Revelation 11:1-14
1 Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.
2 But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months.
3 And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth."
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.
5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner.
6 These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire.
7 When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.
8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
9 Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.
10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
11 Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.
12 And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.
13 In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.
This passage is referred to as the “Two Witnesses” or the “Two Prophets”.
Is it our desire to understand the meaning of this passage?
The passage before is continued from 10:11:
And he said to me, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."
The mighty angel of chapter 10 who speaks to John is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The mighty angel, who is God, swears by Himself as He stands with His right foot on the sea and His left foot on the land which symbolizes His sovereignty over all creation. And also significantly symbolizes God’s sovereignty over the “beast out of the sea” and the “beast out of the earth” that are presented in Chapter 13.
The mighty angel told John to eat the “little book” and that it would be sweet to taste [because it is the Word of God], but it will make his stomach bitter as the truth of it is unfolded in the lives of the saints of God.
The bitterness will be seen in what follows that as the Church suffers persecution yet she remains faithful to her God.
"You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings."
To “prophesy again” indicates that this prophecy is to continue beyond John’s day until the end of this present age.
There are two very different views of how Revelation is to be understood. One view tries to make everything as literal as possible and in this view we have a mental picture of a giant Christ actually standing astride the sea and the land.
This literal method also has John actually measuring the dimensions of a literal temple that is to be built in Jerusalem in a future millennial age.
This literal method says the two witnesses are a resurrected Moses and Elijah.
Now to be fair, you can find as many answers among those who take the most literal view as to the nature of the temple [actual or symbolic] and the identity of the two witnesses as there are commentators. And that is also true among those who view most of the Book of Revelation as being symbolic.
All I can do is to give to you what I believe to be the most consistent interpretation of this wonderful and mysterious book.
What I understand the message of Revelation to be about is a prophecy given to the Church of the Living God to assure her that while she will suffer persecution, as the Lord Jesus said she would, that the Lord Jesus Christ controls her destiny and that the redeemed Church will ultimately find herself as a …
“… great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying:
"Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen." Rev 7:9-12
So when it comes to explaining what these words mean you must take the advice of Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”
I am quite content to take the fork in the road that finds much of the Book of Revelation explained by passages in the OT from which John finds his symbols in order to give comfort to the Church.
E.g., when John writes about demons that come up from the “bottomless pit” he is describing the agents of the “destroyer” who teach heresies and lies but John calls them “locusts” that look like horses with something like crowns of gold on their heads with faces like men and hair like women.
Now you can try to make those creatures literal if you must but you wind up in some sort of fantasyland. And if the literalist says the locusts are symbolic then why isn’t the rest of the Book symbolic?
But John and the first readers of this prophecy well knew how locusts were used by God in OT times to bring justice for cruelty and disobedience. Simply use a good concordance and look up “locusts” in the OT and you will see how dreadful they were.
So here is my premise: In our text today, as in most of the symbolism of the Book, John takes mental images from the OT and prophesies about the bitterness that will befall “many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.”
Another important point of interpretation is that these symbolic descriptions cannot be limited to a specific event in history but continue to occur throughout the last days.
John reaches back to Ezekiel who saw a temple in a vision. Ezekiel saw a temple that issued forth a river of living water that miraculously expanded as it flowed from the threshold of the temple. No literal temple is this. John sees a temple that has worshipers that can be “measured.”
The temple with references to the altar and the worshippers means that this is a representation of the Church and her worship of God.
The temple and the worshippers are the same.
In the OT it was only by sacrifice that there was access to God and then only through mediators appointed by God, the priests, the descendents of Aaron. The blood of sacrificial beasts pointed to the blood of the Lamb of God.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
(Hebrews 10:4)
But at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, the veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom and from then on access to God is only through the One True High Priest (of the order of Melchizedec) and all other mediators are forever rendered invalid.
Popes and priests are not mediators. So-called “saints” are not mediators.
Angels are not mediators. Not even the Blessed Virgin Mary is qualified to be a mediator.
For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…
(1 Timothy 2:5)
The issue before us then is what relationship does the OT sacrificial system that centered on worship in the temple in Jerusalem have with the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
The heart of the OT system of worship was the temple in Jerusalem.
When John wrote these words the temple in Jerusalem had been in ruins for 25 years. The vision is of that temple that had an outer court of the Gentiles who could come into the court but could not enter into the temple proper.
With the temple destroyed what is to become of the true worshipers of God?
With no temple to worship in how are we to worship God?
The answer unfolds in the NT.
John the Baptist said more than most people understand when he pointed to Jesus of Nazareth and said,
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
There were millions of lambs that had their blood shed in the sacrificial system but there is one Lamb of God! The Lamb of God is not only for the Jews but for the world of Jews and Gentiles! And what many people miss here in John the Baptist’s declaration is that John is declaring the end of the sacrificial system and the Old Covenant.
