WEBVTT 00:00:00.920 --> 00:00:07.520 If you are just joining us on this series, just to let you know where we are, the book of Daniel is divided in two. 00:00:07.540 --> 00:00:10.200 The first six chapters are a narrative story to the life of Daniel. 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:14.860 The last six chapters are an apocalyptic, prophetic declaration to Daniel. 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:21.500 If you remember the story of Daniel, Daniel was captured as a young boy, probably in his middle school to early high school years. 00:00:21.840 --> 00:00:23.720 He probably saw his family killed before him. 00:00:23.720 --> 00:00:30.800 Not just Daniel, but all of Israel was besieged against by the Babylonians and the bright young rising stars were carried into 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:35.950 captivity in Babylon, and Babylon went back and continued a siege upon Israel and destroyed it. 00:00:36.220 --> 00:00:43.420 Daniel was a part of that first siege and was carried off as a slave into Babylon, raised as a young man, tried to be culturally 00:00:43.420 --> 00:00:43.870 influenced. 00:00:44.200 --> 00:00:48.200 The culture there tried to get him to forget his past and to embrace what they taught. 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:51.440 Daniel refused and still wanted to be faithful to God in all of it. 00:00:52.120 --> 00:00:59.320 The question anyone would be asking in that scenario, if you see that sort of devastation, you'd ask the common 00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:00.140 questions of life. 00:01:00.180 --> 00:01:01.390 God do you love me, God are you there? 00:01:01.900 --> 00:01:03.580 God do I have a future with you? 00:01:03.580 --> 00:01:05.560 Does any of your people have a future with you? 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:08.200 God are you going to be faithful to the promises you've given to your people? 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:11.860 Daniel's first six chapters kind of outlays that for us. 00:01:11.860 --> 00:01:18.960 You see Daniel wanting to be faithful to God and having this conflict with culture and God continuing to intervene and to show 00:01:18.960 --> 00:01:20.990 Daniel his love and plan in life. 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:24.970 When you get to chapter 7, on, it's sort of like God pulls back the curtain. 00:01:24.980 --> 00:01:27.300 Daniel by this point is older in years. 00:01:27.300 --> 00:01:29.820 He's in his 80s now, still serving God. 00:01:29.820 --> 00:01:37.060 God gives these prophetic visions to let him see how everything's going to unfold, to the coming of the messiah, and what that's going to look like for God's 00:01:37.060 --> 00:01:37.460 people. 00:01:37.920 --> 00:01:40.260 That's where we are today, in chapter 8. 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:44.620 Now the nature of this literature is called apocalyptic. 00:01:44.620 --> 00:01:46.340 It's eschatological apocalyptic. 00:01:46.660 --> 00:01:53.860 Apocalyptic really means, it's the word where we get revelation, but it really means that symbolism is used to mean something 00:01:53.860 --> 00:01:54.610 literal. 00:01:55.020 --> 00:01:58.120 They'll use the symbolic language in apocalyptic literature. 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:01.080 If you've ever read Revelation, you've probably seen just these images. 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:02.660 You're like, what is going on here? 00:02:02.860 --> 00:02:03.840 This seems nuts. 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:08.100 Am I going to see this beast with this harlot riding on the back of it through the sky? 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:09.940 I hope I don't, I'm not alive. 00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:10.880 What is it talking about? 00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:15.290 Apocalyptic literature uses symbolism to help explain something. 00:02:15.540 --> 00:02:21.730 I've noticed in culture today, we're very good at taking those symbols and just destroying them. 00:02:22.160 --> 00:02:24.920 We try to make things mean something they were never intended to make. 00:02:25.300 --> 00:02:30.380 The reason we often do that is because we try to make 21st century application to these symbols. 00:02:30.680 --> 00:02:35.220 When these symbols were written and described, it wasn't written for a 21st century audience. 00:02:35.700 --> 00:02:42.800 To understand apocalyptic literature, you have to first ask the question, what that passage meant to those there and then, before we understand what it means to us 00:02:42.880 --> 00:02:43.340 here and now. 00:02:43.720 --> 00:02:48.500 A passage of the bible always first applies to the original audience it was written to, though truth is timeless. 00:02:49.140 --> 00:02:56.300 I gave you a few examples last week, a couple that I've always heard of as the mark of the beast, and people talk about don't get 00:02:56.300 --> 00:02:58.980 a computer chip because that means you're going to hell or something like that. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:01.480 That has nothing to do with mark of the beast. 00:03:02.060 --> 00:03:04.320 Mark of the beast goes back to Jewish symbolism. 00:03:04.540 --> 00:03:09.210 The Jews would walk around with what they called phylacteries on their wrists, bound on their foreheads. 00:03:09.940 --> 00:03:13.640 They had scripture in these phylacteries and it was a symbol that they belonged to God. 00:03:14.180 --> 00:03:21.380 When you start talking about the mark of the beast, you'll see a mark on their foreheads, on their wrists showing that their thinking and their hands and serving, belong 00:03:21.380 --> 00:03:23.520 to what this beast represents. 00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:24.980 It's not a computer chip. 00:03:25.100 --> 00:03:26.150 That's not what the symbol means. 00:03:26.580 --> 00:03:32.220 They didn't go to 21st century understanding in order to help you grab that meaning today. 00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:35.040 That would undermine every century previous to that. 00:03:35.380 --> 00:03:39.260 What they did is they went to the centuries relevant to them at that time. 00:03:39.260 --> 00:03:42.790 They drew from imagery in the past to help us understand what it means today. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:49.900 They refer to the mark of the beast, not because they thought we were going to start coming up with computer chips, but to show these individuals that take that 00:03:49.900 --> 00:03:51.120 mark belong to the beast. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:52.150 That's where their loyalty lies. 00:03:53.100 --> 00:03:57.560 The same thing with the other thing I brought up last week, the grasshoppers with human heads. 00:03:58.020 --> 00:04:00.120 I've heard people interpret that as belonging to helicopters. 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:01.980 Has nothing to do with helicopters. 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.060 Again, that's taking a symbol and trying to make 21st century interpretations. 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.160 I mean I guess it would be cool if they were thinking about helicopters but that's not what they were doing. 00:04:09.220 --> 00:04:13.370 They were going into the past of symbols to make it mean something for us today. 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:18.370 If you study the past in Jewish history, you see grasshoppers and locusts were often used for judgment. 00:04:18.779 --> 00:04:21.480 These locusts would come and devastate things. 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:24.860 In fact, armies were sometimes described like the book of Joel as locusts. 00:04:25.380 --> 00:04:30.290 When you look at these grasshoppers or these locusts, it's showing judgment and destruction. 00:04:30.480 --> 00:04:33.980 It's not the daggum helicopters destroying the world. 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:39.120 That is way over interpretation to that passage of scripture. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:40.920 Apocalyptic literature is like that. 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:43.240 It uses symbolisms to refer to something real. 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:45.980 Eschatology just deals with the study of the end times. 00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:54.000 Here in this story, we're looking at these passages of the bible, Daniel 7, Daniel 12, eschatological, apocalyptic 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.420 by nature and making application to our lives. 00:04:58.440 --> 00:05:04.160 A lot of this can be heavy slating, especially if you're new to the bible because there's a lot of symbolism here. 00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:09.600 But good news, we're going to walk through it all, so that way, when you read these passages, you get a better understanding of what's being communicated. 