I'm going to be reading from a passage in which the saints of heaven fully realize the incredible gracious greatness of our God, reading from Revelation 11, 15 through 19. So the seventh angel trumpeted and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones in God's presence fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, We thank you, O Lord God Almighty, who is, he who is and who was and who is coming, because you have taken up your great power and begun to reign. The nations were angry and your wrath came, even the time for the dead to be judged and to give the reward to your slaves, the prophets, and to the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great, and to destroy those who have corrupted the earth. And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, and huge hail. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. And I pray that as we study it, we would understand it accurately, But not just we would understand it and love you with our minds, but Father that we would love you with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. And so we commit this continued time of worship and pray for your guidance and your Holy Spirit to fill our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well in these next five verses we have what some commentators think of as five very puzzling statements. Now they're not puzzling at all to me, but let me explain why at least some commentators think of these as very puzzling. Puzzle 1. How can verse 15 claim that Jesus was given the kingdom in AD 70 when the first five chapters of Revelation indicate that He had already ascended to His throne? He was already Lord of lords, King of kings. Isn't that a contradiction? And some will say that verse 17 even presses that contradiction more. In that verse the elders say, because you have taken up your great power and begun to reign. Now Jesus was already on His throne at His ascension. Why would they now be celebrating the beginning of His reign in A.D. 70? It won't do to claim that in A.D. 30 he was reigning in heaven and that now he gets authority on earth because 40 years before he said all authority is given me where? In heaven and on earth. So that's the first puzzle. Puzzle two, how can the father be said to begin to reign in verse 17? I mean the father's reign never had any beginning or any end. And this passage seems to indicate that Jehovah God for the first time takes up His great power and He begins to reign. That gives some people heartburn. Puzzle three, why did the vast majority of manuscripts say the kingdom singular of the world has been given to our Lord and of His Christ, rather than saying that the kingdoms plural of the world have become the kingdom of Christ? And we'll see rather than being a puzzle, it's actually a very significant statement. It's the fulfillment of Daniel 7. and it shows a massive blow to Satan. Puzzle 4, how can verse 18 say that 80-70 is the time for the dead to be judged? when there are scriptures that indicate that the dead are going to be judged on the last day of history. Well, to anticipate, there are scriptures that talk about two judgments. And just as the kingdom was begun and will end with a resurrection, it begins and will end with a judgment. It just shows that all judgment, as Jesus said, had been committed to him. He's not waiting for that power. He has that power already. Puzzle 5. Why does verse 19 seem to indicate that AD 70 is a significant date for the symbolic opening up of the way to the Holy of Holies when Hebrews clearly says that Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension enables us to boldly come before the throne of God? And you'll see that the symbolism of Yom Kippur, one of the feasts that are on the back of your outline, becomes the perfect answer to that puzzle. There is a legal side and there is a historical side to that equation. Now, some have tried to get around those so-called conundrums by saying that this is not going to be fulfilled till the end of history, at the end of time. That doesn't solve anything. All it does is it adds a few more years to this already not yet tension. And furthermore, it yanks these verses out of a crystal clear first century context. Now, even if you were to ignore the context, It still doesn't resolve the passages that tie some of these things to A.D. 30. So the puzzle remains. Others have tried to get around those conundrums by taking an idealist position and they say this has nothing whatsoever to do with history. This is dealing with divine eternal principles and it's not pinning it to any one point in history. But as we saw in my introductory sermon to chapter 6, This book from chapter 5 through chapter 11 is a very tight chronological sequence with all kinds of time indicators. Let me just remind you of a few of those from the previous chapters. John had said earlier, after these things. That seems to be a time indicator, right? A historical sequence. A little while longer. When? Then? About to sound. Five months. Why say five months if there's no history involved? In those days, one woe is past, two more woes are coming after these things, prepared for the hour and day and month and year, et cetera. Now we saw, if you were to take those time indicators at all seriously, these verses have to occur in AD 70. I don't see any way of getting around that. So let's go through this passage phrase by phrase, and let's take a look, try to understand some of the revolutionary things that happened in AD 70. I think you'll find this to be a tremendous encouragement to your faith. And actually before we do that let's go back to the previous verse, verse 14 that we ended with and just reiterate this really is chronological. Verse 14 says, The second woe is past. Behold the third woe is coming shortly. Greek word tachou. Now Pickering's translation doesn't translate that