Well, of course last time we came to the end of the seven trumpets that we find there in Revelation 11 19 as we mentioned though The the seventh trumpet sort of encompasses so much more of what we have in the rest of Revelation in that the bowls can kind of be seen as under the umbrella of the trumpets and I think it even takes us all the way to Chapter 20 where we get to that that kingdom of the Lord but of course When we ended chapter 11, it actually ends on the same note that the seven seals did back in chapter eight, if you remember. We also spent a little time last time looking at this. It also ends on the same note that the seven bowls will in chapter 16. And so if you remember each of those three series, starting with the seals, continuing here with the trumpets, and then ending with the bowls, Each of those three series ends with this great heavenly storm that we often describe as a storm theophany. Theophany simply means the manifestation of God's presence through the language of a storm. And of course, we have the lightning and the thunder and the voices. Voices can also be translated sounds. So voices, thunder, lightning, sounds, that all deals with things that are in heaven and coming from heaven. But eventually they all come back to earth and they bring some great earthly calamities as well, like the earthquake and the great hail. And sadly, unfortunately, For so many who have received the mark of the beast, for so many that do not believe in Christ, many of them will continue to resist and rebel against the Lord and will not repent of their sins and the things that they've done against the Lord that we saw in chapter 9, the end of chapter 9. Now, even though each series, starting again with the seals and continuing here with the trumpets and then ending with the bowls, each series does seem to describe different events and different judgments in time, they all also seem to bring us to the very threshold of the return of Jesus Christ to the world. We're not yet there, but it anticipates it. And it's sort of hearkening that so that we're when we actually see Jesus return in the clouds, we will certainly be excited about that, along with John in this in this book. Of course, when Jesus does come, like we saw there in verse 19, the it will be the end of the kingdom of the world, as well as the beginning of his eternal reign. Actually, that's more in verse was it? 15 right the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever And ever so that that's the climax of the seventh trumpet the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and all of these storm Theophanies that we come to are just anticipating that so that we can expect it even more And yet, again, once we come into chapter 12, John is brought back again. He's anticipating it. He sees this storm again. He hears about the storm again. He's awaiting the coming of Christ, and yet he's brought back again. And so John is now more fully informed about the wrath of the Lamb. Early, before he's fully informed about the wrath, that will come. He's given another vision that we describe also as a prelude to the seven bold judgments that we'll get to in chapters 15 and 16. This prelude, though, covers three whole chapters. We're going to take the time again today to actually read through these chapters, but it starts in chapter 12 and it goes all the way through chapter 14. Now, what we mentioned last time is that this prelude also provides more background for us about God's people and really the great cosmic conflict that is going on between God and the devil and between his people and the world. We saw this in chapter 7, when we looked at the seal interlude. We saw this in chapter 10 and 11, when we looked at the trumpet interlude. And now we have even more information when we come to this prelude. Now we briefly saw last time that this prelude to the seven bowls of wrath actually encompasses everything that we found in the two previous interludes that we've already looked at. It encompasses all of them, sort of the bookends, if you will. So chapter seven really kind of has more of a narrower focus. Chapter seven dealing with the great tribulation and the saints of God that go into it and then the saints of God that come out of it. The 144 that go into the Great Tribulation, and the great multitude that comes out of the Great Tribulation. So it's really focused on a narrow period of time. In chapter 10 and 11, which is the next interlude, it broadens out. It encapsulates a longer period of time, if you will. Because not only do we have the ministry of two witnesses, but we also have the ministry of John. And that goes all the way back to the first century. Well, now we come to this prelude, and this goes even further back. So we have this going even before John's ministry, even before the birth of Christ, and extends all the way, again, to the very coming of Christ. Just getting us right up to the threshold before his actual return to this world. So, again, this prelude gives us more background, more information, and it encompasses everything that we found in the two previous interludes in the seals and the trumpets. So, with every passing chapter in Revelation, the anticipation, I think, builds. It all builds for the one that we're looking for, right? Titus 2.13 reminds us that we're looking for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and that is our blessed hope. And that is really how we started our entire series on eschatology. This is our blessed hope. We're