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Revelation chapter eleven. We're just going to continue right on. We got through the first

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three verses last week. Uh, kinda. And we're in this section that talks about the two witnesses.

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And um, you've really, if you missed it, you're going to have to go back and check a lot of

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stuff because we don't have time to catch everybody up on everything. But the short

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summary is the two witnesses, they are coming and they are going to minister for 42 months,

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which we said harkens back to the book of Daniel. And it really, it's symbolic for the entire

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time period between Jesus' ascension and his return. And when we were talking about the two

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witnesses, we were saying that there's a few different interpretations and something that

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we need to reiterate this week that I said last week. You're free to hold to a different

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interpretation than I hold to. That's fine because this is not a primary issue, right church?

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When there's no reason to be up in arms and start throwing fists over eschatology, there's

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plenty of other things to fight about. So, uh, the end times is not one of them. There are more

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important issues. So you can hold to a different view. That's fine. Uh, as long as we agree on

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Jesus, that's all that matters. But the most common view today, if you'll remember, we said,

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the most common view today says that the two witnesses are going to come at some point in

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the future and they refer to two literal people. Now, there were different suggestions. Some

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people say Elijah and Moses. Some people say Elijah and Enoch. And if you'll remember, the view

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that I put forward is to say that it's actually not referring to two individual people who are

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going to come at some point in the future, but that the two witnesses refers to the church as a

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whole and that it's referring to the ministry of the church during the time between Jesus'

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ascension and his return. And the big question was, well, uh, why, why are they referred to as

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two witnesses then? If this refers to the whole church, then why does it say two? And the reason

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is because it's referring back to the Old Testament where the Old Testament said, in order for a

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testimony to be believable and trustworthy, it had to be established by how many witnesses? Two.

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And so this is just Revelation's way of saying the testimony of the church regarding Jesus and the

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gospel is a reliable, trustworthy witness. It is a reliable testimony that should be believed.

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That's, that's what the point is here. And we listed a bunch of other reasons for believing that it's,

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it's not referring to two literal people. Another primary reason was that they're referred to as

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the two lampstands. And we said all throughout Scripture, in every single place, the word lampstand

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is used, and I looked at every single one that occurs in Scripture, it always refers to either a

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literal lampstand or the church and nothing else. There's no in between. It never once refers to an

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individual person or anything like that. It always refers to a literal lampstand or the church. And

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even earlier in the book of Revelation in chapter one, Jesus said that the lampstands are the churches.

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The churches are the lampstands. The lampstands are the churches. Since we're still in the same book

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inspired by the same God, written with human hands by the same author, we should defer to that

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interpretation that the lampstands refer to the church. And so there were like five other reasons,

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but you'll have to go back and listen to that lesson on our website. So here's something I

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want to do now, right? We're looking at the two witnesses and I've just put before you a view

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that probably a lot of people haven't heard of before. And here's what I know happens, human

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tendency, whenever we're confronted with a view that's different from our own or a view that

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we're not familiar with, we have a tendency to be pretty skeptical, right? So I haven't heard it

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that way before. That's not the way I've always been told. I've always believed something different.

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And listen, again, that's fine. But what I want you to understand is that this is not a new

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interpretation. And just because an interpretation is new to you, or no longer the common view,

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does not mean that it's new to the church. In fact, this might surprise you. This view that the two

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witnesses refers to the entirety of God's people who will be a witness for the Lord throughout the

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entire church age, it was the very first view of the church. It was the very first understanding of

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this passage from the church. And it was the majority of you for centuries and centuries

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and centuries in the church. You have to remember Revelation was written in the 90s.

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This is the 90s AD. That's when Revelation was written. I'm going to show you some examples

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of early testimonies we have concerning the book of Revelation, specifically on this topic.

