about a half hour. Now wait a minute. René talked about the seven seals last time. Why are we going back? We're not really going back. This is one of these odd things about revelation. Now watch this.

Most scholars believe that when revelation talks about its three big sets of judgments in the tribulation chapters, and those big three are the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bulls. Most scholars believe that rather than being seven plus seven plus seven, or 21 specific individual judgments, what revelation is doing is telling the same thing repeatedly, in repeated fashion, just with different imagery for different impact. So when we get to these sevens, we're probably, we don't have to worry about, well how many are there, and I'm getting lost with that one and that one. Don't worry about that. Just sit back and go, oh, God's using different pictures to tell the same thing that's about to happen. That's all this is.

And this is not uncommon in the Bible. Parallel tellings of things come up all the time. In fact, just with these bulls and trumpets, look at the screen. Do you see parallel things happening here? For example, with the trumpets, which we'll look most at today, it says the first trumpet affected the land or the earth. But guess what? The bull, the first bull does the same. The second of the trumpets, the second of the bulls affects the sea. The third of each affects the rivers and so on. Look at the last one. Seems to be talking about the end of the tribulation of each trumpet and bull and the beginning of Christ's reign. And we're not even through the book of Revelation yet. How could it be the end?

Here's the point. Revelation just tells the same thing over and over again with different pictures, that's all. And this is not so unfamiliar to us. Do you remember Pharaoh's dream? And I'm talking about the Pharaoh of Joseph's time. Remember he goes to sleep one night and he has this dream that he cannot interpret. And what was the dream? He dreams that seven really healthy looking cows come out of the Nile. They are fat and ready. They are so good looking. But then following them are seven lean cows who eat the healthy cows. And he wakes up. He has no idea what this means. Then he has another dream. This time seven heads of wheat come up and they're healthy and full. But then those seven heads are followed by seven lean scorched heads of grain that eat the healthy grain. And he wakes up.

What was going on here? Well even kids put this together. They go, oh, this is one singular story, told two different ways, first seven cows, then seven heads of grain, but they're telling the same thing. And we all know this story. It was seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt, followed by seven years of famine. Not two different times. One, two different ways of telling one thing. Revelation here has three of telling one thing, the tribulation period. So that is not something we're unfamiliar with. We get that from the Bible.

Also, if you went to Egypt during those days, you wouldn't think literally there were seven giant cows roaming around, right? You would know this was a story that was symbolic to make a point. And seven or 10 or 12, when you read these numbers in Revelation, stop and go, oh, I've seen this seven before. I've seen this 10 before, this 12. What's going on here? Just very simply, these are numbers that are essentially saying that they're implying perfection and completion. So if God says, I'm gonna do that thing sevenfold, he's not necessarily gonna do it seven ways. He's saying it's gonna be done perfectly, completely, and exactly how I want it. That's the point of the sevens, the 10s, and the 12s. So don't worry about the numbers. You just realize, oh, God's doing this exactly as he intended.

But first, some good news. In chapter eight, verse one again, I absolutely love this, and you are too. I can't wait to get to it. Watch this. Before judgment comes, verse one of chapter eight says, "When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half hour." What is this half hour pause all about? Well, our first key image gives us the clue. It's a golden sensor that is seen in the vision, and what does it do? It reveals, men and women, that your prayers matter. No matter who you are or how crazy your world is, this image indicates that your prayers matter.

How do I know this? Follow along as the verses go on. It says, "Silence in heaven for a half hour." And then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them, and another angel who had a golden sensor came and stood before the altar. This is in the throne room of God. He was given much incense to offer. What's in this thing? The prayers of all of God's people. And he takes the sensor, it has a burning ember in it, and it gives off aroma, and the angel takes it, and he casts it down onto planet earth in the image. What is that saying? It's saying three phenomenal things that have blown me away this week as I've revisited this.

First, silence in heaven for a half hour. Why? Your prayers. It just gives me chills. Your prayers cause a standstill in heaven. Let me say that again. Your prayers cause a standstill in heaven. And not only that, when they're cast to the earth, that means they're affecting historical events. They're changing history. And not only that, they're in the throne room of God almighty. Men and women never, ever, ever give up or think that your prayers don't matter. This text is explicit. Your prayers change history. Your prayers stop heaven. Your prayers change things.