looking for Christ. And so that theme of revelation keeps coming full circle. Time after time after time after time after time we're getting right up to the threshold so our anticipation continues to build and build and build until chapter 19 when he actually does come on that white horse and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. Now just like we looked at the other two interludes, again the special focus is on the people of God. As we're going to read through this prelude, there are really three main ways, three main sections if you will. Now obviously there's some overlap between all of them. In chapter 12, we can see, I think, the sustaining of God's people by the Lord as they remain in the wilderness of this world. And so as we read through chapter 12, I want you to think in terms of sustaining and preservation. God sustaining his people in the wilderness of this world. And the preservation that we find in this chapter is primarily given to us in a spiritual and heavenly way. And so that's what we're going to see when we read through chapter 12. In chapter 13, we can see the suffering of God's people. that they are called to experience for the sake of the Lord. And that struggle is what we find here in this chapter. And instead of more spiritual and heavenly things that we see in chapter 12, in chapter 13, this struggle, this suffering by God's people will be given to us in a more natural and earthly way. And this is where we learn more about the beast and the career of the beast and the oppression of the beast of God's people. So we have the sustaining of God's people in chapter 12. We've got the suffering of God's people in chapter 13. And even though there will be great suffering from chapter 13, in chapter 14, we can also see the service of God's people, even during the times of suffering. And even though there's a lot of back and forth, between heaven and earth in chapter 14, ultimately, what we're looking at is that God not only will bring reward for his people, for their service, but he will also bring retribution to their persecutors, who they have continued to serve, even through the time of tribulation and suffering. And so, when God's people are to serve him, even during the most difficult, trying times of this world, They may have to be faithful even unto death, but God himself, Jesus himself says, I will give him a crown of life. So as we go through this prelude, read through this prelude, think in these terms. Chapter 12 deals with the sustaining of God's people. Chapter 13, the suffering of God's people, which again, God's gonna sustain us through. And then of course, the service of God's people, what we're supposed to do during those times of struggle and suffering. And we will also see how God rewards his servants, even if we're faithful unto death. So before we look at the details of this prelude, we're going to read through these chapters together. So chapter 12, the sustaining of God's people in spiritual and heavenly terms. Let's read that together. And there appeared, John writes, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and it cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child. who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there 1,203 score days. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not. Neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with a remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Clearly, we have an emphasis of God's preservation of his people in this chapter. But then we come to chapter 13, where that sustaining grace is going on even while there is suffering for God's people. So chapter 13, the focus is on the suffering of God's people. John continues, and I stood upon the sand of the sea. and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns, and upon his horns 10 crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion, and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with a sword must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints. And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exercises all the power of the first beast before him and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had the power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live. and he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell save he that hath the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is six hundred threescore and six." Or six, six, six. Certainly we have the emphasis of that chapter again, the suffering of God's people, even at the hand of these beasts. and the image of the beast. And then, of course, we come to chapter 14. The scene changes again. And here again, we have an emphasis on the service of God's people. That is, what's going to happen to them as they serve, what's going to happen to them after they serve, and how God is going to reward them because of their service. And I looked, John says, and lo, a lamb. stood on the Mount Zion and with him and 144,000 having his father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps and they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders. And no man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed from the earth. These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb, withersoever they goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God. And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and every nation and kindred and tongue and people saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment is come and worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if any man worship the beast in his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God. which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation. And 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 ascendeth up forever and ever. And they have no rest day nor night who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, write, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Yea, sayeth the spirit that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them. And I looked, and behold, a white cloud. And upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap, for the time is come for thee to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle, on the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire, and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress even unto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. That is where the prelude to the bowls ends. Because right there in the very next verse, chapter 15, the bulls of God's wrath almost immediately begin. He sees another sign, seven angels having the seven last plagues, in them is filled up the wrath of God. So chapters 12 through 14 are the prelude to the bull judgments. Now, this section that we've just read, these three chapters, again, dealing with the sustaining, suffering, and even service of God's people, this section is full of what are called wonders or signs. And even miracles, actually, those words that you come across in Revelation, wonder, sign, miracle, they're all just different ways to translate the same Greek word, which is up here on your screen, semeion, which most other times is translated sign. So when you come across the word wonder or miracle or sign, they're all using the same word, the same basis for that word. Some have even called this section of Revelation the book of signs. So they almost describe it as a book within the book. So a little book within the book of Revelation, and it's the book of signs, the book of wonders, the book of miracles even. In fact, if you go back to chapter 12, verse 1, this word, semeyon, first shows up in all of the book of Revelation in this first verse. So this is one of the reasons why when people look at and try to divide up the book of Revelation, this is one major section, because this is the first time you find this word sign anywhere in Revelation. And that's there in verse 1, in the very beginning of this prelude, and there appeared a great wonder. or sign or semeion in heaven. But after this first time, we then find it six more times. So there's seven times where you find this word semeion. And even though there might be times in Revelation where seven has a special significance, I'm not sure that's the case here, because this word semeion is actually used in different ways throughout Revelation. Even though it's first mentioned here and really is only found, well, not only found, but found significantly in this prelude, Sometimes the sign is used to signify or picture something very Figurative in a highly figurative and symbolic way and and that's the way it is here in chapter 12 Again, there appeared a great wonder or sign where in heaven And then also in verse three, there appeared another wonder in heaven, another sign in heaven. These are not miracles in the sense of things that are being done that can't be explained, but rather this is just a word to show to us that something very symbolic is going to be displayed to us, something that has very deep meaning. So when we come to these wonders in chapter 12 and even chapter 15, it means that there's something in it more than meets the eye. There's a lot of detail that is going to teach us something. So it's not all meant to be taken in a stark, literal way. Some of those things might be, but overall you're looking at it in a visionary way with John. These are things that are high symbols. deep imagery that we're going to have to explore scripture to understand more of what it means. Again, that's what we find there in chapter 12, verse 1. That's what we find there in chapter 12, verse 3, another wonder. And then the next time you find it in this sense is in chapter 15, verse 1, that we also read another sign in heaven, the seven angels with the seven last plagues. Now, what is a sign for? What is a sign for? Ultimately, just like a sign that we have, you know, when you're driving different places, it's supposed to point you somewhere. It's to direct you somewhere. I thought it was interesting because Angie and I went to go up to Marion to see Elisa's art display up there. Very well done. Very beautiful. But as we were coming back, we came back a different way than we went, but we came back through Gas City. And I don't think I've ever been through Gas City, Indiana. But if you've ever been there, it's kind of interesting because all of their signs are held up not just by one pole, but it almost kind of looks like an oil derrick. And I thought it was interesting because it's Gas City. Of course, they're going to have their signs held up by something that looks like an oil derrick. So the sign was more than just, this is the name of the street. It's a sign that's a symbol of the town itself and probably a symbol of where it got its name. A symbol of the gas that it probably has a lot of that they're able to use, natural gas, I would imagine. So that's what we find here, especially in chapter 12. We have a lot of signs and a lot of symbols that are pointing us to