Two Witnesses Up Rev, 11:8-14

I'd heard this story recently, and you never know about these stories you hear, but I heard this story recently. There was this pastor who had passed on, you know, they do that. And as he went up to heaven, they had, you know, set him up with a place and he's kind of getting the tour, you know, and he's going by his place and they say, well, here's your spot, you know. And he looks, and it looks like a pretty reasonable place, but he knows right next door there's this really big, huge mansion right next to his, and it dwarfs his. His isn't bad, but the one next to him is huge. And he asks the guy who's kind of giving him the tour, he says, what's the deal?

I was a pastor, man, I put in all these years. And he says, who's this guy? Oh, he was a taxi driver. Taxi driver? And he gets this big place? Look, I'm a pastor, I should get this big place, you know? And the guy says, no, you don't understand. When he drove, they prayed. When you preached, they slept.

Anyway, hope that didn't happen too much this morning. We want to take a look here at some questions. Just one particular this morning before we dive into our passage. And as I've said in the past, I encourage questions. And I say if they're really hard ones, be sure to ask Hal, because he's really good at them.

But anyway, one question that's come to the fore here is, is it possible for some of the things that God does not reveal? Just remember a couple weeks back, we looked at Revelation chapter 10, and the Lord said, these seven thunders don't reveal what those things are? Is it possible that they're not revealed because we're not yet capable of receiving them through the lack of capacity and conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a really good question. I'd like us to take a look at that.

Some of the things we looked at here, for example, in Deuteronomy and Acts 1, there are several passages here that talk about the fact that there are secret things, that there are things that the Lord has specifically chosen not to reveal. Scripture is obviously full of things that are revealed, and yet we find these passages that speak of things that are not revealed. And it's kind of a bit puzzling, especially when it's written out, don't write this. But then when we take that to this question, is it possible that people are not given some truths because of, excuse me, because of the fact that people are just not able to receive it?

When we look at some examples here, here's one from John 16, 12-15. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. This is an example of the kind of passage where there's more to be said, but you can't handle it yet. And is it possible that it's that kind of thing? Paul writes again in 1 Corinthians 3, 1-3, a similar kind of thing. I could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as infants. You find that kind of passage in Scripture.

And yet, what's interesting is we go to these passages here where it talks about, the Lord said, these are things not to be revealed. When we look at those, what's interesting is that it doesn't explain those in terms of, you're not ready to receive it. As a matter of fact, here's this passage in 2 Corinthians 12.

It's actually stated in terms of, It's not permitted that you state them. Paul wasn't permitted to say what he saw. John, when he heard the seven thunders, was ready to write, because that's what he'd been told up to that point, right? He was ready to write, but he was told, don't write those things. And so it's interesting, we aren't told, you know, these aren't written because you're not ready for them, it just simply says you're not allowed to see them.

And scripture doesn't explain why. So guess what? Something else we have to take on faith. It's possible that it's something we're not ready for, but for whatever reason, the Lord in His wisdom has said, this is not something that I'm ready to reveal to you. And it may be, He doesn't explain here, it may be that there will come a time when He does reveal those things, but at least for now, He doesn't really say, I'm not revealing these things because you're not ready. It simply says, those aren't permitted to be spoken, or these are secret things of God. Okay, let's take a look at the passage now. We're in the book of Revelation.

We are continuing on with our looking at the two witnesses. And you remember last week, as Richard read for us this morning, last week we left These two witnesses had had a ministry. It's apparent from the various indications that their ministry is centered in Israel and Jerusalem. And as we go into this, we left off in the passage where they had been killed by the beast. And that's where we stopped. And so we're going to be going into verse 8 here and looking at verse 8. Let's begin by rereading just that verse.

And their dead bodies, that is, those of the two witnesses, will lie on the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Now, it seems rather gross, wouldn't you say, and callous, that the bodies of these two witnesses would be left there to lie on the street for dead. Isn't that rather strange? Kind of gross to think of it just laying there. But, we have to keep something in mind.

The ministry of these two witnesses would bring about a situation in which these two witnesses were continuously and almost universally despised. Mankind will hate them to the uttermost, but be afraid to to think beyond that for fear that their lives will be done. So they'll carry about this sort of secret resentment, an intense resentment. But they're going to keep on telling the truth for three and a half years straight, non-stop, and finally they're killed.

