33. The Two Witnesses (Rev. 11:1-8, 4/26/2020)

[Music] it's great to have you back as we are continuing our studies of the book of Revelation if you've been following along you know that right now we're at the beginning of chapter 11 chapter 11 really represents kind of the midpoint so once we finished chapter 11 which we won't do today that'll both really wrap up our studies for this year we'll come back in the fall and pick up with the last half of Revelation at that time you may recall that right now we're working through what are called the seven trumpets and we stopped at the sixth of those trumpets last time you may recall the sixth trumpet has two parts to it kind of like the sixth seal you recall had two parts to it kind of like a good-news bad-news sort of thing the trumpet was first of all a message of judgment we saw irresistible destruction coming courtesy of the Roman army mixed with this diabolical insanity inside the city and yet at the same time we also hear in connection with that same seventh trumpet the good news God's people are now being called out for a special task when we were looking at the seals we saw the same sort of thing we saw that the sixth seal had a message of judgment the Sun turned dark the moon turned to blood but also we heard of God's people being marked and protected something like that is going on here except that in this case it's not so much the protection of God's people which continues to be an abiding theme but it's also a message of the mission God's people are commissioned to a task the task is really captured in the idea that John is given a scroll this message which comes from heaven but is submitted to entrusted to a human messenger and he must eat it and as he eats it of course you know it's sweet in his mouth because it is on the face of it good news and yet at the same time the gospel while it is fundamentally good news is also bad news because those who repudiate it are putting themselves in the in harm's way they're putting themselves in the place of exposure to the wrath of God and so there's the the great task that's given to God's people symbolized by John he takes the scroll he eats it and then he's immediately told you must prophesy again to many peoples nations languages and kings he's given his marching orders and off he goes and that's what we now come to as we arrive at chapter 11 so we're going to pick up at this point chapter 11 well only going to cover 8 verses not a whole lot but believe me there's a lot in these verses so it'll take all the time we have probably and then some but we're going to take a look at these first eight verses of chapter 11 the book of Revelation this is the Word of God I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told go and measure the temple of God in the altar and count the worshipers there but exclude the outer court do not measure it it has been given to the Gentiles they will trample on the holy city for 42 months and I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth if anyone wants to harm them fire comes out of their mouths and devours their enemies that's how anyone who wants to harm them must be killed they have power to shut up the skies so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying and they have power to turn the waters into blood and strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish now when they have finished their testimony the Beast that comes out of the abyss will attack them and overpower and kill them their bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt where also their Lord was crucified so there's our text interesting text a lot going on here let's ask God to give us an understanding of it as we get underway her father were grateful to you that you have given us this road map for our own task our own call as your people at this time in history just as you gave to your people then a great responsibility and we pray that as we reflect on the content of this text that you would through your spirit open our eyes and open our hearts to embrace this which you have given to us as our duty in this time in history just as they had their duty at that time for all of that would give you thanks in the name of Christ amen well you recall as we were just saying John ate a scroll it had a two-fold effect it was sweet as honey in his mouth but made his stomach get sour nauseated and then he's immediately sent on his way you must prophesy again over epi you recall that that nations tribes kings and so on and now we have this interesting statement that comes immediately after that in Chapter 11 verse 1 John is given a measuring rod a reed that is kind of like a yardstick you know and the angel who's there says rise measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there so John is given a measuring rod and is told to go to measure the temple we know that this kind of thing happens throughout the scripture you think about in the Old Testament Ezekiel in the last several chapters of his great prophecy sees an idealized temple which is going to be the the great expression of the New Covenant era the living temple of God's people but it also is a temple that's measured in chapter 40 verse 5 of Ezekiel now there was a wall all around the outside of the temple and the man's hand was a measuring rod well why do you measure something especially something having to do with real estate in the Old Testament throughout the scriptures and really throughout human history to measure something connected with real estate is to take it into your possession for your care for your protection for you guard it you become responsible for it that's the idea you measure it off as a surveyor would measure it off so it becomes yours and your responsibility to protect and care for it and so on this is exactly the way the idea works in the scriptures if you look at the book of Zechariah we're going to come back to this a little while later but in Zachariah chapter one we have this very interesting description right there at the very first part of this prophecy therefore thus says the Lord quote I am returning to Jerusalem with mercy my house shall be built in it says the Lord of hosts and a surveyors line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem in the case of Zachariah he's giving a message to God's people coming back to a city that had been basically destroyed years earlier with the Babylonian attack