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:15.800 I told you last week, we looked at Daniel 7, and that was a great beginning to apocalyptic literature. 00:05:15.900 --> 00:05:22.020 I think chapter 7 is probably one of the most important apocalyptic chapters you can understand in all of the bible. 00:05:22.400 --> 00:05:30.820 Chapter 9 coming up, we're going to look at chapter 9, which is probably what eschatology gurus 00:05:30.820 --> 00:05:37.900 love more than any other chapter, but chapter 7 is a significant passage because it is quoted five dozen times in the New 00:05:37.900 --> 00:05:38.460 Testament. 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:41.050 Jesus quoted from that section of scripture. 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:46.380 Jesus, when he takes a title for himself and his identity, he uses Daniel 7. 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:51.220 Daniel 8, is not quoted that much in the New Testament. 00:05:51.640 --> 00:05:52.610 It's got eight quotations. 00:05:52.820 --> 00:06:00.410 Six of them are in the book of Revelation, but you'll see as you read in the New Testament, the culmination of Daniel 7, 00:06:00.700 --> 00:06:07.780 Daniel 8, the picture being brought together and described in the apocalyptic literature in the New Testament, 00:06:08.140 --> 00:06:10.380 and most specifically the book of Revelation. 00:06:12.100 --> 00:06:17.740 One of the things that I've learned in looking at eschatology is there's some health and unhealth to this. 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:20.560 In eschatology, there are what I would say are trigger words. 00:06:21.260 --> 00:06:24.900 You just mention one word and people just go nuts with imagery. 00:06:25.220 --> 00:06:30.240 One of those last week we talked about was the battle of Armageddon, like pandemonium and destruction. 00:06:30.260 --> 00:06:32.980 I told you the word Armageddon literally means a hill in front of a valley. 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:41.060 When you historically study it, that word isn't that big of a deal, but we've started to come up with this imagery of what it represents, and no doubt, there 00:06:41.060 --> 00:06:43.300 is this battle that's described in the ghetto. 00:06:43.320 --> 00:06:50.290 There would have been tons of battles that have been fought in the ghetto where Armageddon is described, but there's a broader picture of what Armageddon represents. 00:06:50.820 --> 00:06:53.840 There's a battle taking place and I think it relates to you and I. 00:06:53.880 --> 00:07:00.880 We made the application last week, so trigger words have this ability to create this preconceived idea in our minds, 00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:03.130 and it's not always healthy. 00:07:03.960 --> 00:07:07.840 We're going to talk about another one of those words today when we dive into Daniel 8. 00:07:07.880 --> 00:07:11.020 We're going to talk about the antichrist. 00:07:11.660 --> 00:07:17.510 Before we talk about this, we're going to talk a lot about the antichrist, the antithesis of Christ, but I want you to know I love you. 00:07:18.120 --> 00:07:18.680 Right? 00:07:18.700 --> 00:07:25.780 This is a heavy passage of scripture and everything that we're dealing with today, I want to result in worship. 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:33.300 I really want to end with sharing with us how to kick the garbage out of the spirit of the antichrist in our lives and honor Christ with our lives. 00:07:33.320 --> 00:07:38.840 We're going to look at some deep passages, as it relates to the antichrist. 00:07:39.280 --> 00:07:42.180 He's taken on several titles throughout scripture. 00:07:42.460 --> 00:07:45.280 In the story that we're going to read today, he's the little horn. 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:47.910 You get to the New Testament, I think he's referred to as the man of lawlessness. 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:56.840 The man of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2, and the antichrist in 1 John 2, but I think all of that is a picture describing 00:07:57.240 --> 00:08:01.760 what the antichrist represents for us. 00:08:01.760 --> 00:08:10.400 As we discuss these two passages, I just want to remind us, when it comes to eschatology, people 00:08:10.400 --> 00:08:12.320 got the first coming of Jesus wrong. 00:08:13.860 --> 00:08:21.180 I don't want to approach this so arrogantly as to usurp and just declare every precise thing about Jesus' 00:08:21.340 --> 00:08:21.800 return. 00:08:22.100 --> 00:08:29.020 I know you can probably get on YouTube and Google people predicting the return of Jesus and if you want to know when that is, it's whenever he wants to, okay? 00:08:29.340 --> 00:08:31.270 That is how that's going to happen. 00:08:31.320 --> 00:08:38.360 The coming of Christ, I don't want to demonstrate this arrogantly, but rather 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:45.400 what I would prefer to do is help us to understand the century in which this text was written and the mentality of the individuals as 00:08:45.400 --> 00:08:47.940 these, they read these passages. 00:08:47.940 --> 00:08:55.120 What it's going to end up getting us to is we're actually going to talk a little bit about Hanukkah, a whole lot of crazy and 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:02.280 in the middle of that, what it means to fight against the antichrist and how you do that and honor Jesus with your life, 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:02.660 okay? 00:09:03.160 --> 00:09:03.760 So here we go. 00:09:04.860 --> 00:09:12.020 You approach this text, Daniel 8, verse 1, "In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, the king, 00:09:12.340 --> 00:09:14.880 a vision appeared to me." So Daniel's saying I got this vision. 00:09:15.640 --> 00:09:22.760 "While I was looking, I was in the citadel of Susa which is in the province of Elim, and I looked and in the vision I saw myself beside the Ulah canal. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:30.140 Then I lifted my eyes and looked and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. 00:09:30.400 --> 00:09:36.700 Now the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other with the longer one coming up last." Let me stop right there and tell you where we are. 00:09:38.580 --> 00:09:41.300 Daniel 2, Daniel 7, similar visions. 00:09:42.220 --> 00:09:46.380 If you remember, if you were part of this discussion in chapter 2, we talked about a statue. 00:09:46.680 --> 00:09:48.380 Each statue was made up of precious metals. 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:50.300 It started gold, silver, bronze, iron. 00:09:50.900 --> 00:09:53.020 Then a giant rock comes and crushes the statue. 00:09:53.540 --> 00:10:00.680 Then we get an interpretation of that God tells us that those precious metals represent a kingdom which demonstrates all of these earthly kingdoms, 00:10:00.760 --> 00:10:03.240 of which a greater rock's going to come and crush them and that rock is Jesus. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.330 He's going to bring his kingdom. 00:10:06.060 --> 00:10:07.780 So after the Roman kingdom comes Christ. 00:10:07.780 --> 00:10:09.860 We see in Roman times Jesus comes. 00:10:09.860 --> 00:10:12.520 God prophetically revealed that would happen. 00:10:12.540 --> 00:10:14.300 The messiah would come during the Roman kingdom. 00:10:14.860 --> 00:10:16.520 So you see these four kingdoms. 00:10:16.560 --> 00:10:20.480 Those four kingdoms represent gold, Babylon, of which Daniel is carried in captivity in. 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:23.630 Then the silver was the Persians. 00:10:24.420 --> 00:10:31.470 Then the bronze were the Greeks, and the iron were the Romans, and there's clay toes on the bottom of this statue that breaks. 00:10:31.940 --> 00:10:35.920 Then in chapter 7, we looked at four more pictures of the same kingdoms. 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:39.420 The passage gives us an interpretation and tells us that. 00:10:39.760 --> 00:10:40.800 Starts off with a lion. 00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:42.860 That lion is Babylon. 00:10:43.140 --> 00:10:44.010 Then it goes to a bear. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:45.200 That bear were the Medo-Persians. 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:51.800 Then it goes to a leopard with wings, which is the Greeks, and then it finishes up... 00:10:51.800 --> 00:10:53.120 I just lost my own train of thought. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:53.400 With the beast. 00:10:53.780 --> 00:10:54.670 The beast which is the Romans. 00:10:55.680 --> 00:11:01.590 It gives these pictures and then it tells us ultimately there is a king who is coming that is the son of man, and that is Jesus. 00:11:01.900 --> 00:11:02.710 You see the same imagery. 00:11:03.280 --> 00:11:04.580 Chapter 2, chapter 7. 