Mike Bickle presents a comprehensive overview of the Book of Revelation, emphasizing that it is not about the end of the world but the end of the age, where heaven and earth will be united. He explains that the book reveals Jesus as the central figure and outlines His plan to confront evil and establish His kingdom on earth. Bickle highlights the importance of the church's role in the Great Tribulation, portraying it as a time for the church to actively participate in God's judgments against the Antichrist rather than being passive victims. He encourages believers to understand Revelation as a strategic battle plan and a prayer manual, equipping them for the challenges ahead. Ultimately, the message is one of hope, as God's judgments are portrayed as necessary for the triumph of love and justice.

...new heaven and the new earth, but I believe it's this same rock, this same planet. When the announcer, you know, the broadcaster interviews the guy and they say, you know, I've seen it on talk shows, so you believe the end of the world? And the preacher goes, yes. Wrong. There is no end of the world. We don't believe in the end of the world. We believe in the end of the age, but the world goes on and on and on. So that's point number one that's often overlooked. That always throws off people. They're enthusiastic and they say, man, this is so exciting. You believe in the end of the world. Tell me about it. I go, I don't. They go, what do you mean? I thought you were really into the end times. Well, I do. I studied a lot. Okay, second point that's often overlooked. In Ephesians chapter one, verse nine and ten. Ephesians nine, one and ten. The heavenly realm. I'm gonna wait for the PowerPoint. If we get Ephesians one, verse nine and ten up there, because I want them to be able to follow with us. Okay. Thank you, ma'am. When Jesus comes, He brings heaven and earth together. Now this is a new idea for some folks. Ephesians nine and ten says it clearly. God's going to bring the heavenly realm and the earthly realm together on the earth. We're not going to go away to heaven, but heaven is coming to the earth at the time of the second coming. He's going to bring together into one all things. The heavenly and the earthly realm are coming together on the earth. So when we think of the future, the age to come, the natural realm will still continue to exist in the millennial kingdom. The natural realm will not be suspended and done away with, but rather it will be enhanced by the supernatural realm, the power of the resurrection, the power of the Holy Spirit. Okay, let's go on to Roman numeral two, paragraph A. Now the book of Revelation is the glory of a man. Revelation 1, 1 tells us the book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus. More than the book of Revelation being His plan, it is His plan, but more than that it's the man behind the plan. I want to know the action plan. I want to know the battle plan, but I read the book of Revelation first to be fascinated with the man behind the plan. It's an unveiling of a man's mind in a man's heart, the man Christ Jesus. And it is His plan, but I don't want to be so focused on the plan we lose sight of the man that's the central figure to the plan. Now there's unique dynamics in the book of Revelation, and it requires our involvement. There are unique things happening in the book of Revelation, obviously, that have never happened before in history at this level. And so it takes a unique involvement with the body of Christ, but this unique information studying this action plan will equip the church to participate with Jesus in that hour. Paragraph B. Now the main theme of the book is Jesus's return to the earth to take over all the governments of the earth. The main theme of the book is not Jesus to appear and go away. He's appearing. We will be raptured. We will be transformed. And we will be mobilized. We will be organized. And Jesus is going to take over all the governments of every nation on the earth, and He's going to drive away the evil leaders. He's going to kill them and remove them from the planet. That's central to the plan of the book of Revelation. Now that seems intense, and it is. It's intense, but it's very necessary because these evil leaders will be the most powerful oppressors in human history. They will be deeply entrenched in evil and in oppression, and they will not yield. So Jesus will confront them and remove them. That's where this storyline, the conflict comes to a head in this confrontation. He removes them, and then He replaces all the governments of the earth. The governments will resist Him when He comes. When He appears in the sky, the 232 governments of the earth, that's how many there are now, nations, they won't go, wow. They will say, war. We will declare war on you. We will not yield to your demands that our governments follow you. So they will declare war on Him. Paragraph C. Now one of the main reasons, not the only reason, that people don't read the book of Revelation is they have a wrong paradigm, or that's just a fancy word for perspective. They have a wrong perspective of the Great Tribulation. When they think of the Tribulation, many say, I want to be gone. I want to be out of here before then. Because they have a wrong view of the Great Tribulation. As Moses released the judgment of God on Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt, he released it through prayer. Moses walked into Egypt. He said, God says, let my people go. Pharaoh said, no. Moses stretched forth his rod and he prayed. Well, the stretching forth of his rod was a type of prayer, but other times he actually prayed while he stretched forth the rod and the judgment came upon the Pharaoh. So Moses marched into town, released the judgments of God upon Pharaoh. In the same way, the church will be in the Moses position. It won't be Pharaoh over Egypt. It will be the end time Pharaoh called the Antichrist seeking to rule all the nations of the earth. He'll never succeed, but that's his goal. The end time Pharaoh will be confronted by an end time Moses called the praying church. Now, of course, the two primary figures will be the two witnesses, but the praying church and the two witnesses will all be working together under the leadership of Jesus. And as Pharaoh stretched forth his rod and the judgment came upon, as Moses stretched forth his rod and the judgment came on Pharaoh, so the praying church will pray and the judgments will come on the Antichrist. The point is this. The great