- We need an understanding of the role that God has for all of us as the second-coming of Jesus approaches,
- and how the book of Revelation fits into the rest of Scripture on this topic.
Play Audio:
Goal
To give us a broad vision of the future,
and an understanding of the role God has for us
in preparing for his return.
The Two Witnesses of Rev 11
- Overview of Part 1.
- Future Elijah figures in Revelation: 2 Witnesses
- How you and I prepare for the End of the World
1. Overview of Part 1.
Matthew 11
- “To what should I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to one another,
- ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance;
we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.’ - For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon!’
- The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him, a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’
- God is about the most amazing project
- to turn mourning into dancing,
- to turn death into life
- to turn funerals into a wedding
- But Jesus is saying that people don’t want to hear either message
- People don’t want to hear the negative things that God says—that we are accountable to him and one day everyone will be judged
- But neither do they take seriously the positive things
Matthew 11
- For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John,
- and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.
- The one who has ears had better listen!
Elijah
- The connection between John the Baptist and Elijah?
Elijah with Ahab & Jezebel
- Just like John, the Spirit was on him powerfully and he lived in the wilderness (not desert)
- Just as John pointed out Jesus, and then baptized him, launching his ministry,
- So Elijah commissioned Elisha (“God is my salvation”)
- Elisha was a “Jesus” figure.
Moses
- In this passage we only have the connection between John the Baptist and Elijah mentioned
- But very often in the Bible, Moses and Elijah are put together
Moses, Elijah & John
| | | prepares the way for | from | to |
|---|
| Moses | ➜ | Joshua (=Saviour) | Slavery | Promised Land |
| Elijah | ➜ | Elisha (=My God saves) | Judgement | Grace |
| John | ➜ | Jesus (=Saviour) | Old Kingdom | New Kingdom |
- Each one is going up a level from the previous
- Explain how Elisha pre-figures Jesus
- But Jesus takes us to a new order
- There is one more person who fits that pattern
- The main picture of Jesus in the O.T. is king David
- The prophetic figure who commissioned him was Samuel
Some remarkable parallels
- The Spirit was on him
- Lived in the Wilderness
- Preached prophetic warnings
- Had a king as arch-enemy
- Heard from God about successor and commissioned him
- Successor was a “saviour”
- Supernatural events at birth/death
- All except Elijah:
- Prepared the way for successor
- Lived at the end of era
- Next era was a “new order”
- Didn’t live to see the new era
- Key idea that there is a pattern of preparing for God doing a new thing
Adding in Samuel➜David
| | | prepares the way for | from | to |
|---|
| Moses | ➜ | Joshua (=Saviour) | Slavery | Promised Land |
| Samuel | ➜ | David (Christ-figure) | Judges & Chaos | Kingdom |
| Elijah | ➜ | Elisha (=My God saves) | Judgement | Grace |
| John | ➜ | Jesus (=Saviour) | Old Kingdom | New Kingdom |
2. Future Elijah figures in Revelation: 2 Witnesses
The Two Witnesses
- In Revelation 11, we have a pictorial parable of the last days
- Jesus is about to return
- Just as John the Baptist prepared the way the first time, there will be a preparer before the second
- Who will it be? Can you guess?
Revelation 11:3–15
- And I will give power to my two witnesses to prophesy… dressed in sackcloth…
- They have the power to shut the sky so that it does not rain during the time they are prophesying.
They have power to turn the waters to blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague whenever they want. - When they have completed their testimony, the being that comes from the abyss will make war on them and conquer them and kill them…
- But after a short time a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and tremendous fear seized those who were watching them.
- Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them: “Come up here!”
So the two prophets went up to heaven in a cloud while their enemies stared at them…
- Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying:
“The kingdom of the world
has become the kingdom of our Lord
and of his Christ,
and he will reign for ever and ever.”
