Series: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, #4 Texts: Rev. 8:2; 11:1-13; 10:8-11 Valley Community Baptist Church Jan. 21/22, 2012 Pastor Jay Abramson

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1 Series: The Revelation of Jesus Christ, #4 Texts: Rev. 8:2; 11:1-13; 10:8-11 Valley Community Baptist Church Jan. 21/22, 2012 Avon, CT Pastor Jay Abramson Seven Trumpets, Two Witnesses and One Edible Scroll The shortest complete story in the English language, supposedly written by Ernest Hemingway, is a tragedy just six words long. It reads: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. In those six words we envision a story of great pain and lost hope. On the other hand, the shortest story of triumph that I know of is just seven words long. It s from I Cor. 15:4: he was raised on the third day In these seven words we are reminded of a truth that is capable of undoing any story of tragedy and transforming it into a story of eternal hope. Most of the best loved stories of world literature are built around some tragedy that precedes eventual triumph. Pilgrim s Progress, Don Quixote and The Lord of the Rings are all examples of this tragedy to triumph storyline. As Jesus tells the story of how our global history will draw to a close, the same drama will be played out. God unleashes a judgmental response to the gross injustices, rebellions and tragedies that have become the reality of life on earth. In the midst of His power-release to wipe out evil forever, once again, He pauses to send two witnesses to stand before the Lord of the earth and give testimony to grace that is still available to anyone who will receive it. We continue our study of Jesus revelation with a study of seven trumpets, two witnesses and one edible scroll. First, we see I. The Seven Trumpets of Judgment. As I mentioned last week, many of the symbols we see here in the Revelation are understood by knowing Old Testament stories. Does anyone remember where we see (or hear) trumpets in the Old Testament? Well, if it makes you feel any better, neither did I until I studied some of my commentaries this past week. But Dr. J. Vernon McGee pointed out this fascinating connection. When the Children of Israel were making their way across the desert from Egypt to the Promised Land, they did so with remarkable orderliness. Have you ever wondered how over a million people could move across the desert and not get lost? They did it will German-like precision. Have you also ever wondered how so many Jews ended up in Germany before WWII? I think the Jews and the Germans have some sort of genetic connection because they are both extremely orderly. When the Jews set up camp, they were instructed by God to put the Tabernacle, the portable Temple, in the middle. Then, three of the tribes were to set up their tents on the south, three on the north, three on the east and three on the west with the Levis divided into their three families on three sides nearest the Tabernacle. At night, it may have looked something like this [Show slide Moses tabernacle in the wilderness ] Now, seven trumpets would ve had special meaning to the nation of Israel because trumpets were used to alert the people and direct the people. In the book of Numbers (chapter 10) we read that Moses was told to make two silver trumpets. 1

2 One trumpet blast was the signal for all the princes of Israel to assemble for an important meeting. Which reminds me that in I Cor. 15:52 it says: For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will all be changed. Christians are the princes and princesses of God! He ll call us to assemble just as the Israelis did in the desert. [Slide of Moses Tabernacle again] But when the pillar of fire (or pillar of cloud by day) moved, then the tribes were to follow it. But they were to follow in a very orderly manner. There were seven blasts of the trumpet to get all one million people moving. At the first blast, the first group of Levis went with the Ark of the Covenant. At the second blast, the tribe of Judah and two other tribes moved out. At each subsequent blast, another group of tribes or Levis with Tabernacle furnishings moved out until the whole group was moving. It took seven blasts to move them all. Now, here s the point, God ordained that it would take seven trumpet blasts to move the Israeli nation into the Promised Land. Here, in Rev. 8, what essentially is happening? At each trumpet blast, another part of the world is being moved out to make way for Christ and His kingdom to move in to the Promised Land of the Millennial reign of Christ on the earth. When you use an alarm clock to wake up in the morning, whenever you hear the same sound in another context, you probably smile and think, It s time to get up! The trumpets may not have had meaning for you when you first read of them, but if you knew the experience of the Israelis in the desert, you d get this connection immediately. Yes, the trumpets are unleashing more deadly judgments on the earth. Dramatic signs in the sun and moon and stars are taking place and again, 1/3 of the remaining people will die through all this. But why is this happening? Why is God doing this? Does He enjoy inflicting pain? NO! After the sixth trumpet, John records what he sees: The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts (pharmachayon drug induced stupors which have an occultic link), their sexual immorality or their thefts. (Rev. 9:20, 21) The purpose of judgment is to remove evil but still to provide opportunity for the Evil Doers to repent and be saved. The seven trumpets should be understood as the call to God s people to get ready to move into Christ s kingdom on earth. Secondly, we jump to chapter 11 and see II. The Two Witnesses Again, just as there will be seven literal trumpet blasts which will unleash all the literal plagues and judgments listed here (the sun and moon will literally lose a third of their light for a period of time), even so, there will be two literal, human witnesses. They will prophesy for exactly 1260 literal days. That s three and a half years which corresponds exactly with the first half of the Great Tribulation when the Anti-Christ is being highly revered by all the people on earth (except, of course, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and the hundreds of thousands of people who repent 2

3 and believe in Jesus through them). These two witnesses will be like Fox News or Glen Beck, they ll present another interpretation of what s really going on. Only, unlike Fox News or Glen Beck, they won t shilly shally when it comes to Jesus Christ. They will openly, constantly and without compromise, call people to repentance. They will have power to defend themselves against anyone, including the Anti- Christ, who will try to stop them, censor them or harm them. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying (Rev. 11: 5, 6) If you remember, in the past when we ve studied other prophets, we ve said that prophecy isn t just predicting the future. It can be that, but it is also simply telling the truth. Part of the truth is telling people that if they repent, they can be spared from a condition worse that what will be happening on earth at that time. You say, What could be worse that being tortured by weird, stinging locusts, or meteors crashing to the ground or all the clean water being completely polluted? Well, how about living in an environment like that and it simply never, ever ends? That s what hell will be. These two witnesses will be prophesying, telling people the truth about what is happening and I believe many people will repent because of their testimony. When the three and a half years are over, the captain of the demonic locust hoard that was released from the Abyss after trumpet five, will come and kill both of these witnesses. Their bodies will be left in the streets of Jerusalem where they fall and the whole world will watch it on their smart phones. (You know, I can remember reading this when I was a boy and thinking, How could men from every people, tribe, language and nation gaze on their bodies? Now I know. Smart phones!) And we now see the dark heart of humankind as they celebrate their deaths. They won t even give them burial. Just the opposite! There s a world-wide celebration declared. This is surely the Devil s Christmas! They re sending gifts to one another! They don t see that these two Witnesses were trying to save them, they think they were trying to torment them!! Dr. Newell describes the scene: Now comes the real revelation of the heart of man: glee - horrid, insane, inhuman, hellish, ghoulish, glee. i You know, it s interesting these days how it s only acceptable to talk about certain versions of how the world will end. Have you noticed that? It s not that the topic itself is taboo, it s just that you can t talk about how the Bible says the world will end. You can scare the living daylights out of first graders by telling them that if they don t get their parents to stop driving that gas-guzzling SUV, the oceans will rise two feet in their lifetime and end life as we know it. Even though you can t get more than a handful of scientists to agree on that scenario, you can give that message to first graders in books, movies, songs, plays in school and of course, it s a mandatory message in Saturday morning cartoons. But if you even think of reading Revelation chapter 8 and 9 to them, you re running the risk of doing jail time for child abuse. Parents, when s the right time to tell your first grader about this stuff? How about when they ask? How about you tell them the truth which is this; Honey, if you love Jesus, you won t be here when all of 3

