Code-Breaking Apocalyptic

Here are seven numbers.

What would be your favorite number out of these numbers?

Don't say it out loud, just have a look.

And then I'm going to ask for a show of hands.

Okay.

Favorite number, number one, hands up.

Number two.

Wow, two is an unpopular number.

Number four.

Number seven.

Wow.

Number ten.

Number twelve.

Number three and a half.

Great.

Interesting.

Well, we're up to our fourth message in our series, The End of the World.

And today, we're going to look at the numbers of the Book of Revelation and how they serve as a code-breaker for understanding the vision that John received.

If I was to read out once upon a time in a land far, far away, what sort of book do you think I would be reading?

Fairytale or a storybook?

It could be either.

Certainly, this is more clear, I think.

Twinkle, twinkle little star.

Nursery rhyme.

Man taken by croc.

Newsline, yeah, news headline.

If I gave you the accent, you'd get it.

The warden threw a potty on a jail.

No, but yeah.

It's a song.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

What are we reading?

Part of the Bible and Epistle of the New Testament.

What about, there was a man who had two sons?

Parable.

These are literary genres.

The Book of Revelation is written in three literary genres.

It is epistle.

It's written to seven churches.

It's a prophecy.

It speaks about the future, both long-term and into the near future.

And it is apocalyptic, which communicates largely through imagery.

Apocalyptic literature needs a code of sorts to understand it.

The big picture is often the best picture in apocalyptic.

Apocalyptic literature includes visions.

It is usually dualistic.

There's a lot of sort of good and evil in apocalyptic.

History is predetermined.

There is recapitulation.

The future is told from various angles and viewpoints.

And it is repeated.

And there is normally a level of tribulation and suffering involved.

There is a strong use of symbolism.

What is described is typically not to be taken literally.

Some things are, definitely, but not everything.

The first word of the Book of Revelation, and we've been studying The End of the World, and so we're heading towards the Book of Revelation, which we're going to do, Lord willing, an overview of next week.

And then mid-October, we'll have a Bible study that will go through verse by verse, over 30 sessions, the whole Book of Revelation.

The Book of Revelation begins with the word Apocalypse.

Revelation is an apocalypse.

The word means literally to pull the lid off something.

That's a good way to describe an apocalypse, isn't it?

To pull the lid off.

It is to reveal what is to come.

So, if you look at the Book of Revelation, 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 12 and 3 and a half are all significant numbers.

And it's very important for us to understand what these numbers meant to a first century Jew who was schooled in apocalyptic.

They understood apocalyptic mainly from books like Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament and also the Jewish writings.

So, we're going to work through 7 numbers.

A little bit of a different sermon today, but I think it will be helpful.

Let's begin with 1 or the word first.

The adjective first signifies primacy, rank, exclusiveness and excellence.

It's found 18 times in Revelation, more than any other New Testament book.

Often, it simply indicates a ranking at the beginning of a series in Revelation, like the first angel sounds his trumpet, the first angel pours out his bowl, or among groups, first living creature, the first beast.

Importantly, it's referred to in Chapter 2 regarding the Ephesian Church's first love.

Let me read from Chapter 2, Verse 3.

Jesus says, You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary, yet I hold this against you.

You have forsaken the love you had at first.

Consider how far you have fallen.

Repent and do the things you did at first.

Revelation 1, 17.

Jesus describes himself as the first and the last.

Is Jesus your first love?

Is the glory of God your first passion in life?

Or would you say it used to be?

Maybe it used to be that that was the case.

But is it the truth for you today?

Because if it's not, then probably the biggest message, apart from the glory of God and his son, Jesus, the biggest message of Revelation might be for you, because it's about compromise.

The Book of Revelation is a charge to the people of God of whatever era they live, to say do not compromise with the world.

Don't give in.

Stick to Jesus and you will be an overcomer.

Don't compromise.

When I was preaching last week, I finished in the service and I was catching up with some people, as we all do, and someone came to me and said something a little bit unusual.