- 11:5, 6 Moses & Elijah imagery
- 11:7–10 Persecution and martyrdom
- except they can’t ultimately be killed
Moses, Elijah, John & ?
| | | prepares the way for | from | to |
|---|
| Moses | ➜ | Joshua (=Saviour) | Slavery | Promised Land |
| Elijah | ➜ | Elisha (=My God saves) | Judgement | Grace |
| John | ➜ | Jesus (=Saviour) | Old
Kingdom | New
Kingdom |
| ? | ➜ | Return of Jesus | Old
Creation | New
Creation |
- Finally we go beyond time and into eternity
- This old earth is getting worn out
- The New Creation is coming
- This generation, I believe, is called to prepare the way for the new
- I believe it will be all of God’s people!
- Why pictured as two? —because of O.T. courtroom law (but more in a minute)
Quick overview of Revelation
- 1–4 Opening scene, letters to churches
- 5–11 First Scroll: 7 seals & 7 trumpets
- From Jesus resurrection through to his 2nd coming & judgement
- 12–20 Second Scroll: Repeats story in more detail
- Rich O.T. imagery from Daniel etc.
Dragons, beasts… - from Jesus’ birth through history
to heaven, wedding of the Bride
Historical Problems with understanding Revelation
- Every era of the church has believed it was living in the last days
- Reading with a newspaper in the other hand, constantly spotting “the sign of the beast”
- Barcodes! Credit cards with microchips! Covid vaccine!
- But the big picture is clear!
Both scrolls tell the same story
- At some point before Jesus’ return, there will be an intensification of Satan’s activity
- But Christians will receive an extra level of Holy Spirit sealing to equip them and keep them safe
- So be ready!
- Why I am optimistic
- Hab 2:14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
- Will Jesus return to a failed church.
- His great prayer in John 17 was for us to properly represent him to the world—will Jesus’ prayer go unanswered?
- Eph 4 says we will grown into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, before his return.
- Romans 11 is about the future of Ethnic Jews, and I believe it is saying there will be a revival and they will be brought into the church.
- Note that this is NOT some special messianic Judaism, with a special set of practices
- but Paul says that the two, Jew and Gentile, become one in Christ
- each retaining ethnic identity, but spiritual unity
Romans 11
- For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
- When they rejected the gospel, it went out to Gentiles
- And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;
- The context does not demand “every single Israelite”, but relative to how it was before
- Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
- Also Jews and Gentiles are pictured as 2 olive trees, which is also a description of the 2 witnesses in Revelation
3. How you and I prepare for the End of the World
- What is a witness in a law court?
- Let’s look at John as a witness, and then our commissioning
Witnesses – John 1:
- A man came, sent from God, whose name was John.
- He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that everyone might believe through him…
- On the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the farthest parts of the earth.”
- Why two? Mat 18:16 “…at the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter may be established.”
- We use the word “witness” for evangelism, but in a law court a witness is simply someone who tells what they saw and heard
- The witnesses of the end times:
- They are a composite of all the forerunners before them...
- In particular they are filled with the Spirit and can do signs and wonders
- Satan tries to stamp them out, but just when they think they are gone, they rise up again
- This culminates in Jesus returning in power and glory and us ascending to meet him
- We are them!
- Prepare
- for empowerment by the Spirit greater than Moses, greater than Elijah, greater than John
- to be faithful as witnesses
- But what is coming will be so amazing, so bright and full of joy
- All our mourning will be turned into dancing!
What should I do?
- Recognize reality:
- A funeral must happen (to this world’s way of thinking & living)
- The joyful wedding celebration dance is starting
- Don’t refuse this, but embrace this reality
- Take your identity as a witness seriously—don’t be ashamed of Jesus, but take opportunities simply to say you follow him and why
- When he comes we’ll be so full of joy that all our mourning will be turned into dancing
- Prayer: Jesus, you say “The one who has ears had better listen!”
May we take this reality seriously and join your celebration!