00:11:04.620 --> 00:11:09.960 Now when you get to chapter 8, it's going to focus particularly on two of those kingdoms, the two middle kingdoms. 00:11:10.400 --> 00:11:14.960 Just like chapter 7, it tells us a little horn arises and it represents the antichrist. 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:15.780 He comes against God. 00:11:15.780 --> 00:11:16.830 He boasts of himself. 00:11:17.020 --> 00:11:19.120 Chapter 8's going to talk about two kingdoms. 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:21.060 It's going to talk about the Persian kingdom. 00:11:21.270 --> 00:11:27.600 In the Greek kingdom there's going to be a little horn arise, and it's going to boast about himself and it's the representation of the antichrist. 00:11:28.220 --> 00:11:31.800 It's going to take, in the New Testament it will take the picture of both of these guys. 00:11:31.820 --> 00:11:35.580 You'll see it combine and share more about the antichrist, who is to come. 00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:42.700 When we look at prophesy in scripture, a lot of times it's dualistic, meaning there's an immediate fulfillment of it that is to 00:11:42.700 --> 00:11:46.250 come, and there is a great future fulfillment that is to transpire. 00:11:46.580 --> 00:11:48.540 You're going to see that in this text as well. 00:11:49.160 --> 00:11:52.350 But when you read in verse 2, you see this ram. 00:11:53.680 --> 00:11:55.760 In the story of this ram, he has two horns. 00:11:55.760 --> 00:11:59.480 That's pretty good for a ram so far right, but then it says something about this ram. 00:11:59.520 --> 00:12:03.920 This ram, with the two horns that it has, one is a little bit longer than the other. 00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:06.860 This represents the Persian empire. 00:12:06.920 --> 00:12:12.530 The reason I know represents the Persian empire is because verse 20 of this chapter says it represents the Persian empire. 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:20.580 One of the things that we know in historical literature or biblical literature, when it talks about horns, what it's talking about is authority figures, rulers. 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:25.500 It's showing the dominance, the strength that leader that represents that group. 00:12:25.700 --> 00:12:33.360 This ram, which represents a nation or people group has two horns growing out of it, showing its power, its dominance and authority. 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:34.520 One is longer than the other. 00:12:35.300 --> 00:12:38.680 If you remember last week, when we looked at chapter 7, it talked about a bear. 00:12:39.420 --> 00:12:44.360 When that bear stood up, the bear was not properly balanced, that one side was bigger than the other. 00:12:44.740 --> 00:12:48.300 When you study the Persian empire, what you find out is that they were a combination of two empires. 00:12:48.460 --> 00:12:51.980 It was actually the Medo-Persians, but the Persians were more dominant. 00:12:52.900 --> 00:12:58.470 When it shows this illustration, it shows them as being slightly bigger and so when you look at this horn, it's saying the same thing. 00:12:58.680 --> 00:13:00.940 One horn was a little bit more powerful than the other. 00:13:01.100 --> 00:13:04.320 Between the Medo-Persians, the Persians had the dominance. 00:13:04.460 --> 00:13:10.440 Then it goes on and says, "Now the two horns were long but one was longer than the other with the longer one coming up last. 00:13:10.960 --> 00:13:14.400 I saw the ram butting westward, northward and southward. 00:13:14.900 --> 00:13:22.360 No other beast could stand before it and nor was there anyone to rescue from his power, but he did as he pleased and magnified," 00:13:22.460 --> 00:13:22.820 look at this. 00:13:23.140 --> 00:13:24.620 "He magnified himself." Okay. 00:13:25.800 --> 00:13:32.800 If you remember the story of the bear last week, it had three ribs in its mouth, and I told you, when the Persians conquered Babylon, it 00:13:32.800 --> 00:13:36.640 really took three major campaigns, three major battle victories to do that. 00:13:36.920 --> 00:13:44.260 When you look at where they went to conquer those battles, it's described in this passage.t hey went westward, northward and southward, in order to complete the conquest 00:13:44.260 --> 00:13:50.240 of becoming the world dominating force.t he Persians did that, and it was all about boasting in themselves. 00:13:51.320 --> 00:13:58.440 Then it goes on from there and says verse 5, "While I was observing, behold a male goat was coming from the west over the surface of the whole 00:13:58.440 --> 00:14:03.080 earth, without touching the ground." What it's saying is this goat was fast. 00:14:03.160 --> 00:14:04.620 This goat is representing the Greeks. 00:14:04.900 --> 00:14:07.180 It's so fast, he doesn't have to touch the ground. 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:10.300 In chapter 7, this was described as a leopard with wings. 00:14:10.880 --> 00:14:18.020 When we study this historically, we've seen within Greece, the one that led that conquest, the on that brought Greece into the forefront of this world was Alexander the Great. 00:14:18.280 --> 00:14:20.440 By the age of 32, he conquered the known world. 00:14:21.020 --> 00:14:28.240 This is not documented historically, but many people have said or heard that when Alexander conquered the known world, his response wasn't 00:14:28.240 --> 00:14:32.060 to celebrate, but rather to cry because there was nowhere else left to conquer. 00:14:33.580 --> 00:14:38.960 He goes through this very quickly, not touching the ground, and the goat has a conspicuous horn between his eyes. 00:14:39.760 --> 00:14:43.280 Now I don't know about you, but we should call this a unicorn, right? 00:14:43.280 --> 00:14:50.340 "He came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal and rushed at him 00:14:50.340 --> 00:14:52.240 in his mighty wrath. 00:14:53.520 --> 00:15:00.600 I saw him come beside the ram and he was enraged at him and he struck the ram and shattered his two horns and the ram had no strength to 00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:03.940 withstand him, so he hurled him to the ground and trampled on him. 00:15:04.800 --> 00:15:06.920 There was none to rescue the ram from his power. 00:15:07.120 --> 00:15:11.560 Then the male goat magnified himself exceedingly." Again, it's all about him. 00:15:12.700 --> 00:15:19.700 "But as soon as he was mighty, the large horn was broken, and in its place there came up four conspicuous horns 00:15:19.700 --> 00:15:26.780 towards the four winds of heaven." So we said this last week, but we'll reiterate it again, that in the Greek 00:15:26.780 --> 00:15:30.500 empire, after Alexander conquered the known world, he died just a few years later. 00:15:31.220 --> 00:15:35.560 Four generals take over what is the Greek empire and they divide it into four sections. 00:15:36.300 --> 00:15:37.810 That's what we see here with the four heads. 00:15:37.960 --> 00:15:45.000 These four authority figures going to the four winds or the four ends of the earth for dominating so Greek, the Greece empire they're saying 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:46.160 is the dominant face. 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:53.240 The Greek empire is the dominant force within this passage and so then verse 9, "Out of one of them," talking about the four heads then, 00:15:54.060 --> 00:16:01.160 "Out of one of those heads came forth a rather small horn, which grew exceedingly great towards the south and 00:16:01.160 --> 00:16:03.120 toward the east and toward the beautiful land. 00:16:04.220 --> 00:16:10.500 It grew up to the host of heaven and called some of the host and some of the stars to fall to the earth and it trampled them down. 00:16:11.260 --> 00:16:16.720 It even magnified itself to be equal with the commander of the hosts." Some of your translations will say the prince of the hosts. 00:16:16.780 --> 00:16:17.480 I think that's more accurate. 00:16:18.460 --> 00:16:20.840 "It removed the regular sacrifice from him. 00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:28.760 And the place of the sanctuary was thrown down, and on account of transgression, the host will be given over to the horn, along 00:16:28.760 --> 00:16:29.870 with the regular sacrifice. 00:16:30.340 --> 00:16:36.940 It will fling truth the ground and perform at its will and prosper." Now what is going on there? 00:16:37.120 --> 00:16:44.160 When you read this section of scripture there is, it historically matches what took place with the Greeks according 00:16:44.160 --> 00:16:45.040 to the four heads. 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:53.940 When the four empires are broken into four sections within the empire, one of the dominating groups within that 00:16:53.940 --> 00:16:55.200 was the Seleucid empire. 00:16:56.140 --> 00:17:03.220 He's actually looking, in verse 9, he fast-forwards 150 years, into the Seleucid empire and there's one who rises up 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:06.440 and he wasn't really supposed to have his position of authority. 