Now some of you feel like, yeah Paul, but you don't know me. I pray and pray and pray, and it's like they just don't ever get outside the ceiling of the church here, or my house, or wherever. I know that that's an honest, real Christian experience that every Christian, great or small, has always felt. But this text is clear. In God's good time, your prayers are gonna have their day and they are gonna change history. Remember Abraham, when he was worried about his dear loved one in a city that God's about to destroy, the city of Sodom? He gets word that God has finally had enough after hundreds of years of the city just doing evil things. And God's gonna act.

But Abraham has a loved one there. So he goes before God and he says God, far be it from you, as he says, to destroy a city if that city has righteous people in it. You wouldn't do that, would you? And God says no. And so Abraham says, if there's only 50 people in that city, God, will you hold back? And God says yes. And Abraham says, well what if there's 40? How about 35? And God says, okay, okay, I'll hold back. So Abraham gets in bold in here and he says, okay God, how about 20? How about 15? And God says, okay, I won't destroy for that little amount. So Abraham now in his last big pitch, he's got his courage up and he says, Lord, all right, don't get upset now, but what if there are only 10 righteous people in Sodom? Surely you won't destroy it for them, will you? And God says, no Abraham, for 10, I will not destroy it. And Abraham's like, yes! But then he goes into the city and he only finds four righteous people. But guess what? God gets them out. God saves the four.

And what's the moral of the story? The moral is people haggle with God. It pays to haggle with God. He doesn't, I'm serious. It's no coincidence that God started in a Middle Eastern culture where you haggle for everything. In fact, you disrespect a Middle Eastern merchant if you go up and say, here, I'd like to pay for that. And they go, no, no, what are you talking about? They wanna haggle with you or it's disrespectful. And even if you get a better deal than what you're offering, that's the way they work. And so he's saying, haggle with him.

I mean, God doesn't want men and women to always be people who say, now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. I'm sorry, I got into Bill Clinton there for a minute there, but my point is God does not want us to remain babies and pray, he wants us to haggle. Those of you that know the P90X workout system, their big word is, come on, people, you gotta bring it. Well, God wants us to bring it in our prayers. He wants that passion. That's what he wants and why is that? Because as Walter Wink tells us, "History belongs to the intercessors, Christians who pray, those who believe and pray the future into being. History does not belong to the powerful or the wealthy or the rulers or the armies or the corporations in the global media empires. History belongs to the intercessors.

In fact, history, intercessing, is what Jesus is doing right now. It's Christ Jesus who died, he was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who right now intercedes for us. Now you think about that. Jesus spent three years setting up his kingdom and salvation for us. He has spent the last two millennia at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. You think that's important? Yeah. What does this tell us? Men and women, history belongs to the intercessors. That's a fancy word for people that pray. In fact, 2 Peter actually has this crazy verse that I don't fully understand but I love it. It says that we Christians who pray, actually catch this now, actually speed God's coming again. What? Now God knows when he's coming again, how do we affect that? But it says that we speed it along, how? By our prayers.

Now, the truth be told, who knows what your prayers have done for loved ones? Who knows how many people you've turned from a sin or saved from a bad decision? Or who knows how much grace your prayers have been dispensed on a life and turned it and you never saw that turn in this life, you're just not gonna see it? We don't know, but this is what we do know. History belongs to the intercessors. Prayer changes history. Now you might be saying, Paul, I'm not very good at prayer. I don't even know what to do. I just blah, blah, blah. I'm like, I just wander. Well, here's what I do very simply to help keep myself focused in prayer. I pray through the Bible. I just read it through and I pause and pray when things come up. If you just open your Bible, read through it, you will have every situation and everyone's need you can think of come up, they're all there. It'll keep you guided and keep you going through.

I mean, imagine going to coffee with somebody every day and all they ever did was sort of in a monologue. They just wandered about, well, yeah, grandma's not well again, the dog's lost and Jesus helped me with my homework and the car's not running. You would not go to coffee with them anymore 'cause they're just stuck. Men and women don't get stuck. Use the word and let God's word guide your prayers. It'll revolutionize stuff for you.

