The Two Witnesses: Prophets of Revelation

We're looking at the two witnesses in the book of Revelation tonight.

And we'll be looking at Revelation 11, 1 through 14. It says,

Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff.

And someone said, Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship in it.

Leave out the court, which is outside the temple, and do not measure it.

For it has been given to the nations. and they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months.

And I will grant authority 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.

And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours

their enemies. so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

These have the power to shut up the sky so that rain will not 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 plague as often as they desire.

When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the

abyss will make war with them and overcome them and kill them.

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city.

Which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their

dead bodies for three and a half days and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.

And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate.

And they will send gifts to one another because these two prophets tormented

those who dwell on the earth.

But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them

and they stood on their feet and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.

And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, come up here.

Then they went up into heaven in the cloud and their enemies watched them.

And in 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 second woe is past.

Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

That's Revelation chapter 11, verses 1 through 14. So throughout history,

Revelation 11:1–14

God has faithfully sent his spokesman to call sinners to repentance.

And during this long, the long dark years of Israel's rebellion,

in fact, Scripture says that 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.

And that's in 2 Kings chapter 17.

2 Kings 17 · chapter mention

But tragically, as we see in God's Word, it says, however, they did not listen.

That's not a new theme, is it? We've seen in Revelation, right?

We're like, man, you see all this stuff. How would you not listen?

How would you not understand? And why would you want to continue without repentance?

But it says that they 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.

The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by his

messengers, because he had compassion for his people and on his dwelling place.

But they continually, Scripture says here, I'm reading right here,

he says 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.

That's in 2 Chronicles 36.

And he goes on into this, and I want to read this, because I think it's important

for us as we look at this passage in Revelation.

He says, 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 ear to turn from their wickedness so

as not to burn sacrifices to other gods.

Therefore, my wrath, God says, 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.

Jeremiah 44. So, if you think about it for just a moment tonight,

prophets such as Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah,

Jeremiah, Jonah, and the others, you know, confronted by both wayward Israel.

And sinful Gentile nations alike.

And Jeremiah's experience, by the way, was typical of the reception that the

prophets often receive.

And y'all probably remember this, those of you that may have studied Jeremiah

recently, the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah

in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,

the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants

of Jerusalem, saying, from the 13th year of Josiah, the son of Ammon,

king of Judah, even to this day, these 23 years, the word of the Lord has come

to me, and I have spoken to you again and again.

Sounds like a familiar thing, right? I've said this to you again and again,

but you have not listened.

And the Lord has sent to you all his servants, the prophets again and again,

but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear,

saying, turn now everyone from his evil way

and from the evil of your deeds and dwell

on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever and

ever and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them and do

not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands and I will do you no harm.

That's in Jeremiah 25. So we see this theme over and over again,

God reaching out to his people, sending the prophets, right?

Yet the picture has not been entirely bleak though. God has always preserved a believing remnant.

And to the Romans, if you remember, Paul wrote this in Romans,

Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel

be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.

It says in Romans 9, verse 27.

Romans 9:27

So God's salvation has come to the remnant of faithful Israel,

as well as believing Gentiles, that's us, right?

Through the faithful preaching of the gospel.

In fact, in Romans chapter 10, verse 13, Paul declares, and y'all are going

Romans 10:13

to help me with this one, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

So then the apostle actually asked rhetorically, how then will they call on

him in whom they have not believed?

How will they believe in him whom they have not heard?

And how will they hear without a preacher?

So in the New Testament, as in the Old, faithful preachers called for repentance and faith.

In other words, offering all sinners the hope of forgiveness in Christ.

And chief among those preachers was the Lord Jesus himself, right?

I mean, he did that. He called for people to come to repentance.

In Matthew chapter 4 and Mark chapter 1, the ranks of New Testament preachers

Matthew 4 · chapter mention Mark 1 · chapter mention

also included who else? Who can you take care of?

Yeah, John the Baptist, right? The 12. You mentioned Peter, Stephen,

Philip, and probably the most prolific of them all, the apostle Paul,

as I heard someone say, right?

We talked about his conversion again this morning briefly in our class because,

you know, Paul, man, he killed Christians, right? He persecuted, he killed Christians.

