1. "What does it take to change in ways that aren't superficial, but ways that are deep and lasting? I'll tell you what tends not to work—mere willpower. Bare effort and resolve, or trying to conform to other people's expectations."

2. "The deeper the change, the harder it comes. The question for our passage is, 'What can bring fundamental, radical change—the deepest kind of change you can imagine?'"

3. "These judgments remind all humanity that we depend on creation and creation depends on God. So we depend on God, whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not."

4. "The point of these nightmarish judgments is to teach us that life without God is a nightmare, and it leads to worse nightmares still."

5. "Repentance gets you out from under God's curse. Repentance removes that curse forever because you're coming to Christ in faith."

6. "If God Himself has made time for you to evangelize, you can make time to evangelize."

7. "The suffering of God's people that we endure as we evangelize is not wasted. God uses it as part of how He brings others to faith."

8. "The gospel accomplishes victory through defeat, triumph through tribulation. The suffering and even martyrdom of God's people is part of what makes the gospel persuasive and effective."

9. "Our suffering is temporary; our future glory with Christ is certain. This is why we persevere, fixing our eyes steadfastly on Christ’s promised return."

10. "The problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present. Yet one day, in God's perfect timing, the present will turn into the future. God's kingdom will come."

Observation Questions

1. Revelation 8:6–13: How do the judgments of the first four trumpets illustrate humanity's dependence on God?

2. Revelation 9:1–12: What does the torment caused by the locusts reveal about the spiritual state of those without God's seal?

3. Revelation 9:20–21: Despite experiencing judgment, why did the people refuse to repent?

4. Revelation 10:1–11: Why was John instructed to eat the scroll, and what did its sweet and bitter tastes symbolize?

5. Revelation 11:3–12: What do the death and resurrection of the two witnesses represent about the church’s role in the world?

6. Revelation 11:15–19: What is the significance of Christ’s eternal reign announced at the seventh trumpet?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do human efforts such as willpower and external expectations fail to create lasting spiritual change?

2. What purpose do the trumpet judgments serve in God’s overall plan, according to Revelation chapters 8 and 9?

3. Why does God use the metaphor of locusts in Revelation 9 to describe spiritual torment?

4. How does the imagery of the two witnesses help us understand the church’s role and experience in this present age?

5. What does the delay between the sixth and seventh trumpets reveal about God’s character and His purposes?

6. How do the themes of repentance, evangelism, and hope interrelate in the context of Revelation chapters 8–11?

Application Questions

1. Reflecting on your recent attempts at personal change, can you recall a time when your own willpower or effort was insufficient? How did that experience help you recognize your need for Christ?

2. Have you recently experienced a personal difficulty or loss that caused you to recognize your dependence on God?

3. Can you identify a time when rejecting God's guidance led you into spiritual or emotional turmoil? How did turning back to God provide relief or restoration?

4. What practical steps can you take this week to confess and turn away from one specific sin or idol in your life?

5. Identify one person in your life with whom you could intentionally share your faith this week. What steps can you take to initiate this conversation?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Psalm 115:4–8 – This Psalm illustrates how worshiping false gods diminishes human dignity, reinforcing the destructive nature of idolatry discussed in the sermon.

2. Acts 3:17–21 – Peter emphasizes that repentance leads to forgiveness and times of spiritual refreshment from God, aligning with the sermon's call to genuine repentance.

3. Galatians 3:10–14 – Explains how Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, linking repentance directly to Christ’s sacrifice, as emphasized in the sermon.

4. Hebrews 12:1–3 – Encourages believers to endure hardships by looking forward to Christ’s return, echoing the sermon's final point about hope and perseverance through trials.

Sermon Main Topics

The Need for Deep and Lasting Change

Time to Repent (Revelation 8:6–9:21)

Time to Evangelize (Revelation 10:1–11:14)

Time to Hope (Revelation 11:15–19)

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Detailed Sermon Outline

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Calvin. I asked Dad if he wanted to see some New Year's resolutions I wrote. He said he'd be glad to, and he was pleased to see I was taking an interest in self-improvement. I told him the resolutions weren't for me, they were for him.

That's why we're outside now. Hobbs, I wondered what the rush was.

How are your New Year's resolutions going? Has two weeks been enough time for some of them to wither or perhaps even die? What does it take to change? And to change in ways that aren't superficial but ways that are deep and lasting? I'll tell you what tends not to work: mere willpower.

