The Witness that win the world
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Revelation 11, The Witnesses that Win the World
Revelation 11, The Witnesses that Win the World
I want to give us a little reminder of all that has happened so that we can set our minds on this text today.
So, we remember…there is a message to the church. that’s the first part of revelation
And then we see heaven open up and God is there, and he has a scroll…and the most important thing is that scroll gets opened…the seals get stripped off and God’s will for heaven and earth gets played out!
And then the seals open and there are 7 seals of craziness
Then silence in heaven for half an hour
And 6 more trumpets
We have to wrestle with the fact that all of these plagues happened…that ¼ of the earth perishes with the seals and then 1/3 of the earth perishes at the trumpet sounding and the key to all of these plagues is this little verse in chapter 9
John says…no one repents…No one surrenders their life over to the lamb!
So, what on earth is God up to?
So, then we go to chapter 10
What we looked at last week and we see that the church has to eat this book…has to eat the scroll and they key implication is that we are not just to be people who tell the message of God but who are the message…
That we are to get the message so deeply in to us that we live it out!
We are eating the scroll…
And what we have to understand is that this is a parable…and in chapter 11 we will get a second parable…that shows us what God is up to…
So, Let’s look at chapter 11…And for those of you who want to get ahead put a finger in Zechariah 2
The Two Witnesses
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. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.
The nations raged,
but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
We look at this text and think…What is going on here?
Theologian Bruce Metzger refers to Revelation 11 as “an almost bewildering interweaving of symbols”
But this text is like Old Testament Shake and Bake…It’s like he took a little from the prophets…a little from the Torah…a little from Kings and he shook it all up and put it together…
So, this chapter opens with the author John being given a measuring rod and he is told to go measure the temple...so flip with me to Zechariah 2
And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ”
So In Zechariah you have to understand the author there is looking forward to a day when there is an end to all evil and God would be with his people.
He would be with his people in his Glory.
So what is measuring about?
This is all about the need to mark off holy space…for those of you who are getting deep into revelation, and I know there are more than a few of you, it is the same thing as “sealing” in chapter 7. It is a way that God marks out his own people
The interesting thing about this is that when Revelation was written the temple in Jerusalem had already fallen…
So, he is no longer talking about an actual temple anymore, he is talking about the new temple of God…
Which is what? US! His church
So, When Jesus says that the temple will be torn down and rebuilt in three days…the Pharisees and his followers at the time were like…what is he talking about?
It took years to build this temple!
We know that he was talking about himself and that the body of Christ….
And all over the New Testament we see examples of this
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
SO, the body of Christ is who? Yes, it is us…
So, in chapter 10…we are becoming his people because we are eating the scroll…we are becoming like him
Now in chapter 11….we are his people because he is marking us off, setting us apart for his purposes…we are his temple where he wants to dwell!
Now the courtyard of this temple… which is traditionally, called the court of gentiles… is where all the pagans are… is where these witnesses will go to preach…
Let’s look back at Revelation 11:3-4
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.
So, coming out of the temple now there are these two witnesses…and they prophesy for 3 ½ years which is conveniently half of 7
But I want you to see where John is pulling from here…
And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 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.
So, here is what John is doing…He is trying to show his reader what God is up to, so he borrows this language from Zechariah and says that God’s people are like a temple that is marked off…
And then there is this other example: God’s people are the church…there are like these lampstands and these two olive trees
And we have seen this before in Revelation because when we see the seven church’s in revelation God talks about them as the 7 lampstands…
And want to know the interesting thing…Only 2 of the 7 churches were called faithful witnesses…Smyrna and Philadelphia
So, these lampstands…They are the light…God’s people are the light of the world! No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket!
But we are not only light but we are olive trees…and Olive trees are extremely resilient when you go to the Garden of Gethsemane and you see those olive trees, they are massive…Carbon dating on those trees say that they are probably between 900-1200 years old…So they probably were not the exact same trees as in the time of Jesus …But the point is that these things stand firm…
Olive trees are where oil comes from so they are also anointed.
They have roots deep into the ground…when difficult times come shrubs and buildings are all subject to destruction, but these olive trees last…They bear fruit all the time even in drought
So, John is saying that we are the church…like olive trees, we will always last…and not only that we are the anointed ones!
