The Book of Revelation - Session 4 of 24 - A Remastered Commentary by Chuck Missler

Let's bow our hearts for a word of

prayer.

Father, we praise you for who you are.

We thank you that

you've given us this opportunity

to meet in peace

without persecution or any interference.

We thank you, Father, for your word.

We pray, Father, that your spirit would

open your word to our lives

and open our hearts to your word.

That in all these things we might see

more clearly just what it is you would

have of us

in the days ahead. As we commit

ourselves

without any reservation

into your hands in the name of Yeshua,

our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Well, we're studying the book of

Revelation and we're specifically

in those two chapters that I regard as

the most important in the entire book,

chapters 2 and 3,

which include seven letters to seven

churches.

And for reasons that I think will become

very clear to us as we get into this,

this is

the most practical

and the most essential part of the

entire book to each of us. And we're

going to tonight be exploring the letter

to the church of Smyrna.

But just by a quick perspective and get

a warm up here, understand the book is

singular, Revelation.

I read a biblical commentary just today

in which the commentator said

Revelations, plural. I'm sure it was a

typo, but that's revealing. No, it's it

the word apocalypse means the unveiling.

It's singular, it's the unveiling of

Jesus Christ.

It's the consummation of all things.

It's the only book in the Bible that has

the audacity

to say, "Read me, I'm special."

No other book of the Bible singles

itself out above all the others as a a

book of special blessing. Revelation

does do that.

So, we're going to claim that blessing

tonight.

And one of the reasons it's such a

blessing,

in the 404 verses that make up the book,

there are over 800 allusions from the

Old Testament alone.

So, if it sounds strange to our ears,

it's because we're not as familiar as we

should be

to what we call the Old Testament or

what the Jews call the Tanakh.

And of course, it's exciting because it

represents

the climax of God's plan of redemption

for you and me and for the

earth and much more.

To whom is it given? The Revelation of

Jesus Christ, it opens, which God gave

unto him. Unto whom?

Unto Jesus Christ. That shocks a lot of

people to realize that. Everybody reads

that and they they don't stop to realize

what it says.

And why did he give it to him? To show

unto his servants things which must

suddenly come to pass. It's translated

shortly, it really means when it starts

it'll be very quick. In tachys it's the

same it's the Greek word from which we

get the word for tachometer.

And he sent and signified it, rendered

it into signs by by his angel unto his

servant John, who bare record of the

word of God and the testimony of Jesus

Christ and of all the things that he

saw. We're just going to see a record

that John the Apostle penned from things

he experienced. He saw them first hand,

he heard them with his ears.

And in in a very very exciting manner.

And this is the the third verse is one

of several places in the book where this

is expressed. Blessed is he that readeth

and they that hear the words of this

prophecy

and keep those things which are written

therein, for the time is at hand.

Then it continues that just like a a

memo or a letter, the whole thing is a

letter to all the seven churches.

John to the seven churches which are in

Asia. That's the Roman province of Asia.

Grace be unto you and peace from him who

which which is, which was, and which is

to come.

And from the seven spirits which are

before his throne, and from Jesus Christ

who is the faithful witness, the

firstborn of the dead, and the prince of

the kings of the earth unto him that

loved us and washed us from our sins in

his own blood.

And it goes on. It's interesting we have

a trinity alluded to here, I believe.

Unto him which is, which was, and which

is to come, I regard I view that as the

Father. The seven spirits is the

sevenfold spirits as detailed in Isaiah

11.

And from Jesus Christ, of course. And

then we have a number of appellations on

his name, who is the faithful witness,

the firstborn of the dead.

And that firstborn of the dead phrase is

going to be used as an identity in the

letter we're studying tonight. In fact,

each letter of the seven letters we're

going to explore,

Jesus selects a title of himself from

chapter 1.

And

it's always relevant to the key theme of

each letter. It's a clue in effect to

what the letter's all about.

And the prince of the kings of the earth

unto him that loved us and washed us

from our sins in his own blood.

So, we have the outline

of chapter 1

uh that we looked at in our earlier

meetings, which had introduction and the

salutation and the occasion of the book.

Then the vision of the risen Christ, a a

detailed physical description of Christ

in heaven.

But then we get to verse 19. That's why

I wanted to focus on this because this

gives us the outline of the entire book

and the outline that will organize our

study for us.

The outline of the book and then the

preparation for the last two verses of

the chapter 1 are there. Now, the

outline is write the the things which

thou hast seen. John is instructed to

write three

packages, so to speak. Write the things

which thou hast seen,

the things which are,

and the things which shall be hereafter,

meta tauta.

And we have the

if you will, of the book into three

parts.

The past, present, and future, so to

speak. What was the things thou hast

seen? That's the vision of Christ that

occurred in chapter 1. When you get to

this verse, chapter 1 is essentially

behind you.

That's what thou hast seen, John.

Then the things which are, that'll turn

out to be the seven letters to seven

churches that are in existence at the

time John is writing.

And from what happens after that

is future and is the bulk of the book.

Write the things which shall be meta

tauta is the Greek phrase translated

here hereafter.

And chapter 4 verse 1 starts out with

that same Greek phrase, meta tauta.

And so, those are the three partitions.

The reason we focus so much on chapters

2 and 3 because those two chapters are

the ones that impact you and I directly.

You'll see why we have the view we have.

From chapter 4 on, we believe we'll be

watching that from the mezzanine.

So, the part that affects us is is the

chapters 2 and 3. The book of Acts

covers about 30 years of church history.

The book of Revelation covers their

following 1900.

And you'll see why as we go into it. And

now,

so we're really focusing in this area

and we've decided we elected to actually

spend a full session on each of the

seven churches. I'll try to show you

why.

Chapter 1 closes with a final verse. It

says, "The mystery of the seven stars

which thou sawest in my right hand and

the seven golden

lampstands,

these were introduced earlier in the

chapter, but I want you to notice Jesus

himself explains what those symbols or

signs means.

It's astonishing to realize how many of

the signs in Revelation are explained by

the book itself.

Not all of them, but they're all

explained somewhere else in the Bible.

It's one of the great treasure hunts

that make up the study of Revelation is

to study it with a concordance and every

time you find some expression in there

that you don't understand, track down

that word elsewhere in the Bible and to

properly understand the book of

Revelation, it'll take you into

virtually every book of the Bible, Old

and New Testament.

But in any case, here Jesus explains the

stars and the lampstands. It says, "The

seven stars which thou sawest in my

right hand, the seven golden lampstands,

the seven stars are the angels of the

seven churches.

And the seven lampstands which thou

sawest are the seven churches."

And we're going to see those lampstands,

they're on the earth in chapters 2 and

3,

but they're going to be in heaven in

chapter 4.

Now, the seven churches.

The first question that will and this

will haunt us through the the next

five sessions as well, why were these

seven churches picked? There were more

than seven churches in the in

proconsular Asia, the

the area that we would think of as

Turkey.

There's certainly over 100 churches in

the New Testament period. Why these

seven? Why the Holy Spirit picked these

seven?

And there's another phrase that occurs

in each letter. Every letter uses a

different title of Christ, obviously

it's a different church. And the report

card of that which is basically what

they are, of that church, is different

for each one. But there's one phrase

that closes each letter.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what

the Spirit says to the churches.

That's sort of a code phrase. It's sort

of a closing phrase.

And it gives us a clue as to what these

are all all about. There are at least

four levels of understanding or

application of these letters. The first

is local. These were real churches.

We'll talk about that. They were real

places with real churches that had real

problems that these letters do address.

But strangely, the letters go far beyond

just that application.