Bair effort and resolve, or trying to conform to other people's expectations, constant criticism, whether others criticizing you or you criticizing yourself, law alone, checklists, rules. The deeper the change, the harder it comes. This morning we continue our series in Revelation with chapter 8, verse 6 through chapter 11, verse 19. Yes, you heard that rightly, all the way from chapter 8, verse 6 through chapter 11, verse 19. The passage starts on page 1032 of the Pew Bibles.

This section of the book of Revelation focuses on the question of what can bring fundamental change. Radical change, the deepest kind of change you can imagine. What can turn your life in a completely different direction? Our passage this morning is long, but once you see a few big ideas, it springs open nicely. Here's a little overview to orient us before we jump in.

Just like last week's passage was built around Christ's act of opening seven seals, this passage is built around seven angels blowing seven trumpets. Beginning right in 8:6. As we saw last week in the very first few verses of chapter eight, these trumpets express God's judgment in response to his people's prayers. These trumpets repeat and intensify themes that we saw in the seven seals, and they unfold in the same structure. Four trumpets, plus two more, then a long interlude, and then the seventh trumpet, four plus two interlude, then the last one.

In our passage, the first six trumpets all fit together so tightly that we'll consider them in one long point, and then we'll consider the interlude in one long point, and then the seventh trumpet at the very end will be a third very brief point. This sermon really be two long points with a very brief coda. Now, in each of the first main sections, basically chapters eight and nine and then ten through most of 11, In each of those first two main sections, the passage has kind of one long arc where the meaning gradually becomes clearer, especially at the very end of the section. So I'll try to walk through the passage as simply as possible and then double back for application at the end of each point. As with the series of six scrolls, the visions that follow these seven trumpet blasts show us what God is doing throughout all of history.

And they bring us to the end of history. They give us a divine perspective on earthly realities. They show us what God is doing in these times we live in. And by showing us what God is doing, they also show us what we should be doing. In other words, all these visions tell us what time it is and how we should change in light of what time it is.

So the question for our passage, what time is it? Point number one, time to repent. Time to repent. We see this in chapter 8:6 through the end of chapter 9:21. This is the first six trumpets.

We begin with chapter 8:6-13. Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.

A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter. The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.

Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead. Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow.

Like the first four seals, these first four trumpets unleash God's judgments on the earth. They affect in order the earth, the sea, rivers and springs, and the sun, moon, and stars. In other words, they affect all the natural sources and supports of human life. Everything that we rely on to sustain us. These judgments burn up crops and make water undrinkable and poisonous.

In a loose and unsystematic these judgments echo the plagues that God inflicted on the Egyptians when he brought out the people of Israel at the Exodus. They proclaim his sovereignty over creation. These judgments remind all humanity that we depend on creation and creation depends on God. So we depend on God whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not. These judgments remind us how frail and dependent we are.

Dependent human life is. These visions describe the natural order being harmed, shaken, undermined, even threatening to come apart. And again, as with the seals from last week, the point is not that each of these events will occur at some one-off specific time in the future. Instead, they're impressionistic renderings of how God will intervene in the normal course of human affairs to express his judgment on sin.

We're meant to take these images seriously. They reveal a hidden divine cause behind what we might otherwise view as merely natural events. But though we should take these images seriously, we should not take them literally. As if, for instance, at some point we could expect a instantaneous and continual 30% diminution of solar energy. Right?

That's just not how these images work. So what does this section mean practically? Does it mean that if a hurricane strikes one city in Florida rather than another one 10 miles to the south, that the city to the farther north in Florida was more sinful than the one in the south? I do not think it means that. It doesn't give us that kind of a mathematical calculus.

It doesn't allow us to reason backward from any natural calamity to human sin as a necessary provocation.

But this passage does teach us that disasters are from the hand of God. Hardships that he inflicts on the world express his judicial displeasure against sin. And as we'll see, all his judgments are meant to lead us to repentance. We continue now with the fifth trumpet. Chapter 9:1-12 and the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.

He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. Of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.

They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die. But death will flee from them.

In appearance, the locusts were like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces, their hair like women's hair, and their teeth like lions' teeth. They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails.

They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to come.

