Revelation 11:13-19

In relation chapter 11, I want to read verses 1 to 19. And there was given me a read like under a rod, and the angels stood saying, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar, and then that worship therein. But the court, which is without the temple, leave out, measure it not, for it is given under the Gentiles, and the holy city shall they tread under foot 40 and two months. And I will give power under my two witnesses. They shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and three-score days clothed and sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the God of all the earth. And if any man hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devireth their enemies. And if any man will hurt them, he must in this man. or be killed. These have power to shut heaven that rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them and kill them. Their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great sea. city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and half, shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. They that dwell upon the earth or land shall rejoice over them and make Mary and shall send gifts one to another because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them. They stood upon their feet. Great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud. and their enemies beheld them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake. The tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain men 7,000. And in the earthquake were slain of men, 7,000. And the rem that were affrighted and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is passed, he’ll the third woe, comeeth quickly. And the seventh thing. angel sounded. There were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. The 24 the four and 20 elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worship God saying we give thee thanks O Lord God Almighty which art and wastest and art to come because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reign. And the nations were angry and thy wrath has come and the time of the dead that they should be judged and that thou should give them or give reward unto thy servants, the prophets and to the saints and them that fear thy name small and great and should just destroy them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was open in heaven and there was seen in his temple, the ark of his testament, and there were lightnings and voices and thundrings and an earthquake in great hail. God blessed it was his sacred this morning. Now we were looking at the two witnesses that are mentioned in verses 3 to 14 and we said there is some difficulty of interpretation. Some have suggested that these are two individuals. Some have suggested whether symbolic representations of things like, let’s say, the law on the prophets or something. I suggested that there are two individuals. We look at the context. They’re clothed and sackcloth, which I think it’s pretty hard to put the law and the prophets in that category. They are the two olive trees and two candlesticks referring to Zachariah chapter 4 and to Joshua the high priest and the Zerubble, the royal prince. Those are two individuals. Their deaths are celebrated in verse 10 and they’re restored to life, verse 11. So there is some difficulty, but I think it’s best that we take these as two individuals. Then I talked about the description of the two witnesses in verses 3 to 6. We said that we believe that these were the apostles of Christ. They were my two witnesses, Christ says here. The same as we read in Acts 1-8, when Christ told the disciples that they would be his witnesses. The prophecy is during the final 1260 days of Israel’s national existence. It’s a call for repentance, and this fits well with the idea of them being apostles. They are spiritual leaders of the church, as verse 4 indicates. Like Joshua and Zerubbable, the apostles are kings and priests, as we saw in chapter 1, who sit on thrones judging over Israel. Matthew 1928, they provide light for the people of God. We looked at the pronouncement of judgment upon their enemies in verse 5. We see that they bring miraculous judgments, verse 6, like Moses, like Elijah. And we said before the death penalty can be carried out to witness. have to witness. And so God provides two witnesses here before the death penalty is given to the nation. And then we looked lastly at verses 7 to 10 when we saw the death of the two witnesses. They can’t be harmed until their ministry is completed. Once their ministry is completed, we see that they die as martyrs. They’re killed by the beast, the Roman Empire here. They lie in the streets. of Jerusalem, their enemies celebrate, and there seems to be great joy over the fact that these two tormentors are now dead. Versus 11 to 14 hour, we see the vindication of the two witnesses. The martyred witnesses are raised to life again by God. As a final testimony, really, I think, to the Jews. Verse 11. They are restored to life. before the very eyes of their tormentors. This was a startling sign that these two witnesses had indeed come from God and what they had prophesied would come to pass. They’re immediately transported to heaven like Elijah of old. They’re just snatched away here. And great, cute fear comes over the people. There’s a notable change from the rejoicing to the trembling. that we read about here in verse 12. This was God’s stamp of approval, and everyone would know these were set by him, these two witnesses, and Jerusalem was doomed. In the same hour, the hour of triumph for the two witnesses, the last lingering hour of the sixth trumpet, it was evident to the Jews that all hope was, lost, as we see in verse 13, a grave earthquake, which we said was symbolic of a catastrophic event, a great upheaval occurring to the nation. Now, the catastrophic event is the tenth part of the city falling. Verse 13. Now, why is this so important as the city? to be spoken in such terms as this. It’s just a tenth of the city. The whole city was walled in various sections. It didn’t just have an outer wall around it. It was what we might call compartmentalized within the city. Each section of the city was walled off from others. You don’t happen to have a… Can we put it up on the screen? I