last word tachou But that word means something that's going to happen soon after the current event. That means that the seventh trumpet would follow soon after the burning of the temple. And of course when verse 15 says, so the seventh angel trumpeted you would kind of expect that 7th trumpet is going to occur after the 6th trumpet. Now you do see in commentaries where they mix these things up, but unless there is clear cut evidence that these things are out of order, or that you've got to insert thousands of years of a gap in here, we ought to expect that the seventh trumpet's going to happen in historical sequence right after the sixth. This is clearly an 80-70 context. So what happens in 80-70? Well, the first obvious thing that happens is that you hear yet another angel sounding yet another trumpet. And think of this trumpet as a signal to an army of perhaps hundreds of thousands of angels that it's time now for them to join the other angels in this battle. Every angel who has sounded so far has sounded a trumpet, has been leading his armies of angels into more spiritual warfare. So this is not the end of history when all battles end, are done. This is the beginning of more warfare against Satan's hosts. A trumpet equals a call to warfare. Indeed, we'll see that this is one of the major turning points of the spiritual warfare that has been going on on planet Earth. The kingdom is going to be wrested out of Satan's control. And that's the reasons why some people believe that Satan was bound in AD 70. Whether or not that's true, and we'll look at that subject in chapter 12, there's clearly some kind of a conflict that is happening here since another regiment of angels is being summoned. Now let me deal with a controversy on the identity of this trumpet. Full Preterists and Futurists make exactly the same mistake by identifying this seventh trumpet with the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And at first it seems like a logical conclusion you'd expect. Maybe the last of this series of trumpets could be the last in another passage. But because it is a mistaken conclusion, there are negative consequences. It forces futurists to put this passage at the end of history and it forces full preterists to take many end of history passages and place them at 70 A.D. in order to be consistent. But though they come to different conclusions, both of them disastrous, it's because they make the same mistake of identity. For example, they've identified this trumpet with the trumpet in 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16. Now I see that trumpet as being quite different. For example, Jesus blows that trumpet, whereas an angel blows this one. The first Thessalonians trumpet is blown at the end of Christ's kingdom. This is blown at the time that he receives the kingdom, at the beginning of the kingdom, right? The first Thessalonians trumpet sounded after Christ descends out of heaven, whereas this one sounds in heaven. And even after the trumpet, where is the focus? in verse 15. It says that there were loud voices in heaven. So we're still in heaven after the trumpet sounds. So I think those are three hints that they are different trumpet occasions. And as I mentioned earlier, others identify the seventh trumpet with the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15, but that too is different than this one. Like the 1 Thessalonians trumpet, 1 Corinthians 15 signals the end of history, the end of Christ's kingdom when he hands the kingdom over to the Father. not the time that he receives the kingdom from the Father as this one does here. They're quite different. And full Preterists who insist that they are the same, they're forced, just logical conclusions, they're forced to say that Christ's reign of a thousand years is from 30 A.D. to 70 A.D. and in 70 A.D. he's finished his mediatorial kingdom. He hands it over to the Father. It puts them into all kinds of difficult positions. Besides, there's no evidence of the destruction of the Jewish temple in 1 Corinthians 15 as there is in this passage. When the 1 Corinthians 15 trumpet sounds, there are no more enemies to be defeated. Whereas we're going to be seeing, there's a ton more, a ton more, is that the right grammar? There's a lot more grammars to be defeated. Yeah, there's a lot more enemies to be defeated after AD 70. So last in 1 Corinthians 15 means last in history, not last in one of several other sequences of trumpets. And what do I mean by several other sequences of trumpets? Well, there's all kinds of trumpet blasts in the Old Testament. Every war, you know, had blasts of the trumpet at Jericho. How many blasts of trumpet were there? And it was at the last blast that they had the destruction of Jericho. The various festivals had sequences of trumpet calls, and we saw in chapter eight that these seven trumpets are following the thematic sequence of the festival of trumpets. And by the way, that's not the last of the festivals. If you look at the chart at the end, it's followed immediately by Yom Kippur, which verse 19 refers to, and then by the Tabernacles, and then by Purim. So Tabernacles continues from 70 AD all the way through to the end of history. So I think it's arbitrary to insist that last in 1 Corinthians 15 has to refer to the seventh trumpet here. But the significance of it being the seventh trumpet of the Festival of Trumpets is that This is the absolute definitive end of the Old Covenant. The Old Testament prophesied that there would be a huge heavenly ceremony in declaring Jesus to be king once the temple was destroyed and once the demonic beast was slain. And so it's no surprise to find that the very next phrase speaks of loud voices in heaven. This is not the silence of waiting for something to happen in chapter eight. This is the boisterous noise of celebration. Something spectacular has just happened. It