September 18, 2016 A.D., by Pastor Ben Willis

Introduction
Last week our readings through The Revelation ended at chapter 6 with a vision of the Lord Jesus revealing what would happen between His ascension into Heaven and His promised return. Just as dreams can have one thing stand for something else, likewise, in the visions God gives, one thing can stand for something else.
In chapter 6, the Lord Jesus reveals these end-times events by opening the seven seals of a scroll that had been held in God the Father Almighty’s hand. When the Lord Jesus opens the first seal, a horseman carrying a bow with no arrows goes charging into the world riding a white horse. When the Lord Jesus opens the second seal, a horseman carrying a sword goes charging out into the world riding a fiery-red horse. When He opens the third seal, a horseman carrying measuring scales goes charging out into the world riding a black horse. And when He opens the fourth seal, “Death” goes charging out riding a pale-looking horse, and the land of the dead followed closely after him. When the Lord opens the fifth seal, we see all the martyrs – all those who have ever been killed on account of their faith in Jesus Christ – and we are shown these martyrs as being under the great bronze altar. (The great bronze altar was where burnt offerings were made to the Lord, and underneath the altar is where the ashes from the sacrifices would end up, all showing that the martyrs had given their lives as offerings to Christ.) And then the Lord Jesus opens the sixth seal, and there was a massive earthquake and the world broke apart, and the sun, moon, stars, and earth’s atmosphere broke apart, all while every unbeliever on the earth is trying to kill themselves instead of having to face the Lord as He’s about to return.

The Lord Jesus describes these same end-times events (but without the symbols and imagery of a vision) in Matthew, Mark, and Luke’s Gospel. Let me read it from Mark 13:5-27…
5 Jesus replied, “Don’t let anyone mislead you, 6 for many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. 7 And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the End won’t follow immediately. 8 Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in many parts of the world, as well as famines. But this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.
9 “When these things begin to happen, watch out! You will be handed over to the local councils and beaten in the synagogues. You will stand trial before governors and kings because you are My followers. But this will be your opportunity to tell them about Me. 10 For the Good News must first be preached to all nations. 11 But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry in advance about what to say. Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
12 “A brother will betray his brother to death, a father will betray his own child, and children will rebel against their parents and cause them to be killed. 13 And everyone will hate you because you are My followers. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
14 “The day is coming when you will see the sacrilegious object that causes desecration standing where he should not be.” (Reader, pay attention!) “Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. 15 A person out on the deck of a roof must not go down into the house to pack. 16 A person out in the field must not return even to get a coat. 17 How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. 18 And pray that your flight will not be in winter. 19 For there will be greater anguish in those days than at any time since God created the world. And it will never be so great again. 20 In fact, unless the Lord shortens that time of calamity, not a single person will survive. But for the sake of His chosen ones He has shortened those days.
21 “Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There He is,’ don’t believe it. 22 For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. 23 Watch out! I have warned you about this ahead of time!
24 “At that time, after the anguish of those days, ‘the sun will be darkened, the moon will give no light, 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
26 Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory. 27 And He will send out His angels to gather His chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and Heaven.” (13:5-27)
And so we know (because white is the symbolic color of purity and righteousness) that the white-horse rider is the good news being preached to all the nations. The red-horse rider is the wars and rumors of wars and nations and kingdoms warring against one another. The black-horse rider is the famines, with Death riding the pale horse with the land of the dead tagging along. The Lord calls us to expect persecution and suffering and even martyrdom as we stand up for truth and share our faith before local councils, governors, kings, and being arrested and standing trial, and we’ll be betrayed and hated and killed… And He speaks of the shaking and the end of this Heaven and this Earth to make room for the new Heaven and the new Earth the prophets have promised…

Further on, in chapters 8 and 9, John’s vision changes to that of seven angels blowing trumpets, what Paul speaks of in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 as the “trumpet call of God”. And where the Lord Jesus breaking open the seals showed John the end-time events just as the Lord Jesus promised (as we’ve read), the blowing of each trumpet portrays the End through the different perspectives of the unbelieving world: Natural disasters, spiritual upheaval, human excess, demonic oppression, … Whether atheist, agnostic, or believing in another god or other gods, the trumpets reveal images of the created order in absolute chaos!

And just as the sixth seal portrayed unbelieving humanity wanting to die instead of have to face the Lord Jesus at His return, likewise, the sixth trumpet displays a hard-hearted humanity unwilling to repent of their evils and idolatry, even as the Lord Jesus is on the brink of His return…

These visions of the Lord Jesus breaking the seals and bringing to pass the promises of the Scriptures and the visions of the angels blowing the trumpet call of God both are interrupted prior to the seventh seal being opened and the seventh trumpet being blown.
At the end of chapter 6, as creation is breaking apart around them, the miserable but unrepentant unbelievers of the earth are heard crying out, “Who is able to survive?” And we are given imagery about God’s angel-army marking Jesus’ followers with a special mark so that the death and horrors striking the world at the End will not shake them. And the symbolic number of 144,000 is given to represent the number of Jews who will come to faith in Jesus and be saved before the End, and the number of non-Jews (like most of us) who will have come to trust in Christ before the End is described as “a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language”. (7:9)
Likewise, at the end of chapter 9, with the hard-hearted world refusing to turn to Christ as the End comes, John receives a special revelation that he is not allowed to share, as well as a message that he is to share, but that is disturbing to him to do so. And he is given a measuring stick to measure the temple of God. And, like the first interruption – where all the faithful were marked – during this interruption all the faithful (and in the vision all the faithful are pictured as God’s Temple, we, Christ’s Church, the dwelling place of God’s Holy Spirit – we are measured and counted: Not one soul, great or small, is missed. And then for some reason, two “witnesses” are described.
These two witnesses can do the miracles that Moses was allowed to do in Egypt and to keep rain from falling on the earth like Elijah did, but who are the witnesses? If anybody tries to hurt them “fire flashes from [the mouths of the two witnesses] and consumes their enemies” (11:15), but who are the witnesses? They are called “the two olive trees” and “the two lampstands” that stand before the Lord. (Which was similar to the vision given to the prophet Zechariah about a man named Zerubabbel, and being called “the two olive trees” and “the two lampstands” meant that Zerubabbel would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that nothing would be able to keep Zerubabbel from accomplishing all that the Lord had called him to do.) Likewise, these two witnesses would be filled with the Holy Spirit and nothing would be able to keep them from accomplishing God’s purposes. But, again, who are the witnesses?

Although many different scholars have proposed many different answers, let me have us do what we are always to do any time we are confused about an area of Scripture. So, what do we do what we are confused about an area of Scripture? … Look to other areas of Scripture! That’s right! So, I looked up “two witnesses” in an online concordance, and here’s what I got:
&#62 Deuteronomy 17:6, ”But never put a person to death on the testimony of only one witness. There must always be two or three witnesses.”
&#62 Deuteronomy 19:15, “You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
&#62 Amos 3:3, [Witnesses against Guilty Israel] “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” (Of course, this passage has nothing to do with “two witnesses”. It only popped up because the word “witnesses” was in the title and the word “two” was in the passage. But it popped up and I told you I would show you what you would find.)
&#62 Matthew 18:16, ”But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses.”
&#62 2 Corinthians 13:1, ”This is the third time I am coming to visit you (and as the Scriptures say, ‘The facts of every case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses’).”
&#62 1 Timothy 5:19, ”Do not listen to an accusation against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses.”
&#62 Hebrews 10:28, ”For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
(And then you come upon our passage about the two witnesses today.)
So, every time “two witnesses” are mentioned in the Bible – every time – it has to do with some form of judgment: For people to judge rightly and for God to judge rightly at least “two witnesses” are needed to “witness” to that person’s guilt.
Where does that leave us? What does that mean for us today?
Let’s first have Elder Chuck Moore come up here and read to us this important passage from chapter 11 of The Revelation…

The Revelation 11:1-14 [NLTse]
Then I was given a measuring stick, and I was told, “Go and measure the Temple of God and the altar, and count the number of worshipers. 2 But do not measure the outer courtyard, for it has been turned over to the nations. They will trample the holy city for 42 months. 3 And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they will be clothed in burlap and will prophesy during those 1,260 days.”
4 These two prophets are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of all the earth. 5 If anyone tries to harm them, fire flashes from their mouths and consumes their enemies. This is how anyone who tries to harm them must die. 6 They have power to shut the sky so that no rain will fall for as long as they prophesy. And they have the power to turn the rivers and oceans into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish.
7 When they complete their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit will declare war against them, and he will conquer them and kill them. 8 And their bodies will lie in the main street of Jerusalem, the city that is figuratively called “Sodom” and “Egypt,” the city where their Lord was crucified. 9 And for three and a half days, all peoples, tribes, languages, and nations will stare at their bodies. No one will be allowed to bury them. 10 All the people who belong to this world will gloat over them and give presents to each other to celebrate the death of the two prophets who had tormented them.
11 But after three and a half days, God breathed life into them, and they stood up! Terror struck all who were staring at them. 12 Then a loud voice from Heaven called to the two prophets, “Come up here!” And they rose to Heaven in a cloud as their enemies watched.
13 At the same time there was a terrible earthquake that destroyed a tenth of the city. Seven thousand people died in that earthquake, and everyone else was terrified and gave glory to the God of Heaven.
14 The second terror is past, but look, the third terror is coming quickly.

