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Back To The Bible – Book 3 (Part 1) – Aaron Cozort – 07-20-2025
As we begin this morning, ah raise your hand if you do not have or at least do not have
with you a copy of the booklet.
We’re going over the Back to the Bible booklet, so if you’ll raise your hand, ah Jacob or
Walker will bring one of those to you.
as they’re making their way around.
We uh have proceeded through the first two of the booklets in the Back to the Bible
series.
We will begin this Sunday with the third one, and we’ll conclude that next Sunday morning.
So, uh we’re not going to cover the entire thing in this particular lesson, and we will…
as we’ve done before, discuss some of the things that are in it for the sake of helping
you to understand what you will be doing if you sit down and study with someone these
booklets, as you sit down and help them to understand the Word and the will of God.
But uh as we pause just for a moment, we’re going to take a moment right now and hopefully
you all still have your…
the other bookmarks, you have your bookmarks with you.
And we’re going to take a moment uh for us to pray for the people who are on those lists.
You know, as we’re progressing in our training concerning how to study with people.
m
You’re reaching the point where you can sit down and study with these people.
You can look for an open opportunities and open doors to be able to study with the
individuals who you have on oh the names that you have on that sheet.
And so I encourage you to be thinking about the people who are on those sheet.
Be looking for life events occurring in their lives.
that you might find the opportunity to be able to uh instill in them and sit down and
study with them the Word of God, that they might know both how to live and how to be
obedient to God.
So we’re going take a moment and pray silently on behalf of those who are on each of our
own lists.
One last thing as we begin.
Those who’ve been here through all of the studies, remember that at the beginning, one of
the first things you will have done, if you didn’t have the opportunity to do it at the
beginning of your study with someone, then this would be the opportunity that you would
take to do it.
ah Preferably, I prefer to do it at the very beginning before any of the study has begun.
But if you don’t do it then, you need to do it.
at this point right here, before you open the third book, before you start into the third
book, sit down with the questions that are on the back of this.
ah This is the Back to the Bible Survey.
These questions are in the booklet.
These questions can also just be on a piece of paper.
Stick it your Bible.
You’re going to regularly think through these questions.
The key to the questions is getting the person to write
them down.
You know, if you had them write them down at the beginning of the first study, have them
give you that piece of paper.
Bring it back out at this point.
Not at this moment in time at the beginning of the study, but during the third study.
Which means you have to keep track of it.
So put it somewhere where you won’t lose it.
ah But if you do have them write it down at this point in time, that’s fine too.
But what I encourage you to do is go through these questions.
Now, the questions just by way of reminder that are on this survey.
Or, do you know God exists?
You don’t have to rehash that before the third one.
If you’ve gone through two booklets, you’ve probably got a good idea whether or not they
believe that God exists.
But just going through the questions that are here.
Do you know who the Holy Spirit is?
Do you believe the Holy Spirit is God?
The answers that are on this are yes, no, or unsure.
Do you know who Jesus is?
Do you believe Jesus is God?
Do you believe the entire Bible is God’s Word?
Do you believe the Bible contains contradictions, mistakes, and or false statements?
Now, if you filled this out before the first study, they may have said, well, not sure
about that, or they may have said no.
and you may be at this point now and they may have changed their mind entirely because of
reading what’s in booklet number one concerning inspiration and revelation.
they may be in a different place on some of these answers than they were when they started
this study with you.
Do you believe God will do everything he has stated in his word?
Now, the last section from this point forward
is the point that I typically make sure we’ve gone over and we’ve answered and we’ve
written down the answers before we start the third study.
First question, are you saved?
You know, every single person I’ve ever studied with who comes from a denominational
background has said yes to that answer.
They’re certain they’re saved.
Part of the reason it’s important to have this written down is because the person they’re
going to argue with during the course of the third book is themselves.
And I don’t know about you, but if you’ve ever observed someone who’s tried to convince
themselves to go to the gym, work out on regular basis and get in shape, most of the time
we beat ourselves in our own arguments.
And so if they’re going to be arguing with themselves, the only way you’re going to be
able to hold them accountable for their answers is if it’s written down.
That’s why it’s so important.
because as they argue with themselves, they’ll be looking at the sheet and going.
You know that’s not what I said two hours ago, or an hour and a half ago, 45 minutes ago.
I said this.
And now I’m looking at the Scriptures and it says this.
Okay?
So the next thing, if yes, at what point were you saved?
What did you do to become saved and have them give you the details?
What day it was?
Where were they?
How old were they?
What did they do?
And it may go something like this, well, I was 14 years old.
ah It was in Samaritanis C.
I was at the Northwest Baptist Church.
I went down to the front with two other friends of mine.
We kneeled down and we prayed.
May go something like that, maybe something entirely different.
But they’re going say, this is what I did.
They’ll know what they’ve thought about it before.
They’ve considered it before.
They’ll give you the answer, and they’ll write it down.
How old were you when you were saved?
Have you been baptized?
Yes, no, or unsure.
How old were you when you were baptized?
Now, they may say, well, I was saved when I was 14.
I was baptized when I was 18.
That’s a completely normal answer for most people in the denominational world.
well, I prayed and I was saved on July 7th, but the baptismal ceremony was until July
24th.
Circle the word that describes your baptism.
Sprinkling, pouring, immersion.
Someone may say, well, I’ve never been baptized as an adult, but I know I was baptized
when I was a baby because my mother told me I was.
Okay?
If you’ve been baptized, were you saved before or after baptism?
And if you were to die tonight, do you know where you would go for eternity?
Yes, no, or unsure?
as you open the third book.
You’ve gone through revelation, inspiration, and authority.
You’ve talked about the church, who started it, who it belongs to, what are the aspects of
it that they need to know and they need to understand.
They now know what the body of Christ looks like.
They now know that the Word of God is inspired and is something that they are accountable
to.
And as you open up this book,
You’re now not talking about those things, you’re talking about them.
But you’re not going to approach it in talking about them, per se.
You’re going to do the same thing you’ve done in the last two studies.
You’re going to open up the Word of God and just see what it says.
You’re going let them read it for themselves.
This does not and should never turn into an accusatory study.
unless it’s them accusing themselves.
You go back and look at the gospel record of Christ’s life.
the times where you see an extreme uptick in the animosity of the Pharisees and the chief
priests.
is when Jesus causes them through the conversation or the teaching or the parable.
to see themselves as guilty.
So there’s a caution there.
Not everyone will accept this the same way.
Not everyone will react the same way.
Some will get angry.
Some will get angry at others because they’ve always been lied to.
Some will become sad.
Some will grieve.
Some will be very, very stoic all the way up until the point they make a decision.
And some will get part way through, close it, and walk away.
as you realize that what they’re facing is the challenge of what they’ve always believed
with what they’re now confronted with is actually in the Word of God.
You must remember Paul’s instruction to Timothy.
He says, preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke,
exhort with all long suffering.
Do not give up on an individual because you study the third study with them and they’re
not immediately converted.
one of the individuals that was incredibly kind and beneficial to us in our work, our
first work in North Carolina.
was an older lady who uh she attended the congregation where her husband was a member with
him for seven years.
before she could talk herself out of what she had always believed.
She knew what the Bible taught before she’d been there year.
And it took her six more years to get out of what she had always been taught.
Do know that person was the single most evangelistic person in the entire congregation?
My emphasis here is you give people time.
Don’t give up on them because they didn’t change their mind in one study.
Remind yourself that the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, many on the council
denied Jesus, denied Jesus, would not accept Jesus, knew that He was who He claimed to be,
and still
wouldn’t obey Jesus, and yet we’re told in the book of Acts that after his resurrection
many of them believed.
Sometimes you have to give people time.
Now let’s begin with Isaiah chapter 59.
The section of this study starts with your spiritual condition, that’s the header.
Then what is sin?
How many of sin?
Those are the areas we’re going to, sorry, and the consequences of sin, those are the
areas we’re going to discuss this morning.
Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2,
The visual is helpful.
Man’s here, God’s here, sin’s in the middle.
Sin is what divides man from God.
You know what?
That is not something that most people are astounded by.
Most denominations will teach that.
Most religious groups will say there’s something that separates humanity from God and it’s
our morality.
It’s not a big surprise when that is discussed.
So as you go through, again, read the text, let them fill it in.
First John chapter 3 and verse 4, the question is, what is sin?
If sin is what separates man from God, then what is it?
Paul, sorry, John will write in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4,
John says sin is when we violate the law of God.
When we violate the law of God, we’ve sinned.
Easy enough to understand.
Now, some might say, well, what’s a transgression?
One, the original Greek word carries with it the idea of missing the mark.
as if there was an archer who was shooting at a target and he overshot the target or he
fell short of the target.
That’s a good illustration.
People get that.
Hey, this is what you were supposed to do, but you went over it, you went under it, you
missed it.
James chapter 1.
James chapter 1 in verse 14 and 15, But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his
own lust and enticed.
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death.
As they look at that text,
The man is tempted when he is.
drawn away by his own lust.
You know, many in the religious world who have a Calvinism background are far less
concerned about the sins they commit themselves and spend much of their time worrying
about the doctrine of original sin, the sin they believe they inherited from Adam.
If you were to go back and look at the doctrine of Calvinism, you would find that
Calvinists teach that you are born in sin, and you’ve probably heard people say that.
I know that I was born in sin.
That’s going to be a challenge when they look at this and go, sin occurs when I am
allowing myself to do that which God has told me not to do.
Because babies can’t do that.
And babies don’t do that.
When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin.
Now, there’s already a conclusion there that, as you’ve observed throughout this study, we
don’t draw out everything that’s in every text.
Sometimes we loop back to these texts.
Build one thing upon another.
James chapter 4.
James chapter 4 verse 17, therefore to him,
that knows to do good and doeth it not to him and his sin, you can emphasize that one is a
sin, James 1, of commission.
You don’t have to use that word, but you can say one is a sin because you violated the
law.
Here is a sin because you failed to do what the law commanded you to do.
One is God told you not to do something and you did it.
The other is God told you to do something and you didn’t do it.
Both of them are sin.
If one knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.
So the question, have you ever failed to do what you knew was right?
There’s not a competent, well-meaning, well-thinking individual who’s an adult who could
say no to that question.
Yes, of course, there have been times where I failed to do what was right.
Romans chapter 3.
under the header of how many have sinned.
Romans chapter 3 verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one.
Now the context in this discussion is righteous in and of themselves because there may be
some confusion.
They may go, wait a minute, well aren’t Christians righteous?
What does it mean?
Paul’s discussion in this text is righteous separated from God, apart from God, righteous
in and of themselves.
uh Romans chapter 3 verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
And you ask the question, how many have sinned?
All have.
Does this include you?
you’ll find in this text, in this booklet, more than the others the directed questions.
And if you’re like me, maybe you’re not, but if you’re like me, you’ll be less comfortable
asking those.
It’s really easy to ask a question about the text, but you’re going to feel a little weird
internally going, does this include you?
But just ask the question.
Don’t overthink it.
Just ask the question.
Does this include you?
They’ll answer it.
You answer it.
Romans chapter 6 verse 23.
The consequences of sin.
For the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The wages of sin.
is death.
They understand what wages are.
This microphone is driving me nuts today.
Sorry.
They understand what wages are, and if they don’t immediately connect, when you go to
work, you earn wages.
You get paid and you are owed that because you worked for it.
That’s what wage is.
God is saying when you sin, you earned.
death.
A lot of people really want to believe that they’re owed heaven unless they just somehow
did enough bad in their life to have missed heaven and end up in hell.
That’s not what the text says.
The text says the wages of sin is death.
How many sins must one commit to be separated from God eternally?
You know, I’ve never had anyone miss the answer.
I never had anyone say, you probably have to commit a few thousand.
No, they look at the text and go.
One, because now that you’ve committed the sin, you’ve earned the wage.
And if they struggle with that, ask how many hours they have to work at their employer
before they expect to be paid for the hours they work.
You want to just one hour.
Do you expect to be paid for that?
You expect to be paid for the first hour and every hour thereafter?
Yeah.
it’s your wage.
1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 and 10.
Paul writes to the Corinthians and says,
Nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
You may be tempted to take a moment here and explain what all the depth, the detail of all
these things are and what all they mean.
Don’t.
Not because it’s not important for them to know it, but if they don’t know what it means,
that’s probably not the sin that they need to repent of.
But there’s a few of them on there I can just about guarantee you they’re going to
identify with from some point in their life.
Will the unrighteous inherit the Kingdom of God?
Nobody misses it.
The answer is no.
Matthew chapter 13 verses 40 through 42.
As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of
the world.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, they shall gather out of his kingdom all
things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of
fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” At the end of the world sinners will
be.
punished.
something that I haven’t always stated, sometimes they’re going to use a word that’s not
the direct word right out of the text.
They’re going say, well, they’re going to be judged, punished, burned.
You put the right word in yours.
If they’ve got the gist of it, move on.
Don’t argue over technicalities as long as they’re understanding the text.
Now as you think about where this study has left them,
It’s left them seeing sin.
It’s left them seeing God’s judgment.
Now, if you left them right here,
That’d be a pretty sad place to be, wouldn’t it?
But the thing is…
At this point in the study, they’re answering all of these questions for the most part,
most people you’ll study with, they’re answering all these questions thinking it’s
somebody else.
because they’re saved.
This is about lost people.
This is about people who will be judged by God, not welcomed home.
This is about people who are going to hell, not heaven.
At this moment in the study, they’re fine with it.
And I want to emphasize that for this reason.
When you sit down with the Word of God, with a tool like this or any other tool, when you
sit down with the text of Scripture, it is important that you do not sit down to see why
others need to be accountable to God.
while simultaneously not holding yourself accountable to God.
It is not enough to open the Word of God and see what others must do.
You’ve got to open it up and see what you must do.
If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the Body of Christ.
You need to realize and we need to remember.
that God will hold each and every one of us accountable for what we do in this life.
that when we reach eternity, we will give an account for the words that we say, Jesus
says, that you’ll be judged by every idle word that you speak.
By the things that you think.
Jesus emphasized in Matthew chapter 5, 5, around verse 20, that if a man lusted in his
heart over a woman,
He’s just as guilty of committing sin as if he had committed an act of adultery.
If he hated his brother, he’s just as guilty of sin as if he had murdered his brother.
We’re going to be judged for the words that we speak, for the thoughts that we think, but
we’re also going to be judged for the actions we take.
And if we add in James chapter 4, we’re to be reminded that we’re going to be judged for
the things that we violate and the things we fail to keep.
If you evaluate your life and you think, you know what, I’m not passing that test.
I violated something that I was told not to do.
I failed to do something I was told to do.
I’ve thought things that I shouldn’t have thought.
I’ve said things I shouldn’t have said.
then the text of Scripture very plainly teaches us that the wages of sin is death.
but the gift of God is eternal life.
If that is where you find yourself this morning, no, that’s not where God wants you to be,
nor is it where you have to stay.
If you’re outside the body of Christ this morning, why not consider changing your position
in life and being obedient to the Word of God?
by hearing the Word and believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, by repenting of
your sins and confessing His name, by being immersed in water for the remission of your
sins, to rise to walk in newness of life, no longer being guilty of those old sins, no
longer living that old life, but being obedient to the Word of God.
If you have need of the invitation of Jesus Christ, why not come forward this morning as
we stand?
Back To The Bible Book 2 – (Part 1) – Aaron Cozort – 07-06-2025
helps if I turn it on and not on.
Good morning.
It’s good to see all of you here, especially good to see many visitors that we have among
us.
We’re grateful for your presence and we’re grateful for the opportunity that you have to
be with us this morning.
We pray that you will be able to come back and visit with us again soon.
Raise your hand if you’re…
If you do not have one of these booklets uh with you or if you do not have one here,
Isaiah is going to pass them out.
So if you just raise your hand if you need one.
We’re going to be covering the second booklet in the Back to the Bible series.
And Isaiah, if you need more, there’s more in the back in the foyer.
ah So just keep your hands up till you get one and uh they’ll make sure those are passed
out.
We mentioned a few weeks ago,
as we started this training, this is an opportunity for us to train ourselves how to study
with others.
It is also an opportunity to learn because sometimes we find, oh, I didn’t know that
particular detail or I didn’t know best how to present that particular detail concerning
the Word of God.
As we study with individuals who, by and large,
have spent their entire life never being given any structure to how they study the Bible,
and certainly not to God’s expectations for their lives.
So as we go through this study, you may find some things, you come along, say, well, I
didn’t know that, or I need to study that more, or you say, this is entirely foreign to
me.
I’ve never heard anything like this.
Don’t hesitate as your time here before you leave and walk out those doors to let us know.
We’d be happy to study with you further and if this is, with this being the second book,
you will have missed the first booklet.
You say, I liked what I saw here, but I’d like to start at the beginning.
Just reach out to myself or Justin and we’d be happy to sit down and go through this
material with you.
Now, having said that, we will have the slides, the overheads uh for these lessons as we
go through.
but we will move through at a fairly rapid pace.
uh So if you’re turning to all of the passages in the text, that’s good.
If you say, can’t keep up, that’s fine too.
The passages will be on the slides.
Now, not all of the slides came in exactly the way they were supposed to this morning, so
bear with me if we have some issues there.
We’re beginning with a second booklet dealing with the church.
And we’re gonna begin in Matthew chapter 16.
As we have done in the previous two studies, we’re going to take this particular lesson,
this particular booklet, break it up into two lessons, and I will be commenting along the
way on some things that you may want to consider if you’re sitting down and studying
through this with someone who is trying to learn what God would have them to do.
This particular booklet focuses on the church and worship and what God
commands us to do under the New Testament age.
We noticed in the first booklet as we concluded that study that we are not under the Old
Testament anymore, but rather that we are under the New Testament, the law of Christ, and
in accordance with that we need to know what the law of Christ, the New Testament, says
concerning the church and worship.
Matthew chapter 16 verse 18.
And I say unto thee, now this is Jesus speaking to his disciples because he asked his
disciples, who do men say that I am?
And they gave some of the ideas that the people had said.
Then Peter pointed out that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Jesus commended Peter concerning this and he said, and I also say unto thee, thou art
Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The question is, who built the
church?
The answer is Jesus did.
It’s His church and He came to build it.
To whom does the church belong?
Well, as we just answered, it belongs to Jesus.
Did Jesus build, according to the text, churches, plural, or the church?
singular.
singular.
There’s only one.
He didn’t come to build a plethora of churches.
He certainly didn’t come to build two or 20,000 different churches, all believing and
teaching different things.
Then consider, as we go further, I gotta fill these in as we go, uh turn if you will to
Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1 beginning in verse 20.
Now some of these longer texts when you’ve got
A number of verses here, they won’t all be on the text, just the ones, the section where
it’s highlighted for the answers, but we’re going to read the entire thing.
In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 20, which he worked in Christ, being God the Father, worked
in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the
heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion.
And every name that is named, not only in the age
in this age, but also in that which is to come.
And he, God the Father, put all things under his, Jesus’ feet, and gave him to be head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in
all.” Is Jesus the head over all things to the church?
Now one of the things, especially for the visitors who haven’t been in one of studies
before, one of things we reiterate is as you’re sitting down with someone and you’re
teaching them the gospel and using the Back to the Bible series, you might ask the
question.
You let them answer it.
You let them read it.
You let them acknowledge what the text says.
Now if you’re going around, if you’ve got maybe a group of three and you’re taking turns,
it’s okay if everyone answers.
But make sure that they’re seeing the answer.
Make sure that they’re reading the answer and that they’re acknowledging that the answer
is what came exactly out of the text.
So is Jesus the head over all things of the church?
Yes, that’s what the text plainly says.
In verse 23, the church is also called his blank, his body.
The church is the body of Christ, according to the text.
Now consider as well Ephesians chapter 1 verses 22 and 23.
There are some things that you can do and in the booklet, the evangelism explained
booklet, there’s some of these visuals are there.
Sometimes I’ll use them and sometimes I won’t.
Depends on the person I’m studying with and how well I think they’re coming to this.
But imagine if you had a body with multiple heads.
Would there be something wrong with that body?
Yes there would.
Well, what if you had a body with one head but multiple bodies?
Be something wrong with that body?
Absolutely.
We’d all acknowledge that.
The text says that the church singular is the body singular of Christ.
Christ is not the head of a multitude of bodies.
Christ is not
one head with other heads of a single body.
Rather, there is one body and one head.
Consider as well, we go over to Ephesians chapter four.
In Ephesians chapter four and in verse four, we read, there is one body and one spirit,
just as you were called in one hope of your calling.
Is there only one hope?
The answer is yes.
Is there only one Holy Spirit?
The answer is yes.
Is there only one body?
The answer is yes.
Now, why is it that it’s important when you get to chapter 4 that you had already gone to
chapter 1?
Because chapter 1 tells you in the context what the body is referencing.
It’s referencing the church.
So when you know the body is referencing the church, you now know that what Paul is saying
in Ephesians 4 is that there’s one church.
John chapter 17, as Jesus is praying in the garden, or praying up in the upper room before
he goes into the garden, get my words out here correctly, Jesus is praying with his
disciples in private in the upper room.
And we read in John chapter 17 and in verse 20, I do not pray for these alone, that these
are the disciples sitting there.
He says, do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through
their word, that they may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also
may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.
Did Jesus pray that his followers all be one?
The answer is yes, he did.
As a matter of fact, when you look at that text, notice how many times Jesus emphasizes
the oneness of the relationship of his believers and himself and God the Father.
over and over and over he repeats this idea of oneness.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul as he is writing to the church in Corinth will write to
them about division and the problems that they have there in the church at Corinth.
And chapter 1 verse 10 we read,
all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be
perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Now it’s important that someone realizes that Paul is writing to a church and he’s writing
to them and he’s admonishing them, he’s pleading with them to all speak the same thing.
that there should be no divisions among them.
So, is religious division condemned by Paul in this passage?
Yes it is.
Since religious division is condemned and since Jesus prayed that all his followers be
one, must we strive to be one religiously?
Yes we must.
Alright, then consider
Colossians chapter 1 verse 18.
Colossians chapter 1 verse 18, and He is the head of the body.
Now, who do we already know is the one who’s the head of the body because Ephesians told
us?
Jesus is.
Okay, so the context here is Jesus.
Jesus is the head of the body, the Church, which is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Since Jesus is the head of the Church, the body.
Should we go to anyone other than Jesus and the inspired writers of the New Testament,
which taught what Jesus said, you need book one to remember that, and the inspired writers
of the New Testament to learn the organization, worship, and name of the church?
Should we go to anybody else other than Jesus for that information?
No.
It’s His church.
He built it.
He gave the instructions for it.
Okay?
the organization of the church.
So we’re going to move from kind of a header up here concerning the church and who’s in
charge of it, who’s the head of it, to how is it organized.
And we’re going spend the majority of our time here this morning.
Matthew chapter 15.
Matthew chapter 15.
We read in verse 13, but he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father has
not planted will be uprooted.
If a church is not built in accordance with the word of God, will it be rooted up?
One of the things that you need to know and you need to recognize as you’re studying with
people is that you will be confronted with your own thoughts on a matter as you’re trying
to teach them.
And if you are not settled on what the Word of God says, and if you cannot with confidence
state that you agree with what the Word of God says,
You need to ask someone else to have that Bible study.
Because the last thing you need to do is sit down with the Word of God and try and
convince someone to believe the Word of God and obey it if you don’t believe the Word of
God and obey it.
Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and He condemned the Pharisees there in Matthew chapter 23
because He said that they would go scouring the earth to make one proselyte, that is to
take a Gentile and convert them to being a Jew, to convert them to Judaism, and they’d end
up creating someone who was twice the child of hell that they were.
What’s Jesus’ point?
Jesus’ point and his emphasis was that when they would sit down and convince that
individual to leave paganism, to leave their polytheistic ideologies, to leave their
religions that didn’t originate in God, they’d turn around and teach them to obey the
doctrines of men and the thoughts of men instead of God.
So they would rescue them from
false teaching and paganism only to introduce them to false teaching and human doctrines.
when you sit down with someone and you emphasize to them that if they will open up the
Word of God and they will just do what it says and when they do what it says they will be
right in the eyes of God and then they look at you and go, well is that what you believe?
And you start squirming.
And you start, well I don’t know that it means exactly
You need to have the honesty and the uprightness of character to say, know what, I’ve
always thought that that wasn’t what I believed, but I’ve had to change my beliefs to
match what God says, just like He’s telling you you have to do.
part of the challenge to be a teacher is that you have to teach yourself.
And if you are unwilling to open the Word of God and believe what it says,
Do the courtesy of not trying to teach someone else to do what you won’t do yourself.
If a church is not built in accordance with the Word of God, will it be uprooted?
Yes, it will, because God didn’t plan it.
Now, consider as well Acts chapter 14.
Acts chapter 14, you’re reading about the early church.
You’re reading about the growth of the early church.
So in Acts chapter 14 and in verse 23,
you read, so when they had appointed elders in every church, well, what’s going on?
Who is this talking about?
Well, if you read a few verses back and help them with this so they have a frame of
reference, Paul and Barnabas have gone out on a missionary journey and they have
established churches and preached and in cities and as a result, individuals have been
converted.
churches have been established.
Now they’re going back through those cities on a return journey.
And we read, when they had preached the gospel to that city and many dismayed…
uh Sorry, I looked down and went to the wrong verse.
Verse 23, so when they had appointed elders in every church and prayed with fasting, they
commended them to the Lord in whom they believe.
So as they returned in their journeys back to their original starting point, they ordained
or appointed elders in every church.
Did these inspired men ordain elders in every church?
Yes, they did.
Are we right if we did as they did in ordaining a plurality of elders in every
congregation?
Absolutely.
If we do what the early church did and the early church was right in the eyes of God, then
we’ll be right in the eyes of God.
We don’t have to have a conference or a discussion or a big meeting about it.
All we have to do is open the book and do what they did.
All right?
Acts chapter 20.
There was one question that didn’t show up on that slide, and I’m going to read it before
as you all are turning over to Acts chapter 20 verse 17.
Could we be wrong if we did not organize the church the way those inspired men of God did?
Absolutely.
Now we’re leaving it to our judgment to be right in the eyes of God instead of God’s
example.
Acts chapter 20 verse 17.
We read, Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews.
This is Paul.
Go back to the verse before it and you’ll see that.
He reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers and in the
marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
Go down to verse 28.
wrong chapter.
I’m in chapter 17.
That’s…
that’ll happen by the way.
When you sit down and study you’re trying to focus on two things at once, you’ll start
reading from a chapter and they’re like, what are you reading?
Acts chapter 20.
I’m making all the mistakes for you so you know that it’s okay to make them.
Alright, Acts chapter 20 verse 17.
Not 17, verse 17.
Notice the plurality there.
Verse 28.
Yes.
Did you know there’s a bunch of denominations that do not believe that?
That they have individuals in different roles serving as the overseers of the church.
In most Baptist churches, it’s deacons that are overseers in the church, not elders.
But that’s not what the text says, is it?
The elders were given the role, the responsibility, and did you notice what Paul said?
That the Holy Spirit said that this is what they were to do.
Now, Titus chapter 1.
Titus chapter 1, verses 5 through 7.
read, for this reason I left you…
I’m going to catch up here with the slides.
Titus chapter 1 verse 5 uh
a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the
faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort
and convict those who contradict.” As Paul writes here in this text, we read this.
Notice when Paul told Titus to set things in order, did he tell him to ordain elders?
The answer is yes.
When we do what Titus did in organizing the church, are we doing the will of God?
Yes.
We’re doing exactly what God told the first century church to do.
Do the terms, because you’ve seen them in these passages, do the terms elders, bishop, and
overseer refer to the same office?
The answer is yes.
They’re described as elders, Paul met with the elders, but they’re also described as
overseers.
And in the King James Version, the Old King James Version, you find the term bishop used
to refer to an overseer.
It’s an Old English word that means overseer.
Can you say that again?
Alright, we’ll get into that in just a moment.
So, deacons are different, but elders, bishops, overseers, all referencing the same group
of people and all to be appointed in the body of Christ.
And as you notice there in Titus chapter 1, there’s a list of qualifications, something
that may come up.
has come up in multiple studies with people as I’ve studied in this area.
They’ll say, well, the church where you attend, do you have elders?
And I’ll say, no.
And they’ll look at you like, whoa, isn’t that what you’re supposed to have?
But that’s where the text helps you, doesn’t it?
Because as you read Titus chapter 1 verses 5 through 7 or 5 through 9, you’ll find a list
of qualifications.
And you can say, well, at the moment we’re working on getting to the point where we have
men who are qualified and able and willing to do it, but we have to have them meet the
qualifications.
We can’t appoint somebody who’s not qualified.
So you understand and help them understand that at times a church, just like the churches
as Paul went through on the missionary journey the first time and established the
churches, he didn’t put elders in or appoint elders the moment he established the church.