All right, well, the next image that we're coming across now in this judgment text are the trumpets. What does this mean? This is the tough part. It means judgment is coming. Men and women, no matter how crazy or evil the world becomes, God the judge is going to act. Just a couple highlights from the text you see in your notes are on the screen. Watch for a theme here. It says the seven angels who had seven trumpets prepared to sound them. And it talks about hail and fire mixed with blood. A third of the earth was burned up. A third of the trees were burned up. A third of the sea turned to blood and on and on and on. The stars, third of the stars, et cetera, et cetera.

Does this sound familiar, people? Pestilence, bugs, a third of the water turning to blood. Well, if you know the book of Exodus or you've seen the prince of Egypt. Most of you are that, I can see that, okay. You know this is talking about the Exodus. Now why is this important? Because think about if you're a Christian in John's day. Rome has got you under the thumb. There is no hope. Rome's too powerful. Your country is enslaved. You can't break out of it and you feel hopeless. And yet John's saying, wait a minute. Remember those things that happened in Exodus? I'm gonna rekindle them for you now.

Look at the screen as you see the things in Exodus that reappear in Revelation. And why does this happen? Why does he do this? Because if I'm a reader of Revelation and I'm downtrodden and I recognize the Exodus accounts brought back in, this would be a phenomenal boost for me. Why? Because I'd remember that just as when it seems so hopeless in Exodus that God still delivered them. So too is he going to deliver us in our trial. This would have just given them total hope and it's supposed to give us hope too, men and women. Whatever your trial is. The God who beat the Egyptians and got his people out of slavery in the Exodus. The God whose people were under Rome's bondage in the first century. But then he got them out of that. That same God is saying, have patience. I work in history and I'm here for you too. I'm gonna make this happen. That's what he's saying here.

And men and women, you might feel like, man, I don't know. My wounds are beyond healing, aren't they? I don't know. But remember, God is not going to waste your wounds. Think of our own Pastor René. He had a lot to complain about as a boy. Age four, he loses his father. As a teenager, he loses his stepfather. He must think, God, what are you, you got it out for me? That's two dads, I'm not even 20. But think about what that did for René. René will tell you that that forced him to go to the only daddy that would never leave or forsake him or die. And René just bonded to that father. And men and women, I don't think René would be our Pastor today had he not gone through that great trial. Because those of us that work with him, he has a walk and a way with God. A love that I envy. Because he's had no other choice. But it came through some suffering to get to that point. So God is not gonna waste it. He won't waste yours either.

Now you might have seen a theme here in that text I just read, this fraction, a third, a third of this, a third of that, a third of this. What does that all mean? Well, critically it means God's judgment is limited. This is probably not a literal number, it just means a significant minority. But God is saying I'm going to limit what's going to happen. Just a third of things are going to be erect. This is good news, it means he's limiting his judgment. And remember people, God's anger is not like yours or mine. Yes, one of God's emotions is anger, rightfully so. But he doesn't do like you and me. He doesn't lose it and just go crazy. He doesn't do that. This third tells us it's limited.

Next, God's anger isn't just limited, it's always just. Over and over again, whether he used the Hebrews to discipline Egyptians or Persia to discipline Babylon, he's using the Romans to discipline the first century right now. But it's going to be just, it's not gonna be overkill. And he has to do this, honest time now. If God didn't act against these injustices by his own standards, could we call him good? No. Put it back on you and me. If you and I am not angry at injustice, can we call ourselves good people? No. This is why God has to act, why he has to bring justice.

But here's the good news about it too. His justice and a final thing about these judgment texts, it's meant to redirect us. This is really important. A lot of people read about God in the Old Testament and they think, or in Revelation, they think, boy, he sounds so wrathful and uptight and crazy. That's not his point. His goal is to bring us to repentance. He wants to heal us. He's saying, come to me so I can heal you. That road is bondage and torment where you're going. And so I'm gonna use some judgment to wake you up, to turn you back to where life is. That is his intent in all of these judgments.

And he has to go to seemingly incredible lengths. I mean, look at your notes, Revelation 9:20 says, and this is amazing to me. It says, after all these judgments, the rest of humankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands or give up worshiping demons and idols. And again, they did not repent of their murders and sorceries and fornication and theft. They're being judged and are saying, sorry God, I wanna stick it out, we're staying here. He's trying to redirect him. And this was an awful time. Jews were killing Jews, Romans were killing even more, Christian Jews, the slaughter was country-wide in these times. And finally God says, enough.

You think the Old Testament God is impatient? No, he sometimes lets these things go on for hundreds of years. Jesus, by contrast, is far more quick to act. He makes a proclamation in around 30 AD and 40 years later, Jerusalem goes down. God of the Old Testament, he makes a declaration and usually a couple hundred years go by before he acts. He's not a wrathful, petty God. He's long suffering to say, I'm trying to redirect you. I'm trying to redirect you, come back to the life. That's his goal. Because the sad truth is that we humans, this is true of me, I'm sure it's true of you, we have a high level of pain tolerance before we're willing to change in some things, aren't we? Honest engine time.

Are there things in your life, whether it's a pain or an issue or something that's off where maybe God is saying, I'm allowing this because I love you too much to ignore you and I'm trying to draw you back. Now let me make this clear. If you're suffering in pain or whatever or bad health, the Bible's explicitly clear. That is not because God is punishing you. Think about Job, think about the sufferings of Jesus. Okay, if you suffer, that doesn't mean that God is after you but God can use anything to redirect us. He loves us too much to ignore us and he will bring us back.

So question to you, to me, is there something in our lives that maybe God is trying to say, I want your attention on this. I want you to let me come in and take away this ugly thing and bring life instead. Are you willing to let me do that? Ask yourself honestly, is there something for you today? And that's something that's given in love by the way, not condemnation. God's saying, I want to make you whole again. So justice and judgment comes and John says, this is amazing to me and I think that's what that image is all about.

So the gold sensor, the trumpets and now the third and final image, the two witnesses and what's the upshot of what these two are all about? It's this, don't people, don't give up on the gospel. Look at what the verses say here. 11:3 And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1260 days wearing sackcloth. They are the two olive trees and the two lampstands and they stand before the Lord of the earth. Now watch this and see if you can figure out who they are. They have the power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they're prophesying. And they have the power to turn the waters into blood and strike the earth with every kind of plague that they want.

Now first John uses the symbol of olive trees. What's that about? Again, gotta go back to the Old Testament. In short, it's from Zechariah and it was an image that was designed to show the people, God will vindicate you and he will get you through this. So if I'm here in Revelation, first day and I hear about the olive branches, I'm gonna go, whew, just like in Zechariah's day, we were vindicated. And then he uses another symbol, the lampstands. Well, remember from the seventh series, what did the lampstands represent? They were symbolic of the seven churches. And what was their point? There to be a light to the world. There to be witnesses. That means sharing the truth of Christ to a needy and dark world.

So what's the symbol all about? It's saying Christians, we're to be a light to the world with our deeds and everything we can bring. And what about this number two? Is that symbolic? I think so. If you go back to the Old Testament, if you had, imagine a courtroom scene. The Old Testament was clear. You could not just bring one witness down to the stand to say, yeah, Your Honor, that guy did it. Not good enough. The Bible said you must have two witnesses to make something true before God and His standards had to have two. So what is this saying? Two real guys, probably not. Why? 'Cause the text goes on to say that people make war against them. So how do you make war against two guys? That seems like overkill. Now maybe the guys are Captain America and Iron Man. Maybe that would be a fair fight, right? Or Superman and the Hulk, maybe that's even better. No, I think that the point is, and this is what's interesting, it says when their bodies are slain 'cause they get killed for a time, the word for bodies is singular. What? Their body, the two witnesses, body, lies in the street.

So I think this is saying the body of witnesses, in other words, the people of God, our witness to the world, is what this is talking about. I think that, pardon me, they represent the witness of the people of God. All right, mass confession time. Speaking of sharing about Christ to others, raise your hand if you've ever, ever held back from sharing because you're afraid of opposition or rejection. Anybody? Yeah, look around. All of us, I have, for sure. It's a very normal thing. I mean, some of us feel like, well, I'll share, I'll talk about Jesus if I'm guaranteed a good response. But if I sense opposition, rejection, or even like persecution, forget it, I'm out.

