Few There Are Who Die So Hard

Revelation 11:1-13 May 8, 2022 Pastor Ricky Alcantar

Thesis The church is called to follow the faithful witness, Jesus, on the path from suffering to glory through faithful witness in every area of life.

Series

Revelation Overview Series

Type

Expository

Tone

pastoralpropheticdidacticcelebratory

Method

grammatical-historicalredemptive-historicalcanonical

What's in this sermon

The shape of the argument

24 units across exposition, application, illustration, theological claim, and conclusion. The pastor's argument is built from these moving parts.

Pastoral correction · unit #8

"Expands the application of witness into every sphere of life: marriage, parenting, vocation, and social media presence. Directly addresses mothers on Mother's Day, cutting through cultural performance anxiety to clarify their simple task—faithfully witnessing to Jesus in the home. Uses concrete, humorous illustrations of marital friction and parenting pressures to show witness as embodied gospel truth-telling in ordinary moments."

Doctrinal loci· 6 surfaced

Sanctification · 6 Christology · 5 Pastoral Theology · 5 Ethics / Moral Theology · 3 Doxology / Worship · 2 Spiritual Warfare · 1

Bible citations· 26

Illustrations· 1

personal story · unit #20 — Extended personal testimony illustrating the sermon's thesis. Two church members with cancer became witnesses through their suffering—one wore evangelistic shirts at MD Anderson, the other had worship around his deathbed. Their conquering through suffering transformed the church from inward to outward. The growth came not from methodology but from embodied gospel witness in the face of death.

Theological claims· 4

The task of every Christian is witness—speaking the words of God to others, just as Jesus commissioned the church in Acts 1:8. unit #6
Following Jesus involves suffering—denying self, taking up the cross, and sharing in Christ's sufferings is the normative Christian path. unit #11
Christ suffered once for sins to bring us to God, making all Christian suffering meaningful and redemptive as participation in God's plan. unit #12
For Christ and the Christian, conquering happens through suffering and death, not worldly power—the Lamb conquers by being slain. unit #17

Quotations· 4

"you can't understand the details of Revelation unless you understand the big picture. But you can't understand the big picture unless you understand some of the key details." — Dennis Johnson (unit #1)

"One tiny hobbit against all the evil the world could muster. A sane being would have given up, but Samwise burned with a magnificent madness, a glowing obsession to surmount every obstacle, to find Frodo, to destroy the ring, to cleanse Middle-earth of its festering malignancy. He knew he would try again, fail perhaps, try once more, a thousand, thousand times if need be, but he would not give up the quest." — J.R.R. Tolkien (unit #9)

"There, peeping among the clouds above a dark mountain high up in the sky, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while, and the beauty of it smote his heart. As he looked up out of the forsaken land, hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the shadow was only a small and passing thing. There was light and a high beauty forever beyond its reach." — J.R.R. Tolkien (unit #15)

"Why, Sam, to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story were already written." — Frodo (J.R.R. Tolkien character) (unit #22)

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0 · Welcomes the congregation, orients newcomers to the sermon's structure, and introduces the series context on Revelation

privilege of being a pastor here at Cross of Grace. Um, we're going to open up God's word now. So if you have a copy of God's word, please open in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 11.

And if you're new here, uh, we just want you to know the majority of our service every week is given over to reading a passage from the Bible and explaining it and then explaining what it means to our lives. And so, uh, this is a great place to learn more about what the Bible teaches. We happen to be in a series where we're going through one of the probably most well-known parts of the Bible, but least understood, which is the book of Revelation. And if you lived through Y2K, that means nothing to Generation Z, but remember Y2K? Everyone was in the book of Revelation, baby.

It was like, "Here it comes." And then we're still here. So what does Revelation then mean?

1 · Explains the hermeneutical approach of the series—focusing on key details to grasp the big picture rather than exhaustive exposition

Well, In our series of Revelation, we've decided to take the approach of an overview series of the book. And we do that because in the words of Dennis Johnson, Dr. Johnson, one of the commentators we found helpful, he says you can't understand the details of Revelation unless you understand the big picture. But you can't understand the big picture unless you understand some of the key details.

