Revelation: Part 30

All right. I think that we’d better get to the lesson for tonight, and that’s in Revelation 11 beginning with the third verse. Let’s read. From this, it says, “and I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

And these are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth. All right. Of course, everybody wonders who are these two witnesses? Well, we’ve got all kinds of clues in this passage, which goes all the way to verse 7.

But let’s just analyze a little bit about what God is saying about them. First of all, it says that he will give authority to them and they will prophesy for 12060 days. The age of the Church is about to come to an end. Then right here to here between those two arrows, one going up – that’s you and me – and the other one coming down – that’s Jesus in the Second Coming to the earth.

Right in the middle, well, let’s first of all say that after a short parenthesis of time, once we’re taken out, first there will be the Antichrist will be revealed. So when he says these prophets are going to speak for 12060 days, it means half of that time, three and a half years. And it’s the first three and a half years because they are serving warning against something, all right? Now, it says, “they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.

Now, you read of prophets in the Old Testament wearing sackcloth or even kings sometimes tear brushing royal garments and putting on sackcloth. And that’s a very important thing that the Holy Spirit is teaching us through the many symbols the Bible develops in the past that are used in the book of Revelation. It’s kind of the grand central station of all of the symbols the Bible develops in the past. The fact that they’re both wearing sackcloth is a sign which every Israelite should know, and that is, they have come as God’s prophets to express their utter rejection of their pursuit in the religion.

They have rejected their lifestyle and they’ve rejected all of the worldly things they’re clinging to. So they come in sackcloth. And that means they’re going to be warning Israel there on a totally wrong course. A totally wrong course in their religion, they’re in a totally wrong course in their worldly outlook and their clinging to wealth of this earth and so forth.

So they come in something that’s an utter rejection of the wealth of this earth. Okay. All right. Next it says, and these are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.

Two olive trees. Turn with me to a very interesting passage in zachariah. Hold your place where you are in revelation. Please turn to zachariah chapter 4.

Now, zachariah is about in the middle somewhere in the Bible. It’s just before the New Testament, one book before the Old Testament ends. And remember, you can become an instant Bible scholar by going to the front of the Bible and getting the table of contents.

It’s an old trick I learned when I was a brand new christian. All right. 4:1-3. And by the way, do you know what zachariah means in Hebrew?

It means God remembers. Then the angel who was speaking with me returned, and roused me as a man who is awakened from his sleep, and he said to me, “what do you see?” And I said, I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowls on the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven spouts belonging to each of the lamps which are on the top of it.” In other words, a menorah.

It’s a single lampstand with the seven branches. Also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side. Then I answered and said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, “what are these, my Lord?” All right, now, we don’t have time to go through the whole chapter, but jump down to verse 11.

Then I answered and I said to him, “what are these olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on its left?” And I answered the second time and said to him, “what are these two olive branches which are beside the two golden pipes, which empty the golden oil from themselves?” You see, olive oil was used to fuel lampstands in the Old Testament times, and what it’s showing is there are two olive trees, which are a constant non-stop source of fuel to keep that lamp burning. And the lamp, of course, is a witness to the truth of God, it’s a symbol of that.

Now, he says, so he answered me saying, “do you not know what these are?” And I said, “no, my Lord.” Then he said, “these are the two anointed ones, who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.” So we know these two witnesses are very, very high on God’s list of spokesmen.

And when we read in the book of Revelation, it says that they are two olive trees and they’re also two lampstands. That represents those two symbols both represent these two witnesses. First of all, they are the unceasing source of the oil that fuels the light. And of course, the oil, what’s that a symbol of in the Bible?

The Holy Spirit, sure, we know that. If you read the Bible a little bit, that becomes clear. So they are with an endless source of the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s what the two olive trees means.

And they are anointed ones from the very presence of the Lord. There are also two lampstands. Now we have to go within the book of Revelation itself to look at what this is. Many of you were not here when I started out on this long peerless journey of studying the book of Revelation.

Revelation 1:20. As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are literally the messengers of the seven churches. And remember, the number seven means what? Completion.

Fullness. Okay. So when it says the seven churches, it means the fullness or the completeness of the whole Church. And it says, and the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the churches.

Now, a lampstand is to give light, the light of God’s truth, okay. And he says, the seven lampstands are a symbol of the seven churches, which means they are a symbol of all of the Church during this entire period. Because right now, who is the witness to the world? Or supposed to be?

The Church. There are still those who sing standing on the promises while sitting on the premises.

But we’re supposed to be witnesses. Now, once God takes his seven lampstands out, where do they go? Well, look at verse 5. And from the throne proceeds flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder.

And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Well, there’s seven, you see, that’s the completion. The Church now, since the day of Pentecost, has been the place where the Holy Spirit has been resident. The Holy Spirit is resident in every believer in Jesus Christ.

Now, some people don’t realize he’s there, but those who do really shake up this world system we live in. And Satan doesn’t like it, but nevertheless, he does it. So the seven spirits of God that also are represented by these lampstands, which represented the Church, are now where? In heaven.

So are you following me here? So now we go to once the Church is gone, where is the witness? Where are the witnesses going to be? Well, the witnesses have to be sent here after we’re gone.

All right. So chapter 11. Where it says, these are the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. These two great prophets take up the job of the whole Church.

Now, they will have 144,000 Israelites that will help out, but no one on the face of this earth will ever have the power to give the light of God’s message that these two witnesses will have. So it becomes very important. You see, this is just another one of those little p.s.s of the Holy Spirit, p. S., you’re going to be gone, you’re not going to be here during that period.

And the Church is gone. It’s another proof, okay. All right. Now, in verse 5, if anyone desires to harm them, fire proceeds out of their moth and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed.

