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Absolutely nothing Absolutely Nothing So Luther cautions about the why me here the potter exercises complete control over the clay The clay are the word of his hand So we then can have confidence we can have confidence with regard to whatever we are experiencing here That that is being formed whether it is good or whether God allows challenges into our lives No matter whether we are broken or whether we are whole our one purpose is to do what but to bring glory to God And we are called to bring an empowered to bring glory to God not only in the good times but also in the Challenging times and God removes the why off of the table because Emory thing that God allows is for here comes the phrase again His ultimate good is ultimate glory in our ultimate good And so we can then say Because I know who you are in light of the cross because I know who you are in light of the word I can trust you then potter So we as the clay don't turn and say Why me Why me instead how can I give you glory God and empower me to give you glory amidst all of that That is the purpose with regard to why we are here is to bring him Glory take a look at chapter 45 verse 13 I have aroused Cyrus in righteousness and I will make all his path straight He shall build my city and set my exiles tree not for price or reward says the Lord of hosts God is in charge of all of history all of history God is in charge of even even heathen nations to carry out his will And so as one looks at the at the world and when has there ever been a generation that has not asked what's the world coming to Right, that's a universal question right As we look at the world and we say well, what is the world coming to as God's still in charge? I am and there is no one beside me But the evil shall come upon you which you cannot charm away Disaster shall fall upon you which you will not be able to ward off and ruin the shall come on you suddenly of which you know Nothing Isaiah already saw the downfall of Babylon already saw When you go to 48 You've got some classic law and and gospel that go on in chapter 48 The first portion of chapter 48 Is is really giving the law against the house of of Jacob the hardness of their hearts the second portion of 48 Um is a word of invitation To leave Babylon and to trust in the Lord So let's go to a 48 will pick up in in 17 Thus says the Lord your Redeemer the Holy one of Israel I am the Lord your God who teaches you for your own good Who leads you and the way you should go Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments and your prosperity would have been like a river in your success like the waves of the sea Your offspring would have been like the sand in your descendants like its grains their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me Go out from Babylon flee from Caldia Declare this with a shout of joy proclaim it Send it forth to the end of the earth say the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob Verse 20 here tells the people this word of prophecy that when the time comes they are to announce to the ends here of the earth with Shouts of joy their redemption here from Babylonian captivity And when you think of us God has redeemed us in a much greater way hasn't he Then a release of the people out of captivity we've been redeemed through the cross of Jesus Christ and may we As his redeemed people announce with great joy what God has done If God called the people to announce with great joy here The redemption from the Babylonian captivity how much more how much more Do we have the joy and are we cold to express that joy and that reality In terms of what God has done for us in Christ So We've seen here now today the raising up a Cyrus The return of the Jews to Palestine to rebuild Jerusalem in the temple That word of prophecy here Ultimate purpose Deserving the people out of which the Messiah will come and redeem the world We've seen that whatever God makes of us Are we broken or whole our purpose is to give him glory We've seen How the hidden God speaks through his word and if we want to know Who he is and what he says We don't go inward We go outward to the word We've seen the total helplessness of idols and our temptation to create our own idols in whatever form When we cry out with the with the why me And we've seen how God has redeemed us in a much greater way No wonder we can announce with joy Well, we'll continue next week as we turn to chapters 49 to 52 Heavenly Lord, we thank you so much for your word. So so when you are when you open your Bible to the middle and you find yourself at the book of Psalms that is not only at the center of the Bible, but it's also in the center of the books of wisdom books of wisdom in scripture include Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon so that middle section of your scripture prior to the prophet and after the Pentateuch and history that is where we find these books of what wisdom wisdom is living life the way that God intended in the books of wisdom we receive a bounty of living a righteous life we find righteousness written about talked about a lot in the books of wisdom we also see God in the books of wisdom we see God that he is holy he is righteous wise he is the just creator all of these themes are found within the books of wisdom it's interesting because you'll will hear in the in throughout the ages in the secular world and even within the Christian world some of you'll hear these comparisons made between the Israelites and Christians and those around them and and saying there are all these overlaps that you know well well the Christians have a story of creation but so does this culture and so does this culture and and really it's just a story and and it's just a way to try to explain things every culture has a creation story and so it's it's leading into this comparison comparison where where we compare the Bible as one of many ways to know God or one of many ways to show us how to live righteously but that that is in error it is an error to say that the Bible is just one more story in how we can live or how we can speak to be good people some overlap there is some overlap in wise sayings in the books of wisdom there might be some some some overlap between the books of wisdom and other cultures of the ancient near east but there's a major clarification that has to keep forefront for us in our minds and that wisdom wisdom is based on God's created order wisdom is based on God's created order all wisdom all truth belongs to God and he has given this to his people also biblical wisdom is different than all the other cultures and religions because it emphasizes one God it emphasizes one God God who is the source of all knowledge God who is the source of all understanding all that is right and wrong is according to God's wisdom and perfection whether we want to make comparisons or not we know that the source of all truth the source of all that is true is God and so everything everything we know everything we learn everything we do everything we say is is in accordance with the wisdom of God it's according to his wisdom according to his perfection and our right our righteousness our rightness is fulfilled in Christ for us wisdom books are filled with poetry and prose but don't let this stop you from loving the Psalms don't let this stop you from loving the books of wisdom and don't let it stop you or intimidate you from turning to the Psalms I know so oftentimes with the book of Psalms it is either oh I love the Psalms or oh my gosh I'm trying to get through the Psalms because it's it's very high high nature with with the writing it's very very high uh verbiage and and so it's we get lost or we can get lost um I personally am not one that sits down often with a book of poetry but Psalms are different the Psalms are different and so even if you do not uh excuse me even if you do not love poetry you can still love the book of Psalms and the books of wisdom um uh uh do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do so Okay, so this is so cool. I also know that there are times in my life when it is absolutely appropriate to to go to the book of Esther and it really speaks and then there are other times in my life when I would I would not understand what I'm supposed to get what I'm supposed to be led in from the book of Esther right does that make sense but in the book of Psalms as we turn to the Psalms maybe it's Psalm 23 that I need in this very moment maybe it's the first Psalm maybe it's the last Psalm maybe it's Psalm 119 speaking of God's word maybe it's Psalm 51 and I will full confession here Psalm 51 I go to a lot a lot but it's I think that one and this is a biased opinion that one just gets right to the heart of man and to the heart of God love Psalm 51 So I'm going to stop talking about it right now because I can't stop I love it So Luther also calls the Psalter the spirits summary of the whole Bible he says the Psalter should be precious to us if only because it most clearly promises the death and resurrection of Christ and describes his kingdom and the nature and standing of all Christian people it could well be entitled a little Bible since everything contained in the entire Bible is beautifully and briefly comprehended and compacted into a manual it seems to me as if the Holy Ghost had been pleased to take on himself the trouble of putting together a short Bible touching the whole of Christianity in order that they who are unable to read the whole Bible may never the last never the last find almost the whole sum comprehended in one little book the Psalter is the very heragon of books don't be scared of the book of Psalm we are going to have a great time going through this I hope and I pray that our study will open the book of Psalms for each of us for every single one of us and and that we will be able to weave it into our life of prayer into our prayer life because it is God's own word given to us that we get to recite to pray right back to him and we don't have to worry if we're eloquent when we pray we don't have to worry if we're getting exactly what we're trying to portray because we are praying God's own words to him and that's a beautiful thing that is a beautiful thing So today for our time of, we're going to, I think we're going to have fun. Anytime we watch anything that touches on a theological notion I go this is just this just bad theology and and she started stopping me as we're watching something she just says mom I know I know it's I'm not turning to this for theology I'm turning it to it for fun but anyway so so there you go the Nephilim the great mystery not as exciting as we think or as as sometimes it's portrayed but but it makes more sense it's more realistic and so there we go all right so we started in Genesis now we're going to jump all the way to revelation there is um revelation is I mean we could I know we talked about this last year we could spend just years in revelation and still um be fascinated and find more uh we're gonna go to revelation 12 revelation 