So That's what we're trying to do in our study. We're trying to hit kind of the biggest, most important parts of Revelation and not take 3 years to do this, do it in a shorter time period so that you can make the connections and begin to see the book as a whole. And then from there, begin to dive into individual sections.

2 · Bridges from previous sermons to today's focus

So we've been looking at the different threads in the Book of Revelation. We've seen the sovereignty of God as one thread, the opposition of the world as one thread.

And today we're picking up the thread of the church. As turmoil erupts on the earth, as the four horsemen ride out into the earth, where is the church? What is the church to do? And that's what Revelation chapter 11 is concerned with.

3 · Full reading of the primary text with pastoral instruction on how to receive apocalyptic imagery—letting the pictures form rather than immediately demanding propositional clarity

So we're going to read Revelation 11, verses 1 through 13.

And as you find yourself, "Man, these images are strange. What does that mean? What does that mean?" Just pause and try to let the the whole picture. Apocalyptic literature is meant to paint a picture in your mind. So allow it to do that as we read Revelation 11:1.

This is God's word. Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and 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 42 months. 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 finish their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

For 3.5 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 3.5 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, and 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified.

And gave glory to the God of heaven. This is God's Word.

4 · Prayer asking God to grant clarity and revelation through the passage, focusing the congregation's hearts on the path of the Christian and the church

And Father, I pray that as we read, Lord, that You would allow Revelation to do what it is meant to do, to reveal. I pray that we would walk out of here with greater clarity after interacting with Your Word, not greater confusion. And I pray that the clarity, God, would be on the path of the Christian and the church, that we may all feel the call of Christ, but also feel hope and faith and life in the call.

In Jesus' name, amen.

5 · Establishes the interpretive framework for the passage by arguing exegetically that the two witnesses represent the church

Well, on Mother's Day, I want to honor my mom for instilling in me a love of reading. I began to be— I struggled with reading early on in first grade, and then I began to be a voracious reader. So my mom would just feed me books. And one of the books that I read in that at that sort of age of 10, 11, 12, as I was starting to get into reading, was the great Lord of the Rings trilogy, right?

This is my mom's copy from, I think, the 1970s. It has an awesome picture of Tolkien with a pipe smiling on the back. And in the book, here's what I found. It was a perfect thing for a 12-year-old boy because whenever you read these fantasy magic stories, you're always looking for yourself. And so first time I read the books, I thought, man, The character I'm the most like, or I want to be the most like, is Aragorn, the secret king who comes and raises an army and goes back and, you know, defeats everybody in Gondor and goes to the very Black Gates.

And you're like, yes. And then you start to realize, like, okay, actually, I think the coolest character is Gandalf, the wise wizard who is outthinking and trying to outsmart the enemy. And then there's this bit, especially if you read this last book, where it's all action and excitement, and then it stops, and then it picks up with Frodo and Sam, two small hobbits, two small guys, walking and walking and walking. And they walk through marshes, unpleasant. They walk through mountains that are unpleasant.

They walk through gross other places that are even more unpleasant. And you're like, can we get back to the action here? What are we doing with these guys? And yet, as I've grown older, you start to realize, oh, wait a minute, they're actually the heroes. They do the thing that nobody else can do.

They take this ring of power and throw it into a volcano. Well, a lot of stuff happens at the volcano, but we're not going to get to— that's their task, to faithfully carry this difficult burden, to finish their task despite a long, dark, difficult road. And as I've gotten older, I think that's probably more like us. That's at least more like me. In this passage today, we're going to see two witnesses who have a difficult task and find themselves on a difficult road, and yet by their faithfulness are glorious.

Now, if you are here, maybe you've heard various interpretations of this passage as, okay, in the future there's going to be two literal kind of angelic witnesses or human witnesses, and they're going to have literal fire come out of their mouths and, like, be dragons and be shooting people down and preach the gospel. And as a 12-year-old, when you read Revelation, that's also the part you're like, I'll be these guys. This is great. Fire mouth. That's awesome.