all these people coming back after the exile after the Babylonian captivity to a city that looked pretty broken down and yet Zechariah tells them that God has laid out a survey surveyors line around it what does that mean he explains it just a couple of verses later Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for I I will be a wall of fire around her and will be the glory in her midst God is laying out a surveyors line and he is going to be the protective wall until eventually it'll be built by Nehemiah you know in a later time but right now God himself is going to be the protector of it and so it's surveyed precisely for that reason well here in a similar way John is given this measuring rod like a surveyors kind of a standard and he's told to go and measure the temple now it's important to realize and you may know this but in the New Testament Greek there are two words both of which are commonly translated temple one is the word aroan and it usually simply means the eighth temple structure all of it but there's another word used less frequently but it has to do with the inner sanctum of the temple it has to do with that place where you would find the Ark of the Covenant that cubicle centered region in the inner part of the temple we commonly call it the holy of Holy's or the holy place that's the Greek word not os-- it's very important to know when that word is being used because it doesn't refer to the entire temple structure it only refers to that inner sanctum we might say that this is referring to what you might call the true place of worship it's the place where God's people are in a sense figuratively imagined as they're in the very presence of God in the inner sanctum in the very presence of God in the temple I might mention by the way in passing this is an argument that the temple of course in Jerusalem is still standing this entire story wouldn't make much sense unless that were the case another argument for the early date of the book of Revelation but here the whole point is that that inner sanctum that place of true worship is going to be protected even though there's going to be great destruction otherwise well of course we understand from the New Testament point of view that the true place of worship has to do not so much with a geographical location but in the New Testament and eventually is related to the people of God the living temple how many times in the New Testament do we hear that particular theme reiterated the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter 2 in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God we are the temple but now in the imagery of this vision we're seeing that place of true worship being protected also protected is the altar measure the temple the NAS and measure the altar well of course the altar here is the altar of incense this you might say is connected to what we might call the means of true worship we have the place of true worship we have the means of true worship and the means of true worship is captured symbolized by the altar of incense we've seen this incense altar earlier it was highlighted in Chapter eight we've seen it again it has to do with the prayers of God's people because you see if we're going to come to God and offer him true worship we're going to do it in the posture of prayer prayer is at the heart of the matter we come before God we come into his presence we come before the throne of grace boldly because he commands us to do it but not arrogantly we don't come in as if we thought we had a right to be there as if somehow we had some sort of intrinsic virtue that justified acceptance in the presence of God no we come based on pure mercy and we come therefore in the posture of prayer true worship the true place of worship the true expression of worship and prayer one commentator said the altar stood in the seam between the outer and inner room of the temple and is included here as if within the most holy place as in the book of Hebrews there's an interesting little adjustment that's made in the New Testament you may recall in the Old Testament there's a curtain and the altar of incense is just outside the curtain and you go through the curtain to get into that inner sanctum but in the New Testament the curtain is removed and in a sense that altar of incense is now immediately there right in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant you see that in the book of Hebrews where the writer actually puts the altar of incense in that inner sanctum because that's the last stop on the way you see as you're coming to the place of worship and finally it's those who worship here we have the place of true worship we have the means of true worship now we have the people of true worship the true worship of the true people who worship there in that place but of course you know the only people who could approach God in the temple at that altar of incense were priests this again is a reminder of that great theme that in the New Testament all of God's people are priests we are a kingdom of priests we've heard elsewhere Martin Lou their champion the idea the priesthood of all believers when commentators said those who worship at the incense altar are priests God's people are a kingdom of priests offering up their prayers on the altar of incense and so well here we have you might say the sweet message of that scroll John ate the scroll it was sweet in his mouth and here's the sweet part of it it's a proclamation to God's people that they are in the place of worship they're protected by God they're in that inner sanctum it's been walled off a wall of fire you might say surrounds them and they are there to offer their prayer fill worship and to participate in this very deep and significant way in worship but also that scroll had a bitter message didn't it and now we come in verse 2 and following to what you might say is the bitter side of the message the other side which is not so sweet which made John's stomach turned sour and it's introduced here in verse 2 leave out the outer court which is outside the temple do not measure it it has been given to the Gentiles and John hears they will tread the holy city under foot for 42 months the the text here says leave out and that's the way this is usually translated but actually the word is somewhat stronger than that it's the Greek word Eck below it's the aorist of Iqbal Oh Iqbal Oh Eck the beginning is like our