tribulation is God's judgment against the Antichrist, not God's judgment on the church. The plagues of Egypt were not a judgment on the children of Israel. They were a judgment not on Moses. They were a judgment on Pharaoh and the nation of Israel. And the book of Revelation is the Moses deliverance story retold on a global end time level. It's a very dynamic story. I mean, if you went to Moses and said, Moses, are you praying to be raptured before you go meet Pharaoh? He'd say, no, I've been preparing my whole life to meet Pharaoh for such a time as this. I've come into the kingdom. He wasn't trying to get out of the confrontation. He was wanting to be prepared for it. The miracles, paragraph C at the end, the miracles in the book of Exodus and the miracles in the book of Acts are going to be joined together, multiplied on a global level. I mean, imagine the miracles in the book of Exodus when Moses released the plagues. Imagine the miracles in the book of Acts. They're going to be combined and multiplied on a global level. And they're going to be released by prayer. That's the paradigm, I believe, of understanding the book of Revelation. It's the greatest hour of power for the church in history, far beyond the book of Acts. Paragraph D. The book of Acts describes the acts of the Holy Spirit. That's what the book of Acts, the title book of Acts means. It means the acts of the Holy Spirit through the early church, or through the apostles. It's the acts of the Holy Spirit. The book of Revelation will be the acts of the Holy Spirit through the end-time church. So I refer to the book of Revelation as the end-time book of Acts. It's the book of Acts for the end-time church that's written in advance. It's the most remarkable document. I mean, imagine if Peter, James, and John had the whole book of Acts on the day of Pentecost. Before it happened, they saw the whole 28 chapters ahead of time. The end-time church has the whole book of Acts, the end-time book of Acts, written in advance. It's called the book of Revelation. And it must be understood by the praying church. Now I refer to it as a canonized prayer manual. Now canonized is one of the few big words I have in this document. Everyone say canonized. Canonized means one basic thing for our purposes. It means it's inspired. The book of Matthew is canonized, meaning it's in the Bible. The book of John is canonized. That means it's in the Bible. We have a in-the-Bible prayer manual. It's canonized. It's the end-time prayer manual that's written in the Bible so we know it's infallible in its inspiration. I mean, you could have the greatest intercessor write a prayer manual and you'd say, thank you, it's helpful, but it's not canonized. It's not infallible. It's not the Bible itself. We have a prayer manual that is itself the very Word of God. It's called the book of Revelation. It is a prayer manual. Paragraph E, let's look at Matthew 16. Matthew 16, verse 18 to 19. Now you know this statement, this verse, Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He said, I will give you keys of the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So Jesus made several points here in Matthew 16, verse 18. Number one, He goes, I'm building a church that the gates of Hades, which means hell, hell itself will not triumph over my church. Now He means for 2,000 years, but particularly this is a prophecy for the generation He returns. When the Antichrist, which is the most demonized man in history, is on the planet seeking to rule the nations and the power of hell is breaking forth, Jesus said, mark my word, hell itself, the Antichrist and his empire will not win. In that hour you will win, church of Jesus Christ. Now this verse is applicable for 2,000 years, but it has its full, its greatest fulfillment in the book of Revelation context. Now here's what He said in verse 19. This is not small. Verse 19. I'll give you the keys of the kingdom and part of the keys of the kingdom is prayer and worship. He goes, and here's what you're going to do. With keys you unlock doors. He goes, and you lock doors. With these keys called prayer, called intercession, you will bind the bad things. In other words, you'll lock the door to the bad things. You will use prayer, the keys, and you will stop, you will bind Satan's activity. You will use the keys and you will loose, you will open the door to God's activity. So what Jesus is saying, there's coming an hour when the gates of hell will be assaulting the church on the earth in an open global confrontation and of course that confrontation is in the book of Revelation. And He said, but I want to assure you before the confrontation escalates to that level, you have keys, the praying church. You will bind, you will stop the negative, the work of Satan, and you will loose the positive, the activity of the Holy Spirit. So that's actually a prophecy. Matthew 16. Again it's been applies all year, all 2,000 years of church history, but it has its greatest fulfillment in the generation the Lord returns. Top of page two. Now I'm setting up the book, giving you a picture of the book before we look at the structure. Now the structure is quite simple. But I'm setting it up for you here. First up, because so many have the idea is they want to get out of here. They're just waiting any moment to leave. The Lord raptures and we're out of here. You know they're waiting to go up when the Holy Spirit's waiting for us to grow up. For real. To be involved in the plan. Again Moses wasn't trying to avoid the confrontation with Pharaoh. He spent his life preparing for the confrontation with Pharaoh. Paragraph F. The judgment events in the book of Revelation. There's 21 primary judgment events. Seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls of wrath. 