00:17:06.940 --> 00:17:11.319 He was the nephew of a ruler and he bribed his way into that position. 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:14.220 It should have been given to this ruler's son, and it ended up being given to his nephew. 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:20.400 This man by the name Antiochus Epiphanes take authority and he starts off as a little horn. 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:24.480 He bribes his way in but he rises to this great power and he attacks. 00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:29.780 He attacks eastward, he attacks southward into Egypt. 00:17:29.780 --> 00:17:33.180 It's historically documented, and then he goes towards the beautiful land. 00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:34.840 He comes against God's people. 00:17:36.140 --> 00:17:41.360 Within the context of the story, it begins to share a little bit about what takes place in his conquest. 00:17:42.050 --> 00:17:49.240 Antiochus Epiphanes does some horrific things as this little horn which becomes a later image of or a type of 00:17:49.240 --> 00:17:50.040 antichrist. 00:17:51.820 --> 00:17:58.780 But Antiochus Epiphanes, within this description, he comes against the Jewish people, which it refers to as the host of heaven in verse 10. 00:17:58.780 --> 00:18:03.660 It grew up to the host of heaven, and it causes the stars to fall to the earth. 00:18:03.740 --> 00:18:10.740 Now I think a portion of this passage is quoted in Revelation 12, but the question is then what is this host of heaven and what are the stars 00:18:10.740 --> 00:18:11.510 that fall. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:19.600 I think it could be angelic hosts as far as it relates to the stars, but the hosts themselves, I think the hosts of heaven in this passage 00:18:19.600 --> 00:18:20.300 are people. 00:18:21.260 --> 00:18:28.100 In the context of scripture, I think both words can be used to refer to people or to angelic beings. 00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:29.900 I think you really have both happening here. 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:37.420 In fact, I think verse 10 to verse 12, sort of talks about a human form, but it also is a representation of God. 00:18:37.520 --> 00:18:44.560 One of the reasons I say that is when you look in, when you look in verse 11, it says this little horn magnified itself 00:18:44.560 --> 00:18:51.200 to be equal with the commander of the hosts and it goes on to talk about the destruction of the temple or the desecration of the temple. 00:18:52.780 --> 00:18:59.840 I think that this commander of the hosts or this prince of the hosts could be referring, humanly speaking, to make the text 00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:04.500 relate to this specific time period, it could be referring to the high priest who was Ananias at this time. 00:19:05.660 --> 00:19:12.780 It could be him, but when you look into, further into this passage, verse 25, it refers to this commander 00:19:12.780 --> 00:19:15.340 of hosts or this prince of hosts as the prince of princes. 00:19:16.460 --> 00:19:23.640 So I think it's ultimately saying, yeah, this is a picture of now, of what Antiochus Epiphanes is going to do, but ultimately because Antiochus Epiphanes represents 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:28.710 the antichrist, it's also a great picture of what's coming against Jesus himself. 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:38.080 So in verse 10, we talk about the hosts of heaven, verse 12 if you want a definition of what that is, it tells us in verse 12 that 00:19:38.080 --> 00:19:45.500 the reason that he's coming against the hosts of heaven, it says this, "On account of transgression, the host of heaven will be given over to the horn." It's 00:19:45.500 --> 00:19:47.500 saying that they have turned, I think, from God. 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:53.240 Out of discipline, the Lord is allowing this little horn to usurp his position. 00:19:54.520 --> 00:20:01.720 I think these hosts are referring to literal people in this passage, and the antichrist is bringing this destruction against 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:01.880 him. 00:20:01.880 --> 00:20:06.160 I think it's a great picture of a cosmic battle that could take place. 00:20:06.320 --> 00:20:08.920 The stars could represent these angelic beings. 00:20:09.560 --> 00:20:11.540 I think it does take place as it relates to Revelation. 00:20:13.620 --> 00:20:20.640 So you see how this passage, this little horn arises in the text, 00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:28.210 and no doubt, Antiochus Epiphanes did this to Jerusalem in some of the most horrific ways. 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:35.720 In fact, historically if you study what he did, he came against Jerusalem specifically for 00:20:35.720 --> 00:20:36.760 over three years. 00:20:38.260 --> 00:20:45.030 In one particular time period within those three years, in a three day span, he killed over 80,000 of the Jews. 00:20:46.700 --> 00:20:49.380 What happens in this passage is horrific. 00:20:50.320 --> 00:20:57.360 I'm going to read a little bit more of the history behind it so you get a better understanding because the Jews documented this in the story called 1 and 00:20:57.360 --> 00:20:58.300 2 Maccabees. 00:21:00.620 --> 00:21:07.880 But in eight, chapter 8 and verse 13, the question that Daniel would have looking down the future of the prophesy that's given to him. 00:21:09.560 --> 00:21:13.080 The question that we would have in any situation like this is how long is this going to last? 00:21:13.700 --> 00:21:14.900 God do you still care about your people? 00:21:15.980 --> 00:21:22.980 Now, no doubt you can see the divine hand of God in this because God is in authority enough within the context of this 00:21:22.980 --> 00:21:28.240 story, right, to share with his people how this is going to transpire. 00:21:29.260 --> 00:21:30.800 This isn't out of the realm of God. 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:38.580 He's sovereign enough to see how all of the history is going to move forward and I believe according to Romans 8, that 00:21:38.580 --> 00:21:40.160 he works all things together for good. 00:21:40.840 --> 00:21:43.940 That God is going to intervene in all the bad that happens in this world. 00:21:44.020 --> 00:21:45.680 God ultimately will turn it to good. 00:21:46.300 --> 00:21:47.010 How do I know that? 00:21:47.220 --> 00:21:49.120 Well, we just say the cross of Christ. 00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:55.140 Historically the cross of Christ is the most horrific form of torture in all of history. 00:21:55.300 --> 00:22:02.320 It was the worst day in history, when Jesus was crucified and Jesus turned the cross into the symbol of victory for 00:22:02.320 --> 00:22:02.700 his people. 00:22:03.520 --> 00:22:05.560 So it's not out of the realm of God's possibility to do this. 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:07.310 So the question I ask then is how long is this going to last? 00:22:08.140 --> 00:22:10.360 In verse 13, "Then I heard a holy one speaking. 00:22:10.940 --> 00:22:18.120 Another holy one said to that particular one who was speaking, how long will the vision about the regular sacrifice apply, while the transgression 00:22:18.120 --> 00:22:19.220 causes horror? 00:22:19.820 --> 00:22:23.060 So as to allow both the holy place and the host to be trampled? 00:22:24.380 --> 00:22:27.820 And he said to me, for 2300 evenings and mornings. 00:22:28.560 --> 00:22:34.320 Then the holy place will be properly restored." Now 2300 probably is a pretty good question to ask. 00:22:34.320 --> 00:22:34.900 What does that mean? 00:22:35.340 --> 00:22:36.880 What does it mean, 2300 evenings and mornings? 00:22:36.900 --> 00:22:39.680 I want to know exactly how long this disaster is going to take place, God. 00:22:39.760 --> 00:22:40.260 Please tell me. 00:22:40.500 --> 00:22:41.840 Okay, 2300 mornings and evenings. 00:22:41.840 --> 00:22:43.000 People actually debate this. 00:22:43.060 --> 00:22:45.100 There's three major interpretations over how long this lasts. 00:22:45.700 --> 00:22:49.580 I don't have a stand either way, and I'll tell you why I don't think it matters that much in just a minute. 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:52.160 People have said, okay, it's 2300 evenings and mornings. 00:22:52.160 --> 00:23:00.080 There's 2300 days, or is it talking about evenings and mornings divided in two, that it's actually 1150 evenings, 1150 mornings? 00:23:00.080 --> 00:23:05.580 Or is it figurative because 2300 days is pretty close to seven years. 00:23:05.580 --> 00:23:12.780 It's actually six years and four months and so seven is a number of completion and God doesn't want to give an antichrist a number of completion. 00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:17.120 He wants to stop it to show himself as the authority so God gets the seven, right? 00:23:17.120 --> 00:23:17.800 Not the antichrist. 