something. They're to teach us truth about something. And so we have a lot of symbols in this chapter that aren't necessarily meant for us to be taken in a very stark and literal way. So that's something that we'll come to in this chapter. So at the beginning of this prelude, we come to a very vivid scene that is full of symbolic images and meaning. But that's not the only way that semeon is used in Revelation. The other way, for the other four times, is something that is referred to miracles. When we came through especially chapter 13 and we came across that word miracle, it is dealing with things that are done by the allies of the beast. In fact, let's look at those real quick. In chapter 13, verse 13. It talks about he, referring to the second beast, so the beast that came out of the land, who is also described later as the false prophet. He doeth great wonders, and that's the same idea, sign or miracles. In verse 14, they're described that way as miracles, by the means of those miracles, which he had power to do. And then I think also in chapter 16 and chapter 19, you're gonna find that same idea of miracles of the this beast, or this false prophet. So there's only two ways that sign is used in Revelation. Here in chapter 13, they're false signs, okay? These allies of the beast are trying to do things to deceive the world to follow them and to worship them. So these are false signs that will be used by the beast to deceive the world to worship him. But the other signs in chapter 12 and chapter 15, the way it's used, are actually good signs, and they are meant to reveal truth about the world and its ongoing opposition to the Lord and his people. So we're gonna learn a lot from these signs, because they're gonna point us to something. Some of the things that they're going to point us to are true, and then some of the things that they're going to point us to is false. And we'll be able to determine which is which by who's giving us that sign. Is it God giving us this sign and wonder, or is it this beast giving us the sign and the wonder. Now, because of the somewhat frequent use of signs or wonders or miracles in this prelude, some have tried to use that as a way to divide up these three chapters. And I think that that's something that most interpreters or commentators try to do with all of Revelation. They try to divide it up in different ways. And so when you come to this prelude, chapters 12, 13, and 14, Quite a few have tried to divide them up into another series of seven. Another series of sevens. Some would describe that you will find seven wonders in these chapters. And the reason why they're looking for seven is because they want to match it with all of the other places in Revelation that have seven, that has some significance to it. For example, all the way back at the beginning of the book, we have how many churches of Asia? Seven, right? And then, of course, when we looked at the seals, there were seven seals. And how many trumpets? Seven trumpets. And within the trumpets, there were those seven thunders. And then later on here, we'll come to the seven bowls and say, they would say, well, because seven is so significant, especially in all of those different sections, surely there must be seven of something in these three chapters. And they would say, well, we can find seven wonders. And yet there's only two things that are described as heavenly wonders in this particular passage, or these chapters. And two of them happen in three verses. So chapter one, or verse one and verse three. And so I don't know if that's how they divide it up, but that's one way they've tried to do it. Others have tried to find seven divisions by looking at the seven, by looking at for seven main characters. And certainly we already looked at a few of those characters, right? We saw this heavenly woman, We saw this dragon, we see Michael the angel, we see the beast of the sea and the beast of the land, and we see the image of the beast. But I think as you go along and you're looking, if you're just looking for characters in these chapters, you're gonna come up with way more than seven. So even that way to divide it kind of falls apart. Others have tried to look for seven main images or scenes You know, so you've got the scene in heaven in the first part of chapter 12. You have the scene in the wilderness later on. You have the scene in the world in chapter 13. You have another scene in actually heaven itself, all right, in chapter 14. And they would still try to find seven scenes in these chapters. Well, I think no matter how you try to slice up and divide these chapters to make them fit into another series of seven, all of the attempts that I've looked at, I would say seem rather artificial. And not just artificial, unnecessary. I don't really think that God intended for us to find seven of anything in this section. Just by reading it, just by looking at it a little bit more closely, when you start to look for seven, you're going to divide it in a way that is somewhat artificial. Um, and if you're looking for seven of something, you know, you might find less of that or more of that than the actual seven. So I don't think God intended for us to find seven of anything in the section just to align with the other places where we do find seven. Instead, this prelude of three chapters has its own structure along with its own natural divisions. And even the chapter divisions are a little artificial. But just to help us understand things, I get why we try to divide it up. And