So we see this phrase here now, and I think it's important for us to get the insight on it, it says, the great city. Well, which great city? Okay. And so let's take a look in the Old Testament. We find that this phrase, the great city, shows up being applied to several different cities. So the great city isn't some biblical universal from front to back, all referring to one specific city. We see, for example, it shows up being used of Nineveh, of Gibeon, of Resin, and of Jerusalem.

And then as we look here in this passage in the New Testament, we find this particular reference in Revelation 11.8, and there's a pattern in Revelation. We see the phrase coming up again. It's used several times of Babylon, but there's some things for us to take good note of here.

One is, and this is a key observation here, The phrase, the great city, is used several times in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament it is only used in the book of Revelation to describe cities in the Tribulation period. Isn't that interesting? Another evidence that the Tribulation is Jewish in focus and not about the Church. We see it sprinkled throughout the Tribulation period as a phrase that's used, but it's not used outside of that.

There are some things For us to take a look at here, notice we're given a real strong clue. Where also their Lord was crucified. You see that? At the end of the verse? And the pronoun there would refer to who then? These two witnesses. Okay? Where also their Lord was crucified. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. The one who was crucified.

And then as we look, as we saw just couple months back. Here is a place that is considered to be a likely spot. It has the appearance of a skull, and many think that this is likely the place, but it's right outside Jerusalem. So this would indicate, when it says, where our Lord was crucified, this is telling us this great city is Jerusalem that it's speaking of. Okay? That's the indication there, pretty strong indication. But notice the description that comes before where our Lord was crucified. Did you see that?

He doesn't just leave to say, okay, it's this place and now let's move on. Instead, and remember this is Jerusalem during the tribulation period and notice how he describes it. He says, the great city which is mystically, or in some translations, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. That word translated mystically or spiritually is pneumatikos. It means that the names of Sodom and Egypt are applied figuratively. It's conveying a spiritual message about the character of the city of Jerusalem at that time. That's what it's trying to get across. Now, if Sodom and Egypt are figurative, what is it figurative for? We need to take a look at each one of those.

Sodom is the first one mentioned, and Sodom was along the southern end of the Dead Sea. What has happened is that the Dead Sea has risen in elevation over time, the water level, because they actually find that a couple dozen feet below the water, they actually find old tree growth, so there's actually forest growth a couple dozen feet lower, so there's actually forest And it turns out that there was a kind of a shelf.

And then the Dead Sea drops down to being very deep. The Dead Sea is somewhere on 1,300 feet below sea level. It's the lowest place on land on the earth. And it's way down below sea level, but the water level is higher now than it once was. So what we find is what now is a shallow shelf that is so salty that you see these salt islands all over this shallow shelf.

That's the area where Sodom was located. But it was destroyed at a time when the sea level was lower. It was destroyed by the Lord's very own action. What for? Because of its immorality. That was very clearly laid out in Scripture. And Sodom's immorality is laid out for us in Genesis 13.13. You can read about that yourself.

But isn't it interesting, the New Testament speaks of Sodom and refers to its immorality 2,000 years later, almost. It refers to Sodom's immorality nine times in the New Testament. And here's one more instance. Sodom was such a picture of immorality that almost 20 centuries would go by and it still meant immorality. That's the image. So when it says Sodom here, it means immorality to the core, to the point God would destroy it. The next thing that you see is reference to Egypt.

Now this is curious because Egypt is not a city. So why would they use what's really a country and actually originally a kingdom? Why would they use that as a symbol for the city? Well, it's not because Egypt is a city or because Jerusalem is meant to be a country. It's because of the character of Egypt and what Egypt represents.

You think about that. the Jews spent about 400 years in Egypt doing what? In slavery, stamping out bricks. Turns out, we've got some of those. Here's an example. Here's a soil brick from Egypt. With straw, it even has the pharaoh's stamp on it. They would take each brick, they would have them in these mud pits, they'd put the straw in, then they'd put the pharaoh's stamp on this thing and set it out to dry. And so you say, okay, that's nice. They spent 400 years making these things. We're talking experience, okay? But the reality is they had experience in slavery.