00:23:18.340 --> 00:23:19.320 Different speculation. 00:23:19.360 --> 00:23:24.060 In fact, people have gone back and looked at Antiochus, like okay maybe the history of Antiochus will tell us. 00:23:24.660 --> 00:23:31.940 Well, he was against the Jews really for seven years, historically, but for three and a half years, he really attacked them, 00:23:32.200 --> 00:23:35.000 so that kind of fits with the 2300 evenings. 00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.230 It's not quite seven years though and it's not really three and a half years if you divide it by two. 00:23:39.520 --> 00:23:40.430 It's a few days short. 00:23:40.840 --> 00:23:46.500 Antiochus attacked the Jews for 1105 or 1106 days, depending on what historian you read. 00:23:46.940 --> 00:23:48.380 So it's not quite the 1150. 00:23:48.520 --> 00:23:52.820 It could go either way, but ultimately I don't think it matters because this is what the point is. 00:23:53.620 --> 00:23:54.830 The holy place will be properly restored. 00:23:57.300 --> 00:23:58.980 What God's saying is his hand is still there. 00:24:01.020 --> 00:24:06.960 There will be a time when the antichrist will come against my people, but I'm still there. 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:10.280 My presence is still there. 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:11.940 I want you to know... 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:13.300 I'm not going to read all of this. 00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:18.040 I've alluded to this, but verse 15 to 26, is the interpretation of everything I just told you. 00:24:18.660 --> 00:24:22.990 Daniel goes back and from this point, someone explains to him what it means. 00:24:23.040 --> 00:24:26.620 I just walked you through that interpretation, but here's the interesting thing. 00:24:27.120 --> 00:24:34.160 When you get to the very end of the chapter verse, what was it, verse 27 I 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:34.160 believe? 00:24:34.160 --> 00:24:34.690 Yeah, verse 27, this is what Daniel says. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:40.060 After he gets the interpretation, he says, "Then I Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days. 00:24:40.800 --> 00:24:47.920 Then I got up again and carried on the king's business but I was astounded at the vision, and there was none to explain it." So Daniel's saying like 00:24:47.920 --> 00:24:48.740 I saw this. 00:24:49.040 --> 00:24:49.570 It felt horrible. 00:24:49.900 --> 00:24:54.340 It made me sick and even after someone explained it, I'm still like, man, what does this mean? 00:24:55.180 --> 00:24:57.140 What's going on with this passage? 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:03.780 Let me tell you, if you read the end of the story about the antichrist, and you're like this is not an encouraging Sunday. 00:25:04.120 --> 00:25:11.160 We did the passage justice because that's what Daniel says, but just to drive the point home, I want you 00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:12.300 to just listen to this for a moment. 00:25:13.380 --> 00:25:16.600 Antiochus was actually Antiochus' real name. 00:25:16.600 --> 00:25:21.360 He added Epiphanes later, which is illustrious one or god manifest, right. 00:25:21.860 --> 00:25:24.020 He's saying I boast in me. 00:25:24.040 --> 00:25:24.680 It's all about me. 00:25:24.680 --> 00:25:27.540 You saw that in the first two kingdoms, with the ram, about him. 00:25:28.020 --> 00:25:29.120 With the goat, about him. 00:25:29.580 --> 00:25:31.560 Antiochus Epiphanes, it's about him. 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:35.560 Then used the means, whatever they can to set themselves up. 00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:42.930 Antiochus goes as far as desecrating the temple, killing God's people, setting up an altar to Zeus, sacrificing a pig on the Jewish altar, 00:25:43.020 --> 00:25:45.900 which you know how Jews feel about the pork, right? 00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:48.560 Antiochus was not good. 00:25:48.560 --> 00:25:50.520 1 Maccabees says this. 00:25:50.740 --> 00:25:58.020 If you want to go back and read the story of what happened here, 1 Maccabees, 1 Maccabees records it, but I'm just going to read you just a few sections 00:25:58.020 --> 00:25:58.420 of it. 00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:06.200 Chapter 1, verse 30, "Antiochus suddenly launched a fierce attack on the city, dealing it a major blow and killing many of the people. 00:26:06.260 --> 00:26:10.460 He plundered the city, set it on fire, tore down its buildings and the walls. 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:14.350 He and his army took the women and children as prisoners and seized the cattle. 00:26:14.580 --> 00:26:16.780 Innocent people were murdered around the altar. 00:26:17.140 --> 00:26:24.180 The holy place was defiled by murderers." Verse 46, "The Jews were even ordered to defile the temple and 00:26:24.180 --> 00:26:24.940 the holy things. 00:26:25.560 --> 00:26:30.420 They were commanded to build pagan altars, temples and shrines and to sacrifice pigs and other unclean animals. 00:26:30.700 --> 00:26:37.820 They were forbidden to circumcise their sons and were required to make themselves ritually unclean in every way they could, so they would 00:26:37.820 --> 00:26:41.720 forget the law which the Lord had given through Moses. 00:26:43.160 --> 00:26:50.600 The penalty for disobeying the king's decree was death." 1 Maccabees 1:60 says this, "Mothers who had allowed their babies to be circumcised 00:26:50.820 --> 00:26:53.580 were put to death in accordance with the king's decrees. 00:26:53.940 --> 00:27:00.960 Their babies were hung around their necks and their families and those who had circumcised them were put to death, but many people in Israel firmly resisted 00:27:00.960 --> 00:27:05.590 the king's decrees and refused to eat food that was ritually unclean. 00:27:05.880 --> 00:27:14.040 They preferred to die rather than break the holy covenant and eat unclean food, and many did die." In 2 Maccabees 5:12, 00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:21.280 it says this, "Antiochus ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy everyone they encountered and to butcher all who took 00:27:21.280 --> 00:27:22.440 refuge in their houses. 00:27:22.900 --> 00:27:28.160 It was a massacre of young and old, a slaughter of women and children, a butchery of virgins and infants. 00:27:28.840 --> 00:27:36.040 There were 80,000 victims in the course of those three days, 40,000 dying by violence, and as many again being sold 00:27:36.040 --> 00:27:43.360 into slavery." As that story unfolds, in 00:27:43.360 --> 00:27:50.600 167, there was a man by the name of Judas Maccabeus, who went, who rallied 00:27:50.600 --> 00:27:52.720 the Jews and they fought against the Greeks. 00:27:53.200 --> 00:27:57.620 In that battle, by 166, they take over the temple again. 00:27:58.900 --> 00:28:05.980 When they get into the temple, they find God's menorah, the candle that burns 00:28:05.980 --> 00:28:12.980 within the temple, it's got seven candlesticks on it, that they have one day left to keep 00:28:12.980 --> 00:28:13.680 that candle burning. 00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:20.720 In fact, when they went back, they found a content of one day's worth of candle oil to pour into the candle, to keep 00:28:20.760 --> 00:28:23.980 it burning, that hadn't been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes. 00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:29.260 The high priest would anoint and set apart these special oils to put into this candle. 00:28:29.620 --> 00:28:33.940 That candle we know today symbolically represents the Holy Spirit, and it would burn in the temple. 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:36.380 They have one day's worth. 00:28:36.380 --> 00:28:43.460 After they take over the temple, they find one day's worth of one piece of olive oil that had not been 00:28:43.460 --> 00:28:46.540 desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes to put within this candle. 00:28:47.620 --> 00:28:54.880 So they pour it in, and they continue to stand for their people, but as the story goes, God miraculously, rather 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:59.960 than just allowing that oil to burn for one day, he allows that oil to burn for eight days. 00:29:01.480 --> 00:29:07.700 That just so happens to be the amount of time it takes to take olive oil and consecrate it sacred to the Lord. 00:29:09.040 --> 00:29:11.690 By the end of the eight days, they now had more oil to put in the candle. 00:29:13.060 --> 00:29:18.430 To this day, the Jews celebrate that day as what we call Hanukkah. 00:29:20.420 --> 00:29:22.300 Hanukkah has nothing to do with Christmas. 00:29:24.140 --> 00:29:31.320 It just so happens historically it falls on the same time of year, near the same time of year of which we celebrate 00:29:31.320 --> 00:29:31.770 Christmas. 00:29:32.320 --> 00:29:33.260 Has nothing to do with Christmas. 