And you would have thought, man, if anybody, you know, would have been exempt

from the kingdom of God, it would have been him, right? But God saved him and

used him to write a good half, maybe a little over half of the New Testament.

So it's awesome what God can do in our life.

But it says that they in turn passed the truth of the gospel to a new generation

or to the next generation of godly preachers.

We see that throughout Scripture who passed it down to other preachers.

We even see this talked about in 2 Timothy.

And one of those is Timothy, right? Titus and the prophets and apostles of the

churches, as well as the early church elders and overseers, along with many

unknown preachers, by the way, people no one's ever heard of.

Through the ages, there've been notable proclaimers of the gospel,

the good news, such as some of these you may have heard of, but these are in history.

Some of them like Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp.

Arrhenius, Wycliffe, Huss, Tyndall, Luther, Calvins, Swingley,

Latimer, Knox, Bunyan, Wesley, Whitfield, all those great preachers,

Edward, Spurgeon, and a host of others.

Like I said, probably many that obviously that none of us know that may be hidden

off somewhere that we never got a chance to see or hear, but they proclaimed it where they were.

And in the future, I want y'all to see this tonight in this passage.

In the future, during earth's darkest hour, God is going to raise up two exceptional

and powerful preachers,

and they will fearlessly proclaim the gospel here during the last three and

a half years of the seven-year tribulation, and the period that Jesus actually called,

remember, the Great Tribulation.

In fact, during that time of horrific divine judgment that we've studied these

past weeks that's happening on the earth, you remember rampaging hordes of demons,

terrorizing and slaughtering millions of people,

wickedness just rampaging unrestrained.

Their gospel preaching during this time, along with that of the 144,000 Jewish

evangelists that we saw,

the angel also that we're going to see flying in mid-heaven in chapter 14,

verse 6, is proclaiming the gospel and the testimonies of other believers.

Alive during that time who have been converted, right?

Because I have to say this again, when will the church be raptured?

Right, at the beginning, this will be before this takes place,

and after the church is raptured, there will be many souls saved throughout

the tribulation, and God's grace will be on display, right?

Many of those, as we've seen over the weeks, will give their lives,

and God will also protect and seal, right?

He will also protect for certain ones of these disasters and things like this

that happen for his people. But in addition to preaching the gospel,

these two preachers will proclaim God's judgment on the wicked world.

Now, how popular do you think it is for preachers to preach the gospel,

which in and of itself, I mean, you can preach a false gospel and probably get applause, right?

But if you preach the biblical gospel, guess what? It's confrontational,

isn't it, Brother Ronnie?

It really is. And it is good news, but it's good news in so much only as we're

willing to be humbled, to humble ourselves and realize we are sinners in need of a Savior, right?

And in fact, just imagine with that, not only preaching that good news,

preaching the gospel, but also that God's judgment is coming on the wicked world.

Now, you could probably look around you today, you can, and see that how does

this world receive those who preach that kind of truth?

Like, you go out and you preach that truth on the steps in Washington,

D.C., or in many places in our country, how do you think you would be received?

Not well, right? And a lot of people, just like with these guys right here,

y'all, they wanted to kill them.

They wanted to kill them, wanted to get rid of them. They didn't like what they were saying.

They didn't like the fact that they were calling them to repentance.

They loved their sin. They loved their wickedness.

But their ministry will likely stretch from the midpoint of the sounding of

the seventh trumpet. and that trumpet's gonna herald the pouring out of the

rapid fire bowl judgments, you remember?

The battle of Armageddon and the return of Christ to the earth and during that

period, they will declare that the disasters that are happening all around the people,

all that they see are judgments of God and they will participate in fulfilling

the words of the Lord Jesus that the gospel of the kingdom,

you remember this, shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations,

and then the end will come.

That's in Matthew 24, 14. They will also be used by God, guess what?

To bring salvation to Israel.

But before introducing these two faithful witnesses, John records a fascinating

event in which he himself took part.

This is kind of interesting because it's an incident that sets the stage for

the arrival of the two preachers, okay?

And I may only get the first one tonight. We'll see how time allows for us.

But the temple is measured, right? You saw that in the passage.

