Key Witness

Revelation 10:1–11:14 NIV

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.” Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.” Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but ‘in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.’” I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. 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. And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.” If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck 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, while their enemies looked on. At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.

28-How will People Repent?

29 - 7’s Chart Pattern.

30 - Recap of the Last Message. - Like Egyptian Plagues

God is doing spiritual warfare against the God’s

This manifests in calamity on earth to show people their gods are worthless.

But People do not repent.

We see our world through the lense of sin, and so we do not see things clearly and therefore unable to get the message simply by looking at the world around us.

General Revelation vs. Special Revelation.

Character 1: Jesus, or Angel Representing Jesus’ Authority (Like a Moses figure). - See imagry from Rev. Chapter 1.

Rainbow like emerald is describes God on his Throne 4:3

Robed in a Cloud - reminiscent of the cloud by day on Mt. Sinai - Jesus coming on the clouds of Heaven.

Face like the son - firery eyes in 1:14 and reminds us of Moses coming down from Sinai - but also a foretaste of Revelation 21 where in the New Heaven and New Earth no Sun is needed because God will emit the light needed.

legs like firery pillars - Rev. 1:15 fine bronze when fired in the furnace.

Voice like a Lion - Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah - Rev. 5:5

Revelation 5:5 LEB

And one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.

Voice Like Thunder - Reminds us of Mt. Sinai coming as well.

Jesus, Not Ceasar (or as we will see later the two Beasts) has Authority over Land and Sea.

Has the opened scroll of God’s will in His right hand to give to John -

Chapter 5 only Jesus has authority to open the scroll (ie. inact God’s will for History and bring it to its redemptive conclusion)

Chapter 6 - 7 is Jesus opening it.

Chapter 8 - 11 is the enactment of it in human history the 7 trumpets (ie Jesus’ doing battle with the gods).

So why does Jesus have John eat this Scroll?

31 - We are Witnesses of God.

We see two descriptions of Witness in this Text.

Interlude 1: John eating the opened scroll.

Reminds us of Ezekial - remember in Chapter 5 (“Jesus Reveals Jesus,” September 12) we said the scroll reminds us of Ezekial eating the scroll depicting God’s plan for human history including redemption and Ezekial eats it so that when God instructs him to speak His will he does so.

God is asking John to do the same thing. And this has the effect of connecting the dots between Calamities people experience on Earth and what God is doing. John’s prophecying has the purpose of warning people so that they can turn from the gods (demons), and idols and turn to God lest these warning Judgements don’t lead to their final Judgement. - Ie to Repent.

Romans 10:11–14 LEB

For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who is rich to all who call upon him. For “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him about whom they have not heard? And how will they hear about him without one who preaches to them?

So Here, we see in interlude one John’s call, which in a moment we will see as the Church’s call while on earth is to Share the Gospel. This is our purpose on earth.

2. Interlude 2: The story of the Two Witnesses.

Part A: Measuring the Temple.

The images of John measuring the temple is commone prophetic imagry of the rebuilding of the temple. In Zechariah it was literal as he saw the return from exile and the actual rebuilding of the temple in his day and a fulfillment of God's promise to return his presence with His people.

For Ezekial, his measurements do not match the return (him prophecying prior and during the destruction by Babylon), but it was a picture of Hope and resurrection that God would re-establish his presence with his people, but the flowing out from the Temple would produce life a new Garden of Eden that blesses all of creation. This could be seen as a colaidascoping effect, the promise of the second temple, but also pointing to God's ultimate restoration of all creation at the end of the age.

This Temple is representative of the People of God. In the New Testament the Temple is not a physical building.

Eph. 2:19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

The outer Gentile Court that John remembers, but here it refers Gentiles symbolically as being those who are not believers (ie the Roman Empire) who will persecute the Church in this world, while God is showing their gods to be false

But there is a purpose to this church and that brings us to the two witnesses.

Part B: The Two Witnesses: Who are they? perhaps there is much debate, but again let’s look at the symbolism.