In verse 12, John refers to this trumpet as a woe because of the pain that it inflicts directly on people. And when he says that two woes are still to come, he's referring to the sixth and seventh trumpets, the final ones in the series. So what is this fifth trumpet and first woe? In verse 1, scholars debate whether this is a good angel sent from God on a mission or a fallen angel being punished. I incline to see this angel in verse one as a good angel carrying out God's bidding.

He has God's permission to unleash God's judgment on the earth. The bottomless pit that he opens is like a holding tank for demonic spirits and by opening the shaft he unleashes them on the earth. The fact that these evil spirits are described as locusts echoes the passage in Joel 2 that Chad read for us earlier. In Joel 2, God pictures his coming act of judgment as an all consuming army all-devouring locust swarm. Here in Revelation, the vision that he gives John indicates that this locust judgment begins in the midst of history.

The day of the Lord will come in its fullness on the last day when Jesus returns, but it begins now, after the death and resurrection of Christ, with both salvation and judgment breaking into the present.

The fact that the locusts harm all those who don't have God's seal on their foreheads takes us back to chapter seven. There, God seals all who trust in Christ, which is going to preserve them from judgment and from spiritual harm. This mark is not literal. You can't see it with your eyes. Instead, it's a symbol of God's saving possession of his people.

The description of the locusts in verses seven to ten is meant to be exaggerated and grotesque. They're fearsome beasts, they're bizarre and terrifying, and they have power to hurt people but not kill them. In this life, for a time, God sets a limit to his judgment. Look back at verse 6.

And in those days, people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

The pain that these locusts inflict is not merely physical but psychological and even spiritual. Pain is the language that God's judgment speaks to shock us awake from our sin. Verse 6, They will long to die, but death will flee from them. As sad and sobering as that experience is, it may be more common than you think. Wanting to die but not knowing how, not finding a way.

If your life looks that utterly hopeless, turn in desperate faith to Christ. If you are a believer and your life looks that utterly hopeless, renew your hope in Him.

We see the sixth trumpet in verses 13 to 19.

Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year were released to kill a third of mankind. The number of mounted troops was twice 10,000 times 10,000. I heard their number. And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them.

They wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were like lions' heads. And fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.

These four angels stationed at the Euphrates River command a vast heavenly army who are authorized not merely to harm but to kill. And they do so by means of these grotesque fire-breathing horses with lion's heads. The three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur recall God's judgment on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. And they preview God's coming judgment against all who rebel against him.

These fifth and sixth trumpet judgments have a nightmare-ish quality. The images are haunting, overwhelming, deliberately bizarre. Sometimes there's this uncanny thing when you're having a nightmare. You know you're asleep. You know it's a dream.

You want the dream to stop, but somehow you can't wake up.

The point of these nightmarish judgments is to teach us that life without God is a nightmare. And it leads to worse nightmares still. Slavery to sin is a nightmare. Worship of false gods is a nightmare. This whole passage, all these judgments, are intended to wake you up to the from that nightmare.

Whether that's a nightmare you've been living for 30 years or that's a nightmare you've been slipping back into in these past three months, the intense character of these images, the way they just kind of attack our minds from all these different directions are meant to serve as a wake up call. But how? How can you wake up from the nightmare of life without God in a word? Repent. We'll talk more about repentance in a moment.

Verses 20 and 21 show us that the purpose of all these judgments is to bring about repentance. Like I said, there's kind of a long arc here and this is what the whole passage, the whole section, is aiming at. Verses 20 and 21: the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons.

And idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. These judgments were intended to bring about repentance, but they didn't accomplish that purpose. These judgments were designed to transform people's worship and to transform their character. But they didn't. They couldn't.

The hearts of humanity proved too hard, too stubborn. What can bring about the kind of radical change that repentance entails? The lesson of these two chapters is, not judgment alone. That's what the whole next section of Revelation is also going to reveal. If judgment alone can't do it, what can?

But before we move on, I want us to think more deeply about repentance in two ways. First, I'll give seven reasons to repent of idolatry. Most of them are rooted in verses 20 and 21 here. Kind of a meditation on these verses. Then I'll give some practical steps of how to repent.

First, seven reasons to repent of idolatry. Seven reasons to quit worshiping anything else and devote your life to worshiping the one true God. Number one, idolatry is futile. Look at verse 20, chapter 9, verse 20. They did not give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood which cannot see or hear or walk.

