Can you tell if my microphone's on or not? They are on. Your new microphones are color-coded. It has a different color when it's on and when it's muted. And I am colorblind. I cannot tell. It's always a special morning for us when we get to come and worship with you, especially when our whole family gets to be here. So, thank you for inviting us and for having us. We've been looking forward to our time together. I'd like to invite you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Revelation. the 11th chapter. This morning we'll be considering Revelation 11, the first 13 verses. And before I read, I'd like to pray for us. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that you have not left us in darkness, but that you have shown us a great light. We thank you that you have not stayed distant from us, but have drawn near to us, giving us your word in this book. Also, your word made flesh in Jesus Christ. Lord, we know that as we come to your word, we always need help to understand and to believe and to obey. And we especially feel that this morning as we come to the book of Revelation, often misunderstood and misapplied. We pray especially that you might grant through your Holy Spirit clarity and also faith. Lord, help us not just to understand, but to believe and then to obey. We pray for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Revelation 11, beginning in verse 1. Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff. And I was told, rise 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 the holy city for 42 months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises 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 symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in the tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them. And they stood up on their feet. And 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 them. 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 the God of heaven. The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is soon to come. This is the word of God. In the Pixar movie Up, there is a pack of dogs that were given collars invented by their owner that allowed them to speak and carry on conversations in English. And so while you watch this movie, the dogs are talking and every now and then a squirrel will run across the screen and whatever the dogs were doing, they all stop and look and say, squirrel. And we laugh because dogs are like that. Not only dogs, we laugh because kids are like that. Every now and then, Lisa and I will look at each other and say, squirrel, when our kids have suddenly become distracted from what they were supposed to be doing. We are easily distracted, not just children, but adults. We are easily distracted people. And that's not something from which the church of Jesus Christ is immune. We are easily distracted. It's clear that in America today, the church is undergoing some type of crisis of distraction. We are doing all sorts of good things. The church is engaged in ministry to the city, ministry to the poor. We're re-engaging with the arts. We're taking better care of creation, stewarding the world that God's made. All of these are great things. But it may be, and I think is often the case, that we have been distracted from what our main mission is. To bring the Word of God into the world that belongs to Jesus Christ. And that's what the book of Revelation is all about. I really believe that the book of Revelation is given to the church in order to refocus us. It's given to remind us from heaven's perspective what this world is and what we are to be doing. And this passage here today, one of the most complicated and most confusing passages in the book of Revelation, is really just that. It's just a reminder about what we are supposed to be doing as a church. It's a reminder about what our mission is. And so hopefully we'll see that as we move through. It's probably a fairly bad idea to just come to a church and visit and preach right in the middle of the book of Revelation. We're diving into a book that our congregation, we began at the beginning and we've been trying to learn how to read this book. So before we get into it, into this particular passage, I'd like to say just a few words about reading the book of Revelation and how I'm working to understand it. So some of you know there are different approaches to the book of Revelation. So I'd just like to say a few words about that. by way of introduction. First of all, it's worth noting and remembering that the book of Revelation was written to seven churches. In the early chapters in Revelation, there are seven letters to seven real churches. But those churches are actually representative of all of the churches. It wasn't just written to them, but through them, written to all the churches. Not just when John wrote this, but written to all the churches of all time. That's just another way of saying that the book of Revelation is for us. It's written to us. Not just to churches 2,000 years ago, but it's written to us that we might apply it to our life and to our age. Secondly, as we come to the book of Revelation, we come to a book that is highly symbolic. Highly symbolic. And we get into great trouble when we begin to interpret this book literalistically. When we try to look and to assign specific meanings and historical meanings to each individual symbol, we get into trouble. Now, some people hear the idea of symbolism, and it feels to them like we're lowering the meaning of Revelation. If we're not going to interpret these two witnesses literally, then we might be making it mean something less. But indeed, the spiritual meaning that we're going to see today is greater than any literalistic meaning that we could assign to it. So, it's a symbolic book, and it's to be interpreted symbolically before we try to assign any specific meanings. Thirdly, John, as he writes his book and receives all these different visions, is bringing to us basically the Old Testament. In our passage today, there are clear references to the books of Exodus, Deuteronomy, 1 and 2 Kings, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Micah, and Zechariah, just to name a few. All of that in just 13 verses. It references all of those. And that's not unique to this passage. John, as he writes, is keeping one foot in the Roman Empire. writing to people where they lived, and he's keeping one foot in the Old Testament. And everything he says is a retelling of stories and images that come to us in the Old Testament. So, if we are going to read the book of Revelation and ignore the books of Daniel and Ezekiel especially, we will not understand it. So, you'll see a little bit more of what I mean by that as we look into this today. So having said that, my hope today is that we simply will move through this passage from the beginning of it to the end, and by the Spirit of God, be instructed and refocused in our mission. And so the first thing we see as we begin this passage is that God's presence is the source of our hope. God's presence is the source of our hope. John is told, rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there. And he's given a measuring rod like a staff. If you have read the book of Ezekiel lately, it's not anybody's favorite book in the Bible necessarily, but toward the end of the book of Ezekiel, beginning in chapter 40, Ezekiel is given a mission. He's given an assistant and he receives a vision of the temple of God. And he says, go and measure the temple. And so when we see John being told to measure the temple, it's a reminder to us of what Ezekiel was doing. It's almost the same exact language that was used for Ezekiel. And for nine chapters, Ezekiel records all the details of the temple. And when we study Ezekiel 40-48 carefully, we see that the temple is really the heavenly church. It's really the church. Both in heaven and because we're headed there, it's us as well. And so when John is called to rise and measure the temple, it's not speaking of a literal building anywhere in this world. He is talking about the church of Jesus Christ. And the reason that the temple is a great place in the Old Testament is the same reason that the church is a great place now. Because God is with us. The temple is a theme that runs really from the beginning of Scripture all the way to the end. The main reason that God ever wanted to build a tabernacle and then a temple is because He wanted to be with His people. And in order to dwell with His people who were sinful, He had to have this temple or this tabernacle constructed. And so whenever we think about the temple of the Old Testament, we need to be reminded God wants to be with His people. This is what made them special. Israel clearly was no better than anyone else. But it was the presence of God in her that made her special. And it's the same is true for us. We sit here today, and Paul, if he were here, would tell us just as he told the Corinthians, you are the temple of God. You are the temple of God. We are together the temple of the Holy Spirit. And the reality is that as we move further into this passage, it will become dark. There are discouraging parts to this passage, just as there are discouraging parts to your life. And so before we get to the dark parts, we need to start with the greatest light, which is that God is with His people. The name of our church, Emmanuel. We try to bring this to the people on a regular basis. The only good thing about us here this morning is that God is with us. Apart from that, we are not better or anything better than other people. Our identity is that we are the temple of God. By the Holy Spirit, God is dwelling with us. And if that is true, if God is with us, as the Scripture says, who can be against us? And if God is with us, what can stand against the church that God doesn't intend? If anything bad happens to the church, as we'll see in this passage, it's according to the plan of God. So, God's presence is the source of the church's hope. And we need to get that in our mind, because we'll go through periods, just as we go through this passage, where it seems that all hope is lost. And if our hope is built on anything other than the presence of God in us and with us, your hope someday will fail. If your hope is in your local church family, someday your hope will fail. If it's in your husband, or your wife, or your pastor, or your parents, or your friends, or your civil leaders, your hope someday will fail. But if it is in the presence of God, your hope will never fail. So then we move on and we see that God's presence doesn't only define us, but that it leads us. Secondly, we see then that God's presence gives us hope, but secondly, the Spirit leads the church to her mission of witnessing. The Spirit leads her church to her mission of witnessing. John hears the voice telling him in v. 3, I will bring authority to my two witnesses and they will prophesy for 1260 days clothed in sackcloth. So we come to what might be the first real tricky question of this passage. Who are the two witnesses? And instead of giving you all the possible interpretations, let me simply make an argument that the two witnesses simply represent the church of Jesus Christ. These two witnesses are the church in this age. First of all, the reason we see that is through the symbolism that's being used. Look at verse four. It says that these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. That's a reference back to the book of Zechariah, chapter four. If John sees these and he's told these two witnesses are the lampstands and the olive trees, then clearly the witnesses themselves are to be interpreted symbolically. Many times people have read the book of Revelation and thought to themselves, well, the church needs to look for two individuals to come along at some point and begin to prophesy. But the passages to be interpreted symbolically and spiritually and not literalistically. These witnesses stand for the same things that