Egypt also was recognitioned as idolatry. Egypt also was recognitioned as a commitment to material things. Once they left Egypt, there was constant warnings to the Jews, don't go back to Egypt. Don't go to them for their gods. don't go back to Egypt for wives, don't go there for horses, don't go there for chariots, don't go there for their spirituality. The Jews constantly had warnings. So, Sodom and Egypt is immorality, materialism, idolatry, and all the things that the flesh depends upon.

See that? So he's saying that's the character of Jerusalem during this time. Do you remember some weeks back when we were looking at what we call Palm Sunday? And we found what's often called the triumphal entry is a time when Jesus breaks out into great sobs. And guess what? Centuries would go by and it would still be a place that would bring sadness to his heart. Because it was still a place of immorality and idolatry and materialism and bondage.

So that's what he's laying out here for these people. Let's take a look at verse 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 bodies to be laid in a tomb. Now, this verse reveals some things that are fascinating and kind of amazing. The people John refers to are the people of the whole world. Isn't that pretty evident from reading this? And John has this phrase, peoples and tribes and tongues and nations.

That phrase or similar phrases are used throughout the book of Revelation. And one of the things we find, like the other phrase we talked about or the other word usage, it's used throughout the Tribulation Period. It's used specifically during the Tribulation Period, and we're looking at simply one of those in the midst of the Tribulation Period. The tribulation then is clearly communicated from the use of this kind of verbiage.

It is global. The tribulation period is not simply a local problem. It's not simply a national judgment upon Israel. This is a global event. This is something that is taking place throughout the whole world. And that use of that phrase here underscores it again. It describes the people largely being Gentiles. So this isn't just a Jewish thing that's taking place. The whole world is involved in what's described here.

What is even more amazing, though, is this. This verse tells us that the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations, this global population, will look at their bodies for three and a half days. Now, let me ask you, is that exciting? Is that exciting or what? Think about that. You're going to get so excited that you're going to watch these bodies sitting in the street for three and a half days. What is even more amazing here, let's look at this.

If you look at it, this shows a perspective that was almost impossible in John's time. Three and a half days on foot in those days would get you about 130 to 150 miles. to get news of the death of these two witnesses out of Israel and then back so that people from all the Gentile nations would look at their bodies based on the technology of John's time was nigh unto impossible.

Okay? So this verse does not describe, but it presupposes the ability that we have through modern technology. Doesn't it? the ability for the whole world to be a people of all tribes, languages, tongues, nations to be able to look at this. Now, what reveals the decadent character of the tribulation period of that society that will be in existence during that time it is really socially decadent that they would want to look at these dead bodies and allow them to be laid out in the street and not only just allow them, sort of out of negligence, but not permit them. That's what the passage says.

We won't permit them to be buried. We want them to be out in the open. We want everybody to get on CNN and watch these things. Weird, huh? Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 and 23 forbids the Jews doing this kind of thing. So this is a direct violation, not only of just common human decency, but the Mosaic Law. And yet they'll do it anyway.

The reason is, the Beast is now exerting his power. He is now exerting his influence, not only in the place where he previously had some power, but also here in Jerusalem, he's exerting his power. The death of these two witnesses is a display of the power of the Beast. And by watching these two bodies for three and a half days, it constantly underscores the power of this beast. Anybody else who tried to take these two witnesses out died, but the beast, he overpowered them. And so this is going to advertise the power of the beast.

That's why these two unexciting bodies are going to be on display for three and a half days. Now it gets even weirder. 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." Nobody wants to have the bodies buried, because the death of these two witnesses is something the world rejoices over.

They even celebrate. It's time, whoopee! Yahoo! They're excited about this thing. This is hell's version of a Christmas celebration. This is their version of Christmas. Oh boy, these two bodies are dead. We're watching them on CNN. Let's buy presents. Weird, huh? I don't know what these presents will be like. I can imagine souvenir hawkers selling t-shirts, little statuettes, dead witnesses in the street. I don't know. That sounds weird. You can imagine opportunists taking advantage of these things.

But interesting, These two Greek witnesses, if we take the word torment, that word torment, pazanizo, is the word that's used two more times in Revelation, and the only other places it is used is for the torments of hell. So these two witnesses, as far as the world sees it, were so awful to these people that they brought to these people torments that can only, in their minds, be equal to hell. That's why they are a throw in a party. They're celebrating that these two are out of the picture, so they think.