The point is these idols are powerless. They can't do anything. They have no knowledge, they have no insight, they have no ability, they can't hear or answer if you're not a believer in Jesus, you might think this verse has nothing whatsoever to do with you. After all, maybe you're an atheist, maybe you're agnostic, you don't subscribe to any religion, you don't worship any God. But I would argue, and all of Scripture teaches, that worship is inevitable.

It's not a question of whether you'll worship any God, only which God you'll worship, the true one or any number of a multitude of substitutes. What you are ultimately devoted to, what you are finally loyal to is what you worship. What you find most worthy to give yourself to is what you worship. And what you find most worthy will influence every aspect of your character. Do you treat other people with care and respect?

Or exploit them in subtle ways for your selfish desires? Do you exercise self-control or are you enslaved to various passions? Are you trustworthy or will you fudge the truth to get what you want? The answers to all those questions are ultimately rooted in what you worship. And if you still think you don't worship any god, What about worshiping self?

Verse 20 teaches that it is futile to worship any god but the true God. Idols promise what they cannot deliver. Money and sex and power cannot deliver you from death. They cannot finally satisfy you. They promise freedom, but they enslave you.

A second reason, idolatry is irrational. Through this series of plagues, God reminds us that he's sovereign, he's the creator, he's in charge of this whole universe that he's made. He's all powerful. By contrast, idols are the works of their hands. They're not just created things, but things created by creatures, twice removed from the creator.

Idols are made of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood. And of course, many people today don't worship gods represented by physical objects, although many do.

But even those who don't worship human creations all the same. If you worship your work or other people's approval or pleasure, what are any of those things but created realities? Those are all ways of worshiping the creature rather than the Creator, which among other problems is strikingly irrational. Number three, idolatry is dehumanizing and self-destructive. Idolatry diminishes you.

Over time, it makes you less and less human. Idols cannot see or hear or walk. They don't even have the capacities that you do. And Psalm 115:8 teaches, those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.

You become what you worship. As Greg Beale has put it, you resemble what you revere, either for ruin or restoration. Fourth, a fourth reason, idolatry creates a cascade of harms. After verse 20 reveals that people didn't repent of idolatry, verse 21 continues, Nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Are these just two separate things, idolatry and all these immoral acts? Or is there a link between them? All of Scripture teaches that immorality is rooted in idolatry. Idolatry begets immorality. Idolatry generates injustice.

Worshiping false gods leads you to denigrate and disregard others. Idol worship of any kind is ultimately a form of self-worship. You offer the idol whatever it requires so that it will give you what you want. Ultimately, you're serving the idol so that the idol serves you. Only by learning to serve the true God can you escape from that cycle of selfishness and self-worship and learn to sacrifice yourself to serve others.

Idolatry creates a cascade of harms, harms to yourself and others. Moral harm, emotional harm, mental and spiritual harm. All these are consequences of idolatry. Speaking of consequences, kids and teens in the church. What consequences of your own sin have you experienced?

Some sins have natural or built-in consequences. If you're playing with fire and your mom tells you to stop playing with fire and you keep playing with fire and you burn your hand, that is a natural consequence, an inbuilt consequence of your disobedience to your mom. One of the lessons that this passage teaches us is that the ultimate consequence of sin is God's judgment. Not only that, but ultimately all of our sins are consequences of our idolatry. Every wrong behavior Behavior is an effect of wrong worship.

A fifth reason to repent of idolatry: idolatry ends badly. And I don't just mean in this life. These trumpets, these judgments throughout history are previews of God's final judgment. They're bringing a portion of it. They're bringing an advance element of it.

Into the present. But the full judgment is coming. A sixth reason, repentance brings mercy. Repentance brings mercy. The whole point of God issuing this extended warning in this series of trumpet visions is to lead people to repent.

And why should you repent? So that you can receive mercy from God, forgiveness, reconciliation. As Peter says in Acts 3:19, Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. The seventh reason, repentance leads to glory. Repentance is a 180 degree change in your life and it leads to a whole different destination.

Not condemnation, but acceptance with God. Not eternal suffering, but eternal joy. But that raises the question of how? On what basis can God promise that to all who repent. One way we can see this even in our own passage is to understand that all of these judgments are expressions of God's curse against sin.