00:29:34.520 --> 00:29:42.280 We celebrate Christmas every year, according to the Gregorian calendar, December 25th, even though Jesus probably wasn't born on December 25th. 00:29:43.540 --> 00:29:45.990 The Jews celebrate according to the lunar calendar. 00:29:46.120 --> 00:29:52.700 They follow this lunar calendar and for the Jews, this year, Hanukkah, it falls on December 12th to December 20th. 00:29:53.740 --> 00:30:00.010 One of the interesting things that they do during this time period is they have a menorah and the menorah is a little different than the one that's in the temple. 00:30:00.080 --> 00:30:02.280 The one in the temple has seven branches on it. 00:30:02.500 --> 00:30:05.300 The menorah they have for Hanukkah actually eight branches. 00:30:05.320 --> 00:30:10.580 In fact it has one extra candle stand, which is a ninth branch, in order to have one candle lit to light all the other candles. 00:30:11.340 --> 00:30:18.550 Each day they celebrate Hanukkah, they light another candle, celebrating the eight days that God miraculously provided 00:30:18.820 --> 00:30:22.420 for his people as a symbol of his light not going out. 00:30:23.880 --> 00:30:27.270 One of the things that they do within the celebration is that they have what they call a dreidel. 00:30:27.340 --> 00:30:29.600 Did you guys ever look at that and wonder what in the world is this? 00:30:30.540 --> 00:30:34.940 Well this dreidel, each side of a dreidel has a Hebrew letter written on it. 00:30:36.080 --> 00:30:42.000 Each letter represents a word which makes a sentence for the Jews as they celebrate Hanukkah. 00:30:43.200 --> 00:30:46.050 The phrase around it stands for [Hebrew 00:30:44]. 00:30:47.460 --> 00:30:50.940 Which means a great miracle happened there. 00:30:52.360 --> 00:30:59.460 Unless you spin the dreidel in Jerusalem, then the Hebrew letters around it say [Hebrew 00:30:57], which means a great miracle happened 00:30:59.460 --> 00:31:00.110 here. 00:31:02.040 --> 00:31:09.060 The point is that they used the celebration of Hanukkah to remind their people of how God showed up and intervened to protect them and preserve them for the 00:31:09.060 --> 00:31:11.560 future coming of the Messiah of which he promised all the way back in Daniel 8. 00:31:13.660 --> 00:31:20.740 [Hebrew 00:31:14], which for you and I, this isn't the main point of this passage but I think it's worth 00:31:20.740 --> 00:31:28.180 stopping just because of this season that we're in and saying it is important to create certain traditions within 00:31:28.180 --> 00:31:32.900 your family that help you identify your family as related to God. 00:31:35.280 --> 00:31:40.200 [Hebrew 00:31:36] A great miracle happened there. 00:31:42.300 --> 00:31:47.940 The only thing that relates to maybe Hanukkah as it relates to Christmas is that God promised and God provided. 00:31:48.820 --> 00:31:55.430 When you think about Christmas, we think about the coming of Jesus and it says to us, God promised and God provided, a rescuer. 00:31:55.880 --> 00:31:56.460 A redeemer. 00:31:57.020 --> 00:31:57.520 A savior. 00:31:59.240 --> 00:32:06.650 For us, one of the sad parts of our Christianity today is if someone dropped in from another culture and just visited us, 00:32:06.860 --> 00:32:12.660 and they tried to explain what Christmas is all about, you're almost hard-pressed in our culture today to see anything really of Jesus at all. 00:32:13.140 --> 00:32:20.300 In fact I was talking to someone this week that said that they were trying to go around and buy a manger scene and all they could find was, 00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:26.840 they could find a manger scene but only if they wanted to represent Star Wars as the characters of Christmas. 00:32:27.660 --> 00:32:35.100 We've got to the place within our culture that it's only kosher to talk about Christmas as what it represents, if you're doing it according to Star Wars figures, but 00:32:35.100 --> 00:32:40.060 a lot of the symbolism we use for Christmas has its roots in some form of a Christian teaching. 00:32:40.060 --> 00:32:47.060 In fact as a church in order to encourage you in that, we write a booklet we put out every year that takes some of the symbolism of Christianity and just says this is 00:32:47.100 --> 00:32:47.680 what it represents. 00:32:47.780 --> 00:32:49.540 Here's how you share it with your family to help them see. 00:32:50.480 --> 00:32:51.870 That booklet is on the information table. 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:59.340 We don't claim it's written in any profound way, but it helps you identify some of the significant things in Christmas like Santa Clause, Christmas trees, Christmas toppers, lights. 00:32:59.540 --> 00:33:00.180 What does that all represent? 00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:02.960 Candy canes, all of it, all of it's tied back to Christ. 00:33:03.080 --> 00:33:03.930 All of it's tied to the gospel. 00:33:04.580 --> 00:33:05.800 It becomes important for us. 00:33:07.600 --> 00:33:10.700 With all that said though, what does this mean? 00:33:12.360 --> 00:33:14.200 How do you make spiritual application of this, right? 00:33:14.680 --> 00:33:20.760 You see all this stuff in the past, and yes it's bad stuff, but what does it have to do with you? 00:33:21.920 --> 00:33:24.850 How do you make application about Antiochus Epiphanes for you? 00:33:25.020 --> 00:33:28.520 When I say today it's about worshiping and engaging God, what does that have to do with you? 00:33:29.220 --> 00:33:36.280 When you look at Daniel 7, Daniel 8, they combine these stories, in the book of Revelation and they talk about it throughout the book of Revelation, 00:33:36.620 --> 00:33:43.510 but one of the interesting places they do, Revelation 13, and I'm just going to read portions of this passage to you, but I just want you to see this picture. 00:33:44.440 --> 00:33:47.810 If you were here last week, you'll start to see this really start to unpack. 00:33:48.280 --> 00:33:54.600 You probably read Revelation 13 before and never saw this, and you read Daniel 7 and 8, and you're like this is Daniel 7 and 8 through and through. 00:33:55.720 --> 00:34:02.420 Look it says, "Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having 10 horns and seven heads. 00:34:03.580 --> 00:34:09.040 And on its horns were 10 diadems and on its heads were blasphemous names, and the beast that I saw," look at this. 00:34:09.040 --> 00:34:16.280 "Was like a leopard and his feet were like those of a bear, and its mouth like the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his 00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:17.540 throne and his great authority. 00:34:17.719 --> 00:34:21.900 They worshiped the dragon because he gave him his authority, to the beast and they worshiped the beast. 00:34:22.719 --> 00:34:26.980 There was given to him a mouth speaking arrogant word and blasphemy," so it's all about him. 00:34:27.880 --> 00:34:29.679 "And for 42 months this took place. 00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:36.820 It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them over every tribe, tongue and nation." The hosts. 00:34:38.300 --> 00:34:44.900 So you see Daniel 7, this beast that's described and these different beasts, the lion, the tiger, the bear, oh my, what? 00:34:44.900 --> 00:34:51.820 In this passage, it's saying take all of that, combine all of that stuff and when we turn to Revelation we're talking about a superbeast. 00:34:54.260 --> 00:34:56.400 It takes the imagery of Daniel 7. 00:34:56.460 --> 00:34:58.180 Now you look at this and you think, okay he had 10 horns. 00:34:58.180 --> 00:34:59.280 I see where the 10 horns come from. 00:34:59.500 --> 00:35:00.460 What about the seven heads? 00:35:01.280 --> 00:35:07.020 Well if you take the beast described in Daniel 7, and you add the number of heads, one of those beasts had four heads. 00:35:07.660 --> 00:35:10.950 So you take the four beasts and rather than one of those beasts having one head, it has four heads. 00:35:11.060 --> 00:35:11.960 It equals seven heads. 00:35:13.080 --> 00:35:20.580 It's taking the totality of this beast and it's still representing that there is this arrogance, this antichrist spirit about him, and he's speaking this blasphemies 00:35:20.580 --> 00:35:23.140 and boasting of himself and he's treading down God's people. 00:35:25.620 --> 00:35:30.020 This antichrist speaking from Daniel is now futuristic. 00:35:31.160 --> 00:35:32.920 It still relates to us today. 00:35:33.720 --> 00:35:34.660 Now what do you do with that? 00:35:35.700 --> 00:35:38.420 When you leave here, build a bunker and hide. 00:35:38.420 --> 00:35:38.760 No just kidding. 00:35:38.780 --> 00:35:39.200 Don't do that. 00:35:39.500 --> 00:35:39.980 Don't do that. 00:35:41.320 --> 00:35:48.080 That's not, that's the exact opposite of what I want us to do because I want us to remember 2 Timothy 1:7. 00:35:49.320 --> 00:35:50.500 God doesn't give you a spirit of fear. 00:35:52.620 --> 00:35:53.700 Power and love and a sound mind. 00:35:55.020 --> 00:35:57.890 Now how do you take all of the things I've shared this morning and get to that? 00:35:58.100 --> 00:35:58.220 Right? 