revelation: unveiling reality “witness that wins the world...

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Revelation: Unveiling Reality “Witness that Wins the World” Revelation 11 Kevin Haah

June 19, 2016

Turn on Timer! Pray for Yemi and Oyebola. [Slide 1] We are in a middle of a series entitled, “Revelation: Unveiling

Reality.”

[Slide 2] Today’s sermon is entitled, “Witness That Wins the World.” I got

this title from Darrell Johnson who wrote a commentary on Revelation.

We are going to talk about Revelation 11 today. Revelation is a hard book to

understand, and many commentators say that chapter 11 is the most difficult chapter to

understand in the book of Revelation. So, we have to put our thinking caps on, and dig

in.

Let’s review where we are.

In chapter 7, there was an interlude between the opening of the 6th Seal and the 7th

and the final seal. At the end of the opening of the 6th seal, which unleashed terror, a

question was asked: who can withstand this? And chapter 7 answered that question. The

believers are not plucked out of the world to save us from the terror; we are sealed with

the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can overcome suffering and tribulation.

Then, in Chapter 8 to 11, there are the seven trumpets. In the middle of these

terrorizing imageries, after the 6th trumpet, and before the 7th trumpet when the Kingdom

of God finally arrives in its fullness, there is again a break, an interlude, to tell us the

church what to DO before the final coming.

First, he tells us to eat the scroll, meaning chew on the gospel of the coming

Kingdom, live it out, and prophesy. That’s what we talked about last Sunday.

Today’s passage is a continuation of the interlude answering the question: What

does God want us to do before the final coming of the Kingdom of God?

He gives us a picture of what we are called to do. We are going to read this text

and I will make some comments to help you understand the symbolisms. Then, we are

going to come back and look at the big picture and see what the chapter is saying. It is

really powerful stuff. Please hold on as we go through the details. It will get clear if you

hold on.

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Remember, you have to understand Revelation from the context of the original

readers. They were steeped in their understanding of the Old Testament. They heard and

saw things through the lens of the Old Testament symbols and images. So, we will need

to refer to those Old Testament passages as we read the chapter.

[Slide 3] Let’s read Revelation 11:

1 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. 2 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. The temple here is not talking about the literal temple of Jerusalem. By the time this was

written in AD 90s, the temple was already completely destroyed. It was destroyed by the

Romans in AD 70. Instead, he is being told to measure the new temple of God: God’s

people, the church. We see this metaphor all over the New Testament and so, John and

the church understood this symbol. [Slide 4]

• 1 Corinthians 3:16: 16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and

that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?

• 1 Corinthians 6:19: 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy

Spirit…?

• 2 Corinthians 6:16: 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and

idols? For we are the temple of the living God.

So, the temple is the people of God, the church. To measure it means to delineate it and

protect it. This has to be read with the lens of Zechariah 2, where there is a vision of a

man who appears with a measuring line to measure Jerusalem. When asked why he is

doing that, the Lord answered: “For I will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the

glory in her midst.”

So, God will delineate and protect the people of God, who are now made up of

both Jews and Gentiles. He protects them by the Holy Spirit. We talked about that in

chapter 7. But, he is told not to measure the outer court, which is the court of Gentiles.

This doesn’t mean that Jews are protected but Gentiles are not; it means that the church is

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protected and those who are not part of the church will trample on the world. The world

is going to get really messy and broken.

Now, what does it mean that the unbelievers will trample of the world for 42

months? What does this 42 months mean? All numbers in Revelation are a symbol.

They are not supposed to be taken literally. 42 months, 1,260 days, 3 ½ years. Now,

remember, 7 is the number of perfection. So, it is one-half of perfection or completion.

42 months is the length of time it did not rain as prophet Elijah was calling the nations to

repentance. We also see this in Daniel when Daniel asked when the Day of the Lord

would come. The answer was “time, times, and half-a-time.” So, that is time=1,

times=2, and half-a-time=1/2. So, that’s also 3 ½ years, which is 42 months. So, 42

months is a symbol to indicate the time in between the times, meaning time between

when Jesus came and inaugurated the Kingdom of God and when Jesus comes back to

bring the Kingdom of God in it fullness. So, 42 or 3 ½ years or 1,260 days means in

between the times, between the first and the second coming of Jesus.

So, this passage says, the church will be protected but those outside the church

will make a mess of the world in between the first and the second coming of Jesus.

[Slide 5] Let’s go on: 3 And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” Again, we see 1,260 days, which is 3 ½ years. They speak forth the word of God; that’s

what prophesying means. They are clothed in sackcloth. Sackcloth is a sign of a prophet

but more importantly, it is a sign of repentance. The two witnesses wear the sign of

repentance because they are speaking a word that calls for repentance and they

themselves are living in repentance.

