I recently read a true story about an open air evangelist that went like this: I was speaking at an open-air crusade in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Billy Graham was to speak the next night and had arrived a day early. He came incognito and sat on the grass at the rear of the crowd. Because he was wearing a hat and dark glasses, no one recognized him. Directly in front of him sat an elderly gentleman who seemed to be listening intently to my presentation. When I invited people to come forward as an open sign of commitment, Billy decided to do a little personal evangelism. He tapped the man on the shoulder and asked, “Would you like to accept Christ? I’ll be glad to walk down with you if you want to.” The old man looked him up and down, thought it over for a moment, and then said, “Naw, I think I’ll just wait till the big gun comes tomorrow night.” Billy and I have had several good chuckles over that incident. Unfortunately, it underlines how, in the minds of many people, evangelism is the task of the “Big Guns,” not the “little shots.”
Sunday morning we began our study on two “Big Gun” witnesses who will make their appearance in the last half of the tribulation. Just as a reminder, we are at the halfway mark of the tribulation and at this point God has temporarily stopped his judgments. My aim this is to help you understand a little more about these two witnesses in regards to their purpose, because they are major players for what is left of the tribulation. At the same time help you understand that you also have a significant role to play leading up to the rapture of the church.
The text comes from Revelation 11:3. John writes in verse 3, “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” There are 7 observations we need to make here.
Observation #1: Notice neither of these two witnesses are named.
We do not know who these two witnesses are. What I can tell you is that these are two Old Testament prophets. Some believe it is going to be Moses and Elijah, because they are who appeared with Jesus when he was transfigured in Matthew 17. Others believe it is Enoch and Elijah, because neither of them died; God took them into heaven without death. But who they are is not the issue here, which brings me to our next observation.
Observation #2: Notice they are empowered by Jesus.
John writes, “And I ( being Jesus) will grant authority to my two witnesses…” That means that Jesus has bestowed on them, has given them, has endowed them, and awarded them with a certain level of power and command. Again, it does not matter who these witnesses are, what’s important to note is that these men will come under the authority of Jesus and are empowered by Jesus.
Observation #3: Notice the title for which they are referred.
They are called “witnesses”. A witness is someone who testifies to something they have eyewitnessed, someone who bears witness to something they have personally seen, someone who gives eyewitness evidence. The question is to what are they witnessing? Notice that Jesus says they are not just anybody’s witnesses, but they are his witness saying, “my two witnesses”. In other words they will come to testify and to bear witness about Jesus, that he is the Christ, he is the Son of God, and that he is God. They will come under the authority and power of Jesus to announce and proclaim the gospel, which is the good news of Jesus Christ, that he is the only means of salvation. And remember, we still have the 144,000 sealed Jews preaching the gospel as well.
While we’re on that subject, this is something you need to understand about yourself: These two witnesses are coming to witness about Christ post-rapture, but we are called to witness about Christ pre-rapture. Someone once said, “The strength of the church is not the strength of its institutions but the authenticity of its witness.” Another person once said, “the mark of a healthy church is not how many she has in her congregation, but how many she is sending out.” Billy Graham once said, “God wants every believer to be a witness for Christ to those who do not know him.” J.I. Packer said, “The task of the church is to make the invisible Kingdom visible through faithful Christian living and witness-bearing.”
As a Christian, as a disciple, as a follower of Jesus, you are his witnesses here and now. You’re not the world’s witnesses. You are not your own witness. You are not your family’s witnesses. You have been marked and you have been sealed and you have been given power to bear witness concerning the things of Jesus Christ.
You are his advocate and his ambassador to this sin-stained world. You are a light in this darkness. That’s one of the purposes of the Spirit being in you, it’s not to just secure your salvation, but also – to give you power and ability to bear witness about Jesus that is who he says he is, that he is the Christ, that he is the Son of God, that he is God, and that he is the only means of salvation.
Observation #4: Notice what they will be doing as Jesus witnesses. John writes, “and they will prophesy…” Prophecy means to foretell, specifically, about events that are to take place. This means they have come not only to speak the gospel, not only to testify about Jesus, but they have also come to speak of events concerning the future. Namely, about the coming judgment of God for all those who continue to deliberately live in sin and refuse to believe in Jesus Christ.