word exit you know it means to go out out of as a preposition bolo is the word from which we get the word Baal ba ll this is a verb it means to throw something or to cast something of course that's what you do with a ball that's why we drive that word from that Greek term but to use the word Iqbal literally means to throw it out you see the idiom that we would use in the English language would be to kick out that's the idea it's very strong and as almost a little bit of a violent a feel to it that idea Jesus of course was said to kick out you might say in the vernacular there the the moneychangers who were in the temple well now it's not just money changers it's the entire temple the entire external structure is to be kicked out so you've got a protection of the true place of worship but that external structure of the temple which is still standing you see is now going to be kicked out being thrown out don't measure it don't bother protecting it it's handed over to the Gentiles hand it over specifically to Roman presence Roman authority Roman influence where does all this happen in the holy city it can only be Jerusalem which is going to be trampled underfoot for 42 months the idea of trampling holy precincts is something that you see again in the Old Testament from time to time Isaiah as he begins his great prophetic critique of the corrupted leadership in Jerusalem in Chapter one of his ayah of his prophecy says when you come to appear before me who has required this from your hand to trample my courts you see that's the idea something that you'll run into from time to time in the biblical witness it also of course echoes rather precisely what Jesus himself said back in the Olivet discourse Luke's version they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all the nations and Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled trampled by Gentiles and the timeframe that's provided here is 42 months this is actually an illusion back to the book of daniel where a similar timeframe is described in daniel's language it's said to be a time times and half a time we might not know exactly what that meant except revelation itself interprets it for us specifically in chapter 13 we're going to hear that same phrase a time times and half a time within it so it's going to be explained it's 42 months just as we have it present here 42 months what is 42 months it's three and a half years you know the number seven in biblical a thought is the number that stands for completion for perfection for wholeness three-and-a-half stands for breaking that in two and so it stands for that which is incomplete that which is broken it can stand for sadness for death for waiting Elijah predicted a great famine that would come across Israel and it lasted three and a half years you see a time of brokenness and waiting even a hint of this is found in the Gospel of Matthew the genealogy that he provides for us in the very first chapter Matthew actually tinkers with the genealogy just a little bit because he wants it to add up to precisely forty two generations again suggesting it's an extended time of waiting lamenting Oh come o come Emmanuel until finally the time comes when Emmanuel arrives Jerome is going to be trampling for forty two months and yet at the same time we're going to hear that the church itself is being preserved and saved in that time the forty-two months what is it well one thing that's interesting is that the Jewish Wars that started in 66 AD concluded in 70 AD it was just about three and a half years 42 months and certainly that kind of represents the exclamation point but really you would say that period is symbolic of the entire era that last generation it really began with the crucifixion of Christ in which Jesus when he was at his trial heard the religious leaders speaking for the nation for the unbelieving people who were repudiating Christ it was at his trial they said we have no king but Caesar we have no authority here but Roman Authority our allegiance is to Rome not to Christ not to his only son his blood be on us and on our children we will not have this man to reign over that you see from that point on from that point on in a sense Jerusalem was being trampled underfoot by the Gentiles because they finally definitively repeated the authority of God in their midst they turned their backs on the Covenant they turned their backs on the fully attested only begotten son that he had sent into their midst with irrefutable proof that he was indeed God's Messiah and they said let's kill him and take the inheritance for ourselves as we see in that parable of the vineyard you may recall from Holy Week all of this you see is going on and from that point on you might say that holy city was being trampled underfoot that entire period of time represents in some ways the forty-two months though it finally culminates at the end of that with a great exclamation point in the Jewish Wars and the final destruction of Jerusalem well what's going on during that period of time what's going on during that generation that is the last generation of the Old Covenant era these people are being treated to the constant refrain of the witness of God's people I will give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1,260 days clothed in sackcloth to witnesses what in the world is this well you know if we ask the question once again of the Old Testament where do we hear of two witnesses then immediately we think of standards of due process under the law of Moses you know that Moses gave one of the most in fact truly the most advanced system of jurisprudence and due process of the ancient world it was really unprecedented in its time and even our own system of jurisprudence draws heavily from assist from ideas of due process there in the Book of Moses well the point is here it was required in the standards of due process under Moses that if a person was accused of a capital crime if they were accused of a crime for which they could be executed then it required the testimony of at least two witnesses both of whom must agree in the details of their testimony that's a pretty powerful idea you know what it's saying is if you were standing 10 feet away from someone and you saw personai shoot and kill person B in cold blood and you side and there was no ambiguity and you don't have any doubt about what you saw and you were called as a witness in a trial and you