Last night the University of Arizona played Oregon State in football. There were maybe around 200 people or so who participated in that event – coaches, players, officials, managers, trainers, etc. But together they represented less than ½ 0f 1% of the 56,000 fans in the stadium and a far smaller percentage if you include the people who watched the game on TV or the internet or listened to it on the radio.
But unlike football, being a Christ follower was never intended to be a spectator event. Last week, we began to look at an interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpets in which all the action around John stops so that John can experience a one-on-one encounter with God where John becomes a participant in what is occurring rather than merely a spectator. That interlude continues in the passage that we’ll read this morning in Revelation 11, beginning in verse 1. Go ahead and turn in your bibles to that chapter and you can follow along as I read in just a moment.
But before we go any further, I need to remind us of an important principle that we’re using in our journey, and perhaps do a better job of communicating that principle than I’ve done in the past.
We must keep in mind that the Book of Revelation is Hebrew apocalyptic literature. John is a Jew, and even if He wrote this book in Greek, he is writing from a Hebrew mindset. We would do the same thing if we were translating something from English to a foreign language. In fact, when I was ministering at the Korean Baptist Church here in town and preached to a mixed audience of Korean and English speakers and had my sermon translated, I realized just how difficult it was for the Korean pastor to translate my words in a way that made sense to people from a different culture. I guess that’s why occasionally just one sentence from my message became a paragraph as he translated.
One important attribute of Hebrew apocalyptic literature is that it contains both literal and symbolic, or figurative, elements. In order to identify which elements are literal and which are figurative, we must consider the text itself, the context, and any other supporting texts.
And unless there is something in that process to indicate that something is to be taken figuratively, our consistent approach has been to take the elements literally. That approach is going to be absolutely essential to our examination of the passage before us this morning. With that in mind, follow along as I read our passage:
1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb,
10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
Although we have chapter breaks in our Bibles, they weren’t there in the original text and the beginning of chapter 11 is clearly a continuation of what began in chapter 10. This begins John’s obedience to the command to “prophesy again” that we saw at the end of chapter 10. That obedience begins with John’s participation in measuring the temple and then continues with God providing some additional revelation about two special witnesses.
Although many commentators consider this to be the most difficult of all passages in the entire book of Revelation, if we can move beyond speculating about what God hasn’t revealed here and focus on what we can determine from the text, this passage actually has some very practical guidance when it comes to two areas of our walk with Jesus – our worship and our witness. As we’ve done frequently throughout our journey, we’ll use the applications that we find there as the starting point for our examination of relevant details in the passage.
OUR WORSHIP (vv. 1, 2)
1. Worship requires our participation.
It seems that so many people spend their energy arguing about whether or not the mention of the temple in verse 1 requires that the Temple will have to be built in Jerusalem before the events in this chapter can take place that they miss out on what we can learn from this passage about our own worship.
In Greek, there are two primary words that can be translated “temple”. The first is “hieros” a word that means “a holy place” and which in the New Testament is primarily used to refer to the Temple complex as a whole.
The word used here, however, is “naos”, which refers to the inner sanctuary – which was considered to be the place where God’s presence dwelled. So the use of that word here indicates that it is not the entire Temple building that is in view, but rather the inner sanctuary where the worship of God takes place. So frankly, there just isn’t enough information given to us to determine whether or not the Temple must be rebuilt prior to the return of Jesus.
The more important issue here is that John is invited to participate in the process of measuring the temple. He is not merely invited to sit back and watch someone else do that. That is an important reminder to us that we are not merely to be spectators of worship, but rather we are to participate in it.
That is true on Sunday mornings when we gather together for corporate worship and it is true throughout the week as you worship through the way that you live your life.
One way to describe how worship should work is to think of it as revelation and response. God reveals something of Himself to us and then we need to respond to that revelation. We intentionally design our Sunday worship services to provide that opportunity for all of us. Although it may not be apparent on the surface, we work hard to select music that will fit that pattern. We try to begin with songs that reveal something about God and then transition to songs that allow us to respond to that revelation. In the message, I try to begin with examining what the passage reveals to us about God and then provide an opportunity to respond to that revelation by putting into practice the principles that we derive from the passage.
I want to encourage you to do the very same thing in your personal life. Each day, as God reveals Himself to you through His Word and prayer, that ought to result in some kind of response to God – perhaps a prayer of thanksgiving, or maybe confession of some sin, or taking some action in your life in response to what God reveals. All of those things are the kind of participation in worship that this passage points to.
2. Man and his worship are to be measured against God’s standards.
You’ll notice here that John is given the measuring rod with which he is to measure the temple, the altar and the worshippers. He doesn’t get to use the measuring device of his own choice, but rather he must use the one given to him by God.