Now, I'm going to give you a few reasons why I think Revelation itself tells us that these two witnesses actually are meant to represent the church during the time of the turmoil all around us in the world. This is meant to be a picture of the church, I believe, from Jesus' ascension to his return. A couple reasons. First, notice that they're identified as the two lampstands. Now, if you've been in our series, you remember in Revelation 1, the lampstands were explicitly identified as the churches.

Jesus walks among the lampstands meeting the 7 churches, and then in case we're a little dense, Jesus literally says, "The lampstands are the churches." Tracking? And we're like, "I don't— what do you mean?" No, they're the churches. Very clear. Now, second point of clarity, verse 7, where it says, that the beast was allowed to make war on the witnesses and conquer them is repeated nearly word for word in chapter 13, which concerns the beast. And chapter 13 says this, the beast was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them.

So the two verses actually are like parallel. The only difference is in one place they're called, it talks about the two witnesses, in one place it talks about the saints. Now, third, these witnesses don't do anything that should surprise us if we've listened to Jesus and what he says about the church, meaning that the witnesses are to witness faithfully, they'll be protected, they will die, and they will rise again. That's what Jesus says repeatedly about the Christian and the church. Now, it is possible that these two witnesses really perhaps will be real figures at the end of history.

But if that's the case, they're merely a culmination of the work of the church throughout the generations leading up to Christ's return. So either way, whether they're symbolic or whether they— there really will be two witnesses, but those two witnesses are simply going to fulfill in kind of grander style the pattern of the church. The message of the passage is the same. So if you're reading this in the first century, you're You're reading this and you're thinking, "That's us. That's our path.

That's the path of God's people." Now, what you should notice also is that this path is not just the path of Christ's people, but the path of Christ himself.

6 · States the sermon's main thesis by drawing the parallel between Christ's path (witness → suffering → glory) and the church's path

Look at this terrible illustration I've drawn. I've got to do at least one of these a week so you guys feel better about your handwriting and/or drawing. Okay, so here's what we got. We have Jesus.

What does Jesus do? He witnesses. And then what does he do? He suffers and dies. And then what?

He's resurrected to life and to glory. And over on the right-hand side, there's Jesus' church. And we're looking at that pattern and we're going, "But that's you, right, Jesus? Is there a kind of a path where we could go from Jesus' church to glory?" without the other stuff? Is that an option?

And no, Revelation 11 actually says we are to see the path of Jesus in a sense as the path of every Christian, as the path of the church. Please take that away. Main point of the passage today is this: follow the faithful witness, Jesus, on the path from suffering to glory. That's the call today. Follow the faithful witness on the path from suffering to glory.

We're going to look at this in 3 parts. First, the task of every Christian is witness. Now, verse 3— remember, Revelation is meant to reveal. And it says in verse 3, "I will grant authority to my 2 witnesses, and they will prophesy." And the way that they're dressed in the sackcloth is a throwback to the Old Testament prophets. And they've been given a commission by the Lord.

They're prophecy. What that means is they're speaking the words of God to others. And their task is, let's not overcomplicate this, witnesses. In fact, there are two of them because in the Old Testament two witnesses are needed to establish a testimony. So in a sense, there are two witnesses witnessing, witnessing.

The text, that's what it feels like. These guys are witnesses. They're going to witness. They are witnessing. Do you see them witnessing?

Witnessing. And why is that helpful? Because it clarifies the task of the church. In fact, this is very parallel to Acts 1:8 where Jesus says to the church, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my"—what?—"witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." So these witnesses, whether they're fully symbolic or perhaps are going to be culminated in two figures, they're just doing what Jesus has told the church to do.

7 · Applies the theological claim about witness to the contemporary situation

And I find this so helpful and so clarifying for us as Christians. I don't know about you, but I read news headlines or scroll through Twitter and I just think, what in the world? What am I supposed to do? There's war here, there's famine here, there's disaster here, there's fire here, there's corruption in the school district here, there's a— There's a corruption in my workplace here. There's just all this stuff going on all around me.

