Revelation chapter 11.
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
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
about leaving us with a word