These people that God is marking off they are the Light…SO the church is this lasting light of witness to the world!
And notice the next verse
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.
What is interesting is that the people of God are not without weapons…we are not without a defense…When we look to chapter 5, we see that we have the word of God on our side…
When we open our mouths and speak God’s word is our weapon.
And what’s interesting is that Rome has all kinds of weapons and the beast has weapons, the demonic creatures in chapters 8-9 have tails like scorpions and breastplates…
But the people of God have the best weapon of all and that is the word of God…
And Let’s keep moving
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.
So, they have the power to shut up the sky and so who do we think of? If you’re taking notes…that is a reverence to Elijah
And the power to turn water into blood…we’ve talked a lot about this…that is Moses!
Striking the earth, well Moses does that with his staff
So, these two witnesses are not only the light of the world…
They are not just steadfast trees that bear fruit
But they are the embodiment of Moses and Elijah
Now there are some folks who read this text and who will argue that these are two people who will show up in the future and if that happens, then that’s cool with me, there are lists of names that people have come up with, Moses & Elijah, Enoch and Elijah, Zerubbabel and …I’ll be wrong, and I can live with that…
But what I would argue is that what John is trying to do is to get the church to see:
You are a people who eat the scroll: who become the message
A people who are marked off for Holy purposes for the fullness of God to dwell in you!
You are the temple of the Holy Spirit
And you are the faithful witnesses the light and the tree
You are my people who will prophesy to the world!
We are the embodiment of Moses and Elijah
Do you remember where else Moses and Elijah come up in the New Testament?
The Mt. of Transfiguration…
And it’s a big old story and we’re not going to read it but the thrust of it is this…
Jesus is preaching about how he has to suffer and die and then he takes his disciples to the mountain…
Jesus glows bright and sort of changes in front of them
Moses and Elijah show up and speak to Jesus
Peter speaks up and says…Lord this is good…Let’s build tents…
But here is what is going on…Jesus was talking about what he was going to do as the messiah…
That as the messiah he must suffer for all things to redeem all things…
And when you have a concept of a first century messiah…that’s not what they are supposed to do!
So, the question is, Has Jesus gone completely insane as he is talking about suffering?
So, he takes his disciples to the mount
They begin to see Moses and Elijah and that is meant to teach us that the law and all that that is, and the prophetic witness of Elijah is all coming together in Jesus
So, we are being marked off as God’s holy people
We are his lamp, his trees, we speak with fire!
And as we become to embody his life, we are his witnesses…and it all comes together in our life…the law and the prophets
So, in the next verse we see what…Just as Jesus had to suffer…Just as the message is sweet in our mouth but bitter in our stomachs…
These witnesses are hunted down and killed…Their bodies lie in the street with no dignity
They are mocked just like Jesus…
And then what happens? Just 3 ½ days later
These witness who have been mocked and beat and killed God breathes back life into them
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. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
So, check this out:
NT Wright says this about these verses
“This most puzzling passage in this most puzzling book , then turns out to be the most central statement of what John is trying to say to the churches to whom he is writing. The Lamb opened the seals of the scroll, and all kinds of terrifying things have happened as he has done so. The trumpets have blown; terrors of a different sort have come to pass; but now the scroll has been handed to John, and John prophesies in symbolic action and parabolic story. And this is how the kingdom of God spoken of in Ch 4-5 is to become a reality on earth as it is in heaven”
Do you get that…The way the scroll comes to be a reality is through the faithfulness of God in our lives! The scroll the most central element, God’s purposes on heaven and earth! That comes to be reality because we eat the scroll, we are the light of the world, we are faithful witnesses!
So, if I’ve lost you up to this point…Here is the main point…
At the end of chapter 9 we find that there was all this chaos, and no one repents
BUT in chapter 10 we find a people who eat the scroll
In chapter 11 we find a people who are being marked off…who are the light and the olive trees and who are the embodiment of the law and the prophets
They are a people who live like the lamb…death doesn’t have the last word in their lives!
And it is that witness, of a people who breathe the very breath of God that wins 9/10 of the world to Jesus!
I mean, do you get it? Chapter 9…no one repents…
And the question really is who will be saved and how will they be saved?
And it’s not Hell Fire and Brimstone…It’s people who look like the lamb!
chapter 11 1/10 of the people are lost and 9/10 of the people give glory to God
So how do people come to follow Jesus?
Because of a people who have eaten the scroll and become his temple!
Its a community of people who say, yeah I used to be this way in my life but Jesus forgave my sins and made me new
Its a community of people who are surrendered to Jesus as king!
Its a community of people that dont win the world by trying to prove everyone wrong but simply by sharing what Jesus has done in their lives!
Now look what happens! In the rest of chapter 11…
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
We almost forgot about that 7th trumpet, right? We almost forgot that it hadn’t been opened yet…
Do you see that verse…that the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our lord and messiah…
Because of the victory of the church…the witnesses…Heaven and earth begin to collide!
And this is the coolest part in my opinion:
And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,
who is and who was,
for you have taken your great power
and begun to reign.
Go back to “We give thanks to you Lord God almighty, Who was and who is”…Our mind sort of fills in what should be there right?
There is kind of a formula of revelation is to say, The One who is and was and is to come right?
But, that’s not what John wrote…He just wrote, the one who was and is!
The point is the “is to come” has become the reality! The suffering witnesses, the martyred church has faithfully demonstrated to the world that God is God!
The kingdom of God has come when the people of God eat his word!
The Kingdom of God has come when the people of God are marked off
The Kingdom of God has come when the people of God are the faithful witnesses of the King!
The point is that when his church acts like this, the future has now arrived at the present! The IS TO COME, has become a reality!
The suffering witness of the martyred church has faithfully demonstrated that God is God, that Jesus is Lord and King. And the whole world has responded by giving Glory to God!
And all that remains now is to destroy the destroyers of the earth! This is the ultimate meaning of God’s judgment…To destroy all that has spoiled his creation!
See the vision of chapters 4-5 is to rescue his creation from all that has spoiled it!
Let’s keep going…
The nations raged,
but your wrath came,
and the time for the dead to be judged,
and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,
and those who fear your name,
both small and great,
and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
This is all old testament day of the lord language, Psalm 2, Daniel 12, and all kinds of verses wrapped up into this verse
The nations raged! At Jesus..>because his entire message is surrender yourself to the Lord!
God’s wrath came! yes against evil…The final judgement of all things is against evil!
And let’s keep going
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
This is all Siani language
When God’s people live like God’s people…and when we are formed round the lamb…when all of this happens
God’s temple is opened and the picture we get here is that heaven is poured out on earth!
Now why is this all-important?
Last week we talked about how we become the people who are eating the scroll
This week is the same:
How are we marked off for your purposes?
How do we become holy people in a very profane and unholy world…
You may be wondering…The world is so Jacked up…This world is changing and some of us struggle just to keep up with everything that is going on…How will the church survive into the future?
How will our kids take this even further? How will this all work out…
And if they are going to make it, if our kids and grandkids are going to make it as Christians in the world! It won’t be because I have some clever sermon with 5 points that all started with the letter P…
Revelation 11 reminds us who we are called to be in this world:
Revelation 11 reminds us who we are called to be in this world:
A people who have embodied the word of God.
A people who have embodied the word of God.
A people who are marked off for God’s purposes.
A people who are marked off for God’s purposes.
A people who are the light of the world.
A people who are the light of the world.
A people who stand firm to the opposition of the world
A people who stand firm to the opposition of the world
A people who speak the word of God.
A people who speak the word of God.
It will be because when they speak, they speak with the fire of the word of God!
It will be because they embody the law and the prophets!
It will be because we breathe with the very breath of God!
And when that happens…Heaven and earth meet up and the kingdom of God begins to break out all over!
This is what I want to see…The kingdom of God breaking out in each of your lives in powerful ways
And John is saying, this is how it happens…this is how people come to repent…
You can preach hellfire and brimstone all you want, and no one is going to repent!
I’m convinced that this text is not about strange predictions that might happen somewhere around the world …this is a call for us to be the church
Because the world is begging for us to live like the lamb…not the beast!
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
I want to ask you to stand: And I am going to pray 3 things I want to invite you to pray as well!…And then after the next song we are going to take communion together as a church
Father,
I ask that your kingdom would come in my life
Help me to be a faithful witness
Fill me with the breath of your sprit!