The clear principle we find here is that our worship is to be measured against God’s standards and not our own human standards. In other words, when it comes to worship it shouldn’t be about our own personal preferences, or about “what’s in it for me?” Our worship is to be all about God and it must be done in accordance with His standards. Obviously, this is a topic that is way too broad to even begin to touch the surface this morning, but these words of Jesus are certainly a good place to start.
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23, 24 (ESV)
If our worship is to conform to God’s standards, it must first of all be grounded in truth. And since we know truth is a person – Jesus – it means first of all that our worship must be centered on Jesus and His Word. It must also be Spirit and not human driven. We must provide an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to do His work of convicting and drawing and leading us to the truth and then be willing to respond to His work.
3. God’s people are responsible for maintaining proper worship
God is only concerned here with measuring those who are genuinely worshipping Him. He tells John not to measure those who are outside the place of worship. In context here, when God refers to the “nations” in verse 2, it is clearly a reference to those who have refused to repent and enter into a relationship with God through faith in Jesus.
The principle that we can take from that is that those of us who have made that decision are not only responsible for making sure that we worship according to God’s standards, but also that we do all that we can to maintain proper worship based on those standards and to protect it from outside influences which would try to get us to violate those standards.
We certainly saw this in the messages to the seven churches, where several of the churches had compromised with the world around them and as a result their worship had become defiled.
Let me give you just one practical example that we’re facing as a church right now. Like everyone else, our church is impacted by the current financial downturn in our country. And as a result, there are all kinds of companies out there who provide products and services to help churches raise money. Periodically, I am contacted by some person or company who wants to market their product or service to our church and in return, they offer to contribute a certain percentage of each sale back to our church. Although those kinds of opportunities are tempting, they clearly violate the Biblical principle that churches are to operate financially based on the tithes and offerings of their members.
In addition to these principles about our worship, we also find in this passage some practical guidance for another area of our life – our witness.
OUR WITNESS (vv. 3-13)
1. Witness is performed by God’s people
There is obviously a lot of speculation about the identity of the two witnesses. Many choose to view them symbolically as representatives of the Old and New Testaments or the church as a whole. On the other hand there are those who view these as two actual witnesses, but then they go a bit further and try to determine their identity – most commonly some combination of Moses, Enoch and Elijah. But frankly the text doesn’t support any of that speculation.
In this case, the text makes it clear that these are indeed two actual people and not some symbolic representation of something or someone else. First there is nothing in the text to indicate that they represent another person or entity. Also the word “prophet” is never used anywhere else in the Bible to refer to anything other than an actual human being who is engaged in the fore-telling and forth-telling of God’s Word. Without going into detail, the grammatical structure of the passage also makes it highly unlikely that the prophets could symbolize something else. Finally there is just too much detailed information about their activities to make it likely they are merely symbolic. They have bodies. They physically die. They have life breathed into them and ascend to heaven.
It is also highly doubtful that these are figures from the past who have been resurrected by God to come back and witness to the world. If John had recognized them, which He certainly would have been able to do if they were Moses and Elijah, who had appeared at the Transfiguration alongside Jesus, then there would be no reason for him not to identify them by name. We also know from the Bible that God has never resurrected a prophet or apostle to do a work centuries or millennia later. God always uses people of the time to carry out His work.
The fact that the prophets are not identified by name is a reminder that God uses common people like you and me in every generation to be witnesses of Jesus. Although God could have chosen any other method He wanted, He entrusts each of us with that responsibility and privilege.
2. Witness is proclaimed through God’s Word
John describes here how fire comes from the mouth of the two witnesses and it is that fire that consumes the enemies of God. Frankly, we can’t be sure if this is literal fire or if fire is used here as a picture of judgment as it is frequently throughout prophetic passages in the Bible. If God wants to empower His witnesses with the power to literally breathe fire, then He is certainly capable of doing that. But the Biblical pattern is that the tool that God’s prophets always use is God’s Word. And as God revealed to Jeremiah, His Word is like a fire in the way that it operates:
Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
Jeremiah 5:14 (ESV)
When we are witnesses of Jesus, we must always do that on the basis of His Word. It is His Word, and not anything that we do, that both brings salvation to those who accept it and serves as a judging fire to those who reject it. Although there is certainly great value in sharing our own experiences with Jesus in order to lay a foundation, at some point, our witness of Jesus must include also proclaiming His Word.
3. Witness is powered by God’s Spirit
In verse 4, the two witnesses are described as two olive trees and two lampstands. Here is a case of obvious figurative language. John is obviously not saying that there are literally two olive trees and two lampstands walking around Jerusalem as witnesses of Jesus. And the key to understanding why God described the two witnesses in this way is found in Zechariah 3 and 4. We’ll just look at the portion of chapter 4 that is most directly relevant:
1 And the angel who talked with me came again and woke me, like a man who is awakened out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” I said, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. 3 And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” 4 And I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” 6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts… He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
Zechariah 4:1-6; 13-14 (ESV)
First, you’ll notice that verse 14 is almost directly quoted in verse 4 of Revelation 11, and the subject matter of olive trees and lampstands is also consistent between the two passages. In Zechariah, we see a description of two olive trees which produce oil that continuously feeds the lamps on the lampstands. God uses that to picture the fact that He is the one who is going to continually supply Zechariah throughout his ministry through the Holy Spirit. Zechariah will not have to be a witness for God by his own might or power.