They're showing us what sin deserves from God. God created humanity to experience blessing in knowing him, loving him, serving him and living in fellowship with him. And when humanity sinned against him right from the beginning, he pronounced curses on them. You're going to die, you're going to return to dust, you're going to earn your living by hardship now. And throughout Scripture, God God pronounces curses against our sin.

There's specific ones for his people, Israel, if they depart from his covenant. We see those come to fruition in the exile. There's warnings for other nations who oppose God's people and God pronounces woes and curses on them. And you might think, if you're missing a few key pieces of the biblical story, you might think that it's kind of one big piece of bad news. Here's sin, here's a curse, here's God's judgment, that's bad news, how do I get out of that?

Jesus came to earth, lived a perfect life, completely satisfied God's will, was totally righteous in all that he did, and then bore God's curse on the cross. He suffered the fullness of God's judgment. What Christ suffered on the cross was not a preview of judgment, but the fullness of it coming down on one person in the place of all who had turned from sin and trust in him. And then he rose from the grave. He rose from the dead three days later, triumphing over death, showing that the curse had been exhausted and is now repealed, not only in his case, but in the case of all who trust in him.

Repentance gets you out from under God's curse. Repentance takes away that curse forever because you're coming to Christ in faith. If you've never turned from sin and trusted in Christ, repent of your sin and believe in him today. That is the key to a kind of change that no New Year's resolution no willpower, no resolve, no new gym membership, no new set of priorities will do for you. That is where the deepest, most radical, most lasting change will come from.

Repentance is how the Christian life both begins and continues. So whether you've never yet repented and trusted in Christ, or whether you're a believer and you need a little extra help digging out of a sin you're stuck in, here's some practical counsel on how to First, confess your sin to God. Name it bluntly and clearly. Don't minimize it, don't pass blame, look clearly at what's wrong with your actions and trace those actions back to what's wrong with your heart and confess it to God and ask his forgiveness. Repentance also involves resolving to turn away from sin.

There's no repentance without a heart-deep commitment to running in the opposite direction.

Take practical steps to break bad habits, cut off access, and block your way to repeat sin. And of course, if you haven't yet trusted in Christ, that has to come first. Repentance isn't something you do before and apart from trusting in Christ, as if you have to somehow clean up your record enough so that God will accept you. There's no way to do that, you won't make any progress toward it, it's not going to happen. Repentance and faith in Christ are a package deal.

They go together. Once you are a Christian, pray for heart change, put ungodly desire to death and cultivate new desire for God. Work to make new habits of godliness that are rooted in new and godly desires. For all of us seeking to walk in repentance, ask for help from those who know the Lord, love the Lord, and walk in his ways. What is God doing in this world here and now?

He is, in the midst of history, previewing final judgment, which means that it's time to repent.

Point two, time to evangelize. Time to evangelize. This is the main point of the whole interlude from chapter 10 verse 1 to chapter 11 verse 14.

If you were here last week, you'll remember that the interlude in chapter seven focused on the identity, origin, and destiny of God's people. We're those whom God has sealed and made his protected possession. We're those whom Christ has redeemed by his blood and who are on our way to the new creation. We'll see now in the interlude of chapters 10 and 11 that it focuses on the vocation of God's people.

The present calling of God's people. And that calling is to evangelize, to declare the good news about Jesus to those who don't know him. Look first to chapter 10, verses 1 to 7.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire. He had a little scroll open in his hand, and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and called out with a loud voice like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.' and the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay. But that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.

Here an angel comes to John wrapped in divine glory. The text borrows imagery that's elsewhere used of God himself, not to identify the angel as God or Christ, but to underscore that the angel speaks for God and that his words carry God's own authority. In verses 3 and 4, the seven thunders that sound and are sealed up seem to represent another greater series of judgments, just like seven seals and seven trumpets, but they're held back. We don't hear about them. God pushes pause on the unfolding action.

And then the angel swears in verses 5 to 7 that God will fully and finally fulfill his plans. That phrase, the mystery of God, in verse 7 refers to the fullness of God's purposes for humanity. His plan of salvation and judgment that he promised to the prophets long ago will come to pass.

But not yet. Why not? That's the question that leads us into the rest of chapter 10 and all of chapter 11. Look at verses 8 to 11. Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, 'Go take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.' so I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll.

And he said to me, 'Take and eat it. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.' and I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, 'You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and tongues. And nations and languages and kings.

