The Church an End Time Witness

The One’s Clothed in SackCloth

Until this point much has been stated about the conditions that are to come.

1. The conditions of the world leading to the end

2. The conditions of the church that will lead it to the great apostasy

3. The conditions leading to the arrival of the

4. In our last session we previewed how the church would at least not all of it be gone during the tribulation.

In a quick overview it appears the church is readying to endure a tremendous uphill battle.

What if I were to tell you the reason for the church staying in place has everything to do with a plan the Lord has had from the start?

For those of you in the season who have been battered, tossed to and fro, and seem to have no belonging today I want to bring you into the time we are about to step into

The church is one of the two witnesses identified in the time of the tribulation.

Matt 24:29-31 makes clear that the church (those called set apart, the legal gathering,) will be in place during the tribulation.

according to Matt 24:31 the church will be gathered from the four winds

2 Thes 2:5-8 tells us there is a plan for the church as this is the work that is holding the man of lawless back… nevertheless as we advance we will note that as they fall the man of lawless or beast of revelation or antichrist rise to power 3.5 years into the tribulation.

The plan for the church is much greater than one can assume and with this we can see it here:

Revelation 11:1–12 ESV

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.

Who Are The Two Witnesses?

Traditional Insights

Enoch and Elijah

neither is believed to have died

Dismissed with scripture “Not all will sleep”

Moses and Elijah

the power possessed by these two

Mal 4 speaks of Elijah as being present before the great and terrible day of the Lord.

In the gospels we find Elijah did indeed come as JTB

This is important is it speaks to the work for the 2 witnesses “Prepare the way of the Lord”

Biblical Clues (Precept upon precept)

v.4 Olive Trees

Zechariah 4:11–14 ESV

Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

Two groups of people

they anointed (filled) stand (minister) before the Lord of the earth

Additionally we note that these branches are being filled by the Lord Himself (infilling)

Israel as an Olive Tree

Jeremiah 11:16 ESV

The Lord once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed.

Here we note the Jewish Nation is called an Olive Tree

Yes they are torn down but they are not replaced… they have a function still to come

Gentile Church as Olive Tree

Romans 11:24 ESV

For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

The gentile church (those who have believed in Jesus Christ) have become an Olive tree

Jewish people removed for their unbelief when He came v.23

These are the only two groups of people scripture calls Olive Trees

v.18 states these trees are nourished by the true vine Jesus Christ.

Lampstands defined as Churches

Revelation 1:20 ESV

As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Language Clues

Martus, Marturos, Marturion a word that is used 35x in the NT

5x in the book of Rev. it is used only in 11 is it translated witnesses

q other time it is used as saint (church)

Revelation 17:6 ESV

And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.

blood of the saints is the blood of the martus

Acts 1:8 ESV

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

You will be my martus

Rev 11 uses this same word as witness

Witness; Martyr

Up to this point we have only defined who the two witnesses are. No I do not believe it to be Moses, Elijah, or Enoch.

It appears to me the bible has never hidden it from us. The bible has clarified for us that the two witnesses is and always has been the Jewish Nation and the Gentile church.

We have a task that is set before us, and if it is that our timeline is as noted two weeks ago, this means that today those from all walks of life are being called and awakened to the purpose of nothing less than preparing the way for the return of the Lord.