The same is true for these two witnesses. They will only be able to accomplish God’s purposes in their lives because He will empower them. And the same is true for us as we serve as witnesses for Jesus. We are not on our own. We have God’s Holy Spirit, dwelling permanently in us, just as Jesus promised:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (ESV)
When we share Jesus with others, God never leaves us on our own. He has promised that the Holy Spirit will give us exactly the right words to say at the right time as long as we choose to be faithful to Him. That fact should give us tremendous confidence to be bold in our witness.
4. Witness is protected by God’s plans
You can be sure that these two prophets aren’t going to be too popular. That is certainly clear in the response to their death, when the whole unbelieving world celebrates by giving gifts to each other. By the way, if you are one of the people who have Christmas cards that quote verse 10 - the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents – I would suggest that now that you know the context you might not want to use those.
But in spite of the fact that people are going to oppose them, God will supernaturally protect these two witnesses until they complete the task that God has given to them. You’ll note in verse 7 that it is not until they have finished their testimony that they will be killed. The word “finished” there is the same word that Jesus used on the cross when He proclaimed, “It is finished.”
Based on this passage, we can also be confident that God will protect us in our witness until we have completed the task that He has given to us. However, there is nothing in the Bible that would lead me to believe that we can expect that same level of protection if we choose not to carry out God’s plans for our lives.
Since, in our case, we have absolutely no idea when we have finished our testimony, we just have to keep on sharing our faith with others and trust that God will protect us for as long as we are being witnesses for Jesus according to His plan.
And if we should suffer harm, or even death, in carrying out that task, we can also be confident that God will protect that which really matters – our eternal souls. In resurrecting these two prophets, God not only demonstrates His faithfulness to those who belong to Him and provides evidence that our eternal destiny is assured, but the resurrection itself provides a witness that the resurrection of Jesus – the fact on which our testimony rests – is indeed true.
These two witnesses certainly illustrate this principle from the words of Jesus that we can take to heart as we serve as His witness:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28 (ESV)
5. Witness is profitable according to God’s will
As a result of the witness of these two prophets, 7,000 people are killed in the great earthquake in Jerusalem. But the rest were terrified and gave glory to God. When I first read that, my reaction was, “Finally. Finally someone recognizes God at work and turns to Him.” But upon further reflection, I’m not sure that is what occurred here. These words from James came to mind:
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe - and shudder!
James 2:19 (ESV)
Although these people recognized God, and even feared Him, there is nothing in the text to indicate that they took the next step and repented of their sins and placed their faith in Jesus. That is exactly the situation James was addressing in chapter 2 of his epistle when he claimed that faith that does not result in works is dead. Given the surrounding context, where people don’t repent after the first six seals and the first six trumpets, it seems that these people are those who fear God, but still refuse to take the required step of placing their faith in Jesus alone for their salvation.
But regardless of the nature of their response, the principle that is clear is that God didn’t hold the two witnesses accountable for the decisions that people made in response to their witness. God brings them into His presence as a reward for their faithful witness, but He never condemns them for the fact that the people failed to respond positively to their message.
That same principle is confirmed by Jesus. When He sent out the twelve disciples to witness to the lost sheep of Israel, He gave them this command:
And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
Matthew 10:14, 15 (ESV)
The apostles were only responsible for sharing the message. Those who heard and refused to respond would be the ones who would be judged – not those who had brought the message.
I find that one of the reasons people most often give for not being a more faithful witness is that they fear rejection. You know what, I don’t like rejection either. But we need to realize that people aren’t rejecting us, they are rejecting the Lord Jesus. And rather than allowing that to defeat us, we must do just as Jesus commanded and shake the dust from our feet and then go tell someone else about Jesus and just leave the results to Him.
I want to continue the practice of the last few weeks and challenge you to apply these principles in a very practical way in your life. I’ve been encouraging you to pray for at least one unbeliever for the last two weeks. We began by praying for God to draw that person to Him. And then last week, we added to that prayer as we asked God to help us make wise use of our time as we had the opportunity to interact with that person. Let’s take it one more step this week and pray for God to give us an opportunity to be a verbal witness to that person and that He would give us the right words to say as well as boldness when He gives us that opportunity. Once again, I’ve provided a place on your bulletin to write in someone’s name as a reminder to prayer for him or her.
I also want to encourage you in your personal worship time this week to be a participant and not just a spectator. As God reveals Himself to you, look for some ways that you can respond to Him according to His standards for worship.