Jesus Christ Himself prophesied that the OT system was going to be done away with forever. Turn to John 4.
John 4:19-26
19 The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."
21 Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
25 The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When He comes, He will tell us all things."
26 Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."
True worship of God is not fixed on a city, not even Jerusalem; nor a building, not even the temple; but “in spirit and truth”.
So the mighty angel gives to John a reed like a measuring rod and he is told to measure the temple of God, and the altar, and the people who worship there.
But John is told not to measure the outer court because the heathen are there and they will tread the holy city under foot for 42 months. These Gentiles are not converts to Judaism but unbelievers.
So is John measuring for a future literal temple to be built in Jerusalem or might he be speaking of a spiritual temple?
Paul had written that there was now another “temple.”
It will help if you find these references in your Bible.
1 Cor 3:16-17
16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
17 If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
2 Cor 6:14-16
14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?
15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?
16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?
For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:
"I will dwell in them
And walk among them.
I will be their God,
And they shall be My people."
Ephesians 2:19-22
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a
holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
So John is measuring a temple. But this is not a stone structure without life; it is a temple of living stones?
Again please find 1 Peter 2:4-10 in your Bible and read along with me.
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture,
"Behold, I lay in Zion A chief cornerstone, elect, precious, And he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame."
7 Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient,
"The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone,"
8 and "A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
John is writhing under the same Holy Spirit inspiration as was Paul and Peter as he measures the spiritual temple that replaced the literal temple in Jerusalem.
True worship of God is not in the old stone building, as magnificent as it was, but in the Church in spirit and truth.
For clarification, when I refer to the Church it is not a local visible body of believers but it is the Invisible Church of the redeemed from Adam and Abel and Abraham on through time until the last one of God’s elect is called and justified and safe in glory. The Church is the same in the OT and in the NT it is only the degree of understanding that she was given in the process of time.
The temple that John measures is the full scope of all believers who worship God in spirit and truth.
The outer court that is not to be measured is not the Gentile believers that were allowed into the outer court but represents the unbelievers that say they are Christians but will be found out at the last to be hypocrites that have gladly traveled the broad road that leads to destruction.
These “Gentiles” which here represents unbelievers will tread the holy city underfoot for 42 months. The reference is first to Jerusalem that fell under the army of Titus in A.D. 70 and then to the Church that suffers persecution.
There are “two witnesses” or “two prophets” clothed in sackcloth who are given the power to prophecy 1260 days [42 months]. “Forty-two months” is an indefinite period of time that is known only to God.
But 42 months brings up the image of the 3 ½ years when no rain fell as Elijah was given the “power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy.”
And it was Moses that had “power over the waters to turn them into blood”.
What do the images of Moses and Elijah suggest?
If you are thinking “the Law and the Prophets” you would be correct.
Turn now to Matthew 17:1-13.
We are still answering the question of what is the relationship between the worship of God in the temple and the worship of God in spirit and truth.
1 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves;
2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.
3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.
4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.
7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid."
8 When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead."
10 And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
11 Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.
12 But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."
13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.
There is so very much in this account of the transfiguration. It is not my purpose to expound the transfiguration, but only to extract what I think is relevant to an explanation of the identity of the “two witnesses”.
Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets and Luke adds that they “spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” Luke 9:31
The OT economy of temple and sacrifice is going away and all that the Law and the Prophets pointed to is fulfilled in Christ.
“No, Peter, don’t build tents for Moses and Elijah, the Christ is come.”
And don’t look for Elijah to return either because John the Baptist is the Elijah that was to come!
And neither should you look for Moses and Elijah as the literal “two witnesses” because it is what they represent that is meant here in Revelation 11.
Just for fun, look at Jude 9.
Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation,
but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
Keep your place in Jude 9 and turn to Zechariah 3.
Zechariah 3:1-5
1 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him.
2 And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?"
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.
4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, "Take away the filthy garments from him." And to him He said, "See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes."
5 And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head."
So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the LORD stood by.
The prophet now notes that Joshua is clothed in ‘filthy garments’ and at the command of the angel the filthy garments are taken away and Joshua is clothed with new garments and crowned with a ‘fair mitre’.
Satan is present to resist the high priest in his ministrations, and Satan takes up legal ground, ‘the body of Moses’ (see Jude 9). The body of Moses here does not mean the actual body of the great Lawgiver, but that which his dead body represents, the INABILITY OF THE LAW TO CONFER RIGHTEOUSNESS ON SINFUL MAN. Satan stands on legal ground always as he disputes the right of the sinner to salvation. Joshua’s filthy garments represent the inability of the Mosaic dispensation to confer righteousness. There is required a change of priesthood, and this came about in Christ, ‘a high priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek’. (Hebrews 6:20 – 7:19) The change of Joshua’s garments therefore shows the passing of the old dispensation (the Law) and the coming in of the New Testament order (the Gospel).