They said, I had a vision in the last song.

Well, I can't remember if it was the last two songs.

We had communion and then we had this great time of worship.

And this person, it was okay with me sharing it.

It was a vision of a group of people were standing around a statue of Jesus.

And I sort of imagined the Abraham Lincoln Memorial.

So he was sitting on a throne and they were giving, paying homage to this statue of Jesus.

It was very reverent.

And then the statue came alive.

And came down and started hugging people.

Started embracing people.

And so we were both saying, I wonder what that, what did that mean?

Is that from God?

Have you ever read the first three chapters of Revelation?

And because they're Jesus talking to different churches.

And have you ever wondered, what do you ever write a letter to our church?

Anyone ever?

What would he say to our church?

And I just wonder, I think we have to let ourselves ask the question, was that a vision for us?

Because that would be saying, some of us might, I just put it out there to you and say, does it ring true to you?

Does the Spirit prompt your heart to say, yeah, there's a conviction that you could be going through the motions, paying homage to the statue of Jesus, without letting it grab our hearts?

I do fear sometimes we say some nice words about God, but if we're sort of ho-hum like this, I don't think as Christians we have to all have our hands up, but maybe just that.

At least a posture that says, you are the greatest being in the universe, however you do that, but a lackadaisical sort of ho-hum.

I don't think we're in a good space in our lives whenever we're like that.

That doesn't come from a heart of judgment.

It's just an observation or a question, what was the Lord Jesus saying to us if maybe he was giving that vision for us?

Certainly it confirmed to me a challenge for me in my life.

I want Jesus to be number one, amen.

First is about priorities.

Jesus at the top of the list for the church.

Our second number we're going to look at is number four.

Number four, I think is the most important number in Revelation apart from seven.

The number four symbolises full, total coverage.

Which most often in view of God's creation, the surface of the earth and universality.

It's regularly used in books like Daniel and Ezekiel in the Old Testament, and it's used all throughout Revelation.

The vision of Revelation mentions four angels restraining the four winds at the four corners of the earth to signify total earth coverage.

The four living creatures who represent the created world appear throughout the book.

There are four horns on the golden altar.

Four angels abound at the river Euphrates in order to symbolise that the restraints of all earthly evil will be unleashed.

Revelation constantly groups four descriptors together.

I find this really powerful.

Four being a number that signifies the whole world, the whole globe.

Everything is caught up in this.

Every tribe, language, people and nation.

Does that ring a bell?

Do you remember that in Revelation?

How many descriptors?

What do you reckon that's saying to us?

We read that and the code is, this is everyone.

Don't miss it.

This is everyone.

And you'll find tribe, language, people and nation are sort of shuffled, but it will be the same for.

There are four references to the seven churches.

Implying they represent all the churches of the world, the fourfold division of creation symbolizes total participation of creation with I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea.

Four descriptors.

Creation's praise to God and the lamb is fourfold.

Praise and honor and glory and power.

The code is saying this is from everyone.

When judgment comes to the earth, the formula is extended to pills of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.

How much of the world is it meant to be affecting?

The whole world, because four means the whole world in apocalyptic.

The created order consists of earth, sea, river, springs, and heaven.

The sixth trumpet of humanities speaks of humanities murders, their witchcraft, their fornication, and their theft.

What do you reckon that's saying?

The sin is across the whole world.

Everyone is guilty.

The blood that flows for 1,600 stadia is four squared multiplied by ten squared.

And since four represents the coverage of the whole earth, and ten represents totality, which we will get to in a minute, the blood bath, which sounds awful, it covers the earth completely.

The judgment extends to the whole world.

And that's just, you know, we will come across that in Revelation.

Do you get the picture?

Four.

The title, the one who lives forever and ever, is found four times.

The return of Christ includes four parts.

His mouth issues forth a sharp sword, his shepherds the nation, he treads the winepress, and on his thigh is written a name.

The return of Christ is going to affect how much of the world?