This scene is modeled on Ezekiel chapters 2 and 3. And like those chapters, John is instructed to eat the scroll that he finds here open in the angel's hand. This is a symbol of John internalizing God's Word before proclaiming it. As a faithful prophet of Yahweh, John must first get God's Word into his heart before it goes out through his mouth. The fact that this scroll is sweet in the mouth but bitter in the stomach probably reflects the fact that John's message is a mixture of salvation and judgment.

And as the parallel with Ezekiel indicates, this whole scene reaffirms and further specifies John's prophetic calling. Here, halfway through the book, John receives another installment of divine revelation in the form of a scroll. It's another dose of prophecy to deliver. And it probably represents the sort of summary contents of the visions that are going to be revealed in the rest of the book. Notice who he is to deliver this prophecy to.

Verse 11, and I was told, you must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings. Now, John's coming visions certainly include many messages about many different nations, but this first This phrase is also a deliberate echo of the fourfold formula that's come up twice already in the book. It's a version of the phrase, every people and tribe and language and nation. So I think verse 11 also shows us that John's prophetic calling is a paradigm of the church's prophetic calling. This is not just about John being recommissioned as a prophet, it's about the commission that all of us have to take the gospel to every tribe and language and nation.

John himself will not literally, in person, declare God's Word to every nation, but the whole church will. And that's exactly what we see happen in chapter 11. Chapter 11 is a further series of two visions, one short, one long, and both unfold the meaning of John's prophetic recommissioning.

Look first at chapter 11:1-2. Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, 'Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there. But do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two this act of measuring God's temple is a prophetic sign of preservation and protection. It sets limits to where the forces of evil can reach. The measured portion is protected, the part that's not measured is exposed.

And here the temple that is measured includes those who worship there. In other words, this idea of God's people in God's place is another visual way to depict the reality that God protects and preserves his people. But God's people aren't only protected, they're also persecuted. That's what verse 2 symbolizes. The court outside the temple is trampled by the nations for 42 months.

In the whole upcoming section of Revelation, the next several chapters, the time period of three and a half years, which is stated in a whole variety of ways, repeatedly designates the whole span of time.

Between Christ's ascension and his return. And it characterizes that period as a time of warfare, testing, opposition, and the need for endurance. It's three and a half because it's half of seven. Seven is perfect and complete and the time of testing and trial that we live in now is incomplete, imperfect, the time awaiting the fullness. So the image of the temple, both preserved and trampled pictures God's people throughout this whole present age.

We're preserved yet persecuted. We're guarded yet exposed. We'll suffer all kinds of opposition and hardship but he will hold us fast. All those themes given here very briefly are unpacked more fully in verses 3 to 13.

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may 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 kind of plague as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on 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, and their enemies watched them. And at 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. The second woe has passed. Behold, the third woe is soon to come. That last verse is kind of a transitional marker just bringing us back to the last trumpet.

The first big question here is, who are the two witnesses? All kinds of answers have been offered throughout history from the plausible to the bizarre. No time for those now. The biblical figures they most closely resemble are probably Moses and Elijah, but I don't think we should simply identify them as Moses and Elijah. Instead, I want to briefly argue that these two witnesses stand for the whole church.

Specifically, they stand for the whole church in our capacity as evangelistic witnesses to the nations. These two witnesses testify to Christ and experience tribulation then triumph. Here are four reasons in support of seeing the two witnesses as an emblem of the whole church in our prophetic calling. First, they prophesy for the same length of time that the whole church suffers. So the temple being exposed to the Gentiles for three and a half years, that's how long these witnesses prophesy for.

The 1,260 day duration of their prophetic ministry is the same 42 months. In other words, their ministry extends throughout the age of the church's suffering and persecution and preservation. Second, they're described as both olive trees and lampstands. Olive trees represent leaders of God's people in Zechariah 4 and lampstands in Revelation 1:20 are identified by Christ as churches. So these stand for God's people corporately.

They're not merely individuals. A third reason is that these witnesses prophesy to the same people that John is called to in his prophetic commission. Notice in verse 9, When they die, for three and a half days, some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies. In other words, people from every nation will see them dead, because that's who they've been evangelizing. A fourth reason, these two witnesses are a composite character sketch drawn from a number of God's faithful Old Testament prophets.

They're a blending into one portrait. Like Elijah, they shut the sky. Like Moses, they turn water into blood and perform other plagues. But notice that both witnesses do both of these things.