They prophecy (Like John) for 3.5 years, so as to say when Gentiles/Romans are persecuting the Church. So, they are present During Tribulation.

Olive Trees - The image of the two Witnesses take us first to Zechariah 4 where the olive branches are the two anointed ones standing by the Lord of the whole earth. One Olive branches in Zechariah were the Holy Spirit empowered leaders of Zerubbabel, and Joshua who were called to rebuild the temple after the return of the Babylonian Exile. Zerubbabel was the Governor of Jerusalem who happened to represent the line of David Kingship, and Joshua was the the first High Priest of the new temple. So these two witnesses have a rulership/priestly function.

Lampstands - We have heard of lampstands before, Haven’t we. Lampstands in Revelation represent Churches - So these two Witnesses are the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit who minister the reign of Christ and the Priesthood of Christ in the world.

Authority to shut the sky, and strike the earth with Plagues. - References to Elijah and the contest at Mt. Carmel, and Moses with the 10 Plagues. So again we have in these 7 trumpets the theme of Spiritual Warfare. We have already said that the 7 Trumpets are reminiscent of the 10 plagues of the Exodus which was God showing the Egyptian gods as false, and John marrying that to the Roman gods as false, but Elijah’s contest at Mt. Carmel was to show the Canaanite god Baal as false. The Churches mission is to highlight the falsehood of the gods of any culture and turn people to the one true God.

What happens to the Church?

1. They are protected by the Gospel: fire coming out of there mouth. This is not a literal fire that comes out of the church’s mouth, it is reference to words.

The imagry of fire consuming coming out of the witnesses mouth is common imagry of God protecting His people, and judging the enemies of God's people. David speaks of it when God saved him from Saul (Saul was not actually consumed by fire), It reminds us of Elijah and the fire consuming his altar (the fire did not consume the baal prophets, but it was a sign they were judged), Jeremiah 5:14 specifically says that the word of God is like a judging fire.

2 Samuel 22:1 LEB

Then David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song, on the day Yahweh delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

2 Samuel 22:9 LEB

Smoke went up from his nostrils and fire from his mouth. Burning coals devoured, they burned from him.

Jeremiah 5:14 LEB

Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, “Because you have spoken this word, look, I am making my words in your mouth like a fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them.

2. They are martyred by the beast. We are going to learn more about the beast or beasts in chapter 13 and 14, and we will explain more then why my conclusion of who this beast is at that time. But for now beasts are references to Nations in the same manner that Daniel spoke of different beasts. In Daniel he prophesied of the beasts of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and then Rome. Here in Revelation the Beast is Rome and in Chapters 12 - 14 we will see just in what way Rome was considered to come out of the Abyss (prison for demons). How Rome was actually being run by the gods/demons. But for now this is a picture of Roman Empire and its leaders persecuting the Church in John’s day.

Symbolically Sodom and Egypt and where the Lord was Crucified. This is really code language so the Romans who do not know the scriptures don’t know what in the world John is talking about. While some argue this is Jerusalem, Gordon Fee argues it is Rome (as Jesus was killed by a Roman form of punishment).

So here is the conclusion of what the Church is called to do in a world of calamity, where God is showing the world’s gods to be bunk.

The Church like John and this image of the two witnesses as the Church is called to preach the Gospel. To do that the Church must break the bad news to the world that their gods are false and are leading them into destruction and judgement, so that the Good News can be presented that there is forgiveness of sin and you can turn to the one true God who has offered you salvation from this destruction and judgement by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This message will get the Church killed.

32 - Witnesses of God Help People Witness God.

What seems ineffective, however, is the most effective means for helping people to Repent. Two weeks ago when we looked at the first 6 Trumpets, we said that even though these were warnings of final judgement from God those still alive did not repent from worshipping the demons and idols and all that comes with that.

But there is a change in verse 13, people become terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. Maybe not full repentence, but finally a recognition that God is the one true God. But how does this come to be?

The Church helped them connect the dots.