He came back through and appointed elders and he sent Timothy and he sent Titus back to
the churches to appoint elders to give time for the men there to mature and to meet the
qualifications.
So you actually can re-emphasize the importance of doing it God’s way and not man’s way.
Over in First Timothy chapter 3, we find another list.
And if you’ve been in the adult Bible class here on Sunday mornings, you know that we’ve
been through this passage, but we’re going to read it again as we go through the text.
Verse 1 of chapter 3, this is a faithful saying, If a man desires the position of a
bishop, he desires a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good
behavior, hospitable, able to teach.
As you’re going through and studying with this person, don’t spend eight weeks teaching
him what all these things mean.
That’s not the point of the study.
The point is for him to realize there’s qualifications and God set a standard.
All right?
So notice, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not
quarrelsome, not covetous.
one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.
For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church
of God?
Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the same condemnation as the
devil.
Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into
reproach and the snare of the devil.
Now, must an elder be married?
Well, in order to be the husband of one wife, you have to be married.
Must an elder have children?
Well, the text clearly states that he must be one who rules his own house.
Well, having his children in subjection with all gravity.
May a recent convert or a novice serve as an elder?
The answer is no.
The text plainly states that he must be one who is not a novice, not one who’s
inexperienced in the Word of God.
So if you had an entire congregation that had just been converted in the last month, would
you have anyone qualified to be elders?
No!
Why not?
They’re all novices.
You have to give people time to develop from the state of being a babe in Christ, a
novice, to being mature in Christ in order to have one who’s qualified to be an elder.
But then consider chapter 3 verses 8 through 12 to the discussion or the question that was
just asked.
Likewise, deacons.
must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money,
holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.
But let these also first be tested, then let them serve as deacons, being found
blameless.”
Now, notice in the text that the text tells you what a deacon is, just the same way the
other text told us what an elder was.
The role of an elder, according to Paul in Acts chapter 20, was to be an overseer.
The text here tells us the role of a deacon is to be a servant.
As a matter of fact, if you were to go look up the word deacon and its original meaning in
the Greek, because it’s a Greek word, not an English word, it means minister or servant.
So you have in the church in the first century those who were overseers who met
qualifications.
Now you have a group of servants who are meeting
qualifications.
Now does that mean they’re the only ones who can do any work or any service in the church?
Not at all.
but rather they have special responsibility and service that they do, therefore they must
meet qualifications for those responsibilities.
Let’s continue down into verse 12.
Likewise their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things.
Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
What church official is under discussion here?
Deacons.
Is it God’s plan that there be qualified elders and deacons in every church?
Yes, it is.
That is exactly what God established to be the ideal scenario and the organization of the
church.
Now, a few things that you may have noted.
These are important for you to remember and also important to not get distracted.
As an individual goes through and answers these questions, they may have spent their
entire life in a church where they have women elders.
They may have spent their entire life in a church where they have single men serving as
deacons who’ve never been married.
They may have spent their entire life, if they grew up as Mormons, seeing elders as young
18-year-olds who wear a name badge with the word elder.
And those are great discussions to have.
They may have questions about them.
So somebody tell me, what do do with questions that come up in the middle of the study?
All right, we defer, we don’t debate.
We write down the question and we come back to it later.
Why?
Because one of the things that you need to remember as you’re studying with people is they
will begin to see
what they’ve been taught doesn’t match what the Word of God says.
And they’ll have questions, and the questions are legitimate, they’re great, they’re
important, and they should get answers to every single one of them.
But it’s not the most important question.
It’s not the most important thing.
But we humans,
have a tendency to see something and immediately go down a rabbit hole.
Only to lose entirely our sight of what was actually important.
There’s a reason why I don’t spend a lot of time on social media.
Because I’ll see something and I’ll go down a rabbit hole and an hour later that an hour I
didn’t have to spend, I’ll have spent an hour doing something that I didn’t need to do.
because I can get distracted.
When you’re studying with someone, they have a question about that.
Appreciate the question.
Thank them for the question.
Write the question down and come back to it.
Because what we’re doing is we’re establishing what God said, not having a debate or an
argument about what they think or about what I think or about what somebody else thinks or
about what their preacher thinks.
What does the Bible say?
You’re building their framework of knowledge about what the Bible actually says.
Philippians chapter 1.
You see not only the command in the text for these roles, but then you also see the
example as Paul writes to the churches that this is exactly how the churches were
established.
This is exactly what the churches were made up of.
in the first century church.
So when Paul opens his letter to the church at Philippi, we read Paul and Timothy, bond
servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the
bishops and deacons.
There’s a picture just in an opening introductory verse where you see Paul greeting all
the Christians, all the saints,
all the holy ones, that’s what saints are, they’re not people who’ve been dead for 400
years, they’re holy ones, they’re alive, they’re in the church right then, to all the
saints and the elders and the bishops that are in the church in Philippi.
So you see there the church at Philippi was organized with both elders and deacons,
bishops and deacons, overseers and servants.
That’s how the church was organized in the first century.
Now, due to time, we’re gonna put pause right there.
We’ll put a bookmark in.
Hope you’ll be back next Sunday morning because we’ll be continuing this.
But why?
Why is it important?
Why is it necessary for us to even ask the question, must we organize the church the way
the scriptures tell us to organize it?
And the answer comes back to this.
In Ephesians and in Colossians as we read, the church was purchased with the blood of
Jesus Christ.
and it’s His church.
Not mine, not Joe’s, not yours, not Martin Luther’s, not anybody else’s.
It’s not the Pope’s, it’s not the Cardinal’s, it’s not the Elder’s, it’s not the Bishop’s,
it’s Christ’s.
So if we’re going to have a part in the church that Jesus established, and if we’re going
to have a part in the church for which Jesus died and shed his blood, we better make sure
that we examine that church and it actually looks like his church.
If you’re driving down the road and you come to my house, you’re all welcome anytime you
need to stop by.
But if you come to 315 Southwick Drive, and as you pull in, you pick up the phone and you
say, Aaron, I’m right outside.
And I look out the window.
I’ll see you.
I’m right here.
Where are you?
I’m right in front of this two-story brick house.
It’s a beautifully landscaped lawn.
I love how you’ve treated that lawn.
I can tell you, you’re not at my house.
My house is not brick and my lawn is not landscaped.
So I can tell by your description of the house that you’re not at my house.
You say, but I’m at 315 Southwick Drive.
What state are you in?
You know there’s another 315 Southwick Drive.
It’s not in Mississippi.
in Mississippi?
if it doesn’t look like his church and it’s not organized like his church and it doesn’t
do what he says his church does then maybe it’s not the church for which he died.
And if you’re not in a body, a church for which Christ died, you are not in a place where
salvation is found.
And many others have started and founded churches that do not belong to Jesus Christ.
So how are you going to know if you’re in the right church?
You’re going to open up the Word of God and see what Jesus said His church looks like and
find that church.
and join in participation with those Christians and elders and deacons in being obedient
to that Savior.
If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, why stay outside His
church?
He came and He said it to build His church and the gates of Hades.
the gates of hell will never prevail against his church.
If you have need of the invitation, why not come forward now as we stand and as we
Revelation 13 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – May 24, 2026
Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Revelation, chapter 13.
We will briefly review from uh from the beginning of the book just to catch up those who
are visiting with us on where we’re at in the book.
But let’s begin with a word prayer.
Our gracious father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you
blessed us with, grateful for the opportunity that we have to serve you, to glorify your
name, to sing praise to your name, to pray and to bow before your throne, to come to you
in.
uh supplication and in prayer, but also in thanksgiving.
Lord, we are mindful of those who are not with us and not present because of illness or
health.
We pray that you give them the strength that they need to be able to once again be
assembled together with us.
Lord, we pray for endurance for those who deal with chronic issues and continually day by
day are afflicted with hardships.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are struggling spiritually and we pray that you
help them to open your word and to align their heart and their mind with your word and
your will.
And Lord, we pray that we might be an encouragement and an exhortation to them to do those
things.
Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
All this we ask in Jesus name, amen.
John is on the Isle of Patmos.
for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And as he is there on the first day of the week or on the Lord’s Day, as the text says, he
hears a voice behind him and he turns to see one who has the appearance of Christ, but in
a glorified state.
He has seven stars in his right hand and the stars represent what in the book of
Revelation?
The churches.
and he has seven golden lampstands that are before him and they represent the angels of or
the messengers of the churches.
so Jesus speaks through John to the seven churches of Asia Minor and to each one of them a
message is delivered.
Some of them nothing positive is said about them.
Some of them nothing negative is said about them and others there’s a
There’s a mix.
There’s some good and some bad, some things they need to work on.
But many of them are told to repent, to correct things that they are doing, at least some
portion of the congregation is doing.
And if they do not, then he will make war with them.
But they’re also warned, as in Revelation chapter two, verse 10, that persecution is
coming.
Some of them were going to be imprisoned.
Some of them were never going to come out.
of prison.
Then chapter four opens and John is shown an open door and in the vision he goes through
the door and he goes into the throne room of God and he sees the glory that is described
there, the glory of the one who sits on the throne, though he doesn’t actually describe
the one who sits on the throne.
The representation of God the Father’s glory might
and power surrounded by the Spirit of God, surrounded by the sea, surrounded by the four
beasts that turn every direction and that are a picture from Ezekiel of God’s battle
wagon, as it were.
They are the ones who see everything and deal with it on behalf of the Lord.
But he also sees the 24 elders that are surrounding the throne.
And every time the beast
call out to praise and glorify God because he is worthy.
The elders praise and glorify God and they take their crowns of victory and they cast them
down before the throne.
And this goes on continually.
Then chapter five opens.
In chapter five, you find again, as the worship continues in the throne room of God,
An angel comes forth and they are searching for one who can open the scroll that’s in the
right hand of the one who sits on the throne.
The scroll is filled front and back with writing and John desires to know what the one who
sits on the throne has revealed in the scroll, but there’s no one found who’s worthy to
open the scroll.
And so John begins to weep.
One of the elders comes to John and says, do not weep.
for we have found the one who is worthy to open the scroll and is the lion of the tribe of
Judah.
It is the lamb who was slain but is alive.
He is the one who appears to be dead but is alive.
He is the lamb that has seven eyes.
He sees everything.
He has seven horns.
And that means this isn’t a cute little lamb.
This is a lamb that does battle, okay?
It is the Christ.
It is the descendant of David.
Chapter 6 opens as the scroll begins to be opened, as the seals from the scroll begin to
be opened.
Seal 1 is opened and a white horse goes out and begins to conquer.
And the white horse looks like a Parthian warrior.
He looks like the only enemy Rome never defeated.
And he’s going out and he’s conquering.
And then three more horses.
persecution starts coming, hardship starts coming.
And so there’s economic hardship, there’s physical hardship, and there’s death.
And then you have the fifth seal opened, and the altar uh is seen, and the souls that are
under the altar are crying out, how long, Lord, are you going to allow the persecution
that is seen representatively in the?
second, third, fourth horse, how long are you gonna allow this to continue?
They’re killing us.
And those saints are told to rest for a little while, they’re given white robes, and
basically are told, I’ll deal with it, I’ll deal with it when I’m ready to deal with it.
Next seal opens up, sixth seal opens, and God forecasts dealing with it.
He says, this is how it’s gonna happen.
All the rich people, all the mighty people, all the glorious people, all the people who
think they are secure in everything they have are going to run for the hills, they’re
going to run under the mountains, and they’re going to cry for the mountains to fall on
them because they’re trying to avoid the wrath of the Lamb.
But before we go too much further, there’s a question that needs to be asked.
In the day of the wrath of the Lamb, who will be able to stand?
And so chapter seven, you have a pause.
Chapter 7, you have a pause because God’s going to tell you who can stand in the day of
the wrath of judgment from God and the answer is everyone who has God’s name written on
their forehead.
You go back to chapter 3 and you find the church is told that God’s name is going to be
written on their forehead.
So what is he saying?
He says, everybody who belongs to me, who’s a part of the church, who’s alive on the
earth, but who’s dwelling places in heaven.
Those people can stand in the day of God’s wrath.
And so they’re all marked so that they do not get touched by the judgment.
Then you have seven trumpets begin to sound.
These are going to be partial judgments.
So the first four trumpet sound, then the fifth trumpet, sixth trumpet, seventh trumpet
with the last three trumpets, they’re three woes.
We’re not gonna go through all of the things that happen in those trumpets.
They’re partial judgments.
We’re gonna see pictures of them happen again with the full.
pouring out of judgment because the trumpets were partial and the bowls that are coming up
are going to be complete.
Okay, so we’re not gonna go through all of them.
Then we see uh chapter, I don’t know, lost track of my numbers here.
Chapter 10 opens and John sees as the seventh trumpets about to sound, another pause,
another reassurance to the Christians.
God’s in control.
You’re gonna look all around you and you’re gonna see everything that’s coming and you’re
gonna see everything that John’s about to tell you and you’re going to assume that God’s
lost control and that the Christians are going to be annihilated and there is no hope, but
that’s not the case.
So mighty angel stands one foot on the sea, one foot on land, which by the way, pause real
quick.
We’re in chapter 13 and where did the first beast come out up out of?
the sea.
Where’s the second beast going to come up out of?
The land.
So in chapter 10, an angel standing with one foot on the sea and one foot on land.
In other words, God’s in charge.
When the beast rises up, the angel’s already able to be victorious over him.
He’s already standing over where he came from.
It’s a picture, you know, when, if you were to think about it this way,
um When you’ve got a great big tall skyscraper and then the penthouse, the area at the
very top is owned by the person who owns the skyscraper, what’s the point?
Everybody else lives underneath them, right?
They’re in charge.
What they say goes.
The angel is standing on the place where the two beasts are gonna come up out of saying,
I’ve already told you what’s going to Isaiah would make the point over and over and over
in Isaiah’s prophecy that God is going to tell you the end from the beginning.
He’s going to tell you what’s going to happen before it ever happens.
He’s going to tell you how it’s going to turn out before it ever happens.
He’s going to tell you how he’s going to be victorious and how he’s going to deliver his
people before any of the trouble ever begins.
And that’s what the angel standing on the sea and on the land is doing.
He’s got another revelation.
He’s got a small little book and John is told to take a little book and consume the book
and he does.
And the message is sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his belly.
It’s sweet because it’s the word of God.
It’s bitter because the message is going to include troubles coming.
And it’s coming in the form of the attack of Satan on God’s people using an empire.
that looks like the three first empires Daniel talked about.
Okay, so we’ll get into that more in just a moment.
But before we do, there’s also two witnesses.
In chapter 11, John sees these two olive trees and seven lampstands, one on each olive
tree, and this uh picture that the fire of God, the message of God never goes out.
But then the two messengers, the two witnesses turn into two prophets.
The two prophets speak God’s message and they can’t be stopped as long as they’re speaking
God’s message.
But the moment they stop speaking God’s message, when the message is completed, the people
come and they kill the prophets.
They kill the messengers.
They kill the witnesses and they leave them dead in the streets for three and a half days.
And they don’t bury them.
They just leave them dead lying there in the street.
But then God comes and resurrects them back to life.
Pope takes them out.
of harm’s way and the message is you’re going to speak God’s message, you’re going to
declare what God tells you to declare and they may kill you for it, but the moment they
kill you, they can’t touch you.
You remember what Jesus said all the way back in Matthew chapter 10?
Do not fear what men can do to you.
Do not fear him who can kill the body.
rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
And that’s the message to the churches.
Don’t fear the people who can kill you.
So then chapter 12 opens and you see the woman and the dragon.
The woman is represented with 12 stars above her head.
She represents the people of God and the dragon is clearly stated in chapter 12 as being
Satan, the devil himself.
The devil wants to consume the one, the child, that the woman gives birth to.
The woman is representative of God’s people.
The God’s people in the Old Testament bring forth the Messiah.
The child’s the Messiah.
All of that is clear within the text.
So she gives birth to the child and the moment she does, as the devil’s waiting, as the
dragon’s waiting to consume the child, the child escapes up into heaven.
Devil loses.
Then the devil goes up into heaven and tries to make war with the child in heaven.
The devil loses.
The devil’s cast with his angels, cast back down to the earth, comes down to again try and
attack the woman and the offspring of her children and loses again.
The devil’s a three-time loser.
But when he can’t get his way trying to defeat God’s people in the Old Testament,
And when he can’t get his way trying to defeat God’s people in the form of the Christ, the
Messiah, and when he can’t get his way to stop the birth of the church and the formation
of the church and the offspring of the woman, then what is he going to do?
Well, he’s going to take the government that he’s got influence over and he’s going to
start using the government to persecute the people of God.
So we find at the end of chapter 13, we’re going to be introduced
to the sea beast, which is representative of Rome, the land beast, which is representative
of Rome’s prophets and priests and their religious leaders, and a number which is given to
the people.
So, before we get into chapter 13, just a reminder, we’re not gonna deal with chapter 17
yet, but I do wanna put in front of you the kings that are represented from Daniel’s
prophecy.
Again.
This is looking at Rome from Daniel’s prophecy.
John doesn’t care what the latest historian or the first historian had to say about who
the first king of Rome was.
John doesn’t care what everyone in consensus in world history says the first king of Rome
was.
John only cares what Daniel said about the first king of Rome.
And Daniel said the first king of Rome was Augustus.
And the second king was Tiberius and the third king was Caligula and the fourth king was
Claudius and the fifth king was Nero.
And in Nero, that fifth king, persecution began against God’s people.
Up until that point, Rome didn’t care one whit about the church.
There was persecution from the Jews, but under Nero, persecution began and Nero looked
like he was going to kill the people of God.
And then Nero died.
And suddenly the persecution stops because Rome enters a civil war.
And for three kings that are all gonna be uprooted, they’re gonna come and go in just a
matter of two years, no persecution.
Then Vespasian comes to the throne and he’s represented in the sixth because the first,
the three that come after Nero are there for such a short time, they don’t matter.
Okay?
So Vespasian comes to the throne and is in the days of Vespasian.
that John is writing.
John is writing because the persecution’s about to begin again.
Now after Vespasian, Titus is gonna come to the throne, but he’s only gonna reign for two
years, two months, and two days.
And then Domitian comes to the throne.
And in Domitian, you have the resurrection of the beast.
You have the resurrection of persecution.
But Domitian does something different than what Nero did.
Nero took the Christians as a convenience in Rome, in the city of Rome, and he hung them
up and he lit them on fire in the streets because they were a distraction to what Nero was
doing in destroying the empire.
He needed a scapegoat, and that’s what the Christians were.
And everybody, you remember the quote from the Jews that come to see Paul in Rome?
As Paul, in the end of the book of Acts, gets to Rome, and he’s about to be on trial, and
he’s there in the city of Rome, and he’s under house arrest, and the Jews come to him, and
they say, tell us about the sect everywhere spoken against.
the perception of Christians by even the Jews in Rome is everybody hates these people.
So they were a good scapegoat because everybody hated them, okay?
So chapter 13, verses one through 10, we have the sea beast arise out of the nations.
The nations are in turmoil.
The picture is one from Daniel chapter seven.
We went through most of this.
Last week, we’re not going to go into it in depth, but notice just by way of reminder, we
find in verse 7, it was granted to him, that is the sea beast, to make war with the saints
and to overcome them, and authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
Do you remember what the three temptations that Satan offered Jesus were?
What was the first one?
turn the stone into bread.
What was the second one?
We can use Matthew’s recording because Luke and Matthew swap them up, the second and the
third.
What was the second one?
Took him up to the pinnacle of the temple and said what?
Cast yourself off because the Old Testament says that the angels won’t let you dash your
foot on a stone.
Let’s see if God keeps his promises.
What was the third one?
And if you bow down and worship me, what will I give you?
All the nations of the earth.
Seems as though Jesus wasn’t the only one that Satan used that offer with.
because what does Satan deliver to the sea beast?
What does the dragon deliver to the sea beast?
He delivers to him uh authority over all tribes, tongues, and nations.
but it’s important to remember verse 6.
Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle,
and those who dwell in heaven.
As we continue to point out and will continue to point out every time we run into it, the
Christians alive on the earth are not described as those who dwell on the earth.
They are described as those who dwell in heaven.
their home, their abode is in heaven, their temporary dwelling place, their sojourn is on
the earth.
and the dragon and the sea beast are going to blaspheme the name of the Lord, they’re
going to blaspheme his tabernacle, the church, and they’re going to make war with those
whose dwelling place is in heaven, but are alive on the earth.
When it is described as the sea beast having authority over every tribe, tongue, and
nation, we all understand because we’ve already been told by John that the dragon only has
the authority God lets him have.
His authority is three and a half.
His authority is temporary.
His authority is circumscribed.
And so when someone who has limited authority gives someone else below them limited
authority, they don’t have any more authority than the first person had.
Jesus is offered by Satan every nation under heaven.
And yet when you come to Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, when Jesus has been resurrected from
the grave, Jesus tells his apostles all what?
Authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
That hadn’t changed.
Jesus still has all authority.
Jesus’ authority isn’t circumscribed authority.
Jesus’ authority is complete.
authority as the Hebrew writer will point out, his authority is complete with the
exclusion of the one who gave him the authority, which is God the Father himself.
The Hebrew writer will point out that we rationally recognize that the one who put all
things under his feet, that is the feet of Christ, is excluded from being under his feet.
So Christ does not have authority over the Father.
rather the Father has put all things under the authority of Christ.
Okay, that includes, by the way, the dragon, all nations, tongues, and peoples, and the
sea beast.
We’re gonna see that before we’re done.
He says, verse eight, sorry, verse seven, it was granted to him to make war with the
saints and to overcome them.
And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
All who dwell on the earth will worship Him whose names have not been written in the book
of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Who’s going to worship the beast?
Everybody who’s not a Christian.
Why are they going to worship the sea beast?
Because they already worship the dragon.
and he’s a representation of the dragon.
Why are they going to fall before Rome?
Because they want what Rome has to offer.
He says, if anyone has an ear, let him hear, verse 9.
He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity.
He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and faith of the saints.
As John concludes his description of the sea beast, he reminds the people of God, he
reminds the Christian, you’re not going to get out of this by raising an army and going to
war.
you’re going to get out of this by faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
So then we read verse 11, and then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he
had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
Every good thing has an opposite.
So when Jesus is seen in chapter five, what did he look like?
a lamb and a lion.
Okay?
Go back to the sea beast and notice verse 2, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard,
his feet like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
Everything good, Satan makes a corrupted version of.
Everything righteous that God does, Satan corrupts.
Think of it this way.
Back in Genesis chapter three, what did Satan say?
You shall not surely die.
Everything God says, Satan turns it on his head.
So now we have the second beast and the second beast comes forth, he looks like a lamb.
He’s got two horns.
And notice he speaks like a dragon.
In other words, he’s just the mouth.
piece of Satan.
He looks cute and cuddly.
He looks nice and friendly.
He looks kind of like the wolves in sheep’s clothing of false prophets look like because
that’s what he is.
He’s the false prophets of Rome.
So notice he saw he had two horns like a lamb.
and spoke like a dragon and he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his
presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose
deadly wound was healed.
They come forth, the second beast comes forth, he says to all the nations and all the
people and all the tongues, you’ve got to worship this guy, he’s been resurrected back to
life.
They claimed that Domitian was Nero resurrected.
They claimed that Domitian was a god on earth.
And so the priests of Rome would go about and they would say, do you good business owner
proclaim Caesar to be god?
you do?
That’s great.
You go ahead and keep running your business.
Why don’t we help you with your business?
Why don’t we, I tell you what, why don’t you incorporate your business into the worship
that we have?
and they would corrupt people both through monetary and religious matters.
But the qualification was you had to declare Caesar to be God.
Notice he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on earth
in the sight of men.
What did Elijah do?
All right, Elijah disproved Baal from being God and proved that the false prophets of Baal
were false prophets by the fact that they couldn’t bring down fire from heaven.
Well, know, Satan’s got a little more sophisticated since then.
So now Satan’s false prophets are able to appear as though they can bring fire from
heaven.
That’s convincing enough in the Old Testament to convince people that that must be God.
So it must be God.
He performs great signs.
He also, verse 14, deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which he was
granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an
image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
So they say, hey, you know what?
Caesar is God.
Caesar’s resurrected.
Caesar is who we say he is.
Caesar is this great God who can do these great things, watch us perform these false
miracles and be convinced by them.
All right, now let’s make an image to Caesar.
Now in Daniel, do you remember somebody who made an image to themselves and told
everybody, when you hear the music, what are you gonna do?
You’re gonna fall down and worship Nebuchadnezzar.
The picture here is not about going in history going, where did the priests of Rome do
this exact thing?
These are all still Old Testament pictures.
John is representing what the false prophets of Rome are going to do in pictures from the
Old Testament.
And he uses this time Daniel’s picture of Nebuchadnezzar and Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego.
is going to make this great image and everybody is going to fall down and worship or
they’re going to die.
Okay, so notice he granted power, verse 15, to give breath to the image of the beast.
So now in the representation in the image and the vision, John is seeing it and he sees
the sea beast and he sees the land beast and then the land beast builds this great image
like Nebuchadnezzar and the dragon breathes the image to life.
Oh, look, this is going to be the very image of your God in front of you.
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, and the image of the beast
should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be
killed.
Old Testament imagery.
You don’t worship the image.
You don’t worship the beast.
What happens to you?
You die.
He causes all, verse 16, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a
mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.
that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark of the name of the beast or the
number of his name.
Now if you read Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth, and you go read about
what this is, this is a coming technology where you won’t be able to buy anything, you
won’t be able to sell anything unless you’ve got a chip implanted in you.
and you read all of the nonsense about the central bank digital currencies coming today
and you’ve got people breathlessly, this is it, this is it, you won’t be able to buy or
sell or anything and the government’s gonna have complete control over everything, you
won’t be able to get a loaf of bread unless you’ve got the central bank digital currency
and that’s 666, that’s the number of…
Because if, if we were to accept that interpretation, long before that, you’re going to
have every Christian walking around with God’s name tattooed on their forehead.
And if that were the case, I don’t think the world would have to try too hard to figure
out which one was which.
in the vision.
All of God’s people are already marked.
So what does Satan do in the vision?
Satan says, well, I’m going to have my own mark.
And I tell you what, if you don’t use my mark, you’re going to starve to death.
You’re going to go hungry and you’re going to do any business.
Have we ever seen a time in world history where a government decided to mark a bunch of
people so they could know exactly who they were and whether or not they were allowed to
own a business, do business, or participate in an economy?
absolutely.
Is this anything new?
No.
And by the way, if you go back to World War II, there were people.
who were dispensational premillennialists that were saying, it’s the end of times.
Look what they’re doing in Germany.
They’re marking people.
Was it the end of times?
Was it the return of Christ?
No, it wasn’t.
So John says, here’s wisdom.
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a
man.
His number is 666.
Now there’s nothing mysterious, ominous, or special about the number 666 except this.
What’s the number of perfection?
Seven, what does John say the number of a man is?
Six, what day was man created?
Sixth day.
God said, there, I’m done.
And he rested.
He stopped.
But when you look at perfection, man doesn’t attain to it.
And when you put a number in a row and you say, you know what?
I’ll tell you what.
If we put man’s number here and we just keep putting man’s number, if it ever maybe, if it
just improves a little bit, eventually it’ll be seven, right?
Well, put it one sixth.
Is it seven?
No.
Try again.
Put one six.
No?
Another six.
It’s kind of like an Avon Costello routine.
You keep putting the numbers there to see if they ever make seven.
They never will!
His point is, this isn’t God.
That’s the point of 6.6, sis.
It’s falling short every time of perfection.
It’s never going to achieve Godhood.
It’s false.
It’s derived from men, not God.
So the number 666, what does it say?
Well, John tells you what it says.
It’s the number of a man.
It belongs to men.
It doesn’t belong to God.
It’s not his number.
So John sees the sea beast come forth and he sees the land beast come forth and he sees
them go forth and start persecuting the church.
and he sees them entangle all the world’s economies in all of the worship of the beast.
And if you were watching this in the form of a movie, you would have seen John looking at
the earth and seeing all this stuff happening on the earth, and then John would have
looked up to heaven.
And you might have considered the thought crossing John’s mind.
I wonder how the Lord’s going to deal with this.
Chapter 14 opens, I looked and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000
having his father’s name written on their forehead.
you go back to the days of Elijah.
And as Elijah is running for his life, being threatened by Jezebel, and he finally reaches
his point of what he considers safety, and he stops.
And then he runs more and he finally reaches Sinai.
and God talks to him there.
And he says, I’m the only one.
and God informs him, no, there are 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
You think you’re the only one left.
You feel like you’re the only one left, but you’re not.
John is seeing the whole world swept over by the influence of the sea beast and the land
beast and the influence of the dragon.
And John is reminded by Christ, don’t worry, I have those who belong to me.
Now over in chapter seven, we were already told who the 144,000 are.