All the world, the whole planet.

Humanity is divided into four parts.

Let the one who does wrong continue to do wrong.

Let the vile person continue to be vile.

Let the one who does right continue to do right.

And let the holy person continue to be holy.

Is anyone missing out in this description?

No, because there's four elements to it.

In Psalm 145, the psalmist writes, My mouth will speak in praise of the Lord.

Let every creature praise his holy name forever and ever.

The number four tells us that we are part of a global collective.

We're in this together, us humans.

You don't get to decide, oh, that Bible stuff, that God stuff, that judgment stuff, that moral accountability stuff, that's not for me.

The Book of Revelation is so clear.

It's like, no, no, the number four is saying, it's for everybody.

We are in this together as human beings.

Didn't we learn that over COVID-19?

When you saw those pictures of Paris and New York and Milan and Nairobi and they're empty.

The streets are empty and it's like a wild west tumbleweed.

No one's there.

And we were struck with this sense of solidarity as human beings.

There are things that can happen to the planet that we're in together under.

The number 4 is that type of number.

It's both encouraging and very challenging when you read it in the Book of Revelation.

How about 7, our most popular number in the room?

Well, 7 means completeness, fullness, totality and perfection.

It's often seen as God's number.

It symbolizes, it's symbolism is traceable throughout scripture from the 7 days of creation.

Genesis 4, you might not have noticed this, but if you look it up, you'll see this is true.

The 7-fold voice of God, Psalm 29.

The 7-fold wrath of God, Psalm 79.

The 7 eyes of God, Zechariah 410.

7 precedes numerous nouns in Revelation, including spirits, lampstands, 7 stars, golden lampstands, 7 seals, horns, eyes, angels, trumpets, thunders, crowns, heads, plagues, bowls, hills, and kings.

When you consider how many clusters of 7s there are, it starts to seem a little spooky how John could write this.

Have you ever noticed that when the collective beings in heaven are giving worship to God, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise?

What do you think that's saying?

In heaven, it's perfect, the praise, because 7 is the perfect number.

And then later on in chapter 7, all the angels are standing around the throne and around the elders and four living creatures.

They fall down on their faces before the throne and they worship God saying, Amen, praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power and strength be to our God forever and ever.

If you don't get apocalyptic, we miss all this stuff.

But the 7 means it's perfect.

Locusts have 7 features, the lamb has 7 horns and 7 eyes, which are the 7 spirits.

Each of the 7 letters to the 7 churches contains 7 elements.

Isn't that weird?

There are 7 occurrences of the one who sits on the throne.

The elders and living creatures are mentioned together 7 times.

There are 7 promises of the second coming in Revelation.

The 144,000 have 7 characteristics.

The returning Christ is described with 7 images.

The vision of the new Jerusalem falls into 7 parts.

And several words appear as multiples of 7.

Words found 14 times in Revelation include Jesus, Spirit, God's People, Servant, Star and Woe.

The 7 in Revelation tells us God is in control.

Amen?

God is in control.

It's like seeing Romans 8 28 every time you see a cluster of 7s.

God is working all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purposes.

Do you ever ask the Lord for a scripture or a word when you're going through tough stuff in your life?

We've done that so often as you walk with the Lord and God has given us sometimes visions to us and to other people and sometimes just it's scriptures, but this with God life we live as Christians involves God's communicating to us in a really intimate way.

Scripture says faith comes by hearing and hearing the words of Christ and that's for salvation, but I think it's also the way our faith is built, developed, it becomes stronger when God speaks.

I think seven in Revelation is this constant way that God tells us, I'm here.

You read another seven in this weird book of Revelation, which can be spooky, can be scary, can be so confusing, but you see a cluster of seven or seven, you just go, ah, it's going to be okay.

Are you with me?

It's going to be okay.

I just saw another seven, I just saw another seven and that says God's in control.

No matter how much this earth is shaken, God's in control, I just saw another seven.