the olive trees and the lamb stand stood for in Zechariah. And all of that really stands for the Spirit in His people. So what we're seeing when we see these two witnesses is not two individuals that we're expecting to come along at any point in church history. We're seeing the church. We're seeing the mission of the church being played out throughout this age. And we're reminded of what Jesus told His apostles in Acts 1, verse 8, where He says that you will receive My Spirit and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and all of Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And that's really what's going on in these passages. The lampstand and the olive trees in the book of Zechariah are really tied to the Holy Spirit. And the picture here then is the Holy Spirit being in the church, empowering the church to do what she's called to do, which is to bring the Word of God to His world. The second tricky question has to do with all these numbers. We have 42 months and we have 1260 days. Later on, the passage will come to three and a half years or three and a half days. All of these numbers come to us from the book of Daniel. Daniel is prophesying at one point, he's talking about tribulation that's going to be present for time, times and half a time, which really symbolizes three and a half. And so we look at these 42 months or 1260 days, which is the same amount of time. This is to be interpreted like all the numbers in Revelation, symbolically or spiritually. We're not looking for a literal 1,260 days at some point where the church will be testifying. Rather, through Daniel we see as it comes into the book of Revelation, these numbers simply stand for this entire age. These numbers represent the age of the church, we could say. The age of the New Covenant. The entire period between the advents of Jesus Christ. We could call this the age of tribulation, as well as the age of witness and victory. Jesus, between His ascension and His second coming, that's what the book of Revelation is really addressing, this whole age. And so these numbers represent to us not any part of that age, but the whole thing, I believe. And so the Spirit then, through this whole age, not just one part of it, is powering the church to prophesy. These two witnesses mean that the church itself is called to go into the world, bring in the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit bringing the Gospel to the nations that belong to Jesus Christ. And again, Acts 1-8 tells us that God gives His Holy Spirit, which necessarily leads to testifying. So if you turn 16 years old and your parents give you the keys to the car, the point of giving you those keys is not so that you would stand there and look at the keys. The point is that you would put the keys in an engine and you would use them to drive. And similarly, if God gives to you the Holy Spirit, the purpose of the Holy Spirit in you, the purpose of the Holy Spirit in us, is to power the church to be the witnesses of God in all of the world. God gives us His presence, as we already saw, through His Holy Spirit, which necessarily leads to us bringing the Gospel to the nations. If we have the Holy Spirit, the purpose of the Holy Spirit is not just your own comfort. It's not simply your own holiness, but it is to lead you to the nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Well, if we're still on track together, then what we see next is that our witness, the witness of these two witnesses, is powerful and victorious. Look at verse four. These two olive trees, lampstands, stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They, that's the two witnesses, have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days that are prophesied. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire. We have another question we can ask and hopefully answer. Why are there two witnesses? Why doesn't God just say witness if He means to speak about the one church of Jesus Christ? Well, we see in these prophetic abilities that these witnesses have that there's an Old Testament foundation. That this refers to two people from the Old Testament. Who is it that you know was able to pray and shut the sky? was able to pray and bring drought to this world. That's Elijah, isn't it? Who is it that was able to speak and turn rivers into blood and bring all sorts of plagues on a whole nation? It's Moses, isn't it? And so, these New Testament Christians that would have heard Revelation 11 originally, would have immediately thought about Moses and Elijah. About the two great prophets from the Old Testament that represent all that it means to be prophetic in the world. These witnesses then refer to the church, but they refer to the church through the picture of Moses and Elijah. And we're reminded as we come to the New Testament, it's very significant that it was Moses and Elijah who met with Jesus on the mountain of Transfiguration. It's those two that really bring and represent the whole Old Testament. The Law and the Prophets meeting with Jesus and testifying to Him. And so we see then that it's not just the church, but it's the church as pictured by Moses and Elijah. And Moses and Elijah had great power as they were prophesying to the world. And what we are to learn from this is that the church has similar power. We have similar power to Moses and to Elijah. It says in verse 10 that these two prophets, these two witnesses had been a torment to the earth. They've been a torment to the earth. But as the church proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we bring to the world something that is truly powerful. Paul says that we are to some, the odor, the fragrance of life, and to others, we are the stench of death. And so, it says that these two witnesses are standing, as they prophesy, fire comes out of their mouths and consumes their foes. That's one more reason to interpret this symbolically. We don't know yet of any fire-breathing preachers that can literally breathe fire. Rather, as