Good morning, everyone. This morning we are going to continue on where we left off in Revelation last week. So before we start, let's go to the Word and Prayer. Father, we're grateful for this morning in which we can stop our busy lives and pause and rest before you once again, Father, a time to remind ourselves that you are God. that you are creator and that you are redeemer. Father, we're grateful for that. We're grateful that you have called us to set aside the distraction of this world and come to gaze on your glory for this time together. We're grateful that you have called us together as a people. We're grateful that you have let us see the glory of Christ. We're grateful that you have washed us from our sins and made us worthy to gather in your presence. We're grateful that you have allowed us to sing your praises. Father, we're grateful that you have allowed us to bring our requests before you. Father, that's why we want to gather this morning, is we do want to pause and to look on your glory, to remind ourselves of your goodness and your worthiness and your holiness. So Father, as we look in your word, I pray that that would be the outcome, that you would open our eyes and allow us to truly see what you would communicate to us, that you would help us to truly see the glory of Christ. Father, I pray that as we come to your word that our hearts would be affected as well, Father, that we would feel rightly as we read your word, that we would love Christ, that we would hate our sin, that we would desire to run after Christ and we would desire to worship. Father, we can't create those things in ourselves, and so we come humbly this morning asking that your spirit would be present here to be working those things in us. Father, I pray that you would fill me in a special way with your spirit as I come to preach your word. Father, I do pray that you would guard my words, make them only things that are true and glorifying to Christ, and only things that are helpful to those who are here listening. Father, we pray that this time would be a glory to Christ. It is in his name we pray. Amen. So, we've been in Revelation for the last several weeks, actually almost a couple months ago. And we've been going through slowly, and as I do every week, I'd like to start by jumping back and reminding ourselves where we've been in Revelation. So we started Revelation with this summary statement, what I saw as the picture of vision for what the entire book was trying to communicate. So the summary statement is this, that the Revelation of John is a Christocentric book. That it's about Christ, and if we get distracted by other things, then we're not understanding the purpose of the book. It's a Christocentric book that shows us the pattern of this world from Christ's first coming until his second coming. And John's purpose is that he wants us to see the spiritual realities around us. He wants us to recognize the dangers that face us, but in the face of all that, to know that God is going to win. Revelation's call then is to wisdom, to understand the times rightly, to understand our world rightly, to perseverance, to keep following Christ even when it gets hard. and ultimately to worship. That's the ultimate call of revelations. In the midst of all these things, look towards the final day when worship will be perfect and anticipate that day by worshiping now. And so we've gone through Revelation for several weeks now. We've gotten in a little while. We started with a prologue to Revelation. We saw that Christ came and appeared to John walking among the lampstands. And we saw great visions of his power and his glory. And Christ comes and tells John he has a message for the church. And so we get that message and we said, we're going to organize this book on seven sevens. And so we get the first seven, which is the seven letters to the seven churches. We went through those letters and saw that at the heart of each of those letters was a danger that faced the church. But in the face of that danger, it calls us to look to Christ, to love his promise and keep obeying his commands. And then, because we are to look at Christ, then the next section of Revelation takes us into the throne room of heaven, showing us first God, the creator, ruling over all things and worthy of worship. And then second, seeing Christ come, being the one worthy to open the seven seals on the scroll, the one worthy to complete the plan of God. But he came as a conquering lion, but looking like a slain man, something that's at the center of the message of Revelation. which led us into our second seven, which was the seven seals. Since the Lamb was worthy to open the seals, we had seven seals opened. And as we went through those, we saw the pattern, the general idea of how this world was going to go from Christ's first coming until his second coming. And just as Christ had warned us, there would be wars and rumors of war. There will be famine and earthquake and death and plague. And all those things will be happening, and we shouldn't be surprised at them. God is still in control. He still hears his people's prayers, and he will still judge the world for their wickedness. And so we went through the seven seals and saw a general pattern. But why do we have this waiting? Why do we go through all of this as the church? And so we pause at the end of the sixth seal, and we have this interlude, which happens over and over again in Revelation. We saw in the midst of all this terror, 144,000 are sealed. 12 times 12, a full number times a full number times 1,000, a big number. All the people that God desires to seal will be sealed for him. All the people of God will be saved. And so at the end, we see a great multitude gathered before the throne. Just as we had left off at the throne room of heaven, we now gather a great multitude from the earth to gather before that throne and to worship God. Which then brought us into our second sevens, which we did last week. I'm sorry, third seven, which we did last week, which shows the seven trumpets. And so we looked at the seven trumpets and saw that there was a lot of comparison between the seven seals and the seven trumpets. And one of the main messages of the seven trumpets is this. Yes, all of history will be marked by wars and rumors of wars and famine and plague and death. But it will get worse because God's judgment is coming. It will be like the pains of childbirth that grow in intensity over time. And yet God is still sovereign. He will still judge the enemies of the church and he will still save his people. And so that's where we left off last week was looking at the seven trumpets and the increasing announcements of God's judgment falling upon this world, a call to the world to repent and a call to the church to rest and wait on God. But that brings us to our next interlude. We keep having these sevens and then an interlude in between them that usually reflects back on the previous seven. And so we've gone through the seven trumpets, actually through six, which is pretty common. We go through six, and then we have an interlude. In the interlude, we're going to see a couple things, but I've called this the two witnesses. And that's what we're going to look at in large this morning, is this interlude in the seven trumpets, which is the two witnesses that come to testify to the earth. And so if you have your Bibles, go ahead and open up to Revelation. We'll be reading Revelation 10 and 11 this morning. Or if you want to, I've got the text up on the screen. Revelation chapter 10. Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand, and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. And he called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring. And when he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down. And the angel who I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, and the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay. But that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, no. Take this scroll that is open in the hand of the angel, who is standing on the sea and on the land. And so I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, take it and eat it. It will make your stomach better, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey. And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey as my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, you must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings. 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 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 into a tomb. And those who dwell on 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 a 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. 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second war is past. The third war is soon to come. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was. For you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came. And the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who feared your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. Then God's temple in heaven was opened. And the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. So as we look at Revelation 10 and 11 this morning, this is my proposition, my main point, that in the midst of the revelation of God's judgment against this world, the church does not need to fear. In the midst of the revelation of God's judgment against this world, the church does not need to fear. God has not abandoned or forgotten them. Instead, he has left them with a mission, and he will be faithful until it is fulfilled. So that's what we're going to see as we go through this story of the angel coming down with the open scroll, the temple, and the two witnesses, is that God is promising to protect the church, to fulfill the mission that he gave to them. And so the question we're going to answer as we go through these stories is, how should the church respond in the midst of God's increasing judgments? If we have a promise that judgments will get worse as time goes on, what should the church be doing as we keep feeling these increasing judgments of God fall upon this earth? And I want to see five things as we go through this morning. I'm not going to have applications, because actually we have five applications, which will be our five main points. The first one is, as judgments fall, we trust God's sovereignty. As judgments fall, we trust God's sovereignty. Second, as judgments fall, we trust God's protection. We trust God's protection. Third, as judgments fall, we declare God's gospel. We declare his message to the world. Fourth, as judgments fall, we hope in God's promise. And then fifth, as judgments fall, we wait for God's victory. And so as we go through, I want to see those five things as we pull apart our text this morning. And so let's start with the first one. In the midst of God's judgment, the church needs to trust in God's sovereignty. And I'm going to add a second phrase to each of these because there's going to be a purpose for this. We trust in God's sovereignty even when we don't understand it. We trust in God's sovereignty even when we don't understand it. And so we've been promised that judgments will fall and they will get increasingly worse as time goes on. And the church is caught in the middle of this cosmic battle and they suffer many of the dangers and plagues that fall upon this earth. And in the midst of that, we have to step back and say, we don't always understand what's going on. But regardless, we trust in the sovereignty of God. So I want to go and let's look at the first seven verses of Revelation 10. So Revelation 10, starting in verse one, it says, Then I saw a mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. And his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. And he called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders had said and do not write it down. And the angel who I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants, the prophets. And so this is where I want to start as we try to pull apart. There's a lot of, again, fantastic things that go on in these visions. And it'd be really easy to get distracted, just as during the seven trumpets, be easy to get distracted by the fantastic things that happen. But all these things have a purpose. And I want to start with the angel. We have this angel up here who comes down, and he puts his right leg on the land and his left leg on the sea. And he raises his hand up to heaven. And so we see this angel standing on, first, the sea. and on the land and he raises his hand to heaven. What he's doing is he's taking the three spheres of creation and he's joining them together. He's claiming authority over all three spheres. There's nothing that exists outside of the authority that this angel is coming to proclaim. And so we've got this first an authority over all of creation. But then that angel comes and he swears. He makes a solemn promise. We're going to come back to that in a second. Jump back to the solemn promise. But he swears by him who lives forever and ever. So he claims authority over all of creation, and he swears by the name of God himself. And then we get this emphasis, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it. When we see these repeats, especially when we see it go through one way, sea, land, heaven, heaven, earth, sea, there's a reason for that. We see this angel come down and he proclaims that he has authority over all realms of creation. But he says he's bringing that authority because he's representing the one who has authority over all creation, the one who lives forever and ever, the creator of all things is coming down to give a message to the church, to give a message to John. And this is the message. He swears, he makes the solemn promise. And what is the promise? That there would be no more delay. And so we take a step back and we look at Revelation. And so far in Revelation, we've had the seven seals. And the message of the seven seals is this. When you see war, it's not the end. When you see famine, it's not the end. When you see plague, it's not the end. When you see death, it's not the end. All these things will continue on. That's going to be the pattern of this world. And God's people are going to cry out in the midst of that and say, how long, O Lord? And God answers them and says, not yet. I still have people to seal until the full number of your brothers is brought in. There's a promise that that will happen eventually, 144,000, a great multitude from every tribe and tongue and language and nation will be presented before the throne. But it's not yet. And then we get to the seven trumpets. And the message again is, when you see these things, you do know that the end is getting nearer. When God's judgment gets worse, as if it were childbirth coming, yes, the end is coming nearer, but you still don't know when it is. All these things are going to get more and more intense, but you don't know there's still a delay. But now the angel comes and says, there will be no more delay. He comes and announces, the end will come. And he follows that up. He says, the mystery of God will be fulfilled. When we're in the midst of the judgments, it's easy to lose sight of that. When we feel the judgments on the earth, that things seem to get worse and worse and worse, it's easy to take our eyes off of the final day and say, when is the end going to come? We cry out with the saints in the right way, how long, O Lord? But then we despair. Maybe it will be forever. The angel comes and says, no, there will be no more delay. When God's purpose is fulfilled, the end will come and he will do all that he said that he will do. And so there's a message. Judgment will not last forever. God's purpose will come to pass. Don't despair when you continue to see these judgments fall on the earth. That's part of God's plan. And judgment is not forever. But then I want to go back, because that's actually the second thing that angel called out. That angel swore by him who lives forever and ever, and he said, there will be no more delay. But his first call was this. It says, he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring. We don't have a reference of what he called out, other than we see this angel come, and he cries out. And when he cries out, there's an answer. It says, and when he called out, the seven thunders sounded. Okay, interesting. Not sure what's going on here. This is interesting symbolism. So let's keep reading. And so he says, when he called out, the seven thunders sounded. When the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying, seal up what the seven thunders had said and do not write it down. Now I'm sitting here and be like, okay, this is really interesting. And now I'm super confused. Why does John see this vision? The angel comes down from heaven. He sets his feet on the land and on the sea and raises his hand to heaven. He cries out, and the seven thunders sound. And John's like, whoa, that was interesting. Better write this down. God's like, nope. Don't write that down. OK, what's going on here? So we could go through and be like, oh, I wonder if that comes back up later. Maybe, maybe it's just not the time we have to keep going through Revelation. But it turns out we never come back to the seven thunders. We're never told what the seven thunders say. So why are they recorded? Why are they here? And I think the reason that they're here is this. It's a glaring reminder that we don't need to know everything. A glaring reminder that we don't need to know everything. John saw a vision and he saw something that would announce the end. The seven thunders had sounded and he knew something and God said, you know what? You just need to trust me. Not write that down. That's not for my people right now. It's a glaring reminder that we don't need to know everything. But then there's a second thing that I see. So as his angel came down, he places his feet on the land on the sea and raises his hand up to heaven. But in his hand, he had a little scroll open in his hand. So he raises his hand and there's a scroll that's outlined so that John can see that scroll. And I look at that and be like, that's interesting. We don't get told a lot about that scroll other than John eats it in a few minutes, which is, again, pretty interesting. But I think there's a real point here is that we have a little scroll that is open in the angel's hand. And so it's a callback to the story of the lion and the lamb. The first scroll that