Now, here is a great key to help determine just who are these two witnesses. In verse 6. These have power to shut up the sky, in order that the rain may not fall during the days of their prophesying. What prophet did that?

For how long? Three-and-a-half years. All right. There’s one clue.

Exciting, isn’t it? It’s like a great mystery. All right. Now, then, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood.

Who did that? Yeah. And to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. All right.

Now, there’s a big controversy as there is just about everything in the Bible between so-called theologians and great experts about just who these people are, and the majority of the experts today say it’s irrelevant, this is all just a bunch of myths anyway.

Especially the book of Revelation. You ask about 80% of the pastors in the christian churches of the world today, and they will say, well, you waste your time with that stuff. The book of Revelation was just written as a bunch of allegories to teach you the certain principles of what God blesses and what he doesn’t and so forth and all this, you ought to remember that. But the idea is given that this book is not important.

So I think this book makes a lot of sense, don’t you? Well, yes, it’s written with a lot of symbol, but those symbols can be tracked. That’s what’s so exciting about it. Now, it says, well, before I jump into something else here, let’s just talk about, who are they?

Well, it’s obvious who I think they are. I believe they’re Moses and Elijah sent back. Let me give you another evidence as to why I believe that. Now, you’re going to have to trail along with me over some Scriptures here, but let’s turn to Matthew 17:9.

Gospel of Matthew 17:9. Look with me beginning with the verse 9. And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” And his disciples asked him, sailing, “why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”

Now, you see, they were having trouble understanding what they knew about prophecy from the Old Testament and fitting it in with Jesus and what he was saying. Because there are two portraits painted of the Messiah in the Old Testament prophecies. And sometimes they’re painted on the same canvas only separated by a comma. Like in Isaiah.

And Jesus showed that when he came back to his city of where he grew up, Nazareth, and he brought his disciples. He had just started his ministry, he came there, and as his custom was on the sabbath, they asked him to get up and read the Scripture. And he got up and he read from Isaiah – you don’t have to turn here, I’ll do it for you. Chapter 61:1.

He stood up, he opened the scroll, he read, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim the iberty to captives, and freedom to the prisoners; and to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, comma. Then what did he do? He said, this day – he first rolled the scroll up and he said, this day, this prophecy has been fulfilled in your ears. And they knew he was claiming to be the Messiah.

But before he made that statement, everyone was absolutely dumbfounded because you never read in the synagogue a portion of Scripture and stop right in the middle of a sentence. But why did he stop in the middle of the sentence? Read on. After the comma.

And the day of vengeance of our God. You see, what is that applied to? Over here is Second Coming. All of the Scripture he read up until that point fulfilled the portrait that is painted in many prophecies of the Old Testament of him being the lowly humble suffering Messiah who had come to die for sin.

But the other one talks about the conquering king Messiah that’s coming back to wreak havoc on the world and to put down all unbelievers and to set Israel up as a kingdom and rulers of the world as God promised Abraham and his descendents. You following me? Had he continued to read, he could not have said, this has been fulfilled in your ears. But you see, there are two portraits clearly painted.

And rabbis before Jesus came. In fact, a couple of centuries at least before he came, recognized that there was this tension, that there was certain prophecies about this lowly humble servant who would be born and who would suffer for our sins, and there was certain parts that talk about him coming as the son of David, the great conquering king, he’s going to conquer the whole world, put it down, establish the believing Israelites as rulers of the world. And set up a kingdom over which he would rule. So at least two centuries before Jesus was born, some rabbis said, well, there must be two messiahs coming.

One will be the son of Joseph, and that was because Joseph was the one rejected by his brothers and he suffered and so forth. And the other one will be the son of David. And so Israelites and Jews, even til this day, cannot figure out this mystery. And you see, God set this up so that it would test where a man’s heart is.

If you’re just looking for earthly things, and if you’re just looking for God blessing you in material things, which Messiah are you going to look for? The conquering king. But if you realize that to meet God, you have to have your sins covered, you have to have your heart changed, you’ll look for the suffering Messiah and you’re opened to hear about it. You following me?

Okay. Now, that’s why even the 12 apostles that Jesus chose where it’s all confused, they asked this problem, and it was a good question in Matthew, turning back there now. They said, why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first? And he answered and said, and mark every word I’m reading.

I’m reading from the new American standard Bible, but the Greek is even stronger. Jesus said Elijah is coming and will restore all things. Now, the first thing he said is Elijah is going to come, right? Then, he says, but I say to you, that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished.

So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he had spoken to them about John the baptist. You see, God didn’t send Elijah to announce the coming of Jesus in his first coming. He sent John the baptist in the spirit and power of Elijah.

And Jesus said to them on another occasion, he said, and if you will receive it, he is the Elijah that was to come. Do you see the wisdom of God? God knew they would reject him. So he sent someone in the spirit and power of Elijah, who is just like Elijah, and if they would have received Jesus as Savior, he would have counted him as the fulfillment of that prophecy that I’m going to show you in a minute that’s in Micah 4.

But God knew they would reject him. And so Jesus said, Elijah is going to come. You follow? All right.

All right. Now, look with me. The last book of the old testaments just before Matthew, malachi. Or I should say Malachi 4:4.

Remember the law of Moses my servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in horeb for all Israel. Notice he mentions Moses in the same context. Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible Day of the Lord. “And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.”

And that’s simply saying that the Elijah would come and cause the hearts of these children of Abraham to turn back to their fathers and to all of the covenants and promises God had made so that they could come to know the truth. And turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children because they would see that they had believed.

What do you do on Passover? A typical family meal on Passover day, what do you do?

They leave a chair for Elijah. Every Passover. And the father will usually go through this drama and open the door to look outside to see if Elijah’s coming.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary, and he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible are now very curious.

This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been for the Church and for the nation. That’s why I’m asking you to help me to expand our reach.