They’re the righteous people of God who are alive and who dwell in heaven, but they’re
alive on the earth.
They’re the Christians.
They’re the ones that are faithful to Christ who will not give up.
their testimony of Christ.
And they’re standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion.
They’re the church, and they’re faithful, and they might be dying physically, but they’re
not succumbing to the influence of the beast.
They’re not trading the name of God for the name of the beast.
They’re not getting 666 written on their forehead.
They’re faithful.
They’re overcoming, even if they’re dying.
So they’re standing there on Mount Zion with a lamb.
And they have the Father’s name written on their forehead.
And I heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of a loud
thunder.
And I heard the sound of the harpists playing with their harps.
They sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and
the elders.
And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth.
These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of
God.
Now.
will close the challenge to any premillennial dispensationalist that’s waiting for a
thousand year reign of Christ, which they think they find right here.
and ask them, when Christ reigns, how many women are going to be found with Christ?
Because according to this text, none.
How many married people are going to be found with Christ?
None.
How many people are going to be those who are going to be with Christ who can sing this
new song?
Well, it’s going to be a male chorus.
And for some of the more foolish of my brethren who would like to come to this passage and
therefore argue that instrumental music and worship is therefore authorized because the as
they’re as they’re singing in a vision, there’s visionary harps that are being strung.
You might also ask you, does that mean that you’re going to recommend that all Christians
remain virgins?
Because if one is a good idea, then so is the other.
The picture is an Old Testament picture.
The picture is a Davidic picture of the nation of God unified under a king’s banner.
When did that happen in the Old Testament?
It happened when David took Jerusalem.
Go back and read the history of David.
Northern Kingdom divided.
They wanted the descendants of Saul.
Southern Kingdom, Judah said, no, we’re making David king.
And so, Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom go to war with one another.
For years they go to war with one another.
And when David takes Jerusalem, which is also known as what city?
Zion.
The nation shortly thereafter will be unified.
They will be one.
And through the remainder, basically, of David’s reign and the reign of Solomon, you have
12 tribes all unified in worship and praise and allegiance to God.
It’s an Old Testament picture.
And where in the Bible were harps authorized for use in worship?
In the Old Testament, under David.
This picture is a representation of the church represented by a glorified Israel led by a
glorified King.
lion of the tribe of Judah.
the son of David, reigning from his throne in Zion.
But I remind you in Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, as of the point that Jesus was
resurrected and was back on the earth before he ascended into heaven, Jesus said, as of
that moment, all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
And he’s been reigning ever since.
Thank you for your attention.
Revelation 12 (Lesson 2) – Aaron Cozort – May 10, 2026
Good morning.
Good to see everyone this morning.
Take the Bibles, if you will, and open them to Revelation chapter 12.
We continue our study in the book of Revelation.
We’ll begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our study.
Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve
blessed us with, grateful for the life that we have, the opportunities that we have to
come together, to glorify your name, to praise you, to worship ah you, and to bow before
your throne.
Lord, we pray that as we open these pages of scripture, we might understand the things
that we have read.
that we might grow to a greater understanding of your providence and your will and your
protection and your service of your church as it exists in this world.
Lord, we pray that you will be with us as we go throughout our daily lives.
May we always have confidence in you.
May we always rely upon your name and your authority and not our own.
Lord, we pray that you will be with those who are struggling because of illness.
because of injury, because of uh difficulties physically in their health.
Lord, we pray that you give them strength and comfort and that they have the ability to
regain the desired health that they would like to have.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus name, amen.
Chapter one opens up.
John is worshipping on the Lord’s Day.
He hears a voice behind him.
He turns around to see the one who is speaking.
It is the manifestation of Christ in a glorified state.
holds Christ holds the seven stars in his right hand and it’s the seven churches of Asia
Minor.
uh He’s surrounded by seven golden lampstands and it’s the messenger of the seven
churches.
When you find
a figure that shows up later in the book and it’s explained and interpreted in the midst
of the book, you can pretty well just hold on to that figure and assume that what the text
tells you that is, is what that is.
So if you see stars falling from heaven, you should not immediately assume that uh it’s
the uh final return of Christ and the end of time and uh
some nuclear explosion, it might be churches succumbing to the influence of Satan.
But as you go through the text, you find John goes into that open door in chapter four.
He goes into the throne room of God and he sees the glory of God.
He sees the glory of God’s throne and before the throne is a sea of glass.
That is a perfectly
Have we ever in our modern vernacular termed a sea or a body of water as a sea of glass?
Absolutely.
When you get near a body of water and it’s so still, there’s no ripples, there’s no
movement, you just see yourself.
You see the reflection, just right off the top.
We use that terminology.
The Bible uses that idea that there’s a time when the seas are calm, when they’re uh
reflective, and there’s a time when they’re tumultuous.
You’re going to see that coming up.
All right.
So the seas before the throne, God is there.
The elders are before the throne.
The beasts are before the throne.
Everyone’s praising God.
Everyone’s declaring God is worthy.
And of course, they’re also going to declare
the Lamb, the Messiah, also worthy.
The Messiah begins to open the scroll and the revelation begins to be seen.
The visions and the signs that the book tells us in chapter one is what the message of the
book is.
It’s given in signs and symbols through the angel to John so that John might tell the
church what the church needs to know.
And so, the seal begins to be opened, you see that first horse and then the second horse,
the third horse, fourth horse.
You see the Christians under the altar who’ve died for the testimony of God, and they’re
crying out and asking, how long, Lord, are you going to allow our deaths to continue?
They’re told to rest for a little while.
They’re given white robes.
The next seal is opened and the son…
turns dark, the moon turns to blood, sky starts falling, all these things start happening,
and the rich people, the mighty people, the people of prominence and power run and hide
themselves and call upon the mountains to fall on them to protect them from the wrath of
the Lamb.
That happens in seal number six.
It is a foretaste.
It is a forecast of God
answering the prayers of the saints.
In chapter seven, you’ve got to pause.
You’ve got a, uh wait a minute, hold on, don’t start yet, message.
Because we need to seal the people of God.
We need to mark the people of God.
The people of God are going to be marked multiple times in the process of the book.
They’re going be marked again.
coming up in just about a chapter or two.
But the marking is just a clear statement.
There are those who belong to God and there are those who don’t belong to God.
Here in a little bit, we’re going to find those who belong to the beast.
They’re going to be marked because Satan wants to know who belongs to him too.
And he wants to exclude those who don’t, okay, because it’s leverage.
So, the trumpets come forth.
This is all inside the seventh seal.
And the seven trumpets begin to sound and we have partial judgment in trumpets one, two,
three, four, five, six.
In the last three trumpets, four, five, six, or sorry, five, six, seven, you have three
woes.
And we’re in the sounding of the seventh trumpet right now.
We just saw as we ended the last chapter, one last partial judgment, a tenth of all the
people died.
All right, one last partial judgment in trumpet number six.
We’re about to get trumpet number seven.
But in the midst of that and all the things that were going on in these trumpets, there
was another pause.
An angel who holds the little book, who’s got one foot on the land and one foot on the
sea, comes forward to John and John is told to take the little book.
So John goes, the angel says, give me the little book and John eats the book.
just like Ezekiel did, and it was sweet in his mouth, as sweet as honey, just like
Ezekiel’s message was, but it was bitter in his belly, just like Ezekiel’s message was.
Ezekiel lived in a time when God’s people in the form of a nation, Judah, were about to be
judged and the nation was about to fall.
He lived in a time in between the first or the the second carrying away and the third
carrying away where he’s prophesying that Jerusalem is going to fall and the nation is
going to go entirely into captivity and all the prophets, air quotes there, all the
prophets in Judah were saying no, no, it’s all over.
The people who went away, they were the bad people.
We’re the good people.
We’re the people of God.
God saved us.
We’re never going to lose the city of Jerusalem.
And Ezekiel is going to write to them as God gives him instruction and he’s going to
measure the city and he’s going to measure the temple and he’s going to go look inside the
temple and he’s going to go into the temple and at the heart of the temple he’s going to
find a secret room in the holiest of holies where there are priests worshipping idols.
at the very core of Judah, Jerusalem, and the worship were those who were given over to
idolatry inside the very temple of God.
and the message from Ezekiel is, oh, not only are you gonna fall, God’s going to get his
war wagon, he’s gonna do battle with you.
And you’re going to fall entirely because you are rotten from the inside out.
And so the picture and the message is bitter.
Now, John’s gonna be given a message about a temple.
and John’s going to told, you tell them that the temple’s gonna be trodden on the outside,
but the inside, not gonna be touched.
The inside was pure.
The church was going to survive the coming trouble.
So then another figure is shown.
You have the two witnesses.
On one side, you’ve got uh the high priest.
On the other side, you’ve got the uh leader of the people.
If we use Zechariah’s imagery of the two olive trees in both figures, in all the figures
you have here in this picture, you have God’s people, God’s people, God’s people, God’s
spokesman, God’s people.
It’s just a continual set of images that represent the leadership of
God’s actual people and not those who just claim to be.
And the point that is made in chapters 10 and 11 is that God’s witnesses are going to
speak, God’s people are going to remain faithful to Him, the world is going to kill them,
they’re going to torture them, they’re going to do harm to them, but they’re not going to
be able to touch them when their life is over.
And so their power and their reach is limited.
Chapter 12 opens up with the woman and the dragon.
Lots of discussion over who the woman is.
Lots of discussion over who the dragon is.
The dragon is interpreted in the text.
We’re told that the dragon is Satan, the devil.
So we don’t have to wonder who the dragon is.
It’s Satan, the devil.
All right.
But we also see it represented in the nation that is persecuting the people of God.
It’s not the devil.
because the devil’s a dragon.
It’s the devil in his persecuting power of a government.
Okay?
And that government is looking to consume, to kill this woman.
Chapter 12 opens up in verses one through six.
The woman gives birth and the dragon loses battle number one.
In chapter 12, you’re going to find
that the dragon is a three-time loser.
He’s going to lose once, he’s going to lose a second time, and he’s going to lose a third
time.
Every time the dragon tries to accomplish anything, he loses.
And the point to the Christians is, you don’t have anything to be worried about from
Satan.
He’s never going to win.
But
The woman is uh one of those figures that people struggle with because they wonder, well,
is the woman here, the woman over in chapter 17?
No.
The woman in chapter 17 is a harlot and she’s killing the Christians.
That’s not the woman here.
The woman here gives birth to the Messiah.
The woman here is protected by God.
The woman here is desired to be destroyed by the dragon and he does not succeed.
The woman here has a crown of 12 stars or a garland of 12 stars upon her head.
It’s the people of God.
Seen from a corporate perspective, that is from a group.
One of the things that’s important to realize when you dig into the text of scripture is
that
individual people of God succumb to the power of Satan.
That sometimes a portion of the people of God collectively succumb to the power of Satan
and fail to be faithful to God.
But all the way through history, from the beginning all the way to the end, God’s people
collectively have never been defeated by Satan.
have never turned away from God.
The point that you should understand from the Old Testament, from the history of Israel,
is God always had His remnant, and His remnant was never defeated.
His remnant was never touched by Satan.
Did they go through hard times?
Sure they did.
Did they have struggles?
Sure they did.
Did many of them die at the hand of persecutors?
Absolutely.
persecutors inside and outside of God’s people in Old Testament Israel.
But they never lost to Satan.
Not one time.
And so the picture here of the woman is of those who are represented by the number 12,
that is the number of God’s people, who are represented by those who give birth to the
Messiah, which was God’s people.
It is represented by those who are
able to escape the attack and the onslaught of Satan in Old Testament pictures by going
through the waters.
It is those who are protected by being taken out into the wilderness.
All of these are pictures of God’s people and they’re Old Testament pictures of God’s
people.
Let’s start with chapter 12 verse 1 and I know we’ve covered some of this but since it’s
been two weeks we’ll kind of rehash just a little bit of it as we go through.
Now a great sign appeared in heaven.
a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head, a garland of 12
stars.
This is a woman of light, not a woman of darkness, not a woman of evil, not a woman of
reproach.
She’s a woman clothed with brightness and glory and light.
Okay?
Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth.
and another sign appeared in heaven.
Now notice, John’s gonna remind you, by the way, these are just signs.
These are pictures.
This isn’t telling a historical event.
He says, another sign appeared in heaven, behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven
heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head.
This is a representation of
a power that desires to fight against God.
And it’s represented in Daniel’s picture from Daniel 7.
It’s represented as an indescribable beast the way that Daniel describes the beast.
It’s represented though with crowns and heads and horns.
That tells you something about it.
If you go read Daniel chapter seven, it tells you that it’s a government.
It tells you that it is a people that oppose the kingdom of God because they have a
kingdom on this earth.
Okay?
So it is Satan, but it isn’t Satan in the sense of it’s not the person of Satan.
It is Satan in his governmental influence, okay, and his persecuting influence.
Now notice, his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
You remember the people who dwell in heaven in the book of Revelation?
Who are they?
Good people or bad people?
Righteous people or unrighteous people?
The people who dwell in heaven, who are they?
Righteous people.
The people who dwell in the earth, who are they?
unrighteous people.
If a third of the stars go from being in heaven to on the earth, what happened to them?
They became unrighteous.
Now, in Revelation two and three, what does Jesus say to the churches in which there are
moral issues, doctrinal issues, that if they will not repent?
Their candlestick will be removed and he will come and make war with them.
That makes them the enemies of the Messiah.
And they’re the churches.
This dragon, his influence, his power, his persecution affects the church.
And churches fall.
Congregations lose to this dragon.
Not all of them.
of them.
John’s telling the Christians, he’s telling the church, he’s telling those who are
faithful, he says, you’re going to see some of your brethren give up.
You’re going to see some of them succumb to the influence of the dragon and they are going
to depart from the faith and they are going to lose.
And it’s going to look like it saved their life.
It’s gonna look like it was the thing that kept them from being killed.
So you’re gonna be influenced to go do the same thing.
says, don’t do it.
You’re giving in to a loser.
Notice, his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as
soon as it was born.
mental image here you got a doctor waiting to receive the baby as the mother gives birth
nope not a doctor it’s the dragon and he’s waiting to kill the baby as soon as it comes
out
And yet, notice what happens.
She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was
caught up to God and His throne.
Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God that they
should feed her there 1260 days.
Watch the figure.
Number one, Satan goes, yeah, I know the Messiah is coming.
I’ve read all the prophets.
I know that the Messiah is going to be born in Israel.
I know that the Messiah is going to be born, the King of the Jews.
I know that the Messiah is going to come forth from Bethlehem.
I know all of those things.
And when he comes out, a killing.
Did that actually happen?
An attempt to kill the Messiah when he was just entering the world?
Absolutely it did.
Was it successful?
No.
The woman gives birth, the child is born, the child is in a vulnerable state and yet Satan
swings and misses.
Satan loses number one.
But he doesn’t just lose with the child.
He loses with the people of God who bring forth the child.
And so the picture here of the woman is that she’s taken into the wilderness and she’s
fed for three and a half years.
What picture is that from the Old Testament?
Elijah.
Here comes the government.
Here comes the king of Israel Ahab and he wants Elijah dead because Elijah said it’s not
going to rain for three and a half years and he sends people everywhere to go find Elijah
and they search high and low all throughout the nation.
Nowhere is Elijah found.
Why?
Because Elijah’s been taken out into the wilderness and he’s being fed by ravens.
And then Elijah’s being taken to a foreign land to tire and being fed by a widow who had
nothing.
God protects His people.
But there’s another picture, Egypt.
When Israel is leaving Egypt, where does God take them to protect them from the enemies of
Israel?
In the wilderness.
Out on Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai, they didn’t go to Mount Sinai because there was a great
big city there where they could live comfortably.
There was nothing there.
It was a place where someone would take sheep and let them graze because there was nothing
there.
Israel’s taken to Sinai.
Israel is then taken out into the wilderness after they reject the Lord and will not go
in.
Kind of like some stars fell, right?
And then God takes them out into the wilderness and for 40 years their shoes don’t wear
out, clothes don’t get any holes in them.
They’re fed by God every morning for 40 years.
You see, God is making it clear just the same way the book of Hebrews has Hebrews chapter
11, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith.
That’s what John’s doing in Revelation.
He’s saying, go look at the Old Testament and tell me, when did Satan ever win?
Identify one single time Satan ever won.
Now, what are you worried about?
Notice what else he says.
She fled into wilderness where she has a place prepared.
that they should feed her there 1260 days.
And war broke out in heaven.
Now this, this of course is back at the beginning of time.
This is where Satan and his his followers, uh they, they decided to rebel against God.
And this is no watch this.
The Messiah comes forth and the Messiah sends up into heaven out of Satan’s reach.
This is a Daniel 7 picture, remember?
In Daniel 7, who comes to the ancient of days?
Turn over to Daniel chapter 7.
Verse seven, I saw in the night vision and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful, terrible,
exceedingly strong.
had huge iron teeth.
It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet.
It was different from all the beasts that were before it.
It had 10 horns.
I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them
before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots.
And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous, that
is blasphemous words.
I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated.
His garment was white as snow.
The hair of his head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame.
Its wheels a burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came uh and came forth from before
him.
A thousand thousands ministered to him.
Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.
the courts were seated and the books were open.
The fourth beast comes up, he’s devouring, he’s conquering, nothing can stand in his way.
He looks like he’s just gonna have the run of the place until John looks at heaven and he
sees the one who sits on the throne and there are multitudes surrounding him and
judgment’s gonna begin.
not the final judgment, not the last day, not the end of time, the judgment of the beast.
But then notice, I watched, then because of the sound of the pompous or blasphemous words
which the horn was speaking, I watched till the beast was…
playing.
and its body destroyed, given to the burning flame.
As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away, yet their lives were
prolonged for a season and a time.
I watched in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man, coming with the
clouds of heaven.
Now how did the child escape?
when I’m in heaven.
How did Jesus go back into heaven?
in the clouds.
Now, he didn’t go as a baby, but he was the child of God’s people.
And he ascended back into heaven and he was untouched by the devil.
Now notice, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven, he came to the
ancient of days and they brought him near before him.
Then to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom.
that all peoples nations languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting
dominion which shall not pass away in his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed in
Matthew chapter 16 in plain spoken language what did Jesus say he came to build?
church.
And what did he say the gates of Hades would not affect?
His church.
When we say the gates of Hades, what is Hades?
It’s the grave.
It looks like the dragon wins when Jesus is put on the cross.
Even the apostles turn and flee.
Even the apostles begin to doubt.
The apostles are hiding come Sunday morning when they should have known that three days
later the temple that was destroyed is going to be brought back.
looked like the devil won, except the devil didn’t win because Jesus ascended from the
grave and came forth and was victorious and ascended to the Father never to die again.
Rome didn’t win.
The devil didn’t win.
It looked like he won for a moment.
It looked like the devil won for a moment when Egypt and its armies was behind the people
of God and the sea was in front of them and there’s a wall of water on one side and an
army on the other and it looks like it’s all over.
till God delivers His people.
Now.
Notice what happens.
The child escapes.
The Messiah is untouched.
So what does the dragon do?
He follows him up into heaven and go make war.
Remember something that Paul teaches us.
Paul teaches us that our battle, our warfare, isn’t with physical powers, with earthly
powers, but with spiritual powers and spiritual might and spiritual dominions.
There’s a point that we need to understand.
Every battle that we face in this life has already been decided in heaven.
Every warfare that we face as a church has already been won in heaven.
It’s only upon us to stay on the right side.
So the child goes into heaven, the child goes to his throne, the child goes to the ancient
of days and Satan falls on his tail.
But watch this.
Child’s not gonna do war with Satan.
The child is so far beyond Satan, he doesn’t need to do war with Satan.
He sends a messenger.
War broke out in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but
they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
So the great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who
deceives the whole world.
He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
The point is, the devil tries to win on the earth, fail.
So the devil takes the war up into heaven, fails.
Where is the devil?
The ruler.
Nowhere.
Where is the devil the influencer?
Only over those whom he deceives.
The devil reigns over nothing except those who give their power, their lives, and their
abilities to him.
He has no authority in heaven.
He has no authority on earth.
He just loses everywhere he goes.
Now notice something as you look at this.
The term Michael, the name Michael is an Old Testament picture.
Turn back to Exodus chapter 15.
Exodus chapter 15.
After the people come through the Red Sea and after they come forth out of the Red Sea and
the Egyptian army is destroyed, Moses writes a song and the people sing the song of Moses.
by the way, in Revelation, we’re going to read about the song of Moses and the Lamb.
Okay?
Hold on to that for a few chapters.
But in Exodus chapter 15, verse, let’s begin in verse 7.
In the greatness of your excellence you have overthrown those who rose against you.
You sent forth your wrath and consumed them like stubble.
And with the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered together, the flood stood
upright like a heap, the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoils.
My desire shall be satisfied on them.” The mindset of Pharaoh and his government and his
army was all my people just gave Israel all the plunders of Egypt and I’m gonna go get
them.
And it’s all gonna be mine.
Notice, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
You blew with your wind.
The sea covered them, they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
The name Michael means who is like God.
the very name of the angel that is described as the one who God sends forth, the child
sends forth, the child doesn’t go to battle with Satan, the child doesn’t even need to go
to battle with Satan, he sends a messenger.
and he sends a messenger whose name is, Who’s Like God.
because the point of Exodus, the point of Egypt was always, there’s nobody like God.
Now the devil, the dragon, the government, the all-powerful mighty ruler of the world
wants you to believe he’s like God.
and he’s defeated by a messenger whose name is asking the question, who is like God?
Go ahead, give me an answer.
Who’s like God?
Nobody.
Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders, you stretched
out your right hand?
The earth swallowed them.” Now, hold on to that phrase.
The earth swallowed them.
You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed, you have guided them
in your strength to your holy habitation.
Moses writes, God, you used the earth and you protected us from the enemy who is like you.
All right, go back.
So Satan goes into heaven and he does warfare in heaven and he loses again.
So when he loses again, where does he go?
Well, there’s no place found for him in heaven.
So he goes back to the earth to go persecute the woman again.
Who’s the woman?
God’s people can’t do anything in heaven, got no authority there and keep losing, so I’m
going go back to the earth and try again.
So notice what happens.
uh Beginning in uh verse 9, so the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called
the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.
He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength in the kingdom of
our God.
and the power of his Christ have come.
For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been
cast down.” Real quick, before we proceed.
What does the name Satan mean?
Accuser.
What does Satan do when Satan is before God in the book of Job in Job chapters 1 and 2?
He accuses, based upon no shred of evidence.
He accuses Job of being one who would only be faithful to God if God continues to protect
him.
Job will only be faithful to you because you’ve built a hedge around him.
Nobody can touch him.
Satan makes it clear, God, Job is only faithful to you because he’s rich.
and he’s got luxury and he’s got abundance and nothing can touch him because you won’t let
me.
So God says, no, that’s not why Job’s faithful.
You can take everything that he’s got, but you can’t take him.
You can’t touch him.
And Satan enacts the policy, having been the accuser of taking away all of Job’s things,
all of Job’s possessions, all of Job’s children.
And what does Job do?
bows down and declares there’s no one like God.
The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of Lord.
And Job’s wife comes to him and says, why don’t you curse God and die?
Because Satan comes back and accuses Job.
Well, you know, everybody will give everything for their life, but you won’t let me touch
him.
So God says you can touch him, but you can’t kill him.
And so Satan takes Job and he takes away his health.
He takes away his happiness.
He takes away his home.
He takes away everything he’s got.
And he’s sitting now in the city, dump scraping open sores with pottery shards.
And his wife comes to him and says, why don’t you curse God and die?
And he says, why are you talking like the foolish women?
Who is like the Lord?
You remember what the apostles say to Jesus after many who believed in Jesus turned back
and walked with him no more.
After many who had been his disciples said, these things are too hard, who can understand?
And Jesus said to his apostles, will you go away also?
What was Peter’s reply?
Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal
Peter in that moment testified the same thing that Job did.
If I leave God, who am I going to?
Who is like the LORD?
You see, God’s people have been accused by Satan and accused by Satan and accused by Satan
for generations after generations after generations for millennia.
And Satan’s always wrong.
because Satan always loses.
God’s people know it.
So notice what happens.
Now salvation has come.
Salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for
the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God.
Day and night has been cast down and they overcame him.
Now notice how God’s people win because it’s not how most of us think.
That’s not how most of us imagine God’s people winning.
We often imagine God’s people winning because they outlast Satan, like Job.
We imagine God’s people winning because God delivers them and they just go on into glory.
That’s not how God tells John the people are going to win.
You remember the message which John was given by the angel?
Sweet in your mouth is the Word of God.
Bitter in your belly.
The message is not one of happiness and flowers and roses and everything’s perfect.
We read, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony,
and they did not love their lives to the death.
people of God win.
because they do not deny Christ even to the point of being killed for their testimony.
You see, the devil’s perspective is everybody will say something to keep their life.
And he’s been proven wrong over and over and over and over and over again.
Because the Christians overcome by the power of the blood of the Lamb.
They’re washed in the blood.
They overcome by the word of their testimony, which was the message of God.
And because they love God more than they love their lives.
So if you kill them,
You might take their physical life, but you’ll never take their soul.
We read in verse 12, therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having
great wrath because he knows that he has a short time.
A pronouncement of danger, of that which is coming is going to affect not the people of
God primarily, but the people of the earth.
that the one who they think is their leader, the one who they think is their deliverer,
the one who they think is the power has deceived them and will turn on them and do harm to
them.
That’s exactly what’s going to happen.
So we get to the end of chapter 12 and beginning of chapter 13, but let’s just mention as
we close, let’s read verses 13 through 17 just to notice this final defeat.
Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who
gave birth to the male child.
But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness
to her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time from the presence
of the serpent.
So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might
caused her to be carried away by the flood, but the earth helped the woman, and the earth
opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon had spewed out of his
mouth.” What did Moses say had delivered the people of God from Pharaoh?
He said, God parted the waters, God congealed the bottom of the sea, and we went forth,
and then the earth swallowed them up.
This isn’t forecasting some great thing that occurs in some nuclear warfare.
This is Exodus language.
The devil tries, the devil fails.
The devil tries again, the devil fails.
The devil tries one final time and he fails again because the devil is not the ruler of
this world.
The devil is not the final authority in this world.
The devil is a deceiver and the only authority he has is over those who allow themselves
to be deceived.
So then notice.
We’ll we’ll close.
Revelation 13 (Lesson 1) – Aaron Cozort – May 17, 2026
We’re closing up the twelfth of Revelation and getting into chapter thirteen.
So we’ll be doing that as soon as we get started.
But let’s begin first with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you
blessed us with, grateful for
the opportunities that we have to serve you and pray that we will do so in a way that is
acceptable and right in your sight.
Lord, we ask that you will help us to be diligent, to strive, to overcome the things that
the world throws at us that we might always remain faithful to you, obedient to your word,
and open and willing to following the commands that you have given to us.
Lord, pray that you will grant us grace and mercy when we sin and fall short of your
glory.
We pray that you will continue to be with those who are struggling because of illness and
injury and because of uh recovering from procedures.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go throughout all of our daily lives.
May we seek your will.
May we turn to you in times of need.
May we always remember that even when we feel as though we’re strong, we are to be those
who are humble enough to bow before you and to seek your help even in those times.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus name, amen.
We’re going to forgo a little bit of the first 11 chapters of review this morning, just
review chapter 12 and get into 13.
Chapter 12, we opened up, and this is another one of those pictures of comfort for the
Christians, for the church.
It’s one that is not as well understood by some, much more disagreement about it than some
of the other pictures, but if pay attention to it.
you’ll get a clear picture of what’s going on.
You’ve got a woman who’s about to give birth.
She’s got the 12 stars above her head.
She’s pictured as God’s people.
God’s people bring forth the Messiah.
So she’s going to give birth and the child is going to be the one who rules and has a rod
that goes forth and he is one who is going to be the king, but he is going to attempt to
be killed by…
the dragon the moment that he comes forth from the womb.
But the dragon’s going to fail.
The child’s going to be taken up into heaven where he’s going to live and he’s going to be
out of the reach of the dragon.
But as a result of that, you’re then going to have the first loss of the dragon.
You’re going to have John and the vision representing that hate.
The dragon tried, the dragon failed.
So then you’re gonna get the second part of the picture.
So the dragon takes his soldiers and his army and he goes up to heaven and he’s gonna try
and get to the child there.
He goes up to heaven, doesn’t even get to interact with the child.
Michael the archangel and the other angels defeat him, send him back down to the earth.
right, loss number two.
Then when he gets back down to the earth, the woman has been taken away into the
wilderness to be provided strength.
Now, how long was she fed in the wilderness?
Three and a half years, 1,260 days.
All right, you’re gonna find in these sections a lot of, quite a few, 1,260 days, three
and a half years, time, times, and half a time.
You’re gonna find figures, phrases that all represent the same amount of time.
It’s half of a seven.
