Revelation 11 - Powerful Witnesses

Introduction

As we move into Chapter 11 of Revelation this morning, we are coming to one of the most notoriously difficult passages for interpretation in the whole book. These verses describe two “witnesses” who prophesy for “1,260 days”, and who are then killed by “the beast that rises out of the Abyss”, and who are raised up three and a half days later. There are at least fifteen different identities that evangelical Bible scholars assign to these two figures, and each one of those interpretations have their good points. So this is another point at which we are reminded of Ambrose Bierce’s satirical definition of Revelation: “A famous book by St. John the Divine, in which he concealed all he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who know nothing!”

So once again we are compelled to take a posture of humility as we attempt to read and understand this passage, aren’t we? And as we have been working our way through this book, we have made it our aim to understand what John himself says about this book’s purpose. We take as our starting point what John says in the very beginning of the book, that God gave John this revelation of Jesus Christ “to show His servants (the seven churches in Asia Minor) what must soon take place” (Rev. 1:1, 4).

To be sure, Revelation has a great deal to say about the future consummation of all things in the Second Coming of Christ and the Final Judgment and the eternal state—but if we try to put everything in this book into some far distant future, we do violence to the actual words of the book. So our interpretive framework for Revelation has been that much of the book has to do with Christ’s judgment on Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the judgment that He predicted in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24.

So in the last several chapters, we have seen more and more of that judgment falling on the city of Jerusalem—here in Chapter 11 the focus shifts on the fall of the Temple in Jerusalem specifically. Jesus foretold the destruction of the Temple in Matthew 24:2 (not one stone left upon another), and this chapter establishes the formal charges that God brings against the Temple as it is decommissioned and destroyed. (In Rev. 11:1-2, John is given a “measuring rod” to measure the Temple—perhaps as a symbol that the Temple and the so-called “worshippers” inside do not “measure up.”)

Throughout the Scriptures we see that the death penalty can only be carried out by the testimony of multiple witnesses. Deuteronomy 17:6 says

Deuteronomy 17:6 ESV

On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death; a person shall not be put to death on the evidence of one witness.

And Hebrews 10:28 says

Hebrews 10:28 ESV

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

And so much of Revelation is taken up with the deeds of “two witnesses”, who will testify to the crimes of the Temple in Jerusalem against the Messiah. Earlier we read Jesus’ words in Matthew 23,

Matthew 23:34–36 ESV

Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

Throughout the Old Testament, God had sent prophets and wise men and scribes to Jerusalem, each one “clothed in sackcloth and ashes” (v. 3), calling out for the city and the nation to mourn over their sin and repent and return to God—and they were killed, crucified, flogged and persecuted. And Jesus said that all of that righteous blood would come upon this generation of Jews. The generation that murdered the Messiah would pay for the murder of all the righteous prophets. And so for that reason I want to take the identity of these “two witnesses” to be the entirety of all the Old Testament prophets, and their testimony of the guilt of the generation of Jews who murdered the Messiah.

And I think that it is very instructive for us to remember as we read through this chapter that this letter of Revelation was written to instruct and warn and comfort and encourage the churches of Asia Minor. So turn a couple of pages back with me (p. 1029 in the pew Bible) and let’s consider how this chapter would have been read by one of the churches that received it—Revelation 3:7-8 says

Revelation 3:7–8 ESV

“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. “ ‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

The church in the Asia Minor city of Philadelphia was evidently a small church with “little power”—they had been “shut out” of the life of the city, and there may be some reference here to the opposition from the Jewish synagogue (v. 9 calls them the “synagogue of Satan, those who say that they are Jews and are not”). It doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination for us to put ourselves in their place, does it? Like them, we are a small church, without a lot of power or influence or sophisticated resources at our disposal.

And like them, we live in a time when churches are being increasingly sidelined and silenced. We saw last week that reconciliation in our nation will never take place unless God’s people proclaim the Gospel—but it seems that we have so “little power” to make the Gospel heard amidst the avalanche of hatred and divisiveness and greed and perversion of our day.

And so, putting ourselves in the place of the weak and powerless Philadelphian church, what do we see here in Revelation 11? How does this chapter strengthen and encourage a small, sidelined and silenced church? What I think we see here in these verses is that

Faithful Gospel-witness in this world will surely be sustained by the power of God.