I'm going to divide it up in different ways, too. But I'm going to try to do it based on themes and whether we come up with seven or 17 different divisions. I don't think it is intended for us to find seven of anything here. But all of these natural divisions Again, I think there is some natural division between chapter 12 and chapter 13 and chapter 14. And I think even in chapter 12, what we'll start looking at today, I think there's a few natural divisions that kind of flow from the text itself. But all of these divisions, whatever they are, were really meant to give John and us the big picture. of the big cosmic conflict between, again, God and his church and the devil and his world. So we recognize that there's a lot of conflict going on in Revelation, but there's a lot of conflict going on in our life too, spiritual conflict. And this gives us background. gives us background for the warfare that we're going through, the spiritual warfare that we're going through, but even the warfare that will continue all the way up till Christ's return, especially when we come to chapter 13 during this time of the beast. You know, there are some who would say, and we've looked at this already before, that this beast is yet to come. Some would say that this beast has already come. Some would say that this beast is currently here. But whatever way you look at it, whatever perspective you have, these chapters really describe the cosmic conflict between God and the devil, and between us and the world. And these divisions will help us understand that more. So, I wouldn't say, when you're reading through this, to look for seven of anything. Because I think you'll you'll you know, you're kind of wasting your time I think because I don't think you're supposed I don't think you're gonna find anything like that here But I do think that the main theme of this prelude to the bowls is what, and I like how Tom Schreiner puts it, even though he does find seven of something in these chapters, okay? So obviously there's some lot smarter men than I that have found seven of something in here. But even reading his commentary, I think it's kind of artificial in the way he does it. But I do like his description of the main theme of these three chapters. He says this. Believers are in a great cosmic battle between heaven and earth, between good and evil, between love and hate, and they need to see that evil will not triumph. And I hope you caught that as we were going through. Yes, we have a description of God's sustaining power for his people in chapter 12. And yes, we have a description of God's people going through suffering and persecution in chapter 13. And yes, we have even scenes of the service of God's people in 14. But ultimately, in chapter 14, we also have a scene of victory. We have a scene of victory, especially when we find that 144,000 in the heavenly temple itself, praising God and singing those great things. And so what we learn is that evil will not triumph. No matter how you look at Revelation, no matter how you look at eschatology, no matter how you look at the return of Christ, evil will not triumph. And that's what these chapters are all about. But when we come back to chapter 12, and of course, that's where we're gonna start, This conflict, this battle, is first described for us as a sweeping drama in chapter 12. A sweeping drama that is played out against the backdrop of the sky in a further expansion of John's vision. We need to remember, again, John's seeing this in a vision, so just like when we dream things, things don't always happen in a natural, normal way, as if we were actually awake and alive, you know. But in a vision, things can happen that are a little strange. And we have here a heavenly vision of a scene that pictures a drama of a conflict that has been going on from the very beginning between the devil and God himself. And it's a sweeping drama played out against the backdrop of the night sky. Now I mentioned before that we can look at this entire chapter in terms of the sustaining of God's people while they live in the wilderness of this world. And I think that theme can be traced through three main scenes that we find in this cosmic spiritual drama between a woman and a dragon. And I don't mean to lessen the impact and the import of this by calling it just a drama. because even though it is sort of like a visionary play going on in John's mind, it is very serious. It is very significant. You know, I mentioned that my wife and I, a couple weeks ago, we went to watch a musical, a play, Anne and Green Gables, and it was enjoyable. It was something meant to entertain. It was something that was meant to be fun and wholesome, in a wholesome way. Well, that was all Somebody's imagination, right? I think even the books that were written that was based off of somebody's imagination, it was fiction. Even though this might seem fiction or seem mythological, and we'll explore this a little bit next time, but it's interesting because some of the things that we find in chapter 12 are actually reflected in other ancient myths. where there is a god, a false god, and there is a dragon of some kind, and the dragon in some way is trying to defeat this false god, and a lot of times it's through the means of a child. And so there's a lot of ancient myths that were actually out there before Revelation was written, actually. But this is not a myth. And so even though someone in John's day might have been reading this and thinking, wait a second, this sounds