Seven would be a perfect amount of time.
This is a temporary amount of time.
So the beast is, sorry, the dragon is going to have power for three and a half years.
Things are going to happen for a period of time, but you are to be reminded God is saying
all the way back in the book of Daniel where this terminology is introduced, I’m in
charge.
I give people the authority to do something and then I take that authority away.
because as a result of the fact that their authority is not equal with God’s, they have
circumscribed authority.
They have temporary authority.
There are times where it looks like the dragon is winning.
There’s times it looks like the beast is winning, but it’s always short term.
There are times where as the dragon is winning and as the beast is winning, God’s people
have to go find refuge for a time.
And the three and half years is derived from an Old Testament picture with Elijah and his
going away from Ahab, Ahab seeking his life, turning the entire northern kingdom of Israel
against God and against the worship that they should have been following and against God’s
prophets.
And so during that period of time, there’s no rain three and a half years.
And yet, while there’s no rain in Israel for three and a half years,
Elijah is being fed by ravens, provided for by stream, and then taken to a widow’s house
where he who is by the way not even an Israelite and he she’s she is going to provide for
him on a daily basis until the three and a half years is done.
not because of what she has, but because of what God continues to give her every single
day.
So the point and the picture is the devil comes back and tries to make war again with the
woman and with her offspring, which are the people of God now represented in the church.
And guess what?
He fails again.
So the devil is a three time loser.
And as you look at the text you have in chapter 12…
Beginning verse 13, now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he
persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child.
But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness
to her place where she is nourished for time, times and half a time, three and a half
years, from the presence of the serpent.
So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman.
that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood, but the earth helped the woman
and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out
of his mouth.
And the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her
offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have testimony of Jesus Christ.
By the way, if you’re looking for a clear explanation of who the offspring are, who are
they?
They’re the people who keep the commandments of God and give a testimony concerning Jesus
Christ.
They’re the Christians.
So the woman represents God’s people.
Old Testament, New Testament, God’s people.
They brought forth the Messiah.
Their offspring is the church.
And when Satan can’t become victorious over the woman, can’t stop the child, can’t win in
heaven, he just goes and starts persecuting the church.
Now hold on to that.
because John has just said, as he has said again and again and again and again,
persecution is coming.
This is a picture that indicates the dragon is going to persecute the church.
Now, who was the dragon?
The devil.
The text told us in clear language, the devil, Satan.
The one who stands up and argues that God’s people aren’t really as good as God’s people
actually are.
He’s the accuser, but he’s not the successful defeater.
He is not the one who will defeat God’s people.
So as the devil is trying to fight against God’s people because he’s already lost fighting
against the child.
He’s going to start recruiting some help because you can’t win by yourself.
What do you do?
Get somebody else go to war with you.
And so chapter 13 is going to be a picture of Satan’s associates.
The powers that he’s going to use to persecute the Christians.
And again, we are using
Old Testament imagery.
We’re using pictures like Daniel used in Daniel chapter 7 where he introduced the beasts
and the nations and Daniel chapter 8 where he introduced another set of beasts and the
same nations.
Two different figures, two different sets of animals all representing the same nations.
John is going to use that
as he delivers the text to the people indicating there’s persecution coming.
And I’m going to tell you what it’s going to look like, but I’m going to tell you in a
figure.
Chapter 13 opens.
In Chapter 13, we’ve got the dragon, we’ve got the sea and the land beast, and the number,
oh, the notorious number 666.
Okay, Chapter 13.
As you get into chapter 13, we’re going to get into some pictures of some horns.
So I’m just throwing this up here, not because we’re gonna spend a bunch of time on
chapter 17 while we’re still in 13, but just to remind you what Daniel tells us about the
horns of the last beast.
Daniel describes the kings of the final beast, the indescribable beast in Daniel 7.
Now, this is important because the perspective on the book of Revelation lives or dies
based upon which Caesar you start with.
And it falls apart and makes no sense at all if you begin with Julius Caesar.
But you need to understand something about Julius Caesar.
Julius Caesar was a usurper.
He wasn’t a recognized emperor of Rome.
He wasn’t imbued with the power from the Senate.
He usurped the Senate and its power.
And the first recognized…
Caesar of Rome was Augustus, also known as Octavius.
Octavius will come to the throne.
Octavius will be Senate appointed as Caesar.
And Daniel ignores Julius Caesar.
Daniel does not count him as the first emperor of Rome.
Instead, he begins with Augustus.
And when you do that, by the way, you’ll notice that everything in Daniel lines up with
everything in Revelation because John also ignores Julius Caesar and emphasizes first
Augustus.
As he does so, he does so not arbitrarily, but because Old Testament prophecy ignored
Julius Caesar.
So, when you look at the Caesars and you look at the kings of Rome, you begin with
Augustus and you have Augustus, have Tiberius, have Caligula, you have Claudius, you have
Nero.
What did Nero do in regards to the Christians while he was on the throne in Rome?
He tortured them, persecuted them, hung them up in the streets and lit them on fire to
light the streets.
He did everything he could.
to persecute the Christians in Rome.
And then he died.
Nero who was proclaimed to be God, Nero who was proclaimed by himself of course to be the
exalted one and ruler died.
Guess what happened when he died?
All the persecution stopped.
The persecution stopped because Nero was using the Christians as a scapegoat to avoid
people rebelling against.
Nero.
But when Nero dies, the empire turns over and goes into civil war.
And in the coming few two years, they’re gonna have three emperors come to power, get
deposed from power, come to power, get deposed from power, come to power, get deposed from
power.
It is a time of upheaval in the Roman Empire.
And as a result of the upheaval, nobody cares about the Christians anymore.
Don’t worry about those people, worry about who’s in Rome.
And then Vespasian comes to the throne.
Vespasian comes to the throne and his focus is get the nation back on track.
Get the nation and the empire back out of civil war and under control.
And so again, Vespasian does not persecute the Christians.
It is under Vespasian though that the city of Jerusalem is destroyed by Titus, his son, as
general.
And then Vespasian will fall and Titus will come to the throne.
But Titus is only going to reign for two years, two months, and two days.
before he is going to be gone.
He’s there for a little while, then he’s gone.
And then, demission comes to the throne.
And in Daniel’s prophecy, demission begins persecuted.
In Daniel’s prophecy, demission begins to speak pompous words, proclaim himself to be God,
and fight against those and persecute those
who will not acknowledge him as God.
That’s Daniel’s prophecy.
And John is going to bring Daniel’s prophecy forward in chapter 17.
And I just needed to give you just that glimpse into chapter 17 because we’re going to be
introduced to some horns and some beasts and some things in 13 that you’re going to get
explained in 17.
All right.
So the dragon comes forth and the dragon’s got seven heads and 10 horns, by the way.
The 10 horns will be interesting and worthwhile to keep in mind as we get into chapter 17.
But chapter 13 verses one through 10, you have the sea beast that is going to rise up and
he’s going to be given power by the dragon.
And he’s a picture of the…
persecuting power of Rome.
uh Chapter 13 verse 1, and I stood on the sand of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out
of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns and on his head a
blasphemous name.
All right, hold on to this.
Go back to Daniel 7.
Chapter 7, verse 23, Thus he said to me the fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on
earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms and shall devour the whole earth,
trample it and break it in pieces.
Ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall arise after
them.
He shall be different from the first ones and shall subdue three kings.
Question, if you have 10 and you add one more, how many do you have?
11, okay, just checking.
All right, hold on to that, don’t lose that.
He shall speak pompous words against the most high, shall persecute the saints of the most
high, and shall intend to change times and law.
Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time.
and times and half a time.
Daniel tells us in Daniel 7, here’s this beast and I wanted to understand who it was and I
wanted to understand what it was and I was told it was a fourth kingdom.
It was an indescribable beast.
It had 10 horns which represented 10 kings.
and it spoke blasphemy.
The eleventh horn, the last one to come up, chucked away the three that were before it,
came up, came to power, and now if you take eleven and you subtract three, how many do you
have?
eight.
So when we read about eight horns, it’s because three of them are going to be ignored.
Okay?
So watch this as we’re going through it.
Chapter 13.
He’s got the 10 horns of Daniel.
He’s got the 10 heads as, or uh sorry, 10 crowns.
Who wears crowns?
Kings do, okay?
These aren’t the crowns of victory, by the way.
These are the crowns of
Kings, okay?
So 10 heads, sorry, let me get this right.
10 horns and 10 crowns on seven heads, okay?
Get my words out.
All right, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard.
His feet were like the feet of a bear and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.
Okay, back to chapter seven of Daniel one more time.
Daniel chapter 7 verse 2, Daniel spoke saying, saw in my vision by night and behold the
four winds of the heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from
the sea each different from the other.
The first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings.
I watched till its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to
stand on two feet like a man and a man’s heart was given to it.
and suddenly another great beast, a second, like a bear.
It was raised up on the one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth, and
they said thus to it, arise, devour much flesh.
After this I looked and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four
wings of a bird.
The beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it.
After this I saw in the night vision and behold a fourth beast.
dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong.
It had huge iron teeth.
It was devouring, breaking in pieces and trampling the residue with its feet.
It was different from all the beasts that were before it and it had 10 horns.
I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them,
before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the roots.
And there in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking pompous
words, blasphemous words.
In Daniel’s vision, Daniel sees the first beast and it looks like what?
a lion.
Second beast looks like what?
A bear.
Third beast looks like what?
A leopard.
When you get to Revelation chapter 13 verse 2, now the beast which I saw was like a
leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a
lion.
John is not randomly grabbing creatures and describing something.
Daniel is going with a great big banner that says, go read Daniel 7.
to the Christians in the first century, he’s telling them, go understand what Daniel said.
And then you’re gonna know why I’m saying what I’m saying.
the three parts of this beast look like the three first kingdoms.
What were those kingdoms according to Daniel?
Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Rome.
And the point is that Rome, when Rome came to power, it didn’t decimate and wipe out all
the history that had ever existed.
It didn’t take away all the nation, it just co-opted them.
Rome would come in and say what you can either pay us money, pay us tribute and become
part of our economy or we can kill you.
Which would you like?
you want to just do business with us?
Great.
We’re going to build some roads.
We’re going to put some Centurions through.
We’re going to take over.
We’re going to take a lot of your money, but you’re going to be prosperous because we just
made you part of our economy.
And then they go to the next nation and they do the same thing.
unlike some prior powers, Rome was not of the mindset, let’s go into every nation and turn
them into Romans.
They didn’t do that among the Jews.
They also didn’t do what some of the previous powers had done where they uprooted people.
So the mindset of the Babylonians and the mindset of the Assyrians was you come in, you
rip people out of their home and out of their land, then they don’t have as much to fight
for because they don’t have their homeland to fight for.
So you shuffle people around, throw them back into a land that’s not theirs, that they’re
not used to, and they’re going to be less problems because they’re gonna have less
historical fortifications and mindsets by which to attack you.
Rome didn’t do that.
Rome just said, yeah, stay in your land.
You know what?
If you all participate well enough, long enough, we’ll let you learn how to become Roman
citizens.
So, Rome did things differently.
It co-opted all of the previous governments.
It co-opted all of the previous kingdoms.
It integrated them into this mesh that was Rome.
And so, when Daniel looks at it, Daniel says, here’s this kingdom and then this kingdom
and then this kingdom and then this kingdom coming consecutively.
But when John looks at it, he says, look,
It all looks like one thing.
It all looks like the kingdoms of Daniel just meshed in together.
That’s the picture of the sea beast.
The dragon, though, is the one that gives him the power.
The dragon gives him his power, his throne, and his great authority.
The point of the message is, here comes this great beast that’s gonna start persecuting
the Christians.
But his power is the power of the dragon.
Now what have we already learned about the power of the dragon?
It’s temporary.
It’s circumscribed.
It’s not equal with God.
So when you give temporary…
power, limited power to somebody else when it was temporary and limited to begin with,
does it suddenly become unlimited and permanent?
No.
The moment the dragon gives the beast the power, the Christians are supposed to know,
okay, God’s got this under control.
just the same way God had Babylon under control, God had the Medo-Persian Empire under
control, God had the Grecian Empire under control, God has the Roman Empire under control.
When we see the dragon giving the beast his power, that’s not a moment to be afraid,
that’s a moment to go, I know how this is going to turn out.
It’s going to turn out the way it always has.
So then notice, I saw one of his heads.
as if it had been mortally wounded and his deadly wound was healed.
Now, the thing to understand when you read as if it had been, he’s saying in the vision,
it was.
He’s not saying it kind of looked like it.
He’s saying in the vision, one of his heads got killed.
Okay?
Now, how many heads did he have?
Seven?
Okay?
So you have seven heads.
and one of them gets mortally wounded.
Watch this.
I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was
healed, and all the world marveled and followed the beast.
He says, I watch one of his heads and it dies.
and then it was healed, how would we describe something that was dead and healed?
What term would we use?
resurrected.
Remember in the book of Revelation everything good has an evil counterpart.
If there is a resurrected king who is good then there’s a resurrected what?
King that is evil.
So the people of the world look and they marvel.
They see this beast and they see one of his heads die and then they see it resurrected
back to life and they go, that must be God.
Now in Rome, you didn’t have a king that died and was resurrected back to life.
But if you go read some history, you’ll find even from the Roman historians that they
considered Domitian to be an offshoot of Nero.
They consider Domitian to be the descendant not physically, but in his rule of Nero.
And so the world sees this persecuting power and it dies.
And then this world sees the persecuting power come back and they go, let’s just go follow
Rome.
Let’s just do whatever Rome says so that they don’t turn their persecution on us.
So the world marveled and they followed the beast.
So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worshiped the beast
saying, is like the beast?
Who is able to make war with him?
And he was given a mouth to speak great things and blasphemies and he was given authority
to continue.
Somebody take a guess for how long?
For 42 months.
Temporary power begets temporary power begets temporary power, but it all looks like
unlimited power.
It self-boseth of its unlimited power.
It speaks blasphemous and pompous words.
It looks just like the beast in Daniel’s day.
It looks just like the three kingdoms of Daniel 7 all rolled up together speaking as
though they’re some great thing.
and they start asking the question that sounds a lot like the Old Testament scriptures
speaking concerning God.
Notice what they asked, who is like?
Now if you go to the Old Testament, you would read, is like Jehovah?
But that’s not the world, and that’s not what the world is saying.
The world is saying, who is like the beast?
And the question from the Old Testament would be who is able to make war with Jehovah?
But that’s not what the world’s asking.
The world’s asking who can make war with the beast?
He is usurping God’s position.
Now watch.
He was given a mouth, sorry, verse six.
Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God.
To blaspheme his name, his tabernacle,
and those who dwell in heaven.
The beast who’s given the power by Satan, who speaks great words, who conquers everybody
who stands in his way, who is proclaimed to be undefeatable, starts speaking against God.
And he speaks first against the name of God.
No, Jehovah’s not God, Caesar is God.
And in Rome, the policy was this, you could worship anybody you wanted to, as long as you
also worship Caesar.
You want to worship the gods of the Greek pantheon?
Go for it.
You got to attack Caesar on.
You want to worship the gods of the pagans?
No problem.
Attack Caesar on.
You’ll be fine.
You want to worship the god of the Hebrews?
No problem.
Attack Caesar on.
You’ll be fine.
Except what would the Christians not do?
They wouldn’t worship Caesar.
They wouldn’t glorify Caesar.
They wouldn’t proclaim Caesar to be God.
And that was something Rome couldn’t tolerate.
That was something that Domitian would not allow.
And it became public policy to persecute those who would not proclaim Caesar to be God.
So notice he speaks blasphemous words against the name of God, against the tabernacle of
God.
Notice it does not say the temple of God, the dwelling place, the temporary dwelling
place.
What is the temporary dwelling place of God on the earth in the Christian age?
The church, Christians.
And then notice what he says, and those who dwell in heaven.
Now, for those of us who haven’t gone through the text and hadn’t paid attention to those
who dwell in the earth, those who dwell in heaven, those who dwell in the earth, those who
dwell in heaven, we might read that and go, oh, wait, wait, wait, this is the beast
reaching up into eternity.
No.
Who are those who dwell in heaven?
They’re the Christians who are still alive on the earth, set in contrast to the
unrighteous who dwell in the earth.
So here comes the beast and he’s got the power of Satan and he’s got the picture of Daniel
and he’s got the pompous mouth of Daniel and he starts persecuting and blaspheming the
name of God and the people of God.
Verse 7, it was granted to him to make war with the saints and overcome them.
And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation.
All who dwell on the earth will worship him.
Does that mean all the Christians will?
No, because Christians don’t dwell on the earth.
They dwell in heaven.
They’re going to get persecuted by him.
They’re going to get killed by him.
but they’re not going to proclaim His name.
They’re not going to worship Him.
He says, all who dwell on the earth will worship Him whose names have not been written in
the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Who used that phrase quite often?
Jesus did.
He used it to call people’s attention to something they should understand.
And John does the same thing.
John says, there’s no reason early first century church that you should misunderstand
this.
There’s no reason you should miss this point.
Persecution is coming for you, but it’s coming from a power that has already been
defeated.
So then notice.
We read, he leads into captivity and shall go into captivity.
He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
John says, I’m going to tell you how to endure this.
I’m going to tell you how to get through this.
Bear in mind that the one who lives by the sword dies by the sword.
You don’t get through this, Christians, by rising up and revolting and doing physical
battle against Rome.
You live by the sword, you’re going to die by it.
Rather, you get through this by enduring and faithfulness, and then God will see you
through it.
This is an instruction to keep focus where it belonged on the gospel and on Christianity
and on being faithful to God and not on political power or military might.
because those things weren’t going to be the things that are going to help them endure
this persecution.
But, devil’s not done, dragon’s not done, it still needs a little more help.
So, we have the land beast.
Chapter 13 verse 11, then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two
horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
Here comes this beast and he’s the land beast and he comes up.
and he speaks, when you hear him speak, he sounds like a dragon.
When you look at him, he looks like a lamb.
You remember when the Christians were warned that the servants of Satan often looked like
preachers of righteousness?
That they appeared as sheep, but they were wolves in sheep’s clothing?
The picture of the land beast is going to be the religious leadership in Rome.
It’s gonna be the people who look like they’re nice guys.
And inwardly, they speak like a dragon.
They have Satan that comes out their mouth.
Okay, so we got just a few minutes left.
Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth.
And he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence.
and causes the earth and those who dwell in the worship to, or dwell in, uh let me get
this right, who causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast.
Here comes this land beast and it comes up and it influences all those who dwell in the
earth to go worship the sea beast.
They say, that’s your God over there.
Go worship him.
These are the false prophets of Rome.
These are the high priests of Rome.
These are the ones who are influencing the people to worship the first beast, even though
the first beast has no more authority and all of his authority is circumscribed from the
dragon.
Okay?
So then notice, he performs great signs.
so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.
Who did that in the Old Testament?
Made fire come down from heaven.
Elijah did.
You have a number of occasions where fire comes down from heaven.
Back in the days of Moses, it came down from heaven.
All right, so these false prophets are doing things that make it look like…
They’re the prophets of some great God!
except it’s all stuff that looks like it.
It’s like Simon the Sorcerer in Acts chapter 8.
Everybody thought that he was some great thing until what?
until Philip showed up and actually started doing real miracles.
And when Philip showed up and started doing real miracles, everybody immediately
recognized that Simon wasn’t anything.
Guess who also realized it?
Simon!
So notice, he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the
earth in the sight of men, and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs
which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth
to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and live.
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast
should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be
killed.
Notice, here’s what’s happening.
Here comes the religious power of Rome.
The religious power of Rome says, Caesar is God.
And they do all sorts of things to convince people, Caesar is God.
And if you can’t be convinced, then you can be killed.
He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on
their right hand or on their foreheads.
That no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast or the
number of his name.
Here is wisdom.
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a
man.
His number is 666.
Now I’d love to explain all of that to you, but we’re short on time.
So let me say this.
We’ll talk about it next.
Courage – O.C. Woodlee – March 08, 2026
Good evening.
I’d to thank everyone for being here this afternoon.
There are moments in life when our courage feels strong.
There are times when our faith feels strong, when conviction feels firm, and when it seems
like nothing could shake our confidence in God.
When life is calm, when the path is clear, and when the wind is not blowing against us,
it’s easy to believe that our faith
will never falter.
But life has a way of revealing what’s truly inside of you and I.
Sooner or later, every faithful child of God will face moments when their faith is tested,
moments when fear rises inside of them, moments when the storm is loud and the waves are
high and suddenly the courage we thought we had begins to fade away.
And it’s in those moments that one of the most searching questions in all of scripture
is asked.
In Matthew chapter 14 verse 31 tells us that immediately Jesus stretched forth out his
hand and caught him and said unto him, little faith, why did you doubt?
The question here was spoken to Peter.
Peter had just done something that no other man in history had ever done.
He had stepped out of the boat and he had walked on water.
And think about how amazing this truly is.
The other disciples, they decided to stay in the boat.
They were terrified of the storm.
They were afraid of the waves.
They were uncertain of what was happening, but Peter had courage.
And in verse 28 of Matthew chapter 14, we are told, and Peter answered him and said, Lord,
if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.
And Jesus said simply, Come.
What does Peter do?
Peter gets down out of the boat.
and he goes to walk on water.
Now that would take some courage.
I think it might take some courage just on a calm day to decide to get out of a boat
thinking you can walk on water.
What he did was amazing.
What he did was climb down to that boat, walked on water, and the Bible says that he done
it.
In Matthew chapter 14, 29 through 30, we are told,
and Peter was come down out of the ship he walked on water to go to Jesus but when he saw
the wind boisterous he was afraid and beginning to sink he cried saying Lord save me.
But when he looked at the wind and saw the wind was boisterous look at the word boisterous
you remember in Luke 16 when the rich man said I am what in those fires what did he say he
said I am tormented in those fires.
The word boisterous is the same word as tormented.
The wind and the sea was tormenting Peter.
It was boisterous.
And Peter sees this and he begins to cry out saying, Lord, save me.
Peter did not fail because Jesus failed.
Peter did not sink because the word of Christ was unreliable.
Peter began to sink because his fear replaced his courage.
Jesus reached down and he took him and grabbed him by the hand and asked him a question.
Did he ask him, why did you sink?
He didn’t ask that, did he?
He said, wherefore?
didst thou doubt.
When he saw the waters, he was afraid.
But what did Jesus say?
Christ said, don’t be afraid.
You know, we can hear that sometimes, don’t be afraid.
But when our lives get into some turmoil, we sometimes forget it.
There are times when the storms of life shake us.
Times where fear creeps in and sometimes we begin to sink.
Not because Christ felled, but because we took our eyes away from him.
We live in a time today
where courage is desperately needed.
The world is growing darker, the truth is being attacked, faith is being mocked, and it’s
becoming easier for Christians to become afraid.
Afraid of what?
Afraid to speak the truth.
Afraid to stand up for what they know is right.
Afraid to speak the gospel.
Afraid to be different from the world.
So Jesus asked, wherefore didst thou doubt, O ye of little faith?
The phrase little faith appears five times in the Bible.
Jesus uses it every time.
Peter had faith, but he had little faith.
You can have great faith, or you can have little faith.
And sometimes I’m afraid we have little faith.
I mean, we follow Jesus.
We say, when the Lord says, come, we say, Lord, I’m coming, as long as it’s easy, as long
as it don’t require much from me.
And I think fear has a lot to do with that.
And Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, 7, For God hath not given us
the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
God has not given us the spirit of fear.
In this way the word fear is used in this text.
only appears in the New Testament.
It is related to the word used in Revelation 21 8 where the Bible says the fearful will be
among those judged.
In Matthew chapter 25, why did the one talent man not use that power?
He was afraid.
But that is no excuse.
How many times do we say, can’t do that, or there’s no way I’m not able to do that?
I know I say that a bunch.
We all say it.
But God has not given us the spirit of fear or cowardness.
He’s given us the spirit through His truth.
So maybe the Lord could be asking you and me today, wherefore didst thou doubt?
O ye of little faith.
How many people today doubt the church?
They doubt the church that they’re in.
God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power.
Paul told Timothy in the previous verse in Saint Timothy 1 6, wherefore I put thee in
remembrance, that I’ll stir up the gift of God which is in thee.
Evidently, Timothy needed a little bit of encouragement.
He had the ability, he had the opportunity that he need, but Paul reminded him that he
might need to stir it up a little bit.
And sometimes it’s exactly what we need.
We may have talent, we may have opportunity, but like Timothy, it needs to be stirred up.
Paul,
had the spirit of courage, he had the spirit of love, and the same God who strengthened
Paul can strengthen us today.
And so today we must remember and ask ourselves the same question that Peter was asked.
Wherefore didst thou doubt?
Our first point this afternoon is courage begins when we trust the word of Christ.
Peter did not step out because the storm had stopped.
Peter did not step out because the sea had calmed down.
He didn’t step out either because the waves were calm.
Peter stepped out because of Jesus said one word.
Jesus said, That one word was enough.
Matthew 14, 29.
And he said, come.
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.
Think about what is happening here.
The sea was still raging.
The wind was still blowing.
The boat was still rocking.
Nothing about the situation looked safe at all.
And yet Peter climbs out of the boat and puts his foot in the water.
Why?
because the Lord said, comp.
And that is where true courage begins.
Courage does not begin when the storm stops.
Courage begins when we trust the Word of God more than the situation around us.
You see, from a human perspective, what Peter was doing made no sense at all.
Humans can’t walk on water.
I’ve tried before, it don’t work.
You can run as fast as you want, before you get there, you’re still going to sink.
Storms don’t make walking easier.
If anything, storms make everything ten times harder.
But Peter trusted the word of Christ more than the storm that he was standing in.
And because of that, Peter did something no man has ever done.
Peter walked on the water.
And brethren, that is still how courage works today.
True courage is not pretending the danger does not exist.
True courage is trusting God even when the danger is real.
The Bible is filled with examples
of this kind of courage.
You think of Joshua.
Joshua had to learn this type of courage.
When Moses died, Joshua was suddenly had the responsibility of leading Israel.
He had to face enemies.
He had to face battles and enormous pressure and listen to what God told him in Joshua
chapter 1, 9, have not I commanded thee, be strong and of good courage, be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest.
Notice what God did not say.
He did not say the battles would be easy.
He did not say there would be no more enemies.
He did not say there would be no danger.
Instead, he told Joshua to be strong and courageous.
Why?
Because the Lord was with him.
God would be with him every step of the way.
David understood this as well.
In Psalm 27, David tells us, Lord is my light and my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is my strength in my life.
Of whom shall I be afraid?
This is language of courage.
Not because David never faced any danger, but because David trusted the God who was
greater than the danger he was facing.
And the same thing was true for Peter.
As long as Peter could see Christ, the storm could not stop him.
The waves could not defeat him.
The sea could not swallow him.
Because the Lord says something, His word is stronger than any storm combined.
And this is a lesson that you and I need today.
Because many times our obedience of God
will require courage.
Standing for the truth requires courage.
Living differently from the world requires courage.
Remaining faithful when others are falling away requires courage.
And there are times when the pressure of society is pushing so hard against us to those
who want to follow Christ, it makes it hard to be courageous.
Sometimes people are mocked for believing the Bible.
I was talking to Michael before I got up here saying I was so nervous.
was walking back and forth and he said, what’s your lesson?
And I said, courage.
He goes, come on.
And so, you know, this lesson is for me and is it for you.
But sometimes Christians are pressured to compromise.
And in those moments, the easy thing to do is just to stay in the boat, stay where you’re
at.
The boat feels safe.
The boat feels comfortable.
The boat feels secure.
But sometimes Jesus calls us out of that boat.
Sometimes he calls us to trust his word even when the storm is raging and the question is
will we trust him enough to step out of the boat?
You see Peter had something the other disciples did not have.
They all believed in Jesus.
They all followed Jesus, but Peter the one willing to step out when the Lord said come.
The others stayed in the boat yet Peter stepped into the water and sometimes the
difference between a life
of fear and a life of courage is simply whether we trust the Word of God or the Word of
Christ to obey it.
Because the truth is the safest place Peter could be that night was not the boat.
The safest place that he could be was in that storm and wherever Jesus told him to go.
And that’s the same thing as the truth for us today.
The safest place in the world is not comfort.
The safest place is obedience to the Word of God.
Wherever Christ leads us, that is where we must go.
In John 12, 26,
If any man serve me, let him follow me and where I am, there shall also my servant be.
If any man serve me, him will my father honor.
Even if the wind is still blowing, even if the waves are high, even if the storm looks
frightening, because the word of Christ is stronger than any storm.
And when we trust his word, courage is what begins to start.
But Peter’s story does not end here.
because the same man who had enough courage to step out of the boat also faced something
every Christian eventually faces, fear.
And that brings us to our next point, point two.
Fear enters when our focus leaves Christ.
Peter had the courage to step out of the boat, but the story does not end there.