Sermon
So, who are the witnesses of God the Father Almighty? (Here’s a hint: According to God’s Own standards, there must be more than two of them in order for God to judge the earth fairly.) …
Well, Jesus Himself tells us.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus Christ, raised from the dead yet meeting with His people, says, “You will be My witnesses!”
His disciples had asked Him about the end-times, but the risen Christ replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be My witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (1:7-8)
We are the two witnesses. Christ’s Church is the two witnesses. By the Holy Spirit, we have been given the power to do what Moses and Elijah did. By the Holy Spirit, we have been called to preach and teach and proclaim the truth of God’s Word to all the peoples of the earth. And, by the Holy Spirit, nothing can keep any of us from accomplishing all that the Lord God has called us to do!

The reason for the long sermon is just this: We are Christ’s witnesses. We must be His witnesses. The unbelieving world wants to silence us, to kill our witness. And the Lord God shows us that there will come a day when our witnessing is silenced: Dead in the streets. And the people of the unbelieving world will rejoice at that! But that day is not today. I know it can be challenging (for some) to go out and tell others about Him Who saved us and Who leads and provides for our lives. But as long as we have breath, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, we must keep our witnessing alive and well!
And we are Christ’s witnesses when we tell others about what Jesus has done for us and about our faith and trust in Him. And we are Christ’s witnesses when we do what the Scriptures say God says is right, even if that gets us into trouble with people around us and even the laws of the land, and when we act honestly and rightly in all our dealings. And we are Christ’s witnesses when we help others see their need for the Lord Jesus and when we help them put their faith and trust in Him, too.
I have a friend who had someone at his workplace want to show him pornography. My friend said, “No”. And when the guy asked him why not, my friend told him that he didn’t look at porn. I share that because, my friend told me later, how much he regretted not telling his co-worker that Jesus was the reason he didn’t look at porn. My friend said, “Because I didn’t mention Jesus, my co-worker just felt like I was just being self-righteous and superior. It would’ve been a great opportunity to tell him about a lot of the other changes Jesus had made in my life, too. But I blew it.”
Yeah, we are Christ’s witnesses, not just by doing right things but, by telling others about Jesus and all He has done for us and the changes He has made in us, and about our faith and trust in Him.
I remember getting pulled over for speeding and telling the police officer I was sorry for speeding and thanking him for pulling me over and encouraging me to obey the law. I remember being given 13 cents too much change at check-out and coming back to give the cashier back the extra money. I remember someone in our community who didn’t like my preaching about sexuality threatening me that some day it would be illegal to preach “the hate I preach”. And I remember telling him that I would then have to preach it in jail, and I would take my imprisonment as a sign from Jesus that He needed me there in jail to love the other prisoners and share Jesus with them. The police officer, the cashier, and the fellow in our community were all stunned by my actions, and those instances provided me opportunities to tell them about our wonderful Savior.
You see, we are Christ’s witnesses when we do what the Scriptures say God says is right, even if that might get us into trouble with the laws of the land, and acting honestly and rightly in all our dealings.
Of course, we are Christ’s witnesses when we invite others to Worship or Sunday School or Youth Group or Bible Study, too. We are Christ’s witnesses when we help our friends understand that they are sinners in need of a savior. We are Christ’s witnesses when we help those same friends look to Jesus to be that savior. We are Christ’s witnesses when we introduce ourselves as a Christian and offer to pray for someone in need. We are Christ’s witnesses when we ask Christ’s blessing on the different ones we meet. We are Christ’s witnesses whenever and however we draw peoples’ attention to Christ and their need for Him.
Don’t get me wrong, Anti-Christ, the Beast, all who stand against the Lord Jesus want to keep us quiet. Unbelievers who have great power here in the world and unbelievers who are nobodies both want to silence us: They want our witness dead! And The Revelation pictures for us a day when all Christians will be silenced, our witness dead. But that day is not today, witnesses of Christ!
And if we are faithful to the End, when He comes He will call us to Himself, even from death. And we will never have to leave Him again…