09-09-12 The Key Players

Last week our study of the book of Revelation

took us through a whirlwind survey

of chapters 8 through 16 of the book.

Obviously we didn’t touch

on any of the content in detail,

but we did walk through

an accurate survey of the events

that bring to a close

human history prior to the return of Christ.

In our survey

I encouraged you to read those chapters on your own.

If you took me up on that suggestion this past week

you discovered several large chunks

in those 9 chapters

that we didn't touch on at all last week.

This week we are going to go back

and fill in a few of the holes.

And let me remind you again

of the approach John has taken

in his presentation of these events.

First he presents to us

the panoramic overview

of this final world collision between good and evil,

between God and His people on one side,

and Satan and his people on the other.

This is what we looked at last week -

the camera shot from the Goodyear Blimp,

only we weren't looking at the football field,

or the golf course,

we were looking at the great world-wide conflict

between the Creator

and His rebellious creation.

Then we have John focusing in on

close-up shots of the key players

and groups of players

in this great conflict.

Today I want to take us back into

those nine chapters

and the 8 close-up shots

that are presented

within the context of that overall battle.

The first close-up of this section

appears in Revelation 1 1:3-14.

I'll read the section for us

and then we'll talk a little bit about it.

Rev. 11:3-13 "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." 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. 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.

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. But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. 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. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Now, let me tell you what we know

and what we do not know

about these two fascinating men.

• We know that they come on the scene at some

point during the final seven years immediately preceding Christ's return.

• We know their prophetic ministry lasts 1260

days, or 3 1/2 years.

• We know they possess supernatural power far

beyond that of any other prophets in history.

They can stop the rain at will.

They can consume people with fire that pours out of their mouth.

They can turn water into blood.

They can bring all manner of plagues on the people they prophecy to.

These guys make the Terminator

look like a 1^st grader.

• They powerfully confront the people of the world with their rebellion against God.

• They are hated because of it.

• And their death brings world-wide rejoicing.

That's what we know.

There are also some things we don't know.

• We don't know who they are.

Bible scholars throughout history have thought perhaps they are Moses and Elijah,

or Moses and Elishua,

or Enoch and Elishua.

The last two were once my preference

because they are the only two in history so far

who went directly to heaven

without dying a natural death,

and because Scripture tells us

that it is appointed unto man to die once,

it seemed only right that these two

would have to come back

and die with the rest of us.

But then I came across one commentary

that pointed out that the entire last generation of Christians on earth

will all go directly into the presence of God without going through physical death

so there is no Biblical reason

why Enoch and Elishua have to be

dragged back.

At the present time

I personally see no compelling reason

why these two prophets

should be anything other than

two Christians who are alive

at this point in history

who are chosen by God for this work.

I also happen to like this perspective

because it helps counter

a common myth that has plagued the Body of Christ

ever since the death of the Apostle John.

Have you ever noticed how we always assume

that all the really great men and women of faith lived in the past,

and that those of us alive today

are sort of the residueat the bottom of the Christian barrel?

If only we had an Elijah today.

If only we had a John the Baptist.

If only we had a Martin Luther,

or a John Wesley,

or an Apostle Paul.

I think the reason we tend to favor

the idea that these two witnesses

are the resurrected appearances

of some ancient saints from the past

is because we just naturally assume

that it is impossible for truly great

men and women of faith

to come from our own generation.

I want you to know

that kind of thinking

is just another one of Satan's tricks

designed to defeat us.

I also want you to know

that the 2 greatest prophets in all of history,

and the 144,000 greatest evangelists

in all of human history

have yet to appear on the scene,

and they will all come out of either our generation

or one yet to come.

I'm going to get a little side-tracked here,

but there are some prevalent Christian attitudes

that have concerned me more and more

the older I get,

and these two prophets here in Revelation

have provided me with as good an opportunity as any

to talk a little bit about them.

I have known for a long time now

that the greatest battles we ever fight

are the ones we fight over our own

perception of ourselves as Christians.

Peter begins his 2^nd letter by saying,

2 Pet. 1:1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

He made that opening statement

because he knew

what most of us would do

with our own evaluation

of ourselves as Christians.

We would look at Peter,

and John,

and Paul,

and we would say to ourselves,

“Of course, I could never know a walk with God like they did,

because they were apostles,

they knew Jesus in the flesh,

their whole Christian experience

was unlike anything I could ever know.”

And right from the start

Peter wanted us to know

that all such thinking is a lie from the pit of hell.

He says we have received a faith

of the same kind as his.

And that phrase “same kind”

means an exact duplicate,

identical in every respect.

He is telling us

that there is no difference whatsoever

between the type of Christian walk he knew

and the type our God gives us today.

Peter was just a man like us in every respect,

indwelt by the same Holy Spirit

that our Lord has given to every believer throughout history.

The role assigned to him was unique

for his time and place in history,

just as the role

assigned to these two prophets in the Book of Revelation

will be unique,

but the means by which Peter fulfilled his role

and the means by which these prophets

will fulfill their role

is no different than the means by which

each of us are equipped by God

to fulfill the roles assigned to us.

Paul deals with this same issue

when he says in Rom. 8:11.

Rom. 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.

Seldom does Paul repeat himself.

But here in this one verse

he tells us two times that it was the Holy Spirit

that accomplished all that was involved in the bodily resurrection of Christ.