Let's review that real quick. I'll speed along a little bit.

But then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff.

John says, and someone said, get up and measure the temple of God and the altar

and those who worship in it.

Leave out the court, which is outside the temple, and do not measure it,

for it has been given to the nations, and they will tread underfoot the holy

city for 42 months. That's verses one and two.

That's probably as far as we're getting tonight, so hold on.

Occasionally, I want y'all to see this. Occasionally, in Revelation,

the apostle John actually plays an active role in his visions.

We see examples of that in various passages, some of which we've already covered.

Well, after John's renewed commission to write the prophecies yet to come in

Revelation, that was in chapter 10, verse 11,

John again here, he became involved in one of the very visions that he was recording.

He was given a measuring rod like a staff.

And by either the same angel who spoke with him in chapter 10,

verse 8, or the strong angel he spoke with in chapter 10, verses 9 through 11.

But this measuring rod, kalamoth in Greek, refers to, it's like a reed-like

plant, and that grew in the Jordan Valley, and it was to a height of like 15 to 20 feet.

So it had a stalk that was hollow and lightweight, and yet it was rigid enough

to be used as a walking stick or to be shaved down even. It was rigid enough into a pen, if need be.

And the stonks, because they were long, because they were lightweight,

and they were just perfect for use as measuring rods.

And so in Ezekiel's vision, actually, an angel used such a rod in his vision

in Ezekiel 40 to measure the millennial temple.

And so John was told here in this passage to measure.

The temple of God, including the altar and those who worship in it.

Well, obviously, this was not an effort to determine its physical dimensions, okay?

That's not what it was for, since none are given, okay? There's no specifics here about that.

But really, it appears to be conveying some important truth beyond just architecture, right?

It could have indicated on occasion in the Old Testament that God sometimes

marks things out for destruction, okay?

And in fact, John's measuring here probably is better understood as signifying

ownership or defining the parameters of God's possessions is what he was measuring out.

And that measuring, it signifies something good.

Since what was not measured was what? Evil, right?

And so it's best to see it as God's measuring off Israel, symbolized by her

temple for salvation and for his special protection, preservation, and favor.

The prophecies yet to be given to John is going to distinguish between God's

favor toward Israel and his wrath on the pagan world. So there's this measuring

out that has to take place.

But that truth was no doubt very encouraging to John. You can probably think about this.

At the time he wrote Revelation, if you remember, guess what?

Israel's future looked bleak, very bleak.

In fact, a quarter century earlier, the Romans had brutally suppressed the Jewish

revolt of AD 66 to 70, right?

And they slaughtered over one million Jews, devastating Jerusalem,

if you remember, burning the temple, all that.

But in spite of their massive destruction, God has not rejected his people whom

he foreknew, it says in Romans chapter 11, verse two.

Romans 11 · chapter mention

Wow. I mean, and he will preserve them until that future day when the believing

remnant of the nation will be saved.

It tells us that in Romans 11, 4 and 5, Zechariah 12, 10 through 13,

chapter 13, verse 1, and I believe around verses 8 and 9 of that chapter.

And this temple here, naos, doesn't refer to the entire temple complex,

does it? We see in this passage.

But what? To the inner temple, right?

Made up of the holy place, if you remember. We went through a series on Hebrews

a while back. We talked about the temple a little bit.

The holy place and the holy of holies. The altar is probably the brazen altar

located outside the inner sanctuary in the courtyard since, you know,

that's where those who worship in the temple would have gathered, right?

In the courtyard. The people actually,

if you remember, they were never permitted into the inner temple.

Who's the only ones who could enter the holy place? The priests, right?

Where the incense altar stood. In fact, the worshipers in John's vision here,

it depicts a remnant of believing Jews that are alive during the tribulation who are worshiping God.

They're worshiping God. In fact, the presence of the temple in this vision of

the time of the great tribulation brought with it the encouraging realization

that the temple destroyed by the Romans many years before John wrote.

Would be rebuilt in the future.

In fact, the Bible actually mentions, anybody know how many times the temples,

or how many temples were mentioned and would be rebuilt or built?

Good guess. Anybody else?

Five temples mentions in the Bible, right? Solomon, if you remember, built the first.

Zerubbabel built the second after the exile.

Herod built the third during the time of Christ, and the Lord himself will build

the fifth during the millennium, okay?

But the temple John saw in this vision was the fourth temple,

which will be built in Jerusalem during the tribulation.

And along with it, by the way, the Jewish sacrificial system will be restored.

And Daniel 9 refers to this in chapter 12 of Daniel.

But the tribulation temple will be built early in the first half of the tribulation

under that patronage and protection of who?

Who's going to do it? Antichrist. Remember, he's trying to make sure everybody's his friend, right?

Everybody's falling down to the feet of the Antichrist, right?

And many Orthodox Jews today dream of rebuilding their temple,

but its site is now occupied, right?

And in the minds of many Jews, it's desecrating by the Islamic shrine known as the Dome of the Rock.

And so because Muslims believe it to be a place which Muhammad actually ascended

to heaven, it's among the most sacred shrines in the Islamic world.

So for the Jews to wrest that side away from the Muslims and build their temple

there would be unthinkable in today's political climate.

But during the tribulation, under the protection of Antichrist,

they will be able to rebuild the temple.

And the restitution of the temple will reawaken interest on the part of many Jews and the Messiah.

Many will realize because it talks about in Scripture that the sacrificial system will be restored.

Many is going to realize that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats

to take away sins, just like it says in Hebrews, right?

God's going to use that dissatisfaction during this time to prepare their hearts

for the day that he will, it says in Scripture, pour out on the house of David

and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

the spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on me, Scripture says,

whom they have pierced, Jesus said, and they will mourn for him as one mourns

for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.

In that day, there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of

Hadad, I can't even say his name, Hadrimon, I believe, in the plain of Megadon.

The land will mourn, every family by itself, the family of the house of David

by itself, and their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan

by itself, Scripture says, and their wives by themselves,

the family of the house of Levi.

And it goes on and it tells us that in that day a fountain will be opened for

the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for impurity.

That's in Zechariah.

But the reawakening of interest in the true Messiah will provoke,

guess what, the insane jealousy of the false Messiah.

You see, what he had planned on, you know what I mean, people getting to worship

him and all this, and they get this sacrificial system. He's trying to get them turned away, right?

And then all of a sudden, it's like this dissatisfaction. they're going to begin

to look on the true Messiah, and it's going to provoke insane jealousy by him.

In fact, as more and more Jews return to the temple worship and begin seeking

their Messiah, Antichrist is going to act.

And at the midpoint of the tribulation, he will halt their worship, desecrate the temple.

That's called the abomination of desolation. It's talked about in Daniel 9 and

12, Matthew 24, he mentions it, and set himself up as the only acceptable object of worship.

And so John's measuring here of the temple symbolized that marking out of the

believing Jewish remnant that God's going to spare from judgment.

Zechariah, as we mentioned, actually wrote of that coming day.

In fact, you can read about it in Zechariah 13.

They're going to say, he said at the end of that passage, the Lord is my God.

In fact, they're going to come and they're going to come before the Lord.

In fact, in chapter 14, he says, then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with him.

So John's instructions on measuring the temple included a significant omission,

if you remember. And I'm going to wrap up for tonight in just a moment.

He was commanded to leave out something.

Do you remember what he was commanded to leave out of measuring?

The court, which is outside the temple, and he was told, do not measure it.

And the reference to the court of the Gentiles located outside the courtyard

containing the brazen altar, it marked the boundary between which Gentiles were

forbidden to go, right? They couldn't go.

In fact, in New Testament times, the Romans had given the Jews the right to

execute, believe it or not, any Gentile who went beyond the court of the Gentiles.

Can you imagine like going to church, right? And you get outside that boundary

and have permission to just, you're dead, right?

For a Gentile to do so was to defile the temple.

In fact, it was the false charge that Paul had brought against Gentiles into

the temple that sparked the riot that led to his arrest and his imprisonment.

That false charge that he had brought them into that temple through that way.

In fact, God redeems the Gentiles, though, doesn't he?

He redeems Gentiles, and he's going to continue to do so during this age and

the time of the tribulation.

But he will reject those unbelieving Gentiles who have united with Satan,

as we've seen these past few weeks. They have not repented.

Even though all this stuff happened, they still choose to disobey and to turn their backs on God.

They have united themselves with Satan and the beast and oppressed his covenant

people Israel and show the sharp distinction in this vision.

I want y'all to see this tonight.

Between Jews and Gentiles, it also suggests something else here.

Some of you may have picked up on it, that the church, having earlier been raptured,

is not present during the tribulation.

That's pretty obvious by this passage, because in the church,

all of us are thinking to the book of Colossians, right?

That there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, right?

In Ephesians, Paul actually writes that Christ is our peace,

who hath made both groups into one, and broke down the barrier-dividing wall, right?

By establishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained

in ordinances, so that in himself, Scripture says,

he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,

and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross by it having

put to death the enmity. Wow.

Wow, and by way of explanation, John was told not to measure that outer court

because it has been given to the nations that they will tread underfoot the holy city for 42 months.

The 42 months, how many days did it say there?

1260 days, three and one half years. They correspond to that overtly evil career,

if you will, of Antichrist.

He's going to dominate the last half of the tribulation.

It tells us that in chapter 13, verse 5, but that period will be the culmination

of the times of the Gentiles.

The thousand of years during which Gentile nations have, in various ways,

you can think back throughout history and through the Bible,

have occupied and oppressed the holy city of Jerusalem, Assyria,

Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, the Turks, the British, the Arabs,

have all ruled Jerusalem, right?

And today, Israel's self-rule is fragile, right? And it's under just constant attack.

But the devastating destruction and oppression by the rule of Antichrist and

his demonic and his human cohorts here is going to surpass all other oppressors that have come.

And during this same 42-month period, God is actually going to shelter many

Israelites in a place he's prepared for them in the wilderness, Scripture talks about.

Some people actually speculate the rock city of Petra.

Revelation 12, verse 6 reads that, Then the woman, and we'll see this down the road here, Israel,

Revelation 12:6

fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that there

she would be nourished for 1,260 days.

So many Jews will heed Jesus' warning to flee to safety.

When they see that time come, they're going to flee to safety.

But the rest, however, who remain, some in Jerusalem, it talks about in chapter

11, verse 13, will face that terrible persecution from the forces of Antichrist.

And at that time, God's going to bring salvation to Israel using,

and we're going to get more to these next time,

the two powerful preachers who will appear in Jerusalem and who will also suffer

hostility and hatred, right?

And then at the end of that 1260 days, the 42 months, three and a half years, Christ will return.

He's gonna return. He's gonna destroy Antichrist and his forces,

judge the nations, and establish his earthly millennial kingdom.

That's all stuff we're gonna get into, right?

But Daniel chapter 12 actually indicates for us that there will be a 75-day gap, if you will,

Daniel 12 · chapter mention

75-day gap between the victorious return of Christ and the beginning of the

kingdom to take care of the features that we just talked about,

all that things that must happen and be established, right?

Judge the nations, all that. So despite the horrific efforts of Antichrist to

destroy Israel, God will measure off Israel and.

To save, preserve, and protect the nation.

And as Zechariah wrote, two-thirds of Israel will be purged in judgment,

and the remaining one-third will be saved and enter the glory of Messiah's earthly

kingdom. That's in Zechariah 13.

So instrumental in their conversion,

which I'll see this tonight, will be a unique, invincible, two-man evangelistic

team, Brother Ronnie, which John's going to introduce, and we'll look at that next week.

Now, we'll talk about who these two are or who we believe they are.

I must say that Scripture does not tell us who they are,

but there are some strong indications of what we see in Scripture and what these

two dudes are going to be able to do, some of the miracles that God has let

them do, that they kind of have done in the past, okay?

Some of y'all may have a hint as to who most scholars believe these two are, Moses and Elijah.

So we'll see. You can't be dogmatic. You can't say, oh, yeah,

beyond the shadow of doubt.

No, but just look at them. We'll see this next week.

We'll break it down in Scripture and look back in other Scriptures as well in the Bible.

It's a good indication that this is likely who these two are that God uses during

this great tribulation period.