the church proclaims faithfully the Word of God, what we are doing is proclaiming both the breath of life for those who would believe on Jesus Christ and be saved, but at the same time, if we are faithful to proclaim the Gospel, we are also breathing not just the breath of God's life, but the fires of hell on this world. As we proclaim the Gospel to the world, we are telling them both about the grace of God, but also about the wrath of God. And if there's no justice of God, there's no need for the Gospel. So as we proclaim the Gospel, we are breathing the fires of hell on people that someday will come literally true upon them. So in that way, we could say that we are a torment to the world. The reality is that we cannot preach the Gospel effectively in a non-offensive manner. You cannot bring the Gospel effectively into this world and avoid the possibility of offending people. The Gospel is inherently offensive. It tells you that you are a sinner. It tells you that you are a sinner from the day you were conceived and that without Jesus Christ, you will suffer for your sins eternally. Who wants to hear that? Who wants to hear that I'm really a bad person at the root of it? It's deeply offensive. But without that message, there is no Gospel. Without the message of sin and sinfulness, there's no need for grace. So if we are faithful, we will bring the Gospel to the world, and it will be to some the fragrance of life, and to others it will be the odor of death. And so as we proclaim the Gospel, we are doing something that's reminiscent of what Moses was doing, and what Elijah was doing. Moses proclaimed these plagues over Egypt. Elijah prayed for drought. And as one writer put it, the word in the mouth of the Lord's prophet witnesses may be scorned, but it is not an empty sound. The church is proclaiming the Gospel. Many of you are proclaiming the Gospel and other people make fun of you. They're offended by it and they reject it. They scorn it. But he goes on to say, its judgments, the judgments of the witnesses are fire that devours its enemies. When you bring the Gospel to the world, we need to come to the world with both grace and with authority. I fear that we have lost the authority of our evangelism. When we come to the world, we are not simply inviting them to hope. We are commanding them to bow to their King. We're not simply inviting them to one option among many. We're telling them who the living God is and what they owe to Him. Fear sometimes that the church has sort of set itself up at a fair. Imagine going to a fair and over here are Muslims and they have a booth where you can learn all about Allah and see if you want to worship Him. And then a little ways down, there's a booth for Hindus. A little ways down, a booth for secular humanism. And we have set up our booth and we say, come consider us as one option among many. We'll see if we can show you a good case for Jesus Christ. Where's the authority that we have? Moses and Elijah didn't present God's Word as one option among many. They simply said, this is the Word of the living God. We need to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, both with grace and with authority, not with pride. You can speak with authority and not have to suffer pride, not have to inflict pride on people, because we are under the Gospel and not over it. And so we see in this picture of Moses and Elijah that the church, as it brings the Gospel, and only in so far as it brings the Gospel, has real power in this world. Our power is the message. Our fight, our weapons, are the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We do not fight with the weapons of this world. We fight with the Gospel. That's all that we have and it's all that we need. As we go on then, we see next that there will come a defeat of the church's witness. First, in v. 2, we see God saying to John, don't measure the court outside the temple. Leave that out. For it is given over to the nations and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. That's kind of confusing, and so we need to look down in the passage to v. 7-10. It says in v. 7, when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie on the streets of this great city that is symbolically called Sodom and Egypt where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some from the peoples will gaze at them and refuse to let them be buried in a tomb." We see when he says the outer court being trampled is a picture of the church being defeated at some point. And then it goes on to say that these two witnesses will be killed and they'll be left out, their bodies gazed at and really mocked and rejoiced over. And then we see that it all happens because of the beast. There's a lot that can be said about the beast. It comes up a lot more later in the book of Revelation. Here, let me just mention that I believe the beast is simply representative of the world's opposition. It's representative especially of governments and nations that would persecute the church. And what we see then throughout church history, and here in Revelation 11, is that defeat has always been a feature of the church's growth. Defeat has always been a feature of the way that Jesus Christ is building His kingdom through the church. And it seems, according to this passage, that it will especially be the case at the end of this age that the church will face what seems to be an overwhelming defeat. It's true in the history of the world that there have been times and places where the testimony of the Gospel has been snuffed out in a place. And whether it's for three and a half years or for a thousand years, it just rests and seems like defeat is total. And then God will bring it back. Several years ago, we planted in our backyard a cherry bush. We didn't want to spend a lot of money, so we planted a small cherry bush. It looked, to my colorblind eyes, quite like everything else around it. And I was using the weed whacker one day, and I came to our new cherry tree, and lo