Ten is very important in the book of Revelation, when multiples of ten, numbers like a thousand, represent indefiniteness and magnitude.

And when ten is accompanied by seven or twelve, it signifies fullness and completeness on a large scale.

That makes sense, doesn't it?

Seven is this wonderful God number of control and completion.

What does it mean when you add a ten or a multiple of ten to that?

It's just saying it's expanded.

It's expansive across the world.

And in contrast to the number ten, sometimes in Revelation you find fractions.

One third, something, a bowl, a seal is open.

An angel goes and brings judgment and it affects one third or a quarter.

In apocalyptic thinking, all that's saying is it's not the whole.

It's not the whole.

The end hasn't come yet.

So we can get caught up with what does a third mean.

As I have, you read it and if you don't have the code, it's just confusing.

You're like, that was a third, that's a quarter.

What does this mean?

But in apocalyptic thinking and in the code, it's just saying.

It's not all over.

It won't affect the whole world.

There's more to come.

When we understand that 10 makes numbers magnified, like 7,000 and 144,000.

Anyone come across that number in Revelation?

And we can get very enamored by it.

And it represents the people of God.

And there are different groups that have said the elite, the elector, the 144,000.

144,000 is 12 times 12 times 1000.

It's talking about God's people magnified.

Tens matter.

The number 10 reminds me of Romans 11 verse 33, oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God.

How unsearchable his judgments, Paul writes, and his paths beyond tracing out.

Who has known the mind of the Lord?

That's a 10 sentence.

Who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counsellor?

Who has ever given to God that God should repay them for, from him and through him and for him are all things.

To him be the glory forever and ever.

We can think we get all our theology lined up and we study the Bible.

We got you, God, we understand you.

No, we don't.

And 10 says that to us.

10 says more and more.

It's bigger.

It's expansive and God is a being that we can know about but we can't know everything.

And that's a good thing to remember when we come to Revelation.

So whether it's numbering the angels as 10,000 times 10,000, and some people are adding them all up going, how many, where are they all going?

That's not the point, I don't think.

I think the point in apocalyptic is what?

It's really big, there's a real lot of them.

You wouldn't want to come up against that.

What about a period of 10s times 10s called a millennium?

Does that have to be exactly a thousand years?

Or is it a perfect example of a period of time?

That for the first century church feels like forever, where 2,000 years later?

But as we've been suggesting, the millennium is talking about a period of time in the interadvental era.

This age between Jesus' first arrival, life, death and resurrection, and his second coming, his Perusia.

10 says that God is beyond comprehension.

And then there's the number 12.

12 means humanity, and in particular, God's people.

And I have found this to be so helpful when I read Revelation.

I see a 12 or a multiple of 12, I go, oh, it's about me.

It's about us.

It's about the people of God.

That's the main thing.

I could get lost in all the other images, but if I see a 12, I'm like, this is about the people of God.

This is about humanity.

There are the 12 sons of Israel who become the 12 tribes of Israel.

Multiples of 12 appear in the Old Testament, such as 48 Levitical cities, 24 divisions of priests and musicians in the New Testament.

Jesus challenged the scholars at what age?

12?

Jesus selects 12 disciples.

I'm just going to read this pretty quickly.

As representatives of the new Israel, who will sit on 12 thrones, judging the 12 tribes, the woman with 12 stars on her head in Revelation 12 symbolizes the church.

In the vision of the new Jerusalem, which is all about the community of redeemed humanity, that's the important part.

The new Jerusalem is about people.

It's redeemed people, saved by the blood of Christ.

In that city, we're not meant to try to add it all up and go, how big exactly is this city?

What we're meant to say is, what's this redeemed humanity living in a city look like?

Well, there are 12 gates, 12 angels, 12 tribes, 12 foundations, 12 names of the apostles, 12 jewels decorate the 12 foundations and the tree of life bears 12 kinds of fruit.

These are blessings poured out on humanity.

We find multiples of 12, all referring to the importance of humanity in the biblical salvation story.