It turns out, the Holy Spirit says, "He

that hath an ear, let him hear what the

Spirit says to the churches plural."

Every one of these letters apply to

every church on the planet Earth.

To different in in different degrees.

And there's a central theme which each

of the seven letters, and you need to

understand the central theme of each

letter, what was right, what was wrong,

and what the remedies

were required. Because there are parts

of that that affect every one of the the

churches on the planet Earth.

So, it's it's each letter is admonitory

in a collective sense, in a broad sense.

But all the Spirit also says, "He that

hath an ear." How many of you have

earlobes? Can I see a show of hands?

Okay, it's about 90%. Good, okay. Um

then if you have an ear, you are to

listen to this, and that means there is

a personal application. The Holy Spirit

intended this letter tonight to

apply to each one of us to some degree.

Now, that so far, so good, no problem.

There's a fourth letter that creates

some controversy.

They have a prophetic implication.

And this is not some kind of

fringe conjecture. Some people might

regard it that way.

But I'll just show you why so many

scholars, ourselves included,

uh feel they are prophetic by making

just one simple observation.

If these letters were in any other

order, this would not be true. But in

the order they're in and with the

emphasis that they have,

they lay out a history of the church

from the apostolic period to the present

day.

And you have to see that for you'll

either see that or you don't. It's up to

you.

But we'll show you why we have that

view.

Now, as we get into this, it's it'll be

instructive for us to be conscious of

seven elements that make up the letter.

There There's the name of the church,

and the name of the church will have an

impact on what it's really all about.

That's quite surprising when you think

about it.

And uh

Jesus in addressing that church selects

a title of himself that fits the

situation. And each title is different.

There are seven different titles of

Christ introduced in chapter 1 and seven

different titles of Christ that are used

in the seven letters.

Then there's a report card. There's some

good news, the commendation. You did

this really well. I know your works and

this this this is really great.

You feel pretty good.

Then you get to the fourth element,

which is an expression of concern.

We're going to say, "Nevertheless, I

have this problem. I have this concern

over you. You're not doing quite what

you should be over here." Whatever.

So, it's a report card.

Once he gets through that, then there's

an exhortation. Here's the remedy.

Here's what I want you to focus on, not

everything. Here's the specific things

you need to focus on in your situation.

And then there's a promise included for

the overcomer.

Each letter includes a little phrase

near the end

that says uh for the one that

overcometh, I will do this that

There's a special little reward for the

one that overcomes.

And then there's this strange closing

phrase.

He that hath an ear,

hear what the Spirit says to the seven

churches.

Now, you'll see why there are seven

elements here because what you're going

to discover when you do all seven

churches,

there's a couple of churches that have

no commendation.

There's a couple of churches that have

no concern expressed.

And what's more important to recognize

is that every church will be surprised.

Every church will learn something they

didn't know.

The ones that thought they were doing

great are not doing so great. The ones

that thought they were doing terribly

are doing much better than they thought.

And that's sobering cuz we need to

realize that our assessment of

ourselves, our own church and ourselves,

is probably at some variance

from the way the Lord sees us. And

that's part of what we want to gain by

understanding these letters is what's

What is his perspective? What's his

agenda?

What's his business plan, so to speak?

So, these report cards, okay?

We'll take the churches, all seven, not

just the first three, but the name, the

title, comment. And what we'll do is

we'll fill these in, and you'll discover

some interesting things as we go.

Now, Ephesus last time, the word Ephesus

meant the desired one.

They were very very good on doctrine,

but uh

uh

they had lost their first love.

They were God desires devotion, not just

doctrine, and that was their shortcoming

and and so forth. And we went through

all of that last time, except we noticed

something when we did this,

that the promise to the overcomer was

the last thing in the letter.

It was after the closing phrase,

"He that hath an ear," and so forth.

It's almost as if the promise to the

overcomer was a postscript.

Now,

with just this one letter that we I'm

not going to jump to any great

conclusion. I just want to call your

attention to the value of being very

precise when you study.

And we're going to discover that the

first three are characterized this way,

the last four are different.

We're going to discover there's several

ways the first three letters are

distinctive from the last four, and

we'll do that as we go.

And we also determined that the we

suggested the possibility, at least,

that Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamus,

Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and

Laodicea see you

are each descriptive of a successive

phase of church history, it seems. At

least that's the conjecture. And of

course, Ephesus would be descriptive of

the apostolic church, the early church,

the first century or so, very zealous

for doctrine. That's where we had all

the councils and putting to putting down

these various heresies that surfaced.

They're very diligent on that, but they

lost their first love. They lost their

their their the love for the king. They

were too busy on the business of the

king to have time for the king. That was

That's the quick snapshot of Ephesus.

But we're tonight going to explore the

second letter.

The letter to Smyrna.

And unto the angel in the church at

Smyrna, right?

By the way, the word Smyrna

comes from smurios, which is a Greek

word that has a Hebrew root, which is

mur, which means death. So, um it it

actually

is a word that means myrrh.

Myrrh.

And myrrh is a made from a

uh

gum of certain trees or shrubs in Arabia

or Ethiopia, and it's highly valued for

a number of reasons. It's used in

perfume.

It's also used in holy anointing oil for

priests, and it's used in the

purification of women in Esther 2 and so

forth.

But that primary use of of myrrh was for

embalming

and for uh um

suffering, a pain reliever.

Myrrh gives off

its characteristic scent by being

crushed.

So, the very term here is going to turn

out to be very descriptive of the church

at Smyrna.

Now,

you recall when when we at Christmas we

usually celebrate the wise men bringing

the three They're actually not wise men,

they're the Magi, but in any case, they

bring the three gifts to the child.

They bring what? What are the three

gifts, anyone?

Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, exactly.

Gold speaks of royalty. Frankincense is

a

a a incense for priesthood, speaking to

his deity priesthood. And myrrh, of

course, speaks of his suffering and

death.

Now, the reason that's interesting is

And of course, body of Jesus was

embalmed in myrrh by Nicodemus and

Nicodemus in John 19.

But it's interesting to look ahead in

the millennium

because we find in Isaiah 60, it's going

to it mentions that he is going to be

given gifts when in the millennium of

gold and frankincense.

But no myrrh.

Why no myrrh? Cuz his death is behind

him. It's once and for all.

And there are there are obviously

different levels of application. We'll

focus initially, of course, on the local

Smyrna was an actual place. It's about

42 mi north of Ephesus. It had a double

harbor.

Had a narrow interest in the second part

with a chain that could be blocking it.

This has since been silted in, but

that's the way it was originally.

Today, this city is a thriving city in

Turkey. It's known as Izmir,

which is a Turkish rendering in the

sense of Smyrna.

And it's the third largest city in

Turkey. It's got about 300,000

population. It's a very beautiful, very

bustling city.

In the New Testament period, it probably

had a population about 100,000, which is

a very large city in those days.

It exports tobacco, grapes, figs,

cotton, olives, and olive oil. A lot of

shipping. It's got a great harbor. In

fact, if you look at a map,

that's where Patmos is. That's where the

John is writing this.

We were at Ephesus last time,

and that uh had a harbor that was

getting uh filled with erosion because

the Romans took down all the trees, and

that caused erosion. They eventually

lost the harbor. But Smyrna is about 42

mi to the north. It has an excellent,

almost double harbor, and as such, it is

on a it becomes a major trading port

that connects uh Greece and the rest of

it to to the

to the east. And uh

if you look at a regular contemporary

map, um you can see Izmir there,

uh just north of Ephesus. And you get it

it's roughly makes it If you you can

almost see a triangle between Athens,

Izmir, and Patmos to get a rough feeling

for the geography there.

Very very key location.