00:35:58.880 --> 00:36:04.580 The destruction, how horrific and now I'm telling you, God's people in verse 7, being treaded like that. 00:36:05.480 --> 00:36:07.640 How do you get to that place where you're like, Go Jesus. 00:36:08.680 --> 00:36:09.500 You guys do it. 00:36:09.620 --> 00:36:11.380 I'll be underground, right? 00:36:14.220 --> 00:36:21.800 Antiochus Epiphanes in this story, and the antichrist of chapter 7 in Daniel, still remind us that there is a little 00:36:21.800 --> 00:36:23.860 horn, but in case you read Revelation... 00:36:23.980 --> 00:36:26.340 Some people look at Revelation and they're like, that's all futuristic, okay. 00:36:26.400 --> 00:36:27.320 So there's Daniel in the past. 00:36:27.740 --> 00:36:35.300 Revelation in the future, and I'm not going to worry about that now because I don't have to deal with that now, but John who writes the book of Revelation also 00:36:35.300 --> 00:36:37.270 in 1 John says something interesting. 00:36:37.420 --> 00:36:38.450 Let me tell you what that is in a minute. 00:36:38.820 --> 00:36:41.470 In 1 John 2 he says something interesting. 00:36:41.540 --> 00:36:50.340 He says, "Children, it is the last hour, and just as you heard, the antichrist is coming." Can 00:36:50.340 --> 00:36:58.180 I ask you, already killed the joke, but if the antichrist comes, do 00:36:58.180 --> 00:36:59.710 you recognize what he looks like? 00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:05.640 Would you recognize what the antichrist looks like, for one million... 00:37:05.780 --> 00:37:06.000 No, just kidding. 00:37:06.700 --> 00:37:07.800 Would recognize what he looks like? 00:37:11.320 --> 00:37:18.640 John says to us within his passage, the antichrist is coming, but then he says this, "Even 00:37:18.640 --> 00:37:20.820 now many antichrists have appeared. 00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:28.560 For this we know that it is the last hour." What John is saying is this isn't something in the future to deal with. 00:37:29.720 --> 00:37:30.800 This is right now. 00:37:32.140 --> 00:37:34.640 The spirit of the antichrist is alive right now. 00:37:34.900 --> 00:37:36.480 This gets even more freaky, right. 00:37:36.480 --> 00:37:43.560 Chapter 4 of the same book, he then starts to describe the spirit of the antichrist, but he says this, in chapter 00:37:43.560 --> 00:37:50.640 4, verse 1, "Brethren believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God because many false prophets are going out into the world." I 00:37:50.640 --> 00:37:57.720 want to say this so I don't forget it later, but John uses chapter 4 to describe how to approach the spirit of the antichrist 00:37:57.720 --> 00:38:00.420 and two things he really emphasizes in that chapter is truth and love. 00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:01.200 Truth and love. 00:38:01.940 --> 00:38:06.200 I think it's very important to define where you get your truth and what love really is to understand that. 00:38:06.580 --> 00:38:08.540 Because we walk around this world and we say I love you. 00:38:08.560 --> 00:38:09.160 Man I love that. 00:38:09.760 --> 00:38:16.880 I've used the illustration before where you go to Buffalo Wild Wings and you get some wings and you're like, "Man I love these wings." The truth is you don't love the wings because 00:38:16.920 --> 00:38:19.100 if you loved the wings you wouldn't have killed the chicken that made the wings. 00:38:19.900 --> 00:38:21.780 If you love the wings, you would leave the wings alone. 00:38:22.240 --> 00:38:25.840 What you do is you love yourself, and because you love yourself, you eat the wings, right? 00:38:26.080 --> 00:38:27.880 So the things that we call love aren't always love. 00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:30.440 When we tell that to people, I love you. 00:38:31.300 --> 00:38:36.180 Well truth is, you might love them but you need to really question, do you love them because of what they do? 00:38:37.020 --> 00:38:40.480 Because what love is about giving yourself to serve the benefit of someone else. 00:38:40.860 --> 00:38:41.590 Love is sacrificial. 00:38:41.820 --> 00:38:42.620 It's not about what you get. 00:38:42.620 --> 00:38:43.520 It's about what you give. 00:38:44.400 --> 00:38:47.840 When John talks about defeating the spirit of the antichrist, he talks about truth and love. 00:38:48.220 --> 00:38:51.160 What do you stand for and how do you know what's true and do you really love them? 00:38:52.020 --> 00:38:53.190 When you look at the boasting of the antichrist... 00:38:53.480 --> 00:38:56.720 Remember Daniel 7, Daniel chapter 8, you looked at the goat and the ram. 00:38:56.760 --> 00:38:57.920 The goat and the ram was all about themselves. 00:38:58.780 --> 00:39:06.100 Now I bet they'd even use the language, oh man I really love, I really love, but what I really love is myself and I used everything to serve 00:39:06.100 --> 00:39:06.680 myself. 00:39:08.140 --> 00:39:10.280 The result of that is destruction. 00:39:12.280 --> 00:39:19.320 The reality is that the spirit, according to what 1 John is saying, the spirit of the antichrist is attractive to us because 00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:22.950 we make ourselves Lord of life. 00:39:23.720 --> 00:39:26.860 The spirit of antichrist isn't just future and past. 00:39:26.860 --> 00:39:27.520 It's now. 00:39:27.960 --> 00:39:30.080 Even when you look at the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. 00:39:30.420 --> 00:39:37.080 The thing that caused Adam and Eve to fall, the thing that Satan is described in falling usurping the position of Lord and declaring themselves to be God. 00:39:37.080 --> 00:39:42.540 Adam and Eve, they ate of the fruit, in disobedience to God and that disobedience is about making themselves God. 00:39:43.740 --> 00:39:45.780 God I want to declare to you what's right and wrong. 00:39:46.860 --> 00:39:50.760 The spirit of the antichrist became a part of them. 00:39:50.800 --> 00:39:56.300 They start to use and leverage the things that God has created for their glory and that becomes destructive. 00:39:56.600 --> 00:40:03.700 The thing that makes the antichrist so powerful and destruction isn't that this guy 00:40:03.700 --> 00:40:06.900 comes up in this red tail and just runs around the world and we're like, hey there he goes guys. 00:40:07.280 --> 00:40:08.080 He's very apparent. 00:40:08.120 --> 00:40:08.750 That is the antichrist. 00:40:09.340 --> 00:40:10.010 Look at him destroy. 00:40:10.460 --> 00:40:11.080 He's so powerful. 00:40:11.080 --> 00:40:18.140 The thing that makes the antichrist so powerful is that he's already got this humanistic attitude about him, just like the spirit of the world that it possesses already. 00:40:19.040 --> 00:40:20.310 What happens in the life of an individual? 00:40:20.480 --> 00:40:25.140 When you live life for yourself, you use everything around you as a tool to serve you, even people. 00:40:27.300 --> 00:40:34.200 That's why as a dad, my wife is pregnant with our third kid and one of the things that like, I don't want to... 00:40:34.560 --> 00:40:35.620 I'll say this. 00:40:36.000 --> 00:40:43.260 One of the things that just scared me was having a female rather than a male, and so I really, I had no 00:40:43.260 --> 00:40:46.280 clue how I would handle that, if my wife had a girl. 00:40:46.280 --> 00:40:49.300 Like I literally think at some point somebody's going to die. 00:40:49.460 --> 00:40:53.190 I don't, I try to think through that spiritually as best I can but I can't figure out how. 00:40:53.380 --> 00:40:56.550 57 different paths in life, and all of them end with me killing some young man somewhere. 00:40:57.040 --> 00:41:04.320 But you think about, when you've got a daughter and you think about turning her over to a young man one day, and they're married, 00:41:05.160 --> 00:41:07.130 and the question in your heart is, what are you going to do to her? 00:41:08.560 --> 00:41:09.150 How are you going to treat her? 00:41:11.060 --> 00:41:14.340 A lot of that answer is dictated by what leads that young man's heart? 00:41:15.720 --> 00:41:16.300 Is it him? 00:41:17.980 --> 00:41:19.320 Does he use her for himself? 00:41:20.920 --> 00:41:25.240 Because when life is about you use everything as a tool to serve you. 00:41:26.920 --> 00:41:29.320 You take advantage of other things to do that, including people. 00:41:30.740 --> 00:41:37.760 That's what drives the negativity of all of life and the more powerful we get in life, with that attitude, the more destructive it 00:41:37.760 --> 00:41:38.220 becomes. 00:41:38.540 --> 00:41:42.320 You look at our culture today and you think what in God's name is happening with the world around us? 00:41:42.660 --> 00:41:46.240 Well for decades now, we've been teaching the philosophy of humanism. 00:41:47.100 --> 00:41:49.810 You wake up and ask the question, what makes you most happy? 00:41:50.200 --> 00:41:51.120 Life is about you. 00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:57.500 In that pattern it becomes destructive because what human beings do is leverage everything in life for their benefit. 