7-14-2019 A Mouth Full Revelation 11:1-13
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Introduction:
The testing and trials of VBS on the workers have no comparison to the testing and trials of God’s people in Revelation. However, the witnessing done at VBS can compare to some degree to the witness we see in our passage this morning
Transition:
This second interlude break of Revelation that began in chapter 10:1 speaks to the situation of God’s people in this world. The first part of the interlude we saw last week had the recommissioning of John to continue his prophetic ministry (in ch 10), a ministry that can extend to the entire church in the second vision of the interlude: the two witnesses (11:1–13). This second vision has two parts: 11:1–2 and 11:3–13. Against the backdrop of Ezekiel’s measuring of the temple in Ezekiel 40–42, John too is called to measure the temple in 11:1–2. But unlike Ezekiel, John is commanded not to measure the outer court. In the second part of the vision (11:3–13), we read of the ministry, death, and resurrection of the witnesses.
Scripture Reading:
Revelation 11:1-13
1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,
2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.
3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
5 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.
6 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.
7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,
8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb,
10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
11 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.
12 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.
13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
The entire interlude demonstrates the bittersweet contents of the little scroll: victory through faithful suffering.
This passage illustrates once again that God promises to vindicate His faithful people who experience the world’s hostility. The apparent triumph of the evil ones is actually their undoing, because of God’s faithful commitment to raise His people from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus stands as proof of God’s commitment to reverse the curse of sin and death. As the apostle Paul put it, “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:5).
Transition:
So John has a few things to say about this vision and he starts with a holy place:
I. The Temple of God (vv.1-2)
I. The Temple of God (vv.1-2)
The idea of God’s Temple spans throughout scripture, and John expounds some importance here
Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,
“The Temple Of God”
This Temple might be the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem but it seems more to be a spiritual - non physical one based on how the “Temple of God” has been mentioned in chapters 3 & 7
At the end of the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is told to measure a temple for God, BUT the big difference is that in Ezekiel 40, he is measuring a real physical temple that will come in the future - inside and out.
John is told only to measure that which is within this “temple of God.”
This passage highlights the importance of the Temple. There is a heavenly temple, there are physical temples on Earth, and even believers’ hearts are the temple of God [[1 Cor. 3:16–17]]
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
Today in Jerusalem there remains the Dome of the Rock and though Israel has occupied Jerusalem there is too much opposition to tear down the Islamic mosque and reconstruct the Temple. In the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation period the Temple will be rebuilt again.
But our passage seems to indicate a non-physical one.
Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there,
So why measure the Temple?
John measuring the Temple is probably symbolic of the LORD saying it belongs to Me as when a house or land is sold today it is surveyed.
The measuring of the inner sanctuary of the temple points to the protective presence of YHWH much like the sealing of God’s people against demonic assault and idolatrous influences in Chapter 7.
I then think that the temple, the altar, and its worshipers here represent the complete Holy Christian community, based on the figurative use of “temple”
but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.
Here we are specifically told that the “nations” or Gentiles will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months which is the last 3 ½ years of the Tribulation Period.
The time period of 42 months (also 13:5) is repeated as 1,260 days (11:3; 12:6) and “a time, times, and half a time” (12:14), and symbolizes a limited period of time in which evil is allowed to triumph over God’s people (cf. Dan. 7:25; 9:27; 12:7, 11–12). Revelation never mentions the three-and-a-half-years designation, and Daniel never uses the figure of forty-two months, but the time period is equivalent. The Daniel prophecy is fulfilled in the final days of human history with the persecution by the beast and his followers.
This outer court likely refers both to physical Jerusalem to the church also, but from a different perspective—the people of God vulnerable to persecution and martyrdom. This leads us to a desecration of God’s temple
The “holy city” then represents the earthly, “not yet” aspect of the future heavenly/earthly Jerusalem
Transition:
This period describes a time when God allows his people to be persecuted and martyred and corresponds to their time of witness
II. The Two Witnesses (vv.3-7)
II. The Two Witnesses (vv.3-7)
In contrast to the white clothing worn by God’s people in heaven (Rev. 7), these witnesses are dressed in black, goat’s hair sackcloth, the traditional garments of mourning:
3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” 4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
Who are the two witnesses??? Verse 4 tells us: “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands/candlesticks…”
The witnesses are described using images drawn from Zechariah 4, where the two olives trees (probably referring to Israel’s kingship and priesthood) are empowered by the Spirit to lead God’s people. Here the olive trees are equated with two lampstands, an image used in chapter 1
In Zechariah 4, Zechariah receives his fifth vision of judgement
skipping to verse 12
[[Zechariah 4:12-14]]
12 And a second time I answered and said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured out?” 13 He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 14 Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
The two anointed ones
the number “two” probably comes from the need for two witnesses to constitute valid legal testimony
[[Deut. 19:15]]
“A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
At the mouth of two witnesses
Then: Hebrews 10:28 These witnesses were require under the law
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
The question still lingers then, and has been debated over the centuries about who are these witnesses?