were asked about what you saw and you gave faithful reports of your perception there but you were the only witness the person accused would go free the person accused would go free because due process required at least two witnesses Jerusalem is about to be executed Jerusalem has been put on trial Jerusalem has been found guilty and that required two witnesses and that's who these people are they are the witnesses that are going to lead to the execution of this city who are these witnesses the irony of course is that the witnesses are those you might say persons if I can put it that way in whom these Jewish leaders put their greatest confidence we would call it the law and the prophets the great body of God's Word that they took such pride in were the witnesses against them the people who most graphically represent the law and the prophets are Moses the great lawgiver the great source of jurisprudence and legislation in the Old Testament and Elijah who of course is the beginning of the great prophetic ministry Moses and Elijah those are the two witnesses representing the law and the prophets this has been a standard view by the way of this particular part of Revelation for years and years indeed for centuries the pulpit commentary has been around for well over 100 years and says of this text quote the two witnesses are readily identified as Moses and Elijah who met Jesus at the Transfiguration very significant and who stand for the law and the prophets the signs described can all be tied to the careers of those two Old Testament characters it's not too surprising and I think again if you were a Jewish person hearing this reference in the first century familiar as you would be with the Old Testament you would immediately draw the same conclusion it was a popular idea in fact in the Jewish world that eventually Moses and Elijah would return that was something they had in their head something of their lore you might say at their time when commentators said quote Jewish tradition said that both Moses and Elijah were taken up to heaven rather than dying both were expected to return Elijah based on the last chapter of Malachi Moses based on the prediction of a prophet coming like Moses you recall Moses made a prediction that another greater Moses would come out in the future well in the popular ideas of the first century Jewish people were looking for Moses and Elijah they were looking for two witnesses this would be the first thing they think of if they hear this reference in this text but even more poignant is the fact that the very last chapter of the very last book of the Old Testament and indeed the last paragraph of that chapter makes specific reference to these two witnesses this is the last chapter of Malachi and it's the last paragraph of that chapter and we read their quote remember the law of Moses my servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgments Moses the great lawgiver statutes and judgments but then remember we also have Elijah behold I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the Great and coming day of the Lord and he will turn the hearts of the father's to the children and the hearts of the children to the father's lest I come and strike the earth with a curse the last word of the Old Testament canonical scriptures is the word curse it's the word curse and indeed when the day of the Lord did arrived when Christ did come he came with a two-fold message as we've said before a message of redemption a message of judgment John the Baptist said the the kingdom of heaven is arriving so repent and the people who repented heard a message of grace a message of forgiveness but those who stood off aloof refused the baptism of John heard the warning from John the Baptist who warned you to flee from the wrath to come because there was both blessing and curse Moses and Elijah the law of the prophets coming now in this last scene as it were of the days of Jerusalem to be the two witnesses against Jerusalem as it faced its execution another standard commentary widely used is called the interpreters Bible many pastors have a multi-volume set on their shelf it's a wonderful source source it also takes the same view of this saying this quote the picture of the two witnesses is evidently formed after the pattern of Moses and Elijah on account of the conspicuous witness they bore and the hardship they suffered as well as their preservation and final vindication it continues moreover Moses and Elijah are typical of the law and the prophets or the scriptures the means by which the church chiefly bears witness of God you see this is the point John ADA scroll he was told to go and preach and now he along with all the people of God in that last generation of God's people there in Jerusalem preached and they preached constantly and what did they preach they preached the content of the Jewish Scriptures themselves how many times in the New Testament do we hear that the proof that Christ was that Jesus was the Christ was argued out of the scriptures Paul did that the Apostles did that Christian people did that they were arguing the two witnesses the law and the prophets and they were doing it as a warning anticipating a time of execution that was in the pipeline it was on his way this commentator continues in addition the time during which they prophesy the clothing in sackcloth the mention of candlesticks and olive trees we'll look at a moment their power to hurt their apparent death torment they cause their resuscitation their vindication the immediate advent of the final judgement all agree as has been shown with the view that this is Moses and Elijah so here we have it's really God's people doing what they've been called to do being witnesses as Jesus himself had commanded and they're beginning in Jerusalem as Jesus commanded though it will eventually reach to the entire world they prophesy it's the voice of the church prophesying because the church has been given the power to do so Jesus last instruction to his people the final Commission he gave them you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem beginning there but of course extending from there to Judea Samaria the end of the earth notice that God's people are witnesses not because they're talented masters of rhetoric you know that they're very eloquent er so on that's not the point the power the potency of the witness is precisely because the Holy Spirit has