Dot 1 that was connected - General Revelation (Defined) vs Special Revelation (God’s Word).

Because of Sin in Human nature we see General Revelation through our sinful lense and come up to all kinds of wrong conclusions about who God is (multiple gods, no gods, gods are mean, gods are messy and not holy).

It is only God showing up and telling us who God is and what is going on behind what we can see touch and feel, that can help us see how things really are. Only God’s word can help sinful humans connect the dots of who God is.

Dot 2: Martyrdom and Resurrection: What is happening to the Church in this passage is exactly what happened to Jesus.

Being killed

Being Mocked - The following account was written by the Roman historian Tacitus in his book Annals published a few years after the event. Tacitus was a young boy living in Rome during the time of the persecutions.

"Therefore, to stop the rumor [that he had set Rome on fire], he [Emperor Nero] falsely charged with guilt, and punished with the most fearful tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were [generally] hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of that name, was put to death as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea, in the reign of Tiberius, but the pernicious superstition - repressed for a time, broke out yet again, not only through Judea, - where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also, whither all things horrible and disgraceful flow from all quarters, as to a common receptacle, and where they are encouraged. Accordingly first those were arrested who confessed they were Christians; next on their information, a vast multitude were convicted, not so much on the charge of burning the city, as of "hating the human race."

In their very deaths they were made the subjects of sport: for they were covered with the hides of wild beasts, and worried to death by dogs, or nailed to crosses, or set fire to, and when the day waned, burned to serve for the evening lights. Nero offered his own garden players for the spectacle, and exhibited a Circensian game, indiscriminately mingling with the common people in the dress of a charioteer, or else standing in his chariot. For this cause a feeling of compassion arose towards the sufferers, though guilty and deserving of exemplary capital punishment, because they seemed not to be cut off for the public good, but were victims of the ferocity of one man."

c. Resurrection -

Tertullian (born about 60-70 years after the book of Revelation): “The Blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.” What Tertullian saw, is something that has happened over and over again in History. The Church does not seem to shrink during persecution, but rather grows during persecution. People throughout History have turned to Christ after having heard the Gospel, at first mocking it, but then seeing how humbly, lovingly, and peacefully Christians received persecution/martyrdom. They see that in this the message of Christ is true, because of its sacrificial love.

d. I think when Christ comes again, the people will see the physical resurrection, and go, “Oh Snap” Jesus is real.

1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 LEB

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who remain until the Lord’s coming, will not possibly precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who remain, will be snatched away at the same time together with them in the clouds for a meeting with the Lord in the air, and thus we will be together with the Lord always.

This is a picture of the welcoming party meeting Jesus in the air to escort him to earth as he comes to judge the living and the dead and establish His Kingdom on earth. - Why earthquake makes sense here, and then the third woe next week is the establishing of the Kingdom of God on Earth and the Judgement.

33 - Application Points: The Church Helps People Witness Jesus by...

Sharing the Gospel - Which may feel like torture to some.

Sacrificial Love and Living.

34 - Witnesses Have Hope.

I have had a few people ask me about the Rapture, and a teaching of the rapture that takes Christians away from persecution and tribulation.

Friends the message of Revelation is not a message of escape, but a message of preparation. John is preparing the Church to patiently endure in its mission to share the Good News and to live Sacrificial loving lives even in the face of persecution and death.

Our Hope in this passage is not in escape, but in Resurrection.

Our Hope is that God wins, God vindicates Jesus’ way vs. the worlds way.

The World and Satan thought that Jesus’ death was a victory over God, but Jesus’ Resurrection shows them wrong. That for Jesus and for those who trust him to follow in his path, His way is vindicated in Resurrection.

Colossians 2:13–15 LEB

And although you were dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having destroyed the certificate of indebtedness in ordinances against us, which was hostile to us, and removed it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. When he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a display of them in public, triumphing over them by it.

The Church is escapes God’s wrath for sure, that is the good news, but the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Jesus will vindicate his Church through the Resurrection.

Conclusion: