Introduction

The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons and idols. They did not repent. The plagues God brought over the world did not lead to the repentance of the world. Plagues like those in the days of Mose and Pharaoh, demonstrating who has the ultimate power on earth; power over land and sea, power over people and nature, power over history and nations. Plagues that shake the earth and shake the idols. Plagues, intended to call people to repentance and to worship the one true God. But as in the days of Pharaoh... they still did not repent. They continued worshiping demons and idols instead of the living God. That is the situation in The Book of Revelation at the end of the ninth chapter.

There seems only one way how God can and should react as a result: to bring about the last and final plague, the judgement of the last trumpet. Six trumpets have been sounded, bringing limited judgements in order to warn people, to wake them up, and to bring them to repentance. The seventh trumpet will be different. It will be the end, the final judgement, total judgement.

As in the times of Pharaoh! As in the times of the first Church! As in our times. We live in a country (Germany) that was shaken by God during Second World War. Showing us that another power is in control than the one worshiped by our nation. Then ten years ago another regime in our country was shaken by God, bringing our nation a reunion that no-one expected and no-one could imagine. Rulers were brought down from their thrones. Walls fell down. All over Germany people sang the song: Grosser Gott wir loben dich. But as in the days of Pharaoh: we did not repent. We did not stop worshiping demons, and idols, and ideologies, and materialism. We did not repent. There seems only one thing left God can do: to bring about the final judgement.

But when we reach that moment in Revelation when everybody expects the seventh and last trumpet something totally different, something totally surprising happens. The movement of judgement stops. Time is called - like a time out in a sports game. 1260 days in symbol figures. Time is called. Time is given. Time, given for only one purpose: to bring the nations to repentance and to faith in the only true God. And how will this happen? It happens through the witness of the Church: You must witness (prophesy) again to (about) many people, nations, languages and kings. What the judgement didn't achieve, the Church is called to do: to lead the nations to repentance. Not by judgement but by their witness. That is the theme of chapters 10 and 11 of Revelation: The witness of the church. I read from Revelation chapter 9:20 - 11:15.

I will focus on three things this text reveals to us about the witness of the church to the nations:

1.Called by Christ to witness (the call)
John writes: Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. An angel. Not Christ. But an angel that clearly is identified as a representative of Christ: robed in a cloud, a rainbow above his head, a face like the sun, a voice like a lion. All of thit points to Christ. An angel representing Christ. A mighty angel as we read. And that is further emphasized by a phrase we hear three times: he planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. This phrase is in deliberate contrast to chapter 13, where the first beast is pictured as coming out of the sea, and then the second beast as coming out of the earth. The two beasts, embodying the powers of evil, trying to take control over the earth. But before they enter the scene, Revelation makes it very clear: there is only One who is in control, only one who has the ultimate power: Christ. A mighty angel, standing on the sea and on the land.

The mighty angel has in its hand a little scroll. And we hear a voice from heaven, asking John to take the scroll from the angel. But when John asks the angel to give him the scroll the angel says something that sounds quite strange: Take it and eat it. Take the scroll and eat it. What a strange requirement. But less strange for John than for us, because John knew the Old Testament well. In the very same way centuries ago God approached Ezekiel and called him to witness to the people of Israel. Eat the scroll. We are here at a crucial moment in Revelation. Here in chapter 10 John for the first time is asked to become actively involved in what is going on. Not only watching and writing down what is shown and revealed to him. But asked to step in and take over an active role in the story that is going on. Take and eat. Eat! Internalize the message, assimilate it. Eat! Witnesses first must become what they then say. As God's witnesses we not only pass on information. We bear witness to a message that first spoke to us. We witness a message that first changed and transformed our lives. It is the message of the Gospel. The message of the mystery of God, as our text puts it. The mystery of God, his salvation story, announced to his servants, the prophets, fulfilled in Christ's incarnation, cross and resurrection, and now about to be accomplished. That is what John is called to by Christ: to experience and to witness the message of the Gospel. But unlike Ezekiel John not only has to witness to the people of Israel but to the nations: You must witness again to many peoples, nations, languages and kings. The witness of the church becomes a means of the salvation of the nations. The mystery of God, his salvation story, is accomplished as the church wins the nations to worship the one true God. Called by Christ to witness. Called by the One who has ultimate power. Called by him to experience, to live and to proclaim the Gospel to the nations.

The ministry John is called to, now in chapter 11 is unfolded in the parable of the two witnesses. A parable we neither should try to interpret literally, nor as a sequence of events in Church History, but as a parable which dramatizes the nature and the result of the witness of the Church. You may ask how I can speak of the call of the church while reading in the text only of John and of the two witnesses. I will give you some reasons why in my second point:

2.A call for the Church (who is called)
Four reasons why we should understand this passage as a call for the whole of the Church:
First, John receives the message of Revelation not for himself but on behalf of the seven churches he is writing to. Seven churches that represent the whole of the Church at any time and at any place. The call to John to take and to eat the scroll, the call to witness to the nations, therefore is a call for the Church as a whole.

Second, John is told to measure the temple (11:1-2). This is imagery from the Old Testament, where Ezekiel in the midst of a time of destruction received the vision of a new temple into which enters the glory of God. To measure means to become aware of the great act God is doing in rebuilding the temple and to become aware of the glorious nature of this new temple. The new temple is Christ and his Church. That is the consistent testimony of all of the New Testament. Therefore it is the Church of Jesus Christ that is pictured here in the imagery of the temple, gathered to worship God.

