Sermon Tone Analysis

Praise and Prayer

When Witnesses will be Persecuted July 13

Tonight we will be in Revelation chapter 11, as we continue in this interlude if you will between the trumpets, at the end of chapter eleven is where the seventh trumpet comes in, but we will not make it there tonight.

Tonight we will be looking at the two witnesses, and how they prophecy and more how they are persecuted.

Persecution for religious beliefs is not out of date, it still happens today.

Christians are being martyred for their faith all over the world right now.

Indeed, God’s Word tells us, in 2 Timothy 3:12

When the times of this earth draw to a close, many prophets will be persecuted, now we must understand persecution is not always being martyred that is killed for ones faith, persecution can be many different forms.

Some amazing end-time prophecies are being fulfilled today.

For example, God said that He would bring the people of Israel back to their land in Ezekiel 36:24

This has happened, on May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was established for the first time as a Jewish state in 2,000 years.

Then on December 6, 2017 the United States recognized the capital of Israel as Jerusalem by moving their Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

But there is another prophecy in Revelation 11 about Jerusalem: the temple is to be rebuilt.

If you visit Jerusalem today, you will see the Mosque of Omar on the temple mount which is the most contested piece of real estate in the world.

Some people call this site the Dome of the Rock.

The only part of the temple that is left is the western part of the platform known as the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall.

What happened to the temple?

In AD 70, a Roman general named Titus laid siege against Jerusalem.

To hold true to his tradition as a Roman, he did not destroy the temple Romans preserved temple.

Instead Titus declared that Herod’s temple in Jerusalem was to be preserved, but somehow it caught on fire and then was looted for its treasures.

Parts of the temple were overlaid with gold, and everyone suspected there were great treasures down in the vaults.

In the fire, the gold melted into the crevices of the stones.

People pried apart each stone to get the gold, so no temple is left today.

Jesus predicted in Matthew 24:1-2

In Revelation 11, we learn that God told John to measure the temple - a difficult task since nothing was there!

This Scripture says that the temple will be rebuilt.

And the Jews believe this will happen.

Today rabbinic schools are training young Jewish priests the descendants of Levi to offer sacrifices in the temple.

They are getting ready to build the temple!

Some have even tried to lay the foundation stone of the new temple, and it cause all kinds of mayhem.

The interesting thing to know about the rebuilding of the temple is that the temple is the precursor of the Antichrist.

Jesus said the Antichrist will enter the temple to abominate it and make it desolate.

Daniel the prophet also said an abomination of desolation would stand in the Holy place.

Then the apostle Paul prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5

Therefore, the abomination of desolation is when the man of lawlessness, son of destruction, the Antichrist comes into the temple and stops the animal sacrifices, and worship of God, and He exalts himself above everything else, everything including God, even in the house of God.

At the end of Revelation 11:2 we read that there is a distinct period when Jerusalem will be made desolate.

It is a period of forty-two months.

This is translated to be 1,260 days, or as the Bible calls it a time, times, and half a time in Revelation 12:14.

Basically three and one half years.

Why this time period?

Because three and one-half is seven divided in half and speaks of the division and danger that will occur when the Antichrist moves into the temple to declare to the world that he is God.

From Revelation 11:3 to verse 14, we read that God will bring two mighty prophets during this horrendous period to prophesy and teach.

There has never been a time when God did not have His prophets.

God does not move without letting a prophet know what is about to happen.

Before the flood God spoke to Enoch and Noah.

Before the exile of the Israelites, God spoke to Elijah and Jeremiah.

Now we are going to look at five truths about these two witnesses.

I.

They will be Spiritually Prepared

These men are described as olive trees and lampstands.

The olive trees speak of fruitfulness, and the lampstands speak of light.

These witnesses are to be fruitful as they proclaim a witness of God’s light.

These witnesses are spiritually prepared.

It would be foolish and wicked to try to do God’s work without God’s power.

For instance, to let your light shine, you must learn to burn the oil and not the wick.

If you burn the wick, you will burn out and do nothing but make a lot of smoke.

What else do we notice about these men and their spiritual preparation?

They are clothed in sackcloth, the worn out clothes people wore in Bible times when they were in mourning and sorrow.

If you preach judgment, you ought to do it in the sackcloth of a broken heart.

Multitudes upon multitudes are marching into hell.

Is your heart broken over that?

Is it broken enough that you are willing to get spiritually prepared to tell others about what is going to happen?

I believe in heaven.

And I believe in hell.

I also believe that if preachers taught more about hell in the pulpits, we would have less ungodly living in our communities.

The first thing about these witnesses I want us to see is that they are spiritually prepared.

II.

They will be Sovereignly Protected

The fire coming from their mouths may be symbolic of the power of God’s word spoken by these two men.

Whether literal or symbolic, it will be deadly to those against them.

What kind of power is this?

It is the same power Jesus gave His disciples when He sent them out:

Also in Luke 10:19

I believe these two witnesses will come in the spirit of Elijah and Moses.

When we think of Elijah, we think of the prophets; when we thing of Moses, we thing of the law.

What is the purpose of the law and prophets?

They witness about the Lord Jesus Christ.

We should never make the mistake of thinking the Old Testament is about Judaism and the New Testament is about Jesus.

All of the Bible is about Jesus Christ.

The law is about Jesus.

The prophets are about Jesus.

And these two men represent the law and the prophets.

Why do I say these men will be sovereignly protected?

All the people of God are sovereignly protected if they are in the will of God and speaking the Word of God.

I believe they are immortal until their work is finished.

When you are in the center of God’s will, your work will never lack for God’s provisions or God’s protection.

III.

They will be Satanically Persecuted

Who is this beast?

Like many criminals, he has many aliases.

He is called the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction(2 Thess 2:3), the evil one(1 John 2:13-14), the little horn(Dan 7:8; 8:9), and he is the Antichrist - the same one who will sit in the temple, declaring himself to be God.

The beast will wage war against the two witnesses.

Why?

Because they preach the Word of God.

Most preachers who boldly preach the Word do not win popularity contest.

In fact Jesus said, Luke 6:26

As the days grow darker, hatred and persecution against the godly will intensify.

Now we did say that the man of God is immortal until he has finished the task God has given him to do, but that is the thing.

Look at the first part of verses seven again, it says, “When they finish their testimony.”

Their testimony ends in death.