Revelation 11:1-19 (Witnesses of the Coming Kingdom)

Introduction

Augustine was a North African citizen of the Roman empire during the 4th and 5th centuries, a time when Rome was disintegrating from its own lack of cohesion and strength. Augustine had studied as a philosopher (the sort of life that one could only enjoy in a stable, wealthy, and powerful society like Rome), and he was both intelligent and eager. At around 30 years old, he was converted to Christ.

Augustine’s mother was already a Christian, and she prayed for him fervently (though Augustine was hard-hearted and chasing sin for a long time). In the Lord’s kindness, the smart and determined Augustine met an older pastor named Ambrose. Through Ambrose’s compelling preaching and his warm friendship, Augustine became a disciple of Christ.

Augustine is a giant of Christian history (though he certainly had his flaws, both morally and theologically). One of the reasons many Christians still know and appreciate Augustine today is because of two of his most famous writings – his Confessions (a book that written entirely as a prayer) and The City of God (which was the first systematic explanation of the Christian worldview, both defended and contrasted with other popular ways of viewing the world).

In The City of God, Augustine says that “two cities have been formed by two loves,” the earthly city (or city of man) and the heavenly city (or city of God).[i]

“The earthly [city was formed] by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly [city] by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The [city of man], in a word, glories in itself, the [city of God] glories in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God… The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, ‘Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.’ In the [city of man], the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the [city of God], the princes and the subjects serve one another in love… The [earthly city] delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers; [but] the [heavenly city] says to its God, ‘I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.’”

Though Augustine labeled them two different cities, and though he described them as opposites of each other, Augustine also believed that the earthly and heavenly city are inseparable at present. He wrote, “In truth, these two cities are entangled together in this world, and intermixed until the last judgment effects their separation.”[ii] In other words, the heavenly city and the earthly city are “intermixed” in this world, and they shall only be separated at the last judgment.

Today, we are continuing our study through the book of Revelation, and we are going to read about two cities and two kingdoms. Much like Augustine described as the city of man and the city of God, our two cities and kingdoms are intermingled at present, but they shall be separated in the end. Or more precisely, the earthly city shall be overcome and consumed by the King of the heavenly city.

We would also do well to remember this morning that the original recipients of this book of Revelation were first-century Christians who were enduring tribulation and affliction that required patient endurance and faithfulness (Rev. 1:9). These visions which John saw and wrote down for their encouragement and instruction were (and are) less interested in explaining how the world will end, but more interested in giving Christians hope and confidence in the world as it is.

May God grant us encouragement and instruction today, as we consider this extraordinary passage together.

Scripture Reading

Revelation 11:1–19 (ESV)

1 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, 2 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.

3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

5 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. 6 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.

7 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, 8 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.

9 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, 10 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.

11 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. 12 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. 13 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.

14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.

15 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.”

16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 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. 18 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.”

19 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.

Main Idea:

The kingdom of Christ is here and coming, and though Christians are often despised and afflicted in this world, they are beloved witnesses of the King.

Sermon

(Second Introduction) A Pastor, Not a Professor

Since the beginning of our study of Revelation, I’ve made a strong effort to simply explain and apply the Scripture as I see it. I’ve tried to show you how I arrive at my conclusions from the text (to the degree that I can, with time constraints and without getting bogged down in the weeds of interpretive rules or numerous OT allusions). And I’ve also tried to avoid simply imposing my own system (my own eschatological view) onto the text.

I think (so far as I can tell) that some of us don’t know which view we might take, and I know that some of us fall into at least two of the three main millennial views (premillennialism and amillennialism). But I believe that this particular discussion is one that Christians can disagree about without breaking fellowship with one another. And I hope that we will enjoy learning from one another when we disagree, rather than fighting about stuff that doesn’t change much about our everyday lives as Christians (believing the gospel and faithfully following Christ).

So far, I don’t think I’ve preached anything from Revelation that would cause much of a disagreement between Christians who might hold a different view than I do. A few things here or there might have given me away, but not much.

Today, however, our text requires us to choose one road or the other… at least choosing our overarching interpretive lenses (either literalistic or symbolic). We don’t have to choose a millennial view (at least I don’t think we do), but we do have to choose our interpretive lens. We all have them, and we would do best to understand them and acknowledge them, not ignore or deny them.

I will still avoid (at least I’ll do my best to avoid) preaching a particular eschatological view, but it would do us no good for me to just present various ways one might interpret this passage… as though we were all sitting through a systematic theology lecture this morning.

Good preaching starts with the preacher’s conviction that he knows what the Scripture means, and then he must proceed to explain that meaning and help the hearer begin to apply it to his or her own life. So, I will aim to be a good preacher today, and not a systematic theology professor. I will try to show you what I see here, and I will try to present it with conviction and force.

But I also hope that you’ll remember that I love you. And I hope that you’ll come to me with any interpretive disagreement you might have, so that we both can help each other better understand what we’re all trying to know and apply here.

At any rate, I believe that my applications are true for all Christians, and that they are not only faithful to this passage but to the rest of Scripture as a whole, which ought always to be the case.

But let me take some time with this first point of my sermon to set us up for the applications that will come more in my last two (very brief) points.

1. Two Cities (v1-8)

1. Our first eight verses introduce two “cities” and “two witnesses.”

a. How we interpret this chapter and what we do with it will be greatly affected by how we identify these “cities” and “witnesses.”

i. Are we to read this passage literalistically?

1. Is “the holy city” (v2) the literal city of Jerusalem?

2. Are the “two witnesses” (v3) literal prophets (old or new) that will literally spit fire, stop the rain, turn water to blood, and die in some way that can literally be observed by the whole world?

3. Will there be a literal “beast” rise up from a literal “bottomless pit” that will “kill” those prophets?

4. Will the two dead prophets literally lay in the street for exactly 3.5 days until God literally brings them back to life and takes them up to heaven in a cloud?

5. Will an earthquake literally kill “a tenth” of the city (7,000 people)?

a. That would mean the total population was 70,000… but the present population of Jerusalem is nearly 1 million.

b. 70,000 was a pretty big city in the first century… in fact, historical estimates put the population of Jerusalem back then right near 70,000… but today the city of Longview is bigger than that… and ancient Ephesus and Antioch both numbered more than 200,000.

ii. So, are we to read this passage literalistically? No, I don’t think so.

1. I think we ought to read this chapter in the same way we’ve been reading the rest of John’s visions… not literalistically, but symbolically or figuratively.

2. I believe John saw vivid pictures that represent real truths, real characters, and real experiences.

a. Therefore, I believe a symbolic interpretation is actually the literal interpretation… though not rigidly literalistic.

3. Right from the beginning, the book of Revelation has itself been teaching us to read symbolically.

a. For example, John saw his first vision of the glorified Christ with “eyes like a flame of fire,” “feet like burnished bronze,” and a “two-edged sword” protruding from His mouth (Rev. 1:14-16).

i. This description does not tell us what Jesus looks like today… it tells us what He is today – He is the all-seeing judge, the strong and reigning king, and the wielder of the word of God (with which He both conquers and judges).

4. So too, the first few chapters of Revelation taught us to read “lampstands” and think of “churches” (Rev. 1:20, 2:1)… churches who are commanded to faithfully endure affliction, even as they bear witness to King Jesus amid a world that largely despises them.

2. So, who or what are the “two witnesses” (v3) & the two “cities” (v2, 8)?

a. The “two witnesses” are described in our passage:

i. “two olive trees” and “two lampstands” (v4).

ii. They have divine “authority” (v3).

iii. They “prophesy… clothed in sackcloth” (v3), which is the OT symbolic clothing of lament, sorrow, grief, and pain over the judgment of God.

iv. Their prophetic role and dress are like the prophets of the OT, who spoke the words of God’s judgment to rebellious people in their own day.

1. And, like Elijah, they “pour” out “fire” to “consume their foes” (v5), and they “have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall” (v6).

2. So too, like Moses, “they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague” (v6).

v. These “witnesses” are also (in some way) connected with “the holy city” (v2), which will be “trampled” for the same amount of time as the “witnesses” will prophesy (v3).

1. “forty-two months” is the same as “1,260 days” (v2-3)

vi. And even though the “two witnesses” will suffer and die, they are those who “stand before the Lord of the earth” (v4).

b. The two “cities” are described in highly symbolic and richly OT ways as well:

i. First, “the holy city” (v2).

1. This one is where “the temple of God” is (v1).

2. It is where “those who worship” God are (v1).

3. It has both an inner area and a “court outside” (v2).

4. And the “outside” of “the holy city” is “given over to the nations” or Gentiles or non-believers, so that it will be “trampled” for a time (v2).

ii. The other “city” is “the great city” (v8).

1. It is “symbolically called Sodom and Egypt” (v8).

2. It is “where” the Lord of the “two witnesses” was “crucified” (v8; cf. v3).

3. And it is the dwelling place of those who will persecute the witnesses and celebrate their death (v9-10).

4. Once again, we see the phrase “those who dwell on the earth” (v10), and this reminds us that God distinguishes between His people (i.e., His servants) and the earth-dwellers (i.e., anyone who remains in unbelief).

3. If we put all of this together, we have a symbolic description here… of the same sort we’ve been reading about for several chapters now…

a. There are two kinds of people in this world as we march closer and closer to the final judgment –

i. those who “stand” and those who suffer God’s wrath

ii. those who repent and those who do not

iii. those who wear God’s name, who obey God’s word, and who remain faithful to the end… and those who are exposed to the torment of God’s judgment, who rebel against God’s word, and who even turn against the people in the world who are faithful.

b. As I understand it, this is how we are to view the two cities:

i. “the holy city” is the people of God in this world (v2),

ii. and “the great city” is everyone else in the world (v8),

1. “those who dwell on the earth” (v10),

2. those who (like Sodom and Egypt of old) surround the people of God, afflict the people of God, trample under foot God’s law and God’s people… even as God Himself protects and preserves His people (though not from physical harm)… until one day Christ returns and the saying is fulfilled, “the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ” (v15).

c. And the “two witnesses” are symbolic as well… symbolic of the people of God, which is synonymous (in this passage) with “the holy city” (v2-3), which “stands” in the world (v4) as a prophetic witness to everyone else (1) that Christ is King, (2) that Christ will both save & judge, and (3) that Christ is true to all His promises.

i. Let me be clear:

1. I’m not speaking of an ethic people of God (i.e., Jewish descendants of Abraham), and I’m not speaking of a geographical location in the world (i.e., a plot of land in the middle east).

2. No, I believe this passage is symbolically describing the “servants” of God, the “saints” of God, and “those who fear [His] name” (v18) from every tribe and nation and tongue and people (both Jew and Gentile).

3. These are the people of God who are universally distributed around the world… You can find them in the mountains of India, on the great plains of Africa, throughout the deserts of Arabia, and scattered in the various nation-states across Europe and North and South America.

4. These are the people who have heard and believed the gospel of Christ, and they now follow the way of their Savior and King.

5. They are those that God has called a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for [God’s] own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

6. And they have been brought “out of darkness into [God’s] marvelous light” so that they “may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [them]” (1 Peter 2:9).

7. “Once [they] were not a people, but now [they] are God’s people; once [they] had not received mercy, but now [they] have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).

ii. These are the “witnesses” God Himself (through Christ) has commissioned to speak with divine authority of both the judgment and the salvation of God to those around them…

iii. and these are the ones who suffer all manner of affliction (as their bodies are exposed to the violence and threats of this world)…

iv. and these are the ones who will ultimately be preserved by God all the way through to that final day, when the seventh “trumpet” will sound and the “time for the dead to be judged” will be upon us all (v15, 18).

Friends, if I’ve understood this passage correctly, if Christians are “the holy city” (i.e., if Christ’s kingdom is, in a sense, already here right now) and if Christians are God’s beloved “witnesses” in the world (who speak with the authority of heaven of God’s judgment and salvation, even as this present world hurdles toward that coming day of judgment), then what does this passage say about what we should expect now and what we eagerly anticipate in the future?

My last two points will be brief, and I’ll try to answer these two questions.

2. Following the King (v9-14)

Throughout Christian history, and even still today, Christians have observed and even argued about two opposite expectations that both seem to be present in the promises of the gospel – the way of glory and the way of the cross.[iii]

1. The way of glory.

a. This is the promise of victory, the reception of reward, and the hope of the gospel.

b. According to the Bible…

i. Christians are to seek “glory and honor and immortality” (Rom. 2:7).

ii. Christians are to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2).

iii. And Christians are to endure the “present time” of “suffering” because it is “not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed” (Rom. 8:18).

c. The Bible promises glory to those who turn from their sin and trust and follow Christ, but some suppose that Christians ought to expect that this life right now ought to be the way of glory.

i. Prosperity preachers tell us that God loves us and wants us to be happy, healthy, and wealthy.

ii. A lot of otherwise faithful preachers will sometimes make it sound like that if we will just think and speak and act as God teaches that we will get good results in this life.

d. However, our passage this morning paints what appears to me to be a quite different picture.

i. Even the prophetic power to “shut the sky” and to “strike the earth” does not prevent the “two witnesses” from Satan’s attack and brutality.

ii. And if you take these two witnesses as I do, then we see that the unbelievers even “rejoice” over the affliction and demise of Christians in the world (v10).

iii. Brothers and sisters, the promise of glory in the gospel is certainly true, but the Christian life in this world is often marked by suffering and affliction and hardship… it is the way of the cross, not the way of glory.