21 events. And there's more than that. The fall of Babylon and a few other things. But 21 primary judgment events. These judgment events do not happen to us. They're not judgments against us. They're judgments released through us. The plagues of Egypt were not judgments on Moses. They were judgments released by Moses. Not judgments for Moses. So these judgments they won't happen to us as in us as helpless victims. Beloved we're not going to be helpless victims of Satan. We are going to be active participants with Jesus. That's where this battle plan is equipping us to participate. Now the judgments of Jesus they are severe. But one thing we have confidence in. His judgments are sent to remove everything that hinders love. His judgments are necessary. They will confront everything that hinders love. His judgments will confront everything in the nations that resists love and justice. Because again the Antichrist kingdom will be the great and all those that are a part of it. The leaders I'm talking about. Multitudes of them. It will be the greatest movement of oppression and injustice in human history. And God will confront it in love to drive it off the planet so that love will prosper. The book of Revelation is a love story. It's not an oh no story. It's a finally you broke in story. It's not a story that we say oh no it's happening. It's a story that says oh yes God you've heard our prayers and you've broken in decisively to confront the oppressors. Jesus in the book of Revelation is the liberator of the nations from the greatest oppression in history. He is the loving liberator against the great oppressor. And the prayer movement is connected to the great liberator Jesus. Paragraph G. Now the book of Revelation number one under G. It's a strategic battle plan. It's Jesus's battle plan. Number two. It's a canonized prayer manual. And number three. It's the Father's perfect blueprint. That's where that's how we understand the book of Revelation. I want to give them to you again. The book of Revelation it's not just a story about the end times. It is number one Jesus's battle plan. It's a strategic plan laid out in advance. And with this battle plan he will confront the antichrist to drive him off the planet and all that are in agreement with him. Number two. Another view of the book of Revelation. It's the canonized prayer manual. We've already went through that. Number three. It's the perfect blueprint of the Father to prepare the church to rule the nations with Jesus in the millennium. It's the perfect blueprint. The perfect plan in order to cause the bride to mature so she can reign forever on the earth with Jesus. This book is massively important to the church. Paragraph H. Now the main focus of the book of Revelation is God's judgment against the antichrist. That is by far the main theme. Now it is clear there is a secondary focus in the book. That is Satan's tribulation against the saints and that tribulation is real. Where he will there'll be more martyrs than any time in history but by no means will all the saints be martyred. It's not like that. It will be the highest percentage ever but it will not nearly exterminate the church. It's nothing like that. Now notice this in paragraph H. Only 12 verses out of 400. Only 12 verses are about persecution. Three percent of the book is about persecution. Ninety-seven percent of the book is about the victory of the saints over evil. Yet some people when they read the book of Revelation they go oh no because they think the judgments on the antichrist are coming on them. Or they go oh no it's all about persecution. I go persecution is there. We don't want to minimize it. But it's three percent of the storyline. Okay let's get into more of the details of the book. Let's go to Roman numeral 3. Roman numeral 3. The symbols. Paragraph A. Now there's seven main symbols in the book of Revelation and we've got them right here on the notes. They're actually quite straightforward. They're not complex and confusing because the Bible interprets the Bible. Now the book of Revelation the events and the numbers in the book of Revelation are meant to be interpreted in their plain meaning. The events and the numbers are not symbolic unless unless the scripture clearly indicates they're symbolic. There are several times I give some examples where it is symbolic. But the scripture tells you in the context clearly indicates it's symbolic. If it doesn't indicate that verse is symbolic then we read it straightforward. 144,000 means 144,000. The Euphrates River means the Euphrates River. Babylon means Babylon. The two witnesses mean two witnesses. It's straightforward. And if you, because some people read the book of Revelation and they assume it's all symbolic and those few verses that indicate it's symbolic they just mix it up with the rest of the book. It's all straightforward unless the text itself indicates it's symbolic. So the seven symbols. The dragon is the Antichrist. Every time. The first beast or simply the beast is the Antichrist. The only one that can throw you off is number three. The false prophet is called another beast. But he's only called another beast once and at first that might throw you off. We got the beast and another beast. Oh no, that's confusing. Every time besides once he's called the false prophet. One time in chapter 13 11 he's called another beast. Don't be thrown off by that. It's talking about the false prophet. And the reason he's called another beast because the false prophet will appear as gentle as a lamb and John wants us to know he's as much of a beast as the Antichrist is. So that's why he's called that one time. John is saying don't be fooled by his gentle demeanor. He is a beast. He is cruel. He has no ability for mercy in his personality. Don't be tricked by him. He is also a beast. Just like the Antichrist. The heart of Babylon is a evil demonic religious system and economic system. They they overlap in religion and economic. There's distinctions but there's overlap. We won't go into detail on that now. The seven heads represent seven empires in history that persecuted Israel. Because it talks about the dragon with the seven heads. That means Satan with seven heads. And it talks about the beast with the seven heads which is the Antichrist. It means that the devil and the Antichrist are involved in those seven nations that persecuted Israel. It speaks of seven nations clearly. The ten horns and the generation the Lord returns. There will be ten nations that work together in a confederation. There will be ten nations that work in deep unity together. But it's an evil unity. Ten powerful nations will join their military, their economic strength, their political clout and they will work with the Antichrist and it's called the ten horns. And then the seventh symbol and you can read these more and get familiar with them. But when you read the book of Revelation, if you have these just right before you, of course most of you are familiar with the Revelation study guide where I took the book of Revelation in just a little booklet and put all of these notes on the left side and on the right side is just the book of Revelation verse by verse. So it's like footnotes on the left side and the Bible, the book of Revelation