Seeking God’s Favor – part 2
Zechariah 7:1-14 (8-10)
December 11, 2016

Last time we met we began looking at this new section of the book of Zechariah.
• It occurred two years after the night visions.
• It is a section prompted by the arrival of a group of men from Bethel.

Scripture says that they came to “seek the favor of the LORD,”
(Literally: “to soften the face of the LORD” or “to stroke the face of the LORD”)
They were after God’s favor.

And I think this is a pretty important point for us to consider.

Now certainly we don’t want to confuse this with salvation.
That is to say that we in no way want anyone to think that
We are seeking to please God to such an extent to cause him to save us.

THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE.
Paul is clear that “there is none who does good, not even one.”

Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

We know that justification only occurs through faith in Jesus Christ.
It is His righteousness that is credited to our account
Whereby God then declares us righteous based on what He has done.

That is justification…that is not what we are talking about.

We’re talking about those who are already saved.
(We’re talking about the justified, the elect, the chosen, the redeemed)

That is what Israel was.
God had already revealed that through those night visions.

What we are talking about is
How we as believers continue to seek the favor of God,
And what sort of reward we can expect for it.

And while Christ has made us pleasing to the Father,
We are still those who seek to please God with our lives.

Colossians 1:9-10 “For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;”

Saying also:
2 Corinthians 5:9 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”

2 Timothy 2:4 “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.”

So it is clear that for a believer there is still the issue of
Seeking to please God in the way in which we live.

But that is an issue that has been VERY CONFUSING for God’s people,
Not only today, but clearly also in the past.

And that is what we are here talking about.
• We have a group of people who have traveled to Jerusalem to seek God’s favor.

• Just from our reading it seems as though perhaps this was a group who was curious why God’s favor wasn’t more readily seen in their lives.

In fact, they came asking a question.
(It was the question which provoked the response of Zechariah 7 and 8)

“Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?”

Just by way of REMINDER:
• There was no fast commanded for the fifth month anywhere in the Law.
• The fifth month was the month that the temple was destroyed.
• No doubt it became a commemorative and yearly time of weeping and fasting as the anniversary of that terrible event came each year.
• But it wasn’t commanded.

HOWEVER, we noted that it had been 70 years since the temple had been destroyed.
• Odds are good that these who have made the 12 mile journey from Bethel to Jerusalem weren’t even alive when the event occurred.
• For them it was far less about grief and emotion and despair, and much more about tradition.
• They did it because they had always done it. One such indicator is the fact that they are still going by their Babylonian names and not Jewish names

These people were most likely raised in Babylon
And had merely continued on with this uncommanded fast
Out of tradition.

Now they have returned to Israel
And they want to know if they should continue.

As we said last time this feels a little like a LOADED QUESTION.
It’s almost as if they have given God their resume,
Reminding Him that they have faithfully participated in this fast for many years.

The reality is that they want to know if
There is any pay off for what they have done.
What sort of spiritual currency have they accumulated?
And why isn’t it more apparent in their lives?

And we noted that it is human nature to gravitate here.
Most of us (though none would admit it) like to believe that
We deserve certain amounts of God’s favor
As a reward for the things we do well.

Like Peter who asked Jesus, “Behold we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”

To which Jesus responded that they would be rewarded,
But that God’s reward system is not like you think.

In fact Jesus gave that cryptic statement and the parable that followed, “But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”

There Jesus indicated that God does reward His children,
But that reward is not based upon merit, but upon God’s generosity.

It didn’t matter if you came to work early in the morning, at midday, or in the evening, God’s generosity rewarded the same.

But we like to think that when we do religious things
That we deserve more favor than those who don’t.

After all, we attend church…on Sunday night…in the cold!
Surely God will reward us better than those who didn’t.

That was sort of the attitude of this delegation.
They wanted to know what sort of favor they would be receiving
For their tremendous sacrifice.

But if you’ll remember God had a question for them.
In fact it was a question God had already asked
Many years before through Isaiah in Isaiah 58.

#1 CONSIDER YOUR REAL PURPOSE
Zechariah 7:4-7

The question God asked was this:
(5) “When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?”

And of course you notice that God added in there the “seventh” month
Which they had not mentioned.
The 7th month was the murder of Gedaliah.
God actually beats them to the punch and says
“I know all about your fasts”
What I want to know is were any of them done for Me?

And of course the answer God reveals is “NO”
(6) “’When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?”

The first answer given to these who want to know their reward
Is that their sacrifice was invalid
Because it wasn’t actually a sacrifice.

When you sacrifice one thing just so you can gain another,
That’s not called sacrifice, that’s called an investment.

I could tell you that I gave $15 dollars Friday morning to a couple in need. And that sounds sacrificial until you find out that
They gave me donuts in response.

Yes I parted with my money but the payoff was baked sugary goodness!
You can’t call that a sacrifice.

And it works the same for religious involvement.

TURN TO: Matthew 6
• (READ 6:1-4)
• (READ 6:5-6)
• (READ 6:16-18)

Jesus was making that same point wasn’t He?
You can’t call your giving or your praying or your fasting a sacrifice
Because you were receiving reward for it.

Consider what Paul said:
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.”

Love is self-sacrificing, but if all your religious deeds
Were done without sacrificing self, then there is NO REWARD.

You are getting the point aren’t you?

SO, WHY WEREN’T THESE PEOPLE GETTING A REWARD?
What was wrong with their motive?

Are we to assume they only fasted for public reputation like the Pharisees?
Possibly, but it doesn’t say that.
Are we to assume that they only fasted without truly sacrificing (love)?
Possibly, but it doesn’t say that.

LISTEN CAREFULLY HERE.
Let’s say you do you religious deed AND you do it in secret.
Let’s say you do it in a truly SACRIFICIAL way (you don’t get donuts in return).

CAN YOU STILL BE DOING IT WRONG?
YES

How?
If you are doing it only for a temporal reward and not for the glory of God.

It is true that God is promised to reward us when sacrifice ourselves correctly,
We just read that in Matthew 6.
“And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

But that reward is an eternal one, not a temporal one.

Many people have gone astray because they thought that
If they sacrificed and did it secretly
That God would reward them with a temporal payoff.
And many of those same people grew disillusioned with God
When it didn’t happen.

Remember Asaph in Psalm 73 upset because the wicked are prospering and he wasn’t?

Remember what Paul told Timothy?
1 Timothy 6:3-10 “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

There are people who do try to sacrifice in mighty ways
And in secret ways who still don’t please God,
Because they think it is a means to a temporal reward.

I’m going to secretly put $10,000 in the offering plate
So that God will give me $50,000!
Are you really doing that for the glory of God
Or are you doing it for your benefit?

Do you see the point?

So when questioning is God pleased with
my sacrifice or with my ministry or with my action
The first thing you must do is CONSIDER THE REAL PURPOSE.

• Who are you really seeking to benefit?
• Who are you really seeking to honor?
• Why are you really doing it?

To that one would have to ask:
WHAT IS THE PROPHER MOTIVE FOR SEEKING GOD’S FAVOR?

1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

• That passage comes as Paul is examining the freedoms of the Corinthians, especially their propensity to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

• Theologically they knew that false gods were not real and therefore eating the meat was not sinful.

• However, their testimony could offend their brother and cause him to stumble, and it could run the risk of leading them back into idolatry.

So as a summation of the issue Paul simply reminded them
To do all things for the glory of God.

When we tell a person to check their motives this is what we are asking.
Who were you seeking to benefit?
• Why did you pray?
• Why did you give?
• Why did you fast?
• Why did you attend church?
• Why did you preach that sermon?

Who were you seeking to glorify?
Because I can promise that if your religious involvement was for the purpose of glorifying you, then God will not be pleased.

To revisit that passage we saw last week in Isaiah 58
Isaiah 58:3 “Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers.”

YOU’VE GOT TO EXAMINE YOUR MOTIVES,
Because if it is only done for your own personal benefit or glory
Then you need not expect that God will reward that.
You already have your reward.
However, if your motives are pure, then Scripture promises that
God does in fact reward His children in eternity because He is generous.

So you are one who is seeking God’s favor…
• First, Consider the Real Purpose

#2 CONSIDER SCRIPTURES REITERATED PROPHECIES
Zechariah 7:8-10

So let’s say we’ve answered that first questioned regarding our motives
And to the best of our ability we can say that
We really do only want to please God, for His glory.

SO WHAT DO WE DO?
(What sort of action should we do?)

And this is so obvious…
(8-9a) “Then the word of the LORD came to Zechariah saying, “Thus HAS the LORD of hosts SAID,”…

Did you catch the tense there?
Do you want to do the thing that please God?
THEN LOOK AT WHAT GOD HAS SAID.

And in this case, it is not some obscure message
Only repeated in dark corners with secret handshakes.

(9-10) “Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’”

Do you really want to please God?
Then do what God says.
• Things like “true justice”
• Things like “kindness”
• Things like “compassion”
• Things like caring for “the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor”

And what is so obvious here is that anyone
Who ever wondered what God wanted them to do
And even read their Old Testament a little
Could not possibly miss what God wanted.

THE SCRIPTURES CONTINUALLY REITERATE WHAT GOD WANTS

TURN TO: 1 SAMUEL 15:22-23
• You remember the message Samuel had for Saul.

TURN TO: PSALMS 50:7-23
• Do you hear God there telling them that their religious sacrifice are of little value?
• Do you hear God telling them to focus on things like justice and integrity?

TURN TO: ISAIAH 1:10-17
• Same message isn’t it?
• I’m not interested in your religious sacrifices, I want you to take care of the helpless.

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 7:1-11; 21-23
• And again we find that God is not so interested in religion as He is in them taking care of the widows and the poor

TURN TO: EZEKIEL 18:5-9
• Are you catching a theme here of the things God thinks are important?

TURN TO: DANIEL 9:11-13
• Daniel figured it out didn’t he? It wasn’t about sacrifice and religion, it was about obedience to God’s word.

TURN TO: HOSEA 6:4-6
• There again, I’m interested in obedience, not ceremonial religion.

TURN TO: JOEL 2:12-13
• There it is, “rend your heart and not your garments”. I want true devotion, not ceremony.

TURN TO: AMOS 5:21-24
• You’re picking up a theme aren’t you?

TURN TO: JONAH 4:10-11
• The entire purpose was to reveal Jonah’s lack of compassion.

TURN TO: MICAH 6:6-8
• Again, it’s the heart not the religion

We look at those because I want you to understand the situation here.

• After all of those prophets for all of those years have said the same thing over and over and over about religion verses obedience, are you really confused as to what it means to seek the favor of the Lord?

• You come with a resume about some fast you have kept for 70 years expecting God to reward you with His favor.

• I think it’s time you open your Bible and figure out what God has said over and over and over regarding obtaining His favor.

But in case you are short on time,
Zechariah actually summarizes it for them (again).
(I can almost hear Zechariah sigh as he says it)
(9-10) “Thus has the LORD of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’”

This was hardly new information by the time Zechariah preached it.
If they had only paid attention to the messages of the prophets from the past
This would have been crystal clear.

With that we’re out of time, and we’ll get the rest next time.

But let me just leave you with a closing thought here.

Let’s say you are a person who really does simply want to live in a manner that pleases God.
Let’s say that your motives are even the right place. That is to say that you aren’t doing it for your own glory or for some sort of temporal payoff.

You really just want to live your life in a manner that pleases God.

Let me put it to you like this:
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THAT WITH A CLOSED BIBLE.

God has not kept His desires for how you should live your life a secret. In fact in most cases He has said it over and over and over; just as we saw here.

These people were working going through strenuous religious ordinances in order to try and earn God’s favor; how much easier it would have been to just read the Bible and see what God had already said He wanted.

Saving Jerusalem
Revelation 11:1-13
December 11, 2016

This morning we come to what is pretty much universally accepted to be
The most difficult and confusing chapter in the book of the Revelation.

If you’re a commentary type person, and you’ve ever read commentaries on the book of Revelation then you are aware that no two readily agree on what the main point is.

My personal favorite comes from William Barclay who says “it is at one and the same time the most difficult and the most important chapter in the book of Revelation.”
(Barclay, William [The Daily Bible Study Series: The Revelation of John Volume 2; The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1976] pg. 65)

So I guess it’s good to know that
The most important chapter is the one that nobody understands.

Typically when we run across such confusion
I almost always shoot for a more simplistic approach.

I tend to believe Bible interpretation becomes the most difficult When we try to go beyond what God has chosen to reveal to us.

For example:
We saw in chapter 10 that John was told not to record whatever it was that the seven peals of thunder said.

Well obviously if you try to figure out what was said
Then you’re going to have a difficult time
Since God never intended for you to know.

I think that sort of thing happens quite regularly in the book of the Revelation;
It seems that people look for deeper meanings than perhaps what is intended.

So our goal (and I think this is always a wise decision) is
To simply look at the things that are made plane
And see if we can understand the things that God is clearly revealing.

FIRST you must remember that we are in the middle of a parenthetical section.

After revealing the judgments of the first 6 trumpets
(In particular the 5th and 6th trumpets
Which were the locusts and the 200 million demonic army),
John made a startling observation.

Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

And we have said repeatedly that this observation
May have been a DISHEARTENING one for John.

• He is now on the island of Patmos all because he has been faithful to proclaim the first revelation that he received from God; namely the gospel.

• And now John is being given a second revelation to go and preach which will be even harder for an unbelieving world to swallow.

You have to wonder if John questioned the rationale to all of this.
(I know we regularly do)
If they aren’t going to believe, and preaching is only going to get me in trouble; then why not just keep it quiet?

That supposed question was emphatically answered in chapter 10.

John saw a giant angel clothed in the glory of God who gave him a little book to eat.
• In reality that book is the book of the Revelation.
• It is the same scroll that the Lord Jesus has been opening which has been ushering in the judgments of God.

John was told that the scroll would be sweet in his mouth and would turn his stomach bitter, which it did.
• At first glance the vengeance of God and the return of Christ was a welcomed reality; John loved it.
• However, when the reality of the judgment of sinners began to sink in, it was indeed difficult to handle.

And with this understanding John was told to “prophesy again”

Well it is important for you to know that we are still in that same interlude.
In fact John is still caught in that same vision.
(There are no chapter breaks in the original Revelation)

John has just been told to “prophesy again”
And from there the vision continues.

I remind you of that because
I don’t want you pulling this chapter out of its context.

This chapter is also an answer to the reality that people are not repenting even under the judgment of God.

This chapter is also a message to John who needs to continue to be faithful to preach even in the midst of difficult reality.

This chapter follows that theme and that message.

Now another thing that will help us here is when we realize that the first two verses of this chapter represent information that we already know.
That is to say, this is information that Jesus already told us.
In large part this is information that has already occurred
And even in John’s day is already occurring.

(1-2) “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. “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.”

First we have a command to measure “the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it.”

Surveying denotes ownership.
We see it throughout the Scriptures. Probably the most extensive in this area is the entire end of the book of Ezekiel when Ezekiel measures everything.
It is simply God’s way of revealing what is His.

And here we find God declaring what is His.
• “the temple” is His.
• “the altar” is His.
• “those who worship in it” are His.

There we find a definite declaration of what belongs to God.

In the midst of a crooked and sinful world,
God has selected and decreed what is His,
It is those who worship God through His sacrifice in His temple.

Now we also find another truth that we already know
That is that those which are His
Are promised to be surrounded and attacked and even trampled.

(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.”

SO we have that which is inside which belongs to God
And that which is outside which is trampled by the world.

Now where did we hear all of this before?
Matthew 24:1-2 “Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

Jesus told His disciples that everything was going to be under attack.

Matthew 23:37-39 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'”

Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

And to some extent JOHN WAS ALREADY SEEING THIS,
Just as we are already seeing it.

The Revelation was received by John in AD 90,
That’s 20 years after the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed.

John already saw the temple demolished.
John was already seeing believers persecuted.
John was already well aware of the hardship of being a worshiper of God.

Today we know that on the temple mount sets that gaudy Dome of the Rock which is an Islamic worship site where they believe Mohammad ascended to heaven to receive his great vision.

We already see the world trampling under food
The things that belong to God.
Certainly there is an element to these two verses that is HISTORY.

However, there is an element that is also PROPHECY.
A time is coming when this will even escalate beyond what we see now.

Luke 21:20-24 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. “Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. “Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

If you want to get even more specific look to the Olivet Discourse when Jesus said:
Matthew 24:15-22 “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), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

Jesus already told us these things.
More than that Daniel told us these things many years even before Jesus.

(And you’ll have to go listen to the Daniel sermons if you want more info here, but basically Daniel revealed to us about a man named Antiochus Epiphenes who would oppress Israel, and this man would be a picture of the Antichrist who is to come.)

And Jesus reiterated the work of this Antichrist who would set up his “ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION …in the holy place.”

Paul reminded of this:
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 “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, 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.”

• Apparently Antichrist will rebuild God’s temple during his 3 ½ year campaign of peace,
• After which he will enter that temple and declare himself to be God and demand worship.

And according to Jesus when that happens YOU’D BETTER RUN.
Don’t go into your house…
Don’t try to save your valuables…
Just run!

Because this event will signify a tribulation like the world has never seen before, and tribulation which will last for 3 ½ years.

This tribulation period will undoubtedly be
The darkest and most deprave time the world has ever known.

Satan will be more active…
Truth will be more opposed…
Persecution will be more intense…
Faithfulness will be more difficult…
Than at any other time in all of human history.

Jesus even said if those days weren’t cut short
Even the elect wouldn’t survive it.

The things that God values are going to be under attack and trampled.

So, while John certainly knew what persecution was like
(and felt tempted to quit preaching because of it)
Now John finds that the persecution is actually even going to get worse.

And God is going to use this information to reiterate to John
That same point he taught him in chapter 10.

Namely that being faithful to God in this world
Will not make you safe or popular.
And yet we are called to preach the truth to a world that hates it
And will hate you for preaching it.

So at this point we find the theme intact.
• We have God’s people and God’s temple and God’s truth being pretty much universally rejected by the world.
• The truth revealed in verse 2 represents the same rebellion that we saw in chapter 9; it is the world in rebellion against God.

That was the very reality which we said
Gives us pause about preaching the truth.

FROM THERE WE SEE THE NEW INFORMATION
THAT GOD WANTS TO REVEAL TO JOHN ABOUT
PREACHING THE TRUTH IN A HOSTILE AND STUBBORN ENVIRONMENT.

What we see in verses 3 through 13 is new information.

• During the darkest time the world will ever know,
• In the most dangerous city for believers the world will ever have
• God is going to raise up two witnesses who will proclaim His truth
• And ultimately through their faithfulness take back God’s city.

It is obviously a chapter meant to motivate faithfulness among the redeemed regardless of difficulty.

3 points here
#1 A CONSTANT WITNESS
Revelation 11:3-6

You don’t see it yet, but you will in a moment that
These witnesses are raised up and minister in the midst of Jerusalem.

Only it’s not called Jerusalem right now, verse 8 reveals that it “is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.”
• Sodom was the most vile city to ever exist.
• Egypt was the most vile nation.
• Now those titles have been transferred to Israel and more specifically Jerusalem.

It is the city Jesus specifically told people to flee from.
It is the most dangerous city for believers of all time.

And yet, even in this infamous city God raises up two witnesses.

(3) “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Granting them authority to preach is
The same thing Jesus did for us in the great commission when He said:

Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The same is done for them here.
They are divinely commissioned with the right
To proclaim God’s truth to a wicked and unbelieving world.

AND THEY DO.
• They “prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days”.
• That is 3 ½ years, or during the final half of the great tribulation.

IN SHORT, at the same time that:
• Antichrist is setting up his abomination in the temple
• And believers are fleeing from the city,
• These two are running into the city and starting to preach.

They may be the boldest missionaries the world has ever seen.
And they preach faithfully in this city, right below the statue of the beast.
They are a constant bur under the saddle of Antichrist.

John says they are “clothed in sackcloth”
Sackcloth was the garment of mourning.
Preachers clothed in it signified the preaching of doom.

Imagine these two guys standing right below the statue of the beast
Emphatically declaring to everyone who worships the beast
That they will be judged eternally for their rebellion against God.
Talk about a difficult ministry, this is it.

It is also revealed to John that:
(4) “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”

Now I don’t mind telling you that this would be much easier if you’d all come on Sunday night where we talked extensively about this as we are studying the book of Zechariah.

TURN TO: Zechariah 4

Now we don’t have time to give all the details here, again if you want more,
Go back and listen on the website, it would be extremely valuable for you.

• But in Zechariah 4 we are in the middle of Zechariah’s night visions which he received from the Lord. (8 of them in one night)

• This is vision number 5 and it addresses the difficulty and discouragement regarding the rebuilding of God’s temple after the refugees return from the Babylonian captivity.

• Zerubbabel is the governor of the land and Zechariah is the prophet and neither of them are too confident that this project is going to get done.

So God gives this vision.
(READ 1-7)
• You see that we have a menorah (representing that Israel is to be light to the world) and it is supplied with oil directly from the tree.
• The tree produces the oil, which flows through the pipes, to the bowl which feeds the lamp.
• It is a supernaturally supplied lamp.
• Which is God’s point to Zerubbabel that this project of rebuilding the temple will be “not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit declares the Lord”

God is going to do this.

Later we find that Zechariah is still confused regarding the vision.
(READ 11-14)

There we find the imagery revealed.
God is the One rebuilding the temple,
But He is doing it through His anointed ones.
They were Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3) and Zerubbabel the governor.

THE POINT IS THAT
GOD IS TAKING OTHERWISE INCOMPETENT PEOPLE
AND WILL USE THEM TO ACCOMPLISH
AN OTHERWISE IMPOSSIBLE TASK.

And that is the imagery given here regarding these two witnesses in Revelation 11.
• Like Joshua and Zerubbabel these two men are God’s ordained vessels
• Through whom He is going to accomplish what seems like an otherwise
impossible task.

Does that make sense?
God is going to do the impossible through these two men.
(Because God can do impossible things through His servants)

Well you say, that’s well and good, but if they are really going to preach in the center of Jerusalem I don’t see any way that they’ll last 3 ½ years.

That’s true, so…(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.”

Drastic times call for drastic measures
And God does not allow His ordained servants to minister unprotected.
If you mess with these guys you get incinerated.

And some would say, well if God would protect me from harm like that then I’d be more faithful to preach too.

REALLY? When was the last time you needed protection from harm?

God protected these men from being killed, not from being hated,
Or maligned, or talked about, or ignored, or rejected.

These men were absolutely hated by everyone in this city.
• Partly because of their message of doom and repentance
• Partly because of their ability to afflict pain on anyone who doesn’t listen to it.

(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.”

This verse has caused many to say that these two men must be the return of Moses and Elijah.
• After all Elijah never died, and Jude told us that the devil wanted Moses’
body real bad.
• Both of those men showed up on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured.
• And beyond that the tools in the tool belts of these men are eerily similar to
the powers that both Elijah and Moses had.

But again, we’ll just stick to our decision not to venture beyond what we’re told.
If it is Moses and Elijah, the Scripture doesn’t tell us.

The point is that these men have the ability
To make life miserable of anyone who doesn’t believe their message.
These guys aren’t going to win any popularity contest any time soon.

But here they are, in the most dangerous city for believers the world has ever known and they are maintaining a constant witness of the truth.
• It is dangerous…
• It is difficult…
• But God is using them and God is protecting them.

So we see A Constant Witness
#2 A CELEBRATED REVOLT
Revelation 11:7-10

It’s a very key phrase we read:
“When they have finished their testimony…”

In short, God keeps them absolutely off limits
Until He fulfills His entire purpose for them.

That tells us something about God’s people
Serving God even in dangerous places.

If God calls you to it, God has a plan to preserve you in it
Until He fully accomplishes His purposes for you.
That is true for you
That was true for John
That will be true for these two witnesses

They were off limits for 3 ½ years until they finished their ministry.
They fully proclaimed the whole truth.

And then “the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make ware with them, and overcome them and kill them.”

They are finished, and the Lord allows them to retire.

And then comes one of the VILEST SCENES recorded in the entire Bible.

(8-10) “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. 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. 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.”

The world hated these men because they “tormented those who dwell on the earth.”
• They tormented them with truth
• They tormented them with fire
• They tormented them with drought

This world which has thus far refused to repent will absolutely hate them.
And that hatred reveals itself in
The most disgusting display of depravity we’ve ever seen.

They refuse to let them be buried.
(In the Old Testament that was about as low as you could get. You may remember the Philistines hung Saul’s body on display after he died until a band of Israelites took it down)

Not only that, they set up a live feed, 24-hour news video for the world to continually gaze on their bodies.

And even worse the world declares it a global holiday. For Dead Prophet’s Day you actually give and receive gifts.

Why?
Because the light has been removed from the darkness.
We can now live in our sin the way we wanted to
Without these people continually telling us it’s wrong.

THE WORLD IS ECSTATIC.
It is a very fitting demonstration of just how much the darkness
Hates the light and just how much a sinful world hates the truth.

The world will kill you and be happy about it when they do.
And that should be no surprise at all.

A Constant Witness, A Celebrated Revolt
#3 A CERTAIN VICTORY
Revelation 11:11-13

They never saw that coming.
(Probably wishing now they would have buried them)

God raises them back to life “and great fear fell upon those who were watching them.”

They probably thought they were about to be
Incinerated with fire from their mouth.

But instead of any retaliation or retribution
God just takes them up to heaven.

This wasn’t about allowing them to get even with anyone,
This was about God verifying that they in fact
Were His messengers proclaiming His message.

They were from God. No doubt about it.

(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.”

Remember all along Antichrist has claimed to be God
And now, it is quite obvious that he is not.

Not only that, but…
(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…”

After removing His prophets God then shook Jerusalem
And caused 1/10th of it to fall, which killed, 7,000 people.

And then here is the really interesting part.
“and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.”

These people in an instant went from praising Satan to praising God.

The clearest and most natural interpretation is that at once
These people repented and started worshiping the one true God.

SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH THAT?
Well, as we said at the beginning,
Keep it context with the point of this entire section.

• John was faced with the reality of preaching to a people who would not repent; a calling that must have seemed futile, and yet God emphatically told him to continue anyway.

• And then John is shown a vision of two men who preach the truth in the most difficult and rebellious city the world will ever know, and it is hard, no doubt about it.

• And yet, God uses not only their preaching, but also their death, the mockery the world makes of their bodies, and then their resurrection to accomplish His purpose of redeeming the most unredeemable city the world will ever see.

GOD WILL WIN.
God is going to win this city which is filled with
The most unbelievable animosity the world has ever seen.

SO WHAT’S THE POINT?
The point is the same as chapter 10 – “prophesy again”
• Your preaching doesn’t have to widely accepted,
• Your preaching doesn’t have to be even remotely popular.
• Your preaching does not have to be loved by those you preach to.

That’s not the point.
The point is that God is doing His work through you.

You, like Joshua, like Zerubbabl, like these 2 witnesses
Are merely olive branches, lampstands that God seeks to use
To shine His light in the world.

And if you will be faithful regardless of the opposition,
Then God will use you to accomplish His sovereign, decreed, and perfect purposes. Whatever they may be.

It’s not about whether or not you think it will work.
It’s about whether or not you are faithful to what God has asked you to do.

• John go prophesy again
• Ezekiel go whether they listen or not
• Isaiah preach until they are all destroyed
• Jeremiah go even though they war against you

BECAUSE I AM USING YOU TO ACCOMPLISH MY PURPOSES

And that is true for us as well.
We are called to be faithful
Even when the mission appears hopeless
Because the architect of the mission knows what He is doing.

You be faithful.
You prophesy again.

Seeking God’s Favor – Part 1
Zechariah 7:1-14 (1-7)
December 4, 2016

Tonight we enter a new section in the book of Zechariah.
We spent quite a while covering that one infamous night
In which Zechariah had 8 visions from the LORD.

But those visions are now over and God’s truth revealed from those.
Now we move into a new segment.

It is actually a period of time 2 years down the road.
(1) “In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, which is Chislev.”

• It has now been 2 years since the night visions and that also means that the temple is about ½ completed at this point.

And God is about to speak again.
This time the message being prompted by a question
That is presented by a traveling delegation.

(2) “Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the LORD,”

The question that they ask is
The catalyst for this next message from Zechariah.

This delegation will ask a question and Zechariah 7 & 8
Are God’s answer to the question they ask.

You are familiar with “Bethel”.
• It was a city 12 miles north of Jerusalem.
• It is most famous for its having been a center for apostate worship.

1 Kings 12:28-29 “So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt.” He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.”

• I’m sure you remember how Solomon’s son Rehoboam split the kingdom and how Jeroboam became king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
• One of the first things he did was set up a golden calf in Dan so that the people of Israel would not return to Jerusalem to worship because he feared he would lose his kingdom.
• Those golden calves he set up became the sin that Israel never recovered from. Nearly every king after him has the same horrific legacy, “He did not depart from the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat”

But now, it is apparent that after the exile,
Some of the refugees have once again begun to inhabit that city.
And on this day a delegation of them shows up in Jerusalem,
Where the temple construction is under way.

The men are called “Sharezer and Regemmelech”
• Which are not Jewish names, but are most likely pagan names
• They were given in Babylon (similar to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego)

And they come with the men of Bethel “to seek the favor of the LORD”

“to seek the favor of the LORD” is a really interesting phrase.

A literal translation of the phrase would be: “to soften the face of the LORD”
Or “to stroke the face of the LORD”

It is a phrase that routinely speaks of intense prayer before God.
BUT IT CAN ALSO INDICATE AN ATTEMPT TO APPEASE GOD.

The idea is to flatter God with prayer;
To inquire before God in such a way as to appease Him
And provoke a favorable response from Him.

Obviously seeking God’s face in intense prayer is a great thing.
The problem is when we only do it to satisfy our own selfish desires.

We are familiar with what James said:
James 4:3 “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

We’ll see in a moment where this delegation falls on that issue,
But I want to make sure you understand what is happening.
• These people have traveled to Jerusalem to pray and seek the face of God.
• They have come to soften His face toward them.
• They have come to try and receive His favor in their lives.
• And they are inquiring about a specific thing they’ve done.

(3) “speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?”

I actually think this is quite a loaded question
And one which reveals their hearts to an enormous extent.
Why do I say that?

Because they don’t just come asking, “LORD, what is your desire for me?”
They come saying, “We’ve been doing quite a lot for quite a while, is there anything else?”

It sort of reminds me of the questioning of the Rich Young Ruler
When he told Jesus, “All these [commands] I have kept; what am I still lacking?” (Matthew 19:20)
There is an almost self-sufficient arrogance going on there.

Like the Pharisee in the temple:
Luke 18:11-12 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’”

It’s not really a person entreating God’s favor
So much as it is a person telling God why they ought to receive it.

And make no mistake their sacrifice was a real one.
“Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain as I have done these many years?”

Just by way of explanation:
• There was no fast which was commanded for the fifth month of the Jewish
year.

• This was a fast which emerged as a result of the destruction of the temple,
which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in the fifth month.

2 Kings 25:8-12 “Now on the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the LORD, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire. So all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls around Jerusalem. Then the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon and the rest of the people, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away into exile. But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.”

Naturally those who saw the temple destroyed and survived the slaughter and who were carried into Babylon remembered that horrific event.

• America still remembers December 7th
• America still remembers September 11th
• You still remember dates of the death of loved ones or other tragedies in your
life.

These Jews who had been exiled turned the 5th month
Into sort of an obvious time of fasting and mourning
Over the destruction of their temple.

The 137th Psalm gives a little insight into their mourning.
Psalms 137:1-6 “By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down and wept, When we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it We hung our harps. For there our captors demanded of us songs, And our tormentors mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.” How can we sing the LORD’S song In a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, May my right hand forget her skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth If I do not remember you, If I do not exalt Jerusalem Above my chief joy.”

They naturally remembered and wept and fasted.

But think about it.
• That was over 70 years ago.
• Odds are good many of these people weren’t even alive when it happened.
• These people didn’t feel the sting
• They’re still going by their Babylonian names

I wasn’t alive December 7, 1941
While I try to understand what it must have been like, I’m sure it’s an entirely different emotion for those who lived it.

My kids weren’t alive September 11, 2001
They have no idea of what that felt like to us.

Here we have a group of refugees who are still keeping up with the fasts and ceremonies of those who originally felt the sting.
(It has become more about tradition than emotion)

And they have done it “these many years”.

And before we just pass this off as insignificant let me ask you when the LAST TIME YOU FASTED from anything from any amount of time was.

(I’m sure some of you have; in a purely temporal sense some of gone on diets)

You and I know that giving up things that the flesh craves for any period of time is not necessarily something that we eagerly do.
Whether it’s food or entertainment or comfort or anything else.

Now, many in our culture will do it if they can see a payoff.
• For example, people will go without sugar if they are promised to lose weight or
to feel better or to be healthier.

• People will put their body through rigorous training if they can get toned or win
the competition, etc.

But not many are too hip on sacrificing
Especially if they can’t see a value in it.

BUT HERE WE HAVE
• People who have been putting themselves through a fast
• Which God never commanded,
• And which has lost its personal sting,
• And they are wondering if there is any benefit in it?

I mean beyond that, it seems a little strange to fast about losing the temple when the new temple is well on its way.

Do you understand then what is happening?
These people want the payoff.
These people want God’s favor.
They want God’s blessing.
And they want to know
How much spiritual currency they have accumulated for having been so faithful to this uncommanded fast for so many years.

Seems like it ought to be worth something right?

Now of course we could go into a long message
Talking about the impossibility of earning God’s favor.
• We could talk about how all our righteous deeds are filthy rags.
• We could talk about how there is none who does good, not even one.
• And we could talk about how only in Christ are we made pleasing to God.

In short we could talk about the impotence of religious works
And the necessity of grace.

BUT THAT ISN’T THE ISSUE HERE

The issue isn’t JUSTIFICATION

We’ve already been through the night visions.
Is God pleased with Israel?

Yes.
• He has already revealed that He is jealous for them.
• He has already revealed that He will defend them.
• He has already revealed His election of them and justification of them.
• He has already revealed that He is working through them.
• He has already revealed that He will sanctify them.
• And He has revealed that He will crush their enemies.

On top of that He has delivered them from Babylon back to Israel
Where He is now helping them rebuild the temple and their land.

Yes, God is pleased.

The question is regarding the benefits or reward or favor that is achieved by those who are already saved.

HOW DO I ACHIEVE GOD’S FAVOR?

So these people came up who have been sacrificing themselves through a ritualistic fast and they want to know if it has pleased God and if He wants them to continue?

(2-3) “Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the LORD, speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?”

Well, let’s see how God answers.

God answers by asking them to consider 3 things.

#1 CONSIDER THE REAL PURPOSE
Zechariah 7:4-7

That is to say; EXAMINE THE MOTIVE
Why are you doing it?

It is not specifically stated, so we can’t be dogmatic,
But it could be that this delegation from Bethel
Actually felt like maybe God wasn’t rewarding them as He should have.

You know, they felt like participating for 70+ years in an uncommanded fast
Was worth a little more blessing than they were actually receiving.

And I think that fits the context,
Especially when you consider the answer that is given here.

The Lord actually calls to mind a parallel incident
That is eerily similar to the current one.

First He says:
(5-6) “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? ‘When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?”

That is to say: “All this fasting you did, was it for Me or was it for you?”

And then He says:
(7) “’Are not these the words which the LORD proclaimed by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and prosperous along with its cities around it, and the Negev and the foothills were inhabited?'”

In other words we realize that in verses 5&6
God was simply quoting Himself from earlier times.

They wanted to know if their fasting was producing any reward or favor?

And God basically says, “I’ve answered that question before haven’t I? And the answer now is the same as the answer was then, which is, ‘Why are you doing it?’”

When did God answer this question before?

TURN TO: Isaiah 58

• Isaiah (as the LORD just revealed) ministered during a time when Jerusalem
was prosperous and was full of people.

• But those people were greedy and still thought God was giving them the short
end of the stick so they came to God with a question.

(READ 1-3a)
Recognize the question?
Stated a little different, but the same basic point.

Hey God, we’ve been fasting here,
And it doesn’t seem like it’s paying off the way it should.

In that day God revealed that the reason was because they didn’t fast for Him, they fasted for themselves.
(READ 3-14)

That was a pretty strong point there from God wasn’t it?
Sure you fast, you do without certain foods,
But you don’t do it because you want to please Me.

• You aren’t really seeking Me, you aren’t really concerned about what I want.
• You are just going through some ritual whereby you expect that I will be
obligated to reward you.

INCIDENTALLY THIS IS A VERY REAL ISSUE IN REGARD TO RELIGION.
We talk some about the reformation and why it is important,
Here is another aspect.

In the Catholic church we talk of the term “merit”.
And merit is: the quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward:

Now, in the Catholic system there are three types of merit.

Congruent Merit is that which is given and is fitting, but is not required. Meaning you do something good which could be rewarded, but doesn’t have to be.

For example; You clean the bathroom here at the church.
A reward would be fitting, but it is not required.

Condign merit is that which requires a reward and in fact, it is unjust not to receive a reward for it. Merit that is so virtuous that it obligates God to reward it. (Jesus work, some of the saints)

Meaning you do something that God owes you for,
And God would be unjust if He failed to reward you.

And in the Catholic church there four requirements that must be met here.
1) It must be morally good
2) It must be morally free (done with pure motive)
3) It must be done with the assistance of grace (beyond natural human ability)
4) It must be inspired by a supernatural motive (done in love or faith etc.)

And if you do something that meets those 4 requirements
Then God is bound to give you reward.

The third is Supererogatory Merit
Which are works that go beyond God’s requirement and you actually obtain more merit than you need. (The extra merit is deposited in the Treasury of merit where others can obtain it through indulgences, etc.)

Now obviously that is legalism, not the gospel.
That is also why grace was so often defined as “God’s unmerited favor”,
Meaning God chose to reward you when you did nothing to deserve it.

But you understand why this was such an issue in the reformation.
It’s because so much of the time WE WANT TO BELIEVE IT.

We may not admit it, but we want to believe that if I go to church or if I read my Bible or if I give money that God owes me a reward.

In fact, we get offended if we think God short changes us and gives us hardship instead of “blessing” or even worse if God “blesses” someone who has done less than us.

Here’s a story for you:
TURN TO: Matthew 19
• Of course you remember the Rich Young Ruler who went away sad.
• And then you remember Jesus making the point about how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Well then comes Peter asking for the balance
In his own personal treasury of merit.

(READ 19:27-29)
• Jesus told Peter he would be rewarded.

So does Jesus there actually affirm the reality of Condign merit?
You would think that if it were not for the next statement He makes.
(30) “But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”

Well that’s kind of cryptic, what did He mean by that?
(READ 20:1-16)

We learned that God dispenses reward according to grace not merit.
Every one of those laborers received more than they deserved.

And Jesus’ parable there was meant to reveal that
We are not rewarded based upon our merit,
But based upon God’s generosity.

Peter wasn’t receiving many times as much because of his sacrifice.
Peter was receiving many times as much because of God’s generosity.

But we like to let that old issue of merit
And what I deserve creep in don’t we?

Well that is what is creeping in here.
These people (like in Isaiah’s day) have been sacrificing for quite a while.
And they want to know what it has earned them.

Perhaps you are curious how much God owes you
For that spiritual service you’ve been performing.
SO LET’S SEE HOW MUCH VALUE YOUR SERVICE IS WORTH.

First issue God raises is that you CONSIDER THE REAL PURPOSE

So we sacrifice for God and we feel like we’ve earned a little reward from God, and to that God asks the question:

Why did you do it?

We’ll look at the rest of the chapter next time

Prophesy Again – Part 2
Revelation 10:1-11
December 4, 2016

Last time we started looking at another PARENTHETICAL SECTION
Here in the book of the Revelation.

God has just revealed to John some very difficult specifics about the coming judgment.
• We’ve seen everything from world war and famine to demonic armies
terrorizing the world.
• The end result is that the judgments have been so severe that at least half of
the world’s population has been killed.

And then perhaps God revealed the most startling news of all to John,
Which will be the response of the sinners on earth
Who manage to survive these horrific judgments.

Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

Despite all the judgment, we find that sinful humanity
Still loves their sin and refuses to repent of it.

And it is that reality that leads us to this next parenthetical section.
Revelation 10:1 through Revelation 11:13.
It is a section which focuses on the mandate to
Continue to preach the gospel despite the hardships that come with it.

One can only imagine how John must have felt at this moment.
• Here is a man who had been commissioned with the good news of the gospel.
• He was an eye witness of Jesus and was divinely commanded to go and proclaim this truth to the world.
• However this gospel message had resulted in nothing but difficulty, pain, and hardship for John.

Revelation 1:9 “I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

The first revelation of the gospel had caused John to be hated.
And now, God is revealing to John another message.
And this message is not a message of redemption,
This message is a message of judgment.

And one has to wonder if somewhere in the back of John’s mind
If he’s thinking he’d just rather not.

After all, if sinners don’t want to hear it,
And I’m only going to be persecuted for preaching it, then why go on?

That is precisely the mindset that is being addressed here in chapter 10
As God is going to specifically tell John to “prophesy again”.

With that understanding we took a moment LAST WEEK
To sort of refocus on some forgotten realities regarding evangelism
And the proclamation of the gospel.

We examined a few instances Jesus’ life and preaching
To remind ourselves that sinners do not love the truth,
And therefore they will not love us for preaching it.

If you have an expectation that you can live like a Christian in the world
And have that end in popularity, you are gravely mistaken.

Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

Luke 6:26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”

AND WHEN WE RAN OUT OF TIME
We were talking about why this reality is so difficult for us to swallow.

And the reason is because we are primarily creatures of comfort.
And far too often, when faced with the choice of silence or suffering,
We choose silence.

Many of us have done that many many times.

Now you aren’t alone in it.
Scripture even provides an example of one preacher who wanted to make that exact same choice.

When faced with silence or persecution he also leaned toward silence.

His name was Timothy and Paul wrote to him about it:
2 Timothy 1:8-14 “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”

And that’s not all.
2 Timothy 3:10-17 “Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

And still that’s not all.
2 Timothy 4:1-5 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Paul didn’t tell Timothy that silence was ok.
• Paul figuratively grabbed Timothy by the shoulders and started shaking him.
• He reminded Timothy that the cost of the gospel is a cost every believer must be willing to pay.

Despite the hardship, Timothy must keep on preaching.

And I just give you examples like that because I want you to be very clear
About what the Bible says regarding our work here on earth.

The Bible plainly reveals our calling – to proclaim the gospel.
The Bible plainly reveals the response – people will hate us for it.
The Bible plainly tells us to do it anyway.

That is the heart of this section in the book of the Revelation.
John is suffering for the gospel
And yet God is going to tell him to “prophesy again”
Knowing full well that this might mean more suffering for John.

And there really are so many more examples of this that we could give,
But we do need to eventually make it to the text.

There is ONE MORE text we must look at before we dive in to chapter 10.
TURN TO: Ezekiel 2

If you’ll be willing to see and grasp and sort of swallow what is revealed here to Ezekiel, you will be much farther ahead in understanding what is going on here in Revelation 10.
This chapter represents the commissioning of Ezekiel.

The gist of that calling can be seen in the first 7 verses of the chapter.
(READ 2:1-7)

We find that Ezekiel had an extremely difficult missionary assignment.
• There would be no language barrier
• There would be no culture shock
• There would be no foreign difficulties
• But that didn’t mean his mission would be easy.

God told him from the outset that those he was being sent to were “stubborn and obstinate children”

It is implied that they would threaten him and harm him for his ministry.
That is why the Lord told him “neither fear then more fear their words though thistles and thorns are with you and you sit on scorpions”

And yet, regardless of the difficulty, the mission is clear.
(7) “But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.”

What comes next is very helpful
Regarding our understanding of Revelation 10.

(READ 2:8-3:3)
• There we find that a scroll was given to Ezekiel, and on that scroll was a message of judgment.
• And you will notice that when Ezekiel ate the scroll “it was sweet as honey” in his mouth.

THAT MEANS HE LIKED THE MESSAGE.
He was a prophet enduring hostility at the hands of those he preached to,
And the realities of their punishment was a welcomed message to him.

And then again the mandate is given.
(READ 3:4-11)

Again, their acceptance or response is of little consequence.
Your success here has no bearing on your faithfulness.
You just continue to preach the truth I give you.

NEXT THE LORD CARRIED HIM TO HIS TARGET AUDIENCE
And then comes another great admonition.

(READ 3:16-21)
It answers the question to why we preach even if they won’t hear.

It is true that these people may not respond to your preaching,
But that’s on them, not you.
However, if you don’t tell them and they die, their blood is on your hands.

Let that sink in for a moment church.
We’ve all heard Jesus’ parable of the talents.
You know, where He gave 5 talents to one, and 2 to one, and 1 talent to another and he left and then returned suddenly to see what they did with them.
• The man who had 5 returned with 5 more.
• The man who had 2 returned with 2 more.
• But the man who 1 only returned with the 1.

Instead of using it he buried it away
Expecting that it wouldn’t be able to grow.

If you’ll remember the Lord rebuked that wicked lazy slave
And threw into the outer darkness.

Having uttered that famous phrase:
Matthew 25:26-28 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’”

See church we are stewards of a very great treasure; it is the gospel.
We have the message of truth.

And WE DO NOT GET THE RIGHT to simply bury that message away
Assuming that it won’t do any good to preach it.

Just because the people to whom we proclaim it
Are stubborn and hard-hearted
Does not mean we are not still commanded to tell them.

For if we don’t, they will perish, but their blood is on our hands.
• Will it be difficult? Yes
• Might there be persecution? Certainly
• Will we be hated? It is promised

But that does not mean we can use that as an excuse to stop.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
Listen to God’s calling for Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 1:17-19 “Now, gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you before them. “Now behold, I have made you today as a fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people of the land. “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD.”

Listen to God’s calling to Isaiah:
Isaiah 6:8-11 “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate,”

And those fall right in line with Jesus’ promise
That we will be hated for following Him.

I just want to make sure this morning and set your mind straight here
Regarding our mission.

We are commanded to proclaim the gospel
Apart from any promise that people will respond to it.

But just because they don’t respond
Does not give us an excuse to stop proclaiming it.

We are entrusted with the truth which must be proclaimed.

Now all of that sets the stage for this point
Which is also being made to John here in Revelation 10.

#1 A SYMBOLIC MESSENGER
Revelation 10:1-4

Well there is no doubt this messenger catches the eye here.
Indeed I think he’d be impossible to miss.

He is absolutely encompassed with the shekinah glory of God.
(1) “I saw another strong angel coming down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud; and the rainbow was upon his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet like pillars of fire;”

This angelic being has many of the same attributes
That we saw emanating from the throne of God back in chapter 4.
It all depicts the glory of God.

This angel dwells in close proximity to God,
For the glory God is beaming off of him just like it did off of Moses after he stood in God’s presence.

His SUPREME AUTHORITY is in view in verse 2.
(2) “and he had in his hand a little book which was open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left on the land;”

His voice speaks of his POWER.
(3) “and he cried out with a loud voice, as when a lion roars; and when he had cried out, the seven peals of thunder uttered their voices.”

He is not someone you simply ignore.

And then a somewhat bizarre statement.
(4) “When the seven peals of thunder had spoken, I was about to write; and I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up the things which the seven peals of thunder have spoken and do not write them.”

John actually hears something that he is commanded not to write.
(and by the way it does no good to guess what was said)

But that can almost seem strange.
• Why even record that verse?
• Why even tell us that there was something said that we don’t get to know?

It serves as a strong point to remind us that:
The message we are entrusted with is a specific one.

We are not commanded to proclaim everything God knows.
(That would be impossible)
We are commanded to proclaim that which God reveals.

1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”

SO HERE WE HAVE A DESCRIPTION OF THIS SYMBOLIC MESSENGER

Why do I call him a symbolic messenger?
It’s because all of his attributes are attributes of judgment.
The glory that emanates from him, the face like the sun,
The feet like fire, the voice like a lion or thunder.

This angel is a picture of judgment.

Incidentally, it ought to change the way you look at angels.
I know people love the little “Precious Moments” figurines,
But trust me, nothing could be farther from the truth.

There is a reason that every time angels showed up in Scripture
People shook with terrible fear.

These are holy celestial beings and even more than that
They are agents of God’s holy judgment.

We have here what looks like
The biggest and baddest angel we have ever seen landing on the earth.

In light of what we’ve just seen,
I’m sure John wondered what type of judgment was about to hit humanity.

So we have a symbolic messenger.
#2 A SOVEREIGN ANNOUNCEMENT
Revelation 10:5-7
(5-6) “Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer,”

This angel appeals to and swears by
The great Creator and Judge of all things.
“that there will be delay no longer,”

WHAT DO YOU MEAN?
Well I would think you should be familiar with the point.

2 Peter 3:8-10 “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

Romans 2:2-4 “And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

While we certainly see evidences of God’s divine wrath and judgment even in the world today,
We do see His patience as well.
In fact we have yet to see His final judgment poured out.

For example:
Isaiah 13:6-9 “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.”

Joel 1:15 “For the day of the LORD is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.”

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 “For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.”

We haven’t seen that day yet.
Up until now God has been patiently sparing humanity.
THIS ANGEL ANNOUNCES THAT GOD’S PATIENCE IS NOW OVER.

(7) “but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.”

The angel here says that God had preached a “mystery…to His servants the prophets.”

There were several things that God revealed in the Old Testament
That were considered mysteries
Until they were made clear in the New Testament.

Things like Gentile salvation.
Things like the indwelling Holy Spirit.

And some of those mysteries were regarding God’s final judgment.
• The Old Testament prophets could see the day of the Lord coming with
burning and fire and thick clouds and darkness.

• Those promises (as we read just a few a moment ago) were common in the
Old Testament, but never fully understood.

But the world is about to reach full understanding.

There is one trumpet left to sound, it is that third woe,
And when that trumpet sounds we will see the final culmination
Of all of God’s promised judgments.

Final judgment is here.
The total fulfillment of all those prophecies has come.

The patience of God has run its full course.

So we see a symbolic messenger and we see a sovereign announcement
#3 A SOBERING REMINDER
Revelation 10:8-11

Here is where an understanding of that passage in Ezekiel will be of great benefit to you, as we see nearly the same thing happening here.

This angel was holding a book.
• There has been some discrepancy over what this book contains, but I should think at this point it is fairly obvious.

This is the book of God’s judgments.
To Ezekiel it was said to contain judgments and woe.

It is the same book which contained the seals that has been opened.
This is all of God’s revealed wrath on sinners.
Heaven went silence for 30 minutes when they first read it.
Now John is commanded to digest it.
John, like Ezekiel is told to “Take it and eat it”
It meant to internalize it, to accept it, to believe it.

And whereas with Ezekiel we only read that the message was sweet to his taste,
With John we get an additional reality.

(9-10) “So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter.”

John had the exact same initial response as Ezekiel did.
He liked what he read.

To a man who had already suffered so much at the hand of sinners,
Who was presently exiled as a prisoner on the island of Patmos,
It must have been somewhat refreshing to see that
God was in fact going to vindicate His children.

All of those judgments poured out initially caused John to rejoice.

But that wasn’t all.
We are also told that his “stomach was made bitter.”

I think you know what that means.
As John dwelt on it, pondered it, and let it sink in,
He had a difficult time rejoicing.

• That DOES NOT MEAN that John reached the point where he considered God’s judgments to be wrong, certainly that is not the case.

• Rather it indicates that John simply understood what that meant for so many alive in the world.

These are sinners who certainly deserve judgment
And they will receive judgment,
But contemplating that judgment was hard to swallow.

Could John save them from that punishment? No
But John could make sure that he did not have any blood on his hands.

Charles Spurgeon had a great quote:
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped around their knees. If hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for.”

The reality of eternal judgment is setting in for John,
And with a bitter stomach, then comes THE REMINDER:
(11) “And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”
There it is; “prophesy again”

God asks him one more time to rise and warn sinners
Who have thus far been unresponsive,
And who indeed may be unresponsive to the very end.
DO THE WORK OF A WATCHMAN.

John’s heart and his courage
Were to be motivated by the doom he was aware of.

This is not the only time this has happened, but it is pretty unique.

You may remember the story of Moses on Sinai when the people built the golden calf.
Exodus 32:7-14 “Then the LORD spoke to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. “They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made for themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and have sacrificed to it and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!'” The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. “Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation.” Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? “Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘With evil intent He brought them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your burning anger and change Your mind about doing harm to Your people. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heavens, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” So the LORD changed His mind about the harm which He said He would do to His people.”

It is not secret that at times Moses was frustrated with the people he led,
But that did not mean he wanted them to be destroyed.

So when God outlined a potential judgment for the nation of Israel,
Moses allowed the reality of that judgment
To motivate him to intercede before God on their behalf.

A similar scene is seen with Amos in Amos 7.

I think this sort of thing happens quite regularly among God’s people.

I think there are a great number of people in the church
Who still ponder judgment and lift up the names of their lost friends and family members regularly before the Lord.
And in all honesty, the reality of judgment should produce such prayer.

HOWEVER…
It should produce much more than just prayer.

THE REALITY OF JUDGMENT…
Should not only motivate you to speak to God on behalf of sinners,
It should also motivate you to speak to sinners on behalf of God.

AND THIS REALLY HITS HOME

We live in a day where tolerance and acceptance
Are the preferred messages.
In fact, we live in a day where the truth is considered hate speech.

And if you don’t jump on the bandwagon
You had better get ready to be called judgmental.

And that reality has caused far too many believers to sit silently by
While their friends run head first into sin.

Look at this book of Revelation.
• Do you see the world war?
• Do you see the world wide famine?
• Do you see the plague of death which kills ¼ of the world?
• Do you see the great earthquake that makes mountains disappear?
• Do you see the fire which burns 1/3 of the earth?
• Do you see the meteor which turns 1/3 of the ocean to blood?
• Do you see the star which poisons 1/3 of the earth’s fresh water?
• Do you see the sun and moon and stars darkened for a 1/3?
• Do you see the 5 month reign and torment of the locusts?
• Do you see the 200 million strong death army which kills another 1/3 of the earth?

AND THAT ISN’T EVEN THE END.
DO YOU SEE HOW ANGRY GOD IS AT SINNERS?
DO YOU SEE WHAT HE WILL DO?

Then how could we possibly stand by
And just let our friends and loved ones live in sin unwarned?

Don’t tell me you accept them the way they are because you love them.
No, we refuse to tell them because we love ourselves and we love our comfort and we would rather they suffer the wrath of God than we suffer their scorn.

Let me tell you like this angel told John.
• Eat this scroll.
• Digest it.
• Ponder it.

The reality of what that means for sinners should also motivate us to “prophesy again”.

Ezekiel 3:16-21 “At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from My mouth, warn them from Me. “When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. “Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself. “Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. “However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.”

Prophesy Again (part 1)
Revelation 10:1-11
November 27, 2016

This morning we are entering ANOTHER PARENTHETICAL SECTION
Here in the book of the Revelation.

This book does flow chronologically, but many times we see breaks in the action
Where explanatory truth is presented.

Commonly this is done to make a much needed point for the reader.

For example after the 6th seal was broken we saw a great earthquake that literally caused the sky to roll up like a scroll and when the people of earth saw the anger of the Lord on His throne they asked:

Revelation 6:17 “for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

At that point the chronological flow was paused and we saw the parenthetical chapter of Revelation 7 which was given to answer that question.

We were told who was able to stand.
It was those whom God caused to stand through the redemption of Christ
And the preaching of the gospel.

And after that question was answered we returned to the chronological flow in chapter 8 with the breaking of the 7th seal.

Well here we just experienced another one of those issues
That requires another much needed point.

We just saw God’s wrath poured out in an almost unbelievable way.
• We saw 1/3 of the earth burned,
• 1/3 of the oceans ruined,
• 1/3 of the water poisoned,
• 1/3 of the sun, moon, and stars darkened.
• We saw a 5 month demonic attack compared to a locust invasion.
• We saw destructive demonic army compared to Sodom and Gomorrah.

The judgment has been almost unbelievable
As now we have seen ½ of the world’s population killed.

AND AGAIN, WE WERE SHOWN THE RESPONSE OF EARTH.
After the 6th seal they said, “Who is able to stand?”

After the 6th trumpet we read:
Revelation 9:20-21 “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

It was a very sobering reminder that no amount of external pressure is enough to cause sinners to repent.

AND YOU KNOW THE TEMPTATION
If they won’t repent even under such pressures as a demonic oppression and death, ONE HAS TO WONDER IF IT IS A LOST CAUSE.

You read of that level of stubbornness
And wonder if it’s worth continuing.
It is that issue that this next parenthetical section addresses.

First let me show you where it BEGINS and where it ENDS.

If you will remember, following the 4th trumpet we had an eagle with a message.
Revelation 8:13 “Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”

Then following the 5th trumpet we heard another message.
Revelation 9:12 “The first woe is past; behold, two woes are still coming after these things.”

However following the 6th trumpet we don’t see that message until 11:14
Revelation 11:14-15 “The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly. Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”

So you see that everything that occurs from 10:1 – 11:13
Is simply a parenthetical section.

(If you want to put a little note in your margin that the chronological flow pauses until 11:14 that might help you in future study)

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS SECTION?

It focuses on the necessary commitment of proclaiming the truth
Even though it is a difficult thing to do.

Chapter 10 addresses John’s need to prophesy again.
Chapter 11 reveals the ministry of two faithful witnesses and how much the world hates them.

In fact, look at what the world will do to them:
Revelation 11:7-10 “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. 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. 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. 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.”
It’s obvious the world will hate their ministry.
They actually celebrate “Dead Prophet’s Day” like it is Christmas.

Is it any surprise that this sinful world which refuses to repent even under judgment would hate the proclamation of truth? NO

THIS SECTION HELPS US UNDERSTAND
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROCLAIMING THE TRUTH
REGARDLESS OF THE DIFFICULTY.

AND IT BEGINS WITH A SPECIAL REVELATION TO JOHN.

As you will see that special revelation ends with the mandate for him to (11) “prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.”

John will be left we sort of a reaffirmation of the Great Commission.
Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

John is left with a sort of restating of Acts 1:8
Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

You can hear that same message being proclaimed to John at the end of chapter 10.

And why wouldn’t John need this encouragement?
Consider where John is and why he is there.

Revelation 1:9 “I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”

• Preaching Jesus had landed John in prison on Patmos
• Preaching was costly for John and on top of that he just learned that sinners
are so stubborn that they won’t repent even under unbelievable judgment.

The thought had to occur to him to stop trying so hard.
That is the reason for this section.

You may have seen the stubbornness of those sinners at the end of chapter 9 and thought, “Why bother?”

This section then is addressed to you to tell you to do it anyway.
To tell you to “Prophesy Again”

And so THIS MORNING we are given a really good OPPORTUNITY
TO REVISIT A VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE.

It is an issue that strikes at the very heart of the church.
It is an issue which addresses the purpose of the church.
WE ARE TALKING ABOUT BEING WITNESSES OF THE TRUTH.

Paul said it very clearly:
1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

That is our purpose.

And so we are going to use the truths of this chapter
To remind ourselves of this purpose and the truth about
What fulfilling this purpose will look like.

THERE ARE A LOT OF MISCONCEPTIONS FLOATING AROUND
Regarding what it will look like when a church becomes faithful to this calling, which I think must be addressed even before we look at our text.

On such misconception is this:
THAT SINNERS WILL LOVE THE TRUTH ONCE THEY HEAR IT.
(I would think the response of sinners after the 6th trumpet should satisfy that answer)

And yet that is certainly a prevailing thought.
We think that if we just show people truth they will naturally love it.

But can I remind you of what Jesus said?
John 3:19-20 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”

Can I remind you what the world thought of Jesus who was the Light of the World?
John 1:9-10 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”

The world which lives in darkness is not drawn to the light.
THEY HATE THE LIGHT.

OK preacher I see what you are saying,
But why is it so important to know this?

If it is true that the world hates the message you are preaching
Then there is no way they can love you for preaching it.

This is yet another misconception.
THAT BEING A CHRISTIAN IN THE WORLD CAN RESULT IN POPULARITY.

I don’t that anyone actually says it like that,
But that’s really the sentiment at its core.

I heard it at the community service this past Sunday night. I don’t know if David meant it like this, but he said, “You should just look so much like Jesus that people are drawn to be around you just because of the fruit that is falling off of you.”

And maybe you’ve heard it before.
This notion that Jesus was loved and popular and always drawing a crowd
So if you look like Jesus then it only stands to reason that
You would also be loved and popular and would draw a crowd.

Some even go so far as to say if we aren’t loved
Then we must not look much like Jesus.

Can I remind you why the people flocked to Jesus?
Because they were selfish and they wanted Him to satisfy their selfish longings.
• They wanted to be healed
• They wanted to be fed
• They wanted to be delivered from Rome

And when Jesus refused (as He often did) to be merely a genie in a bottle,
They hated Him for it.

And we don’t have time to be near exhaustive on this point, but it is worth hitting several examples here since it is such a misconception of our day.

Look at the incident involving His hometown.
TURN TO: Luke 4:16-30
• They were only interested in gratifying their selfish desires.
• And so long as Jesus did that, they loved Him.
• When He sought to stop gratifying their flesh and start confronting their sin, they sought to kill Him.

SOMETIME READ THROUGH THE GOSPEL OF MARK
• And see what efforts Jesus took to avoid crowds.
• Listen to Him continually tell those He healed not to tell anyone.
• Gratifying the flesh of sinful humanity was not the main goal.
• He worked miracles to prove who He was so that His message would have validity, but the miracles themselves was not the goal.

TURN TO: John 6
In verses 1-14 Jesus feeds the 5,000 and the crowds love Him.

In fact in verse 15 they want to make Him king, so Jesus flees.
He isn’t interested in being the local food provider,
He is interested in confronting their sin.

He actually crosses the sea, but the crowds find Him.
(Read vs. 25-36)

They only wanted their selfish desires granted,
They had no interest in saving faith or of leaving their sin.

In fact later Jesus is going to confront their selfish living and command them to deny themselves and trust solely in Him as the Savior from heaven.
(38-42)

See they don’t like this notion of submitting to Christ as the One from heaven, they were just interested in having Him gratify their selfish desires.

(51-52) There it is again.
The call to trust Him and His sacrifice, and they don’t want that, they want actual bread.

They basically say, “What good is His sacrifice, you can’t eat that!”
“We want something that fills our stomachs!”

(60-66)
There was that crowd that wanted to make Him king, now abandoning Him.

THE POINT?
He was only popular so long as He was willing to gratify their selfish desires, but when He pushed for something more,
They rejected Him.

AND IF YOU REALLY WANT TO DRIVE THE POINT, ALLOW ME TO REMIND YOU HOW IT ALL ENDED FOR JESUS.
This world that “loved Him” – crucified Him.

If you are using Jesus as an example that it’s ok to be loved by the world
Not only are you misrepresenting His life on earth,
But you are also turning an absolute DEAF EAR to what He preached.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN PREACHER?

TURN TO: Matthew 10:16-39
• Did Jesus promise you that the world would love you for following Him?
• Did Jesus promise that it would make you popular?
• Did Jesus talk about how preaching His truth would unify all people?

TURN TO: John 15:18-16:4
• There again are we to assume that looking like Jesus will make the world love you?

This notion that following Jesus should make people love you is a lie.
That is not what Jesus said or taught.
He promised that if you follow Him and if you look like Him
Then you will be hated for it.

Matthew 5:10-12 “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Luke 6:26 “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.”

Are you getting the point here?
• If someone told you that following Jesus should make people love
you then they lied to you.

• If someone told you that your unpopularity is an indicator that you
don’t look like Jesus, then they lied to you.

Consider the apostle Paul and his ministry.
(I think most would agree he was one of the greatest Christians to ever live)
• In Acts 14:19 the Bible says he was stoned in Lystra.
• In Acts 16:19 he was beaten in Philippi
• In Acts 17:10 he had to flee Thessalonica
• In Acts 17:18 he was mocked in Athens
• In Acts 18:12 he was arrested in Corinth
• In Acts 21 he was warned that more was coming.

You’re familiar with his resume:
2 Corinthians 11:24-29 “Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?”

The point you must see is that
Being faithful to Christ will not make you popular in the world.

THE PROBLEM OF COURSE IS THAT
WE ARE CREATURES THAT VALUE COMFORT.

If you tell me that proclaiming the gospel is going to make life difficult for me, then I’m going to be tempted not to preach it.

I’m going to be tempted just stop confronting sin,
To stop proclaiming repentance,
And to just try to be a good person that everyone can like.

And scores of believers have sought to settle into this role.

There was actually much more I intended to get to this morning, but we’re just out of time.

I just want to leave you with the understanding that we are called by the Lord to proclaim the gospel with a full understanding that doing so will not be easy.

It would have been real easy for John, who was now in prison for preaching the gospel, to want to naturally shy away from preaching this new revelation of judgment.

Quite honestly preaching the good news of the gospel hadn’t worked out that well for him, one can only imagine how this new message of God’s wrath is going to be received.

But the hardships associated with proclaiming the truth do not undermine the mandate that we are to proclaim it anyway.

We’ll talk about this more next time, but please just understand that we are called to preach truth to a world that is promised not to like it.

We are called none the less.