And we're wondering, man, what do we do? What are we supposed to do? We're meant to witness. And what does that mean? It simply means— and we're meant to prophesy in the biblical sense, meaning we're to speak the word of God, speak the gospel and the truth of the word to all that will hear.

And our own lives being changed, like the demoniac who was freed, He wants to go with Jesus and Jesus says, "No, go home and tell your friends how much the Lord has done for you." That's what we're to do. We're simply to speak of what the Lord has done in our lives. And this— look, in every age there are good things for the church, capital C, to be involved in. You know, helping those, mercy ministry, you know, various kinds of things. But one of the things we can't lose hold of is in our In our view of the church, there is one utterly, utterly unmissable task, which is the proclamation of the Word of God in faithfulness.

Romans chapter 10 says this: "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching? Meaning this, the church in every age speaking the word of the gospel, and yes, yes, adorning the gospel with good works, as it says in Titus, but that primary unmissable thing, the proclamation of the gospel, is what creates and advances the church.

That is the one thing we cannot drop from generation to generation.

How are they to hear without someone preaching? And let me just say this. I think there is a commendable sort of zeal if you're, like, let's just say under 35 or 30, for doing good works, for seeing the way the world is broken around us as Christians and saying, "Oh, there's poverty here, there's disease." And those are good things. We are meant to do good works, to serve the poor, to help those in need. Amen.

But my concern for especially the next generation is that often the crucial thing becomes showing mercy. And when even a good thing replaces the gospel, We have lost it because the gospel is the essential and critical call of the church in every age.

8 · Expands the application of witness into every sphere of life: marriage, parenting, vocation, and social media presence

Now, I want you to get this for a second. So, witness is the task of the Christian. Now, you're probably thinking, "Okay, well, so what do you want me to go down to San Jacinto Plaza and just stand there and hope fire comes out of my mouth and burns up my enemies? Like, what are you telling me to do here?" Witness is the call of every Christian in many ways in every area of life.

Think about this. In marriage, what are you doing in marriage? Well, in marriage, according to Ephesians 5, the husband and wife are pictures of Christ and the church. And every marriage tells the drama of redemption to those who have eyes to see it. So that means, I don't know if this happened to you, After you get married and there's that one perfect week or maybe one perfect month or one perfect year, and then you wake up and you look at your spouse and go, "You didn't seem this grumpy before.

You know, have you always been doing that? Why are you leaving that on the floor?" You know, like, and— or perhaps more importantly, you know, "Well, you said that I could do this job." "Well, we never agreed." I don't like when you talk to our kid that way. Well, maybe you should try talking to your kid at all, right? We start to devolve into that.

What does Jesus call us to do in those moments where you're like, I don't know if I love my— I don't feel the love for my spouse, I don't know if they feel the love for me. Our call is to be a picture of Christ in the church and to reconcile and lay our lives down for them, as we'll see. What is parenting? I will admit, moms, this is a weird passage for Mother's Day. If you brought your mom today and you're like, "I bet Ricky's going to do Proverbs 31 or just, you know, something nice," and now we've got people turning water into blood and death.

But here really where I think— I do have a burden to encourage moms today. Moms, you feel so many voices, you face so many different kinds of information coming to you. You got to do school with your kids this way. You got to parent your kids this way. You know, you're watching Instagrams of videos of perfect moms who, they're growing their own corn and their chickens are laying their own eggs and they're making organic butter and they, you know, they're frying up pancakes while one of their kids plays Beethoven on the piano and you're just like, ah, you know.

Or maybe you're on the other extreme and you see some kid who's, you know, that You see, you tell at age 7 he's a Division I college athlete. You know, we were at soccer yesterday. There was one kid that you're like, yeah, man, he's like 2 heads taller than everybody else and he's scoring from midfield. And so just draft him now. It's, you know, take him to Europe now.

