Study of Revelation and End Times - wk 25
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When Witnesses will be Persecuted
When Witnesses will be Persecuted
Tonight we will be in Revelation 11, as we continue in the interlude between the sixth and seventh trumpet.
The end of chapter 11 is where the seventh trumpet will come in, but we will not make it there tonight.
Tonight we will be looking at the two witnesses, and how they prophecy and more how they are persecuted.
Persecution for religious beliefs is not out of date, it still happens today.
Christians are being martyred for their faith all over the world right now.
Indeed, God’s Word tells us this would happen in 2 Timothy 3:12
12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
When the times of this earth draw to a close, many prophets will be persecuted, now we must understand persecution is not always being martyred that is killed for ones faith, persecution can be many different forms.
Some amazing end-time prophecies are being fulfilled today.
For example, God said that He would bring the people of Israel back to their land in Ezekiel 36:24
24 “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.
This has happened, on May 14, 1948 the state of Israel was established for the first time as a Jewish state in 2,000 years.
Then on December 6, 2017 the United States recognized the capital of Israel as Jerusalem by moving their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
But there is another prophecy in Revelation 11 about Jerusalem: the temple is to be rebuilt.
If you visit Jerusalem today, you will see the Mosque of Omar on the temple mount which is the most contested piece of real estate in the world.
Some people call this site the Dome of the Rock.
The only part of the temple that is left is the western part of the platform known as the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall.
What happened to the temple?
In A.D. 70, a Roman general named Titus laid siege against Jerusalem.
To hold true to his tradition as a Roman, he did not destroy the temple as Romans preserved the temple.
Instead, Titus declared that Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem was to be preserved, but somehow it caught on fire and then was looted for its treasures.
Parts of the temple were overlaid with gold, and everyone suspected there were great treasures down in the vaults.
In the fire, the gold melted into the crevices of the stones.
People pried apart each stone to get the gold, so no temple is left today, just the Wailing Wall.
In Revelation 11 we will learn that God told John to measure the temple - a difficult task since nothing was there!
1 Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, “Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it.
2 “Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months.
This Scripture says that the temple will be rebuilt.
And the Jews believe this will happen, as there are multiple groups working to make this happen now.
Today rabbinic schools are training young Jewish priests the descendants of Levi to offer sacrifices in the temple.
Some have even tried to lay the foundation stone of the new temple, and it has caused all kinds of mayhem.
The interesting thing to know about the rebuilding of the temple is that the temple is the precursor of the Antichrist.
Jesus said the Antichrist will enter the temple to abominate it and make it desolate.
15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),
Daniel the prophet also said an abomination of desolation would stand in the Holy place.
31 “Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice. And they will set up the abomination of desolation.
11 “From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.
Then the apostle Paul prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5
1 Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,
2 that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
Therefore, the abomination of desolation is when the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, that is the Antichrist comes into the temple and stops the animal sacrifices and worship of God, and he exalts himself above everything else, everything including God, even n the house of God.
At the end of Revelation 11:2 we read that there is a distinct period when Jerusalem will be made desolate.
It is a period of forty-two months.
This is translated to be 1,260 days, or as the Bible calls it a time, times, and half a time in Revelation 12:4
14 But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent.
This period is basically three and half years.
Why this time period?
Because three and half is seven divided in half and speaks of the division and danger that will occur when the Antichrist moves into the temple to declare to the world that he is god.
From Revelation 11:3-14, we read that God will bring two mighty prophets during this horrendous period to prophesy and teach.
There has never been a time when God did not have His prophets.
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing
Unless He reveals His secret counsel
To His servants the prophets.
God does not move without letting a prophet know what is about to happen.
Before the flood God spoke to Enoch and Noah.
Before the exile of the Israelites, God spoke to Elijah and Jeremiah.
There are five truths about these two prophets or witnesses for us to see.
I. They will be Spiritually Prepared.
I. They will be Spiritually Prepared.
3 “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.
These men are described as olive trees and lampstands.
The olive trees speak of fruitfulness, and the lampstands speak of light.