Something changed.
Matthew chapter 14, 30 tells us, but when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and
beginning to sink, he cried out saying, Lord,
Save me.
Notice the turning point in that verse.
It was not when the storm began.
The storm was already there when Peter stepped out of the boat.
The wind was already blowing.
The waves were still rising.
The danger was already present, but Peter was still walking on water.
The problem began when Peter saw the wind boisterous.
In other words, his focus shifted from where it needed to be.
Instead of looking toward Christ, he started looking at the storm.
Instead of thinking about the command of the Lord and what he had said, he started
thinking about the danger that was around him.
And when his focus shifted from where it needed to be, fear entered into his heart.
And fear entered in his heart and he began to sink.
Brethren, that is exactly how fear works in the life of a Christian.
Fear uh grows when our focus moves away from Christ and toward our circumstances.
And as long as Peter was focused on Jesus,
He walked on the water, but the moment he started focusing on the storm, it began to sink.
Because that is a lesson that we all need.
Because storms come into every single one of our lives.
No Christian is immune from difficulty.
No servant of God escapes hardship.
Sometimes the storm comes in the form of discouragement.
Sometimes it can come through suffering or from the pleasures of this world or through the
doubt that creeps into our minds.
But storms are a part of life.
Jesus never promised his followers that they would be free from them.
He in fact he warned them that they would come.
In John 16 33, these things I have spoken into you that in me you might have peace.
In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.
Notice what Jesus said, in the world you shall have tribulation.
He didn’t say you might have it.
not maybe, but he said you will have it, you shall have it.
Storms are going to come, but the key to surviving the storm is where we keep our eyes.
And Hebrews 12, too, gives us one of the most important instructions in the Christian
life.
Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
That phrase, looking unto Jesus, carries the idea of fixing our attention upon him,
keeping our eyes upon him, holding our focus upon Christ.
Because when our attention shifts away from Christ, fear begins to grow.
And fear is powerful.
I debated whether or not to use this story, and I had actually two different stories to
say.
I won’t say the other one, but I’ll say this one.
One night, or one morning, this was the deer and deer season.
I’m a big deer hunter when I’m back home.
And so I get up at four o’clock in the morning, and normally I’ll run straight to my
stand.
I’m too afraid to start walking, so I’ll run.
But one morning I got up and started walking up our hill and going over to the gate and I
hopped over the gate and I had me a little headlamp, a headlamp on with my .30-06 in my
hand.
And as soon as I hop over the gate, I look up and there are eyes staring right back at me.
And I’m telling you, I’ve never been so afraid in my life.
I didn’t know if it was Bigfoot, I didn’t know if it was Bear or something creepy that was
looking at me.
So I called my dad and I said, Dad, I need you to come up here and help me.
He said, Son, you have a
You have the gun in your hand.
And I’m like, no, Dad, I’m shaking here.
And he’s like, just don’t forget, the Lord says that you are over the animals.
I had never been so mad in my life when he said that.
Some things that I was going to say because Eddie and Erin have been teaching me not to
say some of those things, but I was so mad.
I said, you know what?
What if a bear comes up to me?
I tell the bear, hey, don’t hit me.
It’s not going to work that way.
The bear is going to take me out.
It’s going to take me out.
So I mean, I think that’s just silly.
anyways, fear has a way of terrifying our lives.
Fear has a way of controlling us even when it could be nothing.
I kept walking and guess what?
It was a deer.
And I jumped it up.
So I mean, that whole time I was afraid and I could have waited about 10 more minutes, the
sun could come up and I could have had a deer.
But instead, I was just screaming and hollering and was afraid.
But fear can silence truth.
Fear can make strong people hesitate.
Fear can make faithful people question themselves.
And sometimes fear causes Christians to begin to sink spiritually.
When we start focusing upon the of the world, instead of the promises of God, their
courage begins to fade.
And that’s what happened to Peter.
For a moment, the storm looked bigger than the Savior.
For a moment,
The waves look stronger than the word of Christ for a moment.
Fear is what replaced courage.
But notice something important about Peter.
Even when he began to sink, he knew exactly who to call.
The Bible says he cried out saying, Lord, save me.
Peter did not cry out to the other disciples.
He didn’t cry out to the boat either.
He cried out to Jesus.
And that is exactly what we must do when fear enters our lives.
Because every Christian has moments when fear enters in.
Every strong believer faces time when courage feels weak.
Every faithful servant of God sometimes feel overwhelmed by the storms around them.
Well, what happens to Peter is what we need to also say and what we also need to do.
Peter looked back to Christ, fixed our eyes upon Christ because the storm may be loud, but
Christ is greater than the storm.
The waves may rise, but Christ stands above the waters.
And when we keep our eyes focused on him, fear begins to lose its power.
But the story also does not end with Peter crying out, because what happens next reveals
something beautiful about the character of our Lord.
Third point and our final point, Christ is ready to lift us when our courage fails.
Think about the Savior that Peter was standing before.
This is the same Christ who spoke the world into existence.
This is the same Christ who calmed the storm with just a word.
The same Christ who rose the dead and the same Christ who would soon conquer death itself
later on in the book.
And yet Peter allowed the wind and the waves to cause him to doubt.
Sometimes we do the same thing.
We belong to Christ.
We believe Christ.
We follow Christ.
But when the storms of life arise around us, fear begins to take hold.
Doubt whispers in our minds and courage begins to be weakened.
But brethren, the Christ we serve today is the same Christ who stood on that water.
We find in Hebrews 13, 8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
He has not changed.
The same Savior who caught Peter is still able to lift us up today.
The same Savior who walked upon the sea still rules over every storm in our lives today
also.
And when our courage begins to fail, His hand is still strong enough to hold us.
Think about courage in the New Testament.
It’s hard not to think about the Apostle Paul and the courage that he had.
Look at everything that he went through.
Paul was beaten.
Paul was imprisoned.
He was persecuted, rejected, and constantly facing danger all along in his life.
Second Corinthians 11, Paul lists some of the things that he went through.
Of the Jews, five times received I have 40 stripes, saved one.
Thrice I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck.
and pearls of waters and pearls of robbers and pearls of my own country, man.
And you read that and you almost have to ask the question, how do you beat a man like
that?
How do you stop someone like Paul?
You can’t threaten him.
uh You can’t beat him.
You can’t discourage him.
Why?
Because his faith was fixed on Christ.
In Philippians chapter 1, 20 through 21, Paul said, according to my earnest expectation
and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed.
with all boldness as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it
be by life or by death.
For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” How do you defeat someone who believes
that?
If you let him live, he serves Christ.
If you kill him, he goes to be with Christ.
You can’t defeat a man whose courage is rooted in that kind of faith.
And that’s same kind of courage that the gospel produces.
Paul understood something that Peter was learning that night on the sea.
When your faith is anchored in Christ, the storm cannot defeat you.
The world cannot overcome you.
Fear cannot control you because Christ is greater than the storm.
And when our courage begins to fail, His hand is still strong enough to lift us up because
Christ is greater than the storm.
He is the one who walked upon the sea.
He is the one who caught Peter when he was sinking.
He is the one who conquered sin, who overcame death, and he is still the one who calls men
and women today through his word.
Brethren, courage is not the absence of storms.
Courage is trusting Christ in the middle of them.
Courage is keeping our eyes upon him when the winds begin to blow and when the storms of
life come into our lives.
And so this afternoon we must ask ourselves the same question Jesus asked Peter.
Wherefore didst thou doubt?
Maybe there is someone here today who has allowed fear from keeping them to obey the
gospel.
Maybe you know what he has commanded, you know what to do, you may believe in Christ, but
fear may be holding you back.
Fear of change, fear of what others might think of you if you obey the gospel, fear of
stepping out in faith.
But notice something and remember something.
Peter did not experience walking on water until he stepped out of the boat.
And sometimes the greatest step of courage
as a person can take is to simply obeying the word of Christ.
Jesus said in Mark 16, 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that
believeth not shall be condemned.
And the Lord calls men and women today through his word by hearing the word, by believing,
by repentance, by confessing his name and baptism for the remission of our sins.
Acts 2, 38, repent, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift.
of the Holy Ghost.
And maybe today in that moment someone needs to step out in faith to stop letting fear
hold you back from stop letting fear control you.
If there’s any way that we can help you, come now, it’s together we stand in
Revelation 14 (Lesson 1) – Aaron Cozort – May 31, 2026
Good morning.
We have made it to Revelation chapter 14.
encourage you to take your Bibles and turn over to that passage as we get into our study
this morning.
Good to see everyone out.
Let’s begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our class.
Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve
blessed us with.
grateful for the life that we have, the energy that we have, the abilities that we have to
work and to labor and to produce things that are valuable to ourselves and to others.
Lord, we’re grateful for the care and the provision you give to this planet, to the nature
around us and the things that you have created.
Without those things, we would be completely incapable of doing any of the things that we
do.
Lord, we are mindful that every moment,
every second that we have on this planet is a gift from you.
And we pray that we might use our time here in honor of you, in service of your kingdom,
and to glorify your name.
Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
We are eternally grateful for your Son who came and died on the cross for our sins and
sins of the whole world.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
So to do a quick review, chapter one of Revelation, John hears a voice, turns around and
sees one who looks like a glorified image of Jesus Christ.
Seven stars in his right hand are the seven what?
Churches.
and seven golden lampstands that are before him represent the angels of the seven
churches.
so John is going to be told to write to those seven churches of Asia Minor.
And he is going to write to them in chapter two and chapter three, each one he’s going to
write to.
Some, there’s going to be uh a positive thing to say and a negative thing to say.
Some, there’s going to be only positive to say and some only negative things to say.
But all of them are going to be written
to being warned that persecution is coming and that John is their brother in this
tribulation and in the Kingdom.
It is important to realize that John says he is going to participate.
He is going to live through the troubles that were coming that he was prophesying about.
That he was part of the kingdom just like they were a part of the kingdom.
He says that in Revelation chapter one, verses eight, nine, and 10.
So he is in the kingdom.
They are in the kingdom.
and he is a part of the tribulation and they’re going to be a part of the tribulation that
is coming, but they’re also going to be a part of the reward found for those who overcome
if they remain faithful.
Chapter four opens and he sees an open door.
So you’re supposed to understand that he goes through the open door because he’s told to
come and see.
So he goes into the throne room of God in
vision, not in reality, not in heaven, but in the vision.
In the vision he goes into the throne room of God and he sees the glory of God.
He sees the rainbow that surrounds the throne like an emerald.
He sees the four beasts that surround the throne that praise God continually, that declare
him worthy.
And he also sees the four and twenty elders that are there around the throne.
And they’re praising God continually because He is worthy.
they praise God, then chapter 5 opens.
And as chapter 5 opens, there’s a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the
throne.
And they’re looking in heaven and on earth and under the earth for anyone alive anywhere
who is worthy to open the scroll.
Because they want to know what the revelation from God says.
They want to know what’s written on the inside and on the outside of this scroll that has
seven seals.
And nobody is found who’s worthy to open the scroll.
And John begins to weep.
But one comes to John and don’t weep, we’ve found the one who’s worthy.
And John looks and there, where he had previously just seen the throne and the one who was
on the throne, and then later looked back and he saw the uh book that was on the throne in
the right hand of the one who was on the throne.
Now he looks back at the throne and now there’s one who looks like a lamb who was slain,
but he’s standing up.
And that lamb who was slain, who was standing up, has seven eyes and seven horns, and it
is a picture.
of the line of the tribe of Judah, it is the Christ, and He’s worthy to take the scroll
and to open the seals.
And so the beasts and the 24 elders declare the one who is the Christ worthy, and they
worship Him.
Then the seals begin to be opened.
Seal one, you see a white horse going forth and conquering, and it looks like a Parthian
warrior, and it is the only enemy Rome never defeated.
and it is winning.
And it’s a picture of the Church.
It’s a picture of Christ.
He goes forth and He begins to conquer.
Well, when Christ takes an action, Satan takes an opposite action.
He tries to combat whatever Christ does.
So the second seal is open and you see war.
The third seal is open and you see plagues and difficulties and financial difficulties, or
sorry, the third seal is financial difficulties and the fourth seal you see plagues and
death and the grave.
The picture is, first it looks like the church is winning, now it looks like the church is
losing.
This is all a forecast of what’s coming.
Then the fifth seal is open and now you see the saints.
who have died for the testimony of the cause of Christ and they’re under the altar and
they’re asking God, like the saints of the Old Testament ask God in the Psalms, how long
are you going to let this go on?
How long until you’re going to do something about the persecution that we’re enduring?
If you go over to Romans chapter 8, that passage which speaks so much about
our reliance upon God when hard times come and the culminating idea that all things work
together for good to those that love the Lord.
That passage in Romans 8 is tied back to Psalms and there’s a specific Psalm.
I think it’s Psalm 34, but go off my memory.
uh But that Psalm presents a picture of God where God seems to be
by the appearance of things according to the one who’s writing the Psalm, he seems to be
doing nothing.
He seems to be not delivering his people.
He seems to be allowing the wicked to run over, persecute, and kill his people.
And the Psalmist writer is…
expressing how much he needs God to do something to counteract the evil and the things
being done and he sees nothing happening.
the last half of the Psalm, you have the picture of God taking action.
And Paul comes to Romans and he takes that Psalm and he says, listen, yes, you’re going to
have hard times.
Yes, you’re going to have difficulties.
Yes, you’re going to have struggles.
Yes, you’re going to have persecution, but don’t worry.
God has it under control.
That’s the picture of the saints under the altar.
because they cry out, they’re given robes and told to rest for a little while, and then
the next seal is open, and God’s answer to Satan’s actions is forecasted.
Sun turns dark, the moon turns to blood, and a nation falls.
Everything that Satan thinks he can use to defeat God and His people, God will give an
answer to in His…
own time.
So the forecast of the sixth seal is, hey, the great, the mighty, the rich, the wealthy,
all the people who think that they rule, they’re gonna cry for the mountains to fall on
them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb because they’re not in charge, they’re not
reigning, Christ is.
But then chapter seven opens and there’s a pause.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Before all this forecast actually comes about,
Everybody needs to be sealed.
Everybody who belongs to God needs God’s name written on their foreheads so we make sure
God and God’s people in heaven make sure that, none of them are gonna get touched by the
judgment.
We’re not coming to judge them.
They belong to God.
And so, again, Romans chapter eight, all things work together for good to them
that love the Lord.
God knows who belongs to him.
God’s going to take care of them through the difficulties that arise.
So then the seven trumpets begin to sound.
And the seven trumpets are seven partial judgments with the seventh trumpet containing
seven bowls, which are the full judgment, which we’re almost into.
So you see all sorts of different signs.
They’re all Old Testament pictures.
They’re all pictures from Exodus and from early Israelite history of God delivering his
people and causing a nation to fall.
So we’re not gonna go through all of them for the sake of time.
Chapter nine opens and there’s a mighty angel.
One foot on the land, one foot on the sea.
God reigns over land and sea, but we’re about to see some beasts coming up out of the land
and the sea.
God wants you to know before it ever gets started, hey, I’m in control of both.
Okay, but there’s a mighty angel with one foot on the land and one foot on the sea, he’s
got another scroll, another revelation.
And it’s a picture from Ezekiel, because Ezekiel was given very much the same type of
revelation.
And he’s told it’s gonna be sweet in your mouth, but it’s gonna be bitter in your belly.
The message.
is God is going to deliver His people, but He’s going to deliver them through hardship.
Ezekiel is going to tell the people in his day during the Babylonian captivity, Ezekiel is
going to write between the second carrying away and the final carrying away of Jerusalem
by Nebuchadnezzar.
And he’s going to write to the people back in Jerusalem because he’s already in Shushan.
He’s already in captivity.
and he’s going to write to them and make it clear God is going to take care of his people.
But he’s going to do it through hardship.
You’re going to go into captivity.
God is going to cure Old Testament Israel of their idolatry and of their worship of Baal,
but it’s going to take 70 years in captivity to do it.
It worked out for their good.
To those that love the Lord,
and it worked out for judgment to those who opposed his will.
So the picture of the little book in chapter nine is an Ezekiel picture.
And then chapter 10 opens, John sees in the vision, he sees two witnesses.
The first version of the witnesses look like two olive trees and their light never goes
out.
Their lamps never shut off.
Why?
Because the olive trees feed the oil into the lamps and the lamps never go out.
God’s light never goes out.
No matter how many people who belong to the Lord are killed by Satan and his minions,
God’s light never goes out.
God always has a remnant that he reserves.
And he says, you’re not touching them.
Back in the Old Testament, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, when Nebuchadnezzar came against
Israel,
What’s the first group that Nebuchadnezzar carried away in the very first carrying away?
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and a whole bunch of the youth from the princes
of uh Judah.
So he comes down, he accepts tribute, and takes all their best, uh all their best and all
their brightest, all their young people that seem to be of good quality.
He takes them back uh to Babylon to make them part of his court.
Well, guess what?
Off go Daniel.
Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael.
And through the entirety of the Babylonian captivity, they’re untouched by it.
They’re rather actually in Babylon and eventually they’re going to be reigning as
governors over provinces and some almost to the point of third in the kingdom.
So, God protects His people.
So, the second image of the witnesses, God’s picture here to John is a picture of Moses
and Elijah.
And they do these great signs and they declare God’s message.
And as long as they’re speaking God’s message until the message is finished, nobody can
touch them.
But when God’s message is finished, the world comes and kills them.
Kills them, leaves them dead in the street.
Doesn’t even bother to bury them.
throws a party for three and a half days, but then three and a half days are over and God
resurrects him back to life, pulls him up into heaven.
And the picture is God delivers his people.
Even death can’t keep God from delivering his people.
Chapter 12 opens and you’ve got the woman and the dragon.
Another picture to declare to the church, Satan’s gonna attack you, Satan’s gonna try and
kill you, but…
God’s under control.
So the picture opens, the woman gives birth to the child, the dragon tries to kill the
child, fails.
God takes the child up in heaven.
It’s a picture of Christ.
He just says, listen, he’s going to ascend back into heaven and Satan’s not going to be
able to touch him.
And then the dragon comes up to heaven and tries to make war in heaven, trying to again
kill the child, but he doesn’t even get to the child because God sends his angels and
Michael stops uh Satan and sends Satan and his…
minions back down to the earth.
You don’t have a place up here.
Devil loses once, devil loses again, devil loses a third time for he tries to come and
again attack the woman.
The woman’s just a picture of the church.
He tries to attack God’s people but God gives the the church wings to fly out into the
wilderness and dragon can’t touch her.
So he makes war with her children.
He makes war with the people of God.
He can’t
kill the church.
What an interesting point, by the way.
Can Satan kill Christians?
Can Satan and his servants kill Christians
on this physical earth?
So you hear this way, yeah, a whole lot of them have died through last 2,000 years.
Yes, you go all the way back to Stephen.
Could Satan and his servants kill Christians?
Sure they could.
And they always have.
Jesus made it clear they hated me, they’re gonna hate you too.
And some of you, they’re gonna kill.
But think about this.
The beauty of the picture here with the woman representing the church is Satan can attack
and Satan can kill individual Christians, but can Satan kill the church?
No.
he’s tried.
You go read some history.
He’s tried.
But what does it take to reconstitute the church if it disappears from a location?
What does it take to reconstitute, to give birth again to the Church in any location,
anywhere in the world where the Church has been wiped out by persecution?
The Word of God.
See, this is the beauty of what God created.
God created a system that is so resilient to destruction that all you need is one copy of
the New Testament anywhere in the world in any language and you can have the church back
in one generation.
Because all you need is some group of people beginning with
an individual person who opens up that book and says, I’m going to do exactly what God
tells me to do in this book.
I’m going to be those.
I’m going to be the type of person who does what he says to be forgiven of my sins.
I’m going to do what he says to worship.
I’m going to do what he says in moral issues.
I’m going to do what he says in civil issues.
I’m going to do what he says in relationship issues.
And what do you have?
You got the church.
And Satan can’t kill it.
He always loses.
So can he kill Christians?
Yes.
Can he kill the church?
So, chapter 13 opens and you see the dragon who’s Satan because the text tells us he’s
Satan.
What do we do when the text tells us what something is?
We know that’s what it is.
What do we do when the text just gives us a picture of what something is?
We have to ask, what is it?
What does it mean?
Because it’s a sign, and in this picture, in the vision, the sign, the picture that John
sees is a dragon with a tail so great it can knock stars out of the sky.
with seven heads and ten horns.
But what is the dragon in reality?
It’s Satan.
And then so we have in chapter 13, the dragon and he gives his power to a sea beast.
Sea beast comes up and it looks like a beast out of Daniel’s visions.
And it’s a picture of Rome.
And it’s got the head that looks like it’s been killed, but it’s alive again.
And then the land beast comes forth and it’s a picture of.
Rome’s priests and Rome’s religion that told everybody, you can have part in our economy,
you can have part in all the glory of Rome, the only thing is we’re just going to need one
thing from you.
You just have to say that Caesar is God.
If you’ll just say Caesar is God, you can have everything you want from Rome.
But could the Christians say that Caesar is God?
No, not for a successful business, not for access to a marketplace, not even to save their
lives.
So chapter 14 opens and you find the picture of the lamb on Mount Zion.
and you’re seeing the declaration before the end of the chapter that Babylon has fallen
and the reapers are going to start gathering the wheat.
Chapter 14.
Chapter 14 verse 1, that I looked and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him
144,000 having his father’s name written on their foreheads and I heard a voice from
heaven
like the voice of many waters, like the voice of loud thunder, and I heard the sound of
harpists playing their harps.
They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and
the elders, and no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the
earth.” Now you say, oh, wait a minute, this is a special group of people.
This is a special group of people in heaven.
They are unique.
And the religious world says, these are the saved, these are the ones who are actually
going to heaven.
The latest version of this is there’s a limited number that’s gonna be in heaven and then
the majority of the saved from all the ages are gonna be on a renovated earth.
No, even if that were true, which let’s just play with that for a moment.
If that were true, in the picture, where’s the lamb?
on Malzion.
Now, if you’re going to take the number as literal, and you’re going to take the
description as literal, and you’re going to say this literal group is a subset group and
they have special privileges in a special location, then where is this group going to be?
Well, if you’re going to take the passages literal, Mount Zion is literal, Mount Zion’s in
Jerusalem.
Therefore, this little list, little subset group is going to be on the earth, not in
heaven.
You got the whole thing mixed up.
If you want to say there’s going to be a subgroup in heaven and a larger group on a
renovated earth, the subgroup’s on the earth, not in heaven.
The point is Zion is not dealing with in the vision a physical location in the city of
Jerusalem.
Zion is a representation all the way back into the Old Testament prophets of God’s
kingdom.
Now when Jesus was standing before Pilate…
And Pilate said, are you the king of the Jews?
What did Jesus say in response?
You say that I am.
And there’s a discussion that goes on about why Jesus’ servants aren’t fighting to free
Him.
And Jesus will inform Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?
Well, if Zion is a Old Testament picture, an Old Testament term from the prophets of the
kingdom of God, then where is Zion?
It’s a spiritual location, not a physical one.
It’s the kingdom of Christ.
So the picture is Christ is in His Kingdom.
He’s standing on His mountain.
He’s standing victorious.
And He’s standing with 144,000 who have the name of God written on their foreheads and
they’ve come through this tribulation.
They’ve come through this hardship.
They’ve come through this persecution and they haven’t denied the name of Christ.
They have not pledged allegiance to the beast.
or to his image or to his number.
They have not declared Caesar to be God.
But then further he says, I heard all this and I heard noises and thunderings and I heard
harps playing and I heard these 144,000 and they were singing a new song no one else could
know.
Let me ask you a question, because, you know, we got to deal with this passage
appropriately.
Once you hear a new song, can’t you know it?
Let’s say you hear a new song on the radio.
You hear it first time.
You hear it the second time.
You hear it the third time.
About the second or third time, you pretty well picked up, oh, I recognize that.
You hear it a hundred times.
Can you know it?
then how is it they’re singing a song nobody can know?
Unless they’re singing a song about an experience and the knowing isn’t the ability to
understand the song, it’s having lived through the song.
Now let me take you to an Old Testament picture where you can understand what the picture
is.
Turn to Exodus.
because guess what?
This is just another Old Testament picture.
Exodus chapter 15.
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke, saying, I will
sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.
The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my song and has become my salvation.
He is my God and I will praise him, my Father’s God and I will exalt him.
The Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his army he has cast into the sea.
He has chosen captains that are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them.
They sank to the bottom like a stone.
Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power.
Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemy in pieces.
And in the greatness of your excellence you have overthrown those who rose against you.
You sent forth your wrath.
It consumed them like stubble.
And with the blast of your nostrils, the waters were gathered together.
The flood stood upright like a heap.
The depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said, I will pursue.
I will overtake.
I will divide the spoil.
My desire shall be satisfied on them.
I will draw my sword.
My hand shall destroy them.
You blew with your wind and the sea covered them.
They sank like lead in mighty waters.
Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, O glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them.
You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed.
You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.
The people will hear and be afraid.
Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia.
Then the chiefs of Enum will be dismayed.
The mighty men of Moab
trembling will take hold of them, all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away.
Fear and dread will fall on them by the greatness of your arm.
They will be as uh still as a stone till your people pass over, O Lord, till the people
pass over whom you have purchased.
You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance.
In the place, O Lord, which you have made for your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord,
which your hands have established, the Lord shall reign forever and ever.
For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the
Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them.
But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.”
Over in Revelation 14
You have a picture of the Lamb and his 144,000, the ones who were marked with the name of
God on their forehead in chapter 7, the one where the angel said, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, don’t start the judgment yet.
We got to mark all God’s people.
And they marked all of God’s people.
And John sees…
The partial judgment has happened and all these people have died and all this tribulation
has come and guess what?
Not a single one of the ones that God marked are missing.
and they sing a song just like Moses and the Israelites did.
And it’s not that nobody could understand what the song said, it’s that no one else had
lived through it.
What generation before Moses and that first generation of Israelites could talk about the
Lord passing them through the Red Sea and congealing the land and rising up the waters and
keeping them uh from coming across them and coming through the sea and coming to the other
side and then vanquishing the enemy with just the waters of the Red Sea?
Which generation could sing that before that point?
I’ll tell you what, which generation could sing it afterwards?
None of them.
because none of them had lived through it.
Oh, we could sing the song.
We can learn the lesson, but we didn’t live it.
The picture of the 144,000 is the picture of the Christians who were alive on the earth
who were going to live it.
and many of them were going to die in it.
But whether they were alive or dead when the tribulation and the difficulty and the
persecution and the ending of the persecution under Rome was over didn’t matter because
guess what?
God hadn’t lost one of them.
He had seen all of them through it, either through life or through death.
So they sing the song and they declare the same concepts that Moses and Israel declared
about God delivering His people and delivering them to His holy mountain.
These are the ones, verse 4, who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
And in their mouths were found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of
God.
John is looking in the vision at 144,000.
and the testimony about them is the testimony about Christ.
What was the testimony prophesied about Christ?
No deceit in this.
He went as a lamb to the slaughter and there was no guile, no deceit, nothing to accuse
him of.
Didn’t keep him from killing him.
John looks at these 144,000 and they look like Christ.
True or false?
Christ was married before He died and was resurrected and sent it back to the Father.
False.
In spite of a of nonsense that the Da Vinci Code and a bunch of other places uh argue for,
true or false, Christ was a virgin.
True.
True or false?
Christ had no deceit in His mouth.
True.
True or false?
When Christians are buried in a watery grave of baptism and they go down a sinful person,
they rise up covered in the appearance and the blood and the righteousness of Jesus
Christ.
True.
So John looks at the 144,000 and it’s like he’s seeing a whole bunch of Jesus Christ.
They all look like the Savior.
They all look like His people.
every time you look at them.
It doesn’t look like they’re alive, it looks like He’s alive in them.
Isn’t that what Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 2?
That Christ lives in us.
So this life isn’t about us, it’s about us allowing Christ to live in us.
All of these pictures are not new, all of these pictures are old.
We’ve seen them before.
Verse six, then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting
gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth.
God’s not done trying to convert the lost.
We’ve said before, we’re gonna keep saying again, every time we come to the passage and we
see those who dwell on the earth, we’re talking about the unrighteous.
We’re talking about those whose allegiance is to Satan, to the beast.
to the dragon, the prophets that declare the name of the beast, to the image of the beast,
and not to God.
But that’s okay.
This angel is going to come along and he’s going to fly through heaven and he’s going to
declare the gospel to those who dwell on the earth.
Notice what happens.
He declares the gospel to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tongue, and
people.
saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has
come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.
The angel flies through heaven.
John sees him in the vision.
He goes through the entire planet.
He says, judgments coming.
Worship the God who actually exists.
It’s like Isaiah would prophesy all throughout his prophecy, trying to get Israel to give
up their idols.