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Arguably the most important one, Irenaeus. He was the Bishop of Leone, and he was ministering in

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the 100s AD. So this is very, very early second century. And again, Revelation was written in

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the 90s. In the 100s AD, Irenaeus, Bishop of Leone, he actually wrote concerning the two witnesses

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in Revelation. He wrote about this in a book, a famous book, Great Read. It's called Against

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Heresies. If you ever want to read it, it's free online, public domain. But he wrote, this was

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just years, years after Revelation was written by John through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

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And Irenaeus said this about the two witnesses. He said, the two witnesses are God's covenant people

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encompassing both covenants and that their ministry is the church's witness until the time

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of Christ's return. Isn't that interesting? This is the earliest extra biblical work about the

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book of Revelation that we have. And this is the earliest person we have commenting on the book

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of Revelation. And his view was not, it's referring to two literal people who were coming back.

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This was a man who was living shortly after the Apostle John, who was friends with the Apostle

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John's disciples. And he says it was referring to the church and their ministry. But not only that,

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you can go into, again, early second century and beginning into the third century. But

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second century, you have a man named Tertullian. And Tertullian had this majority view as well,

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that the two witnesses were God's people who bear witness to Christ and the gospel until

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the return of Christ. Now, this also continued into the third century with a man named Origin.

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You might have heard of him before. Yeah, he was very famous. They said that he was the most brilliant

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biblical scholar that the early church ever produced. And in the 200s AD, so this is early

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third century, a little over 100 years after Revelation was written, Origin, like Irenaeus

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and Tertullian, interpreted the two witnesses as the church. And he said that their prophesying

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was the ongoing witness of the church that continues until Christ returned. You have the

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same thing with Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage in 200 AD, except he added this little clarification,

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this little unique contribution of his to stress the importance of the unity of believers

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in fulfilling the witness that they're supposed to carry out on the behalf of Christ through this age.

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Another church father in the third century, you can see up there, Victorinus of Patal. He was the

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Bishop of Poetovia. Poetovia never even heard of that place, but that's where he was. And he was

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the Bishop there. And he also held to this view with the added clarification that the death and

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resurrection of the two witnesses, the church, represents the persecution and the eventual

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vindication of God's faithful people. This clearly shows that this view was the majority view held

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by the early church, at least through the first three centuries of the church. You get into the

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fourth century of Ambrose of Milan, he also held to this view. And honestly, we could just keep going

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on and on through Augustine and others and things like that. The point of this is that even though

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this view might be unfamiliar to you, it is not unfamiliar to the church. And I think that's something

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we have to keep in mind because we have this tendency in the church today to find a lot of

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comfort in what we've always been told and the way that we've always been told it. And we hold

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on to that. And then when you actually start looking back through church history and say, well,

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how did the early church interpret this? How did the people who were closest in time to

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Jesus and his apostles and even their disciples, how did they understand this passage? Because

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Irenaeus, he was very close friends with Polycarp. Polycarp was a disciple of John. And he was

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associated with John. Many people tried to actually include Polycarp's writing in the

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Bibles, but the Bible, they said, this is not actually inspired. But they were the ones who

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were learning from John, who wrote the book of Revelation under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

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So they had a little more insight than we do today. We're very far removed. They were right there.

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So all this is to say that the majority view today was not the majority view of the early church.

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And with this view that you have two literal people who were coming back at some point in time,

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it rose into popularity a little later. But something else we need to address with this,

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if you're looking in Revelation chapter 11, and it's talking about the two witnesses, the common

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view today, remember, it says that these is referring to two literal people who will come back at

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some point in time. And they'll say, you know, Elijah and Moses or Elijah and Enoch, Elijah and Enoch

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are usually the two biggest suggestions. And we run into an interesting problem.

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You see, the reason that people suggest Elijah and Enoch, we said this last week, do you remember

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the reason? Why do they say it has to be Elijah and Enoch? They never died. So you run into what I

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called the 927 problem, all right, specifically Hebrews 927 is on. Could you put that on the screen?

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Here's this very interesting problem. The Bible says in Hebrews 927, and just as it is appointed

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for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment. So the people who hold to this view,

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they say, well, it has to be Elijah and Enoch, because the Bible says man must die once Elijah

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and Enoch did not die. Therefore, they have to return in order to fulfill what God is saying

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they will do here and have, you know, the ability to die since the Lord took them before their

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deaths. And at first glance, it seems like a serious problem to this other view, right?