And you feel these things. Moms, I want to encourage you. Your task is not easy, but it is simple and it is straightforward. And it's not turning your son or daughter into Division I athlete. It's not.

Teaching them a perfect, you know, classical music repertoire. It's faithfully witnessing to your kids that when you really want to get angry, you ask the Lord for help, or when you do get angry, you go to your kids and apologize. It's faithfully speaking bits of the gospel, taking the little kids' ministry paper and asking your kids about it, or opening up the Word during the week. It doesn't have to be fancy, doesn't have to be You don't have to be perfect, but just that simplicity of being a faithful witness, acting like you're following Jesus, as Chuck was sharing in his story. Follow Jesus.

Talk about Jesus. That's your call. And let me just mention briefly that this applies to vocation as well. What are you trying to do? You're not just trying to make it to payday and clock out.

You're trying to be a witness for Jesus wherever he has you. To you. Your Facebook presence, your Twitter presence, your Instagram presence is not just there for fun. It's meant in some sense to be a witness. And this is the call.

9 · Expounds the fire and plague imagery as symbolic of the Word's power when proclaimed

But there will be opposition, right? There will be opposition. You see these people coming against them, but then they're protected. So what in the world does that mean? What— get to the fire and the blood part.

Well, verse 5, the fire, if you know your Old Testament, references the prophetic ministry of Elijah, right? He's speaking the word of God, and the prophets of Baal are there, and fire comes down from heaven, right? And then in verse 6, there's references to the prophetic ministry of Moses. He's speaking these things in Egypt, and the Lord is doing signs and wonders. What is all this supposed to mean?

Well, notice this. Their task is to witness, and out of their mouth comes fire, and out of their mouth these things are happening in the heavens. What does it mean? It means this. That as we proclaim the church, as we proclaim the Word of God, it is accompanied with the power of God for our protection.

It is not just our words, like we're out there in the town square, "Hey, have you thought about Jesus?" No, the Word of God goes forth with power. It is unleashed when we speak it. It silences people. It brings people from death to life, and some who refuse Christ, it confirms them being put away from Christ, right? And in this way, we wonder, okay, well, we've got the word of God, that's helpful, but I still feel weak in my witness.

Oh, that's where that little detail in verse 4 about the two olive trees and the two lampstands is so critical. The olive trees, right? The olive trees were often what made the oil for the lamps. And the olive trees are in the Old Testament often a symbol of the Spirit of God. So what is it saying?

It's saying this, that the church will blaze out the hope of the gospel, but that blazing out of the gospel is gonna be lit, in a sense, by the power of the Spirit. So it's not as though we're like, "Ugh, I don't think I can do this task. It's too hard." No, the Lord sends us out. With his living spirit, with his living word, and says, "Go speak." It may be hard, it may be difficult, but that's the call. I love the resilience of the two little hobbits as they make their way to Mordor.

There's a quote that I love from Tolkien. He says, "One tiny hobbit against all the evil the world could muster. A sane being would have given up, but Samwise burned with a magnificent madness, a glowing obsession to surmount every obstacle, to find Frodo, to destroy the ring, to cleanse Middle-earth of its festering malignancy. He knew he would try again, fail perhaps, try once more, a thousand, thousand times if need be, but he would not give up the quest. This is what I think we see in the witnesses.

They are just out there continuing on the path God has for them. Again and again with the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word.

10 · Introduces the second movement—death—with pastoral honesty about the difficulty of the topic

Second, the path of every Christian: death. Happy Mother's Day. You're just like, "Man, this is getting better and better." All right, verse 7.

This is going to be encouraging, I promise, but you got to stick with it. Verse 7: And when they finish their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will will make war on them. And you're thinking, okay, and then they're going to win and they're going to beat that beast. No. And conquer them and kill them.

And it goes on to talk about their bodies lying in the street and the world, you know, against Christ rejoicing. Now, you're probably wondering, okay, well, I'm really hoping you're going to say that's at the end of history too, right? Like, that's going to, you know, not going to happen to me. Well, it could be that in the end the church will have a moment where it seems decisively defeated only to rise again. Or this could simply be an ongoing pattern throughout world history.

But the point is the same. The path of every faithful witness is in opposition to the world, the flesh, and the devil. And often they will seem to win.

11 · Broadens the death imagery from martyrdom to the daily dying of discipleship

Now, the primary application here is the world's opposition, but there is a sense I want us to get that following Jesus in every area of life will be a kind of death. Following Christ involves suffering, sometimes suffering through a fallen world, suffering through persecution, suffering through opposition, suffering through denying our own desires for the sake of Christ. But hear the word of the Lord today, verse Matthew 16:24, Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Peter, who took up his cross and followed Jesus, tells us this, "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad at his glory. Or Paul the Apostle, on the road of Christ, says this: Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel, for the power of God.

12 · Anchors Christian suffering in Christ's prior suffering

Now look, here's what we have to remember the path. Christ's example is that he suffered for us. You remember that reference there? Their bodies will lie out in the street in the same city, symbolically the same city of worldly opposition, as their Lord did. Meaning this: the road that the witnesses walk has already been walked by Christ.

And in fact, there's a real sense in which he walked the road into suffering and death much further than they will ever walk. In the midst of encouraging those suffering in 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter talks about various kinds of suffering, but then he inserts this phrase: Christ also suffered once for sins, that he might bring us to God.

Meaning this: suffering is never meaningless for the Christian. Suffering, in fact, is the means by which God advances his plan for the redemption of many.

It is a beautiful and glorious thing.

13 · Direct evangelistic aside to unbelievers

Look, and if you don't know Jesus, this is probably a strange message, but I think you're seeing the gospel as it really is, that the gospel offer is this: anyone from anywhere at any time who's done anything can call on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. Maybe you've heard that call, but accompanied with that call is Jesus saying, "If anyone would come after me, take up your cross and follow me." All you must do to be brought to God is trust in what Christ has done in suffering once for sins that he might bring you to God. But you have to also see the road of following Jesus— like, I'm not going to tell you the road to following Jesus is going to be a bunch of unicorns and rainbows and just Care Bears singing songs.

The road of following Jesus is Jesus' road, but as you'll see, it is glorious.

14 · Pastoral aside grounding the theology of redemptive suffering in concrete examples

Now, I just want to point out something here very briefly. I wish we could say much more about this. I'm working with a biblical counselor, and one of the things my biblical counselor has been talking about is, I've had a number of issues in my life that involve suffering over the last 2 years, some physical, you know, other things as well. And he made— he said this the other day, and I just— it's stuck in my mind.

And it's this, that the gospel means that for the Christian suffering is turned into glory.

Meaning this, that if what Jesus did, if him Suffering is the means by which he saved us and brought us to a future and a hope. That's the path we walk. And no bit of suffering is meaningless or pointless. Look, if you are in a difficult spot in your marriage fighting to love your spouse, hear the call of Christ. Sometimes we're like, man, hey, I would be happy to be martyred for the Christian faith.

You know, send me to the Middle East or a closed country, I'll do it where I gotta be strong for an hour. But rebuilding your marriage is going to take months or years. You're like, oh, it's too hard. It's too much to death. Brothers and sisters, let me encourage you.

Follow the path of Christ. Maybe you're struggling with a child and they're wayward and it's difficult to have hope that God will ever do anything. And there's a daily kind of suffering that comes with that. Take comfort. You're not on the wrong road.

Through that, Jesus can work powerfully and gloriously. Maybe you're struggling with chronic pain or depression or something that dogs you, that your victory of the day— I was talking to somebody in the first service and they just said, "My victory for the day when I was fighting depression was getting out of bed." Like, there's a sense in which that is true suffering, and when we do it with the help of Christ, it is glorious.

15 · Expounds the resurrection and ascension of the witnesses (vv

Now, we can't end there. That is not the end. I want to show you the end of every Christian. The path of every Christian is witness— I mean, the task of every Christian is to witness.

The path of every Christian is death. And the end of every Christian is glory. Verse 11: But after the 3.5 days, a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood upon their feet. And great fear fell on those who saw them. Yeah, I bet.

