The Faithful Witnesses
Revelation 11:1-14
Main Idea: The perpetual presence of God protects and empowers his people to bear faithful witness in the midst of persecution.
I. The Temple Protected and Preserved (11:1-2)
Revelation 11:1-2: 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 forty-two months.
Every time the language of a temple appears in Revelation, it all points to the people of God. It will show up again in Revelation 21-22. All throughout the New Testament, the apostles teach the Church is the new temple, and this is how Revelation 11 was read by the early church fathers. Earlier John described the church on earth like an army of 144,000 and the church in heaven as a great multitude that can’t be counted. Here he describes the church again, this time in terms of the people of God as the Temple.
John says 42 months, or 1,260 days, or a time and times and a half time. This would be similar to someone saying four score and seven years ago or 9/11. Both of these numbers point our minds to events. John is telling us what this time will be like, not how long this time will last.
This period seems to be associated with a time of rebellion during which God’s faithful people are protected in the midst of trials.
We must be comforted before we’re commissioned.
II. The Witnesses Empowered and Deployed (11:3-6)
Revelation 11:3-6: 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.
The “two witnesses” represent all of God’s people.
They’re described as “lampstands”, which in Revelation 1:20 are local churches (v 4).
John has already used the term “witness” to describe the martyr Antipas (2:13; 6:9).
John himself is in exile because of his “testimony” or “witness” to Jesus (1:9).
The job description Jesus himself gave to his followers before his ascension was to be his “witnesses” (Acts 1:8, Luke 24:47–49)
John has already affirmed that Jesus has made us “a kingdom and priests” (Revelation 1:6).
The victorious ones are pillars in God’s temple (3:12)—priestly language—and seated on Christ’s throne (3:21)—royal language.
We are redeemed to be a royal priesthood and bear faithful witness.
Romans 1:16: 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 forty-two months.
III. The Persecuted Victorious (11:7-14)
Revelation 11:7-12: And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in 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. But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16: But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
We should expect to suffer like Jesus.
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." ~ Tertullian
Why must we be comforted before we’re commissioned? Because the mission always meets opposition.
Romans 8:35-37: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Matthew 28:18-20: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