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Like, I mean, you look at this, the Bible says you got to die once they never died makes a lot of

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sense. So they need to come back and die, right? Seems like a very serious problem at first, but

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it's only a problem if you interpret Hebrews 927 very rigidly. And I think that we have good reason

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not to interpret it rigidly. So interpret it truthfully, but not rigidly. And here's why I say

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that because the verse clearly says there, it's been appointed for man to die once. Yes, we all

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see it, we all agree. Here's the problem. Many people throughout history have died more than once.

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Right? I mean, there are plenty of examples. For instance, the widow son in 1 Kings 17 died,

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but then Elijah brought him back to life. Now the same thing applies for the widow son in 2 Kings

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4, whom Elisha brought back to life. Jairus' daughter in Mark chapter 5, whom Jesus brought back to life.

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Widow's son in Luke 7, Jesus brought him back to life. Lazarus, you all remember Lazarus, Jesus

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brought him back to life after he died. Dorcas died, and then Peter brought Dorcas back to life.

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And then there's the funniest one, which is Uticus. Y'all remember Uticus? Don't tell me you forgot

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about Uticus. He's the one who fell out of the window. Paul preached such a boring sermon, the guy

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fell out of a window and died. How do y'all forget that? If someone died during one of my sermons,

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I wouldn't forget. He fell out of a window and he died. And then Paul goes down, it's like I wasn't

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done preaching. He brings it back to life. I mean, can you imagine you die out of falling out of

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window? Paul says, you're not done listening. But all these people, here's the point. All of these

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people, they died once, and then through the power of God working through some human, they were brought

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back to life. But here's the thing, they eventually died again, right? So they didn't die just once.

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It's been appointed for man to die once. If we're going to interpret that literally and rigidly,

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it means man must only die once. However, if we're not so rigid with it, then you don't have to believe

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that. The second reason I don't think that we should interpret it rigidly is because not everyone

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is going to die, right? I mean, we got to be very careful with this. If we say that this is rigid

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and literal and it must be the case, well, the problem is it's not going to be the case because

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there are many, many people who will never die. For instance, if we are so fortunate, we might be

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alive when Jesus returns. If Jesus returns before we die, will we ever die? No, we'll be escorted to

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heaven. We'll go to the judgment throne of God and then we'll be with him forever and ever and ever,

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and we will never be touched by death. So there are some people who will never die. So when you

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look at this, this is why I always tell people, scripture interprets scripture. You read this and

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you go, okay, it might be literal, it might be rigid, maybe only, everybody only dies once, but then

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you look at the Bible and the whole testimony of scripture says, well, many people have died

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more than once and many people will never die. That does not, I want you to understand something,

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that does not take away from the truthfulness of what this verse says. Do y'all follow me on this?

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This verse is true. It is just not rigid. This is not meant to be rigid. It's meant to be a general

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principle. The Bible is saying here in Hebrews 9.27 that generally speaking, death comes for all.

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For some, it comes multiple times. I mean, you've heard the stories even today of people dying and

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then being brought back to life through our modern technologies. I mean, praise God for that. And you

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know that when Jesus returns, the people who are alive will never die. This is saying generally speaking,

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it has been appointed that death is mankind's end and after that comes the judgment of God. So in

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other words, when you understand it like that and understand that it's a general thing, we don't need

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to interpret this rigidly and because of that, it's not an actual problem for the view that the two

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witnesses are the church, nor does this verse suggest that Enoch and Elijah have to come back

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because they do not. If, yeah, if you, the only way you get there is if that's rigid, but since

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that's rigid, not rigid, then Enoch and Elijah do not have to come back. Generally speaking, all

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people will die and that will be their end. And so with that all said, trying to move past the two

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witnesses and their identities, we can get into their ministry very quickly. I want you to look

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at Revelation 11 verses four through six. This is going to describe the ministry of the two witnesses.

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So the Bible says these are the two olive trees, meaning again, a reference back to Zechariah.