• Some have said they are Elijah and Enoch-- because they never died a physical death
I cannot be dogmatic on this subject, but at this time in heaven there will be many who have never died a physical death thanks to the rapture.
• Other says they are Moses and Elijah, which could make more sense because of the signs that follows them.
5 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. 6 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.
The power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days — much like Elijah, but remember
James 5:17
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
“Have power over water to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues”
Mention: Exodus 7
And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them,
After 42 months, the only two public witnesses are killed along with their testimony
The beast, introduced here, will be described in more detail in chapters 13 and 17 (cf. Dan. 7:7–22). This beast enemy of God comes from the Abyss with the mission of destroying the witnesses.
Transition:
It seems with the temple and then these two witnesses, John’s vision is contrasting eternal life with eternal death now with physical life and death
III. Death & Life (vv.8-13)
III. Death & Life (vv.8-13)
Following the death of the two witnesses, their corpse is denied a proper burial by the nations, a sign of insult, shame, and humiliation
and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.
God has a way of emphasizes a point throughout His Word with words and here it is said that Jerusalem spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt.
The “great city” is mentioned seven other times in Revelation (16; 17, & in chapter 18 five times), all of which refer to the center of worldly power allied against YHWH and His people—This was easily Rome in the first century. The great city is “figuratively called” Sodom and Egypt, the place where “their Lord was crucified” and stands in contrast to the holy city. This mega (μεγάλης) city of wickedness can be symbolized as a place of moral depravity (Sodom), a place of oppression and slavery (Egypt), or a place responsible for the unjust death of Jesus Christ (Jerusalem).
Sodom is known for homosexually and Egypt is know for worldliness
For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
In the 1st Century, one might think John is crazy to write that many people could see these bodies lying in the streets but today we have live streaming that makes this an easy reality.
They are without a burial as they lie for 3½ days—but only 3½ days
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.
After 3 ½ days they are brought to life by the Spirit of God and ascended up to heaven in a cloud… this sounds almost familiar!
The breath of life might conjure up Adam & Eve or the dead dry bones in Ezek. 37
The 3 ½ days recalls contrasts with the much longer three and a half years of their prophetic ministry and perhaps even Jesus’s three days in the grave then the later ascension.
After the brief celebration by the inhabitants of the earth, God resurrects the witnesses. Through resurrection God defeats evil’s greatest and last weapon: death [[1 Cor. 15:26]].
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
As a result, the enemies of God’s people are paralyzed with terror,
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.
“Come up here”
This reminds me a bit of the rapture. When our testimony is finished God will call us unto Himself and certainly at the rapture of the Church there will be that call unto the dead in Christ and those which are alive in Him.
And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
This earthquake really is grace, YHWH wants to get the attention of those who will witness this resurrection because they might then give God the glory as they cannot deny that this is the work of our LORD.
The expression “gave glory to God” may indicate genuine repentance, but it could also point to a forced confession of God’s glory—just as Nebuchadnezzar confessed glory to Daniel’s God without a genuine repentance (in Dan. 4:34). Also in 13:3–4 we read that the whole world will follow the beast. The most revealing bit is that their responses of “terror” and “glory” are not in response of the martyrdom of the witnesses, but by God’s raising them from the dead and the subsequent judgment of God indicated by the severe earthquake.
So What? (v.14)
So What? (v.14)
In spite of the difficulties of understanding this passage perfectly, several points of application seem clear:
God calls his people to minister and speak testimony to a rebellious, hate-filled world. The trend in American churches is to be as accommodating as possible in hopes of reaching more people. The inherent danger is that the church will lose its ability to speak prophetically. Love without truth ceases to be love, and speaking prophetically means the church is called to speak God’s light into darkness. This text not only challenges us to be courageous in our witness but also affords an opportunity to learn how to do so (e.g., at the right time, for the right reason, in the right way). In addition, we must never forget that God promises to empower his people to fulfill this ministry. As with the two witnesses, God’s miraculous works often go hand-in-hand with the strong proclamation of the gospel.
We should not be shocked, nor discouraged when the world rejects us. Living in a post-Christian culture calls us to adjust our expectations. Being “measured” means spiritual protection but not immunity from persecution and even martyrdom. Jesus himself promised his disciples this is part-and-parcel for believers. Are we prepared to suffer for the gospel? If we are met with rejection and public humiliation, will it shipwreck our faith?
Our ultimate hope rests in God’s victory made certain by his faithfulness. This passage defeats some of our greatest fears. The greatest possible threat from any hostile enemy is death, but God has already raised Christ from the dead—our guarantee that he will raise us also (Rom. 8:11). We can trust God to keep His word. Our greatest enemy has already been defeated. Therefore, we can live with a degree of freedom not possible when the fear of death grips our lives.
In Conclusion:
Although God’s people are protected spiritually, they are still vulnerable to persecution.
God’s people are called to speak prophetically.
The world will often react with hostility to the church’s public witness.
God promises to raise his people from the dead, reversing their temporary defeat at the hands of evil powers.
The witnessing church possesses tremendous power and authority to carry out its mission.
Question: When He says to His Church “Come Up Here” will He be speaking to you?