2. The way of the cross.

a. This is shorthand for following the path of Christ.

i. Jesus said to His disciples, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you” (Jn. 15:18-20).

ii. And the author of Hebrews wrote, “let us… lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Heb. 12:1-3).

Brothers and sisters, we live in the “great city” (i.e., the present and fallen and sinful world) where our “Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8). When the King of glory came, He was treated with contempt and scorn, and He was ultimately hung upon a cross to die a shameful death. If this is how the world treated our King, and if we are following after Him, then how can we expect to walk the path of glory in this world rather than the way of the cross?

The Christian hope (the promise of the gospel) is not that we shall escape affliction, pain, hardship, or even death… but that we shall endure such things (with God’s help) as we continue our march toward a glorious prize that cannot be stripped from us… no matter what we face in this world.

But what is that glorious prize? What can we eagerly expect for the future?

3. The Coming Kingdom (v15-19)

Our text this morning concludes the cycle of seven trumpets, and we come back to the same place we landed at the opening of the seventh seal… back in the throne room. Yet again, the judgments of God that are poured out on the world are all part of God’s plan to redeem and rescue a people from among the earth-dwellers… a people that are sinners in the world (just like all the rest), but a people that have become saints by God’s gracious grace.

You may remember that the superlative “woe” was announced at the end of Revelation 8, “woe, woe, woe,” said the divine messenger, “to those who dwell on the earth” (Rev. 8:13). And the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets describe the form of those “woes.” There is demonic affliction (fifth trumpet), there is hard-hearted unbelief and even hostility toward God and His people (sixth trumpet), and now we arrive at the final woe – God’s final judgment… which includes destruction for sinners and reward for saints.

We see, in v15, the seventh trumpet blast and the heavenly announcement that “the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (v15). And this is the first way of describing what Christians can eagerly expect in the future.

This is not to say that Christ does not reign as Lord right now, indeed He does… just remember the major thrust of Revelation 10 – Christ is the sovereign who is in charge of all things, both the good and the bad, and even the soft or hard hearts of people in the world.

But this is to say that Christ will one day expel all sin and sinners from this world, and He shall reign throughout the entire cosmos in the same way that He already does in the lives of His people – the Church.

This is what we pray when we pray as Christ Himself taught us to do: “Our Father in heaven, hollowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” (Matt. 6:9-10).

No more will sinners roam free. No more will the wicked oppress the righteous. No more will Christ’s word and Christ’s name be misused or mistreated.

Now, this is certainly good news for some, but this is terrible news for others; because the coming of Christ’s kingdom in full means that there will be (just as there is now) an inside and an outside… only the line and consequences then will be permanent and tangible.

Verses 16-18 provide us with a second way of describing what we can eagerly expect. We read there the song of those enthroned around God Himself. Worshipping, they sing, “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” (v16-18).

This judgment of the dead includes “rewarding your servants,” those who are “the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great” (v18). And it also includes “destroying the destroyers of the earth” (v18). There is a play on words here that implies that those who sought the destruction of God’s people will themselves be destroyed by the God they despised and fought against.

To sum all of this up, Christians can expect the coming of Christ’s kingdom in full, which will mean priceless reward for those who love and trust Him and also unspeakable damnation for those who remain in their sin and even set themselves in opposition to Christ and His people.

Brothers and sisters, we (who are turning away from sin and trusting in Christ to save us) are among those looking forward to that coming day, and we are now in this world (exposed to various trials and hardships, and even exposed to the vicious attacks of the devil and those who take his side)… but we are here to bear witness to those around us that Christ is King, that He will both judge and save, and that He can absolutely be trusted to make good on all His promises.

May God help us to remember who’s we are, may He help us to endure whatever may come our way, and may God help us to be faithful witnesses with the time and opportunities we have in this world.

Endnotes

[i] Schaff, Philip, ed. St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine. Vol. 2. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887. 282-283.

[ii] Schaff, Philip, ed. St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine. Vol. 2. A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series. Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887. 21.

[iii] For a brief description of these two “ways” especially as articulated by Martin Luther, see this short description: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/glory-versus-cross.