come upon them hang on to that because that's critical to understanding the role of the church in being a voice of the law and the prophets the two witnesses to this city at that time they prophesy for 1260 days if you do the arithmetic you'll see that's three and a half years but now it's broken down two days because there wasn't a day that went by that the voice of the church was not being heard in the streets of Jerusalem there wasn't a day that went by in which God's people were not faithfully pronouncing the content of the law and the prophets they're warning people there in that city during that generation that now was the time to repent and some did many did most didn't and most faced the execution that eventually came they're clothed in sackcloth of course that's the traditional garments of mourning we would expect that because of course this is a time of mourning their mourning for the execution that is about to take place and what else could they do but in the figurative language here do so in clothing of sackcloth and ashes now we hear this very interesting common in verse four these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the Lord of the earth now once again as we try to fathom what's going on we immediately think of the Old Testament setting in which precisely the same language is used this is virtually a quote from Zechariah in which he says almost exactly the same words and clearly that's the text that we're supposed to think of you know the story of Zachariah he's a prophet in the post-exilic era of Israel's history the Jewish people had been hauled off into captivity the Babylonian captivity they were away for you know 70 years and then they come back Cyrus the Persian authorized the return of any Jewish people who wanted to and some came back to Jerusalem they came back to a city that still lay in ruins at that time Cyrus the King the Persian had commanded that they start rebuilding the temple and they did but because of local political opposition and so on that project more or less came to a grinding halt and for years on end the half built Temple of Jerusalem was sitting there like an eyesore in the middle of the city of Jerusalem and people were just busying themselves with other other matters at that time until around the Year 520 and in 520 two prophets a couple of firebrands came on the scene and began to go after God's people because they were still leaving the temple half-built Hagee i was one of them Zechariah is the other one Zechariah comes and he begins to tell the people that now is the time to finish the job at the time Jerusalem was under the leadership of two people one of them was named zerubabbel I don't know why any mother would name her kid Zahra bubble-butt there you are the other was named Joshua zerubabbel and Joshua one stood for political leadership he was the governor he was actually a descendant of David and a forerunner of Jesus he was in the lineage there he was the political leader you might say he stood for the law Joshua was the priest he stood for the prophetic ministry and so in a sense there in Jerusalem at that time in the days of Zachariah you have these two the problem is a lot of people weren't very happy with either zerubabbel or Joshua they weren't shot quite sure they were up to the task and they were kind of busy doing other things and they didn't necessarily want to obey what 0 Bible and Joshua were urging them to do and so these prophets came along to sort of crack the whip you might say prophetically and get these people back to it we hear for example in Zechariah chapter 4 these are the two olive trees one of the right and one on the left referring to Zerubbabel and Joshua the reason olive trees are mentioned is because olive trees produced olive oil and olive oil was the fuel that kept the lampstands running and if you had a living olive tree than a since you had an unending supply of oil so that the lamp would never go out remember jesus said you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses well in the same way here in the setting of Zechariah the Holy Spirit is the power of these two that's why we hear in the same chapter chapter 4 this is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the Lord of Hosts it was true of them it was true of these Christians in the first century in Jerusalem my friends it's true of you and me we have not this native ability to be eloquent or persuasive that's not what's going on but we have the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is a source of power and strength that makes our witness of the law and the prophets have potency reaching to the heart of people who hear that message we have another reference to the same thing later in that same chapter then I answered and said to him what are these two olive trees and he said these are the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of the whole earth this is precisely the language used in Revelation chapter 11 and it's supposed to remind us that the power of the two witnesses the power of the voice of God's people is the power of God's Spirit at work so we have the rub of all the great law giver in Jerusalem at that time more or less representing the law we have Joshua the prophet and those who are standing before the Lord and they're drawing constantly on the source of energy that comes to them through these two olive trees you see so both are combined together both of them more or less represent that leadership and here we now find that the same kind of great potency and power of the message is going to be delivered in Jerusalem and during these days when commentator said the olive trees provide a constant stream of fuel the spirit Zechariah for we just looked at fueled by this stream our two witnesses Joshua the priest and zaraba will the king who are thus the two officers of the Covenant so the witnesses are a king priest witness standing for the Old Covenant witness against God's people which at the same time points of course to Christ so here we have God's people during those days of course the New Testament gives plenty of evidence that the people of God in Jerusalem were persecuted for sure but they never gave up delivering their message and again and again they were preaching and teaching Stephen the first Christian martyr was was stoned because he had preached a great sermon and that kind of thing happened again and again there were