Furthermore, we've read about the ministry of these two witnesses when in fact, as we've already gone through, there's all kinds of calamities and judgments coming upon the world, right? And what can they do? They can't do anything to God, so who do they get to focus it on? Somebody they can see. somebody they can listen to. We can't get at God, but boy, you two witnesses, we hate you guys.

You see that? They can focus the attention on them because they're somebody who stands for God, and they're somebody they can see and know is here on planet Earth. So the venom of the whole world is directed on these two. Notice here another phrase shows up. When we've looked at it before, I want to make sure we don't overlook it.

This is the phrase, those who dwell on the earth. End of verse 10. This is a phrase that has only shown up once before in the church time, and that was a promise to the church that they would be kept out of this time of tribulation that will come upon the whole world of those who dwell upon the earth. That's the only time it's mentioned in a church context is the promise the church won't be in it. the rest of the time, look at it, from the first chapter in which the Tribulation is described, all the way up to close to the end, you find this phrase sprinkled throughout. It's telling us there's something unique about this time. Those who dwell down upon the earth is a phrase specific to the Tribulation period and specific to those, like these we're reading about here, who are rejecting the Lord's message.

They are not counting heaven as their home. They're making themselves at home down here on earth. This is it. This is as good as it gets, as far as their perspective is concerned. There's just one more evidence. Here's a tribulation-specific phrase, and the only way it's mentioned to the Church is the promise that the Church won't be there. So that shows up.

Now, the world's thinking during the tribulation period is going to turn upside down. I think that's something that needs to kind of get through our minds. Things are going to just completely turn upside down. Rather than recognizing the need to repent, most will be hardened.

Rather than listening to God's appeal for mercy and truth that comes out of the mouths of these two witnesses, what will most people respond with? they'll rejoice when they see these two dead. That will be their response. That will be their signal it's Christmas time. Time to go out and buy presents, time to throw a party, time to celebrate because these two are dead.

We don't like their message, we don't like the God that they speak of. You see that? The world's thinking will turn upside down. Right now, there's a whole lot of folks, and you can hear them, they'll drive by this building because, well, it's just a building along the way, thinking very little, many of them, of the God that we're talking about.

The tribulation world will not be as tolerant. Instead, it will be, I wish these guys were dead. I wish these guys were dead. That will be the mindset of many in the tribulation period. You can't imagine the kind of mindset that actually enjoys keeping the boob tube on all the time and watching these two bodies dead in the street. What kind of a mindset does it take to like that and to keep the channel focused on that? Amazing, isn't it? Do you remember 9-11? Every station to turn to? You see these towers coming down and the flames and everything?

That's what it would be like here. Everybody will be focused on this. But this is really boring stuff to watch. It's boring until... Well, let's read the next verse. Verse 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. Now when the three and a half days is up, the Lord brings these two back to life. And now people are really throwing a party, right? Not really. Here's one thing. Have you noticed?

The Lord doesn't do it very often, as we see in Scripture. But when the Lord brings somebody back to life, He makes sure they're dead for several days first? With Christ? With Lazarus? Isn't that amazing? It's like, let's have there be no doubt that these people are really, really, really dead. Then we'll bring them back to life. But not until. And we see this same pattern here.

What's interesting is verse 11 states that the resurrection is the breath of life from God. And this reinforces something else. What does that remind you of? Makes you think back in Genesis, doesn't it? Early chapters where it talks about Adam was formed of the dust of the ground and the Lord brought him to life by putting the breath of life in him, okay? This breath of life phrase is actually only used in the Old Testament up until this point.

Interesting. Now, if we look at it here, here is an interesting for instance. Here is a passage that talks about Israel being brought back to life as a nation, and you see a lot of these same phrases. Breathe on these slain, and this is again out of a picture of these bones that are dead. now being brought back with flesh. Breathe on these slain that they come back to life. And it talks about in verse 10 of Ezekiel 37, 9 and 10. It talks about the breath that came into them.

And we see these same things come up. And they stood on their feet. So now we see here in verse 11 a lot of this same image. And what does that tell you? This is very Jewish. This isn't the church. It's Jewish. The Jewish understanding of this is very clear.

Now, then John tells us that great fear fell upon those who were watching them. The Greek words that come up, great fear, phobos, megos. Big fear. We think phobos, we have our word phobia. Megos, anything that's big is mega, right? Whatever it is, we put mega in front of it. This is mega fear, folks. This is really fearful.