12 so we started in Genesis the very first book of the Bible and we're going all the way to the end to revelation the very last book in the Bible so we're making it very easy to find today um we don't even have to open to the middle and then flip we just know you either go to the front of the back so we're in the back of the Bible revelation verse 12 um so have you ever been reading in Daniel it also has this where where you read and it talks about a time times in half a time and we kind of read past that and go yep okay sounds good what is time times and half a time so that is what we're going to be looking at today so we're going to start with verses uh one through six because this is very interesting remember how we talked last year about how revelation goes in these cycles right it's cyclical writing and so here we're going to find in these first six verses of chapter 12 we find that um that it's it's a quick version of then what is laid out in the rest of 12 so let's go ahead and read verses one through six where John is seeing the vision and he says a great portant appeared in heaven a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars she was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs in the agony of giving birth then another portant appeared in heaven a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadams on his heads his tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born and she gave birth to a son a male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron but her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God so that there she can be nourished for 1,260 days okay so a great sign it begins by saying a great sign a great sign is it's pointing to something of importance remember how we hear that there will be signs and wonders that Jesus did many signs and wonders he is it that is always pointing to something of divine importance that's happening a visual representation of something divine right we know that when Jesus performs miracles something divine is happening right there we know that anytime there's a sign given there's something divine that's happening that's going on so so this woman is wearing a crown of 12 stars on her head now a crown was given in reward for a contest it was it was it showed a victory and this crown of of 12 stars it represents 12 of the 24 elders that were around the throne of God so in the throne room we read about the 12 elders that are praising and worshipping the Lord and we knew when we talked about this last year we talked about how 12 those 12 of those 24 represented or were the 12 tribes of Israel and the other 12 were the 12 apostles so you have the Old Testament and the New Testament coming together and you have the 24 represented so you have you have this woman who is wearing the crown of 12 stars on her head and prior to the child's birth the 12 stars are representing the 12 tribes of Israel it's those those 12 tribes so it's really that old testament people that are being represented here it's it's all the people of God in the Old Testament that are represented then after the child is born the 12 stars are representing the other 12 elders that are that are the 12 apostles which represents the New Testament Church which represents the people of God both both of the Old and the New it's it's the complete people of God the stars are signifying that the woman represents the entire people of God Israel and the New Israel the Old Israel and the New Israel Mary is is the model of the woman or for the woman she's also the model for and represents the church so here we have this woman and and and she is I mean we know that Mary did give birth to Christ but we also know that the church is referred to as a bride remember in the Old Testament how consistently the prophets write and and God writes through through them talking about the the unfaithful bride that is the church and then afterwards we hear in the New Testament about the church that is adorned as the bride for Christ right the bride of the lamb so the church is adorned with the sun and crown of stars God loves and honors his people God loves his people his people of all his people of now and his people to come God loves all of his church the moon that is under the woman's feet that shows that she's the dominant earth entity in his creation so everything everything in creation is governed for the benefit of the church the church is to increase to be cared for the church is protected by God the dragon then is sitting here it's just incredible imagery this dragon that is just waiting for this child to be born to debour him so so we see that the dragon at the start isn't again or isn't after the woman the dragon wants to destroy the child the dragon wants has a focus against the child that's where the warfare is all centered but the child escapes the dragon and that's when the dragon turns his rage toward the woman so if you keep your hand in revelation and if you go to Psalm 2 now we're going to open to the middle of our Bibles into Psalm 2 please it's just incredible when you get into you know I like the the Lutheran the Lutheran way of understanding that scripture interpret scripture because it helps to clarify it helps a lot to make sense of what doesn't seem to make sense and we see that that God has it he has what he wants us to know in his word so so it's just kind of cool that's a total aside but it's just it's just really cool to see how God gives us always through his word understanding so so in in Psalm 2 we read we