is on the right side and you get that in the bookstore if that interests you. Where all these notes are right there next to the verses. So when you're reading it, if you forget who the woman is, you could go, oh yeah there you go, the woman. The woman speaks of the faithful remnant of Israel throughout history and the man-child is Jesus. You can again, it may take you a little while to get familiar with those terms but they're real straightforward. They're not confusing. It's clear from the text what these are. Okay, top of page three. Now this is the idea, this is an idea that is very biblical but this is the idea that's newest to most people that are beginning their study on the end time. But it is, there are plenty of Bible verses to back up this concept in the Old Testament and the prophets. It's emphasized a number of times and the term I use, I call it Jesus's royal procession where he in the clouds, he travels around the earth and every eye of every person will see him. It's been suggested to me many times. I totally reject the suggestion. They say no, Jesus will appear and TV cameras will let everybody see him. I go, I don't think so. Jesus does not need TV cameras at the second coming for every eye to see him. I've heard it many times. Because it says clearly, let's look at Revelation 1 verse 7, he is coming with clouds. Every eye of every single human being, every human on the earth will see him, believers and unbelievers. And more than seeing him, they will see him so clearly, well the church will be raptured at that time. They'll be happy. But those that are not raptured will mourn. Meaning he's not coming like some take the flash of lightning that Jesus said. He's coming like lightning because he's going from one end of the sky to the other. But they read it, that verse, and they think the second coming is like flash of lightning. I think he came. I'm not sure. And the nations go, well I think that was him but we're not sure that was him. That's not what's going to happen. When he comes, every eye will not only see him but they will have a deep emotional response. They will mourn. Meaning they will understand what is happening. It won't be a flash in their peripheral vision. They will actually see him now. For the people in the Mediterranean islands to see him and the people in the Pacific islands to see him, there's two options. The world goes flat for one moment and everybody sees him the same time. And then it becomes round again. That's option one. Option two is he comes over every geographic place of the earth that is inhabited with clouds of glory, with all the angels in the glory of God. And that's what the Bible teaches. He won't appear one time in one place. The earth goes flat. We all see him. And it won't be TV cameras. He will actually make a royal procession around the globe. And then that royal procession he will announce his kingship over the angels and the trumpets. And he will assert his kingship over every nation. When that royal procession around the globe has happened, every eye will see him. The saints are raptured. Those not raptured mourn. They know trouble is coming now. They are not happy with what they just saw because many of them have the mark of the beast. They will be very sad because this is not a quick appearance and a leaving. This is he is announcing and asserting his rightful kingship over every nation of the earth, which means every leader is going to be replaced who does not love him. And the ones that loved him just got raptured. And the ones that are still there, they know trouble is coming next for them and their nation. Every eye will see him. That's number one. That's the beginning of the royal procession. He goes across the earth in the sky in clouds. Everybody sees him. But the procession, the royal procession does not end with being on clouds of glory. The scripture is clear that he, we don't know for sure where he touches ground. We know he ends up at the Mount of Olives. That's not where he touches ground. He ends up at the Mount of Olives at the end of the procession, not at the beginning of it. So he does go to Jerusalem in the Mount of Olives, but that's his last stop, not his first stop. And it says several, quite a few places actually, that Jesus is marching up through the land. I'll just leave it there. We know he marches up through the land of Edom, which is modern-day Jordan. There's no question about that. Isaiah the prophet saw the Messiah marching up through the land of Edom, which is Jordan, on his way to enter into Jerusalem to confront the Antichrist. He doesn't confront the Antichrist from the sky, but he lands on the ground and he marches up through the land and he kills his enemies and he goes to Jerusalem and there's a major global, a battle with global implications and he confronts the armies of the earth in the city of Jerusalem. He defeats them. He captures the city. He wins it back rather. And the nation of Israel, they say to him, Blessed is he who came in the name of the Lord. And he touches the Mount of Olives and lots of things happen. Now this is a new idea for some. And again, I want to say it respectfully. It's a new idea because they only study the 10 or 12 Bible verses about the end times. Beloved, there are 150 chapters in the Bible of which the end times is the major focus. 150 chapters. We have them on the internet. Actually, it's about 180. But a few of them are debatable, so we went conservative and said 150. When you read all 150 chapters, there's a lot of details besides just a trumpet and a rapture. There's a lot more details in the storyline. In Isaiah 63, Isaiah asked the question. This is related to the second coming. He says in verse 1, Isaiah 63 verse 1, Who is this coming from Edom? Now that in the ancient days and history is called Edom. Today we call it Jordan. There's this man traveling in great strength. And the question is asked of this man, verse 2, Why are your garments red? And then the man answers. The man's Jesus. I have trodden or stomped, trampled in my anger, and I have trampled the nations in my fury. You read the whole passage. He goes, I am coming through the nations, trampling them. And then he gives the answer, the strangest answer to us. But it's quite straightforward. And there's several places in the Bible where this answer is clear. He said, When I trampled through the land. He's marching up through Jordan on his way to Jerusalem. He goes, Their blood got on my garments. Their blood, I'm confronting them. And their