The Life of A Witness - Revelation 11:1-14
We are back on our journey through Revelation…finding the hope that God offered the people of under Roman persecution, the hope he offers us now, and the hope he offers for the future. Two weeks ago, as we reflected on John’s encounter of the angel with the little scroll, we witnessed, through the parallels with Ezekiel, we encounter the verification of John’s call to be a prophet, to act on God’s behalf, to deliver God’s word, and to give warning of the coming judgment of God. This morning we see John’s first assignment following this commissioning as a prophet, and we see a glimpse of what it looks like to be a true witness for Jesus Christ.
The first thing we encounter is John’s assignment, and it is a word of hope. John is “given a measuring rod like a staff, and…told, “Come and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months.”
Where is the hope in John measuring the temple of God and those who are worshipping there? It comes from knowing the significance of the measuring something off…and we find that significance from the three other places that God has things measured off with a rod. The first is in Ezekiel, chapter 40-43, as God has Ezekiel measure off the temple and the city of Jerusalem. The second is in Zechariah, chapter 2, where a man is given orders to find out the width and length of Jerusalem. The third comes later in our journey in chapter 21 of Revelation as an angel is given a measuring rod to measure off New Jerusalem. Why were each of these areas measured off? They were measured off to be set apart…they were marked as special, significant, and protected…and in each case they were marked as the very presence of God was to enter that which was marked off…that the set apart place would be filled with the glory of God and protected from any harm. So here are these folks undergoing persecution from the Roman Empire, and they read that the temple of God and those who worship in it, representative of God’s Church, is being marked off, and being set aside. Then we read that “nations,” the “world,” those who are not part of God’s people will trample over the holy city, they will come against God’s people, for forty-two months.
Quick mathematicians, how long is 42 months? That’s right…3 ½ years. And if we look at our “Apoclypitic Symbolism” cheat sheet, what does 3 ½ represent? The period of time that God will allow evil to run its course, before He or his agent will intervene and take the evil away. So God, through John, is telling the people…I am marking you off and I am protecting you, and the evil you see raging around you will not have the upper hand forever…I am allowing this time, and I will be there soon, and the evil will be taken away. Here’s the hope, God will protect, seal off, His people, and before too long, He will act and put an end to the persecution.
Then we read: “And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for one thousand two hundred sixty days, wearing sackcloth.” Mathematicians and everyone else, want to take a stab at approximately how long one thousand two hundred sixty days is? That’s right, 3 ½ years…So God sends out these two witnesses during the time of persecution, during the time when evil is running rampant…and he sends them out wearing sackcloth. Why send these two witnesses out into hostile territory in the midst of persecution? Why send them out wearing sackcloth? The answer to both of these is found in remembering what God desires of the persecutors. Remember, from the cycle of the seals in which ¼ of the earth, water, and all was destroyed, and in the cycle of the trumpets, which we are nearing the close of, that 1/3 of all was destroyed, and we pointed out that it is important to note that complete destruction of those persecuting God’s people did not occur. Why? Because God’s desire is that the persecutors will turn from their sin, just as His desire is that we will all turn from our sin, and seek Him out with true repentance. The call to repentance is echoed by the dress of the witnesses…the sackcloth. Continuing to hold on to our connection to the Hebrew Scriptures, we note that almost every occasion for wearing sackcloth was as part of an act of repentance on behalf of those who had sinned against God…so here, while proclaiming God’s judgment, the witnesses, offer through their own lives what God desires “the nations” to do.
Who are these witnesses in the midst of the persecution? “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.” Olive trees and lampstands? The vision of the olive trees and lampstands tie our passage once again to Zechariah, where in chapter four, Zechariah is given a vision of a lampstand and two olive trees and told that the olive trees are the anointed witnesses to all of the earth. We also remember from the earliest part of our journey through Revelation, that the lampstand represents the church.
And as we read further into this description it tells us: “And if anyone wants to harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes…They have authority to shut up the sky, so that no rain my fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have the authority over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague….” My brothers and sisters, who called down fire from heaven and who through their prophesy closed off the rain from the sky? Elijah. Who through their speaking for God, turned the water into blood and announced the plagues upon their enemy? Moses. The two olive trees and lampstand are the Church, who carries forth the Revelation of God, as seen in Moses and Elijah…Moses representative of the Law of the Hebrew Scriptures, and Elijah, as the Prophet of God’s Word to His people.
What would be so important about the Church giving testimony to God during the time of persecution? Why not wait until God intervenes and the coast is clear? Because, my friends, the most powerful testimony the Church can give is in the midst of persecution? Think about it…if someone tells you that God loves them and wants to love you to, and their lives are all peaches and roses without a cloud in the sky…that’s okay, but what confidence does it portray…however, if in the midst of struggling, in the midst of pain, under the threat of death, they give witness with confidence to their relationship with God, the God that wants a relationship with you…how much more powerful is that…if the Church which proclaims trust in an all-powerful, loving God, tucks tail, runs, and hides when the going gets tough, they are betray all that they proclaim.