It's not like one witness only does the Elijah stuff and another witness does the Moses stuff. They both do all of it. Like Enoch and Elijah, they ascend to heaven. Like so many Old Testament prophets, they are martyred. So this is a blend of many characters into a single profile shared by two figures.

It's a patchwork, it's a synthesis. It portrays God's new covenant people as prophets who bear witness to his word, are opposed and suffer, and ultimately are vindicated before the world. The narrative of their ministry functions like a parable. We're not meant to take this as a linear, unfolding timeline. Instead, each part of their ministry tells us something about how the church will work to advance the gospel throughout this age and what we'll encounter as we do.

In this parable, we'll see just a quick overview now And then we'll see more detail when we double back for application. Here's just a super quick overview of what happens. Verse 5, They proclaim God's word and encounter opposition, yet God's word triumphs through them. Verse 6, They perform prophetic signs. Verses 7 to 10, They're killed, dishonored, and unbelievers throw a party over their deaths.

Verse 11, They're raised from the dead. Verse 12, They ascend to heaven. Verse 13, There's another judgment of God against the world: A fraction die, and the rest repent. Looking at verse 13, it's one of the keys to the whole passage. And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and the 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.

That last phrase expresses repentance. Their fear of God here is a sign of genuine faith. They now begin to give God glory. They're not worshiping idols, but the true God alone, the one who reigns over heaven and earth. What judgment alone couldn't bring about, the completed witness of God's people does.

What time is it? It's time to repent. And it's time to evangelize because the evangelism of God's people is the only means that will bring people to repentance. And it is the means that God promises to use to bring people to repent. So to apply this part of the passage similar to the last one, I want to give us six reasons to evangelize and then some brief counsel on how to evangelize.

Six reasons to evangelize. Number one, God himself has made time for it. Remember back in chapter 10, verse 4, God commands John to seal up the seven thunders. More judgment isn't coming yet. Push pause.

John has a prophetic ministry to complete in this interval, in this interim, and so do all of God's people. If God himself has made time for you to evangelize, you can make time to evangelize.

Second, the gospel overcomes opposition. So often we don't evangelize because we're afraid of opposition, but we should expect it. We shouldn't be surprised by it. We shouldn't be deterred by it. Instead, we should get used to it.

But this passage not only promises opposition, it shows us that the gospel overcomes opposition. Look again at verse 5: and if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. I don't think this verse is teaching that God's people serve as executioners of their enemies. Instead, I think it's a symbolic depiction of the power of God's word to overcome opposition.

Listen to how it echoes Jeremiah 5:14. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, 'Because you have spoken this word, behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire and this people would be wood, and the fire shall devour them. Consume them. God's gospel has the power to expose the error of those who oppose it. A third reason to evangelize: Any loss you suffer will be more than repaid.

Evangelism can cost you friendships. It can cost you coldness or exclusion, opposition from your family, It can cost you and your professional prospects. It can get you thrown into jail or physically harmed. But any loss you suffer for the gospel's sake will be more than repaid. After the two witnesses were killed, they rose again and entered God's presence forever.

And so will you. Be still, my soul, your Jesus can repay. From his own fullness, all he takes away. Fourth, the gospel accomplishes victory through defeat. Victory through defeat.

Triumph through tribulation. The whole shape of this parable shows us that the suffering and even martyrdom of God's people is part of what makes the gospel persuasive and effective. The gospel accomplishes victory through defeat. Suffering and opposition and hardships are all part of the plan.

Not only that, they're part of how God plans to bring others to faith. The suffering of God's people that we endure as we evangelize is not wasted, but turned by God into a means of evangelism.

Fifth, God promises fruit. We don't know exactly who will come to faith, but we know that people will. We don't know what our fruit will look like, but we know that God's Word does not return void. Sixth and finally, kind of a specific application of the previous, God promises a worldwide harvest. We see in verse 9 that these witnesses evangelize people from all peoples and tribes and languages and nations.

We've heard phrases like that twice before in Revelation. 1 and 5:9.

And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And then chapter 7, verses 9 and 10, which we saw last week, After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and languages, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

How do all these people wind up around God's throne in the end? How do they get from there to here? The crucial turning point in their eternal destiny comes when someone tells them the good news. How do they learn how to wind up around the throne? These people from every tribe and tongue and nation?