read about the prophecy of this so reading in Psalm 2 it says why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and his anointed saying let us burst their bonds a sundering cast their cords from us he who sits in the heavens laugh the Lord has them in derision then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them within his fury saying I have set my king on Zion my holy hill I will tell of the decree of the Lord he said to me you are my son today I have begotten you ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel now therefore oh kings be wise be warned oh rulers of the earth serve the Lord with fear with trembling kiss his feet or he will be angry and you will perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled happy are all who take refuge in him so we see that in Psalm 2 God is telling us that he will anoint his king he will install his king who is the anointed one and in Psalm 2 verse 9 when it talks about the iron rod it's looking past the present age where gods or Christ rain is hidden right it's looking past that into the future rain when Christ's rain will be revealed in power and with glory and so it's light in light of the future rain the the future rain of Christ the kings kings are told fear worship and serve the Lord in that knowing that this rain indeed is coming and so this is what is the kings and those of us on earth are invited to to fear and worship so that that the escape of the wrath of God can happen remember happier all who take refuge in him we know that the rain the eternal forever rain is the Lord's and so when he comes again in all power and glory and and his kingdom is no longer hidden from the world we know as believers we do not need to tremble because our time now is is revering the Lord our king and and we know his kingdom is to come so that is that is an invitation and a warning right that that those who who revel in the worldly rain and the reign of the dragon gods wrath indeed will come upon them the dragon the dragon though can only look toward or look forward to his complete termination his a complete termination of his of his rule and so he's furious with this child he's furious with this child and that's where he wants to to snatch the child in Luke chapter one verses 31 and 32 we find out that the male child that is to be born to marry is to rule on the throne forever we know that his his rule and reign will be forever it is eternal and Jesus declares in his ministry over and over again that he is the shepherd he is the one who has come to call and gather the sheep just as God had promised so so in verse five going back to Revelation in verse five we read she gave birth to a son a male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron but her child was snatched away and taken to God and to his throne a lot happens in that phrase in this phrase we have the incarnation we have the ministry of Jesus we have the passion the death the resurrection and the ascension in just a little phrase so so so we have the sum of our whole everything that we know about Christ all in those few words that the child was born and snatched up to God Jesus the child he is exalted and enthroned it is not the dragon it is not the dragon who prevailed it is Christ it is the child born who prevailed praise the Lord the dragon couldn't destroy the child at his birth so now now we're going to jump down so so those verses one through six that an overall explanation of what's happening here then then John in his writing with the prophecy he comes back then beginning in verse seven and goes back over it and explains what happens and tells of it in more detail so in that we hear beginning in verse seven war broke out in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon the dragon and his angels fought back but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven the great dragon was thrown down that ancient ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan and deceiver of the whole world he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him then I heard a loud voice in heaven proclaiming now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God but they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they did not cling to life even in the face of death rejoice then you heavens and those who dwell in them but woe to the earth and to the sea for the devil has come down to you with great wrath because he knows that his time is short okay a couple of things here why I keep highlighting that that this you know the first six verses give a shortened version and then we come back to get more details because when when one reads revelation in a linear fashion then we see that there are that that they're they're really then are two dragons how does this work and you see this timeline getting really muddled and very confused so when we understand that we're coming back to to the deeper explanation or more details it makes it clearer does that make sense yes oh good I'm so glad I also I also want to highlight I just find it so amazing these incredible descriptions of the serpent of the devil given where where it is it is in verse um verse 10 and into 11 it talks about um the accuser the accuser who accuses that day and night before our God and isn't that exactly what the devil does but stand there first saying you know come on it's okay you know tempting us warring us into sin we sin and then he says can you believe what you just did you should be ashamed you are unworthy you are un-savable right isn't that what the