Preached by Andrew Smellie, July 15, 2007

Ancient city of Meggido where many kingdom-shattering battles were fought.

Download audio
Revelation 18:4-5
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.”

Revelation 17-19 spurs on struggling Christians who find themselves in two very different situations:
1. Challenged, persecuted but still holding to the testimony of Jesus’ Word
2. Seduced by the the luxury of Babylon (Rome) had to offer

We have to ask ourselves: “What are we putting our best into?” The world? Or our relationship with God?!! God ended the battle in Revelation 19:20-21 almost instantaneously, so why does he wait to win the ultimate victory? This shows how patient God is, so that as many as possible can become his sons and daughters.

“Armageddon: The Great Battle of God”
Preached by Andrew Smellie
Sunday, July 15, 2007

Revelation 17:1-18
• The great prostitute represented Rome
• You are prostituting yourself whenever you go after worldly things over God.
• When you go after “other lovers,” you do not love God with all of your heart, mind, soul and strength—that’s when you are a prostitute in God’s eyes. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Question: What would your spouse think if you did not give one hundred percent of yourself?
• Rome had the potential to prostitute the people of God.
• The beast was the Roman Empire.
• The great prostitute had the outward beauties that would make her seductive.
• But John saw her for what she really was.
• The seven churches represented all of the churches of that time.
• All of the churches fell into one of the following two categories:
1. Either they were being challenged in the faith by holding to the testimony of Jesus and because they were receiving persecution.
2. The great prostitute was seducing them with the lifestyle that Rome was giving them.
• In Laodicea, wealth brought a lot of complacency.
• In Pergamum, false doctrine was in the church to the point that disciples there tolerated sin.

The theme of the book of Revelation with respect to persecution is death before denial.

• They were not living the life of a disciple of Jesus.
Question: Are you blown away/astonished by how the world is?
• The people who thought that they were going to heaven were astonished.
• People fall into the false concept of enjoying the moment because they have no hope.

Rulers of Roman Empire
1. Augustus
2. Tiberius
3. Caligula
4. Claudius
5. Nero
6. Vespasian
7. Titus
8. Domitian
Question: Who was the person who reminded the disciples of Jesus Christ of Nero?
• Domitian. (He symbolically was the king who “came back from the dead.”)
• God cares about the whole world.
Question: What was this saying?
• Domitian was going down and the whole Roman Empire was going down.
• God was predicting it right here.
• Remember the sins that repented of when you became a baptized disciple of Jesus Christ.
• Now look at the same evil that is still trying to destroy you.
Revelation 18:1-24
• Revelation was written to the disciples of that day.
Question: How does all of this parallel to today?

Rome is the equivalent to America today.

• It is all about luxury: MTV “Pimp My Crib” and “Pimp My Ride.”
• Think of luxury cars of today (as an example)–they even have warmers for their leather seats!
• We are in luxury; the world tells you that you need a butt warmer.
• Eventually, you say to yourself that you do need a butt warmer.
• God sees it all. He knows it all. Nothing gets past God.
• Nothing like imagining your own funeral to get you to start thinking about your life.
Question: Am I prepared for where I am going?
• The funeral of America is as certain as Rome’s was.
Question: What are you putting your best into?
Question: What is the call that Jesus is trying to give you?
• It was materialism that was killing the faith of these 1st century disciples of Jesus.
• It was materialism that pulled them in.
• It is the materialism because you put more security into money than God.
• You think that you need a certain level of affluence, comfort wrapped up in where you live.

Luke 17:30-37
• The smell of death around Rome was intense.
Question: When Jesus comes back: where will you be spiritually?
• The one spouse will be taken up by Jesus and the other spouse will remain on Earth.
Question: Can you just imagine wondering where your spouse is?
• Lot’s wife turned back to the world and that way of life.
• Are you being seduced by the false promises of Satan?
• There are several biblical reasons why people are coming to the “King of Kings” Jubilee.
-Lukewarmness is creeping into the international churches.
-People want to get strong in their faith and to serve God wholeheartedly again.

• Evangelists in foreign churches like Rod Fick in Port Elizabeth, are having to make decisions of who they are going to be partners in the gospel with; those who signed the unity letter and us who have supported them for several years now.
• This is going on because of people’s lukewarmness and sin, and it divides.
• We should get ticked off about sin that creeps into the fellowship.
• When a church drifts away from proclaiming the Word of God and do not hold to the Word of God, it becomes lukewarm and then it continues to drift away. (Some would like to think they are a church could just stay in one place, treading lukewarm water . . .)
• People in the church become cold; people are no longer in each other’s lives in the church.
• Satan is a lot smarter than we think. Satan has seduced people.

1 Corinthians 6:1-8
• If we all say that “Jesus is Lord!” then we can judge each other in a loving way.
• Either you will get fired up now or you will get fired up later.
Revelation 18:1-13
• Come out of her (the world) and remember where you came from.
• There was a slave trade where they were buying people’s souls.
• The world expects you to give your best.
• When you come to God and He expects the best from you, then you react by saying “Woe!” But you’ll put up with the world expecting your best?!
Question: Which one do you give your best to?
• God held the following three things against the great prostitute:
1. Materialism (Luxury/Wealth).
2. Arrogance (Pride).
3. Persecution against the faith of the disciples of Jesus Christ.
Question: Do you care about your standard of living?
Question: What are you willing to give up to proclaim the Word of God?
• You should be using your money to win friends, to win people’s souls.
Question: What are you willing to sacrifice?
Question: Are you using your wealth to glorify God or are you being sucked in by the world?

Revelation 19:1-21
• One thing that challenges a growing church that has many miracles is each disciple remembering where the miracles came from.
• Sometimes you get enamored by the miracles and we start worshiping miracles instead of worshiping God.
• When things do not go well and those miracles dry up for a time, then we lose our faith.
• We have to have deep convictions about submitting to authorities. (Hebrews 13:17)
• If your life is about worshiping God, then you will be fired up.
Question: Are you fired up today or are you stressed?
• If you came to worship God, then you will be fired up!
• People thought that if people knew their name, then they had power over them.
• No one had power over Jesus.
• God wanted people to see how awful it will be for those who oppose Him.
• One sin in the Old Testament meant that the sinner was struck down. (Ezekiel 25:17)
• The beast was captured and with him the false prophet.
Question: Why did He wait?
• God waited but He wanted you to repent because He loves you that much.
• It is time to seek God. It is time to get right with God.
“I want to call the whole church to re-commit to discipling one another using the Bible.”
Question: Why are you grumbling at me? Moses in Exodus realized they were grumbling at God and His Word . . .

Revelation 20:1-15
1. The beast was Rome.
2. The false prophet.
3. Satan himself.
• This passage of Scripture has been corrupted by so many people.
• The thousand-year reign is called the millennium.
• Premillenialism - INCORRECT!
• There is no millennium as a set number of years in the book of Revelation.
• We are priests who will reign with God for an eternity.
• Satan will be right by our side till the end.
• This was all to encourage the persecuted church of the first century.
• We are tempted to look at Christianity through our twenty first century denominational lens.
1. Hold to the testimony of Jesus.
2. Hold to the Word of God.
Question: Are you really a disciple?
Question: What does it really mean for you to follow Jesus?
• It is time for you to make a decision to follow Jesus.
• It is time to repent and give your best to God.
• It is going to take sacrifice because the beast, the false prophet and Satan will go down, but you will go up if you are a baptized disciple of Jesus Christ.

Share This

Categories: Audio Lessons       Download PDF: