The Two Witnesses, Part 3 - Revelation 11

Revelation chapter 11.

Revelation 11 · chapter mention

We are continuing with this one chapter that we've been in for three weeks now.

Hopefully we make a little bit of progress tonight. We'll see how far we get.

But it's this section about the two witnesses and if you've been with us

you remember that so far we've said the two witnesses are the church as a whole

who bear testimony to Jesus in the gospel and that the testimony is

trustworthy and reliable. And what we learned last week as we were looking at

this is that not only is the message trustworthy and reliable but it's also

a message of salvation and judgment. That the church, the witnesses, they preach a

message that is a message of life to those who repent and believe in Christ.

But that same message is also a message of judgment to those who refuse to repent

and they continue in their sins. And the testimony of the church is going to

continue until Christ returns. But what this passage is now letting us know as

it continues on is that the church has an enemy. And the enemy of the church is

also the enemy of God. In fact that's why he's the enemy of the church. It's

because he is the enemy of God. And that enemy is constantly attacking and

seeking to oppress the people of God. And so that's what we learn about in this

passage. I want you to see Revelation chapter 11 verse 7. Notice what happens

Revelation 11:7

here. And when they, the witnesses, have finished their testimony the beast that

rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill

them. Now this is the first mention of the beast so far in Revelation. And we've

kind of referenced him a few times. But this is the first mention of the beast

in Revelation. And it's important to understand that the beast is not Satan.

The beast is under the power of Satan. He's under the authority of Satan. But he

is not Satan. And we learn more about that in chapter 13 when we get there in

six months. So once we get to chapter 13 we'll dive into that a little more. But

but just for now understand that the beast he is under the power and the

authority of Satan who is later going to be referred to as the dragon who has the

ultimate authority for this realm. And the beast he comes from the abyss. And if

you remember this from like a chapter or two ago the abyss is the place of the

demonic. Right? It's the demonic realm where all demons come from. And so the

beast has demonic origins and it operates under the power and the influence

of Satan. And I want you to notice something here in this verse, verse 7. I

want you to notice how the Bible is intentionally ambiguous here. It's

intentionally ambiguous and generic in describing the beast. For instance look at

verse 7. Did you notice how no pronouns are used in relation to the beast? It

doesn't say the beast who rises out of the bottomless pit nor does it say that

he will make war, he will conquer, or he will kill. It's intentionally ambiguous

and generic because we're not meant to focus so much on what a beast might

look like or how he might be personified. What we're supposed to focus on are the

actions that the beast takes. That's the important thing to focus on here because

everybody wants to get hung up on what does the beast look like? You know, will I

be able to see him? Is there a description that I can recognize him by? And the Bible

says yeah there is a description you can recognize him by but it's not a

physical appearance. It's the actions that he takes against God's people. The

beast is the one who makes war on the people of God. He persecutes them, he

tortures them, he kills them. And so we're meant to focus on these actions so

that when we see these actions in the world today we will recognize the one

who's doing these things as being the beast who comes from the abyss. Once

again it's a picture, right? God through the book of Revelation is giving us a

new way to view the world. The world is not just merely what you see. He says

there's a grand story going on here and we have a real enemy who is constantly

attacking us and rather than just saying hey there's an enemy who's gonna attack

you, the Bible pictures it as like a beast like from a great story. There's

this beast who is coming to oppress a people who are devoted to God and by the

actions it takes by the persecution and the killing and all these type of things

you can recognize this as being the beast, right? And so for instance when

John when he was writing this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he sent

it to the churches in Asia Minor. Who do you think they would have associated with

the beast? When you're thinking about something or someone or an entity that

is persecuting Christians, making war on Christians, hunting them down, killing

them, what would be the first thing that came to their mind? Yeah, the Roman

Emperor, right? The Roman Empire as a whole. The Roman Empire was the one who

was hunting Christians down, right? They were persecuting Christians constantly.

They were dragging them before the governors and before courts and putting

them to death. I mean we've mentioned many times about Nero who would go and

find Christians and then stake them up and while they were still alive put oil

on them and then light them on fire and use them as street lamps at night. The

actions of an evil government persecuting Christians for no other reason than

the fact that they believed in Jesus and were seeking to live a life that was

faithful to Jesus. And so in the first century when they hear this description

of the beast they naturally would have thought of the Roman Empire. So was the

beast referring to the Roman Empire in the first century? Yeah, absolutely. But

it's a picture, right? So that this picture can be applied throughout all of

time. So there are some who say well this only refers to the Roman Empire and I

want to say it did but the beast continues on throughout church history. So at

one point yeah the beast was personified by the Roman Empire. Sure. But

throughout history you've seen all sorts of beasts or rather it'd be more

appropriate to say you've seen the beast at work in a number of different

entities throughout history, right? I mean one that people don't like to think

about is in the Middle Ages even into the time of the Reformation and shortly

after I think you could characterize the Catholic Church as the beast, right? I

mean that might get me into trouble. It's okay. But it's true because at the time

the Catholic Church was hunting down anyone who was not part of the Catholic

Church who broke away in pursuit of this new thing called Protestantism. And I

mean Martin Luther had to go on the run and hide for over a year in which he was

translating the Bible because they were hunting him down. You read about this

throughout church history where people were literally killed for their faith.

You read about John Huss who was killed by the Catholic Church because he

believed that salvation was by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone.

And for just believing that message they burned him at the stake. Read about

others who died and were persecuted for their faith like William Tyndale who

his main aim was just to put the Bible in the hands of anybody who could read.

And at one point he said I'm gonna have the boy pushing the plow know more

Bible than the Pope. And he's put to death for it. You see all throughout history

it's not just an evil government. It is anytime someone is persecuting Christians,

oppressing Christians, killing Christians just because of their faith in Jesus and

their adherence to scripture they take up the mantle of the beast. You see the

beast today. I mean I think the North Korean government, I think you could

rightly say that they are a pitcher of the beast today given what they do to

Christians in their country. I think the same thing could be said for radical

Islamic groups. I mean you think about ISIS and others like them and they are

putting Christians to death persecuting them, hunting them down. I think they

could be described as the beast today. Here's what concerns me is that the

American government is beginning to look more and more like the beast. And I

don't say that lightly but they are starting to wage war on Christians just

as the Bible says the beast does. They are trying to limit our ability to live

out the faith. They're trying to limit and censor what we can preach. If we don't

preach something that meshes with their ideology, if it goes against what's

common in the norm today, they want to shut us down and label it as hate speech

and try to close us down because we preach the gospel. You're seeing people

in prison, yes. Oh yeah true. I didn't get going enough for that, Gene. But let me

just say there are a couple times I have been personally censored twice on

Facebook for preaching. I only preach the Bible here. You'll never see me talk

about or preach anything else but you preach the Bible and they take you off

Facebook all because you say you should be more obedient to God than government.

And I'll say it again. Yeah and then you ask them what the rules are. Our community

standards. Yeah that's the problem. That's the problem. I think the message he's

referring to one of the first ones was when I was saying defy tyrants and obey

God and it was about obeying God rather than the government which I stand by. I

do not recant anything I've ever said so they can take us off again. But the

point is you look at the American government today and they're trying more

and more. This is what's concerning. Big tech American government. They're trying

more and more to exercise control over the church and as Mr. McKinney said in

his prayer, Jesus runs the church. Not the American government, not big tech, not

big media. They have no say in what goes on here. Well you live in their country.

It doesn't matter. This is God's world. They may claim the country as their own

but this is God's world. God runs the show here. Jesus is in charge here. They

have no say in what we do and yet they are trying more and more to exercise

control. They're becoming to look like a pitcher of the beast. The point is the

beast is known by the actions it takes against God's people. And so John is

describing the church as being a church that is persecuted at all times.

Throughout the church's existence we will be hated. We will be opposed, we'll be

persecuted, we will be killed for our faith. Now that doesn't mean that every

single Christian will be a martyr. That's not going to happen. But it does mean

that every single Christian will experience some level of persecution in

their life. Every single Christian will experience some level of hatred and

opposition all because we have faith in Jesus. And this passage is saying as we

discussed last week that the majority of Christians will die and I want you to

hear what this passage has to say about that. Look at verses 8 through 10 if you

have your Bibles. It says after the the witnesses die and their their dead

bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is symbolically called

Sodom in Egypt where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days

some of the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their

dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb and those who dwell

on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presence because

the two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. Let me just

pause before I say anything else. I would love if our church was a torment to

people who dwell on the earth. I'd love nothing more than for Christians to be a

thorn in people's side. Unfortunately we're weak and cowardly. That's another

sermon I've already preached it but I just wanted to say that point. I'd be

hating on myself if I didn't. But I want you to notice something here in these

verses. It's very interesting. These verses require some careful attention

because again there are those who advocate for a literal return of two

individual people and again that's a legitimate view. We're not dismissing it

but they often claim that these these witnesses will return and they will

minister and ultimately die in the city of Jerusalem since that's where they

crucified our Lord. Now again this is a legitimate interpretation. It's a

totally fair one to have. However I don't know that that is necessary to

view it that way because for instance did anyone else happen to notice that the

verse itself told us to lean towards a symbolic understanding of this

verse or these verses? Did y'all notice that? It specifically told us to lean

towards a symbolic understanding because it literally says symbolically and

that tells us that we should be thinking symbolically not literally. There's

another clue here that this is not referring to a literal city. Does

anybody else see the clue there? It's easy to miss, takes a little thinking that

the great city might not actually be referring to a literal city. Not only

does it say symbolically but notice it says the city is symbolically called

Egypt. What's the problem there?

Egypt is not a city. Egypt is a country. It's not a city. It's really

interesting because it's not saying necessarily that this is a literal city.

It's saying, hey symbolically this city that we're talking about and there's a

really interesting concept that's going on here and in fact it's a concept that

the Apostle John really sheds more light on than any other biblical writer and

it's this concept of the city of God and the city of man. It's referring kind of

to what Jesus said in John's Gospel where he said we are to be in the world

but not of the world. You don't remember that? Jesus said that. He's

contrasting these two cities. He's saying there's the city of God and there's a

city of man and the city of man is the world and you are to be in the world

but you belong to a different city, a heavenly city. That is where your

citizenship is. The great theologian Augustine, he really fleshed out this

idea in his book called the city of God and he uses this idea of two

cities to describe the relationship between the earthly realm and the divine

realm and so the city of God it refers to the God's kingdom made up of

those who are Christians and seek to do God's will and follow Jesus. It's a city

that's characterized by love and justice and virtue. It's an eternal city that

transcends earthly boundaries but then the city of man it refers to the earthly

realm and it's characterized by human societies and governments and cultures.

It's marked by sin and selfishness and worldly pursuits. It's a city that's

inherently flawed and prone to corruption because it is driven by human

desires and ambitions and these two cities they coexist in our world. They're

intertwined but they're distinct. Okay therefore it's possible to live in the

city of man while actually being a citizen of the city of God so you can

imagine it like this. This is everything that exists odd shape. It's everything

that exists and this is the city of God. God has rule and domain over everything

here. He's got dominion and within this there's this little realm that coexist

within it and this is the city of man. So the city of man exists at the same time

as the city of God so that you know Alex can be here living in the city of man

but I'm also a citizen of the city of God and Augustine was really trying to

help us understand this concept of what it means to live as a citizen of God's

kingdom in a world that is so corrupted by sin. He was trying to

expound on what Jesus said you're to be in the world but not of the world and

John as I said more than any other biblical altar he references the world

more than any other biblical altar. You read the the Gospel of John, you read

1st John, 2nd, 3rd John, book of Revelation. John is always talking about

the world and he views it as a sinful place that is in opposition to God that

is in desperate need of God's mercy and grace and salvation and so here when

he's referring to the great city he's referring to this world to the city of

man this place that is opposed to God in his ways this is the place where they

crucified Christ. Christ did not die in the city of God it would have never

happened there he died in this sinful world the city of man that's where he

was put to death and noticed when you think about it in that regard as this

great city being the city of man or the world it makes sense of these

descriptions because notice this city is likened to Sodom. Sodom was a place that

was famous for its wickedness and immorality by referring to the great

city of Sodom the Bible is emphasizing the moral corruption and sinfulness of

this world but notice too that the Bible also says that the city is

symbolically called Egypt which again is not a city but Egypt all throughout the

Bible is associated with oppression and bondage and opposition to God and so by

referring to the great city as Egypt the Bible is communicating a number of

things first and foremost is highlighting the spiritual enslavement and

captivity that exists within the city of man that this is the place where sin is

this is the place that causes people to be slaves to sin and in constant

bondage and in need of restoration and deliverance but second is drawing

attention to the city's opposition to God in his ways that's what the Bible is

saying here that the city of man it's like Sodom it's wicked it's immoral it's

like Egypt it oppresses people and it's opposed to God in his ways that's the

world we inhabit and so yes Jesus was literally crucified in the city of

Jerusalem but he was symbolically and it told us to think symbolically he was

symbolically crucified in the city of man the world corrupted and opposed to

God in his ways and so in the same way the Bible is saying here that Christians

throughout history while being citizens of the city of God will die

nonetheless in this world in the city of man and there they will lie in the

streets and not only that but notice what the Bible says it says that the world

will gaze upon their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb

now why would that be the case well in the ancient world not to bury a body

was considered a great indignity and shameful and so it's a way of expressing

contemptment towards the people of God that you want to have contempt towards

them you want to shame them you want to have indignity towards them so you don't

bury them it's a way of saying that even in the death of Christians the world

mocks them and seeks to make a show of them which is exactly what the Bible

says it says the world rejoices in the deaths of Christians and they make

merry and they exchange presents because the church had been a torment for the

people on earth it's a picture of the world taking pleasure in the death of

Christians and rejoicing let me ask you a question if this is going on throughout

all of history do we see this today oh yeah absolutely I mean anytime horrific

you know killings by ISIS and other extremist groups I mean just think about

that y'all remember years ago when they were lining up Christians in and just

executing them back of the head just shooting them and then they're posting

the videos on the internet for people to to watch and enjoy and they were

celebrating they're having a great time they just got to murder a bunch of

Christians they were laughing mocking and rejoicing that's that's exactly what

we see here why did they do that it's because the Christians were nuisance to

them the Christians refused to stop talking about Jesus they refused to

stop preaching Jesus they wouldn't abide by what they wanted them to do and so

they had to be rid of them they had to execute I mean I think of another

example from from recent years maybe y'all remember there was a young man who

he wanted to reach an island of people who had never been reached before y'all

remember this he wanted to go there this tribe was totally uncontacted they had

no idea what was going on in the outside world they were just all on their own and

this guy said I want I want to go and tell them about Jesus he didn't even

know their language and so he goes and and you know whatever people have said

a lot about his methods but whatever his methods his intentions were pure all

right let's just say that he saw people who didn't know Jesus and he wanted to

make sure they knew Jesus and almost as soon as he stepped foot on the island

the the tribesmen came out and they murdered him and they were dancing over

his body and they were shouting and shouting praise and all this kind of

stuff and I remember when that happened there were all sorts of reactions to that

and the worst reactions came from those who hate Christianity and hate the

faith I saw people who literally said he got what he deserved a man who was

trying to go to a people and tell them about Jesus and take the gospel to them

murdered in cold blood and they said he got what he deserved they said he was a

colonizer and a crusader who just wanted to make a name for himself and so he

got what he deserved when I see that story all I see is the city of man

dancing and rejoicing over the dead bodies of one of God's faithful witnesses

in this world it's a picture of exactly what revelation says we will see in this

world that the enemies of God will take joy in the deaths of God's people but

then I want you to notice how this passage ends it reminds us of one of the

most wonderful truths of all of Christianity is that death is not our

end they can rejoice they can celebrate in our death for a short time let them

enjoy it while they can because the Bible says death is not our end look at

verse 11 but after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them

and they stood on their feet in great fear fell on those who saw them then

they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them come up here and they went

up to heaven in a cloud and their enemies watched and at that hour there

was a great earthquake and a tenth of the city fell seven thousand people were

killed in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to God to

the God of heaven the second woe has passed behold the third woe is soon to

come now there's a lot of symbolism going on here and I want you to see that

but I want you to remember that the ministry of the witnesses lasts three

and a half years I'll remember that and we said there's a number of reasons for

that connects with other place in the Bible we don't have time to recount that

but another interesting connection is that the ministry of Jesus lasted how

long about three and a half years and so the ministry of the witnesses for Jesus

is meant to be connected to the ministry of Jesus himself Jesus minister for three

and a half years here on earth and so do his witnesses but but notice this too the

witnesses remain dead for three and a half days now a number of things could

be said here about this it could be literal it could be symbolic or

figurative many people see a connection between Jesus's time in the grave even

though he was dead in the grave only three days but the number whatever it

is whether literal or figurative it's just meant to convey that their death

only lasts for a defined period of time that they will not always be dead that's

the point of that do you get that what so whether it's literal whether it's

symbolic the point is that death is finite it is limited there is an ending

point of it where they will no longer be dead because after this time the Bible

says the breath of life from God enters into the witnesses and they stand on

their feet now does anybody see a connection here to any other passage in

scripture what does this look like you've got a bunch of of dead people here

that point you know they're dead and all of a sudden the breath of life from God

breath is the same word in Hebrew and Greek as spirit Ruach or Pneuma if you're

in Greek breath or spirit breathed into these dead people they come to life and

they stand on their feet remind you of anything else in the Bible

yeah Valley of Jarvis it's almost just taken right from there right the Valley

of Dry Bones and Ezekiel 37 Ezekiel 37 5 does says the Lord God to these bones

behold I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live I want you to notice

how similar Ezekiel 37 10 is to what we just read so I prophesied as he commanded

me and the breath came into them and they lived and stood on their feet and

exceedingly great army it's exactly what what the Bible says here in Revelation

that that God's going to breathe life into these dead people and they're going

to come back to life and they're going to stand on their feet and so the whole

point of Ezekiel 37 is is this picturing the the nation of Israel they're

exiled at this point they're saying hey they're like a whole bunch of dead dry

bones they're exiled their enemies have won they're defeated they're like a

Valley of Dry Bones and God promises and says yes they are now but I'm going to

breathe new life into them and they're going to be joined together again and

they're going to stand up and they will have the final victory and the same thing

is true here in Revelation that the people of God now the church we may

seem like a bunch of exiled out of place defeated people at times the the church

Christians we look like nothing more than a whole bunch of dry bones you ever

seen a church or a Christian like that nothing more than just a Valley of Dry

Bones who suffered defeated the the hands of the enemies of God but God

promises in this passage to breathe new life into us to raise us up back to life

and to give us the final victory over his enemies and our enemies this is the

vindication of the righteous this is the triumph of the Lamb though the world

opposes us now though the world persecutes us now though the world oppresses

us now though they delight in our defeats and our deaths and our setbacks the

Bible says here God will vindicate his people the enemy will not have the final

word the enemy will not have the last laugh the enemy will not have ultimate

victory Jesus will have the victory and every single person who puts their hope

and their trust in him will get to share in that victory with him and we will

stand triumphantly with him for all of eternity shouting his praises for the

Lamb has received the reward for his sufferings so death is not our end

church they can kill us they can do that they can mock us they can laugh at us

they can persecute us they can oppress us they can torture us they can

ultimately put us to death and they can enjoy it and they can laugh after we're

dead say our God abandoned us but one day the Bible says that every knee will

bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of

God so those people who mocked us will be brought to their knees we'll go there

voluntarily they will be brought to their knees when faced with the glory of

God in the victory of Jesus and so that's our hope that death is not our end

no matter what happens to us in this life we will be with Jesus forever

because he will have the victory all right we made it through almost all of

Revelation chapter 11 as far as we're gonna get tonight Michael Stevenson how

Revelation 11 · chapter mention

about leaving us with a word