great accuser does I love those verses just it's just anyway so um so the dragon can't destroy child that has then the woman this this first Mary is now the church it's both the old and the new Israel um and and we read about that where where Paul in Romans writes about there's no longer Jew in Greek but but we're one in Ephesians chapter two we we read all about um the unity of who we are in Christ right that we are no longer separated but we are one we read in the New Testament in Paul where he talks about um you know we're all one in the Lord one Lord one spirit one baptism for the forgiveness of sin and so we have this unity and um let's go ahead and go back to Revelation verse 13 so when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child so he's pursuing after this woman he can't he cannot defeat the child and so he goes after the woman he goes after the church but the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time see time and times and half a time okay we're gonna math that's okay this is this is simple math okay yes so we have we have time that's one we have times so that's two so we have that and then we have half so that is time times and half a time one plus two is three plus half is three and a half simple math now I'm gonna explain what this even means so so um three three and a half is half of number seven right so the number seven is very key here okay so when we read um we read earlier in Revelation we read about um about a 1,260 days uh that the witnesses of God are on the earth right and we read about um 1,260 days where where the city is trampled right and and so this is a very figurative language um three and a half years equals 1,260 days so we we're coming to look at this figuratively um and not linear so it's not that there will be two prophets proclaiming for three and a half years exactly and then there will be burning in the city for three and a half years exactly and then but it's it's figurative so the two the the prophets the witnesses of God were in that time period okay so um but we're talking about times time time times and and half a time um so so three and a half is half of seven seven is God's number seven is God's number remember he created in seven days and created in six rested on the seventh but but it's the seven days of creation um so so we have this this fullness in the number seven the fullness of of God well three and a half is half that is the devil's mockery of God three and a half is the devil's mockery of God and until the completion of God's time we are in a period of the devil's mockery we're in a period of the devil the accuser wreaking havoc and accusing doing all he can to torment the the church so he chased after the woman the woman went into the wilderness and she was in verse 14 it says that she is nourished for a time and times and half a time so we are currently in the time and times and half a time but the woman remember at this point is the church she is the church let's go back to Revelation to read in verse 15 then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman to sweep her away with the flood but the earth came to the help of the woman it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth then the dragon was angry with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her children those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus so remember the dragon now is being referred to as the serpent where do we first see the serpent genocents in the Garden of Eden who deceive, eve and Adam right and is also told by God that he will be crushed that he will be crushed by Eve's offspring so now the dragon the serpent has been trying to devour this child can't cannot destroy the child he chases after the woman chases after the church continues to hound after the woman but the woman is cared for she is nourished she is nourished by creation she is provided for and we know that as the church we are under complete and the church being you know believers we are always under fire by the the serpent by the devil the dragon but we are nourished week after week with word and sacrament we are nourished day after day with word right and so we're always nourished and kept in in God's reign and rule by his mercy and by his grace so um yeah so God cares for the woman in the wilderness the serpent still causes a lot of pain a lot of anxiety and we see that he turns to then torment the rest of her seed. Adam and Eve had everything down to the fact that they bore the image of God the idea of not having enough not being enough it wasn't even a question in their mind because they had never experienced lack they had never experienced anything outside of perfection they had never experienced anything outside of the completeness of God and then the devil comes that tricky serpent and whispers into Eve's ear and raises the question of enough in her life the temptation stirs in Eve's heart and she thinks maybe what she has isn't enough maybe there's more look with me please at chapter three beginning in verse six so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they so did leave together and made loincloths for themselves eating fruit seems pretty innocent it's not a huge deal right to eat a fruit why is that really a big deal after all it looked good it seemed like it would be good to Eve was it a big deal yes it was a big deal because God had expressly forbidden it he had expressly forbidden eating of that fruit we like to judge sin and rank it some sins are worse than others some sins not