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They're the ones anointed by God to carry out his ministry here. They're the two lampstands,

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that's referring to the church and they stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would

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harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is

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how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the

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days of their prophesying. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to

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strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. Now it's important to note

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here that there's a lot of symbolic language being used and I want you to notice how it revolves

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around our mouths and our speech. Did you notice this? Fire comes from the mouth and then the

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witnesses use their mouths to prophesy and to call down certain judgments from God. And so what this

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does is this actually representing the church preaching a message of judgment upon a people

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who refused to repent of their sins and turn to Christ. In other words, we don't need to interpret

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this literally as fire literally coming from their mouth. That's not what's being pictured here. You

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could picture that and you know what? The Lord could make it happen, but I don't think it's necessary

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here. This is not saying that fire is literally going to come from their mouth. It's a reference to

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the judgment because fire is associated with God's judgment. And so it means that the message of

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salvation in Christ, if rejected, becomes a message of judgment upon those who reject it and it

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anticipates the final judgment. And here's the thing. Fire has already been used in the Bible in

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this exact way. Alright, so the reference Jeremiah chapter 5 verse 14. This is what the Bible says.

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Jeremiah 5 14. I want you to notice the similarities here. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of

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hosts, because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire. And this

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people would and the fire shall consume them. Was God saying that the words in Jeremiah's mouth

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were literally going to become fire or that he was literally going to turn people to wood? And then

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the words that Jeremiah spoke being fire would literally burn them up. No, it's a picture of

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judgment. God was saying, I've given you a message to proclaim and they have refused to repent. They

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have refused to turn from their evil sinful ways. They've refused to turn to me. And so now you're

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going to preach a message of judgment and that judgment is going to be so severe and so fast

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coming upon them that it will be like a fire consuming wood. Your words will burn them up like

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a fire consumes wood. That's the idea here. That's what John is communicating to us in the book of

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Revelation. He's saying the message of Christ is salvation to all who would repent and believe.

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But notice it's also a message of judgment to those who reject the gospel and refuse to repent

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and believe. I mean, the book of Revelation uses this imagery all the time, right? I mean, do you

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remember what Jesus has coming out of his mouth? A sword. Are we supposed to believe that when

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Jesus comes back, there will be a literal sword coming out of his mouth? No. The sword is a picture

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of God's word, which we read about in Hebrews chapter four, where the Bible is likened to a

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double-edged sword. It's saying that Jesus has this message of judgment for all those who have

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refused to repent and believe in him. And so that's what they're saying here. It's not a

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literal fire. It's referring to the effects of God's judgment upon those who refuse to believe.

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And then notice it also describes some other things. He describes the two witnesses shutting up the

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sky so that no rain falls and turning water to blood and calling down the plagues. And when he

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does this, he's alluding to the judgment ministries of Elijah and Moses, like we talked about last

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week. You remember Elijah had a ministry of judgment for three and a half years in which he

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prayed that the Lord would shut up the sky and it would not rain. And that's exactly what happened.

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God honored that prayer because he honors the prayer of a righteous person. The Bible tells us.

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And then you remember that Moses had a ministry of judgment as well. Where was his ministry of

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judgment? What was his? That's right. Yeah. When he was in Egypt and God sent him to be the one to

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deliver the people of Egypt and Pharaoh would not let God's people go. And so God gave Moses the

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ability to pronounce the plagues upon Egypt. And that's exactly what Moses did. It was a ministry

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of judgment. He was saying God through Moses saying because you refuse to let God's people go,

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here's what's going to happen to you. Here's the judgment of God upon you. Well, John, by the

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inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is making that connection and saying that the ministry of judgment

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is the ministry of the church now takes up. That our ministry as the people of God is like that of

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Moses and Elijah. That God's judgment is coming. And we don't like that, do we? We want to be the

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churches that go around saying, hey, God loves you and he does. And God just wants what's best for

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you and he does. Turns out that's not what you want. We want to be happy, go lucky and have the

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feelings and like, oh, yeah, everything's all nice and rainbows and sunshine all the time. But you

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read the Bible and that's just not the case. That's not who God's called us to be. Yes, we tell people

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God loves them. Yes, we tell them that there is salvation in Christ, but we're leaving out the

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ramifications. And that's a detriment to the world and to the church. Do we understand that today?

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I mean, this is why you hear some churches, they never mentioned sin in their church at all.