This isn't just, oh, this is people trembling and shaking and just, you know, dropping their cups and everything else, okay? This is big fear, really big fear. This is the kind of stuff that makes people drop their trays in the cafeteria, okay? People are going to see this, you can imagine people in the sports bars, they're going to look up at the TV and everybody's going to drop their drink, okay? It'll be shocking. They'll be having this party there, and all of a sudden the whole place will just be... And it'll be stunning. That's what it's going to be. Mega fear, okay? The world will be gripped by this mega fear. You get the picture? Okay. If we look back to verse 9, we see something else here. The whole world was watching these two witnesses. That's apparent.

In verse 11, there's a Greek word for watching that's a little different. Notice, it's theoreo, and it means to spectate. The world doesn't just happen to be watching, oh, okay, I glanced at it and looked at it. They're spectating, as if they were watching like a sports event, or at a theater. This is something everybody is in the process of watching. The Greek tense there is, they were in the process of watching when this happened. So everybody's looking at this thing, gawking, when it takes place. You see that? So right in the middle of everybody watching, and I don't mean just watching, looking, kind of glancing at it, I mean spectating when this takes place.

You see the impact of that? This is something, the world is glued on this thing, and right when everybody's glued to it, that's when the Lord brings them back to life. Perfect timing, okay? Alright, now, verse 12. I love the Lord's timing. Here we go. Verse 12, And they heard a loud voice from heaven, saying to them, Come up here. And they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.

This is one of many times that John writes of hearing a loud voice, and of course you've heard me speak of that. Everybody living down upon the earth, however, this is a little different. Everybody living down upon the earth hears this loud voice. So that's different. John frequently writes of hearing a loud voice. This is the world hearing the loud voice.

He's getting their attention. Do you see that? He's getting their attention. The whole world is watching this resurrection take place as spectators. They are spectating. There are certain events that happen in our culture, like the Super Bowl would be an example, the Olympics. Everybody watches these things. It would be an event like that. Right in the midst of that, this is going to take place. Now, right up then, what's the invitation? Come up here. Come up here.

Interestingly, this is precisely the same invitation given to John personally back in Revelation 4.1. Here, the whole world hears it, not just John. And then the most remarkable thing happens. The two witnesses go up into heaven in a cloud. And guess what? The world is doing what? Spectating, watching this process.

Now at this point, it would do well to take a slight but important detour. No doubt a number of you have heard that there are various ideas about when the church is taken out, when the church is raptured. How many of you have heard of different views on that? You've heard that idea? Pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, late-trib, all kinds of different things.

But, we want to take a little detour at this point. This is one of those passages that those who believe in the mid-tribulation rapture will frequently refer to. They say this is the place where the mid-tribulation rapture occurs. If you're looking for what do they point to as evidence, this is it. You're seeing it. This is where they say the rapture occurs at this point.

One of the things, and we made note of it here, here's the points that they take a look at, and here's one of the things that they see as this event They say the two witnesses just got called into heaven by a loud voice. That could be, for example, the shout of the archangel.

Okay? Alright, so that sort of fits. The loud voice says, come up here. So that seems like the right thing to say. The seventh or the last trumpet comes right after this, right? So the timing seems about to fit. Okay, alright, sounds good. They went up into heaven in a cloud. Okay, that sort of fits, you know. You can see where they get the thought, but there are a few problems.

One of the things that shows up is you have to end up taking the church into the tribulation period at some point in order to do that, and they end up having to do a real textual tap dance in order to get around it, because the Christians are promised three times not to be subject to the wrath of God, including the passage that we looked at very briefly, or referred to briefly, Revelation 3.10, that said that the church would be kept out of this time of tribulation that will come upon the whole world upon those who dwell upon the earth. And that phrase, dwell upon the earth, starts from the beginning and goes to the end of the tribulation period, that seven year period of time. Scripture encourages us constantly to look for Christ's coming. But once you enter the Tribulation period, you're no longer looking for Christ's coming, you're looking for the coming of the Antichrist. You see this distinction there? That's a problem. Also, the Rapture, we're told, will come as a surprise. After the Tribulation begins, what's the surprise?