And he says, why don’t you worship the God who tells you the end from the beginning?
Why don’t you worship the God who can speak?
He talks about the one, the worker who goes out and he cuts down a tree.
and he takes the tree and he cuts off part of it and makes wood and sells it.
He takes another part of the tree and he puts it in the fire and warms himself.
And with the rest of the tree that he hasn’t used already, he makes himself an idol, sets
it up, bows down and worships it.
And God, through Isaiah, questions, why don’t you worship the God who can talk to you?
In chapter 1 of Isaiah, God speaks to Israel and He says, come, let us reason together,
says the Lord.
There’s a first challenge to all the idols that Israel had worshiped and all the idols
that Judah had worshiped and all the idols of the Babylonians and all the idols of the
Canaanites and all the idols of the Philistines.
If you can get one of them to answer you and reason with you, then there’s a possibility
he might actually be a God.
But I’m gonna call on you to sit down and reason with me and correct your morality,
correct your life, and cleanse yourself and be white as snow.
Now let’s see another God dude.
Let’s see any one of you create a God out of wood or stone or stubble and see if you can
get him to do that.
So in the picture, the gospel is declared, the whole earth hears the gospel, they’re told
judgment is coming.
Now, what Old Testament prophet was sent with a message in which he told an entire city,
repent or in 40 days you’re gonna perish?
Jonah.
Now, how did it turn out?
They repented.
He wasn’t happy about it, but they repented and the city was saved.
Here’s your picture.
God gives the people he’s about to judge one last chance.
The gospel goes out, you can keep this from happening.
You can stop the judgment.
Not the end of days judgment.
You can’t stop the end of days judgment.
You can’t stop Christ returning.
When the time is up, the time is up.
But you can stop judgment against a nation on this earth by turning a nation from being
wicked and sinful and following after Satan to being righteous.
It’s an Old Testament picture.
Jonah went into the city and he preached an eight-word lesson.
and they repented and judgment was stayed.
But there’s another message, this one involving two angels.
For those angels went down to Sodom and in that opportunity for judgment to be stayed,
they only needed to find 10 righteous.
But could they find 10 righteous?
Was judgment stayed?
No, it wasn’t.
Judgment was enacted from God’s hand to their existence.
So notice the picture.
He says with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has
come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and springs of water.
And another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen that great city because she
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Then a third angel followed saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast in his
image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,
He Himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full
strength into the cup of His indignation.
He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in
the presence of the Lamb.
And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have no rest day or
night who worship the beast in his image and who ever receive the mark of his name.” Here
is the patience of the saints.
Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Then I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord from now on.
Yes, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works follow them.
First angel comes forth, preaches the gospel, the good news to the entire world, everybody
who’s lost.
By the way, what is the commission of Jesus Christ to His apostles before He ascends back
into heaven?
Go into all the world and preach to every creature.
Take the gospel to every nation.
Repentance and remission of sin should be preached in every nation under heaven.
There’s the commission.
What is this?
It’s the work of the church.
You know, if the work of the church was accomplished in the form of the gospel being
preached and entire nations hearing it and repenting, you’d have a lot less nations fall.
you to have a lot less problems in this world.
But is that typically how the message of the Gospels received?
So, angel one goes forth, preaches the gospel.
Says, fear God, judgment’s coming, your nation’s about to fall, and they don’t repent.
So, the next angel comes out and says, you know what, I’m gonna do just what Isaiah did.
I’m gonna declare the end from the beginning.
I’m gonna tell you, Babylon’s already fallen.
Now, Isaiah…
is not only going to prophesy the end of Babylon, he’s going to name the king of the
Medo-Persian Empire who had not yet been born who was going to do it.
What was his name?
Cyrus.
God is so different from Satan, from his angels, from his false prophets, from his false
idols.
They can’t tell you what’s going to happen five minutes from now.
And God can tell you the name of the King that’s going to destroy a nation 70 years before
he is ever in power.
So the second angel comes forth and says Babylon’s This news bulletin by the way, y’all.
The enemy has been defeated.
Then the third angel comes forth.
And he cries with a loud voice and says, every single one of you that decided to worship
the beast, decided to accept the name of Satan as your ruler and your king instead of
Jesus Christ.
Destruction’s coming for you.
torment is coming for you.
And you’re going to begin dealing with that torment long before you ever get to the
eternal one.
Now, I’m over time, but I want to mention this.
We’ll come back to this in two weeks.
But the picture of fire and torment that never ends is not first a New Testament picture.
It’s not first a picture that Jesus uses in his preaching.
It is originally an Isaiah picture.
So your assignment between now and two weeks from now.
Let’s go read Isaiah 66.
If you want a little more background, read Isaiah 65 and 66.
And think about in your mind…
The interpretation of Isaiah 65 and 66 being a picture of God bringing his people back
from Babylonian captivity.
Back to Jerusalem, back to their city, to the place where he put his name, and God saying,
I am going to so defeat my enemies that they’re going to keep piling up their bodies and
they’re gonna keep burning them.
and the fire’s never gonna go out because I’m never gonna be done defeating my enemies.
So between now and two weeks from now, Isaiah 65 and 66, go read it and think about it
because here’s what it was.
It was a prophecy of God returning his people from captivity in Babylon and vanquishing
his enemies.
And think about it in that context because when you do, you’re gonna understand Revelation
14 a whole lot better.
Okay, thank you for your attention.
Revelation 11 – Aaron Cozort – April 19, 2026
Let’s begin with a word of prayer and then we’ll get into our study.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you’ve
blessed us with, grateful for all that you do for us each and every day.
We’re mindful of your grace, your mercy, your loving kindness.
We appreciate all that you have given to us in the form of this world and the creation and
the nature that is around us that declares your glory.
but most especially for your son who came and died on the cross for our sins that we might
have the hope of eternal life.
And Lord, we are grateful for truth and mercy and grace that came through him to us.
Lord, we pray that we might strive diligently to walk in the light as you were in the
light, but also that we might be an example to the world around us, that we might teach
the truth to stand firm.
for the truth and to declare your word to every nation under heaven.
Lord, we pray that as we do that, we will always remember that the world is not our
friend, that the world is the enemy of your son and therefore our enemy as well.
But at the same time, those who are willing to hear the truth and willing to be converted
are those who can receive eternal life through the blood of your son.
We pray that we might be diligent in this labor and in this work both here locally and
throughout the world.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
So back in chapter eight, the trumpets began to sound.
And as the trumpets were sounding, you would see partial judgment coming forth from God.
Now remember, there was a cry for judgment to begin or for justice to commence from the
Christians who were under the altar there as that fifth seal was opened in chapter six.
And God told them, you rest for a little while.
You be patient.
Essentially, I’ve got it under control.
Then chapter, or the sixth seal is opened and God essentially shows them, I’m going to
deal with these people.
I am going to bring justice based upon what you have cried out to me.
And then chapter seven, there’s a pause.
Wait a minute.
We’ve got to make sure all of God’s people are marked so that they’re not going to be
judged.
Instead, they’re gonna have God’s name written on their forehead, and we know from chapter
three that that’s just a picture of their Christians, they’re the church, because the
church in chapter three is told you’re gonna have the name of God on your forehead.
Okay, so chapter eight opens up and this judgment commences with partial judgment.
Everything that’s judged is only a partial judgment.
a third of this, a fourth of this, all these things that are shown in chapter 8 as the
trumpets are sounding are partial judgment.
But then the warning comes, there’s two more judgments, two more trumpets to sound.
They start sounding in chapter 9.
You have uh the first woe, you have the second woe.
Each of these again are just partial judgments representing God giving those who are on
the earth, those who dwell on the earth as the
the book of Revelation describes them, that is those who are unrepentant, those who are
not Christians, those whose home is an earthly home in contrast to Christians whose home
is a heavenly home.
He says those who dwell on the earth, here’s your partial judgment, here’s your warning.
And yet at the end of chapter nine, beginning of chapter 10, we find out they don’t
repent.
Then there’s an interlude.
There’s a pause.
because in the midst of this, God is going to tell the churches, just because I’m judging
them doesn’t mean you’re not gonna go through hard times.
And so there’s going to be a pause before this full judgment, partial judgment came, full
judgments coming, but wait a minute, need to remind the Christians that they’re not the
target of the judgment and ultimately they’re victorious.
So chapter 10 opens and John sees,
this mighty angel and he’s got one foot on the land and one foot on the sea.
Later on, just a couple of chapters, you’re going to see a great beast rise up out of the
land and it’s going to look like he’s going to destroy the Christians.
And you’re going to see a great beast rise up out of the sea and it’s going to look like
he’s going to destroy the Christians.
And guess what?
Both of them fail.
Want to know why?
Because God’s in charge, not the beast.
Okay, so before the third woe commences, which is the same as the seventh trumpet, you’re
going to have an interlude where God tells his people, I’m going to deliver you.
Now, as John begins to see this mighty angel, he hears the sound of seven thunders and he
starts to write it down and God says, nope, don’t write it.
Seal that up.
That’s not for them to know.
Now, what is it that he didn’t write?
That’s a trick question.
We don’t know because he didn’t write it.
We can have all sorts of suggestions as to what it is.
My suspicion is the same as Brother Jim McGuigan’s and that is that God says, here’s
exactly how I’m gonna do everything.
And he lays it all out and John hears it, John understands it, John’s about to write it
down and God says, nope, nope, you’re not gonna write it down.
You’re just gonna write the vision.
You’re gonna write the visionary elements, the signs, you’re not gonna write down
how it’s going to come about.
Mystery is finished, the thing has been revealed, this is how it’s going to be done, and
this harkens back to Daniel chapter 12 and the passage there that we dealt with last week.
In chapter 10 verses 8 through 11, the mighty angel has in his hand a book.
And John’s told to go get the book.
and he’s given the book and we have here a picture from Ezekiel because Ezekiel’s given a
book and Ezekiel’s told to consume the book, to eat the book.
What is Ezekiel by way of occupation in regards to God?
He’s a prophet.
He is a spokesperson for God.
So when the last time was that we saw in the book of Revelation someone holding a book,
what was inside the book?
A revelation from God.
Guess what’s inside this book?
A revelation from God.
What was inside Ezekiel’s book?
A revelation from God.
Now this book, much like Ezekiel’s, is going to be one that when you consume it, it’s
sweet as honey.
All right, well, that’s a picture from the Psalmist writer, Psalm 19, of the word of God.
The psalmist writer in Psalm 19 says that the Word of God is sweeter than honey in a
honeycomb.
But the thing about the Word of God is when you consume the Word of God, when you put it
into your heart and your mind, it’s great, except the message about what it means for you
is not always pleasant.
So Ezekiel’s going to consume the Word of God and it’s going to be sweet as honey, except
when he goes to speak it, the message is going to be bitter.
And that’s the same thing in John’s day.
John’s going to begin to speak the message.
but the message is going to be one that tells the Christians, you’re about to go through
some real hard times.
You’re about to go through some persecution.
The times that you’re headed into are going to be unpleasant and yet, the message is
always, I’m in charge and I’ll see you through it.
So the seven trumpets are sounding.
The seventh trumpet is about to sound, but another picture, another interlude, another
pause before they sound, chapter 11.
By the way, as we close out chapter 10, verse 11 says, and he said to me, the um angel
said to John, you must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.
What was the book?
It was a prophecy.
It was a prophecy that was going to go out to the entire world.
There’s news from the Lord and it’s not going to be pleasant.
Chapter 11, then I was given a reed like a measuring rod and an angel stood saying, rise
and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship there.
Now, this is another Ezekiel picture because Ezekiel is given a measuring rod and he is
told in Ezekiel chapter 40 through 47,
He is told to go measure Jerusalem and go measure the temple and go measure all of these
things.
Now in Ezekiel’s day the measurement is to demonstrate that judgment is coming, they don’t
measure up.
Zechariah is told to measure things.
Zechariah is in a time where the temple is being rebuilt.
God is again reestablishing his temple.
But this measurement of this temple, we need to be careful with because we need to
understand what temple is in view.
If John’s writing this in 68 AD,
and it’s about Jerusalem and the fall of Jerusalem, what temple would logically be in
view?
Temple in Jerusalem.
Except we’re going to find out that picture doesn’t work here.
First, it doesn’t work because there’s no indication John wrote this in 68 AD.
And because the book isn’t about Jerusalem.
And the identification of who’s persecuting the Christians is in Jerusalem.
We’ll get into that.
John’s writing this after the temple in Jerusalem’s already been destroyed.
The city of Jerusalem has already been walked under and annihilated by the Romans.
The temple that’s being measured here is the one that the New Testament talks about.
over in 1 Corinthians chapter three, over in 1 Corinthians chapter six, over in 2 Peter
chapter two, you have a plethora of passages in the New Testament where the Church of God
is described as the temple of God, and where Christians are described as the priests of
the Most High God.
The temple in view in this passage is the church.
And you’re gonna notice this.
God’s going to tell John, you go measure the church.
You go see how it’s constructed.
You go see how it’s built.
You go see that it’s exactly what I intended for it to be.
And then that’s going to be evidence that what God establishes, no one else can tear down.
Okay?
So watch this.
I was given a read, like a measuring rod.
And the angel stood saying, rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who
worship there.
But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has
been given to the Gentiles, and they will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months.” As
you think back, you go, wait a minute, this sounds like the destruction of Jerusalem.
except did the Romans tread down the city for 42 months?
Did the Romans put the city under occupation and the temple under occupation for 42
months?
No, they flattened it.
Jesus would make an incredibly poignant statement in Matthew chapter 24 at the beginning
of that chapter where he pointed to the temple and said to his disciples, not one stone
will be left.
upon another.
That’s not trotting it under, that’s completely destroying it.
No, the idea of tread here is that they’re going to come, they’re going to occupy it,
they’re going to do damage to something, but it’s not going to be entirely destroyed.
That’s why this picture doesn’t fit Jerusalem.
This picture doesn’t fit the temple of the Jews.
It doesn’t fit the physical city because Jesus has already said, ah no, it’s not going to
be trodden under.
It’s not going to be temporarily occupied.
as in soldiers walking around in places where they don’t belong, trotting it under.
No, no, it’s going to be decimated.
Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 24, the temple is going to be no more.
This talks about a temple that’s going to be temporarily occupied.
So notice John is told, you go measure the temple.
You go measure the people who worship there.
Don’t measure outside the temple.
Go measure the temple.
By the way, the word temple here, there’s two words in the Greek for temple.
One is the entire
temple and the other is the inner sanctuary.
This word is the inner sanctuary.
Okay.
So John’s told you go measure the most holy place.
You go measure the heart of the temple.
And while you’re going to see the persecutors trod down the temple and Jerusalem figure of
the church.
He says, you’re not gonna see the heart of it disappear.
You’re not going to see it destroyed.
You’re going to see it measures up.
You’re going to see it’s going to be protected by God.
All right, so let’s go through the remainder of the verses here.
He says, and I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy 1,260 days
clothed in sackcloth.
Wait a minute, how long?
Did he just say the Holy City would be trodden under?
42 months.
Now, the typical calendar in ancient days was not 365 days with one leap year, or leap
year with 366 days.
The typical ancient calendar was 360 days.
So 360 days per year, how long is 1,260 days?
Three and a half years.
How long is 42 months?
Three and a half years.
Let’s go back for just a moment to the book of Daniel.
because in chapter 10, John already introduced Daniel chapter 12’s vision and aspects of
it.
Chapter 12 verse one, at that time, Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands
watch over the sons of your people.
And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to
that time.
And at that time, your people shall be delivered, every one who is found, now watch this
phrase, written in the book.
What New Testament,
book do we have where we constantly have the Christians described as those who are written
in the Lamb’s book?
Revelation.
They’re described as those who are written in the Book of Life.
They’re described as those who are written in the Book of the Lamb.
They’re described as those whose names are written in heaven.
And Daniel’s receiving a prophecy about God and His mighty angel that stands to help the
Christians whose names are written in the book.
But notice, he says, they’re going to go through hard times.
They’re going to go through difficulties, but I’m going to help them.
many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awaken, some to everlasting life
and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament and those who those
who turn many to righteousness like the stars of heaven or start the stars forever and
ever.
But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.
Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.
Then I, Daniel, looked and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on
that riverbank.
And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river?
How long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?
Then I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river when he held
up his right hand and his left hand to heaven and he swore by him who lives forever.
that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time.
And when the power of the Holy people has been completely shattered, all these things
shall be finished.
Although I heard, I did not understand.
Then I said, My Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
And he said, Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of
the end.
Many shall be purified and made white and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and
none of the wicked shall understand.
but the wise shall understand.
And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away and the abomination of desolation
is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.
Blessed is he who waits and comes to the 1,335 days, but you go your way till the end, for
you shall rest and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.” All right, so
Daniel’s told,
Here’s a picture.
God’s people are going to be persecuted.
But don’t worry, I’ve sent my angel and he’s going to protect them.
They’re not going to be destroyed.
And he says, show me what this means.
And Daniel’s told, no, shut up the book, the time’s not yet.
So Daniel’s told, no, no, seal it up.
It’s not for your time, Daniel.
You don’t need to worry about it.
And so more pictures you’re seeing.
And he talks to the man who’s standing above the river.
And he says, what does this mean?
And he says, there’s going to be a time, times, and half a time.
There’s going to be a period of, uh temporary period of time where this is going to
endure.
But guess what?
The ones who lived through it.
The ones who overcome it, they’re gonna come out and they’re going to look as if they’d
never been touched by it.
All right, so the picture of Daniel is there’s a temporary persecution, there’s a
temporary time of difficulty, but the people of God get through it.
The picture in Revelation chapter 11 is this is temporary.
This is 42 months.
This is 1,260 days.
This is three and a half years.
By the way, what’s a perfect amount of time?
What’s a complete amount of time?
What number would we represent that by in the book of Revelation?
Seven.
What is three and a half?
It’s half a seven.
It’s a broken seven.
It’s not a complete time.
It’s temporary.
Just like a third of something is, it’s partial.
So God says,
to John, you go measure the city, you go measure the holy place, you go measure it and you
see who built it.
because as you inspect the Holy Place, you’re inspecting the heart of God’s people.
And so he goes and he inspects the heart of God’s people, he measures them, and he says,
is gonna be a time of persecution, but it’s temporary.
It’s three and a half years.
Now where does three and a half years come from in the Old Testament?
What time period in the Old Testament, not in prophecy,
in history did three and a half years transpire where God’s people went through hardship,
but they were provided for.
That is correct.
In the days of Elijah, when God said to the northern kingdom of Israel, there’s not going
to be any rain, and Elijah is going to say, there’s not going be any rain until I say so.
And then Elijah goes out in the wilderness and leaves.
Now, where does Elijah go first?
passages in 1 Kings chapter 17 and 18, I Elijah first goes out in the wilderness and goes
into a cave.
And he’s fed by the ravens and a stream of water is provided for him and he’s provided
for.
But then he goes where else?
What?
That’s correct.
He goes to the house of the widow and he says to her, make me cake.
And she informs him that they’re almost out of food.
They’re going to make their last food and then they’re going to die.
And he says, make me cake.
And she goes in and she uses what little they have left and makes him a cake.
And then she goes back and there’s more.
And every single day, the picture in the text is every single day she empties all that she
has and comes back and there’s more.
And she empties all that she has and she comes back and there’s more.
And James will tell us.
that the drought was for three and a half years.
and that God’s people, including this woman, were provided for during this time.
You see, Jesus will point out were there not any widows in all Israel.
Jesus will make the point to the Jews, to the people of Nazareth, to His home city.
Do you not realize that God didn’t send Elijah to the home of an Israelite widow?
He sent him to a foreigner.
And he provided for a foreigner because she provided for him.
God is going to tell Israel through Jesus.
God is going to tell the church through James.
God provides for His people.
That doesn’t mean there’s no hardship.
God provides for His people.
That doesn’t mean difficult times don’t come.
The picture of 42 months, time, times and half a time, three and a half years, 1,260 days
is this.
It’s the days of Elijah, where God has His people just like the rest of the nation go
through a difficult time, but God provides for His people and they get through it.
So, then we’re going to see in the latter part of chapter 11 these two witnesses.
And you’re going to go, oh, wait a minute, I think I see Elijah again.
Because the pictures are coming from the Old Testament.
so Revelation chapter 11, verse 3, and I will give power to my two witnesses and they will
prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.
And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their
enemies.
And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.
These have power to shut up heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy.
And they have power over waters to turn them to blood.
and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire.
Now, two witnesses show up.
These witnesses are from Zechariah chapter four.
All of these pictures are Old Testament pictures.
We’ve said it a hundred times, we’ll say it another hundred before we’re done.
Turn to Zechariah chapter four.
In Zechariah’s day, as we already mentioned just briefly a moment ago, Zechariah is
prophesying during the time where the temple is being rebuilt in Jerusalem.
And God is going to send back a group from Babylonian captivity under Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel is going to be a descendant of the house of David, but he is not going to be
king.
He is going to be one who is a governor.
He is going to be a political leader of the people, but he is not going to be king.
There won’t be a king all the way forward to the days of Jesus.
But he is also going to send, God is also going to send, Jeshua.
Jeshua is going to restore the high priesthood in Israel.
So you have a leader of the nation.
and you have a religious leader, a high priest.
Now notice what we find in Zechariah chapter 4.
the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me as a man who was wakened out of his
sleep and he said to me, what do you see?
So I said, I am looking and there’s a lamp stand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it
and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
All right?
So there’s a bowl and these pipes and they go to the lamp stands.
What do the pipes carry?
the oil for the lamps.
Watch this.
He says, two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its
left.
So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, what are these, my lord?
Then the angel who talked with me answered and said, do you not know what these are?
And he said, no, my lord.
So he answered and said to me, this is the word of the Lord to Zeruppable, not by might
nor by power, but
by my spirit, says the Lord.
Who are you, O great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain, and he shall bring forth the capstone with
shouts of grace, grace to it.” God’s message to Zerubbabel is, you’re going to be a
witness that I’m delivering you not by might, not by power, I’m going to restore Jerusalem
by my…
word by my authority, not yours, by my power, not yours, by my might, not yours, you’re
going to be a witness that I’m doing this, not physical power, not physical might, not
political power, but God’s word.
Okay, now notice verse eight.
Moreover, the word came to me saying,
The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple.
His hands shall also finish it.
Then you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to you, for who has despised the day
of small things?
For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel.
They are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.
Then I answered and said to him, What are the two olive trees?
Zechariah has been asked,
What are they?
He’s like, I don’t know.
Now he’s turning the question back.
But what are the two olive trees, he says.
He says, what are the two olive trees at the right of the lamb stand, and at its left?
And I further answered and said, what are these two olive branches that drip into the
receptacles of the two gold pipes uh from which the gold oil, sorry, the golden oil
drains?
Then he answered me and said, do you not know what these are?
And I said, no, my Lord.
He says, these are the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord and the whole earth.
Now, if you go back in your Old Testament history, there are two positions in Israel’s
history that receive an anointing.
What two positions are they?
King and priest.
So these two witnesses represent royal priesthood.
They represent the leadership of God’s people.
So you’re going to see the two witnesses in Zechariah, they represent royal priesthood.
The royalty and the priesthood.
And they bear witness
as they stand before the people on behalf of God.
All right, go back to Revelation chapter 11.
John’s going to see two olive trees and notice what he sees, two lampstands.
I wonder where the picture came from?
Zechariah’s vision.
And what was it in Zechariah’s vision?
Royal priesthood.
Now before we go any further,
What does Peter say the church is in 2 Peter chapter 2?
a royal priesthood.
John will say that we are the priests of God in the book of Revelation.
John will say that we will reign with Christ.
What is that?
A royal priesthood.
The picture is of the church, but it’s pictured in Zechariah’s language and in the
language of prophets.
the pairs of God’s messengers that go out.
Where do we first run into a pair of God’s messengers in the Old Testament?
Genesis 18.
Who were they sent to?
No, the two go forward from Abraham.
Who are they sent to?
Sodom.
And the message to Sodom is what?
ah Actually, by the time they get to Sodom, the message is, you’re going to be destroyed.
What was the message to Lot and his family?
Get out.
Judgment’s God’s going to judge the wicked.
God’s going to extract His people.
Okay?
Two messengers, two witnesses.
It’s confirmed a message from God.
Where’s the next time we see two messengers?
in Exodus, Moses and Aaron.
Moses and Aaron go into Egypt and they tell Pharaoh, you let my people go or God’s going
to judge you.
And Pharaoh says, who is Jehovah that I should hear him?
And God’s going to give him a correspondence course to instruct him who he is.
and then God’s going to extract His people and judge the nation.
Two more messengers, Elijah and Elisha.
Elijah and Elisha are going to be a pair of prophets who are sent to the northern kingdom
of Israel in the days of Ahab and Jezebel and then further into the days after them and
God is going to say to the northern kingdom of Israel, you will repent or I will judge
you.
I’m going to take care of my people.
I’m going to deliver my people out from among you.
God’s messengers keep coming in pairs when Jesus sent out His disciples.
How did He send them out?
two at a time, and with what instructions did he send them?
Go to the city, take no provisions, take no extras, take no armaments.
You go into the city and if you find a faithful house that will receive you and take you
in, just like in the days of Elijah, just like in the days of Elisha, faithful houses that
took them in and provided for them, Jesus says, you find a faithful house, you stay there,
they’ll provide everything you need, you preach the message of God.
But what if there was no faithful house in the city?
What were they to do?
Walk out to the edge of the city, shake the dust off their feet and pronounce a curse
against the city.
God’s judgment, God’s wrath would come on that city.
Two messengers, two messengers, two messengers, two messengers.
And they had the authority to proclaim the word of God, and they also had the authority to
pronounce judgment against those who would not repent.
Okay, you see the picture?
Now, he says, I will give power to my two witnesses.
and they will prophesy 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth.
Why do you wear sackcloth?
because your morning message is not good.
The witnesses are going to go out, they’re going to tell you, you’ve got to repent.
but they won’t do it.
What was the message at the end of chapter 9?
God tells the people, the earth, you’ve got to repent, but they wouldn’t do it.
So notice what happens.
He says they’ll prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth.
These are the two olive trees, the two lambstands standing before the God of the earth.
And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their
enemies.
Wait a minute, what picture is that?
What Old Testament event did fire proceed forth not from the mouth of the prophet but from
the word of the prophet?
on Mount Carmel.
when they had the contest.
And here’s God’s prophet.
You see, you also have, in the days of Moses, an occasion where fire comes from heaven and
destroys false prophets.
This is a picture of prophets.
The prophets go out and they prophesy.
And if the people won’t hear them or the people try to harm them, God deals with them.
All right?
Notice again.
He devours their enemies.
If anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.
These have power to shut up heaven.
There’s Elijah.
So that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy.
And they have power over the waters to turn them to blood.
There’s Moses and Aaron.
And to strike the earth with all plagues.
There’s Moses and Aaron.
As often as they desire.
Does that mean that the prophets just went around with a whim?
They just got to do whatever they wanted to, said whatever they wanted to say, and they
just got to persecute people all over the place?
No.
When they spoke, who did they speak on behalf of?
The Lord.
And yet Elijah would say, it’s not going to rain until I say so.
Okay?
They had the authority from God.
Their message originated from God.
Now, how many witnesses did you need in order to, according to the law, put someone to
death?
Two.
So you have two witnesses, they go out and declare the word of God.
If people strive instead to kill the witnesses instead of hearing the word of God, the
testimony of two witnesses is sufficient to put them to death.
The picture is, here’s God’s people, they’re going to proclaim the message of God
faithfully.
They’re going to do exactly what God tells them to do, they’re gonna speak exactly what
God tells them to speak.
And what is the world going to do?
Well, you’re going to see verses seven through 10 next week, the world’s going to kill
them for it.
The world’s going to reject the message.
And having killed them, they’re going to throw a party and rejoice that God’s messengers
are dead.
John’s telling the church, you just keep preaching.
You keep telling them the truth.
We’ve seen it all before.
will protect His prophets.
God will protect His priests.
God will protect His kings.
God will protect His people.
You just keep preaching the truth.
Okay, we’ll pick up here in verse seven next week.
How To Bring A Friend To Christ – Justin Evergarden – Jan. 18, 2026
Good morning.
Always lovely to see everybody here today.
This morning we’re going to start with a question.
If I were to come up to you out of the blue and simply ask, how do you bring a friend to
Christ?
What would your answer be?
Would you?
Screaming.
Would you relate to a passage in the Bible?
Would you merely exclaim the evangelism program that we have currently going on?
Would you say that it takes years and years of effort and speaking and prodding your
locals and friends to bring them to Christ?
Today, if you would, please take your Bibles out and turn over to Mark chapter 2.
Mark chapter 2.
If there was ever a definition that we could use for the word Christian, other than simply
a follower of Christ, if we had to describe what a Christian should be, in essence, a true
faithful friend should be what that definition should stem from.
Because faithful friends are those that can change eternal destinies.