Third, the two witnesses are identified as the two lampstands (11:3-4). The seven lampstands in Revelation chapter 1-3 have been identified to John as the seven Churches. Seven, because they represent the whole of the church. Here we have two lampstands. Two, because the topic here is a different one: it is about witness. It must be two lampstands, because the biblical tradition requires two witnesses: One witness is not enough... a matter must be established by the testimony of two... witnesses. So as the seven lampstands represent the whole of the church, the two lampstands do so too.

Fourth, the text brings in Moses and Elijah (11:6). Moses as the one who had the power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague. Eliah as the one who had the power to shut up the sky so it will not rain. Moses and Elijah, the two great prophets of the Old Testament. But also the two prophets that were present at the configuration of Jesus, talking to Jesus, attesting and witnessing that he is the Messiah. A voice from heaven confirmed the witness: This is my beloved Son, listen to him. But when the transfiguration was over, there were only Peter, James and John, representing all of the disciples. Now they, the disciples, are the witnesses. Now they are the ones to witness that Jesus is the Christ. So as John in Revelation brings in Moses and Elijah, they stand for all those who have recognized Jesus as the Christ and who are called to give testimony about him.

To summarize this second point: It is the Church who is called here to witness to the nations. We are called to witness to the nations. We, here, right where we live and amongst those we live with. We, here and now! Not as an option besides others, it is the vocation we as the Church of Christ are called to.

We are called by Christ to witness. We as the Church are called. And we are called to witness to the nations as the followers of the Lamb:

3.Called to witness to the nations as the followers of the Lamb (the character of the call)

What does it mean to witness as a follower of the Lamb? John is asked to take and eat the scroll and then he is told: it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey. The call is sweet, sweet like honey, because it is good news that we have to proclaim, because it is the message of God's salvation, of his mercy and forgiveness: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! The call is sweet. But the call can turn into bitterness when the message is rejected. It turns into bitterness when people actively resist the message. They will resist, because the message disturbs them in the life they are living. It questions their values, their lifestyles, their objects of adoration, the message even becomes a torment to them. When people hear the message they either will repent - or resist. The resistance to the message will turn against the witnesses themselves. Those who resist will try to silence them, and if necessary to overpower and kill them. They will publicly display the witnesses and celebrate their victory over them. This resistance is the bitterness, the sourness of the call.

And will that be the way how God brings the nations to repentance? Yes! And why? Because it is the way of our Lord himself! There is a very short but decisive sentence in the midst of all this resistance against those who bear testimony to the word of God: They will attack and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city (figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, which symbolizes our world as a world of moral perversion and oppression by political power), where also their Lord was crucified. Where also their Lord was crucified! That is the dicisive sentence. We are called to witness as followers of the Lamb. He himself is the faithful witness (1:5), he himself is the one who revealed the world the truth, he himself is the one who experienced the resistance and the hatred of the world against that message - and as he did so he became the slain Lamb who overcame hell, death and satan by his death. That is the way. And there is no other way. No other way to overcome evil. No other way to salvation. There was no other way for God, and there is no other way for us as the followers of the Lamb. And it is the mystery of the cross that, the very event celebrated by his enemies as their triumph over Him and his followers, accomplished His victory over the forces of evil. Our witness as the followers of the Lamb, deriving from the victory of the Lamb himself, is the power that has the promise to overcome the world. A witness that will provoke resistance, a witness that will sometimes lead into persecution and suffering, a witness that even may cost our lives. But a witness affirmed by God as he raises his witnesses from death and lifts them up into his presence. And the world will perceive the martyrs' participation in Christ's triumph over death by the way they face death and die. That is the witness that leads the nations to repentance.

This description of our call ends with a great promise: At the very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven. Again an allusion to Elijah. In his time only a remnant of 7000 people stayed faithful to God and were spared from the judgement. Now the things are reversed. A symbolic remnant of 7000 is not repentant. But the majority of the people receive the truth and give glory to the God of heaven. What an encouraging image!

That is the nature of the call. And the promise of the call. We are called to witness to the nations as the followers of the Lamb.

Conclusion
I will end with a picture the text gives us and I already mentioned before. It is the picture of the measuring of the temple. We see people gathered to worship God. Worshiping the only true and living God. Worshiping Him as their Saviour and Lord. As they gather they are the temple, the place of God's presence in this world. Here in their worship they look beyond the earthly affairs. Here they celebrate Christ's victory on the cross. Here they receive the call: take the scroll and eat. Here they get the courage to follow the call as they envision Christ in the imagery of the mighty angel to whom is given all the power in heaven and on earth. A courage, necessary to go out of the temple and to face a world, hostile to God's Gospel (The Gentiles will trample on the holy city).

And then the followers of the Lamb go out of the temple and witness to the nations the One who saved the world by becoming the slain Lamb. That is the call of the Church. And for that call time is given. Time to witness. Time to repent. But one day time will run out. And then the seventh trumpet will be sounded. And that will be the end. The fulfillment. The accomplishment of God's kingdom on earth: The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever. That is the day we are looking forward to! That is the day to come. Amen.

Martin Haizmann
May 2001