Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Revelation 11:1-14

Theme: “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.

These two witnesses will preach the Gospel to the Jewish nation in the end days, and many will come to faith.

Until then, we are to be faithful witnesses to both Jew and Gentile.

Date: 07/15/2018 File name: Resurrection23.wpd

ID Number:

As we arrive at chapter 11 in the book of Revelation we arrive at perhaps the most debated chapter within the most debated book in the New Testament.

Just what you wanted to hear, right?

The two primary events we read about in this chapter are the measuring of the Temple and the ministry of Two Witnesses — followed by the sounding of the 7th Trumpet Judgment.

As we read through this chapter the echoes of Old Testament prophets are heard — Daniel, Ezekiel, and especially Zechariah.

These were men who faithfully proclaimed God’s word, and to whom God gave visions of His coming Kingdom.

Throughout history God has faithfully sent His spokesmen to call sinners to repentance.

During the long, dark years of Israel’s rebellion, the author of the book of 2 Kings tells us, “the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets’ ” (2 Kings 17:13).

Tragically, Israel did not listen.

“However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them.

And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them.”

(2 Kings 17:14–15).

Prophets such as Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jonah, and the others confronted both wayward Israel and sinful Gentile nations.

And for their trouble they were persecuted and killed.

In Matthew 23:37 Jesus laments over Jerusalem accusing her inhabitants — principally the city’s leaders — “of killing the prophets and stoning those sent to you.”

Jesus will be added to the list.

Yet the picture has not been entirely bleak; God has always preserved a believing remnant of Jewish people.

To the Romans Paul wrote, “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved’ ” (Romans 9:27, NIV).

God’s salvation has come to the remnant of faithful Israel, as well as believing Gentiles, through the faithful preaching of the gospel.

The ranks of New Testament preachers included John the Baptist, and the Twelve.

They in turn passed the truth of the gospel to a next generation of godly preachers, who passed it down to other preachers — most of them unknown men through the ages laboring in obscurity to preach the gospel.

In the future, during Earth’s darkest hour, God will raise up two exceptional and powerful preachers.

They will fearlessly proclaim the gospel during the last three and one-half years of the seven-year Tribulation, the period that Jesus called “the great tribulation.”

Their ministry is the central focus of our text.

I. THE MEASURING OF THE TEMPLE

“I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. 2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles.

They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.”

(Revelation 11:1–2, NIV84)

1. before introducing these two faithful witnesses, John records a fascinating incident in which he himself took part, an incident that sets the stage for the arrival of the two preachers

a. John is commanded to measure the temple and to count the worshipers

2. in the Old Testament measuring something off could be either a sign of impending destruction or personal ownership

a. in the Old Testament, God sometimes marks things out for destruction

1) a good example is found in the prophet Isaiah

“I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.”

(Isaiah 28:17, NIV84)

b. measuring something out could also imply protection and ownership

1) an example of this is found in the minor prophet Zechariah

“Then I looked up—and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand! 2 I asked, “Where are you going?”

He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.” 3 Then the angel who was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him 4 and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it.

5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will be its glory within.’”

(Zechariah 2:1–5, NIV84)

3. I think that the best interpretation of this passage is to see it as God’s measuring off Israel, symbolized by her temple, for salvation and for His special protection, preservation, and favor

a. God’s favor will rest on Israel, and his wrath on the pagan world

A. ISRAEL WILL BE SAVED

“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.

26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”

28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”

(Romans 11:25–29, NIV84)

1. in the late first century the burning question faced by the church was, “Had God rejected Israel, and the Jewish people?” ... it sure seemed so — fewer and fewer Jews were coming to Christ while more and more Gentiles were

a. 20 years before the apostle John pens the book of Revelation the Roman military machine had brutally suppressed the Jewish revolt of A.D. 66–70, slaughtering over one million Jews, devastating Jerusalem, and burning the temple

ILLUS.

Interesting enough, most Christians escaped the Roman juggernaut because they recognized in it a prophecy that Jesus gave.“When

you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.

21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.”

(Luke 21:20–21, NIV84).

When the Christians saw the Roman armies approaching they fled not only Jerusalem but Judea and most went east across the Jordan River into what is modern day Jordan.

b.

I think this prophecy must have been encouraging to the apostle John and the Jewish Christians of his era

c.

God had not rejected Israel — a time is coming when many Jews will turn to Messiah

2. the Apostle Paul tells his readers in his epistle to the Romans, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom.

11:2)

a. God will preserve the Jewish people, and the nation until that future day when the believing remnant of the nation will be saved

1) the apostle described Israel as the natural branches broken off of the olive tree (the olive tree representing the people of God throughout history)

2) but the apostle writes that a day is coming when they will be grafted back into the tree

b. chapter 11 of Revelation is a picture of that event — a time when Israel will be evangelized and many will come to Christ

c. Jesus himself anticipated this

1) after his lament over Jerusalem, he said, “For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

(Matthew 23:39, NIV84)

3. the historical question concerning this passage is, “Will a temple in Jerusalem be rebuilt, and the sacrificial system be reinstituted?”

a. as with so many interpretations of the book of Revelation biblical scholarship is divided

1) there are those who are thoroughly convinced that it will be — that this passage indicates that a literal Temple to be rebuilt in Jerusalem

2) there are those who are thoroughly convinced it will not be — that this passage is highly symbolic, and not to be take literally

3) gee ... go figure

b. pre-millennialists — of which I am one — tend to take this passage literally

1) they point to this passage as a strong indication that at some time in the future the Jews will be able to rebuild a temple to Yahweh

ILLUS.

John MacArthur, one of my favorite authors, rights, “The reinstitution of the temple worship will reawaken interest on the part of many Jews in the Messiah.

Many will, however, realize that “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb.

10:4), and turn to Jesus as the true Messiah.

2) the prophet Zechariah said this would happen

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication.

They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.

11 On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

12 The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, 13 the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, 14 and all the rest of the clans and their wives.

1 “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

(Zechariah 12:10–13:1, NIV84)

ILLUS.

Many orthodox Jews today dream of rebuilding their temple, but its site is now occupied by the Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock.

Because Muslims believe it to be the place from which Muhammad ascended to heaven, it is among the most sacred shrines in the Islamic world.

For the Jews to wrest that site away from the Muslims and build their temple there would be unthinkable in today’s political climate.

In the geopolitical climate of Middle Eastern politics it is unimaginable that a Jewish temple could ever be rebuilt upon the Temple Mount.

That said, in the geopolitical climate of Middle Eastern politics in 1946 it was unimaginable that a Jewish state would ever exist once again — until it did in 1948.

4. if these verses are to be taken literally, as so many evangelical Christians take them, then God will accomplish it