[Slide 6] Let’s go on: 4 They (meaning 2 witnesses) are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.” Olive trees produces olive oil, which was used as fuel for lampstands and to anoint

people into service (by the way, to anoint literally means to pour oil upon). And we

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know from earlier in Revelation that the lampstands stand for the churches, local

churches. So, this is saying that the 2 witnesses are the churches that are fueled by the

Holy Spirit and anointed by God stand before the leaders of the world and prophesy.

Why two? It might be because they are witnesses and the time this was written, in order

to establish any fact in court, you had to have two witnesses.

[Slide 7] 5 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. 6 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. So, the church will have power that comes from their mouth, meaning what they are

prophesying. They have the power to stop rain, which recalls the prophetic ministry of

Elijah in the Old Testament when it did not rain for 3 ½ years, and they have the power to

turn water into blood and strike the earth with plague which recalls the ministry of

Moses. What this passage is saying is that God will do through the church, the two

witnesses, what he did through Elijah and Moses. There is power in the ministry of the

church. God has given the church the Holy Spirit, and the Scriptures tell us that the Holy

Spirit is the foretaste of the Kingdom of God to come. So, there is power in the foretaste.

[Slide 8] 7 Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them.

The beast overpowers and kills the local churches. This is the first time that the beast is

introduced in Revelation. We will learn more about this later in chapter 13. John

introduces the beast here to tell us that the real enemy of the witnesses is not humanity

but the beast, the Antichrist forces behind the scenes. As Paul tells us in Ephesians,

“2 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the

authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in

the heavenly realms.”

[Slide 9] 8 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. 9 For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10 The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will

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celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

The beast not only kills the local churches, they are ashamed in the great city that is

figuratively called Sodom, which stands for immoral and corrupt civilization and Egypt,

which stands for oppressive civilization. It’s not in literal Jerusalem that this happens; it

happens in all immoral and oppressive cities that resist the in-breaking of the Kingdom of

God and persecute the local churches. They shame the churches by not providing them

burial; they celebrate. They think the churches are dead. This happens for 3 ½ days, not

3 ½ years. So, it is relatively a short period of time when the Antichrist declares victory

over the church.

[Slide 10] 11 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. 12 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.

These words come directly from the prophet Ezekiel, chapter 37, the vision of the dry

bones. In a vision, God took Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones, and told him to

prophesy life and breath, and when he did, the bones came to life and the Spirit of God

entered them. And, this vision tracks Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. Like,

Jesus, we will die, resurrect and ascend in the sense that we are going to join the glory of

heaven. So, John is saying that when the beast and the world are celebrating the demise

of the local churches, the Spirit of God will bring them back to life and experience the

glory of the Kingdom of God. The church cannot be destroyed. For example in China,

when the Communists completely outlawed the church during the cultural revolution and

thought that they had killed them for good, the church actually went underground and

multiplied hundredfold. Now, it is again much more visible and is a stronger movement

than before the persecution.

[Slide 11] 13 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.

14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.

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It’s easy to read this verse and miss the wonderful point that is being made. What is

wonderful about 1/10 of the city falling and seven thousand people dying? Let me

explain.

One-tenth and 7000 are symbols, not literal numbers. All of the numbers in

Revelation are symbols. We don’t take them literally. So, what are 1/10 and 7000

symbols of? They are symbols of mercy! Remember, John is steeped in the Old

Testament.

• In Isaiah 6:13, it says that God will save 1/10th, and 9/10th will fall. Here, it says

that 1/10th falls and 9/10th lives.

• In 1 Kings 19:18, there are only 7000 are left who did not bow down to Baal and

everyone else, millions of them, have bowed down to Baal. Here, only 7000 die,

and 63,000 are left.

Do you see what’s going on? He has reversed the math. Not 1/10th saved, 9/10th

destroyed; but 9/10th saved! Not 7000 left and the rest lost; but 63,000 are saved!

This reversal is due to the work of the faithful witness of the local church. They

get killed, persecuted, and spat upon; but, because of the way they die, 9/10th of the great

city is redeemed. It says that “they give glory to the God of heaven.” That is a way of

saying they repented and came home. That’s stunning. The faithful witnesses bring

about the conversion of all except the 7000.

Okay. We now understand the symbols and images of the passage. Let’s dig

deeper into the meaning and implications of the vision.

In Revelation 11, we have a picture of the church’s role in the world. It answers

the question of what the church is called to do before the coming of the Kingdom of God

in its fullness. What are called to do in-between the times, in between the first and

second comings of Jesus. The answer is witness.

[Slide 12] Jesus told us in Acts 1:8: “8 But you will receive power when the Holy

Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and

Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Now, Revelation 11 tells us how to witness to win the world.

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[Slide 13] First, it tells us to witness in sackcloth. Remember, the 2 witnesses

were clothed in sackcloth. Here is what Darrell Johnson, a commentator, said:

[Slide 14] And sackcloth is a sign of repentance. We carry out the prophetic witness clothed in repentance because the truth always calls for repentance. How can I follow a new Master without walking away from the old? How can I live the value system of a new kingdom without turning from the value system of the old? And we wear the sign of repentance because we carry out the prophetic witness as repentant and repenting people. (Original italicized)

We are not called to judge and condemn and tell people to repent. We are called to be

witnesses who are repentant and repenting. We don’t just repent once; we are constantly

examining our hearts and repenting. We are not only repenting of our actions and sins,

we are repenting of the idolatries of our hearts. Is there something else that I love more

than God? Is there anything else from which I get life more than God? Do you want

your witness to win the world? The witness that wins the world is a witness born of deep

repentance. It’s not a judgmental witness. It is not a condemning witness. The spirit of

the prophetic witness is not a judgment and condemning spirit. It is a broken spirit. We

witness to God’s Kingdom from a place of brokenness over our own sins and over the

idolatries of the world.

[Slide 15] Second, we are called to witness in the power of the Holy Spirit.

That’s the point of the reference to the work of Elijah and Moses. It’s not that we will

stop rain or turn water into blood, although that will get really people’s attention, but that

we witness “clothed with power from on high” as Jesus promised when he commissioned

us.

That means we have to stay connected to the presence of God; to the grace of

God; to the love of God; to the guidance of God. To do something in the power of the

Holy Spirit is to do something out of our intimacy with God. We got to practice the

presence of God. We got to practice coming together in community and being filled with

the Holy Spirit. We got to practice hearing the voice of God. We got to live our lives

understanding that the supernatural power of God is available to us. We got to live with

boldness, trusting in God. As we live in the presence and love of God, we need to share

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that with others.

I think as we get close to God, we realize more and more that it is all by his grace.

We didn’t deserve anything good. His grace has changed us. That keeps us repentant

and repenting, and therefore, humble and gracious and not condemning. It is from that

place that effective witness takes place. It is from that place of humility.

Even as the witness is effective and powerful, the witnesses suffer and die. The

violence of this world overtakes the church. The church does not fight back. It is

persecuted. We are martyred. In fact, the very word for witness in the original language

of Revelation is martyr.

We come now to the heart of Revelation 11. It first seemed like when the

witnesses died, the beast won. [Slide 16] But, through their suffering and death, the

witnesses ultimately win the world to Christ.

That’s the mystery of the cross. When Jesus was crucified and died, it looked like

Satan won and Jesus was defeated; it looked like evil was in control. When the witnesses

are killed because of their witness, it looks like Satan has won and the witnesses are

defeated. But, there is power in self-sacrificial love. People are not won by coercion or

force. People are not won by making laws that illegalize non-Christian values. People

are not won by manipulation. People are not won by promising them material prosperity.

People are not won by condemnation and judgment. People are not won by teaching

them a lesson and giving them a dose of their own medicine. People are not won by

pushing them and pressuring them. They are won by self-sacrificial love. They are won

by love that is willing to put their own life down for others. They are won when we

suffer for them. They are won when we love them. They are won when we honor them.

They are won when we suffer for the name of Christ.

And you know what? This passage is really good news. The mercy of God is

going to be wider than we expect. It’s not the 1/10th who are saved; it is the 9/10th. It is

not the 7000. It is 63,000, the 9/10th. But, the judgment of God will not be effective

enough to get people to recognize the glory of God and repent. Remember at the end of

the 6th trumpets, people still refused to repent of their idols. But, it is only after the

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sacrificial ministry of the witnesses that the people repents and sees the glory of God.

Do you know what this means? The salvation of the world depends on our

witness. It depends on our willingness to sacrifice ourselves for others and share the

good news of Jesus Christ.

This is a critical call for Christians. Our call in our lives is not to just have a

comfortable life. Our call in our lives is not to seek success and live by good family

values. Our call is to sacrifice ourselves for others as we witness to the love of God. Our

call is to love our neighbors, and even our enemies, as we witness to the love of God.

Our call is to be faithful witnesses who are willing to suffer for the name of Christ and to

bring his love to the world.

Let’s pray. Invite Prayer team.

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