says, there were loud voices in heaven. And most take that as acclamations on the part of people in heaven accompanying Christ's inheriting of the kingdom. And notice the context of heaven, not earth. There were loud voices in heaven. Third thing that happened was a transference of the kingdom of the world from one Lord to another Lord, the Lord Jesus. Verse 15 has the voices celebrating this fact indicating it occurred at precisely that time. The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. Now let's ask that short text there some questions so that we can kind of tease apart what's going on here. First, what kingdom did Jesus receive in AD 70? The New King James says kingdoms plural, but the majority text has kingdom singular. And that difference between kingdom and kingdoms is very significant because this is the time when the title deed that Christ already legally had was handed to him by the heavenly court. Daniel 7 speaks about a court with thrones, and this text speaks about those thrones in verse 16. We'll get to that in a bit, but it is a kingdom singular that Jesus receives. So a follow-up question is, Was there a kingdom singular in the first century that encompassed the whole world? Well, it depends on which Greek word for world is being used. If John had used the word oikumene here, you might assume that Jesus was going to receive the kingdom of Rome because Rome ruled the entire oikumene world, not the entire world that we think of. They didn't rule China or America or Africa. But they did rule the entire oikumene world, a word that's used elsewhere in this book to refer to Rome. But the Greek word here is not oikumene, it is cosmos, a word that goes way, way, way beyond Rome. Was there any human kingdom, singular, that ruled over the entire cosmos? And we'd say no, never has been. The only kingdom that was universal that could fit that idea of cosmos was the kingdom of Satan. Satan had robbed the dominion of the world away from Adam, and Jesus was now wresting the kingdom of the world away from Satan. Now, some Reformed people question whether it is legitimate to say that Satan ruled the world. After all, doesn't the Old Testament say that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof? Yes, it does. God was sovereign, he always has been sovereign, even over Satan, even over men who rule over kingdoms. In the book of Job, Satan couldn't do a thing without God's permission, and yet it is just as clear that God allowed Satan to ruin the world, to make it groan, and to have total dominion over all of the nations except for Israel. Jesus called Satan the ruler of this world three times. Called him the ruler of this world in John 12, 31, John 14, 30, John 16, verse 11. Paul calls him the prince of the power of the air who has sway over the world. First John 5, 19 says that the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one. So what God did when Adam fell is he allowed Satan to take control of this world. And Satan even has the audacity of offering all of the kingdoms of this world to Jesus if Jesus will bow down and worship him. And it's interesting, Jesus didn't deny the fact that Satan has a worldwide kingdom. In fact, he affirms it two times. Matthew 12, 26, Luke 11, 18. But in those passages he promises to take the kingdom from Satan to bind the strong man and to plunder his kingdom. So he won the legal right to do so in AD 30 with his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. But now in AD 70, the court of heaven officially transfers rights to the kingdom from Satan to Jesus. Now here's what Moses Stewart said in his commentary. The kingdoms of the world are many considered in themselves, but in reference to the sway of Satan, there is only one kingdom ruled over by the God of this world. That dominion which he once had is now transferred to another Lord and thus the kingdom is spoken of as one or in the singular. In respect to the scriptural view of Satan's dominion over the unbelieving world, see 2 Corinthians 4.4, John 14.30, Ephesians 6.12, Colossians 1.13, Revelation 12.17, and 20 verse 8. So something earth-shaking happened in A.D. 70. The voices of men in heaven recognized the significance of the temple that is burning. It is burning to the ground. And the ending of the Old Covenant, it signaled the time for a whole series of changes in planet Earth. So with loud voices they say, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. Now I guess I've already answered the next question in your outlines. When did this transference happen? But I think it's worth a little bit more comment because there are some commentators who say because the eros tense is used in the Greek, perhaps this could have happened 40 years before in 8030. But most partial Preterist scholars say that the whole context of their celebrating something that has happened as a result of the blowing of that seventh trumpet completely militates against putting it 40 years before. In any case, if it happened an hour before or even minutes before, You know, it's still going to use the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the... the So how do we reconcile this fact that Jesus was given the kingdom in 8030? And the answer is that there's a difference between having the legal right to something, something Jesus affirmed he had, he had the legal right in 8030, and actually taking the kingdom away from Satan. Now, when we signed the contract for the sale of our house last week, Now it was more than last week. It was maybe three weeks ago. When we signed the contract on the sale of our house, the new owners had the legal right to that house. But until closing day, until I got my money, we lived there. They couldn't move into that house. Did they own it? Yes, in a sense they owned it. But could they move in? No, not until closing day. Legally, Jesus already has been given the kingdom