In the same way, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are called to do that now. Just as these two-witnesses shall come to prophesy post-rapture, the church is called to prophesy pre-rapture. You may not be a prophet, you may not have the spiritual gift of a prophet, but did you know you can prophesy? If prophecy is the foretelling of future events that will take place then, you can prophesy because you know the events that the Bible foretells. For example, you know, according to Scripture, the closer we come to the rapture the more we will hear of wars and rumors of wars, that more and more people will fall away from Jesus, that more false teachers will arise to deceive people away from Jesus, and the greater lawlessness will become. You know, according to Scripture, a day is quickly approaching that Jesus is going to rapture his church. You know, according to Scripture, that seven years are coming where God will pour out his wrath on the Antichrist and the unbelieving. You know, according to Scripture, a day comes where every man and woman and child will have to stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. You know, according to Scripture, a day comes when every person will go to one of two places – heaven or hell – according to their belief or rejection of Jesus. People need to know these events are coming. There is a whole world out there that has no idea of these future events. And since we know these things, we, the followers of Jesus, have a responsibility to warn everyone of the things that are to come.
Observation #5: John is telling us these witnesses are definitely coming.
These guys are ordained by God and what God ordains no man can stop. Notice John uses the word “will” here in regards to them coming under the authority of Jesus to preach the gospel. In other words, it is not a matter of “if” they prophesy. The word ‘if’ implies possibility; it would be like John saying they could or could not proclaim the gospel, but the potential is there. It also implies uncertainty as if to say they may or may not prophesy.
John is not saying that. What John is saying is that this shall happen. It will happen. It must happen. It has been determined that this is going to happen. It has been foreordained to happen. And that there is no one who can stop them from coming to bear witness about Jesus, preach the good news of salvation, and warn of God’s coming wrath.
Observation #6: John is telling us their time to preach is numbered.
That their time to preach has been predetermined. That the time of their preaching has a beginning and an end. John writes, “and they will prophesy for 1,260 days”. So for 1,260 days, which equates to 42 months, which also equates to three-and-half years remaining in the tribulation, they will be permitted to preach the gospel under the authority and power of Jesus. This means the gospel of Jesus Christ will be proclaimed the entirety of the tribulation beginning with the 144,000 sealed Jews, who preached for the first half of the tribulation, and will be continued by these two witnesses for the second half of the tribulation.
You may hear that and wonder will the 144,000 not be preaching in the second half of the tribulation? They will, just not in Jerusalem. Remember, according to Revelation 11:2, God is going to allow the followers of the Antichrist to overtake Jerusalem for the remainder of the tribulation. As they do, the Jews, including the 144,000, will flee Jerusalem into the wilderness. But then God will send these two prophets and they will proclaim the gospel in Jerusalem.
By the way, I believe this shows the extent for which God will still be reaching out to lost sinners. In the Old Testament God persistently sent Israel prophets to warn them of what was to come if they did not turn from their wicked ways. He still does this today through preachers and through his church. Even after the rapture of the church, God will still be sending the world prophets to proclaim the gospel, in order to reach lost sinners. And God does this not because He has too, but out of the compassion he has for the people whom he created in his image and for his glory, so that they might be saved. It gives God no pleasure to see the wicked die in their sins.
Observation #7: I want you to take note of how they are dressed.
When they come, John tells us they come “clothed in sackcloth.” Sackcloth is a very rough, coarse woven fabric usually made of goat’s hair and in the Old Testament it was worn to symbolize mourning and/or repentance. In this case, the two witnesses will wear sackcloths because they will come with a message of repentance. Their message to the nations will be to bear witness about Jesus, to proclaim the gospel, to warn of God’s coming wrath, and to get people to turn from their sin.
You know what’s amazing to me about this? It’s that the same message we preach today will be the same message that will be preached after the rapture by these two Old Testament prophets. Why is that? That’s because the Word of God never changes. It has always been the same. It will always be the same. It’s like what the prophet Isaiah said in Isa. 40:8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” It’s also because the preaching of God’s word has always been and always will be God’s means for people to have saving faith. Romans 10:17 says, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” People are not saved through programs or methods; they’re saved by hearing the Word of God. Sinners are saved by preachers proclaiming the Word of God. Furthermore, sinners are saved by saved people, called the church, going out into the community to tell others about Jesus. And this will not change, even after the rapture of the church.