those of course who tried to stamp them out if anyone wants to harm them and that certainly happened fire proceeds from their mouths and devours their enemies if anyone wants to harm them he must be killed in that manner if anyone wants to harm them while there were plenty of people who wanted to harm them you may recall that Saul of Tarsus became before he became Paul the Apostle you know was a ringleader of those who wanted to harm them he would have been more than happy to see every Christian that he could find a hauled in thrown in prison preferably executed yeah the happiest day of his life would have been when the whole witness of God's people was snuffed out that's what he was trying to accomplish when God stopped him on the road to Damascus and changed his heart that was what was going on there it's a constant New Testament theme all you have to do is casually read the New Testament you'll see again and again plenty of evidence of how this mounting persecution emanating from Jerusalem extending through the entire Roman world was launched against God's people but what happened fire came out of their mouths and devoured their enemies it's a powerful image isn't it I'm not quite sure this picture really captures the idea there but at least it gives you some artistic suggestion of it the idea of fire being at the disposal of these prophets of course takes us back to Elijah you may recall on multiple occasions that Elijah called fire out of heaven and in rather dramatic ways who have one incident where the king sent some soldiers to arrest Elijah and haul him in and we hear Elijah says as if I'm a man of God let fire come down out of heaven and consume you and your men and fire came down most famous incident you know is when Elijah was on Mount Carmel and called fire down and the prophets of bale were there you remember that whole story as well and so that's that's at least a little bit of the color of this but I think you understand the real force of fire coming out of their mouths is not so much real fire as such as if these guys became you know dragons or something but it's the word it's the word of fire that comes out it's the word of God which is among other things described as a powerful fire listen to this language from Jeremiah chapter 5 therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts because you speak this word I will make my words in your mouth fire and this people would and it shall devour them how often is the Word of God the power of God described in words that suggests that sort of power to destroy we read over in Hosea therefore I have hewn them by my prophets I've slain them by the words of my mouth those who people those people who came trying to resist and destroy the the mission of God's people were stopped in some cases they were stopped savingly which is a kind of death you know that baptism the right by which a person becomes a Christian is a funeral right we are buried with Christ in Baptism we raised to life on the other side there is a kind of dying that takes place in Christian conversion there's also a dying that takes places the person is simply hardened and confirmed in their sin and eventually these people as well hardened and unrepentant would die as well under the power of the preaching of God's Word we hear in Jeremiah 23 is not my word like fire says the Lord and a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces over in Revelation chapter 19 we're going to hear of the rider on the horse and out of his mouth comes the sharp double-edged sword which is certainly the Word of God as it is specifically identified there the Word of God which has the capacity to change people it either brings them like a sweet aroma to the truth of God or it confirms them in their hostility but one way or another it never leaves anyone the same it is a powerful thing the Word of God this fire that comes as we proclaim the law and the prophets to people who desperately need to hear it when commentators said John has been in heaven but now is back on earth to carry out his prophetic tasks Eduard DeWitt Jones who was a famous preacher of a different era wrote a book the royalty of the pulpit it is heavens message delivered to Earth's audience and it always provokes a firestorm I'll tell you one way to look at human history is simply to think of what has happened how history has been shaped and changed through the power of preaching Caryl Bart's preaching in the Second World War Martin Luther at the time of the Reformation John Calvin the purities the great old Puritans the Great Awakening with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield Agustin and his day how much of human history has been profound and permanently altered simply because God's Word was preached God's people faithfully proclaimed it and you might say there is a kind of royalty of the pulpit a power that is wielded by those who proclaim with truth and fidelity and integrity the Word of God well these two prophets we have are given power to shut up the heaven so that it will not rain in the days of their prophecy they have power of the waters to turn them into blood to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire this is simply a way of trying to frame our understanding that this is indeed Moses and Elijah you see all of these descriptions while they may in general terms describe the potency of these who are God's people are also to remind us that these are the kinds of things we know about those two characters certainly Elijah was famous for shutting up the heavens so that there was a great famine in his day Moses of course by the power of God turned the waters into blood both of them were responsible for unleashing plagues in their day to bring warning to God's people because of their evident disobedience and so on when commentators said they shut up the sky for drought for three and a half years the same as Elijah's drought they also performed the types of miracles associated with Moses the Old Testament concludes with a prediction related to these two we looked at that a little earlier the two witnesses summarize all the witnesses of the Old Covenant culminating in the witness of John the Baptist and so all of this of course is simply a way of helping us pinpoint the identity of the law and the prophets Moses and Elijah and the great powerful testimony and ministry that they would have at that time in history but when they