blood got actually on my garments. He's not in the sky. He's on the ground with his armies, on a white horse, killing the armies gathering around Jerusalem. Now there's millions and millions and millions. So they're over a couple hundred mile radius. And he's killing them, marching up to Jerusalem. He told them. Verse 1, he goes, I'm traveling in the greatness of my strength. The blood of my enemies gets on my garments. Habakkuk 3, verse 12, is describing the same scene. In verse 12, talk about the Messiah at the second coming. He marched through the land in indignation or anger. Jesus is on the ground. He's traveling across the earth in the sky. Now he's on the ground. He's marching in anger, trampling the nations to bring the salvation for the nation of Israel. He's on his way to Jerusalem. That's where he's going. And then eventually, there's a lot, it's a big phenomenal story. From the scripture, he enters Jerusalem, liberates the city of Jerusalem in a military contest. The second coming is in context to a military conflict of which Jesus is the greater David. He's not only the greater Moses, releasing plagues. He's the greater David. He's the greater Joshua, fighting the enemies around Jerusalem. He liberates them, sets his throne up in Jerusalem, and all the good things follow. The book of Revelation is the storyline of this entire set of events. Paragraph B, now again this is new to some, and I'm not going to prove it right now, but it's clear from the scripture from Daniel 12, that there is a 30-day period after the seventh trumpet, after the seventh trumpet, I'm not going to go into details now, this is just an overview. There's a 30-day period of which Jesus travels across the sky. Every eye sees him. He marches up through the land. The blood of his enemies gets on him. He enters in Jerusalem. He kills the armies of the Antichrist. The Antichrist himself is defeated. And all of this takes 30 days, according to the angel who told Daniel. It would go 30 days past the normal 1260 days. Again that's a little too detailed. This is your first time studying it. But we got articles on it on the internet and others have taught this. This is not a private revelation. This is an angel who visited John, who gave this kind of detail. Now all of this begins at the seventh trumpet. At the seventh trumpet, the saints are raptured. Jesus begins his royal procession. Every eye sees him. He touches down somewhere. We don't know where. And he marches up through the land of Jordan. He enters in the city of Jerusalem. And all the events take place in Revelation 19 and 20. Okay let's look now real brief because the storyline is easy to follow once you have some of these fundamental ideas. Without these fundamental ideas in place, the storyline gets confusing. Because again many people are thinking, now aren't we just, he appears like a flash of lightning in our peripheral vision and we're all gone and nobody knows what happened and then everything is confusing after that. No. He does everything in a dramatic way on a global scale where everyone sees the whole thing unfold. He's coming back to announce and to assert his kingship over every nation. It's not done in the secret. It's done openly. He says I'm taking over your nation and I am the worthy one who has the right to. That nation is mine. Not just Israel. Every nation of the earth. Now one of the main reasons, Roman Numeral 4 or 5. One of the main reasons, paragraph A. One of the main reasons that people don't read the book of Revelation, again they get confused about the Great Tribulation. They think the Great Tribulation is going to happen to the church instead of released by the church under Jesus' leadership. Now of course it's Jesus releasing it but not separated from the praying church. Jesus is the one. God's the one that released the plagues of Egypt but not without Moses praying about, releasing them. Technically he didn't need Moses. They were his own judgments. God's, but God determines to use the praying people on the earth to release his judgments against the wicked. Now one of the main reasons people don't read the book of Revelation is the, they don't understand the structure. The structure confuses them. There's four parts in the main structure of the book of Revelation. Four parts. And you, my goal is that you'll learn these four parts really quick. Really quite simple. But the fourth part, the fourth part, the fourth part has five sections. So there's four parts and the fourth one has five sections. So if you know the four parts and the five sections of the fourth part, nine pieces of information, you know the structure of the book of Revelation. You have it. You have nine pieces of information. You have the general structure and that means you can follow the storyline when you read it. If you don't know these nine pieces of information, when you read the storyline, you'll always be kind of confused where you are in the story. And therefore you'll get confused by what's happening in that chapter. Part one is Revelation 1. It's John's calling to prophesy. Part one, John is called to prophesy about the end times. Why do we care about John's calling to prophesy? Here's why. Because the way that John's called to prophesy is going to form the way we prophesy about the end times. The reason we have the insight in Revelation 1 about how John was called and what he saw that formed the way he prophesied about the end times, we are going, that's a model of how we will be formed and how we will prophesy about the end times. In other words, part one is not irrelevant. It matters to us to study what John saw. Because it will change the way we prophesy about the end times in the way that it changed the way John prophesied about the end times. So part one, John's calling to prophesy about the end times. Part two, Jesus gave seven letters to seven churches that existed back in John's day in the first century. These were seven real churches. Jesus strategically, he strategically picked seven churches. And the reason he picked these seven churches, many reasons that I don't know, but one reason, those churches had challenges, strategic challenges that were strategic to the end time church. Jesus in his insight is a fully God, fully man. He picked seven churches and what those seven churches were challenged by together would be a clear statement of what the end time church will be challenged by. So we study the seven churches to see what they had to overcome because that is a prophecy about what we have to overcome in the generation that the battle plan unfolds. So we really care about these seven churches because it's the same challenges that we're going to face. It's not random. They were strategically selected with the knowledge of what we would need to know in the generation the Lord returns. And again I believe we're in the beginning days of that generation. Maybe two, three, four, five decades away. I don't know. Maybe longer. Maybe shorter. I don't, you know, I think it's longer actually. I mean I think it's more like four or five decades out. But as soon as I say that, I could be totally off. It may be in the next decade or two. Who knows? But to me it's clear from the Bible signs things are unfolding so rapidly that it's, this battle plan is going to happen soon. And the issues of these seven churches will be the number one issues the church in that generation will be challenged with. We have to know those issues and we have to overcome those issues. Okay, part three. The scroll. In Revelation 4 and 5, Jesus goes to the Father's throne and there's a scroll in the Father's hands. And all the angels are around and the question is asked, who can take the scroll? What human being, what man has the right to take that scroll? And not just the right to take it, who has the ability to take it? Because the scroll speaks of the title deed of the whole earth. Now it's one thing to own the whole earth. That's pretty cool to own the whole earth. You know a guy says I own a lot of property in New York City. Well Jesus owns the entire earth. All of it as a man, as a Jewish Messiah. I mean as God he does, but I'm talking about as a Jewish king. He owns all the earth. It's his by right. So the title deed of the earth is given to him. It's one thing to own it. It's another thing to be able to rule it successfully. A lot of guys take over governments through history only to find out they create a civil war. They don't have the ability to lead their nation well. No man does. So Jesus takes the scroll. That's the title deed. And the scroll is more than the title deed. It's the action plan. It's the battle plan to drive evil off the planet. So the the battle plan in the book of Revelation is written inside that scroll. So when the father gave Jesus the scroll, Jesus took it. And when Jesus took it he was saying this. I am willing to engage in the plan to cleanse the whole earth of evil. I will engage in this battle plan to drive evil off the planet. And the battle plan is inside that scroll which is the rest of the book of Revelation. So Jesus takes the scroll and then he opens the scroll and the inside of the scroll is the battle plan that the church will be involved in praying to release it. Part four. The battle plan itself which is inside the scroll. So those are the four parts of the book of Revelation. John's calling. Revelation 1. The seven churches. The main issues that will challenge the church. The scroll itself, the title deed and the action plan is in that scroll. Jesus takes it. And then part four is the plan itself that the praying church will be identified with, I mean be involved with, on the earth involved with Jesus in that plan. Top of page four. Now the battle plan is the main theme of the book of Revelation. It's the plan. It's not just, sometimes I say the word action plan, but it's more than an action plan. He is confronting the kings of the earth and he's going to drive them off the planet at his coming. But the judgments that precede his appearing at the seventh trumpet, when the seventh trumpet sounds, the last trumpet, the church's rapture, Jesus appears in the sky. He makes his global procession, the beginning of his royal procession. He's on his way to Jerusalem. The judgments are weakening the nations. They're caught, they're breaking and destroying the resources of the antichrist empire. Now, number two. Top of page four, number two. This battle plan has five sections. Five sections inside of the scroll. It's the battle plan is written inside the scroll. When Jesus gets it, he opens the scroll and the five sections of the battle plan are written out. Now this chronological sections, these five chronological sections is what I call, although many commentators call them chronological sections as well. That's not a term that's unique with me. The plan has five parts to it. Five sections. And these chronological sections describe what unfolds the 21 judgment events, one after the other in sequential order. The plan tells us what happens one event after the other. Roman numeral, I mean number four. Let's look at number four. Now here's what happens. Here's the key part to understanding the structure of the book of Revelation. It's what I call the angelic explanations. Commentators that agree with this structure, many do, they call it parenthetical or parentheses. What, what's happening is that John, Jesus opens the scroll and the five chronological sections, the five sections that tell the events that happen in order on the earth, the judgment events, every time a section happens, like the first section is the, is the seals, the seal judgments against the Antichrist. The section, the seal judgments are unfolding and it's like it's, John is overwhelmed. John is looking at the fourth seal for instance and one fourth of the earth dies. John's going, this is intense. And the angel, this is my version, the angel looks at John, says, John you're losing it. And John's going, one fourth of the earth? Oh my gosh, I am so overwhelmed. I cannot even listen to you. Now again this is my, I'm adding my story to this. So what happens is the angel tells John, John sit down. Let's have a pastoral talk, you and me. So John, the angel puts the story light on pause. He puts the pause button on the chronological section. He goes, okay let's take a break. John, let's talk heart to heart. How do you feel about these seals? John's going, they're mind-blowing. I am troubled. I have questions. Why is this so severe? What's going to happen to the saints? What's going on? And the angel says, let's talk. And so the angel describes the behind the scenes reasons as to why these judgments are so severe. And he tells John what's going to happen to the saints. So he says, John are you, you understand? And John, again I'm making this part up. John says, yeah I get it. Okay, okay I'm okay. John said, the angel says, you want to go back to the storyline? Are you ready? The angel goes, John goes, yes. So the angel takes the pause button off and tells him the second