so bad we can joke about it a little bit but sin is sin sin is sin all sin and sin is not determined by how you or I feel about it sin is not determined by whether we want to say something is right or wrong the whole series of acceptable sins with the big question mark it begs the question what sin is acceptable and the answer is a resounding none no sin is acceptable absolutely zero sin is acceptable even if everyone else does it sin is sin sin is wrong and sin earns the full wrath of God the Father Eve sinned when she questioned the word of God and determined for herself what would be right and good she tried to blame the serpent but the guilt lies directly on her shoulders for her own sin and just like Eve just like Eve we sin out of envy Eve envied God his wisdom Eve envied God his authority and his sovereignty and so she determined for herself that what she had the word of God was not enough and she ate of the fruit just like Eve our envy says that we what we have been given by God is not enough whether it is a matter of a material thing that God has blessed us with we see others who have more and we look at our blessing and say it's not enough out of envy we see the spouse of another person and look at our own spouse and say what God has given me in this spouse is not enough we see others who are wiser than us more talented than us more skilled than us funnyer than us and we envy because we are not enough in our envy we delight in the downfall of others when another struggles we take delight when another when another has a mishap we find little glimpses of joy or humor our envy our envy ultimately comes down to the envy we have over our own lives, over our own morality, over our own decisions that we do not hold the authority that we do not hold the ultimate wisdom that we do not hold ultimate sovereignty and we envy God we envy God and we determine for ourselves what is right and what is wrong in our gospel reading today we have that period where pilot is bringing Jesus before the Jewish people and he has a custom to turn over one of the prisoners to the Jewish people to release him and let him go free and surely he's expecting that he'll let Jesus go because as it said he knew that Jesus had been handed over by the chief priests out of envy the chief priests envy Jesus they envied the power that he had they envied the fluence that he had and they sought his downfall they sought his demise we envy God Jesus stood before the crowd in a crown of thorns and they mocked him and called for his crucifixion do you envy God in that moment they beat him and flogged him stripping away pieces of skin do you envy God they marched him through the streets holding across that he could barely carry do you still envy God they nailed him to two pieces of wood do you envy God Jesus hung there on the cross struggling for breath while those around him crucified with him taunted and tormented him the soldiers at the foot of his cross teased him mocked him while his mother and his friends stood by weeping unable to do a thing do you envy God on that cross the entire wrath of the father was poured out so heavily the burden of the sin of this world of all time all places all people thoughts words and deeds the punishment poured out upon the sun so devastating that he called out my God my God why have you forsaken me and he gave up his spirit to death do you still envy God they removed the body and buried it in a tomb Jesus had died if that had been you or I or any person to ever walk this earth the story would end there it would be done and it would be deserved and just but God God is God he is not you or I God in the second person of the Trinity Jesus Christ walked this earth to live the life that you and I cannot live he walked this earth out of his love for you and I so that when he died experiencing the full punishment unjust punishment of the father he could do what neither you nor I could do and he rose victorious he conquered death he conquered the grave he conquered your sin he conquered my sin even the sin of our envy Jesus did for you and for I what we could never do for ourselves or for anyone else from the beginning of your life of faith when you were born through waters of baptism you were born free you were born into salvation you were born into eternal forgiveness and you were born once again in the image of God and as Paul writes in Galatians it is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me and in Christ you come before the father not enough in yourself but you are in Christ and in Christ you are enough because you stand redeemed in Christ and this was planned from before the beginning in Ephesians chapter one Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love he destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of his will to the to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the beloved in him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us what you have my brothers and sisters is Christ there is no need to be in Christ you have forgiveness in Christ you have salvation in Christ you have life in Christ and what you have in Christ is enough and so the joy that you have in Christ is enough the peace that you have in Christ is enough the love that you have in Christ is enough and so I encourage you I encourage you to live live in Christ because not only is Christ enough Christ is everything Would you open your Bible's please with me this evening to Exodus the 30-second chapter?

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