kind of familiar about some of the myths in Greek and Roman living in history, yet here we have something that is not a myth. This is not a fable. This is a picture, a symbolic picture and drama of what has gone on and what is going on between God and the devil and between us and the world. And there are three main scenes that we find in this drama between a woman and a dragon. And so the first scene, I would say, is in verses one through six. And we can call this the scene of the two wonders. These are the two wonders that we find in heaven. Again, in verse one, it's a great wonder, or a great sign of a woman, all right? We'll discuss that a little bit later. But there's a great wonder in heaven, and it's a woman, a woman with child. But as great as that sign is, if you look down at verse three, we find another wonder, another sign, right? And I like how it's put, just another wonder, all right? So it's not a great wonder, this dragon that appears, this great red dragon. It's just another wonder. And so the great wonder, the most significant wonder, the most significant character in this entire sweeping drama of chapter 12 is this great woman. And we'll learn more about her as we go forward. But those two wonders that we find in verses one through six reveal what the spiritual conflict that we experience every day is really all about. It's about God sending a special man-child into this world According to his own promise in order to bring his redemption and his rule to this sinful world because it's all about the woman and the dragon and that child That child that she is about to bring forth and ultimately will bring forth in this drama, right? so the first section there is verses 1 through 6 to wonders in heaven and But then we have another transition, if you will, starting in verse 7 through verse 12. There's definitely some, we could call, recapitulation. There's definitely some going back and forth in some of these scenes. But we would say this is a scene of war in heaven, of war in heaven, verses 7 through 12. This war that we read about is caused by the successful birth by the woman to bring God's own son into this world, right? Obviously, this is all the reason why this dragon wants to go after the woman. It's because the woman gave birth to this child. And because this child came, he could also go back to his home in heaven in complete victory. And it's interesting because there's really No intervening life or death or anything about this woman About this child because he's just born and then he's taken right up into heaven to be on his throne, right? And so what happens? this dragon Who is clearly described in verse 9 as that old serpent? that old serpent that we looked at in Genesis 3 a few weeks ago and Sunday night called the devil and Satan and he's cast out as a defeated foe who only has a short time left to persecute God's people and even to persuade the rest of the world to worship and follow him. So that's scene number two. The war in heaven, which shows us that the dragon himself, the devil himself, is cast out of heaven into this world as a defeated foe, and he only has a short time left. And even though he's defeated, he's going to show his wrath and his anger because of that defeat. But then we come to the next scene, the third scene, and that is verses 13 through 17. And that's where we find the wrath on earth. And this is the wrath of the dragon. You know, we're going to be talking later on about the wrath of God, even on the dragon, but this is the wrath of the dragon against the woman who brought forth the man-child. But one of the remarkable things through all of these scenes of this great drama is that against all attempts to destroy the woman, she is sustained and preserved by God, even while she remains in the wilderness. She's fed. She's nourished. She's sustained. She's preserved. And so no matter what goes on in heaven, no matter what goes on on earth, no matter the war in heaven or the wrath on earth, this woman is sustained and preserved by God while she remains in this wilderness. So we'll look at more about what this can mean and how it unfolds even in our day. But this great drama that first unfolds in the sky, Then brought down to earth where it continues on in the next chapter So we got the war in heaven bringing the wrath on earth and now in chapter 13 again We're talking about the suffering of God's people where now we have that wrath of the dragon Being expressed through the beasts who will do his bidding Now, in those three scenes that we find in chapter 12, there are several main characters. And again, don't look for seven, because I don't think you're going to find them. But briefly, we're going to look at these real quick, and then we'll end with what we're going to start with next time. So we find several main characters. Now, some of those characters are easy to identify. Just like some of the symbols in Revelation, some of them are very easy for us to identify, right? When we looked at the stars back in chapter 1 and 2, right? And we looked at how they were described as the angel of the seven churches. And then we also saw the candlesticks or the lampstands. And we saw that those lampstands represented the churches. And so sometimes there's a symbol that is used in revelation that is clearly defined. And that's what we find here as well. There are some symbolic pictures of characters that are in this great drama of conflict between God and his people that are clearly identified. Of course, the most