Well, I think that this is in this text because John of Revelation is telling the church then, look, you're in a tough time, but God is still calling you to be a light to the world. Now, sometimes that's with words, and sometimes that's with deeds. Pick your spot, but you still need to be a light. The world needs it. Revelation 11:9 gives us more to the storyline. Look at what it says. It says, "For three and a half days," these are after the witnesses are killed, "every people from every tribe, language, and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate by sending each other gifts because the two prophets that had tormented them who live on the earth are now God."

What's going on here? Well, I think this is what's going on. When the truth is told about Jesus, when light goes into dark places, if you're in the dark, that's tormenting because you don't want your dark little thing upset by the light of truth. And so when they could get rid of the witness of the church, people will be like, yes, we can celebrate now the darkness because they're out of the way. I think that's what's going on here. And yet, we're still called to go on, even in the midst of martyrdom. And here's the good news now. This is not the end of the story.

There's a turn now toward something positive. This leads to our next point, which is essentially, don't give up, people. Yes, it was true that Christians were slaughtered en masse in this first century scene. Yes, it's true that they were at times crucified or butchered. It was awful. But let me tell you a story of how God intervened. From 66 to 70, Rome is rampaging through Israel, village to village, town to town, leaving death everywhere. And they're approaching the final coup de gras, the capital of Jerusalem. But before they got there and were able to close off the city, allowing none to escape, this little bit of history has come down to us that's absolutely remarkable from the historian Eusebius. He said this, "But the people of the church in Jerusalem had been commanded by a revelation, vouchsafed to approved men there before the war--" watch this now-- "to leave the city and dwell in a certain town of Pria called Pella." And history tells us the Christians obeyed that little prophecy and escaped. They made it out.

What's the point? The point is sometimes God rescues you in this life. And sometimes he doesn't. Now we're all going to die men and women. That's it. You're not given unless you're alive when Christ comes again. So the question is whether you're rescued in this life temporarily or we must give our life for Christ in this life, the question is are we trusting in God enough to not let our witness be diminished? That's what this world needs. And it's so worth doing it. And finally now they get their reward. The final verse says, verse 12, "Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying, come up here." Oh, can you imagine if you'd seen your friends martyred or you were about to die and all of a sudden you hear, come up here. Yes, your job is done. Good job, faithful servant. It's over. You're rescued finally once and for all.

Men and women, if you're in Christ, one day you're going to hear, come up here. You will have done it for Christ's sake. That's the reward we look forward to. So what does this mean? It means back to the beginning if your child is wayward, if your marriage is on the rocks, your health never gets better, if you just can't find stable work. It means that God is not caught off guard. It means God is in charge. He's in control. And he's going to be the victor of history. You know, if you were a Christian in the first century, you might go, I don't see it happening. The Romans aren't going anywhere soon. But you know what? History does tell us this. In the first century, the Christian movement was pretty much snuffed out. But 300 years later, that same Roman empire that was snuffing out Christians, guess what? 300 years later, they had a Christian emperor. Yeah, that's right. Because God is the victor of history.

So Christian, don't let your witness go down. Don't be fearful. In life or death, God's going to win. And he wants you and me-- get this-- he wants you and me to join him in being lights to the world. That's what this is about. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we cannot thank you enough for how we can have assurance that no amount of bad guys, no amount of global tyrants, no amount of just even day-to-day, here and now events in our own lives, no amount of negative whatever is going to be the end of us. Thank you, God, that whether we are doing well or we suffer, it is not for lost. If we have wounds, you can make them trophies. No matter what, Father, you say to us, I am the victor of history. Stay with me. Don't give up. And we will, as co-intercessors, write the story of this world according to Jesus's authorship. Thank you, Jesus, that we get to be a part of that. It's amazing. Give each one here the courage today and the encouragement to know that you care about every last thing in their life. You want us to tell you about it. And you want us to enjoin you in making a difference in this world. Thank you for that privilege, Jesus. We are forever grateful. Amen.