In fact, it's always been. It's right at

the entrance of a very fertile valley,

and a very well-sheltered gulf, very

sheltered harbor.

So, it was very its strategic placement

caused it to rival other cities, Sardis

and others,

as the as the connection between Asia

and Europe.

And so, it's very prosperous from the

beginning. Strabo

described it as the most beautiful city

in the world.

And even today, the bustling Izmir has

been termed the Paris of the Levant.

And so um

It was devastated many years ago. It uh

it had a history about 2,500 years

before it was devastated by uh

the Lydians and so forth. But anyway,

you get to about the 4th century,

Alexander the Great orders one of his

generals, Lysimachus,

to build a strong, well-planned city,

the most beautiful city um in that

region. And it became known as the

flower of Ionia. And so it it was

singled out for excellence very early.

And it it prospered in addition to that

patronage from Alexander, it also became

one of the greatest cities of the known

world.

When you get to about 27 BC,

it comes under the control of the Romans

cuz it it was a very faithful ally to

Rome in the Syrian and Mithridatic Wars.

And so um

they they they played the chips right

and they were on the winning side.

So they enjoyed great material

prosperity for the next several

centuries.

Um during the reign of Tiberius, there

was a contest and they wanted to be the

the uh

make one of the first major um

um

uh statues for Tiberius. And but it also

has been

hit pretty hard by earthquakes

back then in the reign of Tiberius

between 178 and 180, it practically was

reduced to

to ruins

but rebuilt.

By the time you get to Marcus Aurelius,

uh

it was he restored it. In fact, parts of

his agora are still standing there. You

can when you visit, you can see them

there.

And about 370, another earthquake

demolished the city, but again, they

always rebuild. It's it's so prosperous

and it's such a critical

location that the

there's a lot of pressure to always you

know rebuild. But it obviously has been

a major pagan center.

At the foot of the mountain, there was a

huge temple for Zeus,

which is considered in in that pantheon

the father of the gods and so forth. But

also along the Golden Street as it's

called, from the port all the way up to

that mountain, there's just a a a a row

of shrines. Apollo to Apollo the sun

god, to Aphrodite, the goddess of love

and so forth. Aesculapius, the god of

medicine. We're going to talk more about

him next time because he's very

prominent in Pergamus. We'll talk about

some of the interesting things that lie

behind that whole tale.

Cybele is the primary goddess for the

for the for Smyrna.

At the agora itself, that's the

commercial political center, there were

statues of Poseidon the sea god and

Demeter the the goddess of corn. But in

any case, the primary

deity they worshipped was Cybele.

And

uh

I won't get into a lot of this except

her worship was very wild and

unrestrained.

She was considered the giver of wealth

and she's always in

depicted enthroned with a very unusual

crown, a crown of battlements and

towers.

And I mention this primarily because

there are some speculation by some

scholars

that in Daniel chapter 11, it there may

be an allusion to this because of

speaking of as the goddess of fortress.

In your King James, it says the god of

forces, but in the the rendering is it's

actually female. The goddess of

fortresses is alluded there and some

people associated with this particular

idol. But more to the point of our

interest,

uh Smyrna was also one of the early

places to sponsor Caesar worship.

It readily accepted Caesar worship. And

in in 196 BC, so this is a couple of

centuries before the period that we're

going to be watching in John's period,

the Smyrnaeans were erected a temple to

Dea Roma, the goddess of Rome.

And and and because of that, they won

the contest so to speak to build this

um

temple to Tiberius in 26 AD. You realize

that the the the

the emperor

it became a

uh

went from republic to an empire

in about 30. The worship of the emperor

was compulsory.

Now for most people, this was a token

gesture.

Each year, a Roman citizen had to burn a

pinch of incense on the altar and

acknowledge publicly that Caesar was

supreme lord.

Now this was simply an action they took

to be primarily as primarily a political

one.

Cuz every individual in the empire could

worship whatever gods they wanted to cuz

they had all kinds of tribes and

cultures that they'd conquered.

But what they wanted to do is get

everyone to acknowledge that Caesar's

number one. That was their way of what

they really that was their way of having

them express a commitment to Caesar

above all others.

And so

it was just a way of unifying the and

integrating the many elements of the

empire.

But

and and and if you did that, you you go

up there and you put a pinch of whatever

it is into the fire, you received a

formal document that you had done so

each year.

And that was a very important

certificate politically.

Now this was unfortunately a very vital

test for Christian.

Because and there were many Christians

that went ahead and did that just to

avoid trouble.

But Christians who were serious about

Jesus Christ had a problem.

They refused to go and put this pinch of

incense in the fire

and that caused them to be burned at the

stake in effect willingly.

Cuz all they had to do to avoid being

burned at the stake is put a pinch of

stuff in the fire.

But not in good conscience cuz if Jesus

Christ is lord, Caesar isn't. And so

those that refused were made an example

of either by being burned at the stake

or fed to the lions or whatever.

So anyway, let's take a look at the

letter Jesus writes to the church of

Smyrna. Under the angel of the church of

Smyrna, write, "These things saith the

first and the last, which was dead and

is alive." Now this is the title of that

Jesus chose.

Now interesting title.

First and the last, he which was dead

and is alive. These are the elements of

the identity of Christ to this church.

And it's interesting, you're going to

see that concept of death

all through this because they were

facing martyrdom every day.

We last time we when we looked through

chapter one, we noted that this

expression first and the last occurs how

many times in the Bible?

Seven, good guess.

And uh

and it's a but it's very revealing is in

two of the places, he not only says he's

the first and the last, but he was dead

and is alive.

And that's a that's a that's a blow to

the Jehovah's Witnesses cuz they love to

talk about Jehovah God and so forth and

you can get them to acknowledge in each

of these references that the first and

the last is of course what they call

Jehovah God.

But Revelation 1:17 and Revelation 2:18

has got an embarrassing phrase tucked in

there. "I'm the first and the last who

was dead and am alive." That's a little

hard to deny that that speaking is very

specifically of none other than Jesus

Christ.

But um

then he gets to the report card. "I know

thy works and tribulation and poverty,

but thou art rich. And I know the

blasphemy of them that say they are Jews

and are not, but are of the synagogue of

Satan." Ooh.

Now this is the commendation. This is

the good news, Smyrnaeans.

Jesus says, "I know thy works." We need

to you notice that almost every letter

says opens that way. The commendation

is, "I know thy works." Jesus knows what

you've accomplished. He knows what

what really motivated it, whether it was

public

approbation or whether it was really for

him. But in any case, "I know thy works

and their trib- and your tribulation

and your poverty."

Now by the way, this term tribulation,

don't confuse tribulation

with the Great Tribulation. Tribulation

here is used in the sense of

persecution.

We're going to be dealing with the great

a specific period of tribulation that

Jesus himself labels as the Great

Tribulation.

But this is speaking in effective of

just persecution. And poverty,

but then he inserts a little editorial

comment, "But thou art rich." They

thought they were poorer, but Jesus is

telling them, "Hey, you're better off

than you think you are."

"And I know the blasphemy of them which

say they are Jews and are not, but are

of the synagogue of Satan." Let's talk

just a little bit about tribulation.

There's several different words. The

word that's used here is thlipsis, which

is a pressing together,

crushing under pressure.

It's a metaphor for oppression,

affliction, tribulation, distress, or

straits.

Um anyone here not in tribulation?

Okay.

That was a trap. You'll see why in a

little bit. But I want to emphasize

right up early, we're not talking about

the Great Tribulation. That's going to

become clear as we go downstream.

We every one of us are going to have

tribulation, trouble, persecution. Why?

