Sermon Tone Analysis

| *The Temple Measured*(Revelation 11:1–2) |

*Revelation 11:1-2 (KJV)* 1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 2 But the court which is without the temple leave outa, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty/ and/ two months.

*Intro.*

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

* During the long, dark years of Israel’s rebellion, “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, 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.

(vv.

14–15)

* The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, until there was no remedy.

(2 Chron.

36:15–16)

* I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.”

But they did not listen or incline their ears to turn from their wickedness, so as not to burn sacrifices to other gods.

Therefore My wrath and My anger were poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so they have become a ruin and a desolation as it is this day.

(Jer.

44:4–6)

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

Jeremiah’s experience was typical of the reception that the prophets often received:

* 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” (Matt.

24:21; cf.

Rev.

7:14).

During that time of horrific divine judgments on the earth, of rampaging hordes of demons terrorizing and slaughtering millions of people, and wickedness rampaging unrestrained, their gospel preaching, along with that of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists (7:1–10), the “angel flying in midheaven” (14:6), and the testimonies of other believers alive during that time, will be a final expression of God’s grace offered to repentant and believing sinners.

* In addition to preaching the gospel, these two preachers will proclaim God’s judgment on the wicked world.

Their ministry will likely stretch from the midpoint of the Tribulation until just before the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

That trumpet will herald the pouring out of the rapid-fire bowl judgments, the battle of Armageddon, and the return of Christ.

During that period, they will declare that the disasters befalling the world are the judgments of God.

They will participate in fulfilling the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that the “gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt.

24:14).

They will also be used by God to bring salvation to Israel (cf. the discussion of v. 13 below).

But 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.

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*The Temple Measured*

 

*Revelation 11:1-2 (KJV)* 1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. 2 But the court which is without the temple leave outa, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty/ and/ two months.

#.

Occasionally in Revelation the apostle John plays an active role in his visions (cf.

1:17; 4:1; 5:4–5; 7:13–14; 10:8–10).

#.

After his renewed commission to write the prophecies yet to come in Revelation (10:11), John again became involved in one of the very visions he was recording.

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He *was … given a measuring rod like a staff, *by either the same angel who spoke with him in 10:8 or the strong angel he spoke with in 10:9–11.

#. /Kalamos/ (*measuring rod*) refers to a reedlike plant that grew in the Jordan Valley to a height of fifteen to twenty feet.

i.

It had a stalk that was hollow and lightweight, yet rigid enough to be used as a walking *staff* (cf.

Ezek.

29:6) or to be shaved down into a pen (3 John 13).

ii.

The stalks, because they were long and lightweight, were ideal for use as measuring rods.

In Ezekiel’s vision, an angel used such a rod to measure the millennial temple (Ezek.

40:3–43:17).

#.

John was told to *measure the temple of God,* including *the altar, and those who worship in it.

* #.

Obviously, this was not an effort to determine its physical dimensions, since none are given, but was conveying some important truth beyond architecture.

i.

It could have indicated, as on occasion in the Old Testament, that God sometimes marks things out for destruction (e.g., 2 Sam.

8:2; 2 Kings 21:13; Isa.

28:17; Lam.

2:8; Amos 7:7–9, 17).

ii.

But John’s measuring is better understood as signifying ownership, defining the parameters of God’s possessions (cf.

21:15; Zech.

2:1–5).

iii.

This measuring signified something good, since what was not measured was evil (v.

2).

iv.