we saw in Revelation was sealed. It was sealed with seven seals. And all of heaven looks around for someone who would be worthy to open that scroll, to break its seal, to announce the purpose of God and to bring it to its fulfillment. And John weaves because no one was found. until the lion of the tribe of Judah showed up, the one who had conquered, the one who showed up as a slain lamb worthy to take that scroll and to open the seven seals. And so now the scroll comes back. I'm not sure if we're supposed to think this is the exact same scroll, but at least it's kind of a tight reference that now the scroll is open, the lamb has conquered, he has broken its seven seals, and he's ready to announce what the plan of God is. And so instead of trying to know other things. It's a glaring reminder. We don't need to know everything, which is honestly a great theological understanding of revelation. It's not meant to be this guide map that we're supposed to tear apart, try to understand every little thing that's going to happen over the next, who knows how long, until Christ comes. Instead, it's a call to trust the one who is sovereign, knowing that he will complete his plan. The scroll's open now. It's ready to be declared the seventh understanding. We don't know what they said. We don't need to know what they said. We just trust the one who has it all under control. And so that's the opening of Revelation 10 is, yeah, when we see judgments fall, it can be confusing, it can be terrifying, it can be hard, but we trust God. We know that his plan is coming to pass. It will be fulfilled at the end. And we don't need to understand how everything is going together. We know that God does. And so that's the first call, trust in God's sovereignty, even when we don't understand it. But then we have a second, how should the church respond in the midst of God's judgment? First, we trust in God's sovereignty. He's got it under control. We don't need to understand everything. But second, we trust God's protection. We trust God's protection. We're going to have an even statement as well. We trust God's protection even when the world is falling apart. We trust God's protection even when the world is falling apart. So I want to come back to Revelation 10. We haven't gotten very far, but I'm just going to go back to verses 1 through 4. There's a lot here. So Revelation 10, 1 through 4, he says, then I saw another mighty angel. So he'd seen the seven angels and the seven seals. Then he saw another mighty angel. I'm sorry, the seven angels with the seven trumpets, but he saw another mighty angel. And this angel came, and he gives this description of what the angel looked like. First, he's wrapped in a cloud. He's got a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun. This angel came down. These are images that are to evoke the glories of heaven. This angel came down to represent the Almighty, and he came wearing the visage of the glory of heaven. But then it said one more thing, his feet. His feet, those things that he put onto the land and onto the sea, the things that interacted with the creation below, they look like what? Pillars of fire. So again, part of this is just this glorious being coming down from heaven, but I don't think it's an accident that we get this phrase, his feet look like pillars of fire. It's supposed to, as I've said in Revelation many times, call us back to the Old Testament. Say, just a second, I've heard that phrase before. I've seen pillars of fire somewhere in the Old Testament. So we read that story this morning. The Israelites, finally the 10 plagues convince Pharaoh to let them go and they flee from Egypt. But it says this, Revelation, I'm sorry, Revelation, Exodus 13, 20 through 22. And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham on the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them. God, as his people left the land of Egypt, God was present with them. He was present with them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them that light that they may travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people." And so we go back to Exodus and say, OK, this angel shows up with these legs like pillars of fire. The things that would have been closest to John interacting with the creation below are pillars of fire. And what are we supposed to see? I think we're supposed to see two things. First, there's a reminder of God's presence with his people. Yes, the judgments of God as they fall and they get increasingly terrible on this earth. They're going to be terrifying. They're going to be horrible things for us to go through. But in the midst of that, remember, God is still present with his people. And the angel comes down to announce that, look, just as I was with the Israelites as they fled from the land of Egypt, I am with you. I'm not going to let you lose the way. I'm not going to let you be destroyed in the midst of this earth. But then we see, as we go through the story of Exodus, first that pillar of fire and a cloud was a reminder of God's presence with the people, leading them as they left the land of Egypt. But then we see it gets more as we go through the story. Pharaoh decides to change his mind. He decides, you know what, that was a bad idea. I like the people of Israel working for me for free. Maybe we'll go get them back. And so he gets his army together and goes, chases down the people of God. The people of God don't react well to that. And they say, you know what, Moses, why'd you get us here? Like, it would have been better for us just to have kept working for the Egyptians than to try to run away from them and then get killed in the wilderness, because Pharaoh's chasing us with his army, and we can't do anything about that. We're not strong enough to defeat Pharaoh. And Moses has this great line. He says, you know what? Be quiet. Be quiet. The Lord will fight for you. You have only to be silent. And that's where we come to. Moses announces, the Lord will fight for you. You have only to be silent. You're right, you can't do anything about this, but God can. So we come to Exodus 14, 21. And it says, then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went in the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued them and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch, the Lord, in the pillar of fire and of cloud, looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, let us flee from before Israel, for the Lord fights for them. against the Egyptians. And so there's this massive change. It looks like the people of Israel are trapped against the sea. The armies of Pharaoh are marching up. Moses says, just wait. Watch. He says, God's going to do something. He raises his hand. The sea parts. We all know this story. Israel starts marching through the dry ground. But then it looks like, oh, well, that was cool. But Egyptians are like, hey, we can do that too. And so they follow in after them. But God shows up and he says, you know what? No. I'm going to save my people, and I'm going to protect them. And so the pillar of fire shows up and fights against Egypt for Israel, so that Israel can escape. And so first, there's a promise of God's presence with his people, but then a second, a promise of God's protection over his people. Yeah, we're going to go through terrible things. The judgments on this earth are going to get worse, but God is present, and he's here to fight for his people. So don't despair, don't give up. And so that's the first thing just out of Revelation 10 verse 1. But then I think we see that again. This is actually kind of a repeated theme as we go through this interlude. So I want to come to Revelation 11, which is kind of the third scene. And it says, Revelation 11, 1 through 3. 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." I'm going to tear this apart a whole lot over the next few minutes. But I want to start with that first phrase. OK, so we get this first scene. The angel comes down and makes a solemn promise in the name of God Almighty that the end would not delay. We get a second scene that a voice from heaven says, hey, go take that scroll and eat it. John does that. We'll come back to that in a few minutes. But then we get this third scene where he's given a mission where he says, go and measure the temple. I say, OK, the temple. OK, we've got this temple that John is supposed to go and measure. We're going to get to this in a few minutes, but this is echoing Ezekiel 40 through 48. I hope you can hear those echoes. We went through Ezekiel last year. But I want to think about what is this temple of God? And I think it's pretty clear what we're supposed to see when we see this temple of God, because the New Testament is pretty consistently clear. The temple of God is, first and foremost, Christ himself. But then going past that is Christ gathers a people in himself. That temple becomes the church of God. So we get 1 Corinthians 3, 16 through 17. Do you not know that you are God's temple? And so John is told, go measure this temple. And he said, go look at the church. You are God's temple, and that God's spirit dwells in you. If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him, for God's temple is holy. And you, that's a you plural, you as the church, you