and behold, the cherry tree was summarily killed and defeated by my weed whacker. And I went inside, my head hung low, told Lisa what I had done, and she said, we'll just wait. And I knocked it down to that. There wasn't anything left. So I had defeated it. And that type of drastic pruning is what God does with us as individuals, often with us as a church. And I'll tell you the end of that story in a minute. Why does God do this? Why does God allow defeat, significant defeat, to come into your life? Why would God allow persecution? And you have to admit, He does. If He's sovereign, then He allows it. Why? Two thoughts. One is to remind us that we really are engaged in a war. It's interesting to watch the news and every now and then we're reminded that we still have soldiers and armed forces overseas engaged in a war. It's easy for Americans to go day by day without really thinking about the fact that we're at war with other nations. I think the church can suffer the same thing. And God will let persecution come to the church to remind us, to teach us of what we're really doing. What's really going on in this world is a great war that won't end until Christ returns. But secondly, I also believe that in allowing this type of defeat, there is great glory for God. Think about your favorite movies. This won't apply to all of them, but many of your favorite movies have a similar feature, which is very near to the end. There will happen a great defeat. One that seems impossible to come back from. Rocky will lay on the mat and he'll seem to be passed out. Frodo and whatever Sam will just feel like they're going to die. And there's always a point in the movie, there's always a point in the story where all hope is lost. And then the good thing happens. Why is it that we love those movies? Why is it that that speaks to us? Could it be because we were made in the image of God? Could it be that our love for that type of story is because God is writing that type of story with history? This is what God does. This is the type of story that most glorifies Him. When all hope is lost, when all earthly hope is lost, that's when God can show who He truly is. And so next, we see that defeat is simply the beginning of victory. Defeat is the beginning of victory. Look at verse 11. But after three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. We have another number we need to deal with. There's three and a half days. Three and a half days. Where do we get that from? Well, three and a half is half of? I heard it. Seven. Very good. How many days are in a week? There's seven days in a week. The number seven in the book of Revelation is symbolic of completeness. It's symbolic of wholeness. And so when you have the number three and a half, it's always meant to be seen as half of seven. And so three and a half is completeness cut short. And the picture with three and a half here is that the world believes at this point that it has achieved a complete victory. We could call it a seven day victory over the church. But instead of them rejoicing in their victory for seven days for the fullness of it, it's cut short. And while they're still rejoicing over the victory of the church, God will come and He will breathe life into these dead bodies. And what does that sound like to you? Doesn't it just sound like Ezekiel 37 that we read this morning? God comes in this vision that He gives to Ezekiel. He comes to this valley of dry bones. And Ezekiel is called to prophesy to the bones that they would come together and be knit together. And then he's told to prophesy to the breath, the Spirit. And the Spirit would come and inhabit these newly reformed bodies. When Ezekiel was receiving that vision and making that prophecy, he lived outside of Babylon. He lived with exiles and refugees that wanted to be in Jerusalem, but couldn't be. In fact, He was living with these exiles when Jerusalem was burned to the ground. And so when God comes to Ezekiel and says, I'm going to reform these bones. I'm going to put life in them. It's a promise to Him and to the exiles that I will bring you back to Jerusalem. God let Jerusalem burn to the ground and then He said, I will bring you back to Jerusalem. We are same as Ezekiel. We live outside of our own Babylon. We look toward heaven. And many times, it's impossible for us to believe that we will ever get there. It's impossible for us so often to believe in the victory of the church. And so we need to hear that the breath of God is all that is needed. Ezekiel 37 in the dry bones. And here in Revelation 11, this is the pattern of our lives. God wants to make everything seem so unlikely. He wants to put victory out of our reach so that all we are left with is our hope in Him. And then He'll bring His victory. This is the pattern of God from after the fall until Christ returns. He continues repeatedly to bring glory out of defeat. He loves to bring life out of death. He delights to bring resurrection from the grave. And when it looks like the church is dying, and when it looks like the church is suffering, remember the story of Gideon, where God said to Gideon, your army is too big. I'm going to whittle it down. And he whittled it down. And he says, it's still too big. We're going to bring it down to 300 people against a whole army. God hasn't changed, has He? If God liked to do that with Gideon, He still does it with the church, doesn't He? He's going to whittle the church down sometimes so that He can bring great victory. And so we're assured here that defeat is the beginning of victory. This is true not just for the church as a whole. It's also true for you. Many of you have gone through those dark, dark times. and in the middle of them cried out, not knowing why God was leading you through. But now you can look back and you can testify by the grace of God. God was doing something. He was whittling down the army so that He could achieve a victory that only He could take credit for. We see next then, that as God continues, He