These witnesses are to be fruitful as they proclaim a witness of God’s light.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;
15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
These witnesses are spiritually prepared.
It would be foolish and wicked to try to do God’s work without God’s power.
For instance, to let your light shine, you must learn to burn the oil and not the wick.
If you burn the wick, you will burn out and do nothing but make a lot of smoke.
What else do we notice about these men and their spiritual preparation?
They are clothed in sackcloth, the worn out clothes people wore in the Bible times when they were in mourning and sorrow.
If you preach judgment, you ought to do it in the sackcloth of a broken heart.
Multitudes upon multitudes are marching into hell.
Is your heart broken over that?
Is it broken enough that you are willing to get spiritually prepared to tell others about what is going to happen?
I believe in heaven.
I believe in hell.
I also believe that if preachers taught more about hell in the pulpits, we would have less ungodly living in our communities.
The first thing about these witnesses I want us to see is that they are Spiritually prepared.
II. They will be Sovereignly Protected
II. They will be Sovereignly Protected
5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
The fire coming from their mouths may be symbolic of the power of God’s Word spoken by these two men.
Whether literal or symbolic, it will be deadly to those against them.
6 These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not 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 plague, as often as they desire.
What kind of power is this?
It is the same power Jesus gave the disciples when He sent them out:
1 And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.
Also in Luke 10:19
19 “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.
I believe these two witnesses will come in the spirit of Elijah and Moses.
When we think of Elijah, we think of the prophets; when we think of Moses we think of the law.
What is the purpose of the law and prophets?
They witness about the Lord Jesus Christ.
27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
We should never make the mistake of thinking the Old Testament is about Judaism and the New Testament is about Jesus.
All of the Bible is about Jesus Christ.
The law is about Jesus.
The prophets are about Jesus.
And these two men represent the law and the prophets are about Jesus.
Why do I say these men will be sovereignly protected?
All the people of God are sovereignly protect in they are in the will of God and speaking the Word of God.
I believe they are immortal until their work is finished.
When you are in the center of God’s will, your work will never lack for God’s provisions or God’s protection.
III. They will be Satanically Persecuted
III. They will be Satanically Persecuted
7 When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them.
8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.
9 Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.
Who is the beast?
Like many criminals, he has many aliases.
He is called the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, the evil one, the little horn, and he is the Antichrist - the same one who will sit in the temple, declaring himself to be god.
The beast will wage war against the two witnesses.
Why?
Because they preach the Word of God.
Most preachers who boldly preach the Word do not win popularity contest.
In fact Jesus said in Luke 6:26
26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.
As the days grow darker, hatred and persecution against the godly will intensify.
Now we did say that the man of God is immortal until he has finished the task God has given him, but that is the thing.
Look at the first part of verse seven again, it says “When they finished their testimony.”
Their testimony ends in death.
The apostle Paul was one of the greatest missionaries who ever lived.
They cut off his head but not before he said, in 2 Timothy 4:7
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
When Jesus was on the cross, He bowed His head and just before He died said in John 19:30
30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Just because the witnesses are silenced does not mean the devil has won.
No, the story is not over.
The devil will make a great strategic mistake.
The communists tried to kill a Romanian named Joseph Tson, for preaching the Word of God.
They sent a man who said, Joseph, if you do not knuckle under, we are going to kill you.
Joseph responded, Before you kill me, I want to say that your chief weapon is killing, but my chief weapon is dying.
They asked him what he meant.
He responded, if you kill me, you will sprinkle every sermon I have preached with my blood, every book I have written with my blood and people will know I love the Lord enough to die for Him.
So your chief weapon is killing, but mine is dying.
I want to warn you that if you use yours, I will be forced to use mine.
They went away saying, Leave Joseph alone, he is crazy.
Though the death of these witnesses catapults the Antichrist into great fame and popularity, the devil will not ultimately win.
Even when their dead bodies are left in the streets without a decent burial and onlookers stand around and gloat, the devil will not have won.
The witnesses will have finished their testimonies.
Their work will have been completed.
When Mussolini died, many people took pleasure in his death.
