Morning Sermon

January 6, 2008

the second woe

Text

This morning we are in the midst of an interlude, a brief respite in the description of the judgment of God. Six of the seven trumpets have sounded, each describing and defining an aspect of the judgment of God against the covenant-breaking nation of Israel. Remember also that this cycle of seven trumpets follows the cycle of seven seals, also a symbolic description of the judgment God would bring.

Remember the respite we enjoyed in the midst of that cycle. Chapter 6 ended with the words, "For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" And chapter 7 gave us the answer, namely those who were sealed. Those who were joined by faith to Jesus Christ. Namely, the whole church, the 144,000. And so we read,

Rev. 7:9 "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" 11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

Praise the Lord. In judgment upon covenant breakers, God declares the gospel of salvation. And in that gospel, not only do we escape God's wrath and judgment, but the curse first pronounced by God against the sin of Adam and Eve is itself removed. The curse of death is removed in Christ.

Rev. 7:16 "They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 "for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

That was the cycle of the seven seals. Now, in chapters 10-11, we have the respite from the cycle of the seven trumpets. Last week it was the mighty angel, whom I understand to be a description of Jesus Christ himself, the sovereign Lord of all the earth-land and sea. And we saw the commission of John to proclaim that gospel, represented as the little book he was to eat.

Rev. 10:11 "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."

Now in chapter 11 we come to a further description of the declaration of that gospel by the church, the church represented by the two witnesses who were resurrected from the dead. Though the world thinks the church has been put to death and its witness snuffed out, God makes it clear that they are wrong! Instead, the church shall become a witness of the gospel to all the nations of the world. And proclaiming that witness is exactly what Jesus has commissioned the church to do, for Jesus has declared to his church on earth,

Mat. 28:18 "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen."

Now, how do we get all of that from Revelation 11. That's my challenge this morning. We begin by,

I. MEASURING THE TEMPLE. v.1-2

There is some implication here that the temple would still be standing, a reference some commentators stress to emphasize that John is writing this book prior to AD 70. The idea is that were this a reference to a future temple to be rebuilt upon the ashes of one already destroyed, that some mention of that that would be included.

In any event, in order to understand the meaning of this text, you have to understand the importance of "measuring." One commentator gives us this wisdom: "Measuring is a symbolic action used in Scripture to "divide between the holy and the profane" and thus to indicate divine protection from destruction." In other words, it is to separate that which is holy and belongs to God, from that which does not belong to God. And so we read of the future glory of the new heavens and new earth as the city which was measured,

Rev. 21:15 "And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal."

There is also this language in the prophecy of,

Zechariah 2:1 "Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. 2 So I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length." 3 And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him, 4 who said to him, "Run, speak to this young man, saying: 'Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. 5 'For I,' says the LORD, 'will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.'"

That which is measured belongs to God. It is like a boundary survey that you might have done on your property. A licensed surveyor measures out your land, puts a legal description together with tangible markers it the ground itself. It belongs to you. It has been surveyed.

With this survey God is marking out the true temple, the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly temple is but a copy and shadow. And God is claiming that temple for himself. This survey represents,

A. Protection for God's true people from the coming judgment. Such encouragement in the midst of this dire warning of judgment. But don't miss the clear implication of the declaration of John,

B. Casting out the unbelieving wicked. The two, of course, go hand in hand. Salvation for those who are in Christ. Judgment for those who are separated from Christ. And so while the temple of God is measured, we read, v.2

The outer court belong to the Gentiles, to the nations. The unbelieving nations. And they are to be cast out. Not just left out, as we read in verse 2, but cast out. The word is used elsewhere for excommunication. It is the judgment Jesus declared in,

Luke 13:27 "But He will say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.' 28 "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out."

So God guarantees protection to the church, but Jerusalem has been delivered up to destruction. For forty-two months. Three and one-half years. It is a time of temporary victory for the enemies of the people of God. Daniel makes reference to the same period of time in,

Dan. 7:25 "He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, Shall persecute the saints of the Most High, And shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand For a time and times and half a time."

One year. Two years. And half a year.

And actually, that's a very small period of time. The symbolic number of wholeness and fullness is seven, and this is a broken seven, broken in half to be precise.

To give you some specific options for interpretation, this could also refer to the siege of Jerusalem from Spring AD 67 to the fall of the Temple in Sept 70. The Roman Emperor Vespasian enters the land in Spring 67, but Jerusalem does not fall until 70. Forty-two months.

Those who see the book of Revelation as being written later and applying to events in the future would apply this short period of 3-1/2 years to the entire present age, this present evil age, beginning with the destruction of the temple and ending with Christ's return at his second coming. Or others see it still future entirely.

Those differences aside, it is the time when the unbelieving wicked seem to be victorious, "treading the holy city underfoot." And yet it is in the context of God protecting his true people from the coming judgment.

And then there are the,

II. TWO WITNESSES. v.3-6

We see the same time frame again, 1260 days is 42 months. But the obvious question is, "Who are they?" I can't give a definitive answer to that question, since there is such a variety of opinion among those who have studied these things in great detail, but I will say this. As a matter of a very general identification,

A. They represent the whole line of OT prophets. They prophesy. They speak God's words from their own mouths. They are witnesses, testifying to the truth and reality of God. And they do so with a message of repentance, dressed in sackcloth, mourning over the sin of the people to whom they prophecy. And that whole line of prophets came to a dramatic and conclusive end with the final Old Testament prophet who prepared the way for Jesus most immediately.

John 1:6 "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe."

Also, Mat. 3:1 "In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the LORD; Make His paths straight.'" 4 And John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey."

The message is the same as this message given to the Apostle John here in Revelation.