Christ becomes our high priest for ever, by the perfect atonement He made by His own sacred blood. By His own righteousness He justifies His people and places them beyond the power of Satan to condemn.
In addition to the symbolism of the Law and the Prophets the mighty angel explains the meaning of the two witnesses.
“These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth.” [11:4]
Stay in Zechariah 4.
1 Now the angel who talked with me came back and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep.
2 And he said to me, "What do you see?"
So I said, "I am looking, and there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it, and on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps.
3 Two olive trees are by it, one at the right of the bowl and the other at its left."
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, "What are these, my lord?"
5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord."
6 So he answered and said to me:
"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts.
7 'Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"'"
8 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying:
9 "The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know That the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.
10 For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see The plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the LORD, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth."
11 Then I answered and said to him, "What are these two olive trees — at the right of the lampstand and at its left?"
12 And I further answered and said to him, "What are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two gold pipes from which the golden oil drains?"
13 Then he answered me and said, "Do you not know what these are?"
And I said, "No, my lord."
14 So he said, "These are the two anointed ones, who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth."
Zechariah sees one lampstand and John sees two because since Zechariah’s time an important change has taken place in the status of the Church. The Kingdom of God has come, the OT Church has now been fulfilled in the NT Church and what stood for the Old and the New in Zechariah are now one.
The vision of Zachariah is the same as that of John. The Church is sustained by the Holy Spirit as the “oil” that flows from the olive trees into the lampstands.
In Zachariah chapter 3 Joshua is named and in chapter 4 Zerubbabel is named.
They represent the two offices of king and priest; discipline and worship.
It is the witness of the Church through the ages through the Holy Spirit,
'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts.
Listen Islam, true worship of God is not by the sword but by the Holy Spirit that light and truth is given.
The “two witnesses” then stand for the Law and the Prophets, “Moses and Elijah”, and continue to prophesy; clothed in sackcloth because Jerusalem is destroyed.
The world hates the light and loves darkness and the “beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.”
The image is the destruction of Jerusalem:
7 When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.
8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
9 Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves.
10 And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.
The “two witnesses” are “killed”. The Church will have her martyrs but the truth of God cannot be stopped. In the passing of time the Church and her witness will appear to have been killed but life is restored because the Word of God endures forever. And this sequence continues through the ages.
1 Peter 1:22-25
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,
23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
24 because
"All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the LORD endures forever."
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
After a short period of time, symbolized by 3 ½ days, the breath of life entered into the two witnesses and they stood on their feet and they are called up to heaven, “Come up here!”
The fall of Jerusalem is symbolized by the “great earthquake and the tenth of the city and the seven thousand who were killed”.
Just as we interpret parables we do not try to make every word and phrase stand for something. We look for the main point and here we have the destruction and end of the old economy represented by Jerusalem and the sustaining of the witnesses, the Law and the Prophets symbolized by being carried into heaven.
And that is the relationship of the OT economy to the Gospel.
The temple and the sacrificial system are gone forever but the Law and the Prophets as they continue to testify of Jesus Christ endures forever.
As to the Law, Jesus said,
For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. John 5:46
Matthew 5:17-18
17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
18 For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
And to quote Charles Alexander, “Jesus walks among the prophets.”
There is the continuity from the OT into the NT.
If you understand what the Law and the Prophets were about, i.e. the Lord Jesus Christ, and that “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” [Romans 3:20] you will be a long way toward understanding the Bible.
The OT either is about Jesus Christ and the Church or it is about ethnic Jews and a grand future for the Jews in a millennial age now delayed for 2000 years.
“You pays your money and you takes your choice.”
Measure the temple John, and the altar, and the people who worship there for although the old temple is gone there is the temple of the living God that will worship in spirit and truth. At times it will appear that the witness for truth has been killed but the breath of life from God will come and the Gospel will survive until the end of this present age.
14 The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is coming quickly.
In this vision there are those who worship God and there are those who pretend to worship God but are not to be measured with the spiritual temple.
Are you worshipping in spirit and truth?
Are you bound by some tradition that says that you must do something in order to be saved? Can you trust only and completely in the righteousness of Jesus Christ?
Do you believe that it is only by the mercy of God that you are not in the torments of hell right now?
The gospel is “God saves sinners”. Sinners deserve to be in hell! Are you a sinner?
May the Holy Spirit bless you with the knowledge that it is only the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that secures for you eternal life.
Putting your trust in anything else puts you in the outer court not to be measured among the people of God.
If it pleases the Lord the next message will deal with Revelation 11:15-19,
“The Sovereignty of God”.
Sola Scriptura 