When you kill somebody, leave their body in the street for a while, it is alarming to have them get up.

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. Oh, church, the end of the Christian path is not in despair but glory. The end of the Christian path is not loss but gain. The end of the Christian path is not darkness but light. The end of the Christian path is not suffering but glory, right?

And notice the timestamps, right? These timestamps are symbolic, but they witness for a long time, suffer for a short time, and live forever with Christ. But get the times right, because it may feel like those 3.5 days of dying to yourself are endless. They are not. They will be a snap in all of eternity.

But this, this, this is what I believe the Lord meant to fix in the eyes of the church in Revelation 2 and 3, those 7 churches experiencing more and more opposition, wondering what will happen to us. "Some of them have even been killed. What will we do?" Jesus wants them to see, "Your task, your task is simple. Stay faithful, witness. I will protect you.

I will give you the power. You will die, but then you will live forever." Look, this is summed up in a beautiful scene from Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings. Where in the midst of a very difficult time on the road, we read this: There, peeping among the clouds above a dark mountain high up in the sky, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while, and the beauty of it smote his heart. As he looked up out of the forsaken land, hope returned to him.

Christian, I believe there's some of you that the Lord is— he intends this morning for hope to enter your soul again. Continues, for like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end, the shadow was only a small and passing thing. There was light and a high beauty forever beyond its reach.

Look, this is what Revelation is meant to do. We're to look ahead to that bright shining moment when the Lord rumbles across the earth, "Come up here." And in that moment, we go from death to life.

16 · Identifies the canonical source of the resurrection imagery—Ezekiel 37's valley of dry bones

Look, we don't fully get this. They're drawing on the imagery of Ezekiel chapter 37, where Ezekiel, he sees a valley of dry bones, and it's like, it's hopeless. That is the state of God's people. They are dead. Their bones are dried up and scorched.

And God tells him, "Speak to the bones." And he does, and they rise. And this is what the Lord says. Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope is lost. We are indeed cut off.' Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people.

I will bring you into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people.'" I will put my spirit within you and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. And then you shall know that I am the Lord. I've spoken and I will do it.

But the picture in their mind is Ezekiel 37, as their bodies are reformed and they stand up.

17 · Establishes the theological center of the sermon by drawing on Revelation 5

Church, this is the glorious pattern set by the Lamb of God himself. Remember Revelation 5 where it says this, "Weep no more. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its 7 seals." You see the contrast of conquering? The beast conquers them and goes, "Haha, we got them." They're dead, that's it, game over. But the beast does not know that the Lamb's conquering is eternal.

And look at the contrast between the lion, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered and you expect to see a lion, but verse 6 says, between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain. Meaning this: for Christ, the conquering is in the slaying. The slaying is the path to his ultimate conquering. And the same is true for the Christian. We may die daily, but in that death, as those thousand tiny deaths a day, as we die to ourselves and live for him, we conquer.

18 · Quotes the promises to the seven churches from Revelation 2-3, emphasizing the repeated phrase 'to him who conquers

And the Lord holds out for us the hope of what happens when we conquer again and again in Revelation 2 and 3. I hope you're seeing this in your community group. To Ephesus, to him who conquers, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. To Sardis, the one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and I will never blot out his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father. To Laodicea, the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Throne. Do you see the pattern, church? The gospel turns suffering into glory because it is in our dying, in our suffering, that we conquer just as Christ did.

19 · Issues the call to conquer by naming what conquering looks like in the church—not military triumph but daily faithfulness in marriage, addiction recovery, singleness, and resisting sexual sin

So this is the effect I wanted to have today in the church. Church, rise and conquer. But our conquering is not the conquering of the world. It's not a marshaling of armies. It is a husband and wife crying and praying yet again that the Lord would reconcile them.