They learn from one of us telling them. What if these people who don't know Jesus from every tribe and language and nation are kind of far away.

What if they're in places that are hard to get to, places that don't have so much to commend them from a Western lifestyle point of view? What should we do?

We should take it to them.

So how should we evangelize? A few brief points of encouragement. One simple one is to brainstorm. People you know who are not Christians, who you should be sharing the gospel with, and then start praying for opportunities to evangelize them. Another way to follow up on that would be inviting other believers to hold you accountable and encourage you.

Tell them who you intend to share the gospel with and ask them to to check up on you. A really practical one is having some ready to hand questions that you kind of have in the back of your mind to lead conversations in spiritual directions. Here's a set of three that I'm unashamedly stealing from Paul Billings because he is a master of this and because he gave me his little set to work with. Here we go. Paul's set of three great questions to lead conversations in spiritual directions.

Number one, do you have a faith?

Deliberately open-ended. Maybe it's not a traditional faith but they believe in human rights. Okay, well that's an open door. Do you have a faith? Number two, what's your favorite thing about fill in the blank?

What's your favorite thing about being whatever it is they say they are or believe or hold to? Or if they say they're a Christian but you have your own questions about that, you could always ask them, what's the hardest thing about being a Christian?

Question number three, how's it working out for you? Do you have a faith? What's the best thing about it? How's it working out for you? Other practical suggestions, pray regularly for opportunities to evangelize, pray for fruit when you've had the opportunity to evangelize, have margin in your life to leave time for spiritual conversations and relationships with friends who aren't Christians, Pursue team evangelism.

Invite non-Christian friends into relationships with other members that you're close to. Invite people to church. Notice how prominent we make the gospel in every service. We do this for many reasons. One of them is evangelism.

Plant the flag early, early in a relationship and early in a conversation. Don't let people get to know you for a sufficiently long time that then, whoa, they're surprised to find out you're a Christian. Where'd that come from? Right? Be open, be upfront.

Openly discuss aspects of your Christian life with non-believing friends. If there's the kind of weekend report at work on Monday, well, mention something specific about church. Not just that you were there but something that was encouraging to you or helpful to you. What time is it? It's time to evangelize.

That's why God has paused his judgment. And opened up this window of time for us with John to fulfill our prophetic calling to the nations. Finally, very briefly, point three, time to hope. It's time to hope. Just as in the previous cycle of seven seals, in verses 15 to 19 of chapter 11, the seventh trumpet takes us right to the end of history.

Look at verses 15 to 19.

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, 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 shall reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and heavy hail.

Here the heavenly elders worship God for bringing his kingdom to earth. All opponents of God and his people are fully and finally judged. All of God's people are fully and finally saved. Now our suffering is over. Now we receive our full reward.

Now our faith turns to sight. As we'll see in the next passage, Lord willing, the specific phrases used here not only show God summing up all of his purposes for salvation, but it points forward specifically to some of the ways that opponents of God will seek to destroy God's people in these coming chapters. But here, at the end of chapter 11, we receive a heartening vision of the end of all things. The end of all opposition, the end of all sin, the end of all suffering, the end of our struggle for faith and persevering obedience. Christ will reign forever and ever.

That's good news and it means now is the time to hope, to wait in hope, to endure in patience, and to keep your eyes fixed on Christ's return.

We can pick up with Calvin and Hobbes where we left them, discussing New Year's resolutions. The rest of that strip goes, Calvin, I'm getting disillusioned with these new years. They don't seem very new at all. Each new year is just like the old year. Here another year has gone by and everything's still the same.

There's still pollution and war and stupidity and greed. Things haven't changed. I say, what kind of future is this? I thought things were supposed to improve. I thought the future was supposed to be better.

Hobbs, the problem with the future is that it keeps turning into the present.

The future does keep turning into the present, but one day in God's own perfect timing, the present will turn into the future. One day time will be no more. God's kingdom will come. Then it will be time only for either eternal suffering or eternal rejoicing. But now, Now is the time to repent and the time to evangelize and the time to hope.

Look ye saints, the sight is glorious. See the man of sorrows now. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this glorious glimpse of your purposes for now and for the future, for us and to be made right with you and to be instruments of others being made right with you. Father, we pray that we would repent of sin and pray that we would tell others the good news of how to get right with you. We pray that we'd persevere in hope because you will surely do what you have said. In Jesus' name, amen.