This morning, we’re going to learn how to bring a friend to Christ from one of the best
examples in all of the gospel accounts.
Now it’s not the only example in the gospel accounts, but it is, in my opinion, one of the
greatest.
Many Christians struggle with bringing a friend to Christ.
Many Christians struggle with the idea of evangelism because they believe it requires
several things.
First off, many think that it requires a perfect knowledge.
I can guarantee you right now, I could study this Bible from the time I was born all the
way until the time of my death and I would never have a perfect understanding of God’s
word.
It is so deep that our minds could never comprehend it.
Many also believe that sometimes it may take flawless speech.
You have to be an excellent or a turn to be able to bring people to Christ.
We know that that’s not the case because I’m standing before you now.
If anyone does not have flawless speech, it is I.
Also the reason why I have notes.
The Bible shows us something far simpler than that.
Bringing someone to Christ does require several things.
Of three of those, we can find that it requires love,
It requires perseverance, and above all, bringing someone to Christ requires faith.
Mark chapter 2 gives us one of the clearest pictures in all of scripture what those three
things look like.
So much so that this event is recorded in three different gospel accounts.
We see it recounted in Matthew, Mark, where we’re in today, and the book of Luke.
So I implore you, after the service, to give the other versions a read.
The other accounts for Matthew and Luke.
Because typically when God repeats something, when God repeats something,
He wants us to pay attention, same as teachers do in school.
So starting out in verse one of chapter two, we read, and again, he entered Capernaum
after some days, and it was heard that he was in the house.
The word again here is an important clue of what’s going on in the text.
What do you mean again?
He was here in Capernaum before?
Yes, turn back to Mark chapter one, and let’s start in verse 21.
where Jesus casts out an unclean spirit.
Then they went into Capernaum.
That’s, there’s the again.
This is the first time we see.
And immediately on the Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and taught.
They were astonished at his teaching, and he taught them as one having authority and not
as one of the scribes.
This would have been something completely out of the blue for them, because while the
scribes would have taught from the Word of God, he taught because he was the Word of God.
Continuing on in verse 23, it says, Now there was a man in the synagogue with an unclean
spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone.
What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?
Did you come to destroy us?
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
Now here we see someone being possessed by what’s defined in the book as an unclean
spirit.
He’s afraid.
He’s screaming out, similarly to almost how if you’ve ever seen the Lord of the Rings
movie, Gollum, I hear that voice in my head, let us alone.
from the little, what’s his Schmeigel I think is his name, the little guy after the ring.
You can almost see this here, but he calls out who he is.
He knows that he’s the Holy One of God.
In verse 25, Jesus rebukes him saying, be quiet and come out of him.
And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out
of him.
Then they were all amazed.
So they questioned among themselves, what is this?
What new doctrine is this?
For with authority, he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.
And immediately his fame spread throughout all the region of Galilee.
So there’s that again.
We see the first account where he casts out the evil spirit.
So moving forward, the people already knew it.
They had seen the miracles that Jesus was going to perform.
They had heard him teach, as we read in Mark chapter 1.
which I implore you to mark your Bibles to Mark chapter 2 because we’ll be jumping to
other passages but coming back to Mark 2 throughout this morning.
Something important to note though, that they had seen Jesus before.
That word again signifies more than just it’s his second time to Capernaum as written in
the scripture.
How many times today do people have to hear about Christ more than once to be able to be
brought to him?
Some go their entire lives hearing whispers of Christ in the background.
Christmas wishes, Jesus is the reason for the season.
Walking into stores and finding Christian merchandise of the cross.
It’s almost like a quiet hum in the background.
Constantly throughout their entire lives they’re exposed to Christ.
And yet so few, so many times, ever come to Him.
Faith is something that’s built over time.
It’s not something that’s going to develop overnight.
So we need to be careful not to be discouraged if someone does not respond to Christ
immediately.
Let’s continue on to verse two.
And straightway, many were gathered together in so much that there was no room to receive
them.
No, not so much as about the door.
And he preached the word to them.
we see here that the house is full.
It was packed.
After what had happened the first time, I couldn’t imagine.
The synagogue would have had room for a lot of people, but here they are meeting inside of
a small house, and there’s so many people here that we see that the door is blocked.
The most important phrase in this verse is, he preached the word unto them.
This shows us a few things.
We can divine from one simple sentence in the Bible.
Remember how I said the Bible’s deep?
We see that Jesus is the preacher.
He’s the one teaching.
The Word is the message.
The people were the audience.
It’s almost a reflection of how salvation still comes the same way today.
What does Romans 10-17 have to say?
So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
We have to hear the Word of God before we can obey it.
And that’s brought to us by the teacher.
If we want to bring people to Christ, we must get them where the Word of God is being
taught.
And that could be anywhere.
We have the book so available to us now, it’s in the pockets of every single one of our
cell phones.
It’s in simple app download.
We have books on every bookstore shelf.
In verse 3, we see that it was a group effort.
Then they came to him, bringing a paralytic who was carried by four men.
Another translation says, and they came unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which
was born of four.
Born of four, carried by four men.
It wasn’t saying that he had three brothers.
He wasn’t born of four.
He was born, picked up.
We have to note that this man did not come to Jesus by himself.
Now while you can come to Jesus yourself, in this case he was carried.
And that tells us something important.
This man was sick of the palsy.
He didn’t have use of his legs.
He would have been unable to walk at the time.
He was paralyzed, we would say.
But are there other things that can paralyze you other than simple ah being sick of the
palsy?
A medical condition.
Absolutely.
Sin can paralyze, can’t it?
Can fear paralyze?
You ever been scared by a friend and deer in headlights look, your body tenses up?
Can guilt paralyze?
If we go to someone for forgiveness, can that guilt, that racking, keep you from acting
and doing what you should?
Can ignorance paralyze?
I debate that ignorance absolutely can paralyze because you don’t know what you should be
doing.
Thus, it’s a subconscious paralysis that happens.
God often uses people to bring people to Jesus Christ.
That’s His entire plan.
Let’s jump back over to Ecclesiastes and let’s read chapter 4 verses 9 through 10.
Ecclesiastes chapter 4, 9 through 10.
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one be warm alone?
Although one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him, and a threefold cord is
not quickly broken.
I love the imagery there of the three-fold cord.
If you know anything about rope making, especially if you’re in the leather business,
which I was for little while.
I used to like to make wallets and holsters and things like that out of leather.
uh among my travels, I picked up a kit once to make a whip years and years ago.
And when you make the leather whip, it’s a cord, isn’t it?
It’s got the frayed ends to cause damage at the end or make that loud, cracky sound.
But the way you make the whip is taking the different strands and straining them together.
If you had the one strand, it would be broken so easily.
Similarly, the strongest, the chain, a metal chain, is only as strong as its weakest link.
A three-fold chord is going to be much stronger because you have multiple things there.
In reference to evangelism, in reference to bringing someone to Christ, is evangelism
often a team effort?
It should be.
Absolutely!
We need to be able to reach out to people, not just by ourselves.
So a question we should ask ourselves day in and day out are, who are we helping carry
others to Christ?
Are we working together with those around us to reach out to the general populace, to
reach out to those that we know at work?
Are we working together to reach out to our family members?
Jump back over to Mark chapter 2.
We’ll continue in verse 4.
And when they could not come near him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where
he was.
So when they had broken through, they let down the bed on which the paralytic was laying.
This was not a normal situation.
These friends were determined.
Their methods were unorthodox, to say the least.
This would have been disruptive, and quite frankly, it would have been physically
demanding.
Rooms in that time were made similarly to ours, but a little different.
When we think of the roof up here, we have the uh metal layman that’s holding up all of
the sound deadening equipment.
Then you have metal steel beams.
You have the roof on top of that.
modern buildings have concrete roofs.
would have been a lot to break through.
Back then, you would have had your beams of tree wood, you would have had your branches
stacked on top of that, and you would have had clay packed on top of that.
Another thing that I enjoy to do in the background uh is watch the bushcrafting videos.
It’s very similar to how they would have made the roofs back in the day.
You take the branches, then the leaves, then you would uh spread them out to make a
waterproof layer out of all the hay or straw that you have, and then finally you would add
the mudding and
pack it down, let it dry out over a season, and you would have yourself a roof.
Now, if I asked you to stand on top of a roof made by that, you’d probably first look at
me and say, absolutely not.
I’d be afraid I’d fall through.
But these men carried their friend up to the top of the roof and broke through, so much so
that they had to have some kind of knowledge of how the roof was constructed.
Many people back in that day would have.
But they would have had to have broken through the roof to let him down in such a way as
to not drop the roof on the person they were trying to reach.
Kind of a moot point to go through all that work if you crush the person you’re trying to
reach, right?
Lowering a man, a grown man specifically, safely required not only strength but trust.
When we see modern funerals, sometimes you see nowadays the pallbearers, I believe that’s
the term, the pallbearers that carry the casket on the shoulders.
There’s multiple men there.
There’s a lot of weight in that casket.
These would have been true friends.
They came to him that we see in the text.
This would have demonstrated action, the action, the want to save their friend.
They bore him.
They didn’t bore him to tears.
They bore him.
They lifted him up.
This demonstrated determination.
Cooperation.
Cooperation.
They uncovered the roof.
That demonstrated determination.
It would have been a lot of work to take it out.
But they did not stop when the door was blocked.
They were turned away, typically.
With all those crowded people, it would have been far easier to kind of push and shove
your way through, but they found another way.
Which shows us the true friends, and Christians, coincidentally,
should not be concerned with convenience, but we should be concerned with souls.
A few obstacles stood in their way, the crowd, the roof, the weight of their friend, but
it did not stop them.
Instead, when they hit those pitfalls, they were redirected.
They changed their energy in a different way.
They knew the weight of their friend’s body.
Why?
Because they carried him.
Should a Christian today understand and know the weight of a human soul?
I think we should.
Turn your Bibles over to Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9.
Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9.
and let us not grow weary while doing good.
For in due season we shall reap if we lose not heart.” Bringing a friend to Christ takes
persistence.
It takes time.
A biblical Christian faith does not quit just because things get difficult or
uncomfortable.
In fact, many would point out that some of the time that’s the point.
Turn to Revelation chapter 3.
And let’s read verses 15 and 16.
Revelation chapter 3 verses 15 and 16.
I know your works, that you are neither hot nor cold.
I could wish that you were cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my
mouth.” These are the words of Christ.
oh
Is he asking us to be comfortable?
Or is he asking us to be busy?
Is he asking us to have a fire inside of our souls?
One that’s willing to put in the work to be determined, to cooperate, to have faith?
He’s not asking us to be comfortable.
Turning back over to Mark chapter 2 verse 5, it says, when Jesus saw their faith, oh
Just in the revelation passage, as we just read, Jesus didn’t hear about their faith.
He saw it.
Because what is faith other than belief in action?
James chapter 2 and verse 18 says, yay, a man say thou hast faith and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show you not the my faith by my works.
There’s a massive difference.
A living faith is one that produces works.
A living faith is one that works with works.
Works are 100 % needed.
Biblical faith is a faith that moves.
Biblical faith is a faith that acts.
Biblical faith is a faith that can be seen throughout our daily lives and actions.
Not just talked about.
Not just breath in the wind.
But verse five continues and he says, your sins are forgiven thee.
I think it’s interesting that Jesus addresses the man’s greatest needs first.
The sin problem.
is worse than any physical ailment we could ever have.
not as paralysis but as sin.
The true friends were described earlier.
They don’t help people to sin.
True friends don’t ignore sin.
They didn’t ignore the fact that their friend was laying on a bed and unable to walk.
Instead, true friends are those that help lead people out of sin.
In this case, they were physically helping their friend.
Over in Matthew’s account in verse 9, it goes into a little more detail about verse 5.
What is the meaning of the word gospel?
It’s good news, isn’t it?
Good news.
Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” The greatest healing is Christ’s
forgiveness.
It’s not the healing of the lame.
It’s not giving sight back to the blind.
But then we have a contrast in verse 6.
And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts.
Notice the contrast.
Jesus was actively helping.
He was doing something.
He had faith in action.
The friends were caring.
They were also doing something.
What were the scribes doing?
They were sitting.
They weren’t lifting the burdens.
Instead, they were criticizing.
They were judging.
True Christians get involved, critics stay seated.
There’s a massive contradiction there.
Contrast, not contradiction.
See, I told you I wasn’t perfect in speech.
So Jesus confronts the critics, because he can’t let that slide.
You don’t get to confront Jesus Christ and win.
I guarantee it.
Verses eight and nine.
But immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they reasoned thus within
themselves, see, he knows.
He said to them, why do you reason about these things in your hearts?
This is nothing they spoke aloud.
He knew the thoughts and intentions of every creature, just as the Father does.
So he says, which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you, or say,
arise, take up thy bed and walk?
I want us to count for a second.
Which is easier?
Thy sins be forgiven thee.
Five words.
Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Eight words.
You would think that, while it’s less words, to sense forgiveness should be easier.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Forgiveness sounds easier, but we must not forget that that forgiveness required the
cross.
The healing was visible.
Forgiveness was costly.
Christ had to die on that cross to be able to save all of us from our sins.
He did the hard lifting, the heavy burdens.
He took it all for us.
In verse 10, we see the purpose of the miracles.
Why Jesus did this.
Why he went about it in the way that he did.
But that ye may know the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.
These miracles were not entertainment.
This was proof of his power.
This, moreover, it was proof and they confirmed his authority over the realm of mankind.
It proved his authority over the rules of nature.
The laws of physics, they bend to God’s will.
In fact, this mirrors the purpose of the parables.
Turn over to Matthew chapter 13 and we’ll read verses 13 through 15.
Matthew chapter 13 verses 13 through 15.
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do
not hear, nor do they understand.
And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, Hearing you will hear and
shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive.
For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their
eyes they have closed.
lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand
with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see
and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.
This truth is revealed to the believers.
We were in a time when Christ’s miracles were seen on display for everybody.
Undeniable proof.
We don’t need miracles today because we have the words right here.
We have the witnesses.
We have the testimony.
We know that what happened happened by the archaeological record.
Everything points to Christ being exactly who He says He was.
Again, the truth is revealed to the believers, but the unbelief is exposed in the critics.
So what’s the result?
Going back over to Mark chapter 2, verses 11 and 12, he says, say unto you, Arise, take up
thy bed, and go, walk into thine house.
And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all, insomuch that
they were amazed and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.
They had never seen anything like this before, in this way.
It’s funny how lives change so quickly when people are brought to Christ.
God is glorified.
Faith is strengthened.
The man walked because four people were determined enough to put him on a stretcher and
take him to Jesus no matter the cost, no matter the hard work of breaking through the
roof, lowering him down.
They worked together.
They refused to quit.
And they acted out their faith by their works.
Now the question is for us.
Who are we bringing to Christ?
Who are we carrying?
Is there someone that we’re refusing to give up on?
If you need Christ, my advice is let us help carry you.
If you’re weary, let us walk beside you.
As we stand and as we sing, the invitation is open unto you.
Just let us know.
Revelation 6 (Lesson 3) – Aaron Cozort – March 01, 2026
Good morning.
We are continuing our study in the book of Revelation as we close out chapter 6 and we’ll
begin chapter 7.
Good to see everybody out this morning.
Let’s begin with a word of prayer as we start our class.
Gracious Father in heaven, we are for the day that you’ve blessed us with, grateful for
the opportunities that we have to serve you and to open your word and study what you would
have us to know and have us to learn from your word.
Help us as we open the pages of the book of Revelation that we might understand the things
that you’ve placed there for us.
as you have told us that we can know them and that we should know them, that we should
understand how you have worked in this world in the past, how you have judged nations, and
how you have always provided for your people.
And may we always glean from it the singular message that you are victorious.
Lord, we pray that you be with Christians throughout the world that are under threat of
persecution, that are within war zones, that are struggling because of
difficulties that this world brings upon them.
And we also pray for those who are dealing with illness and injury and recovery from
procedures.
Lord, we pray that you be with each and every one of them and may they be blessed in their
efforts, in their works, and in their recovery that they might once again be able to
fulfill the work that you have for them in the kingdom to their desired ability.
Lord, we pray that you
be with us as we go throughout this day.
all that we say and do be in accordance with your will and right in your sight.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
Just by way of review, oh visually speaking, so Book of Revelation is written to the seven
churches of Asia Minor.
It is written in the first century by John.
John saw the vision as he was on the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The indication most likely is that he was in exile on the island of Patmos.
When he turns around there in chapter one, having heard the voice, he sees one who by an
artist’s imagery uh looks kind of like this, white robe, uh golden band around the chest,
white face, white hair, all of the pictures of glory and holiness surrounded by seven
golden lampstands, which were.
representative of the seven churches and holding in his hand the seven stars, which are
the angels of the seven churches.
Then the chapters two and three, John writes these individual messages to all of the seven
churches.
Chapter four opens and John is presented in the vision with an open door.
He goes through the door.
The text gives us the picture of that idea.
uh
enters the throne room of God where John describes the throne room of God.
He describes the one who is sitting on the throne, but only in his presence, not in his
form.
He describes the sea of glass that surrounds the throne, the four living creatures that
are before the throne, the 24 elders that are before the throne, and the multitudes that
are around the throne that we’ll get some of that picture in uh a little bit.
Then he sees the elders.
They are
taking the crowns that they wear, which are the crowns of a victor, and they’re constantly
throwing them down before the throne, praising God and declaring God to be worthy of
praise for all that He has done.
They do that every time the four living creatures declare God to be worthy.
Then John sees an angel, and he sees one of these individuals there in the vision,
and they’re searching for someone who’s worthy to open the scroll.
They look through heaven and earth because John has seen the scroll in the right hand of
the one who sits on the throne and it’s sealed with seven seals and no one is found in
heaven, on earth, or under the earth that is alive or dead who can open the scroll.
And John begins to weep, but the angel comes and one of the elders or the angel, my memory
fails me at the moment.
to do, one of the elders, one of the elders comes and tells John, don’t worry, we found
one who’s worthy to open the scroll and it’s the lamb, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the
one who was dead and is alive forevermore.
And so John sees the Messiah, he sees Christ and Christ goes and takes the scroll from the
one who’s sitting on the throne.
And again, there’s a worship scene because the four and 20, the four, sorry, the four
beasts and the four and 20 elders begin to praise the one.
who is worthy to take the scroll who is the lamb who was dead but he looks like he was
slain but he’s standing up and he’s alive.
Now the lamb doesn’t look like a regular lamb does he?
here even here in the picture.
What does the lamb have in the description in the book of Revelation?
Seven horns and seven eyes and what are we told that that is?
No, the seven spirits of God.
Remember, whenever we’re told what something is, we don’t have to guess what it is.
We don’t have to surmise about what it is.
When we saw the lamp stand that was before, or the burning lamps that were before the
throne of God in chapter four, we didn’t have to guess what they were because the text
told us it’s the seven spirits of God.
Seven just meaning perfection.
This is the perfect, perfect Spirit of God in His presence before the throne.
Then you see the Lamb, and again you see a representation of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit.
And again the picture is perfection.
What did Jesus say that the Spirit would do when He sent the Comforter?
He said, I have to go away and I’m gonna send the Comforter to you and He will guide you
into what?
all truth, perfection, okay?
The Spirit functions on behalf of the Son, He functions on behalf of the Father in His
role, He is not diminished in His deity, He is simply fulfilling His role the same way the
Messiah fulfilled His role when He came to earth to die for us.
So you see,
the Messiah connected directly to the Spirit in the work of the Spirit.
Okay, so then in chapter 6 he begins to open the scroll.
First thing that he sees, the white horse and the one who’s riding on the horse is doing
what?
winning or losing, conquering or being defeated?
Conquering and more conquering and more conquering.
Alright, he goes forth to conquer and to conquer.
And it’s a picture of, white is always a picture of what in Revelation?
purity and holiness.
The one who’s on the horse, if you go through the rest of the book, the singular person
riding a singular horse, there’s a multitude of righteous people on white horses later on
in the book, but the one who rides a horse that the forces of evil do battle against is
the Messiah, okay?
So this time he’s pictured as a Parthian warrior with a bow.
He’s pictured as one of Rome’s greatest enemies.
Then you see a red horse.
Then you see a black horse.
Then you see a pale horse.
You’ve got economic destruction and difficulties.
You’ve got war and persecutions and difficulties as result of that.
Then you’ve got death in the grave.
And then you’ve got saints who are under the altar who have died for the testimony of
Jesus Christ and for His name crying out to God asking, long, oh Lord, are you going to
allow this to continue?
And everything in the rest of the book turns on that question.
Everything you see from this point forward turns on the question of how long?
Are you going to allow this to continue on?
So the next seal is open and the sun turns to darkness, the moon turns to blood, the skies
roll up like a scroll, and the end of the world comes, right?
Nope.
Alright, chapter 6 verse 12.
And I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and
the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood, and the stars
of heaven fell to the earth as a fig that drops its late figs when it’s shaken by a mighty
wind.
Then the sky receded up as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island
was moved out of its place.
And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the
mountain.
and said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who
sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
as the picture is opened up in the sixth seal, you find every person of prominence, every
person of power, every rich person, every merchant, every slave, everybody is looking at
the judgment coming out of the throne of God and they’re saying, uh, I gotta get out of
here.
I gotta go hide somewhere.
I gotta do anything I can to get away from the judgment that is coming.
Now, does that mean that there was a moment in time, there was a point in history where
every king in every country, everywhere on the earth went and hid in a cave because the
sun had turned to darkness, the moon had turned to blood, and the sky rolled up?
Not in physical sense.
But when you have a world power…
crumble and fall.
Who is affected by it?
Everybody.
Now, the picture here, right, you want the physical, literal picture that this comes from,
you go back to Exodus chapter seven through 12.
And was there darkness during the plagues?
Yeah.
So much so that people didn’t even get up out of bed.
They couldn’t, they could not see in their, they could not light a candle and get light.
Did things fall from the sky and burn up the ground during the plagues?
Did God send electrical storms that went across the earth?
Did God turn the water into blood?
All of these pictures were literal and physical in the fall of a world power in biblical
history, and it was Egypt.
And what did God say all throughout the experience of sending the ten plagues?
He said, this is happening so that everyone, all nations might know that Jehovah is the
one who rules.
That he is the Lord of lords, the King of kings, that he is the God in heaven.
That Ra…
that the gods of the Egyptians, that the gods that are made with idols, they do not rule.
And Pharaoh, who thought himself to be a god, did not rule.
So the prophets throughout the Old Testament borrowed the imagery from Egypt.
They borrowed the picture from Egypt when God judged a nation.
because it was God declaring not just that a nation had come to an end, but that a nation
that had stood in direct rebellion against Him had come to an end, and that He was the one
doing it.
It wasn’t a picture of how it would come to an end, i.e.
armies and
physical events and things that would bring it to a fall and economic structures that
would crumble.
It wasn’t a picture of that.
It was a picture of the fact God says, everything you see done, I’m doing it.
Now, there’s a question at the end of chapter 6 which induces chapter 7.
for the great day of His wrath has come and who is able to stand?” Now that is an Old
Testament picture.
That is an Old Testament question.
That is a question that is asked when God judges nations.
Who is going to be able to stand when God judges a nation?
Turn to Zephaniah chapter 1.
Zephaniah is one of those minor profit books that you turn too many pages and you skip
right by it.
because I just did.
Zephaniah chapter 1.
Beginning verse 12, “‘It shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with
lamps and punish the men who are settled in complacency, who say in their heart, the Lord
will not do good, nor will he do evil.'” Their argument is God doesn’t know, God can’t
act, God is impotent.
God can’t do good or evil.
We get to have our way with this world.
Verse 13, Therefore their goods shall become booty, their houses a desolation.
They shall build houses, but shall not inhabit them.
They shall plant vineyards, but not drink their wine.
The great day of the Lord is near.
It is near and hastens quickly.
The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter.
There the mighty men shall cry out.
That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and
desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of
trumpet and alarm.”
against the forfeited cities and against the high towers.
I will bring distress upon men and they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned
against the Lord.
Their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like refuse.
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s
what?
Wrath.
But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make speedy
riddance of all those who dwell in the land.”
This is a picture.
It was a picture in Zephaniah’s day.
It’s a picture in Revelation’s day.
It is a picture of God saying, I’m going to deal with this nation, and it doesn’t matter
how rich they are, it doesn’t matter how much gold and so on, they can’t buy their way out
of this.
You know, there’s a phrase in American politics.
been around for a few generations.
oh comes to mind every time elections come around, especially presidential elections, and
people start repeating the phrase, it’s the economy, stupid.
That’s what gets you elected or not.
It’s the economy.
Guess what?
there’s ever a day where God decides to judge America, the economy won’t matter.
The economy might well be booming, but it won’t matter.
God says, you’ll build houses, you won’t live and have at them.
You’ll have the ability, you’ll have the money to build a house, but you won’t ever live
in it.
But question, the question at the end of chapter 6, at the end of the sixth seal is, in
that day, during that judgment, who will be able to stand in the day of the wrath of God?
John is not going to reveal anything that the Christians don’t already know.
I know that because they’ve all read Habakkuk chapter 2.
Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 2, God says to Habakkuk, the vision and make it plain on tablets
that he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not
lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Behold the proud, his soul is upright in him, but what’s the rest of the verse say?
but the just shall live by faith.
Turn to Romans chapter 1.
Romans chapter 1.
Paul writing to a congregation in what city?
Rome!
And what have we said the book of Revelation is all about?
Fall of Rome!
What Christians were strung up and hung in the streets in Rome and lit on fire?
The Christians from the church in Rome!
Paul says, verse 14, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise
and the unwise.
So as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for
everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the
just
shall live by faith.” But don’t miss the next verse.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is
manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse.
Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but
became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping
things.
Therefore God also gave them…
up to uncleanness, in the lust of their heart to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather
than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions, for even their women exchanged the
natural use for what is against nature.
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one
another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty
of their error which was due.
And even if they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a
debased mind to do those things which are not fitting.
Being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they are whisperers,
backbiter, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient
to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful, who knowing
the righteous
judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death not only do the
same but also approve of those who practice them.
Paul says, I’m in debt to my Lord and my Savior to preach the gospel that can save men’s
because the only alternative to the salvation offered by the gospel is this, the righteous
judgment of God.
And the only way, Paul says, that you’re going to stand
in the day of God’s wrath is if you live by faith.
Alright, turn to Revelation chapter 7.
Revelation chapter 7, after these things I saw four angels.
Okay?
So now what was the question that was asked?
Who’s able to stand?
didn’t ask a question without an answer.
When you look in the vision the question is asked, the answer is given.
Okay?
You’re going to have a pause here before the commencement and the opening of the seventh
seal because God’s about to say I’m going to show you my judgment
I’m going to show you a judgment so great that you’re going to see it as a justification
for my servants who have been killed on the earth and an answer to those who have cried
out, long though Lord, how long will you allow this to go on?
And they’re told, rest for a little while and I’m going to judge them and then he’s going
to say, but wait a minute, before I get to judging the earth,
before I get to judging those who are persecuting my people, before I get to judging those
who are going to receive the wrath of Lamb, let me tell you about my people.
Let me tell you about how they’re going to experience what’s going to happen.
Okay?
So, I these things, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth.
All right, first person will come along and they’ll say, see, the Bible is completely
inaccurate.
The earth doesn’t have any corners, it’s a circle.
If you were to describe the four corners of the earth, what would you be talking about?
Direction, north, south, east, and west.
All right?
They’ve covered it all.
You can’t look any direction, not see an angel.
All right?
So he says, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four
winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any
tree.
Now the reason you have angels holding back the wind,
It’s not because God wanted a nice calm blissful day.
It’s because the wind in prophetic literature and in the Old Testament and by the way in
Egypt
was the bringer of the judgment of God.
How did God separate the Red Sea?
Strong wind.
How did God bring the Red Sea back together?
Strong wind.
How did God bring the locusts?
Strong wind.
You see, God’s judgment comes on the wind in prophetic literature.
So you’ve got four angels at the four corners of the earth and they’re holding the wind
back.
causing the judgment.
Because the question was asked, who’s going to be able to stand in the day of the wrath of
the Lamb?
So they’re saying, hold on, we’ll hold the judgment while you show us the answer.
Okay?
Notice what happens.
Then I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living God.
and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted.” Now notice,
you’re going to know that I wasn’t just making nonsense when I was talking about the wind,
because what were the angels granted to do?
They were granted to harm the earth and the sea.
And what does this angel tell the other angels?
Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed
the servants of our God on their foreheads.
The fifth angel comes out of the east, he comes out of the rising sun, and as he comes he
says to the other angels, don’t let the judgment start until we’ve marked God’s people.
God’s people have to be clearly marked so that they can survive the wrath and the judgment
to come.
Now, if we were going to use Egypt as an example, what would the parallel of the mark of
God be when Israel was in Egypt?
blood on the doorposts.