think there’s some of those wires happening. As I described this city, I was going to point out to the U. Here. These are some of the survivors from the… It looks at the current headlight study. Yeah. As I said, the city here is compartmentalized, and you can see from this map the different sections of the city. You see this part here. This is the new city. This is the Tyrone. city. This is Sanan and Romans kept their guard. This section here, this compartmentalized, and there’s even a little one inside walled in. This is the temple complex. And it’s sort of double walled here. By the way, the part that’s left, do you see the whaling wall? It’s part of this wall outside here. Not part of the temple itself. This is this part over here. This is the lower city, this section in here. This is the upper city. And this is the little section here. There’s eight different sections of the city. In the first attack against the city, the Romans broke through here and captured this. And as we will see here, it took months of mining and preparation to do this, and they overran it. Then the Romans built a blockade wall. wall or what we call a siege dyke around the rest of the city. To do this, it was for the purpose of keeping any of the Jews from escaping. They put a siege dike up at that point. I refer you to the book of Luke, chapter 19, if you would, and verses 41 to 44, where Jesus says this. And when he was come near, he beheld the city. whipped over it, saying if thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day, the things which belong under thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes, but the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round about, and can pass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. You’ll notice in verse 43 here, he talks about, shall cast a trench about thee. This is the word trench here is a rampart wall on an embankment of earth. So what they would do is they would dig on the one side, and they would dig up some dirt and mound it up. And from, they’d build this mound, but there would be like a trench in front of the mound that they put up. And then they put different logs and wood up on top of that to give like a wall of protection. They’d also put spikes out of made out of wood with sharpened end, and they’d stick them in the ground, facing their enemy. So the enemy that had got through the spike section, then through the trench to get up to the wall. and so they could keep them all boxed in. And that’s what Jesus is referring to, I believe, is that particular trench wall. So now this part of the city is captured. So all we have… Now, in making such a wall or a trench here, it was called the in Roman military wording, a Valum, V-A-L-L-L-U-M. Josephus refers to it in his writings. Well, after a… many months of assault, they finally reached the point where they could attack the temple. The temple section that’s remaining here, this section, is about one-tenth of the remaining part of the city. It’s under this siege wall, the blockade wall. However, for the Jews, this was the most important part of the city. This was the key aspect of the city. In fact, they did not believe the temple could possibly fall. into the hands of their enemy. They were so confident that God wouldn’t let that happen. Some have suggested that this was God’s part. It was a tenth, God’s tenth of the city. His tithe, if you would. This explains then the great earthquake here. Why was this such a catastrophic event when the whole city wasn’t conquered yet? Well, because it was the temple that was captured. and the fall of the temple complex would be a devastating and bitter blow to the Jews. Jerusalem is not quite conquered yet. I mean, there’s still a lot more to conquer, but this blow would take the heart out of those still defending in the city. This would be such a psychological blow to the Jews that would never recover from it. Josephus talks about this event, the fall of the temple, and you, and you would never recover from it. You notice in verse 13, our text tells us that there was 7,000 that were slain at this time. Josephus says this, in his writings on the wars, book 6, chapter 5, paragraph 1. While the Holy House was on fire, everything was plundered that came to hand. and 10,000 of those that were caught were slain, nor was there a commiseration of any age or any reverence of gravity, but children and old men and profane persons and priests were all slain in the same manner. So that this war went round all sorts of men and brought them the destruction, and as well those that made supplication for their lives, as those that defended themselves by fighting. the flame was also carried a long way and made an echo together with the groans of those that were slain. And because this hill was high and the works at the temple were very great, one would have thought the whole city had been on fire. Nor can one imagine anything either greater or more terrible than this noise, for there was at once a shout of the Roman legions who were marching altogether, and a sad clamor of the seditious who were now surrounded with fire and sword. The people also that were left above were beaten back upon the enemy under a great consternation and made sad groans at the calamity they were under. The multitude also that was in the city joined in this outcry with those that were upon the hill. and besides many of those that were worn away by the famine and their mouths almost closed, when they saw the fire of the Holy House, they exerted their utmost strength and break out into groans and outcries again. Perea did also return the echo, as well as the mountains round about the city, and augmented the force of the entire noise. Yet was the misery itself more important. terrible than this disorder. For one would have thought that the hill itself of which the temple stood was seething hot as full of fire on every part, that the blood was larger in quantity than the fire, and those that were slain more in number than those that slew them. For the ground did nowhere appear visible, for the dead bodies that lay on it. But the soldiers went over heaps of those bodies. as they ran upon such as fled from them. Now, there should be a question of the differences between the 7,000 that Scripture talks about and the 10,000 