chronological section. And the second chronological section, the trumpets are are unfolding one after the other in order. John's absolutely, his mind's blowing. He goes, I'm losing it again. The angel pushes the pause button. Sit down, John. Let me tell you why the trumpets are so severe. And John goes, yeah but what about the church? What's going to happen to us? And John, and the angel says, a lot of good things are going to happen to the church. There's going to be an outpouring of the prophetic anointing and God's going to help you and da da da da da da. And John goes, okay, okay. I'm ready. The angel says, John are you with me? You ready to hear the rest of the story? John says yes. Okay, the angel takes the pause button off. Then it goes to the third chronological section. There's the trumpet, the seventh trumpet blasting in the sky. All the saints are raised. Every eye sees him. All the governments of the earth are going to be replaced. John goes, every government replaced? Like in a short amount of time. I don't mean in one minute, but it's over days and weeks. Very rapid. Every government of the earth will be replaced in a short period of time. John goes, wait a second. This is chaotic. The whole earth is going to change government. Wait. So John, the angel pauses. Sit down John. Let me tell you why this is necessary. So he explains to John, the reason we have to take over, God has to take over every government. Every single one has to be replaced is because the governments have been violently oppressing the saints of God. The governments have been violently confronting the Antichrist. Everything that is good from God's point of view, they have to be replaced. So John says, okay that makes sense. Okay. The angel says, are you with me John? Okay, I'm with you. Okay, take the pause button off now. So now the fourth section takes place. Oh no, it's the trumpets. No, I mean the bowls. The bowls of wrath. They're worse than the trumpets are. John goes, I'm losing it again. Why does it have to be so severe? Because when the bowls take place, not only are the governments now replaced, all the infrastructure of all the nations are completely destroyed. Not completely, that's a wrong statement, but substantially destroyed. The seven bowls of wrath come down and break up the infrastructures of society. And John goes, this is, it's one thing to replace all the kings. It's another thing to change all the policies of all the governments and the libraries and the tax systems and the banking systems and the media and the education systems. They all have to be replaced. And John is kind of losing it again. He's overwhelmed. The angel pushes the pause button and says, John, you think that's too severe, don't you? And John goes, well, I trust God. I mean, I know his leadership is perfect, but I mean, everything is going to be destroyed. All the infrastructures of all the nations. And the angel says, yeah, but John, they're infiltrated with the Babylon system, the Babylon values. We have to remove all of everything in society that has those values in it. Therefore, the bold judgments, it's better to reduce many things to nothing and start from scratch and build society from ground up again. And so John says, OK, that makes sense. And so now the angel says, are you with me, John? I'm with you. So he takes the pause button off again. And then now John sees the fifth section and Jesus is marching into Jerusalem on a white horse. And of course all the kings of the earth are gathered there and there's a big confrontation. And Jesus kills every one of the kings. And he enters in Jerusalem. It's a great victory for the righteous. It's a terrible defeat for the wicked. And the millennial kingdom happens. The devil's thrown in prison. And then eventually after the millennial kingdom, the new heaven and new earth. And the throne of God comes down to the earth. I mean, John's like really excited now. He goes, wow, that fifth section. That's the one we really like is the fifth section. OK, so we're going to go through these just real quick again. Look at Revelation 6, the middle of page 4. Now I realize we went through that a little bit fast, but once you get the general idea, there's four parts in the book of Revelation. The fourth part of the, there's four parts in the book, in the structure. The fourth part has five sections. Those five sections are the judgment events, mostly the judgment events that happen against the Antichrist. And after each one of those sections, because John is a little bit overwhelmed, the angel puts the storyline on pause. He tells John the behind-the-scenes reasons for why the judgment is so severe. And then he tells John what's going to happen to the saints. Because John has two basic questions. Why are things so severe? And what about us? Those are the two questions always being answered in the angelic explanations at which most commentators that, that agree with this structure, and many do, they call them the parenthetical sections, the parentheses. I used to call them that, but too many people goes, what's a parenthetical section? I go, an angel's just explaining the behind-the-scenes. So one young person said, why don't you just call it an angel explaining it then and throw that parentheses word away. I said, OK. So when you read other commentaries, you will see it will call it a parenthetical section or something like that. Different ones use different words. OK. Let's review this real quick. Then I'm going to let you ask questions for a few minutes. And then we're going to voluntarily get in groups of four. And I'm going to ask you the four parts and the five sections. I'm going to ask you those questions and see if you could get this storyline. And you'll be able to use your little cheat sheet. You got it right in your hand. So you can, it's an open book test. But if you really, you know, got it, you could put that cheat sheet in your back pocket. You can say, watch this. I could just do it. Have some fun. OK. Romans, Revelation 6, the first section is the seal judgments. OK. After the seal judgments, the angel comes and says, don't worry about the seal judgments. God's going to protect the saints from the judgments of God. And God's going to protect the saints from falling away under persecution. I mean, the saints will still be persecuted, but they won't lose their faith. They won't give in to compromise. They won't fall away under the pressure. God has a plan to protect the church. The judgments of God will not hit the church. And if we want, if you want to, there will be grace to where you will not compromise in that season. So the angel tells John when the seal judgments come, have no fear. God has a plan to protect the church. So John goes, good. So the pause button goes off. We go now continuing the storyline. Revelation 8 and 9. The trumpet judgments are the second section in the battle plan. They are destroying the Antichrist empire. John goes, wait a second. They're so severe. The angel pushes the pause button on. He goes, OK. What's the problem John? John goes, well there's so much demonic activity. So much death and carnage. The Antichrist kingdom is being decimated. Demons are lying. False prophets are everywhere. What about us? Who's going to know what the truth is? And John says, I'm glad you asked. The angel says, I'm glad you asked. Because God's going to pour out supernatural direction to His church. His church will not be confused in that hour. There's going to be an outpouring of the spirit of prophecy beyond any time in history. God is going to give prophetic direction in an hour of great confusion. John goes, OK, good. I'm ready to go. Take the pause button off. Now the third section, the third chronological section, the seventh trumpet, the announcement, all the governments of the earth are going to be replaced. Again I already went through this. John goes, every government, 232 kings, all the saints are raptured. The trumpet goes, the announcement, every king of the earth, be warned Jesus is in the sky coming in glory. He's replacing every one of you. And He's killing every one of you that He replaces. I tell you, the kings are very mad at this announcement. The kingdoms of the earth belong to Jesus as of now. They, we, you know, we hear that seventh trumpet, saints raptured. We get rewards. The announcement goes forth. We go, yay, yay. But if you're a king with the mark of the beast, that is a really bad announcement. And there'll be many, many kings that will be on, not all the kings, but many kings will be on the Antichrist side. But every king has to submit his nation to Jesus's leadership. And that's what happens. And again John says, wow, isn't that awfully intense? I mean, isn't there like a softer way to take over the earth? Maybe, you know, Jesus could, you know, have an election and see if they all vote Him. I mean, you know, John didn't really say that. But, and the Romans, I mean, Revelation 12 and 14, the third angelic explanation, John, the angel tells John, John, you don't get it. Satan is raging and confronting the church. The Antichrist has raised up a whole army against the saints. They won't accept Jesus's terms. They have resisted Him. They have to be overthrown. They have to be replaced. All the governments do. They're not built on righteousness. They all have to be replaced. That's so extreme. I mean, it's kind of a neat thing to us. But think about it in detail. Every single senior leadership of every nation replaced in a short amount of time. That sounds chaotic. Why is that so necessary? And the third angelic explanation tells us because the Antichrist has been violently confronting all the people of God. And not just the people of God. Whatever is God calls good. Morality. God's definition of morality is being violently confronted by the Antichrist. All, everyone that's related to the Antichrist, I mean, that's associated with Him, they must be replaced. Against their will because they don't want to be replaced. They're mad. And they are declaring war on Jesus. Okay Romans, I mean Revelation 15 and 16. The fourth chronological section. The bowl judgments. Now the rapture took place at the last one. The seventh trumpet. The rapture took place. Jesus is now making His procession across the sky. But He's marching up through the land. And the way that Moses was in Egypt, loosing the seven, the ten plagues. Jesus is marching up in Israel, loosing the seven bowls of wrath in concert with the Holy Spirit and the Father and all the saints. And it's destroying the infrastructure of all of the national governments of the earth. I mean they're plummeting them. They're destroying them. Revelation 17 and 18. The angel sees that John's overwhelmed. He puts the storyline on pause. He goes, John do you get it? John says, why? I mean it's one thing to replace the leaders. But we have to, you're talking about 100 pound hell stones destroying every library, every media center. We're talking about destroying all of the governmental schools. I mean all the governmental centers. The school systems. I mean these 100 pound hell stones. They decimate the nations. That's what Jesus, I mean John, I mean David talked about in Psalm 2. He says when Jesus comes back. Psalm 2 verse 8. And the nations are His inheritance. He will break all the nations. He says He will dash them to pieces with the potter's, like the potter's vessel. He will take all the national infrastructures. It'll be like a pot of clay with an iron rod. He will shatter all of them. Those are the seven bowls of wrath. They are shattering the nations. And it seems so extreme. It seems too extreme. But then the angel comes and tells John, you don't understand. The harlot Babylon's values have infiltrated the media, the education, the tax codes, the libraries, the sporting events. They're all infiltrated with darkness in the value system. It's actually more effective to reduce them to nothing and raise them up from scratch except those that are built on righteousness. There will be some places where righteousness will have gained a stronghold in different regions of the earth. And wherever righteousness has gained a stronghold, it will, it will remain. Then the fifth chronological section, Jesus marches into Jerusalem on a white horse. And He confronts all the kings that are gathered around Jerusalem. And the angel tells Him, God is going to restore everything that was in His mind originally when the Garden of Eden started. He's going to restore it all. And the Garden of Eden is going to be restored to the earth. That's the behind-the-scenes explanation. Okay. Now I realize we covered a whole lot of territory. Took an hour to do it. I was hoping to do it sooner than that. So what I want to do now, go ahead and stand. Take a little, just a minute. Just kind of move around for a second. I'm going to have, now I realize I kind of gave you rapid fire Book of Revelation. We're going to get our questions, our open mics over here. We'll just take, just do this about 10 or 15 minutes.