Two thousand years ago our brothers and sisters in Christ who lived in the ancient city of Philadelphia in Asia Minor read Revelation for the first time—and what they read here in Chapter 11 showed them that God uses the faithful witness of all of His saints—the great and the small, the strong and the weak—to accomplish His purposes to both judge the world and proclaim salvation to the world.

The two witnesses in this chapter represent all of the Old Testament prophets—from Abel to Zechariah—who were persecuted and murdered for their righteous call to repentance. And here in Revelation 11 we see how God sustains their faithful witness in at least four different ways. First, the witnesses

I. Shine by God’s power (Rev. 11:4)

In verse 4 we read of the two witnesses:

Revelation 11:4 ESV

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

This is a reference to the Old Testament book of Zechariah, who saw a marvelous lampstand with dozens of flames, each one being fed a constant supply of olive oil from two olive trees that stand on either side. The lamps would never be dimmed and never go out, because they never run out of fuel. Zechariah asks an angel what the lampstand and olive trees represents:

Zechariah 4:5–6 ESV

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.

Zechariah’s vision of the lampstand and olive trees is shown to John here in Revelation 11—this time with two lampstands—to show that God’s witnesses are

Fed by the Holy Spirit who dwells in them (Zech. 4:1-6)

God’s witnesses never run out of light, because it is not by their own power or might that they shine, but by the Spirit of the LORD! Think what an encouragement that was to the church in Philadelphia—that had been shut out, sidelined and silenced! The faithful witnesses that testified against the crimes of the Temple in Jerusalem were faithful because God’s Spirit upheld them in their testimony—and He is just as faithful to uphold a small, sidelined and silenced church!

And this vision of lampstands shining with the inexhaustible power of the Spirit of God should remind us that the seven churches in Revelation are represented as lampstands themselves! In Revelation 1:12-13 we read

Revelation 1:12–13 ESV

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

Faithful Gospel witness in this world will surely be sustained by the power of God—His witnesses shine by God’s power because they are

Kept by the reigning Christ who stands with them (Rev. 1:12-13; 2:1)

A small, sidelined and silenced church can take great comfort in the fact that Jesus Christ Himself tends the light of their lampstand! He holds universal, eternal power and authority over every single inch of the cosmos, and He stands by the lampstand of your witness, church! There is no threat to your existence, no loss of religious liberty, no scorn or hatred or vitriol from Satanic opposition that can come against you that will do anything to prevent you from shining as faithful Gospel-witnesses in this dark world! God’s witnesses shine by God’s power.

In verses 5-6 we see that the witnesses that testified against the Temple before its decommission and destruction not only shine by God’s power, but they also

II. Speak with God’s power (Rev. 11:5-6)

Look at verses 5-6:

Revelation 11:5–6 ESV

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.

Here we see these two witnesses described in ways that remind us over and over again of the Old Testament prophets. In 2 Kings 1:9-11, the prophet Elijah spoke and consumed his enemies with fire from heaven, and in 1 Kings 17 he spoke and shut the sky for 3 1/2 years so that there was no rain on Israel (1 Kings 17:1; Luke 4:25). And in Exodus we see Moses striking the waters of the Nile to turn them into blood (Ex. 7:20), and striking the land of Egypt over and over again with plagues.

Moses and Elijah represent the Old Testament prophets who spoke through fire, blood and plagues as

Warnings of judgment for sin

Here in Revelation 11, the witnesses testify to the crimes of the Temple in refusing to heed the warnings that God had sent through the prophets for hundreds of years. They had been empowered by God to speak with miraculous authority in judgment on the sins of the people, but they had been ignored. And now their testimony is entered into evidence of the guilt of the city of Jerusalem and the Temple in particular. God empowered them to speak warnings of judgment for sin—but along with those warnings the prophets also held out

Promises of grace for repentance (Matt. 23:37)

At every turn, every Old Testament prophet held out an offer of forgiveness if the people would turn away from their sin in repentance and come to God. Jesus said it when He crested the hill on the road to Jerusalem and saw the city laid out before Him:

Matthew 23:37 ESV

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

Over and over again God sent His faithful witnesses to Jerusalem to call her to repentance so that He could gather them to Himself, to love them and forgive them and cherish them and rejoice over them—His witnesses were empowered by God to offer promises of grace for their repentance—but they refused, over and over and over again. And here in Revelation 11, that refusal to repent is entered into evidence against them at their sentencing.