God told Israel through Moses, this night you’re going to partake of that Passover feast
and you’re going to take the blood of that lamb that was without spot and without blemish
and of the first year and you’re going to spread it on the doorposts and every house, by
the way, Israelite or Egyptian, that had followed the command of God and spread the blood
on the doorposts did not receive the judgment.
and every house that didn’t, happened?
The firstborn of everything from man to creature died.
God says, I marked my people, I know exactly who is not going to be judged.
That picture flows all the way through the Old Testament, flows all the way through the
prophets to the book of Revelation.
Now, everywhere in the book of Revelation where you see something good, you should be
watching for a parallel that is evil.
In chapter 7, God’s people are going to receive a mark on their forehead.
Now, what’s the mark that everybody who’s concerned about the book of Revelation always
wants to talk about?
Six, six, six, and where’s the mark put?
On the forehead.
And they all want to talk about the mark of the beast.
For some reason, none of them want to talk about the mark of God.
You know there will not be a person alive when the events of revelation occur that doesn’t
have a mark on their forehead.
Every person on the earth is going to have one or the other.
666 or the name of God.
John could have walked through every street in Rome and he would have seen in the vision
one person with the name of God, they were a Christian, one person with 666, they were
worshipping the beast.
Because God is dividing those who belong to Him and those who don’t.
And nobody’s left out.
He knows who all of them are.
But He’s presenting to John
the message long before he talks about the judgment those who received the mark of the
beast long before he talks about what’s going to happen to them he tells John because the
recipient is the church not the world
I know who belongs to me and I know every single one of them.
So the angel comes up out of the east, he tells the other angels, you know, don’t like,
don’t let the wind go, not till every one of God’s people have God’s name written on their
forehead.
Okay?
Notice what else happens.
He says, and I heard the number of those who were sealed.
144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.
Of the tribe of Judah, 12,000 were sealed.
of the tribe of Ruben 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Gad 12,000 were sealed of the
tribe of Asher 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Naphtali 12,000 were sealed of the tribe
of Manasseh 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Simeon 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of
Levi 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Issachar 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of
Zebulun 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of Joseph 12,000 were sealed of the tribe of
Benjamin 12,000 were sealed
Alright, so we’ve got what?
All the tribes, Nope.
When you have the list of the 12 tribes of Israel, who is usually left out of that list?
What tribe?
That was a son of Jacob?
What tribe is usually left out?
Levi, because Levi is no longer a tribe of Israel, it is the tribe of God.
You go back there to the death of the firstborn, and you go back to the leaving in Egypt,
and God says that the Levite tribe is going to stand in substitution of the firstborn of
all the nations.
God says, instead of you giving me your firstborn son from every tribe and from every
family, you’re going to give me one tribe and it’s the tribe of Levi.
This is Exodus chapter 13.
And so the Levites stood as God’s tribe out of all the people.
They didn’t receive a land inheritance like everybody else.
They received cities among the tribes, but they didn’t receive.
So usually when you have the list of tribes, Levi’s left out.
Not one of the twelve tribes.
But did you notice that Joseph is in the list?
Is Joseph one of the 12 tribes of Israel?
No.
Joseph had two sons, Joseph being the eldest son of the preferred uh wife and the one
through which the salvation of the family occurs is going to receive two tribes, Ephraim
and Manasseh.
And yet, what do you notice?
But the Manasseh is in the list.
And Joseph’s in the list.
So, is this the literal, physical, 12 tribes of Israel?
No.
wouldn’t even be in harmony with the Old Testament.
Twelve tribes of Israel.
But notice further.
There’s an exact number, right?
And if you’re a Mormon, you’re really hoping you’re gonna get to be one those 144,000 that
gets to go to heaven, because everybody else is stuck here for the rest of whatever.
And if you’re a pre-millennialist, you’re really hoping that you’re get to be one of those
144,000.
Tell me, is 144,000 people a large number?
Not when there’s eight billion people on the planet.
In every single generation, not a big number, but it gets worse.
Because not only is it not a big number, they’re all men.
And don’t worry, it gets worse.
They’re all unmarried.
They’re all virgins.
Sorry, it’s the text.
You can’t argue with it.
If you’re gonna make it literal, everybody who gets married, you just counted yourself out
of the 144,000.
Sorry, if you were born female, you just counted yourself out of the 144,000.
But don’t worry, I don’t know very many women that would want to spend eternity in heaven
with 144,000 men, none of whom have ever been married before and have not yet been trained
by their wife how to behave.
Now notice this.
He sees 144,000, 144,000, Why 144,000?
Pay close attention.
How many tribes were there?
Not in literal number, but representatively of Israel?
12.
How many apostles were there?
12.
12 represents the people of God.
It’s a number from Israel all the way forward.
It represents the people of God.
How many?
spies were sent out to spy out the land.
Twelve!
Okay?
The number twelve is used prophetically, biblically, to represent God’s people.
Now what did we say the number one thousand represents?
God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
What does that mean
all of them.
It is a number that means every single one.
It doesn’t mean when you get to the thousand and first hill God doesn’t own those cattle.
That’s not what the psalmist writer meant when he used the terminology.
He meant it didn’t matter where you found a hill and where you found a cow that belonged
to the Lord.
Now you put the two ideas together.
If the number 12 represents God’s people and the number 1000 represents all of whatever
category we’re talking about, then what do we have?
All of God’s people multiplied by 12.
Right?
Each tribe, all of God’s people.
Another tribe, all of God’s people, another tribe, all of God’s people, another tribe, all
of God’s people.
You’ve got all of God’s people.
represented in multiple pictures, one picture represented in the tribes of Israel, the
ones God chose to be His people.
You’ve got God’s people represented in the number 12, the ones God chose to be His people.
You’ve got the picture represented in the apostles, the ones Jesus chose to be His
apostles.
These are the people of God.
But you may say, Aaron, so God’s gone through the earth and uh God’s picked out the people
who will be His.
See, that just proves that God elects His people, He predestinates them before they’re
ever born to be saved or lost, and that’s what we’re to know.
Turn back to Revelation chapter 3.
to the angel of church of Philadelphia.
These things says, he who is holy, he who is true, he who has the key of David, he who
opens and no one shuts and shuts and no one opens.
I know your works.
See, I have set before you an open door and no one can shut it.
For you have a little strength, I have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Indeed, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not.
but lie.
Indeed, I will make them come and worship before your feet, to know that I have loved you.
Because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of
trial, which is to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
Behold, I am coming quickly.
Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no
more.
I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New
Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and I will write on him my new
name.
to the Christians in the first century.
John says, if you’re faithful and you overcome and you do not deny my name, he says to the
Christians in the church, I’m gonna write my name on your forehead.
So when you get to chapter seven, after he has plainly stated in chapter three who the
people are who have the name of God written on their forehead, guess what?
The 144,000 represent the Christians who are faithful.
because God said, I’m going to save you from this hour of trial.
I’m going to save you from the judgment to come.
I’m going to save you from that which is about to come.
And what is chapter 7 about?
It’s about God marking all of His people because they’re the ones who aren’t going to be
judged by that which is to come.
You go to chapter 14 and we’re not going to do this today, we’ll do it in our next lesson.
You’re going to see the 144,000 again and you’re going to see that they’re the followers
of the Lamb.
John chapter 10, Jesus says he’s the good shepherd.
And my sheep hear my voice.
The number 144,000 for all those who may be interested means every single Christian.
in the church.
Every one of the people of God, all of them God knows.
All of them.
God knows how to protect.
Just like in the days of Habakkuk.
When Habakkuk wants to know how in the world, God, are you going to judge a nation by the
Chaldeans, which are more wicked than even Israel is?
And God says, I’ll tell you how, because the just shall live by faith.
So when the judgment came from Babylon, you find Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael
safely in Babylon when Jerusalem’s destroyed.
When the destruction of Jerusalem comes, you find Ezekiel safely in Shushan when the
judgment of Israel comes.
When you find the judgment upon the wicked nation and the wicked people that were left in
Jerusalem, does Jeremiah die?
He’s still in the land.
Does he die?
No.
Now he’s taken by those who are left behind down to Egypt.
But what’s the point?
God says, I know who belongs to me.
Unlike all the militaries of the earth, God doesn’t accidentally drop a bomb where He
didn’t intend for it to be.
Now does that mean that there will never be a Christian who will ever suffer as a result
of the tomb-mult of this world?
No!
Go back to the fifth seal and what do you have?
You find a whole bunch of Christians who are being killed!
But you’ve never found a faithful Christian who God accidentally judged and condemned.
Not a one.
God says, I don’t lose track of my people.
I know who they are.
I wrote my name on them.
If you were to open up every Bible I have, you’ll find a page somewhere in it where I
wrote my name.
Not just because there are a lot of Bibles in the world that look alike, and not just
because Aaron sometimes misplaces things, though Aaron often misplaces things, but mostly
so that when I pick it up, I know for sure who it belongs to.
And if somebody else finds it, they know who it belongs to.
And when chapter seven opens, the question is from chapter six, who’s gonna be able to
stand in the day of the wrath of the Lamb?
And the answer is every one of God’s people, because God already marked them, and He knows
who belongs to Him.
Okay, thank you for your attention.
Mark 13 (Lesson 4) – Aaron Cozort – Feb. 25, 2026
We’ll be picking up around verse 14 uh and quickly moving forward into some of the latter
comments uh in the chapter, but we’ll do that after we open with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven, giver of all good and perfect gifts, Father of lights, Lord
we bow before you grateful for your Son who came and died on the cross for our sins, for
the salvation that is offered through His blood, through the purchased redemption of the
body of Christ the Church.
We pray that as we strive diligently to seek first your kingdom,
that we might always walk in the light as you are in the light.
Lord, we pray that as we face this trials and the tribulations, the struggles, the
difficulties that this life and this world throws at us, that we might always be attentive
to your word, to the wisdom placed within it, that we might know both how to live and how
you would have us to live.
Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
We pray that we will grow in wisdom and knowledge and understanding.
We pray for boldness that we might speak the truth and to stand firmly for the truth and
to reach lost souls with your gospel.
And Lord, we pray for the work here in Collierville that it might continue and grow and
flourish, that you might receive all the glory and all the praise.
All these things we ask and pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Jesus says to his disciples, so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by
Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, let the reader understand.
Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
First thing that we need to understand, if we are going to interpret this text, is that we
must interpret it
in its context and we must allow the context to dictate the extent of the situation.
So Jesus is going to talk about a number of things occurring.
He’s going to talk about the stars of heaven falling.
He’s going to talk about the sun turning to darkness and the moon
giving up its light.
He’s going to talk about all of these things and people will come to the passage of the
verse and see, it’s the second coming.
It’s the end of the world.
Question.
If it’s the end of the world, what good does fleeing to the mountains do?
If it’s the end of the world, then why the instruction that those who are on the housetop
not go down?
Isn’t the world going to end whether you’re in the house or on top of the house?
Isn’t it going to end no matter whether someone’s nursing or pregnant?
And if you’re nursing or pregnant, what does it matter if the world’s coming to an end and
Jesus is returning and we’re going to ascend into the clouds?
It doesn’t.
So long before you get to the highly figurative language of the stars of heaven and the
moon turning to darkness and the sun being blotted out, long before you ever get there,
Jesus says, this is not the end of the world.
He says, pray that your flight may not be in winter.
Question.
If you’re fleeing and it’s in winter and you’re pregnant or nursing,
Why would that matter?
It makes the fleeing harder, doesn’t it?
It makes it slower.
It endangers you because you can’t flee as quickly.
And the point that Jesus is making is when they observe the signs, they know that a
localized event is occurring, because that’s the only kind you can flee from.
When the rains started, after Noah had built the ark and God had shut the door,
how far could people flee to escape the judgment of God?
To the top of the tallest mountain and eventually the waters did what?
Exceed to the top of the tallest mountain by 15 cubits.
Point, nowhere to flee.
No possibility of fleeing.
No success in fleeing.
The only salvation was to have not fled, but rather have entered the boat.
When Jesus returns and Jesus appears and the world is burned up and every element of it is
burned up, where can you go to flee that event?
Nowhere,
but if you’re a Christian and you’re faithful, are you seeking to flee or are you
welcoming the event?
The Christians wouldn’t be fleeing if it was Christ returning.
They’d be rejoicing!
This is not the second coming of Christ.
This is not a global event.
This is the fall of a nation, which is always a localized event.
Now, some nations are bigger and some nations are smaller.
Some nations fall and it’s more localized and some nations fall and it’s much more global.
but it’s still a local event.
Phil.
chapter 21, when you see the army surrounding the city, the isolation is near.
That’s correct.
so it’s important as we go through a text, if you go, wait a minute, what does the text
demand by way of its plain spoken clear language?
Because that puts a barrier
around all the figurative language you find, all the prophetic language you find, because
the context determines the interpretation of prophetic language.
So when the sky’s falling and the sun’s being blotted out and the moon is turning to
blood, but Isaiah in that context is only prophesying about Edom.
then the prophetic language is couched within a context of Edom.
not of the entire planet, but Edom.
Same thing true of Jerusalem, same thing true of Babylon, all of this is completely normal
in prophetic language and in prophecy.
But he says, verse 19, for in those days there will be tribulation, such as not been seen
since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time nor
ever shall be.
Some will say, Aaron, can’t agree with you, this has got to be global event.
Matter of fact, it’s so global, it is so impactful that the world has never seen an event
like it.
The tribulation is the entire planet going to war.
Every major power at war and the centerpiece of the war is happening right there in the
Valley of Megiddo.
You gotta throw some revelation into the discussion here.
Question.
Wasn’t this a globally impactful one time in all world history event?
Think about it this way.
Go back all the way through all of world history.
And what one nation did God ever say of all the nations on the planet, you will be mine?
Israel.
That was a one time in all human history event.
of what nation did God say from your seed, Abraham, I will make many nations, but from
your seed singular, I will bring forth one who is my ruler.
Of how many nations was that ever said?
One, of one family was that ever said.
Of all the nations that had ever existed on the planet, how many of them brought forth the
Messiah, the Son of God from their lineage?
One.
Of all the nations on the planet that had ever existed and will ever exist, how many of
them were given a law exclusive to their nation in a covenant relationship with God unlike
everyone else on the entire planet?
same nation.
of all of the nations on all of the planet that God ever judged and brought to judgment
and destruction as a result of their rejection of Him and rebellion against Him, which one
was the single most significant in all human history?
Israel.
Not because of how great Israel was.
Not because of how large Israel was.
Not because Israel was the dominating world power.
Not because Israel had its tentacles and its reach of power and authority across the
entire planet.
But because it was the only nation with which God had ever said, I will be your God and
you will be my people.
And yet when this event occurs…
unlike any other moment in all human history.
God will end His covenant relationship with that nation.
Remember what Jesus said already in the same context though recorded in Matthew.
Turn to Matthew 23.
Matthew 23 verse 31, Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of
those who murdered the prophets.
Fill up then the measure of your father’s guilt.
Serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell?
Therefore indeed I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, some of them you will kill
and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city
to city,
but that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of
righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barakiah whom you murdered between the
temple and the altar.
Assuredly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.
How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her
wings, but you were not willing.
Notice the phrase, see your house is left to you desolate.
And by the way, that is followed by a blessing.
For I say to you, you shall see me no more till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord.” That statement, by the way, is also not about the Second Coming.
That is about the one that God says is His servant bringing about His judgment on their
wickedness.
The Christians are going to go rise up and say, finally, God’s provided someone to end
this nation and its persecution of us.
The Christians are going to look at the destruction by the Romans, and they’re going to
say, it’s about time!
that God brought judgment of this wicked nation.
You see, when Jesus says, back in Mark chapter 13,
that the events are going to occur and that from those days there will be tribulation such
as had not been since the beginning of creation which God created until this time nor ever
shall be.
He means it.
It’s not hyperbole.
There will never be and had never been another time where God took the nation that He
brought up out of nothing.
where God took the nation that He said, you’ll be my child and I’ll be your father?
That God took the nation that He said, I am going to put you in this place and I am going
to cause you to prosper?
And I will be your God and you will be my people?
There is never another time in all history where God said, and now I will bring you to
complete and utter destruction.
because with wicked hands they had betrayed and murdered the very Son of God.
and then they went after God’s people.
never had been another event like it never will be for there will never be another nation
that God says you will be my people but then consider also he says and unless the Lord had
shortened those days no flesh would be saved but for the elect’s sake whom he chose he
shortened the days
The point that God’s making is an Old Testament one from the prophecies of Isaiah, where
Isaiah says, Isaiah chapter 1, very beginning of Isaiah, if God ever came at Israel and
gave it what it deserved, it’d be like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Unless God stayed His own hand in judging Israel, there would not be one person left.
from this nation.
And again, by the way, you’re seeing God saying, I’m going to judge you.
I’m going to topple your nation.
I’m going to end your authority.
I’m going to end your power.
I’m going to end your religion.
I’m going to end everything that made Israel Israel.
but I’m not going to entirely cut you off from the earth.
and he’s not going to because of the Christians that are among the nation.
In the same way in the days of Isaiah, in the days of Daniel, in the days of Ezekiel, in
the days of Nebuchadnezzar, God says there’s going to be a remnant.
So in Jesus’ day there’s going to be a remnant, but there’s no longer going to be a
covenant relationship with the nation.
There’s no longer going to be an Old Testament law.
There’s no longer going to be a temple or sacrifices or anything that made up their
relationship to God anymore.
there will be people left.
And that’ll be it.
So then notice he says, verse 21, then if anyone says to you, look, here’s the Christ, or
look, he is there, do not believe it.
For false Christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if
possible, even the elect.
But take heed, see, I have told you all things beforehand.
Oh, I tell you what, here’s what you’re supposed to do.
Listen to me, not them.
Now that’s generally good advice for everything in regards to scripture.
Listen to God, not somebody who tells you that what God said isn’t true.
Listen to God and do what He says and ignore everybody else!
Sadly, there are too many today, some even within the body of Christ, that no longer
believe to be the case.
They think, no, you don’t really have to listen to God.
You could just do what you want to do.
Verse 24, but in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, the moon
will not give its light, the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will
be shaken.
Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, and
then He will send His angels and gather together His elect from the four winds from the
farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven.
And so he says, all right, well, this is the part where we switched and we’re talking
about second coming.
No.
This is God, and this is Christ, saying when you see the coming happen, when you see the
judgment happen, I still know where every single one of my people are.
They’re still under my protection.
I’ve not neglected them.
I’ve not forgotten them.
I know where every single one of them is.
If they’re dead, I know where they are.
If they’re alive, I know where they are.
If they’re already in eternity, I know where they are.
It’s very much like this statement.
Turn to Habakkuk chapter 2.
get there in a minute and get my pages to cooperate.
in the back of chapter two.
we find in verse 2, then the Lord answered me and said, write the vision and make it plain
on tablets that he may run who reads it.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak and it will not
lie.
Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him.
but the just shall live by faith.
Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, now he’s going to move into the discussion of
going, I’m going to judge the one by whom I’m going to judge Israel.
And there is a temptation in looking at the judgment on Jerusalem to see God judging His
people and then realize that God’s judging His people by Rome, which is a nation far more
wicked than God’s own people.
If you think the Epstein files have a bunch of horrendous things in them, go read about
Rome!
Better yet, don’t.
God is going to judge His people and He is going to describe their very presence in His
own city, in the Holy City, in the City of God, the city where God put His name, as the
abomination of desolation.
And yet his point to his people is, this isn’t because I’ve lost control.
and that my judgment is going to continue to those with whom I judge my people.
because I know who are my people and I will provide for them even after Jerusalem’s gone
and even in the midst of judging Rome.
He says.
Now learn the parable from the tree.
when its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is
near.” Now, you remember there was a fig tree in an event not too many chapters ago,
right?
What was significant about the fig tree that Jesus and the disciples encountered during
these events?
All right?
Came up to it, it was flowering, it gave all the indications when you arrived at it that
it should have had fruit on it, but it didn’t have any fruit.
And here he says, here’s what you know from agriculture.
Here’s what you know from living in the land where we live.
That when you see the fig tree or the branch has already become tender and it puts out its
leaves, you know the summer’s near.
You don’t have to be inspired by God to look at the fig tree and know what time of the
year it is.
And notice what he says, so you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is
near at the doors.
Because I just gave you a list of things, a list of events.
You go look at the list.
When you see the list,
One after another, like dominoes fall, you go, I know what’s about to happen.
and I know it’s near.” Okay, he goes on to say, “‘Surely I say to you, this generation
will by no means pass away till all these things take place.'” That’s how I know verses 24
through 27 are not talking about the Second Coming.
Now, in Matthew…
There are three questions.
What are the signs of your coming?
What are the signs of the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple?
And in Matthew, there is a separation because he’s going to give the signs concerning the
fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, and he’s going to say, there’s a sign
for this, there’s a sign for this, there’s a sign for this, there’s a sign for this,
you’re supposed to know when this happens, you’re supposed to know when this happens.
And then he gets to a point in the text that he says, and of the day and that hour,
there’s no signs.
Go back to Mark chapter 13 verse 1.
Sorry, verse 4.
As the apostles come to Jesus after he observes that not one stone will be left upon
another, notice Mark’s text.
Mark records, now as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James,
John, and Andrew asked him privately, tell us when will these things be and what will be
the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?
How many questions are there in Mark’s text?
Two.
Which one’s missing?
and the sign of your coming.
There’s a reason why you have to be careful with the little sub headers that men inserted
into the text.
Mine here reads right before verse 24, the coming of the Son of Man.
which is an accurate description except what do most people think when they read that?
we’re talking about the second coming of Christ, we’re talking about His return, we’re
talking about the end of time.
And that’s not the coming we’re talking about.
the entire context in Mark.
deals with the fall of Jerusalem.
and the destruction brought upon the Jewish nation and their judgment by God.
and Mark tells you that’s all he’s going to discuss because those are only two questions
he includes.
Now notice this.
He says, So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near at the
doors.
Surely I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take
place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.
Someone says, wait a minute, there’s the second coming, there’s where it is, no!
That is an analogy.
Jesus’ point is you might see the world crumble around you, you might see the end of the
world come because there is coming a day where it will, but here’s one thing you can be
assured of as my people.
I’m gonna keep my word.
Now.
Verse 32, he goes, but of that day and hour, no one knows.
Not even the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.
There’s the only reference.
to the second coming.
It’s when he explains the analogy.
Heaven and earth might pass away, but my words won’t.
You can take this judgment and this prophecy to the bank.
And the only thing I can tell you about the other event is you won’t know what is coming.
But this one has to come first.
You can’t have that event before this one happens.
Jesus is encouraging them in the entire text to watch for the signs.
And telling them actively to not spend so much time focusing on the final day that they
ignore the signs of this day
because they need to be ready for it.
They need to be ready to flee.
They need to be ready to leave.
They need to know that it’s coming.
They need to be aware of it and watching for it.
He says, take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is.
It is like a man going to a far country who left his house and gave authority to his
servants and to each his work and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
Watch therefore.
For you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening, at midnight, at
the crowning of the rooster, or in the morning, lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say to you I say to all.” Watch.
as Jesus draws their attention to the discussion that was the discussion at hand.
His focus wasn’t on the second coming.
His focus wasn’t on the return or the end of the world and when it would happen.
His focus was far more immediate.
for a group of disciples who were going to lose their home, their family, their nation,
their history, their genealogy, their lineage, and everything that made them a Jew or an
Israelite.
But long before they lost that, they were going to lose all of those things in the form of
persecution and rejection by their own people.
see long before AD 70.
the church and the Jews in it, we’re going to fight one battle after another, after
another, after another, inside the church and outside the church with Israel.
because those who rejected Christ were going to persecute them and imprison them and put
them to death and throw them out of the synagogue and reject them and remove their
inheritance and take everything that they had away physically in this life and drive them
out of their own nation.
And then there were going to be those from among the sect of the Pharisees who are then
going to come into the church and claim to be Christians who are going to do so to spy out
their liberty, Paul says, so that they can use their own teachings and their own history
and the Mosaic law as a chokehold to rip them back into Israel.
and then to hang that weight that Israel could never bear in the form of the law which
condemned them and did not give a solution for their sin and hang that around the neck of
the Gentile Christians too.
all while promoting themselves and not Christ.
Jesus is not focused on the Second Coming.
He is focused on a far more traumatic experience that every Jewish Christian was going to
go through.
those in Jerusalem and those outside.
at the hand of the Jews.
that would be one more final bow on the top of God’s judgment of Israel.
and Jesus was clear, this generation’s not going to die before it’s done.
Now chapter 14, since we got through all of that cherry mess.
We’re still in the midst of the last week of Jesus’ life.
Chapter 14, verse 1, after two days it was the Passover and the feast of the unleavened
bread.
And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might take him by trickery and put him
to death.
But they said, not during the feast, lest there be an uproar of the people.
What were the ordinances for anyone who touched a dead body in regards to a feast day?
Couldn’t participate.
So they’re saying, all right, we gotta get this done.
We can’t do it during the feast.
Too many legal hiccups.
Too much possibility of causing an uproar, both from a legal perspective and because Jesus
is loved by the people.
Jesus is just rode in on a donkey with a whole crowd laying their coats down, laying palm
leaves down, and crying, Hosanna to the highest!
and they’ve just sent person after person after person trying to trip Jesus up and
question him and every single time they end up with in their face.
will actually be ill.
goes to show the hypocrisy of what they really cared about and didn’t care about.
Okay, so as Eddie’s pointing out, as you look at this the hypocrisy is seen in that
they’re concerned about the uproar of the people, but they’re going to do everything
they’re going to do to Jesus they’re going to do illegally.
But they are going to do it in the middle of the night.
They are going to make sure he’s tried before daybreak.
They are going to make sure that they can get the majority of their work done and the
majority of the things done under dark of night so that people don’t know what’s going on.
That’s the first thing in the morning.
Where are they headed?
To go see the governor.
because as far as they’re concerned, he’s already appointed to death.
We just gotta get Roman permission to do it.
Notice he says, verse 3, or he writes, and being in Bethany at the house of Simon the
leper, as he sat at the table a woman having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of
spikenard, then she broke the flask and poured it on his head, Jesus’ head, but there were
some who were indignant among themselves and said, why was this fragrant oil wasted?
For it might have been sold for more than 300 denarii and given to the poor, and they
criticized her sharply.
But Jesus said, let her alone.
Why do you trouble her?
She has done a good work for me.
For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish, you may do good to them, or
may do them good.
But me, you do not have always.
She has done what she could.
She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial.
Assuredly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this
woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”
Now, in this record, you don’t have all of the parties identified like you do in some of
the other accounts.
But in this record, Jesus makes the point of the action that the woman is going to do that
this is going to be recorded, remembered, and retold.
Now.
There’s a lesson here for us.
And one of the lessons that we find in the text is that it is actually okay to do
something special, to do something even expensive or extravagant for a good reason.
that we are not to live our lives entirely focused on, well, every penny I make better be
used to help the less fortunate in the world.
So I can’t possibly use the two pennies that I’ve got to help my kids go to college or to
graduate or to hold a celebration at their wedding.
Where are we first introduced to Jesus and His miracles in the book of John
at wedding feast.
And you know, while we have some elaborate weddings…
We don’t have weddings the way that the Israelites did
and Jesus is at the wedding.
And if you were to imagine the cost of the wedding, you might be able to imagine the cost
of the wedding just by the volume of the drinking liquid that Jesus supplied to the
wedding after it had already run out
and they were well into the wedding feast by that point.
Jesus is making the point that yes, this woman has done something extravagant.
She has done something far beyond what was normal.
And yet, what she did was commendable.
What she did was not only commendable, it was going to be recognized and retold and
remembered forever
because of the honor that she gave to Christ.
and something else as we close.
is that this is one of the few people who actually understood what was coming.
Apostle sitting there at the meal.
They didn’t understand what was coming.
Simon sitting at the meal, he didn’t understand what was coming.
The others who were present, they didn’t understand what was coming.
Here is this woman.
For sake of emphasis among the Israelite nation, a woman!
And she knew what was coming.
She knew where Jesus was headed.
and she knew why.
and she couldn’t do anything to stop.
but she could honor Him while He was still there.
So Jesus commends her.
And Jesus says that everywhere the gospel is preached in the whole world.
What this woman has done will also be told.
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, when he went to the chief priests to betray him to
them, and when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money, so he sought
how he might conveniently betray him.
I think it’s significant.
You’ve got to put all the accounts together of this meal, of who Simon was, of his
relationship to Judas, of who the woman was, of the surrounding events and the rebuke of
Simon.
But Mark tells you that out of this meal,
Simon, or sorry, Judas, goes to find the chief priests to give them Christ.
The beginning of the plot happens after this meal.
And that’s significant when you go look at the rest of the accounts and you start to
realize why this meal.
But we’re out of time, so we’ll have to talk about that later.