The 24 elders who are mentioned exactly 12 times.

12,000 from each tribe.

There's 12,000 stadia, 144 cubits and 144,000 is that other important number we see in Revelation.

Every time we read 12, I would suggest to you, from what I've studied about understanding apocalyptic, we read the completeness of the people of God.

Try it.

It's amazing, honestly.

Once you get these codes and you just try it out, read Daniel, read Ezekiel, read Revelation and go, it's like looking at a magic eye.

Don't you remember those magic eye books?

Oh, this just makes sense.

I really encourage you to do the Bible loop, even though I wrote it.

If Revelation has never made sense to you, it makes sense to me.

I don't think it ever has.

I've been doing this for 30 years.

It's never really quite made sense because that package, that Tim LaHaye left behind, dispensational pre-millennial, that has never sat right with me as biblical, even though it's touted as being very biblical.

I've never found something that matched the Gospel and the New Testament.

Whereas this understanding in an A millennial, realized millennium approach, I find really exciting because it makes sense.

Twelve really matters.

It's about the human part of the story.

And it's important because it's who Jesus came to rescue.

The Twelve says people matter so much.

And the Twelve reminds us that Satan, the dragon, hates us.

He hates us.

The dragon hates us because we're made in the image of God.

We can engage in sexuality, in sexual intercourse, in a marriage.

And you know what comes out of that?

Sometimes when God blesses another image of God.

So the dragon hates our sexual expression in a marriage.

So he tries to ruin it, doesn't he?

He attacks sex because out of sex, we create people in the image of God.

And what does he do about our identity?

He attacks our identity.

He hates us to feel loved and special and created as an image bearer of God.

So he attacks our identity.

And what about our relationships when we image the Trinity in human relationship?

He hates that.

So he attacks it.

He attacks our identity, our relationships and our sexuality as just a prime target.

But God loves us, amen?

The devil, he hates humanity.

Every time he sees 12 in the Bible, he hates that.

He's saying humanity matters, but God loves us.

And I think we can find encouragement whenever we see the 12 and think, I'm part of that by faith.

1, 4, 7, 10, 12.

How about the number 2?

2 is connected to a valid testimony and effectual witness.

Really important to get it.

2 is a valid testimony in the Bible.

Two angels are sent to Sodom in Genesis 19.

It's also 2 are often sent on a mission.

Two spies are sent to Jericho in Joshua 2.

Jesus sent his disciples out 2 by 2.

They are witnesses, effective, valid witnesses, the minimum number.

So what does it mean for the Book of Revelation?

Two witnesses we find in Revelation 11 can be really confusing until you just see it as two mean, effectual witnesses.

So it's us, it's the church, the two witnesses.

It's the church in the interadvental age, in the millennium.

We know that as disciples of Jesus, we are called to testify.

It's the big picture.

The church is the witness to the truth of the Gospel, Acts 1-8.

Jesus said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses.

We are the two witnesses.

It's us.

We're the church.

In Judea, Jerusalem, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.

Curiously, regarding the two witnesses of Revelation 11, two is mentioned four times.

What are the two witnesses meant to do?

Four times, go to whole world, everywhere.

Isn't that what...

This is what I love about this understanding.

It just links it all together.

Jesus said, go to all the world.

And the two witnesses, they are meant to as well.

And finally, three and a half.

Goodness gracious, what are we going to find in three and a half?

Who were our three and a halfers?

Eight of us?

Three and a half is a really important number, but a little bit confusing.

Let me give you a warning.

As we read Revelation, you can't help but notice this strange bunch of numbers that are the same.

Three and a half years, 42 months, 1260 days, time, times, and half a time.

Three and a half.

Three and a half years, 42 months, 1260 days.

And if you don't link them together, it's just jolly confusing.

Three and a half emphasizes the time period of persecution for the church.

It's a coded way of actually describing the interadvental period.

I guess you're hearing that this way of understanding revelation has a lot to do with the interadvental period.

