Revelation 12
There are some that maintain, that the book of Revelation is so full of imagery that no sense can be made of any of it. I admit, that the book is full of imagery, but I add that that imagery is not random but specific and deliberate for those with eyes to see! Who is this woman, clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet and upon her head twelve stars? Who is this red dragon, who makes war with the remnant of her seed? What is this war in heaven and why does the dragon persecute the woman, who brought forth the man child?
In this teaching, we answer these questions and endeavour to unpack this difficult chapter and to understand it in light of end times events. May the Lord shine light upon His word?
Romans 1:16
As one surveys the last two thousand years of Church history, one will see that sadly, anti-Semitism has plagued its ranks at every juncture, hiding beneath the thinly clad veneer of theology so-called. Replacement theology—the belief that the Church has replaced national Israel (the Jewish people) in becoming the new inheritors of the promises given specifically to Israel in the Tanakh—has caused an arrogance to arise in the Christian Church (comprising largely of Gentile believers) of which the Apostle Paul warned against in the eleventh chapter of the book of Romans; “Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee” (Rom. 11:18).
In this sermon teaching, the biblical foundation is laid and the mandate given us by God’s word, to take the gospel into all the world, first to the Jewish people and then to the Gentile. May God give us again a burden for Jewish mission!
This sermon was shared at the 2019 Messianic Testimony West Midlands Rally. For further information and to support the work of Messianic Testimony, please visit:
Hebrews 4:16
Which one of us, having been redeemed to God, by the blood of the Lamb; having been enlightened and having tasted of the heavenly gift; having been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, tasting the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, cannot upon hearing such precious words, well up with joy? Sinners, saved by grace, whose only plea was God be merciful to me a sinner! Having now been forgiven, cleansed, washed and sanctified, I want to ask you, by what power (in whose power) do you now go on to live this Christian life? By what strength; in whose might? I fear that there are some, who having been forgiven of much, bolt out the blocks like lightening, soaring in the steam of their own zeal; but alas, a year in and some of these poor souls come stuttering to a standstill—they’re out of fuel!!
Perhaps you’re saying, Brother, I don’t know how much longer I can go on; I’m tired, I’m weary and I’m losing heart! I think I hear the word of the Lord speaking forth from this book...can you hear it? Its voice is sure, it’s word, certain; “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). Precious one, have you come yet to learn the secret of this Christian life; that it’s not for the strong and the mighty but for the weak, who though God shall do valiantly! O to grace how great a debtor!!
1 John 3:1
Every single one of us who name the name of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour has a past do we not? A past that was stained deep by sin; we were on the highway to ruin!! Such were some you wrote Paul to the Corinthian Church. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. How could it be that the Holy One who inhabits eternity should shed His beams of love around us? How can it be that we could be objects of His love and come into an inheritance as children of God? This is a wonder beyond words and the statement, “For God so loved the word”, an enigma that we’ll never fully come to the bottom of. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me!
Revelation 11
We are met in this chapter for the first time, explicit mention made of the beast. Until now, not a single mention of this character has been made by name; everything that we have said about him, we have done so by inference. Before Revelation 11, the word “beast” in reference to the Antichrist is nowhere to be found; yet after Revelation 11; the word “beast” in reference to the Antichrist occurs no less than 36 times.
In this teaching, we begin to look at little closer at the beast along with the two witnesses. Who are these two witnesses and what is their purpose? We shall answer these questions along with others as we explore this eleventh chapter of Revelation.
Colossians 4:2
Extraordinary intervention, calls for extraordinary praise!! I’m sure that we can all relate to this—times in our lives where the mighty hand of God has intervened in our hopeless situation and has prevailed, giving to us a testimony! Praise God for such times and how our hearts overflow with the sound of thanksgiving!! Yet, I find, that what is heard in times of great victory, is seldom ever heard in the ordinary mundane affairs of everyday life. It seems here where we can be so shortsighted and fail so often to see the hand of God at work in what we would deem to be the ’lesser things of life’. Brethren, I am challenged in my own life in this matter. Each new day, when I awake, 1600 people in the UK did not make it to see another day—thank you God for waking me up this morning!! Thank you, Lord, for waking my children and my spouse; thank you for sparing my unsaved loved from the horrors of an eternal hell!! Thank you for a roof above my head, when hundreds of thousands sleep rough on the streets of Britain. Thank you for your faithful provisions—food and clothing—things we so take for granted when almost half the world’s population struggle to meet basic needs.
May this sermon stir our hearts unto thankfulness to our great God for all that He has done for us.
Proverbs 3:5
David brings a message that has at its core, absolute surrender to God!
“…In Scotland once I was in a company where we were talking about the condition of Christ's Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is, and there was in our company a godly worker who has much to do in training workers, and I asked him what he would say was the great need of the Church, and the message that ought to be preached. He answered very quietly and simply and determinedly "Absolute surrender to God is the one thing." – Andrew Murray
David Donovan, along with his wife Shirley, are the founders of a medical mission to the people of the Niger Delta called New Foundations.
To find out more about New Foundations, please visit:
https://newfoundations.org.uk/