Yet, we read, “When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that is prophetically called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For 3 ½ days members 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 the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and exchange presents, because the two prophets had been a torment to the inhabitants of the earth.
Who is this beast, where is this city called Sodom and Egypt…Sodom was a city of evil, Egypt the place of slavery, the beast, symbolic of a nation (if you recall your “cheat sheet” again.) While some have suggested Jerusalem as the location because of the statement “where their Lord was crucified,” many scholars point to Rome and the Roman Empire, as during the time of John, they were the ones who were persecuting God’s Church, and if we recall, they were the ones who had a hand in crucifying Christ. To be denied burial and have their bodies left lying out in the street was an act of pure humiliation, which is echoed by the peoples’ response to the death of the witnesses.
How long did they celebrate and humiliate the witnesses bodies? For 3 ½ days…then God intervened: “the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and those who saw them were terrified. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies watched them.” Just as Christ had been humiliated, hung on a cross, and put to death…and then later raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven, so to do these witnesses, the martyrs of the church, are resurrected by God and called before His throne.
And following that resurrection and ascension, just as followed the resurrection of Jesus, an earthquake struck, and from that earthquake a portion of the city was destroyed, and the many of the survivors became believers.
My brothers and sisters, we know that this Word of Hope held true for those Christians who were being persecuted by Rome…for their 3 ½ days/years/period of time came to an end…Rome is no more, and God’s Church sill lives.
However, what does that speak to us today? The hope is found in that God’s people, the Church, have been marked off, we are sealed, we are protected. However, it also speaks to us that we are called to be witnesses…to carry forth the revelation of God through Gods’ Word to the world. Our life as the church is not to be passive, pew-warming, people who do not interact with the world outside those doors. Our lives outside those doors are also, if we have been set apart by God, not supposed to be like the world that is out there. We are called to live God’s message out in our everyday lives…despite the dangers of persecution. What persecution? Well, in some parts of the world it is still very much like the Roman Empire of John’s time…torture and death await the Christian witness. However, here in our area of the world, there is still the threat…there is the threat of someone boycotting your business if you stand up for God’s Word…there is the threat of losing your job if you live out your faith (we’ve read the stories of employees fired for refusing to stop wearing a cross, or to take down symbols of the faith from their cubicles, or for leading prayer, even leading prayer outside of their workplaces…that isn’t too far a leap from the economic persecution that many faced in Asia Minor for refusing to worship in the emperor’s temple), there is the threat of being excluded from a gathering or social club, because you won’t accept their bigotry against God’s children of all skin colors, there is the threat of being ridiculed for giving time and money in service to God rather than spending it on yourself…the list could go on…and any who have sought to live out their faith fully have experienced this in some way…
The question we have to ask ourselves, my brothers and sisters, is have we been willing to lay it all on the line for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Have we sought to live comfortably in the midst of our society, trying to fit in or have we risked our reputation, our social standing, our jobs, our bank accounts, our homes, our families, even our very lives for the sake of witnessing for Jesus Christ? It is only when we take that risk, when we risk it all, that we are truly living as part of God’s Church…it is only when we live as witnesses that we are being true to the calling that God has placed on each of our lives….and Jesus, has promised that if we are faithfully following him, we will receive troubles, we will be persecuted.
Why the persecution? Why the torment? Because those who faithfully witness “to the nations,” are a torment to “the inhabitants of the earth.” “Inhabitants of the earth” is not a reference to all people of the world. Outside of Revelation, the phrase “inhabitants of the earth” is only found in the Hebrew Scriptures, and in the Hebrew Scriptures, with only one exception, the phrase refers to those whose lives are outside of God’s will. Those that the Church is called, under the Roman Empire, and today, to witness to, are those whose lives have fallen away from God’s Word…and it will torment them. That does not mean that we are to literally take and torture a person until they confess Christ as their savior, but it means our efforts will not leave them alone. The Gospel will not leave folks in their sin. The Witness of the Church, the Living Body of Christ, will be to be just what Christ was, a light in the darkness…and as a light in the darkness…it will reveal all sin…that is the torment…to reveal the truth, to reveal the true nature of the actions of “the inhabitants of the earth.” And we do that, not from a place of judgment—not from putting out tracts in elevators and public restrooms, not about standing in the mall and asking, “do you know where you would be if you died today,” “not about putting up billboards and taking out full page ads in the newspaper announcing that this very scene from chapter 10 is to take place May 21st. It is to live like the witnesses of chapter 10, wearing sackcloth, revealing to the nations that we are repentant of our own lives as “inhabitants of the earth,” rather than “citizens of the Kingdom,” and by the blood of Christ and the grace of God we have been forgiven, redeemed, and now set-apart, marked off by the measuring rod of God, and that there is still room for us all…”
And as we live the life of a witness, risking all that we have, even our very lives, we remember that we are sealed, we are protected and that Jesus has promise that those who give up “house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news…will receive a hundredfold now in this age…and in the age to come eternal life…”[i] and “those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”[ii]
Are we willing to risk living the life of a witness…so we and those around us will be ready when that 7th trumpet blows, and the glory of God, comes to dwell among us?
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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