Series on Revelation
II The Viewpoint
B Cycle Two, The Seven Angels and Trumpets
3 The Testimony of the Church
Text: 10:1-11:14
Introduction
Just as there was an interval between the sixth and seventh seals, so there is between the sixth and seventh trumpets. As the interval in the seals took us from the scenes of judgment and devastation upon an unbelieving world to a scene of the church, God’s faithful, being protected and serving, so also here. In this text we see between the sixth and seventh trumpets an interval that directs our attention away from the scenes of earthly desolation to God’s care for His church and the service of believers. There are many Old Testament allusions here such as the scroll that John is commanded to eat similar to Jeremiah and the two witnesses, olive trees, and lamp stands from Zechariah’s visions and several others. The main thing to observe is that we are approaching the end that will come with the blowing of the last trumpet just as with the opening of the sixth and seventh seals. These visions show what must come before the trumpet blows. They do not, as has often been suggested and taught, describe the events immediately before the last trump. In other words, these verses are about the last days, but not the last days as often popularly misconstrued. They are about the last days which terminate in the last trump but began with the first advent of Christ. They describe the period in which we live. This is the end of the ages. Paul and John lived in it, Augustine lived in it, Luther and Calvin lived in it, and we live in it. If this is true then we must look for what God is saying about the age in which we live. I propose that these verses are telling us that this is an age of prophecy, protection, power, persecution and passage.
I Prophecy
Chapter 10 is basically a renewed call to prophesy. It closely resembles the calls of Old Testament prophets. And so we read, Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. When he shouted, the voices of the seven thunders spoke. And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven say, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.” Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay! But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.” Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.” I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” First the prophet has a vision of God and then he is commanded to eat the scroll. We read the similar things in the call of Ezekiel in chapters 1-3. The description of the messenger, that is, the angel, if not a theophany or appearance of the Son of God, is very close to that. The loud voice, the shout, the lion’s roar all induce fear and trepidation in the hearts of earth’s inhabitants. As the lion roars on the earth, so thunder rumbles in the sky. This is the point. John hears the words but may not write them down. Speculating about what is said is exactly what we are not supposed to do. Rather, when Scripture uses the word thunder, it almost always brings a message of divine judgment. In the Apocalypse thunder repeatedly accompanies divine activity and messages in chapters 4, 6. 8. 11, and 16. Psalm 29 reminds us, The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The point is the fearful judgment. The important things here is that John is going to deliver a message from the scroll that we do understand and it is the very Word of God. It is sweet to the believer’s taste, but then it becomes bitter in the stomach because the message is judgment, and we are getting ever closer to the final trumpet thus we are told that there will be no more delay.
II Protection
This is also an age of protection for the children of God this has been revealed in different symbolism with the sealing of the 144,000 in Revelation 7. Here it is revealed through the measuring of the temple in 11: 1 and 2, I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. Jesus is using Old Testament imagery to describe the protection of His people. This is not the temple in Jerusalem, but the true temple of Jesus Christ which is the church, His body. The purpose of making these measurements is to define an area that is holy from what is profane; measuring means to protect God’s temple, altar, and people. The vision safeguards that which is holy and shields it from intrusion and desecration. The place where the people are safe is God’s temple, which throughout the Apocalypse means not the temple complex but the temple building, which includes the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place. Thus Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 that we all, Jew and Gentile alike have access to God the Father and in verses 19-22 he says, So then you are no more strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit. Believers are protected in the holiest place.
III Power
Jesus has all power in heaven and earth and he gives it to His church to witness as we read in verses 3-6. And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. We must take the time at this point to briefly talk about the time period here and elsewhere. it is the exact same period sometimes called three and one half years, sometimes, 42 months, and sometimes 1260 days. There are of course endless opinions as to what this means depending in part on whether your interpretation of the fulfillment of Revelation is idealistic, futuristic, first century, or continuing history. I am just going to tell you my view. In Daniel 9: 24-27 Daniel is told about the distant future, “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” Putting it briefly, and as plainly as I can, this prophecy is using weeks for years and it speaks of 490 years and says that it will be 49 years for the rebuilding of ancient Jerusalem, then 434 years after that Messiah will come. This totals 483 years. This leaves 7 years. The seven years is for the confirmation or fulfillment of the covenant of grace and it happens in three and one half years. In the middle of this time after three and one half years the Messiah will and bring an end to the Old testament ritual sacrifices by His own sacrifice, and Jerusalem will be destroyed as it was by the Romans in 70 AD. So far as I can see all of this occurs without any mention of what happens in the last three and one half years. Thus I conclude that the three and one half is an open ended prophecy describing the unknown time after Jesus death and resurrection. That time is taken up in Revelation as a description of the age in which we now live following the fulfillment of the covenant and Jesus death and resurrection. These witnesses have the power of Moses and Elijah but they are New Testament Christians. It is a symbolic description of the power of the gospel.
IV Persecution
In verses 7-10 we read what happened to the witnesses and it is not good. Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. They are hated by the host of unbelievers around them and martyred. These people who rejoice over their death are inspired by the beast who is, of course, the agent of Satan. Their fate is the same as all the faithful in chapter 6 after the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and again in chapter 7, And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These that are arrayed in white robes, who are they, and whence came they? And I said unto him, My lord, you know. And he said to me, These are they that come of the great tribulation. The persecution began in the family of Adam and Eve and spread to a countless multitude of every nation and tongue on the planet. It began with Israel and continued with the church of the New Testament including the churches of Revelation 2 and 3. It is universal and ubiquitous touching people across the globe as it has in centuries past. Don’t ask why you are being persecuted, ask why you are not. Speaking of Isaac and Ishmael in Galatians 4:29 Paul writes, At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. The Apostle also warns Timothy in II Timothy 3:12, In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Thus again we see the nature of the age in which we live.
V Passage
The final section of today’s text introduces an amazing and miraculous occurrence in 11:11-14, But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck 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, while their enemies looked on. At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon. There is a resurrection and an earthquake accompanying the resurrection as there was at the resurrection of Jesus, as we read in Matthew 28:2, There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. This also happened when Jesus died on the cross according to Matthew 27: 51-53, At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. The point is that the event of Jesus’ death and resurrection was such a powerful redemptive force that it literally opened the tombs of many of His followers. We could identify this resurrection in Revelation 11 as the rapture of the church at Jesus coming again, but the important thing is that we realize that what happens here is what ultimately happens to all of Jesus’ suffering saints, His faithful followers, His persecuted servants. They are delivered forever from this vale of tribulation and tears, and this is the message that the saints in Asia Minor needed to hear, as do we.
Dr. John P. Clark's Sermons & Writings 