That most of the teaching is just saying between Jesus and Jesus, that's what revelation is about.

So, three and a half days is also a length of time that we hear about.

So, let's think about it.

Three and a half days is a reminder of the length of time of Jesus' own death and resurrection on the third day.

So, that's very important, three and a half days.

It's also a symbol of the length of Jesus' earthly ministry, which was three years.

Now, I get it.

What are you talking about, John?

Are you really getting confusing?

Seven was a good session, but three and a half, this is not going anywhere.

Wrap it up, wrap it up, they yell out.

So, three and a half and three.

So, three years is the ministry of Jesus.

Three days is the Gospel.

But where is this three and a half?

Because it's very important in Revelation.

John's audience would have picked up on the symbolic number of three and a half from Elijah's drought in First Kings 17.1.

So, let me just read one verse, chapter 17 of First Kings.

Now, Elijah the Tishbite from Tishbi in Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord the God of Israel lives whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.

So, he stops the rain.

In chapter 18, a chapter later of First Kings, we find out how long.

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah, go and present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land.

So, the third year, three years, is the period of time that Elijah made the rain stop.

But when Jesus quotes the story in, I think it's Luke 4, he changes it.

It's a funny thing.

I want to quickly read it because it's so important.

So, Jesus has been baptized.

He's gone into the temptation to fight off the evil one.

And then he comes back and it's so significant.

He takes from the synagogue in Capernaum.

He takes the prophet from Isaiah and he reads these words.

It's the beginning of his ministry.

So significant.

He says, the spirit back from baptism and temptation, the spirit of the Lord is on me.

He's full of the spirit because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.

And then he rolls up the scroll and says, In your hearing, this has been fulfilled.

We talk about significant.

This is the launch of his ministry.

Verse 22, all spoke well of him.

Immediately after that, we're told people were amazed at his gracious words.

And then they said, isn't this Joseph's son?

And Jesus said, surely you'll quote this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself.

And you will tell me, do here in your hometown what we have heard you did in Capernaum.

And then he says, truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years.

And there was a severe famine throughout the land.

But it was three years, Jesus.

Why would he say at the very beginning of his ministry, Elijah did that for three and a half years?

It's because Daniel is so significant in apocalyptic and the end times.

Daniel in chapter nine prophesied 500 years before Christ, about this mysterious seven and half of seven, which is three and a half.

Daniel writes in chapter nine, verse 25, No one to understand this, from the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed one, the ruler comes, there will be 69 sevens.

After the 62 sevens, the anointed Jesus, the anointed one, will be put to death and will have nothing.

Ben preached on this a few years ago.

Basically, it's saying Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would come and die for the sin of the world in about 500 years.

And he did.

But this next section is really interesting.

It says, the people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.

We know that happened in 70 AD.

Titus came, destroyed the sanctuary.

The end will come like a flood, war will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

He will confirm a covenant with many for one seven.

In the middle of the seven, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.

I think what that's saying is, Jesus will confirm a covenant with many for one seven.

That is the inter-adventure period, from the birth of Jesus to his second coming.

In the middle of that, not exactly in time, but symbolically, in the middle of that, he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.

Do you remember what Hebrews says about offering and sacrifice?

There's no more blood to be shed in the temple, because Jesus' blood is enough.

Three and a half years, it's halfway between the beginning of 7 and the end of 7, Jesus died on the cross and stopped sacrifice, because he did once and for all.

So you've got a three and a half year period that is the life of Christ, and a three and a half year period that is the testimony of the church filled with the Spirit till Jesus returns.

Anyone with me?

Seven years.

I mean, it's all weird and wonderful.

It's like, why wouldn't they just explain that?

In common speak, but they don't.

They say, there's going to be this work of the Messiah, seven years, which says it's perfect.

Doesn't matter so much about the seven, but it's perfect.

Three and a half years in, Jesus' perfect ministry will finish.

Happens to have been three years.

The gospel happens to be three days, but the three and a half represents Jesus beating the devil, conquering death and sin and the devil.