as a gathered people, are that temple. Or again, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6.16, what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. So again, the temple of God are the people ransomed and redeemed in Christ, gathered before his throne. Or Ephesians 2, 19 through 22. So you are no longer strangers and aliens. He's talking specifically to the Gentiles. You Gentiles are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. We can actually keep going. There's a lot more references in the New Testament that consistently say the temple, the new temple that is created in Christ are God's gathered people, his church. And so we come back and we say, OK, John is told to take a measuring rod and go and measure this. And we're supposed to start thinking, OK, this is saying something about the church. And so he's told to go rise and measure this temple of God, rise and measure the people that have been redeemed Christ. Like I said, that's echoing Ezekiel 40 through 48. So we went through Ezekiel. We saw these great calls. First, don't look back at Israel and Jerusalem because it no longer has any hope. Don't look to the nations that don't have hope. Look to the future work of God. There will be the great hope for your people. And as the main part of that, we get this vision of a new temple being built. And Ezekiel is told to take a measuring rod, a reed, and go measure that temple and write down his measurements. We come back to that. We're supposed to go and measure this temple. But we have another thing. We're supposed to measure that temple, but we are not supposed to measure the court outside. So go and measure the temple of God, the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple. Leave it out. Why? Because it's given over to the nations. And so there's this double command. John, go and measure. Go and measure that temple, but don't measure the area outside the temple that's given over to the nations. So I think something like this is happening. Oh, first, we'll come back to that in a second. It says, it's given over to the nations and they will trample the holy city for 42 months. Now this is a place where we can start getting into a lot of debate and a lot of people say a lot of things. I'm going to say this quickly and clearly where I rest on this. I know that others disagree with me. But we've got this 42 months. You do 42 months, that's three and a half years. Everybody can agree on that. We've got 12 plus 12 plus 12 plus 6 equals 42. That's easy. But I think we need to see a couple things when we get to this 42 months. First, we need to recognize seven is the number of fulfillment. Seven is a number that is resting at the base of what revelation is. Seven is a number of fulfillment. And we've got a number related to seven here. And so we can't get outside of seven is this symbolic number of fulfillment. Three and a half is seven divided by two. And I think what's going to go on here is a three and a half means it has not been fulfilled yet. The end has not happened yet. You're somewhere in the middle. You're somewhere in the middle. You haven't reached the seven. You're only at three and a half. You haven't seen the end of the matter yet. And so for that time when the end is not yet, 42 months. Doesn't mean 42 months necessarily, just as everything in Revelation doesn't have concrete meaning. It means until that time of the end, that outside port, is handed over to the Gentiles. And so it's a number that represents the end is not yet. We haven't seen the end. Until we see the end, it will be handed over to the Gentiles. And so what I think it's saying is something like this, is he says, John, go measure. Look at the world as it is now. The world has been handed over. The earth has been handed over to the world to Satan, to evil. And they're not under God's protection. That symbol of measurement is a symbol of God's protection, that which God is going to set in place. He says, I've handed the court over to the world, the outsider. They're not under my protection right now. But even as you see terrible things fall, as you see those judgments fall on the world, I am measuring my temple. God will protect his people. And so we get this double echo. We see these pillars of fire come and rest on the earth to remind us that God is present with his people and he will protect them. And we get this second vision, a temple in heaven, a temple echoing Ezekiel. And God says, go and measure that temple. I'm still building it. Don't worry. I'm still building that temple. The problem is, outside the temple, I'm not building. I painted that, I painted the world, and my judgment's falling. But even when you see judgment falling, no, I'm still building my temple. And so the earth has been handed over to the world for now. They are not under God's protection, but God will protect his people. And so that's the second thing. First, we trust that God is sovereign. We don't need to know what's going on. We just need to trust that God has it under control. Second, we trust God's protection. In the midst of increasing judgment, we don't need to fear. God's going to protect his people. Yes, the world is not under his protection, and it's going to increasingly fall apart, tear itself to pieces, and judgment will fall. But we are under the hand of God. But then third, we'll have a third way that we respond. How should the church respond in the midst of God's judgment? We must declare God's gospel. What should the church do in the midst of judgment? Keep declaring God's message, even when it gets dangerous. Keep declaring God's message, even when it gets dangerous. So we'll start moving a little bit forward in Revelation. Go back to Revelation 10, five through seven. We saw the angel of commune put his foot on the land and his foot on the sea and raised up his hand to heaven and made a solemn promise by the one who lives forever. And he said, there would be no more delay. But again, we have to ask, why? Why is he saying there would be no more delay? Because there is a time of delay. There is a 42 months. There is a time before the end has come. And he's saying, there will be no more delay. When God's purpose is fulfilled, the end will come. But then we come to Revelation 8, 10, 8 through 11. And it said, then the voice I heard from heaven spoke to me again saying, go, take the scroll. Go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land. And so what I think we're going is we go through this vision, we see the angel coming to notice. The end is near, there will be no more delay, but until that end happens, what's going to be your purpose in this world? And there's a voice that says, Ezekiel, I'm sorry, John, remember what book I'm in? John, go take that scroll. Go take that scroll out of the hand of the angel. And so there's this communication that there will be no more delay. God's promised end is going to happen soon. But until that happens, John, you're part of God's plan. You haven't been forgotten. In fact, I've got a purpose for you. I've got a mission for you. Go take that scroll. You're going to take God's plan, and you're going to work part of that plan out. And then he continues on, so I went to the angel and I told him to give me the little scroll. I would have loved to see that, be like, John this little puny human going up to this massive angel and be like, hey, give me the scroll. The angel gives him the scroll, but actually the angel turns and looks at him and he says, take and eat this. He's like, okay, it's a scroll. And probably John's a little less confused than he could have been because the first thing we're supposed to do is go back to Ezekiel and say, OK, the same thing happened to Ezekiel. And Ezekiel was commissioned to be a watchman over the house of Israel. And one of his visions of commissioning God handed him a scroll. And he said basically the same things. It's going to taste sweet, but in your stomach it's going to be bitter. And the message in Ezekiel was that you're going to be given God's message. It's a good message, but it's a message that the world is going to reject. A message that the world isn't going to like. A message that is going to cause you trouble in this world. It will taste sweet, but you'll find that there's so much bitterness associated with it as well because the world hates it. And so he repeats that as well. Take and eat it. It will make your stomach better. It will be in your mouth. It will be sweet as honey. And so communication. Okay, John. During this time of delay, when the end hasn't happened yet, I haven't forgotten you. In fact, you are part of my mission. And here's the first step of your mission, is you need to take the message of God, the plan of God, that scroll, open in the hand of the angel, and take it into yourself. Internalize that message. Make it your own. Even though it'll taste good, it's a great message, a message full of glory, but it's going to cause you trouble in this world, and you still need to internalize that message. And so John did that. He said, I took the scroll from the hand of the angel, and I ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach did turn bitter. Then there's one more word. I was told, you must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings. There's an echo of the throne room in heaven where there are languages from every tribe and tongue and language and nation. He said, yeah, every tribe and tongue and language and nation is going to be before the throne of God on the last day. But right now, you're still in the world. And you're going to carry my message to those. You're going to prophesy to people, to nations, to languages and kings. And guess what? They're not going to like it. Guess what? They're not going to like that message. It's a glorious message. It tastes sweet as honey. But as you go and proclaim it, you're going to find it very bitter because the world hates you. And so three parts. You're part of God's plan. First part of that plan is you can internalize that message. Make it your own. Take the message of God, apply it to yourself, and then go out into the world and declare that message. This is what our God has said. This is what our God is doing. So flip back over to Revelation 11. I think we get doubles of a lot of these messages. So we come to Revelation 11 verses 3 through 6. So we had John, he's seen the angel and then he's taken the scroll. He's eaten the scroll. And then we get a change of vision. God shows him the temple in heaven. It says measure the temple, but don't measure the court outside. And then it keeps going with this Revelation 11 3. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses. And so we're going to keep coming back to this idea. First, John was told, you need to take the message and go out into the world and declare it. But now we've got two other witnesses. God's message is going to go out into the world. And they will prophesy for 1,260 days. They're like, oh, okay. Another time reference. So we have to tear that time reference apart. Turns out 1,260 days is equal to 42 months, which is equal to three and a half years. If you're using the Jewish system, which says every month has 30 days, which is honestly kind of a nice system. You don't have to go through your little rhyme and figure out what months have different numbers of days. But we come to the same idea. We have 1,260 days. Again, 1,260 days I don't think is meant to represent a discrete time period. Rather, it's three and a half. It's half of seven. While you're in the middle, while you're in the judgments of God that are falling upon this world, the end has not happened yet. And so during that time when the end is not yet, there'll be these two witnesses that are testifying. And they're testifying clothed in sackcloth. That tells us something about their message. If we go back to the Old Testament, sackcloth was a symbol of mourning, of grief, and of repentance. And so these two witnesses come, and the message that they're giving is a message of repentance. They're calling out. Come, repent before God. Look at these judgments that are falling on the world. They're evidence that God is judging this world. The end hasn't happened yet, but God is bringing his judgment. So come and repent. Hear the message of Christ. And so they come, and you have two witnesses again proclaiming God's message. And so we have two witnesses that are declaring in some the gospel, the message of God until the end. But again, the big question is, okay, who in the world are these two witnesses? And we could go all over the place and talk about a lot of things here. I'm just going to tell you where I am as I study this out. We have two witnesses. So again, we're going to go back to the Old Testament because the Old Testament teaches us what we need to know about revelation. The first place we have to go to is Deuteronomy 19. So Deuteronomy 19 and 15 says this. A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. Actually, we could go to a lot of other Old Testament passages, but that's a foundational truth in the law of God, that any matter must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. We come to the New Testament, we see Paul says, that was a great law for the people of God, let's keep it going. This is the third time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. So when we see in Revelation 11 that two witnesses show up to declare the message of God, the first thing we're supposed to see is that there's going to be a sufficient and reliable testimony. God's going to provide a sufficiently reliable testimony that his message will go out in the world. If the world wants to hear it, they will. Now we know from the seven trumpets, the world will not repent no matter what God does. But if they want to hear it, there will be a sufficiently reliable witness to what God's message is. So we come here and we say, OK, there's two witnesses. There's a sufficiently reliable witness. But I'm still left with questions. Who are the two witnesses? God's going to provide enough of a testimony. But who are the two witnesses? Turns out, Revelation tells us, it says these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the Earth. Okay, good. Thanks for informing me. I'm still just as confused. Okay, we've got two witnesses. Instead of getting easier, it got more confusing. Those two witnesses are two olive trees. Oh, and they're also two lampstands and they stand before the Lord of all the earth. But again, the Old Testament tells us what's going on. This is a reference back to Zechariah 4, which we read this morning. So in Zechariah 4, Zechariah has a series of visions in the night, and he sees these different things. And in his fourth vision, he sees that there's a lampstand, a golden lampstand with seven wicks on it. And beside it, there are two olive trees that are pouring oil into this lampstand, so that lampstand never runs out of oil. And then we have a promise that after he sees this vision, God speaks to Zerubbabel, who's the governor of Judah right now. He's a descendant of the kings of Israel, had not become the king, but had become governor of the land of Judea. And there's a promise to Zerubbabel that God would establish him in that position, that the temple would be built under his authority, and that God was with him. But then at the end of this vision, we get this. The angel that's showing him the vision is walking around, John, or I'm sorry, I keep forgetting who I'm talking about, Zechariah. Zechariah says to him, what are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand? So we come back, okay, we're talking about the two olive trees. The angel apparently ignored him, so he says, a second time, I answered and said to him, what are these two branches of the olive trees which are beside the two golden pipes from which the golden oil is poured? Come on, buddy, I'd like to understand what this vision is about, because I see this vision, and I hear this promise to Zerubbabel, but I don't understand what's going on here. So the angel finally answers, and he said to me, do you not know what these are? I love it when the angels are like, hey, How about you tell me? Zechariah is like, I don't know. No, my Lord. No idea. I'm confused by the vision. And so then the angel answers him and says, these are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth. And so we get this reference in Revelation 2. These are the two olive trees that stand before the Lord of the whole earth. We go back to Zechariah 4. Zechariah is confused by the vision as well. And the end of the vision is this, is these are the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of the whole earth. These are the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of the whole earth. And we say, OK, a little bit confused, except if we step back and take in the message of Zechariah. So as you look at the message of Zechariah, the message of Zechariah is this. God is still with his people. He returned with his people after exile. He's going to reestablish his kingdom. And he's going to say, I'm going to hold up two people. His first is going to be the anointed king. And so there's going to be a king, technically a governor in this sense, but Zerubbabel is a descendant of the Davidic kings, and he comes to claim authority over the land of Judah. God says, that's my first anointed one, and I'm with him. That's actually Yin Zechariah 4. I'm with him to fulfill his mission. And then the second anointed one is the high priest. We get a priest, Joshua, appointed and Zechariah. And there's also promises made to Joshua that in his time the temple would be renewed, it would be cleaned. Joshua was found with dirty robes, but God said, here, I'll take those filthy robes from you and give you clean robes so that you can serve in my temple. And so the two anointed ones were the office of king and the office of priest, the head of the kingdom, the head of the priesthood. And it's in Zechariah, a vision that's looking forward to a better high king, a better priest that would come and be over the people of God. A promise of Christ saying, we're going to get a little picture now, a picture that we ultimately fulfilled in Christ who comes to be the king and high priest over the people of God. And so we come back. We say, OK, two witnesses are first a sufficiently reliable witness. But two witnesses second are the king and the priest. But then come back to Revelation 11 and say, OK, we should have a king and a priest show up. I'm still