4 this really bad stuff is happening. If you ve asked Jesus to forgive your sin and make you His son or daughter, He promises He will keep you safe. And before any of this even starts, you and me and mom and our whole family are going to fly away to the safe place He s prepared for us. How about telling them that? Personally, I think your first grader will sleep a lot better at night after reading and talking with you about Revelation 8 and 9 then they will after watching Saturday Morning Environmental Apocalypse cartoons. Back to our story... Rev. 11:11-12 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, (the two witnesses) and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here. And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on. Once again, we see how Jesus defends the honor of His witnesses. They were treated like dirt here, but can you image the reception they received when they got to heaven? Guess what? We won t have to imagine it! We ll be there! When they were struck down on earth, the people and the demons threw a party. But when Jesus resurrected them and brought them back to heaven, the angels and all the saints I m sure will throw an even bigger and better party. Let me tell you something, angels throw better parties than demons. Did you know that? They do!! After a demonic party you wake up with a raging headache and deep regrets about what you said and what you did. After an angelic party you wake up and say, That was so much fun! When can we do that again!! And in heaven, the answer will be, Tonight!!! And so, that s the story of the Two Witnesses. But there s one more part of the story we need to see. It s found in chapter ten. It s the part about III. The Edible Scroll Here we have another of those pauses between the sixth and seventh trumpets. An angel appears to John who stands on the earth and sea and roars like a lion and seven thunders speak but John is prohibited from telling us what they said. Then he tells John that when the seventh trumpet sounds the mystery of God will be accomplished What does that mean? Well, I don t know what the mystery of God is, but it certainly means that the end of all of this is very, very near. Then beginning in verse 8 John writes: Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and the land. So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. I took the little scroll and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings. (Rev. 10:8-11) And immediately after this, John sees the Two Witnesses who prophecy boldly to the whole world, to many people, nations, languages and kings; including the false king the Lord of all the earth, the Anti-Christ. 4

5 What possible application could this have for us today? Are you willing to prophecy, to tell the truth as you know it? Are you willing to eat the scroll, to internalize the Word of God, which in your mouth will taste as sweet as honey, but when it is rejected by those you share it with, it will turn your stomach sour? In these dark and darkening days, will you be a witness for Jesus Christ? No, God has not granted you power to spew fire from your mouth to devour your enemies. He doesn t want us to do that. We don t need to do that because the Holy Spirit is still here working in full power to enlighten people s minds, to illuminate the Word that you share with them, to cause their hearts to ache as you speak the truth. Jesus said to us all, just before He left: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8) Do you see the urgency? It s so much easier for people to repent now than if they wait until we re gone. The Holy Spirit is working through you. If they become a Christian now, they ll get to avoid all this judgment. If they wait, there s a huge chance they ll die before they repent, and even if they do repent, they ll have to suffer with everyone else. Do you see the urgency? To put it mildly, Tim Tebow does. I know, I know, you re probably sick of hearing about this 24-year-old football player who can t seem to stand in front of a microphone without speaking of his dedication and commitment to Jesus Christ. But I just have to share one more Tebow story. You may or may not know that Tim made it a practice in college to print Bible verse addresses in his eye black. (Eye black is the smear of black that football players put under their eyes to help them in bright light situations to see better.) In the college championship game in 2009, Tim printed John 3:16 under both eyes. The next day after the game, John 3:16 was the number one search item on Google. Well, the NCAA made a rule the next year preventing players from doing such a nefarious thing. The media dubbed it The Tebow Rule. The NFL already had such a ban but Tim s faith is so much a part of his life that the media created a verb out of his name. Tebowing has now been officially recognized as a word by the Global Language Monitor. It means bowing to one knee to thank God whenever something good happens, like if your team scores. So, in Tim s first playoff game in the NFL, he couldn t print John 3:16 on his face or on his jersey or anything like that. But not to worry, just like with the Two Witnesses, the NFL found out that trying to silence a prophet doesn t really work out too well. Tim set two records in his first playoff game. First, he set a record by passing for 316 yards and this worked out to a record of 31.6 yards per completion. But that s not all! CBS, which covered that game, set a record in its rating for a playoff game. Guess what their score was? And the next day, what do you think the number one search item was on Google? What is John 3:16? The angel said, Take the scroll and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth. When you decide to be a witness, nothing in this world will be able to stop you. But you will receive power and you will be my witnesses Amen. 5

6 i Found in J. Vernon McGee s, Thru the Bible with J. Vernon McGee: Vol. V (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983), p