will vindicate our witness. And He will receive His glory. Verse 11 again, after the three and a half days of breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and 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 them. The church and you as individuals in the church will be defeated. Once, twice, maybe many times in your life, you will feel and suffer defeat. But at some point, if only on the day that Christ returns, the voice of the living God will speak from Heaven. And He will say to all of those who have been faithful to Him, come up here. And He will say it so that the whole world will hear. And all of those who were mocked All of those who were scorned, all of those who were rejected, who were faithfully prophesying the witness of God, they will be brought together with God, caught up in a cloud, and be brought to Him. And the same voice that spoke from heaven about Jesus and said, this is my beloved Son, hear Him. It's the same voice that will speak and say, you are my beloved Son. Come up here. And the world will fear while you are vindicated. Whatever you have to live through, whether it's temporary defeat or a lifetime of defeat, the voice of God someday will trumpet from heaven. And you will be fully vindicated. The world will be forced to say that everything you are saying is true. And so John sees then that a tenth of the city falls in an earthquake. The 7,000 people. Why a tenth? Why 7,000 people? A tenth is a down payment. It's a tithe. And this is a picture of the beginning of the end. It's a picture of the coming judgment of Jesus Christ. And it says there at the very end that they gave glory to the God of heaven. What type of glory are they giving to the God of heaven? There are really two types of glory that God can receive from this world. One is the glory of people who trust in Him. And one is the glory of people who fear Him. I believe here this is a lot like what happened to Nebuchadnezzar who was brought out and forced to eat grass, and eventually he was forced to bring glory to God. But here at the end of Revelation 11, this passage, this is probably not a picture of a bunch of people trusting in God, but this is a bunch of people fearing God. fulfilling the prophecy that Paul made to the Philippians that someday every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God. There will come a day when everyone will glorify God. And so, I would be not faithful. I would be unfaithful if I did not invite you to glorify God today. The way you glorify God today is by trusting in Him. is by believing that Jesus Christ is alive, that He will come again, and that He is your only Savior. That He is your only hope. Glory in God. And in that glory, you give Him glory. If you do not do that, children, listen to me. If you do not trust in Jesus Christ and give Him glory today, you will give Him glory someday. You will give Him the glory of your fear but not the glory of Your love. God will vindicate our witness and He will receive His glory. Let me end by bringing you to one thought. What does all of this have to do with the cross of Jesus Christ? The cross is the whole thing, isn't it? It's the center of our hope. It's the center of our life. As Jesus hung on the cross, He was preaching a sermon about the grace of God. This is how big God's love is for any of you who would trust in Jesus to be saved. It was a proclamation of the unending love of God. But at the same time, the cross is also a proclamation of the wrath of God. Here is the justice of God against any who won't repent and believe. And that is to be our message to the world And so, as we see in the Gospels, Jesus taking up His cross and His deep willingness to die. We are to follow Him. The way that we proclaim this message is not just with our mouths, but with our willingness to die for Jesus. A willingness to suffer for Him. Trusting that someday we will be vindicated by our resurrection. Jesus, as He hung on the cross, what did He cry out? Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit. He's saying, I give everything to you. I'm trusting that you're going to bring me back. I'm trusting that you're going to raise me from the dead. And you have to trust God for that. You have to trust God because you cannot claw your way to heaven. You will get there on the righteousness of Christ or not at all. This is the pattern, not just of the way that we're saved, but the way that we live our lives. We must be willing to die for Jesus Christ. Trusting that we too will be vindicated by the resurrection on the last day. Let's stand and pray together. Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you for the invitation to be your witnesses in this world. And we confess, Lord, readily confess our own failures, our lack of boldness. Lord, we also confess how easy it is for us to trust someone, anyone, anything other than Jesus. We pray that You would refocus the church. Refocus our hope to make it on Christ alone. Refocus our mission, making us focused, making us burdened to bring the Gospel to the world. Lord, give us the authority and the power of Moses and Elijah. We pray that many would come to believe in Jesus as their Savior. And Lord, we pray for those who are hurting. Here in this room, we pray for our brothers and sisters around the world today. So many of whom are imprisoned. Whose lives are being taken away. Who are testifying to You. And their bodies are being left in the streets. Lord, we long for the day when Christ will return. For the vindication of the church. Lord, here in America, we tire of being made fun of. But around the world, many get tired of being killed. We pray that the Gospel would go forth even through their death. And that You, Lord God, would speak from heaven and invite them to come up here. Lord, give us that faith Give us that faith to last, to witness, to be bold and loving. We cannot do it if you don't give us that Spirit. We pray for it boldly because Christ promised it. We pray for it in His name. Amen.