confused because I don't see a whole lot of kings over the people of God. I don't see a lot of priests serving in the people of God. But I think there's a reference, again, back to the Old Testament. There are two witnesses, the king and the priest. We come to Exodus 19, 5 through 6. This is like the founding charter of the Old Testament people of God. This is what God says he's forming them to be. He says, now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you, that is God's people, you, God's people, shall be to me the kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. And so going back to the Old Testament, we see that the founding charter of God's people was that God was establishing a people to be a kingdom of priests to the Most High God. Then we get the story of the Old Testament, but that wasn't enough. All the pictures, they were great pictures, but they were never the final culmination. Then we have Christ, the ultimate king and priest over the people of God, come and fulfill everything for the people of God. But we haven't changed the promise. God's people were to be a kingdom priest to God most high. And so I think we're supposed to pull this Exodus reference in and say, the two witnesses are the king and the priest, which ultimately were supposed to be God's people gathered as one witness to the world. Unless you think I'm pulling kind of random passages out of the Old Testament, this is something that's really on John's mind as he goes through Revelation. This is a little bit of an obscure passage from the Old Testament, but John quotes it multiple times as he goes through Revelation. So we come to Revelation 1, 5 through 6. The announcement was to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom priest to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. John wants us to have Exodus 19, 5 through 6 in our head as we go through Revelation. When we come to Revelation 5, 9 through 10, the song before the throne at the end of Revelation 5 is this, and they sing a new song saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign upon the earth. And so now we come back to Revelation 11, 3 through 6. We see that there's an announcement there will be two witnesses, a sufficiently reliable reliable testimony to the message of God. Those two witnesses are the two witnesses that were talked about in Zechariah 4, which were the kingly office and the priestly office together testifying to the message of God, ultimately fulfilled in Christ, but then through Christ, delegated to his people, you will be a kingdom and priest unto me. And so when I see these two witnesses, the conclusion I come to is this. We're again talking about the church. for 1260 days, for the time between the times, the time between Christ's first coming and his second coming, there will be two witnesses, the church announcing the authority of Christ and the church announcing the holiness of Christ, the church showing the kingship of Christ and the church showing the priesthood of Christ, and they will testify in a reliable way to the world what is the message of God. Repent, the end is coming. And so we have two witnesses that conclude they are the church. So we come back. I'll clear off some of my writing. We have two witnesses show up. They come to testify to God's message, a message of repentance in the face of God's judgment. And then we keep going. It doesn't get better than that. It actually gets weirder the farther we go into this. And so we have these two olive trees, two lampstands. And then it says, if anyone will harm them, fire pours from their mouth. Okay. Great. Fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. Okay, this might prove a slight challenge for my interpretation. We don't see the church going around and breathing fire on people very often. Okay, so what's going on here? But again, the Old Testament tells us. This is an Old Testament reference again, 2 Kings 1. It's a reference to Elijah. So after the death of King Ahab, we have a new king come, and King Ahaziah rises up. And it turns out he's not much better of a king than Ahab. And he gets sick, and he goes, and he looks to the Baals to answer him. Will he get better from the sickness? And Elijah, back in the background somewhere, goes, why are you going to the Baals? Are there no gods in the land of Israel that you could go to? It turns out Ahaziah didn't like that, and so he sends out his men to go capture Ahaz, and he sends out a troop of 50. The troop of 50 comes up and goes to try to capture Elijah. It turns out Elijah stands on a tall hill, and he calls out, and God burns him up with fire. And Ahaziah is, you know, dense, so he tries again. He sends another troop after him, and Elijah stands on the hill, and he calls down fire from God, and they consume his foes. And Ahaziah still doesn't get it. So he comes to the captain of his guard and says, you know what? You need to bring this guy back to me. I don't like what he's doing. He's burning up my guys with fire. And so the captain of the guard goes up. The captain was a little smarter than Ahaziah. He goes, hey, whoa, wait, Elijah. Wait. I'd like not to be burned up with fire. Would you just please come with me? And Elijah goes, OK. And he goes and he goes and speaks before Ahaziah, and he tells him that, you know, you were wrong. That's Matt's summary of that passage. But we have this passage where Elijah, the prophet of God, calls fire down from God and says, you know what? Ahaziah, you're not in control. My God is in control. You are not the authority. My God is the authority. I'll come to you when the time is right, but you aren't going to dictate to me. You aren't going to capture me apart from God's will. Okay, we'll come back to that in a second. Reference from the Old Testament. So we have, fire poured from their mouth consumes their foes. Verse six, they have the power to shut the sky that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesy. Okay, again, I don't call it to God and he shuts out the rain. Except again, this is a reference to the Old Testament. First Kings 17, again, Elijah. Elijah, in the time of Ahab, he looks at Ahab and Jezebel and says, you are evil people. God is going to send a drought. And there's a drought for a long time. And then we get the story of the widow who's provided for. And Elijah gets provided for by the ravens and all that story. But Elijah was able to call a drought down on Ahab to say, you are sinning against the Lord your God. But then we keep going. And they have power over the waters to turn them into blood. I don't do that very often personally myself. But again, Old Testament story, Exodus 7, the first of the plagues. Moses, speaking for God, says to Pharaoh, let my people go. Pharaoh says, no. And so he says, OK, watch this. I'm going to turn the Nile to blood. And that starts the story of the seven plagues. And then we keep going. They have power to strike the earth with every kind of plague. Again, a reference to Moses is Exodus 7 through 11. Every kind of plague falls upon the Egyptians. And so we have these fantastic references. These witnesses are going to have strange powers. OK, did the church actually have those powers? If I'm going to translate these as the church, what do these powers mean? What I think is going on is actually we're told to step back and look at the Old Testament. Look at what God did for his people in the Old Testament. We have Moses and we have Elijah. And Moses and Elijah are two important characters. They actually, together, represent the whole of the Old Testament. And we can see that because when Christ goes up the Mount of Transfiguration, what two characters show up? Moses and Elijah, the Old Testament witness to Christ. And they saw his glory and said, this is the one. And so when Revelation comes and says, look at what happened with Elijah, look at what happened with Moses, we're supposed to look back at the Old Testament and say, God protected his people. He gave them what they needed so that they could fulfill their mission. When the king was after Elijah, God didn't just hand Elijah over to him and let him be killed. He protected him so that he could fulfill his ministry. When Moses went before Pharaoh, God didn't abandon him. He gave him the power that he needed to keep proclaiming his message and to emphasize to Pharaoh, this is the word of the Lord. Let my people go. And so what I think is being said here is the church will be equipped to fulfill her mission. The world will stand against us, yes. The world will come and by their authority try to silence us and beat us down, but God will not let that happen. Just like he did for the Old Testament people of God, he will allow the mission to continue. They will not defeat us. We will keep testifying to God's message. But then we come to Revelation 11, 7. and when they have finished their testimony. So we look forward and say, this is going to be a hard, long road, but there's an end. There will be an end when we finish our testimony. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound very happy. It says, when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them, and will conquer them, and will kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, that symbolically is called Sodom in Egypt, where the Lord was crucified. For three and a half days, some of the people 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 presents because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. God makes us a promise. He says, I'll sustain you until the mission is done. I'll sustain you until the mission is done, but guess how the mission ends. The church will not win a temporal victory. Revelation says during the 42 months, the three and a half years, the time between the times, you will testify and the world will oppose you, but God will preserve you so that you can keep testifying to his message. But then at the very end, guess what? You lose. You die. The beast rises up and defeats you. It's not a great lesson. It's not a message of your best life now, or, you know what, we're going to take over this world, we're going to win. It's a, you keep testifying until they kill you. And guess what? At the end, they're going to kill you. They're going to hate your message. They're not going to listen. It's actually just echoing what happened in the seven trumpets. No matter how many judgments God threw down upon this earth, the people would fly from the judgments that they would not repent. They would not give up worshiping their idols of silver and gold, or the evils that they committed. And as we proclaim God's message of repentance, the world will hate us and will not listen to us. And in the end, they will destroy us. But even within this, there's a message. It says, for three and a half days, some from the people and tribes and languages of the nation will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed into the tomb. And so the message is, as history weaves on, eventually the world will completely reject the testimony of the church. The world will appear to have triumphed over the church, to stand them out, to cease the witness of God. But it will be only for three and a half days. Again, we have that three and a half. We have three and a half years, the time between the times from Christ's first coming to his second coming. But now we have the three and a half, which again tells us the end is not checked. But he goes from years to days and says, we've got a lot closer to the end right here. And the testimony of the church has been stamped out. No, the end is right around the door. It's not checked. There will be a time when the church is stamped out. And there is no more witness in this world, because the world has completely rejected God. But it will be for a short period. The end is not checked, but it's really close when the world stamps out the message of the church. That sounds like a really, really terrible message. Go proclaim the gospel and get killed. But we shouldn't be surprised by that message because we started with this. We had a conquering lion. And John looked behind him and he said, that conquering lion looks like a slain lamb. There is a contradiction in imagery there. But we went through this in Revelation 5. Revelation 5 called us to see that the conquering lion had to be the slain lamb. Christ would win the victory through death. The lion would defeat this world by dying. He would conquer through suffering. He would go to ransom and redeem his people and claim his authority over this creation by dying on a cross. Actually, I like the song we sang this morning. Come behold the wondrous mystery, the third verse. Come behold the wondrous mystery, the Lord upon the tree. And this dead of ruined sinners hangs the lamb in victory. At the cross, Christ was victorious. Now, no rational person would go up and watch a Roman crucifixion and say, hey, that guy won. Except we look at that one and say, that guy won. In death, he won. And so we shouldn't be surprised if that was Christ's method of claiming authority over this world. If that was Christ's method for proclaiming the judgment of God, why would it be any different for us? No, he's just calling his people to follow him. He said, here so I conquered the world, I died. I died proclaiming the message of God. And so our victory will be in faithful defeat. Our victory will be in faithful defeat. That's actually kind of encouraging. It's kind of a discouraging in lots of ways. They're always going to listen to you. They're going to hate you. And guess what? They're probably going to kill you in the end. But there's a great hopeful message here. It doesn't matter whether they listen to you. Guess what? They probably won't. It doesn't matter whether they listen to you. The way you're going to be faithful is going to get killed by them, not to convince them all to agree with you. So I can't convince them all to agree with me, but they can probably kill me and I don't need to give up Christ. And so there's a hopefulness here. This is your mission. Keep proclaiming my message till the end and then they're going to kill you. But fortunately, the story doesn't end there. So we get Revelation 11, 10. So we keep proclaiming God's message even when it gets hard, even unto death. We keep proclaiming the gospel. But then we have a fourth. How should the church respond? We hope in God's promise. We hope in God's promise even when it seems impossible. So as we look at the pattern of this world, God's judgment is going to increasingly fall. Things are going to get worse. And you know what? It's not only God himself that's causing judgment to fall in this world. The world is judgment fall is going to hate the church more and more and try to stamp them out. And towards the end, they're going to win and they're going to stamp out the witness of the church. Say, OK, well, this is a great story. I'm glad that I'm part of it. But that's not where the story ends. So we come to Revelation 11, 11 through 13. We say, wow, this seems like an impossible mission. But then it says three and a half days. The end is not yet, but it's getting really, really close. After the three and a half days, after that short period, we haven't quite ended, but it's really close. After the three and a half days, guess what? A breath of life from God enters them and they stand on their feet. Yeah, the world went out to destroy the church. But guess what? They could go all the way to killing you all and conquering you all and stamping you out from the earth. It turns out God's not going to let that be the final word. He's going to raise us up on the last day. When the three and a half days are over, when the time between the times has been finished, He's going to call us up. And we're going to rise up and meet Him. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, come up here. And they went up to heaven in a cloud. So yeah, the world defeated them, but God didn't let that defeat happen. He said, you know what, the world killed you, but I'll raise you up on the last day. So that's the first one is, the defeat wasn't final. The impossible happened, and those that were killed rose up again to be a witness to the world. And during that, the world watched them. So first, God will not abandon his church to death. But then second we see and their enemies watched. He's going to do this in the view of the whole world. The world will go through and hate our message and they'll try to step us out and in the end they'll win and they'll destroy us. They'll have a short period where they think they've won the battle. But then after that three and a half days, God says, you know what? Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to raise you up, and I'm going to do it in the view of all the world so that they can see you did not win. You killed my witnesses. You stamped out my messages, but you did not win. He did it in the sight of all of them. And then at that hour, there was a great earthquake. And a tenth of the city fell, and 7,000, again, seven, a full number, times a great number, a thousand, a huge number were killed. God's wrath was being revealed because he called out, and he called his servants to rise from the graves, and he looked at his enemies and said, and you will go down to the grave. And those that were not killed were terrified. and give glory to the God of heaven. So God will not abandon his church to death. God will vindicate his witness in the end. You will not always be stamped out. Right now, yeah, you'll be stamped out. That's going to be the pattern. You'll be stamped out, but it won't last forever. And the last message is going to be that they give glory to the God of heaven. We will be vindicated, which in the end means God will be vindicated. His message of judgment that he gave to the world, his message of repentance that he's giving through us will be shown to have been true. God will vindicate himself and therefore he will receive the glory. There'll be none left who can say anything except God is God. Those who tried to stamp out our message will say with us, God is God. They will say it in terror and in despair, but none will not recognize that truth. And so our call is to hope in God's promise even when it seems impossible. And understand God's promise is for the last day. You will raise back up and God will vindicate you. Right now, keep going and you'll get killed. That's the message. But hope in God's promise even when it seems impossible. And then finally, one last point, how should the church respond when God's judgments fall? We wait for God's victory. We wait for God's victory even when it seems far off. So at the end of the two witnesses, we finally come to that seventh trumpet. In the seventh trumpet, we've already been told that the delay, there will be no more delay, but at the day of the seventh trumpet, God's message will have been fulfilled. everything they had promised the prophets will have come to pass. And so again, just like all the sevenths, I believe this talks about the last day. And so we see Revelation 11, 15. Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever. It's hard not to sing those words, Handel's Messiah. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. And so we see a fourfold announcement here. First, the end will come. There will be a day when we will be able to say the kingdom of this world has become, looking back, and it has already happened. It is no longer the kingdom of this world. It has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. We see a message. The battle will be won. The kingdom of this world is no more. They pursued us even unto death, but they were crushed by our God. We see a message that a victory will be Christ. The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And finally, we see He will reign forever and ever. He will reign forever without rival and without peer. And so we can stand with boldness before the world and declare His message knowing that we're going to be killed because on the last day we know that God will be vindicated and Christ will reign. and we will raise up to meet Him in the air. And so we wait. We wait for God's victory, even when it seems we're off. So we can look at our world now and say, our world seems to be falling apart now. A whole lot of things seem to be going the wrong direction. Does that mean I think we're on that last day? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe we're just in another birth pain as we get closer to the end. I'm not making any predictions. But we don't know when that last day is going to be, but we wait for it. We say, I can be faithful now because I know it will happen. And I know Christ will take up his throne, and he will reign forever and ever. Then we come to Revelation 11, 16 through 18. And the 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God. When that seventh trumpet blows, the end comes. The final woe, and we said the final woe was coming. We had three woes, which were trumpets five, six, and seven. The final woe is you're all destroyed. Your kingdom has fallen and has become the kingdom of Christ. And on that last low, this is what's going to happen. The end result is going to be worship. That's what we keep coming back to in Revelation. The end result is going to be worship. There's going to be a lot of hardship, a lot of travail. The judgments of God are going to fall on this earth and the world is going to hate us for it and try to destroy us. But at the end, there will be worship. So they fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, and they're going to give us four reasons why we worship God on that last day, saying, we give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was. I love that the repeated phrase through Revelation is God is the one who is and who was and who is to come. We just leave that last one off now because we're at the seventh trumpet. There's no more is to come. He is. because we're on the final day, and he was, through all the history of this world. We don't need any more is to come. The final day has happened, so we can drop it off. We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for, first one, you have taken up your great power. So we'll praise God on that last day and say, you have shown that you are powerful, more powerful than our enemies, more powerful than those who stamped us out from existence. And you showed there were nothing before you. You have shown your great power, and second, you have begun to reign. We will praise him for his sovereignty. He declared, I am the ruler of this universe, and though my enemies will fight against me, in the end, they will be crushed, and I will rule, and there will be none to oppose me. The nations raged. They did. They fought against my prophets. They fought against my witnesses. They stamped them out. The nations raged, but your wrath came. On that last day, we will praise him for his justice. You didn't let any sin go unpunished. You didn't let any wrong go unrighted. At the end, you brought justice, and you brought it in your infinite quantities to make all things right. But your wrath came in the time for the dead to be judged, and forth, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great. We are praising for his grace and saying we should have been on the receiving end of your justice. We should have been crushed like the world. And yet, when you showed up, you took your power, and you began to reign. You crushed our enemies, and you saved us. You brought a reward to us. And we are in awe, and we worship you. and for destroying the destroyers of the earth, coming back to the wrath. So the end result is worship, and we'll look at all that happened, all that happened through all the ages of the earth, and all that happened on the last day, and we say, our God is great. He is powerful, He is sovereign, He is just, and He is gracious. And how can we want a better God than that? And then we come to the last word of the seven trumpets, Revelation 11, 19. Then God's temple in heaven was opened. And the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. Once again, we've reached that end point in God's glorious scene in his temple. And we're ready to start the story again, which is what we'll do next time we jump into Revelation. We'll go back to the beginning, and we'll tell the story again. And so as we close out the two witnesses, we ask this question. Kids, here's your kids' question for the day. What does the church do during God's judgment? Last week we saw what we should expect. We should expect increasing judgment from God falling upon this earth. What does the church do during that judgment? We trust God. What does the church do during God's judgment? We trust God and testify to his mercy and to his judgment. We interpret for the world what's going on around them. We know they're going to hate us. The world will hate us. But in the end, God will vindicate us. We just tell the world, this is what's going on. This is why things are getting worse. This is why you're running in these irrational directions, because you're running away from your God. We know that they're not going to like us, and they're going to destroy us, but we trust in that last day and say, we aren't going to lose, as much as it looks like we're losing right now. Let's close in prayer. Father, we're grateful that you left us a testimony telling us what to expect. Father, our sinful, clouded hearts would want to see easy victory in this world, to see us raised up as our own kings, to see us as conquerors in the name of Christ in this world. Father, you have a much better plan. Father, I'm thankful that you have revealed that to us and pray that you would make us rejoice in your plan, that you would give us joy as we see your plan work out, But Father, most of all, that you would give us perseverance. Father, you promised that we will have trouble in this world. Father, let that not discourage us or dissuade us from our mission. Let us not be afraid of what men could do to us, but go and testify. Father, we need your spirit to fill us for that to happen, because these aren't things that humanly happen. But Father, we trust that you will, as you provided for your prophets of old, provide us with what we need to keep testifying, no matter how hard it gets. Father, we pray this for the glory of Christ and trust in His power in us. So it is in His name we pray. Amen. So open it up if there's any questions or comments or other discussion. Yeah. First of all, thank you for inviting us here. I do want to note that a lot of those texts are not easy to look through. And I think one of the things that I really value your message and your report, and that is the way my heart is. I think you would have to be insane to think that our climate is not changing. Storms are intensifying. Natural disasters are increasing. And as a church, we need to see those as opportunities and moments to proclaim that God's judgment is coming. But this is not. It's hard. It's a hard message to deliver. But the judgments that we see now on our nation, not on our nation, on this earth, they're not the final judgment. There's still an opportunity to repent. There's still an opportunity to turn to one who is gracious, who is merciful. And as a church, we need to be faithful to proclaim that. The Lord keeps reminding me. that the servant is not greater than the master, but it is enough that the servant be like the master. And so, if the world hated him, it will surely hate us. It doesn't mean we don't have to be like a bunch of self-righteous pompous jerks. When the world is disdaining us, we can take comfort in the fact that they didn't love our Lord either. We're just being made like Christ in one more way. Anything else? I'll turn it over to Heath.