important one, if you look at verse five, is the man-child. And just by what we see there and what we read there, When this man-child is brought forth and was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, her child was caught up unto God and to God's throne. Who is that? It is Jesus Christ, that's clear. Without any doubt, he is Jesus Christ. He is the one who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and he is the one who is sitting on God's throne. Now, there's descriptions here that we've already looked at in Revelation that clearly describe this as Jesus Christ. So that is truly the main character, but he kinda has a limited description here in this chapter. Then of course we have another main character that we know of and that is the dragon he's first mentioned in verse 3 this is the Another wonder in heaven and and again, this is the red right? I think this is one of the reasons why when people draw the devil He's pictured as red. All right, because we do have a red dragon but picture this this red dragon has seven heads and So there's some mythological elements of this dragon, 10 horns and seven crowns upon his head. So kind of a bizarre picture of what this dragon would have looked like. Who is he? Who's this character? Very clearly, look at verse nine, we're told he is The devil, that old serpent called the devil and Satan. So again, another character very clearly identified. We have no question as to who he is. Another character who comes on the scene is in verse seven, and he's actually named, right? He's actually named, and there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels. So I would say Michael represents who? Michael, right, he represents himself. He is one of God's own archangels. We find him a few other places in scripture, and you can actually look at these places, but Michael is often the angel, the archangel of God, who is found fighting for God's people against their spiritual enemies. You find him especially in Daniel Daniel chapter 10 verse 13 Daniel chapter 10 verse 21 Daniel 12 verse 1 and then in Jude verse 9 He's actually described as an archangel and though there are some that would say well Michael is probably a reference to Jesus himself. I I think that as we see in this passage The archangel is different than Jesus himself. He is certainly an angel that might represent God's people, but he is certainly different than the Lord Jesus himself. So there's another character that we know clearly who he is. He is Michael the archangel. When we come down to the end of chapter 12, we find a group of people called in verse 17, the remnant of her seed, or the remnant of the seed of the woman. And at first you think, well, who are they? Who's this remnant of the woman? Well, I don't think we're really left with much question as to who they are when you go down further in verse 17. Who is the remnant of her seed, verse 17? They which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Who has the testimony of Jesus Christ? I hope you have the testimony of Jesus Christ. I hope you are the one that is seeking to keep God's commandment. So it would refer clearly to Christians, or we could just say the church. Those who have the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, as a testimony of his grace. So we have already one, two, three, four different characters. Again, don't look for seven, all right? But we have four different characters that I think can be clearly identified. And yet, when we come to verse one, Go all the way back to verse one. We meet the very first character, and that is a woman, right? A woman. And she is a great wonder and a great sign. And the question that we're left with is, okay, I know who the dragon is. I know who this child is. I know who Michael is. I know who the remnant of her seed is. Who's the woman? Who's the woman? Who could she be? Who could she represent? That perhaps is the most challenging part of this entire chapter, even though it is also the most significant part of this chapter. So we're going to leave with that question in our minds. And what I want you to do this week is actually read through chapter 12 to see more about the woman, because we can't know the identity of this woman by just looking at verse 1. We have to learn about the identity and the character and who she represents by looking at all of the references to this woman in chapter 12. She's actually mentioned multiple times in this chapter. And so as we look at her, we'll learn how she relates to the rest of the drama that we find in this chapter. So that's how we're going to leave it today, but I want you to read through chapter 12 and then we're going to start looking at who this woman is and how it all relates to this drama there in chapter 12. Again, dealing with the sustaining of God's people during the greatest times of even tribulation that they will ever see. And ultimately that will bring about and lead to the coming of Christ. I think we're just about out of time, so we're going to keep that in our minds and we're going to close in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your word. We thank you that we're able to explore it in depth, Lord, and I pray that as we look through this prelude to the bowls, you'll help us to understand more of what it means and what it is pointing to, especially in our own lives and in the conflict that we face in this world. And so, Lord, I thank you that you do sustain us even today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.