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How do you repent if there's no mention of sin? There's no calling someone out and saying, this

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is wrong. These things are wrong. These things are sinful. These things will send you to hell. Your

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heart is corrupted. Your heart is wicked and dead in sin and you need a new one and you can't do

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anything about that. You need the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. This is why you have no

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churches today. Almost no church is preaching the complete message of the gospel. We want to

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hang up ourselves on the good news, but here's the thing. Good news is only good if you understand

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the bad news, right? That's right. Sinners in the hands of an angry God. People avoid that,

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but it's one of the greatest sermons ever written where Jonathan Edwards literally described humanity

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as God holding a spider's web and humanity was like a spider dangling above an open flame.

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And at any point, God could just open his fingers and it is nothing but the pure mercy and grace

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of God that keeps his fingers closed. He described it as people walking over rickety

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wooden floorboards and underneath there's a fire raging and at any second those floorboards could

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break or God could just pull the whole floor apart and Jonathan Edwards said it is nothing but the

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mere mercy of God that keeps you out of hell any one second. And we don't think like that anymore,

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do we? Sinners love their sin. They pursue their sin. They see nothing wrong with their sin. They

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give themselves their sin and they think, I'm just going to go on living forever. And some people,

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I've got this in a sermon coming up so I won't preach the whole thing, but let me get going.

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Some people think, well, I'll just do it one day, you know? I'm just, I'm going to live how I want

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now. I'm going to enjoy certain things. I'm going to live up my life and do all these things. And

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then, but one day, one day I'll get my life together. I'll do the Christian thing then. I'll do Jesus

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on my deathbed. And the thing is, you don't understand that at any moment you could die.

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And when you die, that is it. It is nothing but the mere mercy of God that keeps sinners out of

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hell for any one second. In order to appreciate the good news of Jesus Christ coming into this world

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to save us from our sins, you have to understand the bad news. One of the biggest problems in the

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church today is we are not telling people the bad news. We go around sugarcoating it for people

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so they don't feel bad about themselves. Hey, you're not that bad. You can just clean a few things up.

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You get right in here. When in reality, the Bible says no, actually, you are an enemy of God.

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A son, a child of disobedience and darkness. You belong to the prince of the power of the air.

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The Bible says you are dead in your sins. You are an enemy of God. You have no goodness in you at

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all. You can produce no goodness in and of yourself. You are hopeless to save yourself. And because of

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your sin, you deserve an eternity in hell and during the wrath of God forever because you

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have sinned against the holiness of God. And since God is eternal, he is eternally holy. And to offend

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the holiness of God warrants an eternity in hell. That is your situation. And there's not a thing you

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can do about it. When you understand that, how good is it to hear, but Christ has already done it?

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Isn't that so much sweeter and so much better? You tell people, hey, Jesus died for you. They say,

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great, I've heard that before. You tell people where they actually stand before a holy God whose

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mind cannot be changed and his will cannot be thwarted. And then you tell them, but Christ has

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already done the work for you. That changes things. That's when you can really appreciate the good news.

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What the Bible is calling us to do here as the two witnesses whose message, whose testimony

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is trustworthy, unbelievable, and reliable, he is calling us to be bold witnesses for Christ.

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Not to change the gospel, not to soften its offense, but to proclaim with boldness the entire

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gospel message that if you will repent and believe and trust in Christ, you will certainly be saved

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from your sins. You will never experience the wrath of God and you will be safe and secure in the

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arms of Christ. And there's not a thing the enemy can do about that. But you also have to warn them

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too, church. That's the part we don't do. That's the part we have to do. You have to warn them if

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you refuse this message. If you reject this message, if you continue in your sin and your

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disobedience and you push God out of your life and you never submit to him, there is wrath coming.

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And God is storing up his wrath for the day of judgment. And on that day, no one can blame him

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or say that he's unjust because we are supposed to warn them. This is what they deserve. It's what

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we deserved. And Christ is your only refuge. That's what this is calling us to do, to be witnesses,

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reliable, trustworthy witnesses for Christ. And make sure that people know the entire gospel

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message, the bad news and the good news. That's all I have for you this week, Michael Stevenson.

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How about hitting us with something?