in AD 30, but the kingdom of the world was transferred into his hands in AD 70. And of course, the Old Testament speaks of this two-stage process over and over again. I won't have the time today to get into it thoroughly, but the festivals indicate this two-fold process. They indicate that in AD 30, Jesus won the legal right to the kingdom, but they also indicate that the actual reception of it waits till the ending of the Old Covenant. You see it prophesied in Daniel 7, and we'll get to that in a little bit. But even the way that Israel was established in the Old Testament was a prophetic foretelling of what would happen with Jesus. Legally, Israel was given the land of Canaan the moment they exited Egypt. But when did they actually receive that kingdom? It's when they crossed the Jordan River and entered in to begin taking possession of their possessions. And it's just the same way it was 40 years later for Jesus. Now in my sermon on the second part of Revelation 1 verse 9, we saw that there was an exquisite and very detailed foreshadowing of Christ's kingdom by ancient Israel. Their exodus from Egypt, their Passover, They're going through the Red Sea. They're exiting on the Day of Firstfruits, prophetically foretold Christ's exodus, His Passover, His burial, His exiting from the tomb on the Day of Firstfruits. Mount Sinai came 40 days later. at Pentecost, and Pentecost has many, many parallels to what happened 50 days later after Christ's resurrection in Acts chapter two, and we won't get into the details of that. Then after that, the events of the 40 years of wilderness wandering of the Jews parallels the first 40 years of the church. Were there victories? Yes, there were victories. But was there also apostasy? Yes, there was in both of those. They're entering into Canaan officially getting title to the land happened exactly 40 years later Just as Christ receiving of the kingdom here happened exactly 40 years after his resurrection and verse by verse We see Daniel 7 being fulfilled in these verses now some people vigorously deny What I am teaching here this morning And they say that this passage will only be fulfilled in the future. What are the consequences of that theology? There's a lot of consequences, but one of the worst is that it actually kills the faith of the church. They cannot see how the church has any promises that we can lay claim to in terms of victory. Reasoner's commentary very correctly says, if, however, we believe the seventh trumpet is in the future rather than in the past, It forces the interpreter to locate the renewal of God's eternal reign in the future as well. Then we must assume that the evil one now has charge over earth and only heaven belongs to Christ. And you see this in futurist commentators. They're forced to say Christ has not yet inherited his kingdom. They're then forced to conclude that the beast is alive and well, is winning. They're forced to conclude that the great tribulation is future. The saints are a tiny minority. It's only after the second coming that we're ever going to see any victory. What you believe on this passage makes a huge difference. Verse 16 goes on to indicate that it wasn't just Jesus ruling. There are others ruling in Christ's presence. It says of the 24 elders who sit on their thrones in God's presence. And we'll stop there and think about those 24 elders for a bit. Notice it says the 24 elders because he's pointing back to uh... the elders he had been already referring to in chapter four he didn't want any mistake about the identity and in chapter four we saw that those elders stood as symbolic representatives of god's people so their rule represents the rule of the saints well that's exactly what daniel prophesied would happen in eighty seventy and what i want to do is i want to read some sample verses uh... from daniel chapter seven that happened at the very end of the three-and-a-half-year war against Jerusalem. As I read this, I want you to notice the references to the saints ruling, having dominion, receiving the kingdom. Because of our union with Jesus, we too enter into this transference of the kingdom from Satan into our hands. Satan no longer has that authority. And if you want to follow along, it's Daniel 7. I'm going to begin reading at verse 8. I'll probably read through the whole chapter once again, because I think it is so strongly behind this. Daniel 7, verse 8. 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. I watched till thrones were put in place. So notice the reference to thrones. And the Ancient of Days was seated. His garment was white as snow, and 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 forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousands stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. So this is a court scene in heaven and judgment will be given in favor of Christ and in favor of the saints in that courtroom. Now verse 11 continues, I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn was speaking. I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and 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." So not all of the demonic beasts, and we saw those beasts were demons from the pit, not all of them were bound back into the pit in AD 70. The beast that governed Rome certainly was bound in the pit. And we're gonna be seeing in chapter 12 that Satan probably was. But let me continue reading to show why the saints can rule. The saints are on thrones. because Jesus is on the throne. As Ephesians says, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. So the next verse, verse 13, also speaks of Christ's enthronement. I was watching in the night visions, and behold, 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 in a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed. Now let's skip down to verse 17 and notice the reference to saints again. Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which arise out of the earth, but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. Now the context is the Great Tribulation, the first half of the war. Now let me read verses 21 through 22 for yet another reference to the rule of the saints. I was watching, and the same horn was making war against the saints and prevailing against them until the Ancient of Days came, And a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. And then finally let me read verses 26 through 27, which again make it crystal clear that the saints enter into rule with Jesus. But the court shall be seated, and they shall take away His dominion. So this is taking away the dominion of Satan to consume and destroy it forever. Then the kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. So Daniel 7, which all commentators say is the background to our passage in Revelation 11, Daniel 7 says in some way Jesus begins to reign in AD 70 and His saints begin to rule with Him, through Him. Our only authority is through union with Jesus. So let's go back to Revelation 11 and verse 16. I want you to notice that it's not 12 elders who are sitting on 12 thrones. This is not a New Testament church. This is 24 elders That number represents the totality of God's people represented by 12 elders or representatives of God's people in the Old Testament and 12 elders or representatives of God's people in the New Testament. The double 12 stands as a double witness against God's enemies but also shows the unity of God's church. I think it's wonderful imagery. Hebrews 12 says we've come to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn of the Old Testament. We're one with them. And notice the boldness that these elders have. I mean, they sit in God's presence. This is audacious. This is astounding. It speaks of the 24 elders who sit on their thrones in God's presence. Now, do they fall down on their faces before Almighty God? Yes, they do. But I don't want you to miss the fact that in the first part of that, they sit on their thrones before God. They've got amazing boldness because of their union with Jesus. They have authority in Jesus. So they sit on thrones. And they have security in Jesus, so they sit in His presence. I mean, this is the kind of stuff ought to send shivers up and down your spine. You know, if the representatives, the elders, can sit in God's presence in this way, what it's signaling, commentators indicate, is that the saints have this kind of authority as well. And these elders are part of Daniel's court that meets to vindicate God's kingdom, to pronounce judgment upon God's enemies. And what they're modeling at the beginning of Christ's kingdom is an indication of what the church needs to be doing throughout this new covenant era. When we are willing to take God's enemies to the court of heaven, we have great authority. But when we neglect our privileges in Christ, well, then the enemies triumph. Christ has chosen to advance His rule when the saints sit and judge and rule from heaven. We're not to take our cue from what's happening on earth. We're to take our cue from what is happening in heaven. Okay, where the elders sit, where the saints rule from their position in the heavenlies. And thrones do represent both judgment and rule. Overcomers rule while they are on earth. They continue to rule when they die and when they go to heaven. Our life will always be bound up in what Jesus is and what Jesus does. But this is a call for saints to begin accessing their privileges in Jesus. Ephesians says we're seated with him in the heavenlies. And we need to act as if that's true, especially now that the 80-70 transfer of power and authority over the world has been given to Jesus and to the saints. To me, this is an encouragement to faith. Jesus told us, the meek shall inherit the earth. That's where it's all destined to go. The meek shall inherit the earth. Paul told the Corinthians they were living far below the privileges that they had in Christ. He told them, therefore let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. When you're united to Jesus by faith, you own the world. You have authority over the world. You can claim the world for King Jesus. Brothers and sisters, to me this indicates we are living in exciting times. Do not take your cues from the raging of the enemy. Take your cues from what's happening in heaven. And when you see what happened in heaven at that time, it's no wonder that these secure saints fell on their faces and worshiped. They were blown away by the privileges that they had. It says, They fell on their faces, worshipped God, saying, We thank you, O Lord God Almighty, who is and who was and who is coming, because you have taken up your great power and begun to reign. And I spent quite a bit of time explaining that phrase, He who is and who was and who is coming, when we looked at Revelation 1, verse 4, and we saw it's a phrase that's only appropriate to speak to Jehovah. The Septuagint uses that phrase to capture the meaning of Jehovah as the self-existent and self-sufficient God who overflows in generous sufficiency for us. God is the great I Am who needs nothing but who loves to provide for His people. I mean, who's not going to be excited about worshiping a God like that? But I want you to notice where the focus is there. They're not excited because this God's giving them Mercedes-Benzes and houses and all kinds of things. No, this is a God-centered, God-glorifying prayer. They praise Him because you have taken up your great power and begun to reign. What are they passionate about? Not themselves, they are passionately seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness. They're excited about the extension of His kingdom. They rejoice that He's taking back planet earth. Now, will it be a long process? Yes, but it's a process that began in earnest