finished their testimony the Beast that ascends out of the abyss will make war against them and overcome them and kill them the time of their witness came to an end the Christian witness in Jerusalem eventually abandoned that city Jesus said when you see Jerusalem surrounded by a armies get out of town it was a time in some ways of insane rejoicing in Jerusalem when the Christian witness was finally gone when the Chris Christian witness finally abandoned ship you might say it was a time of some rejoicing because it looked like at long last the law and the prophets were going to be silenced we've seen this beast from the abyss idea earlier back in Chapter nine of course we saw a star that came down from heaven given the key to the shaft of the abyss and as he's opened it out of it of course came these diabolical locust scorpions we looked at that of course we also have a reference to the same idea in chapter 13 in chapter 13 you recall there's also a beast that comes out of the abyss out of the sea out of the deep and this diabolical character that we identify with Roman power and general Nero in particular begins to dominate the landscape but then there's another beast that's said to come out of the land he has two horns like a lamb but he speaks like a dragon and these two these two are kind of the evil counterparts of the law and the prophets do you see that the law and the prophets stand for the truth of God and now you might say we have the lies of Satan himself being unleashed because the law and the prophets lied dead in the streets what's going on here this law giver Rome has now become the king you see so it's become the substitute for Moses and you have the false prophet coming out of the land corrupt or leadership in the back pocket of Rome standing in a sense for the corrupted prophets it's the inverse law and prophets that now dominate the scene the counterparts of the true witnesses and they are both described as beasts it's a common biblical image clear back in the Garden of Eden we have a beast the serpent the timpz the human couple there Nebuchadnezzar is reduced to a beastly condition in Daniel chapter 4 the psalmist in Psalm 22 foreseeing the crucifixion of Christ says and balls beasts attacking we hear of godless enemies of Israel described as beasts in Psalm 87 Daniel chapter 7 and elsewhere it's a common image and now we learn the true origins of this beastly presence comes out of the abyss comes out of Hell itself the abou Sioux we've looked at that the place of diabolical chaos and it becomes the replacement for the truth of God it's the lies of hell that now take over and reduce Jerusalem to diabolical insanity that clamped down on Jerusalem externally irresistible destruction one commentator said the Beast arises from the abyss as Leviathan from job the dragon the serpent of old who comes out of his prison and the see again and again to plague the People of God to make war against them it was the case then it's always been the case right to this day at this moment in history there are people under the color of political the outlook or or perspective or so on use it as a cover to attack and persecute God's people it's happening right now at various places in the world including right here in the whole good old US of A it is it is part of that diabolical kind of presence in this world John says in first John don't be surprised at the world hates you because you see there's something about the authority of King Jesus that incites a bitter animosity in this world and certainly it was what took place there well it appeared that the bad guys won it appeared that the law and the prophets had lost their place they'd been kicked out a substitute had been shipped in false prophets a false God a false messiah a false lawgiver a false Authority has now taken it place their bodies appeared to lay in the street of the great city which was figuratively called Sodom and Egypt but was where their Lord was crucified we don't have any doubt about what that city is of course the Greek here is very powerful taste polios this is the word police a Greek word for city like politics you know that idea but it's taste polios tastes megalis the city the great one it's powerful and it's Jerusalem Jerusalem was the great city at that time styled here as a Sodom of course in the Old Testament on more than one occasion Jerusalem is criticized under the same rubric think about what Isaiah says in Chapter one of his prophecy hear the word of the Lord you rulers of Sodom give ear to the law of God are you people of Gomorrah we are the same thing of course from Jeremiah chapter 23 also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem all of them are like Sodom to me their inhabitants like Gomorrah the story of Sodom of course highlights one little element that shows up powerfully in Revelation and that's what you might call the Exodus motif because before the fire and brimstone fell as you know lot and his family were rescued now it didn't go so well for Lot's wife you know that but but they were they were rescued from Sodom before that great catastrophe fell it's called an exodus motif there's many in the Old Testament but by far the most famous was the exodus from Egypt which is also specifically mentioned here Moses led the people out of Egypt and now in a sense we have a new greater Moses who is going to lead God's people out of a new and greater Egypt to wit Jerusalem itself this was what Moses had predicted back in you know he in Deuteronomy and then it's quoted more times than one in the New Testament the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers another one to lead you in a new Exodus what is this new Exodus accomplished it gives birth to as it were a new nation jesus said the kingdom is taken from you and given to a nation worthy of it and in this Exodus a new Israel a true Israel is now going to be created this is why when Jesus was with his parent in Egypt you recall shortly after his birth we hear the word out of Egypt I have called my son because this one who was called out of Egypt is now going to lead his people out of a greater Egypt namely Jerusalem itself we have now the construction of a new true temple the old temple of course was going to be dismantled destroyed permanently irrevocably but the New Testament teaches us that there is a different temple a living temple jesus said to them destroy this temple in