Another point is there's absolutely no biblical guidance on how Christians are supposed to get ready for this Tribulation period. There's nothing. Nothing to tell you. How do you get ready for this period of time? Next, doesn't it seem strange that if scripture gives no guidance at all that the church is supposed to go through it, it seems like there's a disconnect there. There's some other issues to be dealt with.

If these two witnesses are the church going up into heaven, if that's what's happening there, The two witnesses are definitely individual people. They are individual people. It keeps referring to two, two, two. And notice it says, lie in the street, singular. How can the whole church be lying in the street, dead, in Jerusalem, on one street? And you're going to have a major, major problem with a whole church dead, lying on the street in Jerusalem for three and a half days.

You have to start interpreting things very figuratively. Okay? Very figuratively. Forcing the definition. As we've seen, these two witnesses are very Jewish, even to the point of sackcloth. Sackcloth is mentioned over 40 times in the Old Testament. This is the first time it gets mentioned in the New Testament. and not at all during the entire New Testament epistles. Now we see it's a return to a situation that's very Jewish. It's phraseology that is very Jewish. Even several of the other phrases and symbols we looked at, exceedingly Jewish. And yet, it doesn't compare with the church. Now let's take a look at verse 13.

In 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. Now, here's the moment when all the people are totally absorbed. They've been watching, throwing a party over these dead witnesses. The two dead witnesses are then totally absorbed with this amazing thing that they're watching taking place.

Totally frightened, remember? Megaphobia. Okay? Phobos Megas. They have this immense fear hit them as they see these two witnesses go up. These two witnesses have been dead for three and a half days and then are resurrected. In that hour, John says, in that hour. So we're talking, everybody is shocked to begin with. In that hour, the earthquake hits. At that time.

Then, you look at this thing, it says there's a tenth of the city fell. So you take the, you know, kind of geographically, about a tenth of the city collapsed. Then it says 7,000 were killed. Now, if we were to take Jerusalem's population today, it is in the neighborhood of about 600,000 people in Jerusalem and the immediate environs there. So that would mean something in excess of, you know, 1%. So in terms of percentages, it's not huge. But people are getting the point, aren't they? They're getting this huge earthquake hitting them.

And one of the things that's interesting, Jerusalem is kind of amazing, situated amazingly. Here's the Dead Sea. This is a satellite photo. Here's the Dead Sea. And Jerusalem is up here in this photo, okay? And this area down here is Hebron. Over here is Bethlehem, where currently there's a lot of conflict going on. There is a major, major earthquake fault that runs right up through the middle of the Dead Sea. As a matter of fact, it's a multiple fault area where there's a block of earth that has dropped down. And that's what's created this below sea level situation. Jerusalem, being close to that, has a bunch of splinter faults that go through it.

And what's fascinating is you look over the last couple of centuries And here's the record from 1927 and prior of the different earthquakes that have hit, including earthquakes striking during the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. And here's the record of these earthquakes. What's amazing is that when you start looking at this earthquake history, a fellow by the name of Lambert Dolphin, I had crossed paths with him a number of times, I last talked to him at his office about 17 years ago. But, anyway, Lambert Dolphin is a geophysicist and the bottom line is, he says, the rift zone that goes up through the Dead Sea implies a major earthquake is long overdue in the Holy Land. So, there's actually about 10 meters, roughly, of movement that should be taking place that hasn't. So there's a lot of tension, resolution, and it's waiting, I think.

It's waiting for a time when the Lord is saying, OK, now's the time for this to hit. OK? Now's the time for it to hit. Do you see that? The Lord is sovereign, isn't He? He knows what He's doing, and He has the right time, including this. Now, let's take a look here. That brings us to the last portion of this verse. And the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Now, within an hour, let's put yourself in that position, okay? Put yourself in their shoes. Within an hour, you saw two guys dead. They'd been dead for three days and some. Right in front of you, you see them suddenly brought to life, and you hear this loud voice that everybody hears come up here, and they go up to heaven in a cloud. Inside of the hour, a huge earthquake hits, a tenth of the city falls, 7,000 people die.

Do you think that would get your attention? I think so. The combination of events is just amazing. It has to be gripping. I think what finally comes upon at least some of them, and you get the impression this is sort of a localized phenomenon, the people in that area, they're suddenly responding with what you'd say, boy, it took you a while, but they're suddenly responding with glorifying the God of heaven.