Because

Jesus promises it in John 16:33, 2

Timothy 3:12, and elsewhere.

He also speaks of our poverty.

We're poverty but rich according to his

to that. This is going to be in

contrast, vivid contrast, to the church

at Laodicea at the end,

which thinks they're rich but are

actually poor.

The church of Smyrna thought they were

poor but were much richer than they

thought. The church at Laodicea,

with its fancy cathedrals or whatever,

thinks they're rich

but are actually poor. And we're going

to we'll indulge in that contrast later

as we go.

There are two words for poverty in the

Greek.

Penia, which means having nothing that's

superfluous. I'm having nothing

superfluous. That's you know, in other

words, you got your minimum necessities.

And

ptocheia, which is

the one that word that's used here. It's

a state of one that has nothing at all.

It implies absolute beggary.

We have to beg for everything. You've

got zippo, nothing.

Less than nothing. You've got zero with

the rim rubbed out, okay?

Jesus says, "I know you're suffering."

That's how comforting that is.

Now what's interesting about their

poverty, it could have been ameliorated

with a pinch of incense in a fire.

Offered to Caesar, it would all go away.

No problem.

And there are some that would argue,

"Well, I'm I'm a Christian. I'm I've not

going to I'm just I'm not to avoid some

trouble.

And and uh

that was sort of the parallel the

parallel idea in the book of Hebrews.

Book of Hebrews is written to the Hebrew

Christian before the Well, the temple

was still standing.

And many of them were getting oppressed

by their Jewish friends because they

were Christians.

And some of them were considering the

idea of

going along with that

and getting saved at the last minute.

And that was what what the writer to

Hebrews points out that's not an option.

Then we get into the strange thing. Who

are these that say they are Jews and are

not?

What on earth could they

blaspheme that say they are Jews and are

not, but Jesus designates them as the

synagogue of Satan. Who is this

referring to?

Now, John, the writer, knows a lot about

the blasphemy of Jews. If you read John

chapter 8,

it's one of the most intense uh

exchanges between Christ and the

Pharisees.

They call him illegitimate.

They make a they they crashed cast an

aspersion to his birth that Mary was was

uh unmarried when he was, you know, uh

got pregnant.

And he says, "I'll tell you something

about your fathers.

You're You're the father of the devil."

And there's a there's a there's really

You when you read John 8, you want to

really understand the sparks that are

flying. But he understands the blasphemy

of Jews.

Some of the scholars view this um

allusion

to those that were legalistic, the

legalists, the Judaizers.

And this is the leaven that the Epistle

of the Galatians hits head on.

And uh you know, remember in Acts 15,

there was a demand that the Gentile

converts had to get circumcised.

Circumcision was a symbol of a of an

allegiance to the

covenant with Abraham.

Circumcision of the children was a

demonstration that the parents were

committed to the to the uh

uh

covenant of Abraham.

Now, today's world doesn't mean as much

cuz it's often done just for medical

reasons, but

classically, the circumcision was a

indication of the parents being

committed to Abraham. Well, the idea was

when a Gentile became a Christian, they

were obviously generally uncircumcised.

There was a There was a big issue, and

that's what led to the council in Acts

15.

In which it was the conclusion was that

the

uh they don't have to become Jews to

become Christians, okay?

And even Peter is rebuked by Paul in

these issues in Galatians 2 and 3 is

mentioned.

Where Paul rebukes Peter, and Peter

later admits he was wrong. He agrees in

a second letter.

About Paul although he sort of mumbles,

he says some things are hard to

understand.

But they had their issues on here.

And uh now, you need to understand if

you can understand the the history here,

the early persecution of Christians was

brought

about by the Jews, not the Romans.

That came later.

The early That's why um Luke,

as he drafts what I believe were the

trial documents for Paul's appeal to

Rome in both Luke 1 and Luke 2 in Book

of Acts, uh we find the that the one of

the emphasis that's always there is that

the the the troubles were always fanned

by the local Jewish community

that regarded the Christian sect as a

heretical sect, of course.

And so it that happened in Antioch in

Acts 13 and Iconium in Acts 14 and

Lystra Acts 14 and Thessalonica in Acts

17 and so forth. And just to mention a

few of them.

It's interesting that Polycarp,

John trained Polycarp, John's the one

that appointed uh Polycarp to be as a

bishop of Smyrna. And John is writing

the this letter

uh in about 95 AD under under the under

Domitian, right?

About 166 AD, so a good you know, a good

Polycarp by now is probably 100 years

old maybe over 100 years old.

And he is he refused to recant as he was

asked to.

And his quote when they put they're

tying him to the stake to burn him at

the stake, he said,

"86 years have I served him, Jesus

Christ.

And he never did me wrong. How can I now

blaspheme my king who's loved me so?

Bring on the flames."

So

So this old man was burned at the stake

on a Sabbath day by the Jews

as well as uh he had they encouraged the

Jews. They they were they they were, you

know, part of the cheering section here

as they burned Polycarp, the bishop of

Smyrna, at the stake.

You know, we speak of the remember the

uh

parables of the various soils and the

sowing of the tares.

There are four tares that were sown in

the early church. Legalism was one of

them. Legalism denies Christ's completed

work.

Gnosticism

is a denial of Christ's humanity.

And Caesar worship, the denial of

Christ's lordship.

These three uh tares or false doctrines

or were the

primary

adverse thrusts against the early

church.

Okay, let's get to the exhortation then.

Jesus goes on, "Fear none of those

things which thou shalt suffer.

Behold, the devil shall cast some of you

into prison and that you may be tried.

And you shall have tribulation 10 days.

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will

give thee a crown of life." Pretty

straightforward exhortation. Fear none

of those things.

It's interesting that one of the

condemnations we'll see in the lake of

fire,

but when it lists the various people

going to be thrown in the fire, the

first one listed are the fearful.

It's hard to realize that fearfulness is

the opposite of faith.

Fear none of these things which you thou

shalt suffer.

Behold, who's going to cast you into

prison?

The devil.

He's behind all of this.

That you may be tried. And you shall

have tribulation 10 days. Be thou

faithful unto death,

and I'll give thee the crown of life.

So they're fearful of death, Jesus will

give them the crown of life. Now, this

term 10 days has a couple of different

um

understandings by various authors.

The term 10 days is held by some

scholars as to be an a Hebrew idiom for

a short period of time.

We find it used that way in Genesis

24:55,

Job 19:3, Dan 1:12. It's used as a

figure of speech, if you will. And that

may be what it means, but I'm going to

show you something another view that

might be more

defendable.

By the way, the word crown here is a

stephanos, not a diadem. So the

stephanos here is the is is the kind of

thing you reward a victor, if you will.

And uh so

10 days.

It's interesting that there were 10 If

you study the persecutions by Rome, we

obviously had Nero was was one of the

bad guys. He he's the guy that had Paul

beheaded, and he's the one that

crucified Peter upside down.

Then we get to Domitian. That's the guy

that exiled John to Patmos, and that's

in other words, the contemporary guy

here. Um and uh he is followed by

Trajan. When Tra- when Domitian dies,

when John is released from Patmos to go

back to Ephesus,

where he retires in effect. But Trajan

is the guy that had Ignatius burned at

the stake.

And he's followed by Marcus Aurelius.

This brings you into the period that was

celebrated in the movie The Gladiator,

essentially, if you recall. Marcus

Aurelius is the guy that it was in his

reign that Polycarp gets burned at the

stake.

Then we have uh Septimus Severus, who is

the one that killed Irenaeus.

And then we get to Maximus, and he

killed Ursala and Hippolytus and Decius

and uh

Valerian and then Aurelian and then

finally Diocletian. Diocletian

is is the 10th of this gang. Notice

they're not necessarily contiguous.

