The last things

[0:00] The book of Revelation by way of a sort of revision, end of term quiz. So if you'd like to open up, and I have put on here, oh this is the introduction, it's for our edification.

[0:19] So one of the things that I thought to ask was, what have we understood, what has impressed us, and what use is it in our Christian lives?

[0:33] So is there anything particularly we've understood or not understood, is there something that has impressed us and struck us so that it perhaps turns us into worshippers or God-fearers or whatever like that, something impressed us, and what good does it do?

[0:51] What do we take away and think, ah, this is going to help me as I live my life Monday to Saturday. So it's a book for our edification, our survival and our progress as Christians.

[1:05] It's an unveiling, gives us the truth behind the appearance. It's in the form of a letter, so it had relevance to the hearers. It's in the form of a prophecy, so it talks about what is going to happen.

[1:16] It usually says what is shortly going to happen, but the horizon is from the time of writing to the time of the end, and as prophets generally do, they give behavioral implications in the light of that big picture.

[1:33] So what we looked at in the last seven sessions, on the 28th of September, we looked at chapter 19 and 20, and we did a little overview of what was coming up in those chapters.

[2:02] And there was a transition from chapter 19, which left the matter of Babylon.

[2:14] So if you've got an NIV, it says 19 verse 1, threefold hallelujah over Babylon's fall. And then it goes in verse 5 into praising and singing hallelujah.

[2:27] And it continues the theme of worship in chapter 19 verse 10, where John, the writer, falls at the feet of the angel to worship him.

[2:41] And he's told, absolutely not. That is absolutely not what you do. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers and sisters. And a little definition of what a Christian is, somebody who holds to the testimony of Jesus Christ.

[2:56] Worship God, for it is the spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus. David, what have you got for that verse?

[3:07] I can't bring it to mind. Verse 10, chapter 19 verse 10. Thank you.

[3:33] The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. It's a very interesting juxtaposition putting those two things together. And so we did that.

[3:44] And on the 5th of October, we looked at images of the end. And rather than tell you what it is, I'll just hold that thought for maybe to ask you if you can remember any of those images of the end.

[4:00] And at some point, I think it was on that evening, we did a comparison with John chapter 5. And if you remember, John chapter 5 has a similar, in my view, I was trying to persuade you of this, a similar structure in terms of coming to life in two stages.

[4:28] So maybe I'll go and get the, actually, could somebody bring me the whiteboard and a pen? And we can sort of doodle about that in a minute.

[4:38] On the 12th of October, we looked at the basic shape of chapter 20. And of course, this is the one with the millennium in it.

[4:50] So I'm conscious that having gone through most of this in a broad brush, I've actually stopped and gone quite slowly in these two chapters. I looked at the basic shape of chapter 20.

[5:03] And perhaps in a minute, I'll sketch that out. And there are certain features like the binding of Satan, the enthronement of the saints, and judgment given for the saints.

[5:18] Yeah, come through the middle. Whoops. Well done.

[5:31] Yeah, that's good. I'll maneuver it up onto here. Super. Thank you very much.

[5:45] So we could look at that. Basic shape of chapter 20 with a thousand years and then a little time. And then on the 26th of October, I did a sort of polemic thing about what was pre-mill, post-mill, and A-mill.

[6:05] And there is a whole school of interpretation called dispensationalism. And I sort of described those fairly straightforwardly, said that I don't think the Bible favors dispensationalism.

[6:23] And there are a number of flaws in that approach, which I, and the two of them that I mentioned, were the flaw which says to take the Bible seriously, you have to take it literally, which is clearly not true, and that Israel has been given an unconditional gift of land, physical land, which is also not the case.

[6:48] And dispensationalism, among other things, leans on those two things, which I think are incorrect. On the 2nd of November, we went into Ezekiel and the matter of the battle involving Gog and Magog and the Mount of Megiddo.

[7:13] Mount in Hebrew is Har. So Har, so Har-Megiddon gets taken across into the New Testament in Greek as Armageddon.

[7:27] So it's the battle of the Mount Megiddo. And we actually, now let me just start that sentence again. Because John draws so much on Old Testament prophecy, I think to understand it properly, we've got to go back, look at the prophecy in its context.

[7:48] And when we've understood that, we can go back to John and see what he was actually getting at. So we went and did quite a little bit on Ezekiel, those chapters about the battle.

[8:01] And then on the 9th of November, we had a particular look at the coming of Jesus and the future hope. And I had said this came under the heading of loose ends, which was quite wrong because it's not loose end at all.

[8:17] It's a major theme. And we looked at some of the way that theme is opened in the rest of the New Testament. And I think it's a very impressive theme. On the 30th of November, if I've got this correct, we looked at the coming of the Son of Man and we did a dive back into Daniel, the book of Daniel, and saw that the coming of the Son of Man, the place that the Son of Man comes to, is to the Ancient of Days and receives power and authority and so on.

[8:50] And that really is more like the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and his enthronement and bringing into a place of power. And that when reference is made to the coming of the Son of Man, often what that's a reference to is an act of power from the risen Christ.

[9:09] So an act of judgment from the risen Christ or an act of judging everything from the risen Christ. But again, that's one of those things. You have to go back and see actually what the original reference is.

[9:23] So I think that's it. Do I have something else? That's what I wrote down.

[9:34] Anyway, so that's a little sort of revision of what we've done. So first of all, is there anything that anybody wanted to come back on?

[9:50] Are you allowed to do that? Why did you say that? Did you just pull a rabbit out of a hat? That's what preachers sometimes do, isn't it? Where did that come from?

[10:00] That's one thing. Another thing could be, what did we learn? What impressed us? And what helped us to live day by day?

[10:16] So please would you find a neighbor and you can ask those questions. And I'll also ask, what were the images of the end? So that's a few things for you to talk about together for five minutes.

[10:30] So shall I write that up? So questions. What have we learned? Did we learn anything? Or did you know it already? Maybe we learned it. What did we learn?

[10:42] Question. What impressed? Is there anything that you think, oh, I'm really glad I came that time because I was impressed by something. And what help?

[10:53] Was there anything that could, did, should help us day by day? So that's one set of questions. And then another set of questions is images of the end.

[11:05] And when I say images, I mean sort of pictorial or other pictures that he uses in chapter 19 and 20.

[11:20] So would you like, like, seven minutes to discuss that with a neighbor and see what you come up with and then we can talk about it together.

[11:33] Well, thanks. Thank you.

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