What's curious is that it doesn't seem to go beyond that. We don't see immediately a description of some response of faith. So it leaves us questioning, well, okay, finally you turn around and give glory to the God of heaven, but where does that leave you? And this passage doesn't really give us more detail either. We're going to look more as we head into the next chapter and see what the longer-term picture for Israel is. But this kind of gives us a little glimpse. There's at least some degree of response, but we're not given the whole picture here.

Verse 14 lays it out this way. The second woe is past, and behold, the third woe is coming quickly. As you recall from Revelation, it was announced that the last three trumpet judgments were called woes. And this is a chart here I'm resurrecting from a time approached this in the past. There were seven trumpet judgments. The last three are called woes.

We've been dealing with this time in between here that we've been calling an interlude. And the pattern that we saw is that there are seven seal judgments, seven trumpet judgments, and seven bowl judgments. And in each case, between the sixth and the seventh of each of those series of three, there is an interlude. We're now in this interlude between the 6th and the 7th judgments during the seven-trumpet judgment period. So this is just the middle set of judgments, the seven trumpets that comes about. And these last ones are called woes.

And so this verse here is referring to now this second one has passed, this interlude has come to pass, now we're getting to these this last judgment, the seventh trumpet and the third woe. So next week we'll be looking at the seventh trumpet judgment called the third woe. If we look back over these passages that we've been looking here in the last two weeks, if we look at the lives of these two witnesses, we've seen that these two witnesses were called by God to a very special ministry. How many of you would volunteer for the thing that they went through? Probably not too many of us. Tough duty, huh?

For the next 1260 days, you're going to be saying things that nobody on earth wants to hear. They're going to hate you for it. And if they even start to do anything, you've got to kill them. That's tough duty. You've got to tell the world the truth that the vast majority of them do not want to hear. You've got to be a witness testifying to their wickedness. And the world doesn't want to hear it.

Some will respond. Some will listen. There will be some response. But the vast majority will not respond. It most certainly isn't popular, is it? But yet, when you look at this, as this happens, because this is a future event we're reading here, won't the Lord show His continuing mercy and His appeal to His grace by the very message of these two witnesses? Isn't that ultimately his intent? He wants them to respond to the truth. He's saying, look, I'm giving you a last chance. I'm going to continue to convey the truth to you in the hope that you will repent. With signs verifying that what these two are saying is true. What an amazing ministry.

But if you look ahead to this time, because I don't want to look at this as history, this is future, and this is certainly to take place, not God's best guess. Won't God be providing for every need of these two, even to the point of when they are killed, He will take care of resurrecting them? Their ministry was before the whole world, He's going to resurrect them before the whole world.

He's going to show His faithfulness in the middle of that. He's going to display His mercy, even though it's a message that nobody wants to hear. He is going to display His mercy, not only to the world, but to these two. Isn't He faithful to them, as you look ahead to what's going to happen? He's faithful to them in every way. He provides every need. The Lord provides life to these two witnesses. And you see at the very end, gives them life again, and takes them up to be with Him.

The way the Lord works with us is different, isn't it? But doesn't the Lord provide us life too, even now? The Lord is providing life, okay? Christ who is our life, Paul's message to the Colossian Church, okay? Christ who is our life. These two witnesses could look forward to a time when the Lord would bring them back to life. We have a unique privilege Because right now, as believers, Christ is our life. And that's marvelous. The Lord is dealing with us in a special way. He gave them life and he's given us life in a privileged way that doesn't sound like even these two witnesses even know. What a special thing the Lord's given us.

Okay, let's pray. Lord, thank you that you are indeed our life, that we can count upon you. We can count upon your faithfulness. We can count upon you continuously giving us life. Lord, what a marvelous thing that you have done. And Lord, as we look ahead to what's going to take place here, we can count upon in our own lives the same faithfulness, even more so in our very lives as we look ahead to the faithfulness that you will show with these two witnesses and the mercy and grace that you will show to the whole world, even though they don't want to hear it. We pray, Lord, for receptive hearts. Because even we who believe, Lord, we have that life available to us. It's only a question of do we live by your life or try to live by our own. And Lord, so we ask that you would draw our hearts and minds to depend upon your life. In Jesus' name, Amen.