in 80-70. Now that brings back the objection that some have had. God's reign never had a beginning or an end, so how on earth could they say to Almighty God, because you have taken up your great power and begun to reign, only Christ's reign has a beginning. Well, that's easy for me. Jesus is Jehovah. You know, it's pretty easy. It's not a problem. The mediatorial kingdom began in the first century. Everybody agrees with that. And God rules through Jesus. And there was a start, that mediatorial reign. This is obviously not referring to God's providential rule, which has always happened, but to Christ's mediatorial rule. And even that had to begin in power because the mediatorial kingdom must crush evil before it can promote good. And the specific evil that has ended in AD 70 is Satan's ownership and the rule of the kingdom of the world. I think it is illegitimate to any more speak of Satan as being the ruler of this world. He was dispossessed of his kingdom. Satan's kingdom was taken. Chapter 12 will say that at the beginning of the three and a half year wars, after he's cast out of heaven, at the beginning of that three and a half years war, he was cast out of heaven in 66 AD. We saw the incredible signs in the heaven and the armies coming and all of that. He is enraged and he fights against the church for three and a half years. He is enraged because he knows that he only has a short time. He knows he's only got three and a half years before the kingdom is going to be taken from him and he does all of the destruction that he can during that time. But the next phrase pits the wrath of the nations against the wrath of God. Same Greek word. It says, the nations were angry, and your wrath has come. Now this is a reference, most commentators believe, to Psalm 2, which starts with the nations raging against Christ and ends with this command. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. When God's wrath is pitted against the nation's wrath, who's gonna win? It's gonna obviously be God, right? He curses nations that refuse to submit to His Son from 80, 70 and on. And in that context it was Israel and Rome. And He blesses nations that put their trust in Him. And from 80, 70 and on, nation after nation began to trust in the Lord. First nation to become Christian was Malta. the island of Malta and it was Christian from the first century on and nations followed suit until finally Rome itself became a Christian empire. The next thing that happened in AD 70 was the judgment of the dead. Verse 18 goes on to say, even the time for the dead to be judged and to give the reward to your slaves, the prophets. Earlier in chapter 11, we saw that the world's last two living prophets had died, and then they got resurrected. And in order for the dead to be judged, they have to be resurrected. So there's a resurrection implied here, but because we dealt with the resurrection, I'm not gonna bring that subject up again. But why would God also do a judgment at this time, rather than reserving all judgment for the end of history? Chilton, Gentry, Stewart and others weakened the sense of this verse by translating the Greek word krino as vindicate. Now while that is possible, it's a very unusual meaning of that term, the usual ordinary meaning for this term is to engage in judicial process. And that's what's in the context, right? The elders representing the people, they're seated on thrones. They're engaging in judicial process. And all of the commentaries agree this chapter is reflecting Daniel chapter 7, which is a courtroom scene, right? It's a judicial process. And that passage is a court case happening. Daniel 7 verse 22 says that in AD 70, quote, a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High. And the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom. So this was the turning point in terms of spiritual warfare. Prior to this, Daniel says that the beast was winning. He was wearing down the saints. But after this, the church explodes. But in any case, there are thrones, there's a court, there's judgments being made against the beast, against the nations in favor of the saints. But Daniel 7 and 12 both indicate that there was a judgment and a reward of the dead saints made at that point, and says that Daniel would be resurrected in AD 70. He would enter his inheritance in AD 70. That's Daniel 12 verse 13. The reason I'm bringing this up, until partial preterists, I'm a partial preterist, until partial preterists see a resurrection and a judgment at both the beginning and the end of God's kingdom, Christ's kingdom. We will not have strong answers against the best arguments of the full preterists. There are many scriptures besides Daniel that speak of a first century judgment. Let me read you three. Acts 17 verse 31 says, he is about to judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead. That's Acts 17.31. It says that God was about to judge the world in righteousness. That's the Greek word mellow. Unfortunately the New King James doesn't translate that. But that word mellow cannot by any stretch of the imagination be stretched out into thousands of years. It means that the judgment was just around the corner. It was about to happen. 