In the same way, when the witnesses die, the Bible says the entire world will see them.
And with modern technology, and news media, this will be able to be aired at one time around the world to all people of the world.
What is the lesson we need to learn here?
If you live for the Lord Jesus Christ, it does not mean every body will love you.
Coming events cast their shadows ahead of time, and we can expect increasing persecution.
IV. They will be Supernaturally Preserved
IV. They will be Supernaturally Preserved
10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
11 But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.
12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.
Could anything more supernatural happen to God’s messengers?
People have been celebrating and gloating over them and kicking at them for three and half days!
Then suddenly the glow of health returned to their lifeless bodies and changed their skin from palled to rosy.
A finger twitched, a hand moved, a limb straightened, and they sat up and stretched, then stood before the people.
Then another miracle took place.
A voice from heaven told them to come up here.
They went up to heaven in a cloud.
The same way Jesus went up, what a day that will be!
This forthcoming event teaches us that we need not fear death.
We are preserved until we finish our task.
Satan may be allowed to put us to death, but we are still supernaturally preserved.
28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
God has Satan on a leash.
If you are persecuted, it will be one of the greatest platforms you will ever have to speak of God’s eternal grace.
12 “But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for My name’s sake.
13 “It will lead to an opportunity for your testimony.
14 “So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves;
15 for I will give you utterance and wisdom which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refute.
16 “But you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death,
17 and you will be hated by all because of My name.
18 “Yet not a hair of your head will perish.
What if someone said to you, deny Christ or I will kill you?
You could say, well kill me, I am going to heaven.
But what if they said, deny Christ, or I will dismember your wife in front of your eyes?
What would you say if they said, deny Christ, or we will begin to mutilate your grandchildren?
You may respond, I do not know; don’t ask that question.
You do not have to worry about that time in the future because Jesus said to settle it in your heart, that is do not worry about what you will say.
God will give you His words and grace to respond in that very moment.
Now we look back and say well Luke 21 says they will put us in prison and yet not a hair of my head will be lost, and that is what we read.
Jesus is saying in a different way what He has already said earlier in Luke 12:4-5
4 “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.
5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!
Death is not the end but only the beginning.
When you are no longer afraid to die, then you are ready to live.
There is a God in glory who reigns.
And Satan can ultimately do nothing to you without His permission.
We need to remember that because if we do not, the devil will pull the wool over our eyes.
V. They will have Successfully Prophesied
V. They will have Successfully Prophesied
Did the witnesses fail?
No, they succeeded.
These witnesses prophesied, and God received the glory.
13 And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.
Those who are left behind will not die in the earthquake; instead they will give glory to the God of heaven.
This does not necessarily mean they will be saved.
It just means they will recognize that what happened was a God thing.
The same thing happened to Pharaoh and king Saul.
Indeed, the demons in hell will one day glorify God, and we know they will not be saved.
See the witnesses did what they were sent to do, they prophesied, the conversion of souls were not their responsibility, their responsibility was to prophecy, that is to proclaim the Word of God.
Our job, our responsibility is not the conversion of souls, our job, our responsibility is to boldly declare the Word of God, whether people will hear it or not.
When we host a dinner, our responsibility is to have the food prepared and ready for the guest to eat when we said we would eat.
But we cannot make the guest show up, and we cannot make the guest be hungry, all we can do is provide the meal which is are responsibility.
As Christians our responsibility is to boldly share our faith with others, it is not our responsibility to make them listen, or to make them accept what we are sharing or accept Jesus as Savior.
We are told to just boldly share Jesus, our faith, our testimony, God takes care of the rest.
Just as these two witnesses face persecution and just as Christians across this world face persecution today, we can and may face persecution when we boldly share our testimony.
12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Is persecution a bad thing?
No, it can be counted as good.
A matter of a fact the disciples multiple times in Acts counted it joy for being persecuted for Jesus sake.
41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.
It is a divine platform to share our testimony about God.
When you read what God has said in His Word about the end times, you will see everything fitting into the sockets of prophecy.
We are on the winning side.