three days I will raise it up of course referring to his own death and resurrection there's going to be a true Exodus I hope you'll go back and read first Corinthians chapter 10 in this connection I don't have time to look at it in detail but Paul himself likens the Exodus now with the Exodus then he says in verse in the first part of that chapter I don't want you to be ignorant brothers that all of our fathers were under the cloud all passed through the sea all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea will you see now we're baptized into Christ we're baptized in a new Exodus moment in which now we are following Christ are greater Moses out of this Egypt and into the pages of history as the new covenant era gets underway one of the most intriguing references to this Exodus idea goes back to the transfiguration Luke tells the story of course as all the Synoptics do and in Luke's version we hear this Moses and Elijah appeared in glory and spoke of his and now the word here is rendered in this text decease it sometimes rendered departure some will say death but it's none of those it is the word EXO dose EXO dose it's the title of the book of Exodus in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament you see it's that word ex out of ho DOS way it's the way out an exodus is a way out that's what the word means but notice Moses and Elijah are speaking to Jesus about the ex this which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem because he is the now greater Moses leading God's people away from Jerusalem away from Israel away from the structures and strictures of that Old Covenant era so that now the Christian movement will stand untethered from Jerusalem on its own two feet and move out into the pages of history to be the great force for good that it has been constantly since that time so revelation often follows the motif of the exodus with plagues of course we have one of the most famous texts in Revelation chapter 18 which begins another voice from heaven saying come out of her my people so that you will not receive any of her plagues and indeed God's people did escape Jerusalem escape the plagues and indeed that is part of the very initial story of how the new covenant era gets underway we don't have any doubt of course about the city that's involved here it's the place where their Lord was crucified that manifestly is Jerusalem and so we have now this great moment in which it seems like there's been defeat but it is of course the precursor to a great victory and next time we're together which will be next week Lord willing we're going to pick up the story here as we find these two witnesses the law and the prophets are vindicated fully and the story proceeds from there well it's been great to have you along I appreciate imagining you there I hope you're doing well I hope that things are going well in your life I hope deeply and prayed that we'll be back together in the fall to once again be able to be in live presentations of this material but for now I guess this will have to do this is Sunday school from my point of view so here's our concluding thoughts from a Sunday school perspective it all has to do with the message of God's people which is highlighted here number one the message of God's Word is powerful never leaving anyone as it found him because it is a fire that burns a hammer that breaks a rod the chatters don't underestimate the power of God's Word when you speak God's Word to people sometimes they will get very upset because it is powerful and sometimes you'll see them melt before your eyes because it is powerful the Word of God is like a treasure entrusted to us Paul says we carry this treasure in a cracked vessel but nevertheless that does not mean the power of the message itself is the least bit diminished just because we don't happen to be such fabulously talented people you see the power is in the message not in the messenger secondly the message of God's Word is sweet for some as it burns away idolatry breaks hard-hearted rebellion shatters self-centered slavery in the liberation that only comes through grace this happens sometimes when you announce the Word of God to people when you incorporate the truth of Christ into your conversation with someone you will see tears in their eyes I've had that experience and you probably have too as you find the gospel reaches inside and begins to really break down the hostility the walls of indifference and and animosity that are there and the gospel has the power to do that but at the same time the message of God's Word is bitter for others it's sweet for some bitter for others as it hardens them in their hostility burning breaking searing the conscience to the point of bitter repudiation of the offer of grace and forgiveness you've seen it so vie we are called to proclaim the Word of God we are called to be the voice of the law and the prophets the two witnesses we leave the outcome to God we leave the effects to God our task is simply to be faithful and to trust God that he is going to use our witness for his purposes and that we can rely confidently on the fact that he will accomplish his purposes in our witness and for that we can be very grateful well I'm grateful for you I thank you for participating in this way and as I say we're going to be bringing another one along in about a week from now and so I hope you'll be able to come back and join us at that time but until then let's close in a word of Prayer and we'll the Sun our Father we are grateful that you have given us the law and the prophets the two witnesses and the justice those witnesses were powerful and potent in the first century warning the people in Jerusalem of the impending judgment winning many of them to faithful service in Christ's Kingdom while leaving others to face their doom we give you things that you've also given us the same great privilege we pray that we would be faithful and courageous filled with your spirit knowing that our labor is not in vain as it's done in the Lord and for all of that were deeply grateful to you and give you thanks for this time together now in the name of Christ amen [Music] you

Channel: Bruce Gore

Views: 10,926

Rating: 4.7666669 out of 5

Keywords: Revelation, Revelation 11, The Two Witnesses, Bruce Gore, The Apocalypse, Preterist, Preterism

Id: AK6cYTbrrJY

Length: 59min 19sec (3559 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020