These are the particular emperors under

which there was specific directed

persecution against the church.

And the worst of the bunch was

Diocletian, the last guy on the list.

And total of 250 years,

some scholars suspect the 10 days or 10

periods are here here

you know, profiled.

And so either way,

Roman persecution

uh occurs there were there was famine

and pestilence on Rome.

Diseases were brought back from the

Parthian wars. The They Those diseases

devastated Rome. And also, the Tiber

overflowed and put the grain storehouses

under water. All this led to famine and

persecution at various times. And what

they did, the convenient scapegoats,

was this illegal underground religious

movement called Christians. They were

convenient scapegoat.

And so it was convenient for the

politicians to somehow pin the blame for

these disasters on the Christians.

So Christianity became a crime.

5 million believers died for Christ

during this period, according to Fox's

Book of Martyrs.

Sound terrible?

The 20th century

murdered more Christians

than all the other centuries put

together.

So while this is bloody and while this

is dark,

doesn't compare to today.

To today.

Stalin himself murdered somewhere

between 10 and 20 million somewhere

between 30 and 40 million of his own

people, of which the estimates are 50%

of them were Christians.

And you could go on and on. But in

addition, of course, to the Jewish issue

that we all familiar with.

There are crowns promised. We saw the

crown of life promised in this one. I

thought it'd be a good time to point out

there's five that are specifically

promised in the scripture. Crown of life

for those who have suffered for his sake

in both here and in James um

uh James chapter 1. The crown of

righteousness is promised in 2 Timothy 4

for those who love his appearing.

Crown of glory for those who fed the

flock.

Crown incorruptible for those who press

on steadfastly. The crown of rejoicing

for those who win souls.

So, how many crowns are there going to

be given out?

Trick question.

Probably

many, many, many different kinds. If I

was going to pick a guess, I wouldn't

pick the five that are listed. I'd guess

seven, but I suspect there's more than

that, too.

These are just happen to be the ones

that are alluded to specifically in the

scripture.

Okay, we went through the exhortation.

And after the exhortation, we have this

phrase, "He that hath an ear, let him

hear what the Spirit says to the

churches." And then we have this promise

to the overcomer, "He that overcometh

shall not be hurt of the second death."

And um

the first First thing I want you to

notice is the structure. You notice that

the promise to the overcomer, just like

the previous letter, is like a P.S. It's

after the close of the letter. It's like

an appendage.

And uh it speaks of the second death.

Revelation will will talk about that in

chapter 20. We'll talk about it more

there. Also, Jude talks about being

twice dead. You see, if you know if

you're born once, you die twice.

If you're born twice, you die once.

That's the way to go. All right. Okay.

Well, I said there are different

applications. Let's talk How does it

apply that Find We've talked about how

it applies to to Smyrna. Well, how does

it apply to you and I?

Well, first of all, one way we need to

apply this, and I'll show you where

where I'm going to give you an addenda

at the end of this will may surprise

you, but don't confuse persecution with

the Great Tribulation.

And here's the key phrase. I didn't even

put it on the slide. I want you to

be paying attention here. Just because

we believe we can prove to you that the

church will not go through that period

of time called the Great Tribulation.

Where do we in America

get the arrogance

to presume that we'll be exempted

from what most of the body of Christ

in most of the world for most of the

last 1,900 years have had to endure?

It's called persecution.

Don't confuse A lot of people accuse

pre-trib people of being escapists. No,

hardly. Hardly.

No, we we we we we we're not that naive.

Most of the body, most of the world,

most 1,900 years had en- en- en- endure

persecution.

It is the opinion of many, and we join

with those, that ultimately the body of

Christ in America will have to go

underground again, like it had to in the

early years.

But let's get back to this non-Jews.

What on earth are the non-Jews? Is it

possible

Is it possible

that these who say they are Jews and are

not

are those who claim

that Israel forfeited her promises and

it now falls upon the church?

Is it possible that this allusion, this

very strange allusion that we find here

in this letter

may be reflexive on the people who hold

a view that's called replacement

theology?

That somehow, because Israel rejected

her Messiah, that all those promises

that God gave Israel now fall upon the

church. That's taught in most churches

in America, by the way.

But it's blasphemy. It makes God a liar.

Because

Paul, in his definitive statement of

Christian doctrine called the book of

Romans hammers away for three chapters,

chapters 9, 10, 11, that God is not

finished with Israel.

That That's a heresy. The origin of the

Israel and the church The origin and the

destiny for the church and Israel are

different. Different origins, different

destinies. We need to understand that.

And this replacement theology is the

root cause

damage anti-Semitism.

And it was the root cause of the

Holocaust in Europe.

The silent pulpits in Europe.

Okay, we've talked about the at

Monterey. What about to us personally?

What does this Smyrna letter have to do

with you and I?

Well, for one thing, 2 Timothy 3:12. We

mentioned it before, but let's look at

it. "Yea, and all that live godly in

Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."

And I want to ask you to put up your

hands if you're not having persecution,

because that implies you're not living

godly in Christ.

So, people come up to me and say, "Do

you Chuck, I'm I I'm not under

persecution." I got good news for you.

Just wait.

Okay, personally. We are promised

persecution.

It raises a question, why do Christians

have trials?

This is a throwback to our review of the

book of Romans.

And uh you may recall I I picked I had

10

examples why Christians have trials. I

got most of these from Hal Lindsey's

book, Combat Faith. Hal's book on Ro- We

We put this in our Romans study.

To glorify God. We find that in Daniel 3

and elsewhere.

Another reason Christians have trials is

to disci- discipline for known sin. Not

necessarily, but sometimes. There's a

number of passages that support that.

Often we have trials to prevent us from

falling into sin. 1 Peter 4 deals with

that.

To keep us from pride. That was Paul

with his thorn in the flesh.

Many have suspected it was an eyesight

problem, but nevertheless, whatever it

was, it kept him from pride. "My grace

is sufficient for thee."

Uh God told him three times.

Sometimes we have trials to build our

faith. That's what Nan's book's all

about, The Faith in the Night Seasons.

To cause growth. That's the way we grow.

It's like sandpaper. Takes off the rough

rough edges sometimes.

To teach obedience and discipline.

To equip us to comfort others. One

reason you may be going through a dark

valley is to equip you to minister to

people in the future that are going to

be that in that kind of a valley.

To prove the reality of Christ in us. To

draw us into intimacy, as Wayne Edwen

expressed it.

Another one is kind of a surprise, to

tell for testimony to the angels.

Job 1:8 is an example of that. Ephesians

3:8 and following 1 Peter 1 deal with

that dimension. So, there are a lot of

reasons. Thus, in any case, that leads

us to James chapter 1. "My brethren,

count it all joy when you fall into

divers temptations, knowing this, that

the trying of your faith worketh

patience.

But let patience have her perfect work,

that you may be perfect, that is,

complete and entire, wanting nothing."

That's your key verse for the day,

personally.

But there's another dimension to this.

Jesus said asked He asked the Smyrnans

to demonstrate their ambassadorship

by not putting that pinch of incense in

the fire, not not acknowledging Caesar

as Lord.

See, I think the third commandment has

nothing to do with vocabulary. "Thou

shalt not take the name of the Lord thy

God in vain" is not about vocabulary.

It's about ambassadorship. If you're

going to be a

an ambassador of the king, you better

represent him accurately and fairly and

reliably.

And um

so, that's um

it's interesting

that uh

the name of God is always the name The

word name is always in the singular.

You may say God has many names. Yes, but

he has one name.

And you're representing God when you say

uh you take the name of the Lord thy

God, singular. Name singular.

Okay, that leaves prophetic. And in this

case, I just Ephesus, we went through

this before with Ephesus. We assume that

Ephesus was pretty much the apostolic

church. That makes Smyrna

the persecuted church.

And after the apostolic period, we go

through these centuries up until

Constantine, where they are up until the

the the you know, the the beginning of

the 4th century, where

we have

something even more disastrous than

persecution take place, and we'll take

that next time.

So, we've taken Ephesus, Smyrna,

Pergamum Ephesus and Smyrna. And Ephesus

was last time. We went through there,

and we of course noted that the promise

to the overcomer was

below the end of the letter. Smyrna had

uh

uh the same structure, but there's

something you may not have caught.

What were Christ's concerns in the

letter to Smyrna?

The answer is,

there wasn't any.

So, we notice by omission

that he didn't give them any negatives

on the report card. That's going to be

interesting to map as we go further in

our study.

But um

we're

I've left a little time at the end to

put an addenda.

This addenda, I think, is going to be

some essential background as we go

forward in the book of Revelation.

And I'd like to talk about one of the

pivotal prophecy passages in the New

Testament called the Olivet Discourse.

It's recorded in Matthew 24,

Mark 13, and Luke 21.

And when you look at all three of those

passages, they are so similar

that virtually

99 out of 100 Bible scholars will assume

that they're the same message recorded

in three slightly different ways by

three different hearers.

I'm going to suggest to you to put that

on the shelf for the moment, and let's

examine those, because I think in if you

are precise

in your understanding of the scripture,

if you really believe it's God-breathed,

if you really believe in what we call a

high view of inspiration, then if there

are differences, those differences may

prove to be very significant. So, let's

take a look at Matthew 24's rendering as

the base rendering, because he took

shorthand. We can assume it's a

competent record.

Let's go through it. And Jesus went out

and departed from the temple. His

disciples came to him for to show him

the buildings of the temple. And Jesus

said to them, "See not all these things.

Verily I say unto you, there shall not

left be left here one stone upon another

that shall not be thrown down." And as

he sat upon the Mount of Olives,

the disciples came unto him privately,

saying,

"Tell us, when shall these things be,

and what shall be the sign of thy coming

and the end of the age?" Now, we're not

going to be able to resolve all the

issues as we go. We're just going to hit

a few highlights. But first of all, they

came to him privately. And where? On the

Mount of Olives. You with me so far?

It may surprise you know that's not the

Luke account. We'll We'll come back to

that in a little bit.

Jesus answered said to them, "Take heed

that no man deceive you. For many shall

come in my name saying, 'I am Christ and

shall deceive many.'" Notice Christ's

injunction here.

"See that you be not deceived." How

do you not be How do you keep from being

deceived? There's that's a whole study

that we're going to undertake

separately, but it's it's it's our

challenge. Let's move on here. "And you

shall hear of wars and rumors of wars,

see that you be not troubled. For these

things must come to pass, but the end is

not yet."

"For nation shall rise against nation

kingdom against kingdom, and there shall

be famines and pestilences and

earthquakes in divers places."

"And all these are the beginning of

sorrows." Notice that verse that that

that verse

"Nation shall rise against nation

kingdom against kingdom, there shall be

famines, pestilences, earthquakes in

divers places."

You'll discover that those signs that

group of signs are distinctive.

They're in the Matthew account, they're

in the Luke account, and they also

constitute the first half, if you will,

of Revelation 6. So, we're going to talk

about those in depth when we get to

chapter 6, but just be aware of them as

sort of a marker at this point.

"Then shall they deliver you up to be

afflicted and kill you, and you shall be

hated of all nations for my name's sake.

And then shall many be offended and

shall betray one another and shall hate

one another, and many false prophets

shall arise and shall deceive many."

Notice that first word in verse 9 of

Matthew 24, "Then".

Matthew is talking about what happens

after the beginning of sorrows. What

happens after that group of signs? You

with me so far?

Okay.

"And because iniquity shall abound, the

love of many shall wax cold. And he that

shall endure to the end, the same shall

be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom

shall be preached in all the world for a

witness to all nations, and then shall

the end come."

And then he has this key verse.

"When you therefore shall see

the abomination of desolation spoken of

by Daniel the prophet standing in the

holy place, let whosoever read it let

him understand." The abomination of

desolation, this is a technical term

that Jesus could use because

two centuries earlier that had happened

and everybody knew it.

Uh Antiochus Epiphanes, he

he tried he made reading the Torah a

crime, he outlawed Judaism, he he

slaughtered a pig on the brazen altar in

Jerusalem. If you know how they feel

about pork and how they feel about that

altar, you can imagine how that went

over. He didn't stop there.

He then erected an idol to Zeus in the

Holy of Holies.

And that tore it.

That led to the Maccabean revolt where

though vastly outnumbered, they took on

the Greek empire.

And they s- uh uh

threw off the yoke of the Seleucid

empire. Took 3 years.

And when they had regained the control,

they destroyed all the implements of the

temple that had been defiled by the

Greeks.

And they made new ones, and they

rededicated the temple, and that's

honored to this very day by what they

call the Feast of Lights or Hanukkah.

And Jesus himself observed it in John

10:22.

So, we know what that is, but Jesus is

using it prophetically. So, that event

that happened two centuries earlier,

Jesus said is going to happen again. He

says, "When you therefore shall see this

happen."

"Spoken of by Daniel the prophet", Jesus

here just saved you hours of boring

library research.

Did Daniel write the Book of Daniel?

Absolutely. Was he a prophet?

Absolutely. How do I know? Jesus told me

so.

That ends the argument. I could give you

lots of other proofs, but that's that's

all you need.

And where is this abomination of

desolation? It has to stand in the holy

place. This is not just a desecration of

the temple by burning it down, but the

Romans did do that.

No, this is this was a specific

political move.

Now, how many of you read that with me

this evening on the screen? Can I see

your hands?

I did a dirty trick to you.

You see, that's not just for pastors or

theologians, that's for you. If you read

it, you have a command from Jesus Christ

to understand that.

Now, we're not going to cover it all

here, but you need to make a commitment

to yourself to really understand what

this verse cuz this is the pivotal verse

of prophecy. Jesus himself points them

to Daniel 9 as the key, and we'll we we

we're going to append

two two uh sessions

to our study.

Our study notes will have them in the

tapes that you that this will be on will

have them with you on Daniel's 70 weeks

cuz that's

essential piece of background.

Anyway, when you see that abomination of

desolation, Jesus says, "Then let them

which be in Judea flee into the

mountains. Let him which is on the house

top not come down to take anything out

of his house, neither let him which is

in the field return back to take his

clothes. But woe unto them that are with

child and that to them that give suck in

those days. And pray you that your

flight be not in winter neither on the

Sabbath day."

Interesting thing, Sabbath day. Who is

he talking to?

Jews. Matthew is writing to the Jews.

Let's remember that cuz Luke's writing

to the Gentiles.

It's going to be a little different.

You'll see.

"For then shall be great tribulation."

There's that term. He's Jesus is quoting

himself. He's quoting from Daniel 12.

With virtually the same words occurring.

"Then shall be great tribulation such as

not since the beginning of the world to

this time nor ever shall be." So, in

other words, this is a distinctive

period of time.

"And except those days should be

shortened, there should no flesh be

saved, but for the elect's sake those

days shall be shortened." Don't assume

the Don't assume that everybody that's

saved is in the elect.

That's another stumbling block for some.