Mat. 3:10 "And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 "His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

So the two witnesses are the fullness of the prophetic witness of Jesus Christ. More specifically,

B. They represent the priesthood and the line of kings. Two shining lampstands which are two oil-filled olive trees. A king and a priest. The reference is in Zechariah 4. The oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit's filling and empowering work in the leaders of God's covenant people.

Zech. 4:1 "Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. 2 And he said to me, "What do you see?" So I said, "I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps. 3 "Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left." 4 So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, "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?" And I said, "No, my lord."

Without going into a lot of detail, Zechariah makes reference to Joshua the priest in chapter 3 and Zerubbabel the king in chapter 4, two witnesses who belong to the royal house and the priesthood.

Zech. 4:6 So he answered and 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. 7 'Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'" 8 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 9 "The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know That the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you."

Now stay with me for a moment. The New Testament actually joins together the priest and the king in the identification and description of the church. For example,

1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

That is us, the church. The priesthood and the line of kings portrayed here by these two witnesses find their fulfillment in the identity of the church.

Let me offer one further explanation of the witnesses, a personal identification. Not just any priest and any king, but the language John uses clearly show that these witnesses,

C. Represent Elijah and Moses. There is the fire of verse 5, as fire came down from heaven at Moses' word and as well fell from heaven and consumed Elijah's enemies. Indeed, when God's prophets speaks his word, it is a word of fire.

Jer. 5:14 "Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts: "Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them."

Likewise the power over the rain in verse 6, a power demonstrated by both Elijah who called for a drought that lasted 3-1/2 years, and Moses, through whom water was turned to blood.

With all of that, though, the witness, the true witness, is the word of God itself, the word proclaimed by the church of Jesus Christ. And as we see here in Revelation, so it still is in our own day, when that word is declared, there is,

III. REBELLION. Spiritual rebellion of the highest order. v.7

The enemy of God and the enemy of Christ's church is pictured as a beast. It is the same one as we saw in chapter 9, the king of all the demons of the abyss,

Rev. 9:11 "And they had as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon."

What we see in our text is,

A. The temporary victory of the beast. And let me emphasize temporary. It lasts only 3-1/2 days. Not months or years, even granting the symbolism of these numbers. But a very short time. Not even a full week, but a broken week, a week broken in half, a mere three and one half days.

But an apparent victory nonetheless. v.7

There is with that,

B. The temporary death of the witness of the church. v.8-10

Now, let me emphasize again, I believe that all of this has immediate reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, and the apparent victory of the unbelieving wicked in Jerusalem, as horrible as it was, was actually quite short-lived. But I also see that judgment upon Jerusalem as picturing the judgment that will certainly come at the end of the age. So I don't object at all to a reference to this whole age as having an element of the temporary death of the witness of the church. I don't object to seeing Christ's own death and burial as corresponding to this temporary death of the witness of God through his church. For the point in all of this is that the triumph of the wicked is temporary!

I don't want to get wrapped up in all the details of the prophetic images and miss that most important point. The apparent triumph of the wicked is very, very temporary. It is short-lived. And whether the image is of the days just before the final destruction of Jerusalem, or of the whole period of this age between the first and second coming of Jesus, or of a time of intense rebellion and pain at the very end of this age, the point is the same. It is temporary. The opportunity for the wicked to rejoice over the people of God in their affliction is fleeting. It is momentary.

And I emphasize that for your encouragement. And so we read,

2 Cor. 4:14 "...knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. 16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

And so after the temporary and short-lived victory of the rebellion we have, by God's good promise, victory. Specifically, in this prophecy,

IV. VICTORY FOR THE CHURCH. It is describes so very appropriately with,

A. The image of resurrection. The two witnesses were killed. Their dead bodies lay in streets of that city now called Sodom, the city of immorality, or Egypt, the city of idolatry. But not for long. v.11

I should add, for your encouragement, that this describes our present position as well. You, too, have been raised with Christ. We as a church are seated with him. That's what we read in,

Eph. 2:1 "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins...4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

We have already been raised with Christ. We are already reigning with Christ. That's the encouragement of the image of resurrection. And so with these two witnesses, we gain that encouragement of those who have been granted,

B. Authority to exercise rule. That's what it means to be raised with Christ. And that's what happened here. v.12

Note that that is the same invitation given to John, "Come up here." It is to join in the reign and rule of Jesus himself.

Rev. 4:1 "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, "Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this."

Here it is. This is what must take place soon. This is what God is accomplishing according to his own eternal purpose. Judgment. But actually,

C. Judgment unto salvation. Judgment for the covenant breakers. Curses. But blessings to those who belong to Jesus. v.13

Conversion and belief for those who survived. And thus, v.14

I believe that third woe is the destruction of Jerusalem itself, announced with the seventh angel. But again, for emphasis, the emphasis is upon the triumph of the church, a victorious triumph brought about by the blowing of the breath of God, the life-giving breath.

And so we ought to be able to apply all of this to our life and existence as a church, for at Pentecost that breath of God has truly blown upon us. And we are to be a mighty army. And we are to be that witness, the fulfillment of the whole line of prophets leading up to Christ, the continuation of the apostolic testimony of Jesus Christ.

And so we sing with triumph, "the church shall never perish! Her dear Lord to defend, to guide, sustain, and cherish, is with her to the end; though there be those that hate her, and false sons in her pale, against or foe or traitor she ever shall prevail. 'Mid toil and tribulation, and tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore; till with the vision glorious her longing eyes are blest, and the great church victorious shall be the church at rest."

Beloved, that is our hope and that is our future! And that will be our focus next week.

v.15 "Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!"

Fully Searchable
Bible