00:41:57.760 --> 00:41:59.580 You'll manipulate and destroy. 00:42:00.780 --> 00:42:02.920 That's what the spirit of the antichrist is. 00:42:04.080 --> 00:42:05.820 That's what John is saying in this passage. 00:42:05.980 --> 00:42:08.720 In 1 John 4, try the spirits, whether they have God. 00:42:08.720 --> 00:42:14.580 If they confess Christ, meaning if Jesus is Lord and they stay on that truth, they're declaring their life, that it's not about them. 00:42:14.580 --> 00:42:17.880 It's not about leveraging everything for them, but about living for God's glory. 00:42:17.980 --> 00:42:21.290 They'll walk in love, and here's how you know they'll walk in love, by the way they treat other people. 00:42:22.500 --> 00:42:29.120 Because if they truly love, they'll use their position to get beneath other people, to serve them, to help them become all that God has called them to be. 00:42:30.760 --> 00:42:33.040 The spirit of the antichrist is opposed to that. 00:42:34.140 --> 00:42:36.160 The way to defeat the antichrist, let me just say this. 00:42:36.180 --> 00:42:40.820 The way to defeat the antichrist isn't, get this, to obsess about defeating the antichrist. 00:42:40.900 --> 00:42:41.920 I'm not proposing that. 00:42:42.720 --> 00:42:45.150 My proposal today is not hey there's an antichrist. 00:42:45.200 --> 00:42:48.540 Everyone beat the snot out of the antichrist and that's how you defeat the antichrist. 00:42:49.660 --> 00:42:53.620 The way you defeat the spirit of the antichrist isn't about attacking him, at all. 00:42:55.860 --> 00:43:00.220 The way you defeat the spirit of the antichrist is by surrendering to Jesus. 00:43:03.740 --> 00:43:05.520 Defeating the antichrist is Jesus' battle. 00:43:07.720 --> 00:43:11.260 We represent the spirit of the antichrist when we use life to declare ourselves Lord. 00:43:14.020 --> 00:43:16.780 The way to defeat the antichrist is by surrendering to God. 00:43:19.720 --> 00:43:25.480 How do I know if I'm really surrendering, because I want to tell you guys, when it talks about the spirit of the antichrist, this is something that we can actively defeat everyday. 00:43:26.170 --> 00:43:33.040 You can get up, and you can kick the snot out of the spirit of the antichrist, not because you're just pursuing kicking the snot out of the antichrist, but you can get up and defeat that everyday. 00:43:33.800 --> 00:43:37.920 How do you know that you're really defeating the spirit of the antichrist? 00:43:37.940 --> 00:43:38.740 You're surrendered to Christ. 00:43:38.780 --> 00:43:40.160 Well how do you know you're really surrendered to Christ? 00:43:40.580 --> 00:43:40.980 By your fruit. 00:43:43.680 --> 00:43:44.140 By your fruit. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:48.300 Selfishness. 00:43:49.900 --> 00:43:50.280 Greed. 00:43:51.880 --> 00:43:51.980 Lust. 00:43:53.100 --> 00:43:53.460 Envy. 00:43:54.560 --> 00:43:54.940 Anger. 00:43:56.240 --> 00:43:56.640 Vengeance. 00:43:58.100 --> 00:43:58.760 Sensuality. 00:44:00.440 --> 00:44:01.260 That's all about us. 00:44:02.020 --> 00:44:02.940 That's all about me. 00:44:03.700 --> 00:44:10.820 That's all about my pursuits, what I want and how I can leverage everything to make me who I am because life 00:44:10.820 --> 00:44:12.080 is about me. 00:44:14.300 --> 00:44:17.760 It doesn't just happen to say, I'm not saying are you generally an angry person? 00:44:17.820 --> 00:44:21.200 What I'm saying is, when is the last time you reacted in anger? 00:44:24.380 --> 00:44:26.880 Was it because you thought you were the most important person in the room? 00:44:29.100 --> 00:44:30.940 When's the last time you acted in jealousy? 00:44:33.020 --> 00:44:37.880 Was it because that you felt you deserved and it was owed to you and it all belonged to you because you're Lord? 00:44:39.340 --> 00:44:41.420 We can reflect the spirit of that antichrist everyday. 00:44:43.880 --> 00:44:48.900 The only way to defeat it in life is to come to this place where we say, God I wasn't created for me. 00:44:50.340 --> 00:44:51.160 I'm created for you. 00:44:51.240 --> 00:44:54.260 Look guys, God created you to experience joy. 00:44:55.880 --> 00:44:59.800 Like, God's not opposed to money, power, sex, fame. 00:45:00.140 --> 00:45:02.620 God created those things, thank God, right? 00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:08.780 But there's a context by which we enjoy those things and the way that you enjoy those things is begin to ask your life this question. 00:45:09.560 --> 00:45:12.160 Who dictates how I enjoy those things? 00:45:12.380 --> 00:45:13.700 Who tells me right from wrong? 00:45:14.340 --> 00:45:15.880 What is Lord of my life? 00:45:17.760 --> 00:45:21.240 Because whatever is Lord of your life will demonstrate the path that you carry. 00:45:21.500 --> 00:45:26.980 The antithesis of Christ or the demonstration of his Lordship in your life? 00:45:28.840 --> 00:45:36.700 I don't share this message to preach, to make the goal primarily about destroying the antichrist and 00:45:36.700 --> 00:45:37.540 attack people that don't agree. 00:45:39.400 --> 00:45:41.020 Really it's still about walking with Jesus. 00:45:42.140 --> 00:45:42.940 Now here's a test for you. 00:45:43.040 --> 00:45:43.160 Ready? 00:45:43.180 --> 00:45:43.740 I'm going to give you a test. 00:45:44.880 --> 00:45:49.340 I don't agree with this mission statement but I want you to see this, and I want you to see the humanistic thinking behind it. 00:45:50.540 --> 00:45:51.780 Mission statement of a group. 00:45:51.980 --> 00:45:52.760 I pulled this offline. 00:45:52.880 --> 00:45:54.110 You can go check it out if you want to later. 00:45:54.240 --> 00:45:57.300 I wouldn't recommend perusing this website, but I'll tell you why in a second. 00:45:57.880 --> 00:45:59.420 Here's a mission statement of this group. 00:46:00.220 --> 00:46:05.620 To encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, to undertake noble pursuits, guided by the individual will. 00:46:06.680 --> 00:46:13.700 Now you probably see the problem with the word individual will now, because I've emphasized how much we make life about ourselves, but I 00:46:13.700 --> 00:46:16.960 think generally speaking, most people will look at that and say that's pretty good, man. 00:46:17.120 --> 00:46:18.050 People want to be in this world. 00:46:18.080 --> 00:46:18.560 They want to be good. 00:46:18.680 --> 00:46:23.400 They want to encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, and undertake noble pursuits. 00:46:23.400 --> 00:46:30.720 Now this organization, in their mission statement, they start to describe what those things are, according to an individual will, as to what 00:46:30.720 --> 00:46:32.120 they dictate's right and wrong. 00:46:33.100 --> 00:46:34.000 But here's the crazy part. 00:46:35.320 --> 00:46:37.600 I think most people read that and agree, until... 00:46:40.300 --> 00:46:47.540 Can you 00:46:47.540 --> 00:46:48.440 recognize the antichrist? 00:46:50.760 --> 00:46:59.660 I think he's so deceptive in this world, I think people are giving into him so easily because 00:46:59.660 --> 00:47:03.500 they can't see the destructive nature of the humanistic way of thinking and making yourself Lord. 00:47:07.120 --> 00:47:10.980 Now anyone would look at the statement of the Satanic temple and say, oh it's written by the Satanic temple. 00:47:10.980 --> 00:47:18.040 Whatever it says, I'm sure it's anti-God so I don't want anything to do with it, but then when you actually read the motivational mission statement behind the organization, you're like wait 00:47:18.040 --> 00:47:18.300 a minute. 00:47:18.680 --> 00:47:19.140 How is that bad? 00:47:20.620 --> 00:47:21.350 They want to do good things. 00:47:22.820 --> 00:47:24.940 Yeah, but they want to do good things according to themselves being Lord. 00:47:27.320 --> 00:47:28.340 They want to make it about them. 00:47:31.120 --> 00:47:38.100 They want to leverage whatever they can to accomplish what they find most important, that pursues their happiness according to their desire as God of their life. 00:47:40.900 --> 00:47:44.140 In the end, you see what that brings. 00:47:45.960 --> 00:47:47.900 Antiochus Epiphanes is that picture. 00:47:50.120 --> 00:47:50.540 It's destruction. 00:47:52.680 --> 00:48:00.120 But on the back end of all that, God created you for joy, to walk in him, to 00:48:00.120 --> 00:48:01.600 live in him and to understand this. 00:48:02.560 --> 00:48:05.800 Defeating the antichrist isn't by your strength. 00:48:07.120 --> 00:48:07.720 It's by his. 00:48:09.140 --> 00:48:14.140 You have the opportunity to rest in the king who will be victorious, if what? 00:48:15.460 --> 00:48:16.140 You surrender yourself. 00:48:17.160 --> 00:48:18.070 So let me end with this thought. 00:48:19.740 --> 00:48:27.520 The most powerful thing you can do to defeat the antichrist is surrender 00:48:27.520 --> 00:48:27.920 to Jesus. 00:48:29.920 --> 00:48:36.940 Because every day you wake up, as soon as you walk out of this building, you can kill 00:48:36.940 --> 00:48:37.100 it. 00:48:38.420 --> 00:48:38.760 Why? 00:48:39.700 --> 00:48:46.220 Not because the antichrist is your focus, but because you belong to Christ and he's your Lord.