2 Timothy 4 verse 1 says the same thing. It says, I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who is about to judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. Matthew 12, verses 41 through 42, Jesus said, "'The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it.'" Because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. "'The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it.'" for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here." So 80-70 really is a critical date in eschatology. Though the New Covenant was inaugurated at Christ's Last Supper, there is an already not yet tension because the Old Covenant was not yet ended. Hebrews says that Christ's death and resurrection made the old obsolete, but the old is not done away with yet. Let me read that. Hebrews 8-13. In that he says, a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Now the Greek word ready is engous, and it means something that will soon happen. So it was in 8070 that the old covenant ended, and the new covenant kingdom went from the wilderness over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, so to speak. Warfare didn't end when they entered Jordan, and warfare didn't end in 8070. That's the beginning, right? Not the end. But it was a transition when the authority was taken from Satan and given to Christ. In any case, the Old and the New Testament both indicate that judgment was critical to the beginning of the kingdom. Kingdom begins and ends with judgment. And in my last message, I pointed out that's clearly stated in the Olivet Discourse. I see the first, in the Olivet Discourse, the first 34 verses as referring to 70 AD, And the rest of chapter 24 and all of chapter 25 is referring to the second coming at the end of history. So you look at the first part, it indicates that judgment was said to be near, two times, at the doors, within one generation, and about to happen. On the other hand, full Preterists ignore references to the second half of the Olivet Discourse, which indicate that the second judgment, not the first, The second judgment will be delayed. And the word delayed is used twice. will be far off and after a long time. So there is a judgment that's near at the beginning of the kingdom. There is a judgment that is far off, delayed, and after a long time at the end of the kingdom. And by the way, Hebrews explains why the Old Testament saints were resurrected and awarded at the beginning of the kingdom rather than at the end. Hebrews 11.40 says they didn't have the privilege of living in the age of the kingdom. So God privileges them in one way, and He privileges us in another way. He privileges us with something better than they had, but He privileges them by letting them get resurrection bodies before we do. Kind of evens out the privileges, so to speak. It says, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. And then the next chapter defines being made perfect as being resurrected, made whole. They couldn't be resurrected until the kingdom came. It says that the kingdom will begin with the spirits of just men made perfect, okay? So this brings about a fairness and a unity in the kingdom where they participate with us. Old Testament saints were not gypped. You might think they were gypped, but they were not. They're not left out. But it isn't just the dead who are judged and rewarded. Judgment is also made in favor of the living saints. So the text goes on to say, and to the saints and those who fear your name. That's the present tense, those who are fearing your name. So they're alive, but the saints who currently fear your name, small and great, and to destroy those who have corrupted the earth." Well this too is a fulfillment of Daniel 7. That chapter not only promised a judgment in favor of the dead, but a judgment in favor of the living saints. Daniel says that when the court was seated and the books were opened, that's verse 10, that judgment was made in favor of the saints and against the demonic beasts that controlled the world. So we living saints have privileges that we need to access. Now what about the judgment of those who corrupted the earth? We've already been looking at that. Rome and Israel both were in bed together. They both had corrupted the land of Israel and both of them suffered greatly. But ultimately it was the demonic powers behind them that were bound and cast into the pit, according to Daniel. And Revelation 12 will pick up on that theme. But Daniel does caution us not to expect perfection in the first century. While the beast will be bound in the pit, there are other demonic powers that would not be bound. Verse 12 of Daniel 7 says, as for the rest of the beast, they had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. In other words, they had the kingdom yanked from them, but that does not mean that these demons cannot work. They're gonna continue to work. There's gonna be guerrilla warfare they're engaged in, and any time that Christians stop operating in faith, what happens? The demonic rushes in and fills the gap. But the encouraging thing to me is we live in a period of time where there is absolutely no reason whatsoever that believers cannot win every time against the demonic if we will abide in Christ and if we will have faith in his word and in his kingdom power. The book of Revelation calls us to faith and unfortunately the way some people interpret it, especially dispensationalists, it ends up killing people's faith. They're convinced that defeat is imminent. It's guaranteed. It's the exact opposite. Now, the most encouraging verse to me is verse 19, which says, In the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord was seen in his temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, and huge hail. Now, I'll save my discussion of the huge hail that happened on more than one occasion in 66 to 70 A.D. for a later chapter. Chapter 16, you know, talks about The hail that fell being about the weight of a talent, that's a hundred pounds. And people say, that's impossible. There's no hail. I gave you a picture in here of the largest hail. It's only, it's pretty small. You know, you can hold it in one hand. A hundred pound hail is about the diameter of a bicycle wheel. It's pretty huge. And people say that that's just not possible. And so you've got commentaries like Gentry's and Chilton's, they say, well, there were ballista, you know, these big stones that the Romans lobbed into Jerusalem that were said to be a talent and they were white. So maybe that's what was going on. I