"And then if any man should say unto

you, 'Lo, here is Christ or there',

believe it not. For there shall arise

false Christs and false prophets that

shall show great signs and wonders,

insomuch that if it were possible they

would have They shall deceive the very

elect. Behold, I have told you before."

"Wherefore if they say unto you,

'Behold, he's in the desert', go not

forth. 'Behold, he's in the secret

chambers', believe it not. For as the

lightning cometh out of the east and

shineth even unto the west, so shall the

coming of the Son of man be." He's

talking about the second coming, not the

rapture. Be careful.

"For wheresoever the carcass is, there

shall the eagles be gathered together."

What does that mean? I don't know.

Neither have I found any scholar that

has anything but guesses.

That they at least admit they're

guessing, they're not sure. They They

would suspect that that was a a

proverbial phrase at the time, but

there's just conjectures as to It has

several different conjectures, but I'll

leave that on the shelf for now.

"Immediately after the tribulation those

days shall the sun be darkened, and the

moon shall not give her light, the dark

stars shall fall from heaven, and the

powers of heaven shall be shaken." Has

that happened yet?

No. Absolutely not. There are people

prominent prominent Christian leaders

that claim this has already happened.

Not this, they say it's all just

allegory. That's just allegory.

And you reminds me of the old computer

phrase in the computer industry, we used

to say, "If you torture the data long

enough, it'll confess anything."

"Then shall appear the sign of the Son

of man in heaven, and then shall all the

tribes of the earth mourn for they shall

see the Son of man coming in the clouds

of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall sell send his angels with a

great sound of a trumpet, and they shall

gather together his elect from the four

winds, from the one end of heaven to the

other. Now, learn the parable of the fig

tree."

"When his branch is yet tender and

putteth forth leaves, you know that

summer is nigh. So, likewise ye, when

you shall see these things

all these things, know that it is nigh

even at the doors. Verily I say unto

you, this generation shall not pass till

all these things be fulfilled."

And the libraries are full of books that

try to predict which generation are we

talking about, how long is it. I won't

go into that right now. We'll do that

another time. "Heaven and earth shall

pass away, but my words shall not pass

away. But of that day and hour knoweth

no man, no not the angels of heaven, not

my Father only."

We're going to go look at Luke in

detail, but we're not bothered with

Mark, but I want to take one verse from

Mark. And Mark's rendering is pretty

parallel. Mark's rendering is Peter's,

really. Mark was Peter's

his secretary.

But Mark's does include something that

Matthew doesn't. If you look at this

verse in Mark 13,

it says, "Heaven and earth shall pass

away, but my words shall not pass away.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man,

no not the angels of heaven, neither the

Son, but the Father only." This is a

remarkable verse in the scripture.

Because at least at that moment there

was something the Father knew the Son

did not.

And that's just a

a provocative insight.

Whatever he didn't know then, I'm sure

he knows now.

Okay.

Neither the Son. Okay.

And then Matthew goes on, "But the days

of Noah were, so shall the days of the

coming of the Son of man be. For as in

the days that were before the flood,

they were eating and drinking and

marrying and giving in marriage until

the day that Noah entered into the ark,

and knew not until the flood came and

took them all away. So shall the coming

of the Son of man be."

Again, we're talking about the second

coming, and again, we're talk You won't

understand this passage unless you've

done your homework in Genesis chapter 6

to understand what the days of Noah

were, which again is another study.

But anyway, Matthew goes on, "Then shall

be two in the field, one shall be taken

the other left. Two women shall be

grinding at the mill, one shall be taken

the other left." "Watch therefore for

you know not what hour your Lord doth

come. But know this,

that if the good man of the house had

known in what watch the thief would

come, he would have watched and would

not have suffered his house to be broken

up. Therefore, be ye also ready for in

such an hour as ye think not the Son of

man cometh."

"Who then is faithful and wise servant,

whom his lord hath made ruler over his

household to give him meat in his due

season? Behold, blessed is that servant

whom his lord, when he cometh, shall

find so doing. For verily I say unto

you, that he shall make him ruler over

all his goods. But

if that evil servant shall say in his

heart, 'The Lord delayeth his coming',

he shall begin to smite his fellow

servants and drink and eat with the

drunken, the lord of the of that servant

shall come in a day when he looketh not

for him and in an hour when he is not

aware of, and shall cut him asunder and

appoint him his portion with the

hypocrites. There shall be weeping and

gnashing of teeth."

Well, I don't know. There's a lot we

could talk about this. All I'm going to

do make sure I'm I'm not going to

suggest the Lord is delaying at all. I

think he can come any moment, okay?

Let's take a quick look at Luke, and

most people crunch these two together to

assume they're the same presentation.

Let's challenge that assumption and see

what it reveals.

This is Luke now.

Luke 21.

"As some spake of the temple, how it was

adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he

said, 'For For these things As for these

things which you behold, the days will

come in the which there shall not be

left one stone upon another that shall

not be thrown down.'"

So, it's obviously very similar to the

Matthew thing, but it may not be exactly

the same. Let's see here.

"They ask him saying, 'Master, but when

shall these things be, and what sign

shall there be when these things shall

come to pass?'"

"And he said, 'Take heed that you be be

deceived.

For many shall come in my name, saying,

I am Christ

and the time draweth near: go ye not

therefore after them.

But when ye shall hear of wars and

commotions, be not terrified: for these

things must first come to pass, but the

end is not by and by.

Then said he unto them, Nation shall

rise against nation, and kingdom against

kingdom:

See, we got the same signs, those same

group of signs are being alluded here in

the Luke passage.

And great earthquakes shall be in divers

places, and famines, and pestilences,

and fearful sights, and great signs

shall be from heaven. Let's stop at

verse 11 for a minute.

Up till now, it's understandable why

most people jump to the conclusion that

these are just two recordings of the

same meeting, right?

Except for what you notice verse 12.

But before all these,

Whoops.

That's a strange phrase because Matthew

said, "After these things."

And what he talks about comes after

those signs. What Luke's going to deal

with here are things that happened

before those signs. You see the

difference?

That difference turns out to be

profoundly significant

because there they they're all kinds of

very serious Bible scholars who in

effect don't notice that before this.

Before all these, they shall lay their

hands on you, and persecute you, and

deliver you up to the synagogues, and in

in the prisons, being brought before

kings and rulers for my name's sake. And

it shall turn to you for a testimony.

Settle it therefore in your hearts, not

to meditate before what

what you shall answer.

For I will give you a mouth and a

wisdom, which all your adversaries shall

not be able to gainsay nor resist.

And ye shall be betrayed both by

parents, and by brethren, and kinsfolks,

and friends: and some of you shall shall

they cause to be put to death.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my

name's sake.

But there shall not a hair of your head

perish.

In a permanent sense.

That may be just a after life remark, or

it may mean something else. I'll come

back to you in a minute.

In your patience possess ye your souls.

And when ye shall see Jerusalem

compassed with armies,

then know that the desolation thereof is

nigh.

Then let them which be in Judaea flee

into the mountains; and let them which

are in the midst of it depart out, and

let not them that are in the countries

enter thereinto.

For these be the days of vengeance, that

all things which are written may be

fulfilled.

So, here Luke is telling them

before these signs, they're going to

have trouble, and when they hear

Jerusalem surrounded, get out of town

when you can.

Let me tell you something most people

don't know.

Titus Vespasian and his son Titus,

Vespasian and his son Titus were the

main Roman leaders

conquering the various cities in Israel

about this time

until Nero dies.

When Nero dies, there's turbulence in

Rome, and I won't go through all the

politics. They Galba took over, they

murdered him, and so forth.