God empowers faithful Gospel witness in this world—even for a small, sidelined, silenced church. They shine by God’s power, they speak with God’s power, and in verses 7-12 we see that they

III. Are vindicated by God’s power (Rev. 11:7-12)

In verses 7-10 we read that God’s witnesses are attacked and conquered and killed by “the beast that rises from the bottomless pit” (v. 7). We will talk more about the identity and nature of “the beast” in Chapter 13, but for now it is enough to see that it is demonic, Satanic power that rises from the Abyss (the same place where the demons in Chapter 9 were released from), and that God’s witnesses

Suffer Satanic hatred and universal scorn (Rev. 11:7-10)

Just as Jesus said, Jerusalem was the city that killed every prophet that God ever sent to it—and here it is revealed that that violence and hatred was Satanically inspired and motivated. In verses 8-10 the hatred and scorn that God’s witnesses suffer is described in graphic detail: The people who killed them leave their bodies on display as a source of entertainment and celebration, even observing their deaths as a holiday worthy of exchanging presents with each other, because their faithful witness and calls to repentance were such a “torment” to them.

It is certainly a kind of hatred and scorn that the little weak church in Philadelphia understood—and it is the kind of hatred and scorn that we are beginning to get some idea of here in our nation, isn’t it? Voices all around us are gleefully pointing to declining trends in church attendance and Christian identity as proof that Christianity is dead, and its message of repentance will not torment them any longer.

But their celebrations are cut short in verses 11-12, aren’t they? In verses 11-12 we read that the witnesses

Receive resurrection power before their enemies (Rev. 11:11-12)

Verses 11-12:

Revelation 11:11–12 ESV

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.

G.K. Chesterton once said that “Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave” (The Everlasting Man). And just as Jesus Christ died and went into the grave and rose again three days later, so His witnesses die and rise again three and a half days later.

There is a curious note in the crucifixion story of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, that no other Gospel writer records, and at first glance it seems odd and out of place. It says that at the moment Jesus died,

Matthew 27:52–53 ESV

The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

I think that if we read those verses in the context of Revelation 11 and Matthew 23:37, it helps us understand what Matthew is saying there. I want to suggest (tentatively) that these verses in Matthew 27 about the tombs being opened and the saints appearing to the people in Jerusalem was a demonstration of Revelation 11:11. The righteous saints who had been put to death in Jerusalem for calling the people to repentance were brought back to life as a testimony against them, and a sign of the coming judgment. That’s the picture here in Revelation 11, and the resurrected saints in Matthew 27:52-53 may be a hint of that. The “great fear” that falls on those who saw them is like the fear that a Mafia boss would feel who had killed off witnesses to his crimes, only to see them raised from the dead and appearing in court to testify against him! (Picture the fear and terror that would fall on certain powerful people in our nation if Jeffery Epstein were to rise from the dead and appear in court!) The faithful Gospel-witness of God’s people is surely sustained by God’s power as He vindicates His saints by resurrecting them before their enemies so that they can testify against them.

Faithful Gospel-witness in this world will surely be sustained by the power of God—they shine by God’s power, they speak with God’s power, they are vindicated by God’s power, and they

IV. Are rewarded at the revelation of God’s power (Rev. 11:15-19)

In verse 15, the witnesses have given their testimony of the crimes of Jerusalem against them and their refusal to repent and their rejection of God’s repeated offers of grace, and their murder of the Messiah. The seventh trumpet sounds, and the sentence against the Temple is pronounced:

Revelation 11:15–19 ESV

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.

A couple of years ago when St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in DuBois was closed down, I asked Mickey Weaver how a Catholic Church was decommissioned—at what point was it no longer a sacred space for worship? And she told me that the sign that a Catholic church was no longer considered sacred space was when the tabernacle on the altar (which contains the Host) was removed.