And then there's this three and a half year period that's really important that Revelation picks up on and we're part of that.

That's the millennium.

That's us.

That's this age.

That's the 42 months.

That's the 1260 days.

That's the time, times and half a time for anyone who's got too caught up on the numbers.

Time, times and half a time.

James says the same thing in Chapter 5, verse 17.

Elijah was a human being even as we are.

He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

But James, it was only three.

But he's picking that up from Jesus.

So three and a half years is a very important coded message for the time of the church's witness.

Now, it does talk about three and a half days.

And most commentators would say that's talking about an intensified persecution at the end.

But the three and a half years, I think it's what Paul talks about in Chapter 5 of Romans.

The three and a half years will involve for us suffering, which will lead to perseverance, which will produce character, and then hope in the context of love.

That's the church's role.

And what I love about this understanding of Revelation is, excuse me, is it's not weird and wacky.

It's just what the New Testament preaches, amen?

It's just we have to take the Gospel to the whole world, and it's going to be tough.

There will be suffering for the 42 months, and the 1260 days, and the 3.5 years, and the whole millennium.

It's going to be challenging.

Tell the people who have already lost their lives and been beheaded 500 years ago that it's getting worse.

Well, it's pretty tough for them.

Three and a half years, suffering produces perseverance, produces character, and produces hope for the glory of Jesus.

A set period of time, so we see three and a half, again, we say God's in control.

We're promised that it won't necessarily be easy.

Certainly won't.

But we've got a job to do.

Who remembers Alan Turing?

A few of us.

He was a brilliant mathematician, born in London 1912.

He was instrumental in cracking the Enigma Code in World War II.

He built this deciphering machine, and through his work at the top-secret HUT 8 Bletchley Park Intelligence Center, they were able to crack the U-boat code of the communications for the Germans.

And that means there's submarines, and without the code, there was terrible vulnerability for the ships of the Allies.

But the code changed everything, breaking the code.

And I would put it to you that Revelation has been written in an apocalyptic code.

And it's sort of a bit gobbledygook if you don't use the code.

But when we do, we are encouraged to take the Gospel to the whole world in the name of Jesus, by his grace.

That's the great kingdom effort that we've been called to be part of.

And it's a Gospel of love.

Amen?

It's a Gospel of love, even though sometimes it's hard to see that in Revelation, it really is.

It's a Gospel of love that glorifies Jesus with everything we have.

And it calls people to live expectantly for the new world beyond this age, because this is not all there is.

This is this age.

But there's an age to come that is eternal.

And we enter it by faith in Christ.

So number one, Jesus is first.

Number two, we are his witnesses.

Number four, gospel to the whole world.

Number seven, God's in control.

Number ten, the kingdom is more glorious than we could ever imagine.

Number twelve, humanity is front and centre in the grand story of life.

And three and a half, there is a set period before Christ returns.

But he is coming back.

Hallelujah.

He is coming back.

Lord Jesus, may you receive all the glory as we reflect on these numbers and on the grand story of salvation.

We want to be part of that throng at the end and we so gratefully accept your invitation.

To be part of those who would say praise and honour and glory and wisdom and thanks and power and strength be to the lamb forever and ever and ever.

Lord Jesus, would you help us know that you are the God who embraces us with a hug and yet you are worthy of our austere and reverent worship as well.

Lord, if you were saying something to us, help us have ears to hear as a church.

We want to be whole hearted people and yet appreciating that we're not all the same.

We don't do it the same way but we want to be a church who are passionate for the name of Jesus to be glorified.

We need you to do a work, Lord, Holy Spirit, in our hearts because we get distracted, as you know, Lord.

Our hearts can grow a bit cold and we don't want that.

We don't want to be lukewarm.

We want to not lose our zeal.

We want to be passionate disciples of Jesus at this church.

Thank you that we can use music to worship you now and would you take it with joy because we want to have joyful hearts in giving it.

Amen.

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