that Josephus talks about, I suggest you that Josephus is given an estimation. Whereas the scriptures we can count on as being the correct figure, I believe. But many thousands fell when the temple was taken. The remnant that remained were frightened. to verse 13 and gave glory to God. The effect produced is similar to that of the centurion when there was an earthquake when Christ was crucified and that people were giving glory to God. Many times of fear and terror may be compelled to give glory to the God of heaven despite the hardness of their heart. This is the, then we see the conclusion of the second woe here in verse 14. past. And the third woe was coming. Apparently, all this, chapter 10 and chapter 11, has been in some manner connected with the sixth trumpet. The third woe is not easy to identify, as you read of no heavy blow of judgment falling. But it appears the judgment of the seventh trumpet is the fall of the rest of the city. this is not explicitly stated, but the effect of the temple’s destruction is in the forefront, I think, at verses 15 to 19. Behold, the third woe comes quickly. It cannot be off at a distance, but the final end of Jerusalem and apostate, Israel seems to be correct. So this is the measuring of the temple and the two witnesses. Any question about this? part of the study. That brings us now to the seventh trumpet, verses 1519. Christ reign over the kingdoms of the world, as mentioned in verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. He shall reign forever and ever. Yeah. This is not the last Trump associated with the second coming of Jesus Christ, nor is it a declaration that the entire earth has now been Christianized. The time frame of the context is still the fall of the city of Jerusalem and 70 AD. With the demise of the temple and Judaism, the kingdom of Christ takes center state. The destruction of temple is according to Christ’s prophecy in Matthew chapter 24. It was proof positive that Christ was reigning over all. Christ upon his ascension, which we talked about in Revelation chapter 5, is enthroned, and he, according to Daniel 7, has dominion over all peoples and all nations. chapter 7 of Daniel, verses 13 and 14. However, he proves his reign over all the earth by the unsealing of the book of judgments that fell upon Israel, as we saw in chapter 10, as he opened the seals and finished, completed them. The kingdom of Christ will now begin earnestly to invade Satan’s kingdom of darkness. all the nations and conquer a multitude of souls and bring them into the kingdom of God. So Christ reign over the kingdoms of the earth or the world. We see the heavenly song in verses 16 and 17. The four and 20 elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, which was and wasst an art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and asked rain. Christ begins a universal reign here. This ascendancy of Christ will continue until all God’s purpose is achieved when all enemies are placed under the feet of Christ, according to 1st Corinthians 15. Christ’s reign is everlasting. lasting. It’s unassailable. It’s unconquerable. And this is the praise of the 24 elders. Remember, the 24 elders are represented of the church, and the entire church in heaven. Notice that Christ here is given the same character as God the Father here is. We see he is the Lord God Almighty, which art and art to come. Chapter 1. verses 4 and 8 referred to God the Father with that terminology. Here I think we can see it applied to Christ. So we need to praise Christ, I think more for his power and his authority as king overall. Here’s the heavenly song. And then we have the destruction of the enemies of Christ and his people being accomplished. Verse 18, and the nations were angry, and thy wrath has come in the time of the dead that they should be judged that they should give reward unto thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints, to them that fear thy name, small and great, and should just destroy them which destroy the earth. Now the nations are angry. We certainly could apply this to Psalm 2.1. They’re always angry when Christ’s anointed. God’s anointed is reigning. Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine of anything? thing. Apostate Israel was not the only enemy of Christ and his church. These heathen nations also are opposing Christ and his people. As Psalm 2 indicates to us, and the rest of the book of Revelation will indicate. The martyrs have suffered from Nero and the Roman Empire, the beast. And so they are, they have aroused the wrath of Christ. as well. And it’s time that the dead should be judged. Now, this is not the final judgment on the day of the Great Resurrection that’s related to us in Revelation chapter 20. No, this is the time for the martyrs to be avenged. The time of those who are now dead, who have been killed by these evil nations, the Roman Empire in particular, and for the beast has made war against the saints. Revelation 13.7 will mention that again. Christ is going to destroy them which destroy the land. Yes, God will use Israel as a punching bag here, and God will destroy it by Rome. And then he will turn and destroy Rome, too, and bring down the Roman Empire as well. This is an assurance. that Christ does reign over all the nations and none shall escape his rod of wrath without repentance so that they should kiss the sun lest he be angry and they perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little as Psalm 212 indicates. So there’s the description of the enemies of Christ and his people. Lastly, in this chapter, we see the Temple of God opened in heaven, verse 19. the temple of God was open in heaven. There was seen in his temple, the ark of his testament, and there were lightnings and voices and thundrings and an earthquake and great hail. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, all the ceremonial, all the ritualistic elements, what was earthly, what was figurative, are swept away forever. What need is there for? when Christ has completely fulfilled them. And the Lamb of God is the true sacrifice. And he is the true high priest. And so the temple of God in heaven is now open with an emphasis here on the Ark of the Covenant being visible because there’s no longer a veil. We can see the Ark of the Covenant. So that which is local, that which is temporal, is going to pass away, and is succeeded by that which is heavenly and eternal, what is true in spirit. This is what seems to be emphasized in this text. Through Jesus Christ, we have access to the Holy of Holies, as Hebrews 8 and 9 indicate to us. We can draw near unto God. So in the midst of the outpouring of wrath and judgment upon the wicked and all the lightning and voices and thunderings and earthquake and great hail here. These are all judgmental aspects. God’s people are rejoicing, assured of direct access to the Lord God, and that’s a great comfort to us. Well, this ends the first half of the book of Revelation. Everything in it, I think, can be explained in terms of God’s wrath against Apostle. state Israel in John’s Day. Everything seems to fit within the contemporary focus of the book’s time frame, things which must shortly come to pass. Now let me make a couple of practical observations. I took chapters 10 and 11 together, so let me back up to chapter 10 for observations here. Make two. First, Christ our Lord is a glorious king who claims the entire world as his inheritance. He’s got his foot on the sea and on the earth. Jesus of the Lord of Glory. When he roars as a lion, he’s meeting out his judgment. The seven-sealed book is open, and Christ’s kingdom can’t fail. His power is such that it sweeps away all opposition to it. And we have the seven thunders going forth, and we believe these are some type of judgments, but they’re not recorded. We see that every detail of Christ defeating his enemy are not, these details are not all recorded for us. Some of them are hidden, but we don’t know what the secret things are that belong under the Lord. But answer to the cries of the people of God, Christ the king powerfully responds, and there’s not going to be any more delay. The early church will not continue to perish under these attacks by the Jews against them. Christ is going to respond and put down their enemies. We see secondly that God’s message may be bittersweet. The word of God is the delight to his people. It’s as sweet as honey in their mouth. And you’re assured of victory. You are assured of a glorious and inheritance that await you, which the Word of God unveils. So the Word of God is sweet. We know that our enemies are going to fall before Christ our king. He will crush them. Yet the Word of God sometimes is bitter to us when it’s more thoroughly digested. It speaks sometimes of persecution, sometimes of suffering for all those who are faithful to Christ, even martyrs. them as we find people are slain. It speaks of such desolations and wrath falling upon your own nation. Postate Israel and John’s Day, but certainly if we look at our own day, we can see that there are judgments that sometimes fall on our nations. When wicked countries reject the gospel, they undergo judgment. And if our nation continues to do so, it will as well. And while you may rejoice that we have a holy and righteous God, you may also rejoice in the fact that the God of all the earth is going to do what’s right. And sometimes it is sad for us because we have family members. We have relatives that might perish when the wrath of the Lamb is meted out. When we move on to Chapter 11, I’ll make a couple comments on this as well. The external rituals and ceremonies of the physical temple had to pass away. We see that in verses 1 and 2 in verse 19. The things of the old covenant were just shadows and types. No longer were necessary once Christ has died and risen again. So only the spiritual essence of God’s house will remain. For the church, church is God’s holy temple. All his people are priests. And we may now enter into those sacred areas, the holy place and the Holy of Holies through Christ, our high priest. Through his sacrifice, we find it’s sufficient to wipe away all our sins. We have no need of another. I think it’s foolish. It’s blasphemous to talk about some kind of rebuilt temple, some type of reinstatement of all the sacrifices, that the dispensationalists talk about why would we want to go back to shadows and tights when that which is superior and far superior has been provided in Christ? Secondly, we see that God always provides witnesses to testify before the ungodly. In verses 3 to 14 of Chapter 11, we see as two witnesses. The people of God can witness with great confidence in the world because God’s power to save people and to preserve them in their witnessing can be displayed. Even without accompanying miracles, the preaching of God’s word is as powerful as fire, deviring his enemies. As Jeremiah 514 tells us, because you speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people, would and it shall devire them. In your teaching or in your witnessing, you are pronouncing in a way God’s judgment against all those who don’t repent and all those who don’t trust in Christ. That’s frightening to hear if you’re a recipient of such a message. There may be a cost to your witnessing. We see that the two witnesses are hated, despised, and eventually martyred for their faith. May we pray that God would give us more boldness to speak for Christ by the power of His Spirit regardless of how those around us may receive it. Lastly, we see there are two responses to the advancement of the kingdom of God in the world verses 15 and 19. The righteous rejoice and praise God because Christ has taken to himself power and is reigning. The people of God, delight in the fact that God’s kingdom is advancing in the world. The kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. However, the nations are angry. For the gospel goes forth and the results of it involved the crushing with a rod of iron of some. There is judgment that falls with God’s message. And the kingdom of God advances amid great opposition at times. There’s no way that they can unseat or overthrow Christ rule because he shall reign forever and ever, verse 15. but Christ is also assured that the heathen shall be his inheritance in Psalm 2 in Psalm 2. well in Psalm 2 by his father. His kingdom is worldwide and Christ’s victory over the nations is such that the people of God are over joy. So while the nations may be angry, God’s people rejoice. Any comments or thoughts as we close this section off on this passage. Let us close to the word.