Vespasian goes to Rome as become the

emperor of the entire empire,

leaving his son general, who then

follows through and sets up the siege

that causes Jerusalem to fall in 70 AD.

The point is, I've I've tracked this

down. I've

There are some scholars who point out

they believe that no Christians got

killed. Over a million people got killed

in that siege.

But no Christians. Why? Because Jesus

warned them, "When you see the city's

getting surrounded, get out of town."

And during this hesitation by the Romans

because of the turbulence associated

with Nero thing, they didn't close it

up.

And that gave those guys a chance to

split and get into the hills, wherever.

Follow me? And that's the the premise by

some scholars is the Christians, if they

followed Christ's advice, would not have

been in the fall of Jerusalem.

Interesting. Yeah, so

but let's go on here.

Woe unto them that are with child, and

to them that give suck in those days!

for there shall be great distress in the

land, and wrath upon this people. For

they shall fall by the edge of the

sword, and shall be led away captive

into all nations:

and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of

the Gentiles, until the times of the

Gentiles be fulfilled.

And there shall be signs in the sun, and

in the moon, this is now he's he's

looking ahead, of course, and in the

stars, and upon the earth distress of

nations, perplexity, the sea and waves

roaring; men's hearts failing them for

fear, and for looking after those things

which are coming upon the earth, for the

powers of heaven shall be shaken: and

then shall they see the Son of man

coming in a cloud with power and great

glory.

And when these things begin to come to

pass,

then look up, and lift up your heads for

your redemption draweth nigh. And he

spake to them in a parable; Behold the

fig tree, and all the trees. No, it's

not just a fig tree here, all trees.

When they now shoot forth, ye know ye

see and know of your own selves that

summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise

ye, when ye see these things come to

pass, know

ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at

hand. Verily I say unto you, this

generation shall not pass away, till all

be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall

pass away: but my words shall not pass

away. Take heed to yourselves, lest at

any time your hearts be overcharged with

surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares

of this life, so that they may come upon

you unawares. For as a snare shall it

come on all them that dwell on the face

of the whole earth.

Watch ye therefore, and pray always. Get

this verse. Interesting key verse. Watch

ye therefore, and pray always,

that ye may be accounted worthy to

escape all these things that shall come

to pass, and to stand before the Son of

man.

Wow.

That's interesting.

And in the in the daytime, now now you

thought this was Mount of Olives. No,

look at what Luke says. And in the

daytime he was teaching at the temple.

At night he went out, and abode in the

mount of that is called the Mount of

Olives. And all the people came early in

the morning to hear him in the temple.

Go to hear him.

Gee, I thought they were the same

briefing. Apparently they're similar,

but not exactly the same. Very similar,

but not the same.

Again, we have this strange group of

signs, but here's

um

it's this strange thing that Luke says,

"And but before all these, they shall

lay hands upon you, etc. etc."

Let's see if we can talk about

Luke says, "Before all these."

Matthew says, "Then shall they."

There's a big difference.

And the these verses bracket this group

of signs, false Christs, wars, famines,

earthquakes, right?

Then and before are very different.

Let's see if we can stand back from this

now, and draw some interesting

observations.

Luke and Matthew

are taking a slightly different

perspective. Luke's talking to Gentiles,

and Matthew the um

Jews.

Both of them

face this group of signs, wars, famines,

pestilences, earthquakes, and so forth.

You with me so far?

Okay.

Luke is focusing beforehand, Matthew

after.

There are two desolations of Jerusalem

in view.

Luke is focusing

on the the the fall of Jerusalem in 70

AD, which occurs prior to the wars

and and pestilences and earthquakes. You

with me? That's what he says.

Matthew is looking at a different

desolation cuz he includes a milestone

that Luke doesn't even mention.

After the wars, famines, pestilences,

earthquakes, Matthew says, "These are

the beginning of sorrows."

But when ye shall see, in other words,

after this,

the abomination of desolation, then let

them which be in Judaea flee, etc. You

with me? So, Matthew is focusing on a

second desolation

that is labeled by Jesus himself as the

great tribulation. Yes, it does involve

Jerusalem, that's the center of it.

And

the Jeremiah 30:7 calls it the time of

Jacob's trouble.

So, we have a big difference here.

Why am I getting into this here? Because

the seven letters, seven churches fit

after the fall of Jerusalem because that

happened in 70 AD, and John is writing

in 95 AD.

But clearly, when he's writing the wars

and rumors of wars,

what we call Revelation chapter 6 hasn't

happened yet.

You with me?

Okay, we're together.

Something very interesting.

Luke doesn't even mention

the great tribulation as such. He talks

about its climax. He obviously has a a

total view involved, but he makes he

makes no mention of the abomination of

desolation.

He makes no mention of fleeing

the fleeing to the mountains instruction

are for those

that are

threatening captivity by the nations and

so forth, right?

See the difference? Very similar, but

very different.

Matthew is writing to the Jews,

but the Jews aren't listening because

Jesus riding that donkey

proclaimed judicial blindness on in

Israel that that Paul talks about in

Romans chapter 11:25. Israel's blinded

until the fullness of the Gentiles be

come in.

So, they're going to be blinded anyway.

What Matthew By the time you get to the

abomination of desolation, they have

woken up and be watching.

The blindness is lifted. You follow me?

Cuz the Gentiles will have come in. It's

after the rapture.

The rapture occurs at between the seven

letters and those signs.

In a little I should have left a little

gap probably with the diagram there.

It's interesting that Luke,

while Matthew doesn't deal with the

the the uh the the Jews in the fall of

Jerusalem,

he's

uh

Luke does.

But Luke doesn't bother

because his readers, I think, are in the

mezzanine by the time you get to

the the last part of it. You with me?

That's conjecture. I leave it with you

to sort it out because it's going to

it's going to come up again and again.

So, that brings us to the close of our

study tonight.

For next time, I want you to Once again,

read chapters 2 and 3. They're not that

long. Read the whole chapters.

And do an outline of the letter to

Pergamus. It's going to be some full of

some surprises for you.

And its background, if you have time,

find out who Balaam was, and who Balak

was.

You'll find that in Numbers 22 through

about 25.

And we'll talk about it because Jesus

makes reference to them, and you won't

understand what Jesus is talking about

unless you have the background he

presumes you have.

So, that's our a challenge for next

time.

Let's stand for a closing word of

prayer.

Let's bow our hearts.

Oh Father, we just thank you

for your word.

We thank you that

became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we beheld his glory, the glory of

the only begotten of the Father. We

thank you, Father, for your word. We

thank you for this evening.

And Father, we would pray that through

your Holy Spirit that you would reignite

in each of us

a new passion

for our king.

Help us, Father, to repair the damage of

Ephesus.

That while we need to be sound on

doctrine, we have to be ever more sound

in our devotion.

Help us, Father, to

love you more. You've commanded us the

greatest commandment to love you above

all other things.

And Father, we also

thank you for the warnings

in the letter of Smyrna.

We do recognize that

on the horizon there may be dark clouds,

and yet those dark clouds

will provide strength

for the body.

And Father, we do pray

that you would

just re- reignite in each of us a hunger

and appetite for your word.

Help us to really

absorb and understand

these seven letters

that we might apply them as you would

have us apply them to ourselves.

We would, Father, that you just help us

to see the path before us.

What you would have us do.

How you would rearrange our priorities

that we might be much more effective

stewards

of the opportunities that lie ahead.

As we commit ourselves right now before

your throne without any reservation.

We commit ourselves into your hands.

In the name of Yeshua.

The first and the last, he was

dead and is alive now.

Who ever liveth to make intercession for

us. We just thank you.

In the name of Yeshua, our Lord and

Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.