said, no, no, no. Let's take the text seriously. It says hail. Let's believe that it was balls of ice that were falling out of the sky. And people say we've never had hail that big. No, that's actually not true. I've been studying the scientific journals. And there is hail that's massive. Some of the biggest, the two biggest hailstones that have been recorded in recent years fell in Brazil, and I'm getting way off track here, but fell in Brazil. One was 110 pounds, and the other was a massive 440 pounds that fell out of the sky. Now, they don't call it hail. The scientists call them megacryometeors. But as they've studied these megacryometeors, they've discovered, wow, these are composed in exactly the same way that hail is composed. And so they're speculating on how these things keep rotating up in these drafts up in the sky. Initially, they thought they were meteors that came from outer space, but those would all be burned up. So now they're saying, no, this is part of our atmosphere, the chemical makeup. And by the way, this is not the big blocks of ice that fall out of the sky with poop and stuff in them. Those leaked out of airplanes. They're blue ice, you know, and it's got feces and stuff in it. Those are gross. But this is actually just like hail. I really need to be getting into that in chapter 16 when we get to that section. Fascinating subject of the hail that fell in Israel at that time. But right now I just want to focus on the theology of this event. Now that the temple was burning down, the temple of heaven was thrown wide open. In fact, so open that the holy, the Ark of the Covenant was seen in the Holy of Holies. No longer would there be access barred to the saints. Every saint can approach the throne boldly. And there are two features to this appearance of the Ark that I think bear mentioning. The first is that the Ark of the Covenant is also called God's throne of grace. It speaks of His rule being seen. Chilton rightly says, the fall of the old Israel was not the beginning of the end. Instead, it was the sign that Christ's worldwide kingdom had truly begun, that their Lord was ruling the nations from His heavenly throne, and that the eventual conquest of all nations by the armies of Christ was assured. For these humble suffering believers, the promised age of the Messiah's rule had arrived. And what they were about to witness in the fall of Israel was the end of the beginning. Now Beal and Carson point out one other significant fact. They say that the way this verse is worded connects it thematically with the Ark of the Covenant at the Battle of Jericho. The only time in the Old Testament when the Ark of the Covenant was authorized to be seen by the people. A very fascinating subject. So where was Jericho? Was it the end of the conquest? Now, Jericho was at the very beginning of the conquest of Canaan. And so this hints at what Daniel 7 makes explicit. That this is not the end, but the beginning. The beginning of the worldwide success of the Great Commission. Now I've included on the backside of your outlines a chart of the festivals of Israel that I've put together so that you can see the progress that we have been seeing so far in this book. Now I'm not going to explain the chart completely. I'm just going to highlight some portions of it. Right at the top there, the first festival dedication points to the birth of Jesus. The next grouping of Passover unleavened bread and firstfruits all point to A.D. 30. Then you've got Pentecost 50 days later pouring out of the Holy Spirit. The next grouping of trumpets, yom kippur and tabernacles all points to the casting away of Israel, the receiving of the Gentiles into the church. And what have we been looking at in chapters 8 through 11? It's the festival of trumpets, right? What's the next feast immediately after trumpets? It's Yom Kippur. Well, verse 19 of our chapter relates to Yom Kippur. It's the purifying of the new holy of holies and the destruction of the old. You know, the high priest would come out of the holy of holies and make his pronouncements. And of course, the old holy of holies was burning even as that trumpet was sounding. Now later in the book, we're going to be seeing that Tabernacles goes from 8070 to the end of the times of the Gentiles, but even that is not the end of history. What's the very last festival of the Jewish year? Month 12, it's Purim. Purim points to the restoration of Israel into the church and even greater blessings to the Gentiles. That's all I'm gonna say on that chart at this point, but I at least thought it would be helpful for you to visually be able to see these charts as the prophetic kind of pattern that Revelation is using. Revelation's structured around many things, but this is clearly one of the things that Revelation is structured around. But hopefully you've at least seen that this passage is an encouragement to our faith. And it is a call to live and rule and conquer by faith. May we do so, amen. Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you that it is an encouragement to faith. May we be a people who live by faith, walk by faith, conquer by faith. You have said that those who overcome are given the privilege of even holding that iron rod that is in Christ's hand in Revelation 2. It just is astonishing, the incredible privileges that you have given to us that we neglect. And Father, since you in Christ have blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, I pray that you would enable us to more and more have the faith to write checks on that heavenly bank account and to begin to take victories in our own lives, in our families, and in our culture. We desire that King Jesus would be exalted, that your name would be glorified. We desire, Father, that your kingdom would come more and more, that your will would be done on earth more and more. as it is in heaven. We pray this in Jesus' name.