Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.14UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.13UNLIKELY
Fear
0.65LIKELY
Joy
0.52LIKELY
Sadness
0.6LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.45UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.34UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.91LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.78LIKELY
Extraversion
0.26UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.31UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.73LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
INTRODUCTION
We pick up this week where we left off a week ago.
In 11:1-2, we saw how the church is protected by God.
He measures it.
He measures its worship and devotion.
He knows who belongs to Him and who doesn’t.
Tonight, we see this interlude between the 6th and 7th trumpets continue on through the first half of chapter 11.
And in it, we will see what the measured church is doing during the time in between the first and second coming of Christ.
During this church age, the church will be a witness for Christ and we will see that witness symbolized in two witnesses in these verses.
And through the symbol of the witnesses, we will understand not only what the church does until Christ returns, we see how the world will respond.
By the time we get down to the end tonight, we will be wrapping up this interlude and preparing for Kingdom Come.
The End of the Third Cycle.
The blowing of the 7th Trumpet.
Before I read the text, I just want to say that this is another passage that is hotly debated.
And it is packed with all sorts of rich imagery that requires us to keep our Old Testaments handy.
And like so much of the other ten chapters we have read so far, there are numbers and animals and symbols.
And trying to cut through all of that can be confusing and perplexing.
I think what is important is to remember that Revelation is an apocalyptic picture book.
Don’t get lost in the weeds.
Don’t get so bogged down in what this is and what that is, that you lose this vibrant picture God is giving us of His Church until the return of Christ and at the return of Christ.
And if we don’t get bogged down, I think we will walk away understanding:
The Witness of the Church (v.
3-4)
The Suffering of the Church (v.
5-10)
The Exaltation of the Church (11-14)
THE WITNESS OF THE CHURCH (v.
1-4)
We start with authority being granted to two witnesses, who will prophesy for 1260 days, clothed in sackcloth.
While the identity of the two witnesses doesn’t get people quite as emotional as the interpretation of the temple in the first two verses, it is still a subject that leaves people in a lot of disagreement.
Some say that this is Moses and Elijah because of the power and miracles they are associated with in verses 5 and 6.
Other suggest it is Enoch and Elijah because they never died in the OT.
So this is them returning to witness for the Lord.
Others say it is just two random witnesses.
And these opinions do not tend to fall down interpretative lines.
What does fall down interpretative lines is whether or not these are literal people or if they are a symbol of a people, much like the temple in the first two verses.
The Left Behind view would say these two witnesses are literal people who preach during the 2nd half of a 7 year Tribulation.
I will argue that, in keeping with understanding of Revelation as a picture book, using Old Testament imagery to communicate the New Covenant to us, these witnesses are not literal
Instead, as with so much in Jewish apocalyptic literature, they are symbolic
I believe they are symbolic of the same thing the temple was symbolic of—the church.
They are presented here to tell us something about the church’s witness in between the 6th and 7th trumpets
The church’s witness in this final period of history before Christ returns and the Day of the Lord comes.
There are two of them because testimony is only confirmed in Hebrew culture if there are two or more witnesses.
They preaching about salvation, but they are also warning of the judgment that is to come.
That is why they wear sackcloth.
Like Daniel wearing sackcloth as he mourns the spiritual state of the exiled Jewish nation in Daniel 9, they mourn the dying world and how many people in it will continue to reject God despite their warning.
The witnesses are given authority by the Lord to do their prophetic ministry.
This is a reference to the authority of Christ that He has granted to His Church as they fulfill his Great Commission.
The church does not preach the full counsel of the Gospel—the warnings of judgment and the good news of salvation, in their own authority.
She preaches it by the authority of Christ.
When she accepts people into her membership and affirms their salvation, the church is binding and loosing, but not in her own authority.
By the authority given to her by Christ as the Kingdom expands and the Great Commission is fulfilled.
And this prophetic ministry will last 1260 days.
I believe this 1260 days is just another way of saying 42 months or 3.5 years, or as we will see in a few moments—3.5
days.
We are talking about about the last half of Daniel’s 70th week.
I taught last week that Daniel 9 pushes us to see Daniel’s 70th week as symbolic.
The first half of the week refers to Jesus’ saving ministry.
The last half refers to the age of the church, when the church is on her mission to advance the Kingdom.
The 1260 days are a symbol to tell us that the church will prophesy her authoritative witness for entire age of the church.
At the end of that time, Christ will return and the time for proclamation and repentance will be over.
Now, with all that said, what fuels the witness of these two proclaimers?
What is the power behind their testimony?
This is where we can look at verse 4.
There are two olives trees and two lampstands before the Lord of the earth.
This language is clearly borrowing from Zechariah 4:2-6
We have two olive trees just like Revelation 11:4 and we have a lampstand, which has become two in Revelation 11...
Zerubbabel is the kingly figure who serves as governor and is charged to rebuild the temple.
Who is the other anointed one?
It is a reference back to chapter 3.
This is Joshua the High Priest at the time Israel’s return from Exile
Together, Zechariah 4 sees Zerubbabel—a royal figure, and Joshua, a priestly figure, standing as anointed ones.
Zerubbabel the royal governor will build and Joshua.
the holy priest, will lead in worship.
By associating the two witnesses in chapter 11 with these two anointed figures, we are learning that the witnesses are not just prophets, but also have a kingly and priestly aspect to their ministry.
Certainly that squares with what we know of the church in the rest of Revelation, doesn’t it?
We are co-heirs of God’s majestic kingdom.
We are priests in the service of the Lord with full access to the Lord through Christ.
And we are prophets proclaiming the salvation of the Lord and warning of judgment.
And as the church filled with royal, priestly witnesses goes about her prophetic ministry for 1260 days, she burns like a lampstand.
Where does a lampstand get its oil?
From olive trees.
If the lampstands are the witnesses—another way of describing the church, then what is the olive oil that keeps our lamps burning?
What is the oil that keeps the flame of our witness blazing in this dark world?
It is the Holy Spirit.
The same Spirit who would help Zerubabbel rebuild Jerusalem.
Remember Zechariah 4:6?
Zechariah 4:6 (ESV)
Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.
The Church will not proclaim the Gospel during this age and the church will not advance the Kingdom by our own might or power or programs and ideas.
It will be by the same Spirit who empowered the re-building of the walls as Israel left Exile.
The same Spirit who rested on our Lord as He proclaimed liberty to the captives
The same Spirit who empowered the witness of the apostles at Pentecost
He is the One empowering the mission of the church.
All Gospel-preaching churches and certainly THIS church.
THE SUFFERING OF THE CHURCH (v.
5-10)
But will the message be accepted?
No.
We know that.
We saw it last week.
The church is the measured temple.
The outer court is not measured because it belongs spiritual Gentiles—unbelievers who do not know Christ and cannot draw near by the blood of His sacrifice.
But what is the unbelieving world doing during the last half of Daniel’s 70th week?
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9