I believe that is what is going on here in these verses. What was the sign of God’s presence in the Temple? The “mercy seat” on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark disappeared from history at the end of 2 Chronicles when Nebuchadnezzar sacked Jerusalem and destroyed Solomon’s Temple. And here in verse 19 the Ark is revealed to be in the Temple in Heaven—it has been removed from the earthly Temple, because that temple in Jerusalem is about to be destroyed. On the basis of the two witnesses representing all of the Old Testament saints, it had been condemned for its rejection of the Messiah. And here in these verses its authority to represent the reign of God on earth has been withdrawn as the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat are removed. And now

The mercy seat is revealed to all (v. 19)

It is no longer shrouded in thick darkness behind a heavy veil—the presence of God is now open to the whole world through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! The Temple no longer controls who has access to God and when—they can no longer put up a sign at the edge of the Court of the Gentiles threatening death to any non-Jew that tries to approach YHWH! The destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70 effectively ended all persecution of Christians by the Jewish authorities—they could no longer kill and stone and crucify the messengers of the Gospel of grace, because the reigning Christ had ended their authority and replaced it with His eternal reign! The blast of the seventh trumpet is like the blast of the warning siren before the detonations that demolish a condemned building—the Temple is decommissioned, condemned, and set for destruction!

At the revelation of God’s power, the mercy seat is revealed to all, and

Both small and great are recognized by Him (v. 18)

Look again at verse 18:

Revelation 11:18 ESV

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.”

The wrath of God falls on Jerusalem to judge the spiritually dead rebels who rejected the Messiah. And here in this verse is one more piece of encouragement for a small, sidelined, silenced church. The saints in Philadelphia were encouraged by these words two thousand years ago, and let them encourage us in our efforts today. We are a small church in a small town in a rural county that is ignored by the rest of the state—our votes get railroaded by the votes in the big progressive cities, and you and I both know that there are so many shenanigans going on with voter fraud already in this state that we have even less power at the ballot box than usual this year.

We don’t have some big national platform to call our nation to repentance in the Name of Jesus Christ—there are only about thirty of us in this room, and our online sermons are listened to an average of two times. So we’re not exactly burning up cyberspace with the Gospel!

We go door-to-door with Bibles and tracts—most of them just left on the doorstep, and those we do meet tend to either take them with polite disregard, though some argue with us and a few slam the door in our faces with threats if we don’t get off their property. We work hard to prepare Sunday School lessons and Junior Church lessons and Bible studies and youth group lessons, and sometimes we only have a handful in our classes (or sometimes none at all). We feel inadequate in sharing the Gospel, intimidated or discouraged at how insignificant our efforts are, how “little power” we have to be faithful witnesses.

But look here, beloved—and see that it is not just the “prophets and saints” like Moses and Elijah who are rewarded for their faithful witness, but all those who fear His Name—“both small and great!” You may feel that you have “little power”, but in Jesus Christ you have all the power you will ever need! Your faithful Gospel-witness in this world will surely be sustained by the power of God, and He delights in your witness! He sees your every attempt, every so-called “failure”, every time that you tried to talk to your family member about Christ and got shut down, every time you worked all week to prepare a lesson nobody showed up for, every door slammed in your face, every mockery and insult you bore for faithfully witnessing to the righteousness of God and the call to repentance in the Name of Jesus Christ! He sees it all, He delights in you for it, and He will reward you for it!

So let the world hate you, let them fall all over themselves with glee at the prospect of your demise, let them threaten you and steal your God-given liberties, let them scorn you and silence you—you keep on preaching the Gospel! Because when the great and terrible Day of Judgment comes and the books are opened and each one answers for his deeds, they will have no excuse before God that they did not know the Gospel, because you declared it to them!

So go out from the presence of God here this morning as His witnesses—shine by God’s power, speak with God’s power, knowing that you will be vindicated and rewarded by God’s power when you stand before Him in the Day of Resurrection! Don’t let the hatred and scorn and ridicule and silencing of this rebellious nation stop you—they can’t stop you—because the reigning Lamb stands beside your lampstand to guard and guide and keep you as you faithfully declare “the good news that the just and gracious Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful men and women and has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, to bear His wrath against sin on the cross and to show His power over sin in the resurrection, so that everyone who turns from their sin and themselves and trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord will be reconciled to God forever” (David Platt). So go from here and proclaim this Gospel, and call our poor nation to saving faith in Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Hebrews 13:20–21 ESV

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

The Book of Revelation was written to encourage churches that were facing persecution and threats from the Roman Empire. Read Revelation 3:7-13. How does Christ’s message to the church at Philadelphia and the description of the faithful witnesses in Revelation 11 encourage us when we feel that we have “little power” to witness in our world?

John sees a vision of olive trees feeding oil to lampstands, similar to the one Zechariah saw in the Old Testament (Zech. 4:1-6), as a reminder that God’s faithful witnesses minister “not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD”. What are the ways that you receive that constant supply of power from the Holy Spirit for your witness in this world?