And then he repeats two times

that this is the same Holy Spirit

that now dwells in us.

He takes the greatest single work of God

in all of history,

and then reminds us that

the same agent that accomplished that work

is now at work within us.

Now, I want to try to say something here

that will probably not come out right

and may cause more confusion

than it does help.

But I'm going to give it a try anyway.

I believe our prevailing concept

of effective Christian living

has been shaped not by the truth God reveals to us about ourselves in Scripture,

but by the definition our culture has given us

for mental health

and effective living.

Our modern American culture tells us

that we are a mass of emotionally

and psychologically scarred individuals,

suffering from the victimization and abuses we experienced

in our dysfunctional home backgrounds,

and that the best we can hope for

is to find some effective tools

that will help us to cope with

and overcome those damaged areas in our lives.

We live in a culture

that takes great pride in facing honestly

the baggage we are packing around from our past.

The problem is

that as Christians we have bought into

our culture's mentality

that the baggage is the key factor

that really determines who I am

and what I can expect out of life,

even life with God.

We see ourselves as severely damaged goods

doing our best to cope with our damaged areas

so that they don't destroy us.

Do you remember that poster

that was so popular a few years back?

It showed a little kitten

hanging from a branch by about 3 claws,

with this look of helpless terror on its face, and the caption underneath read,

"HANG IN THERE".

That is the mentality our culture has offered us as the goal for successful living.

It doesn't surprise me that we as a Christian culture

tend to believe

that all the truly great men and women of faith

lived in the past,

and that the best our generation can hope for

is to hang in there

until the Lord returns.

Let me read you God's alternative

to that hanging-kitten perspective on life.

Ps. 40:2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

Ps. 40:3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the Lord.

You see,

He doesn't just talk to us

about hanging in there by three claws.

He talks to us about

placing our feet on solid rock,

with all the strength

and security that foundation can give us.

True, there is often a rather messy process

of pulling us out of the muck

and the mire we have been wallowing in,

but the end result of that process

is to establish a solid foundation under our feet

and a powerful, positive proclamation

out of our mouth.

It is impossible for a person

ever to live beyond

their own self-perception.

In other words,

I will always ultimately become the person I really believe I am.

The thing that troubles me so deeply

about what I see going on in our Christian culture today

is that we have given the society around us

the right to tell us who we are

and who we can become

rather than reserving that right

for the only One who has the ability

to tell us the truth - God Himself.

God says to each of us,

“You are my holy one,

you are my ambassador,

you are my royal priest,

filled with my Holy Spirit,

a member of a chosen race of people.

I have already made you adequate

as a servant of the new covenant in my blood.

I carefully selected you

for this time,

and this place in history."

Now here is the tricky part...

as Christians we are to face honestly

who we once were

with whatever baggage that involves,

while at the same time

allowing God and God alone

to tell us who we now are.

We are not the tragic victims

of an abusive past,

we are the sons and daughters of the living God,

chosen by Him to represent His life,

His healing,

and His power to this generation,

indwelt by His spirit,

well equipped for the work assigned to us.

Paul says it well:

2 Cor. 3:5-6 Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant...

Now, I got into all of that

because I believe these two prophets

presented to us in Revelation 11

are not some great saints

dragged up from the ancient past

because God could not find anyone

sufficiently qualified for the role today.

I believe these two men

very likely

have already been born

and are alive on this planet right now.

They will grow up in dysfunctional homes

just like the rest of us have,

with parents who make all sorts of mistakes

just like we do with our children.

But they will differ from many modern Christians

in one major respect.

When they come to the Lord

they will not allow our culture

to shape their understanding

of who they are.

Rather, they will allow our God

to tell them who they are

and they will believe what He says,

and in that belief

they will be equipped

for the work God has for them,

just as each of us

have been equipped

for the role God has for each of us.

And let me add just one more thought here before we close.

Our calling as God’s children

is not to seek to do great things for God,

or to seek to claim for ourselves

positions of prominence within the Christian community

so that we can then impress those around us and feel better about ourselves.

Our calling is to trust our King

when He tells us He’s living through us

and that He can and will match us perfectly

to the place and role he has designed for us.

Many years ago I had some extended contact

with a young man who was convinced that he had been chosen by God

to be one of these two prophets in Revelation.

In fact he assured me

that God Himself had clearly revealed this to him.

If you had known him

you would have known immediately what I also knew -

that he was definitely NOT one of the two prophets.

The truth is he was a deeply damaged young man

who was marginally functional just in the basics of life.

But I understood, too, why he was clinging to this deception -

he desperately wanted some position within the Christian community

that would give him status.

He, of course, was an extreme example,

but those same deceptions influence all of us.

But our God loves us far too much

and understands us far too perfectly

to ever place us in any role that is not perfectly matched to our unique design.

He will give us a sphere of influence

that is exactly right for what He’s seeking to do through us.

And for most of us

that will mean that, by the world’s standards,

we will live in relative obscurity,

unnoticed by all but a few.

But it also means

that, if we trust Him and His leadership in our life,

we will find the freedom to express His life through us

in a way that is clear, powerful, and perfectly matched to us.

And it also means that we will find,

that what He has given us to do

will never destroy us or crush us under a weight we cannot bear.

As always, our Lord said so perfectly.

Mat 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

Mat 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Mat 11:30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

We didn't get far in our study

of the key personalities

in the book of Revelation,

but we'll finish that up next week.