It is a guy struggling with drug addiction and praying and seeking help and dying every day to that desire. It is the person who is single who so longs to be with someone and every Christmas dreads the question, "Why haven't you found someone?" getting up and saying to themselves again and again and again, "Christ is sufficient." When the world says, "You're stunted. Better at least be with somebody for the night," and the Christian says, "No." Look, this is the conquering of the church in a thousand ways, in a thousand places. That's why I respect the church so much.

And this is how the gospel advances.

20 · Extended personal testimony illustrating the sermon's thesis

Look, years ago there was some— I'll end with this. There was somebody that was asking me, "What's the secret of your church growth?" You know, it was a pastor at a pastors' meeting. I didn't know him well, but I was just describing, you know, we had gone from probably a couple hundred people to over 400 people in just a few years. And he's like, "Man, what's your secret?" And I knew what he was asking for.

He was asking, like, "What was your evangelism plan? What'd you guys do? Or did you, you know, did you brighten up the auditorium? Or are the chairs more comfortable? What is it?

Do you start quoting cool people in your sermons?" Like, no, I quote Johnny Cash and Tolkien, and so that's definitely not it. Is it the drawings? It's definitely not the drawings. So, but I can tell what he's after. That's funny, the Lord brought something to mind, because we did several things.

People were faithful in different areas. But what I felt the Lord put on my heart to tell him was, you know how we went from an inwardly focused church to a more outwardly focused church? I mean, we're still in process. You know how we went from inward to outward? 2 guys in our church got cancer.

One of our worship leaders named Danny and one of our leaders named Todd.

And through that, as they walked through it, Todd would wear a Pick Jesus shirt with a guitar pick because he went to MD Anderson, which is the cheesiest evangelism I can imagine. But tons of people asked him about the shirt. So it was obviously effective. And the Lord rebuked me.

And he had so many conversations. And he had a mailing list that he was giving updates to of people that don't know Jesus. And he's just clearly preaching about the hope of Jesus. And Danny going to his office again and again. I remember Danny's last day, John Vogan was there and just leading worship around him.

And people were coming and hearing about Jesus just the way they had through his whole church. Trial.

And I truly believe, church, in those years something changed inside of us.

Not because we painted the auditorium, not because our flyers to the neighborhood were better, because two guys who looked death in the eye said Christ is enough. Jesus is my life and conquered and conquered.

21 · Direct application to three types of Christians: the downcast who need hope, the passive who need to witness, and those seeking a suffering-free Christianity

So this is my heart for our church, that we not lose the pattern. And let me just encourage you, if you're a Christian, probably one of those three parts that we talked about today is hard for you. Maybe you just feel downcast. You see the hard road of witness, you see the death, you don't see the end. Oh, could I just encourage you, look to the bright star, look to Christ, look to the day the voice says, "Come up here, and every tear will be wiped away." Maybe what you don't see is the faithfulness here on earth.

Maybe you're just a Christian, you're just trying to bide your time. You know, hang tight until— well, it's going to be hard, but then we'll go to heaven. There's no witness. Maybe what today Jesus is calling you to do is say, witness. Speak about Jesus.

Or maybe some of you, you like, okay, got Christian life, we got heaven. I don't like the thing in the middle. Is there like a route around the death part? This is where so many churches in America are at. They've tried to find a route around the death part.

Churches are like, "Oh, we don't talk about sin or death or hell or any of that stuff. It brings people down. We want to be an upbeat church." The suffering is where the glory is.

22 · Closes with John 12:24 to anchor the death-to-fruitfulness pattern in Jesus' own teaching

So let me end with this. John 12:24 says this: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone." But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

In Sam and Frodo's last steps toward Mount Doom, they're talking about the great stories and wondering if they'll ever be in a great story. And so Sam starts talking about maybe people will be in a great story someday. Nobody really wants to be in a great story because they're really hard. People just like to hear about the great stories. But we are in a great story, and so maybe someday people will talk about us even though it seems hopeless.

And Frodo says, "Why, Sam, to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story were already written." And Christian, for us, the story is already written. It ends in heaven. Glory.

23 · Closing prayer applying the sermon's three movements to three groups: the downcast needing hope, the passive needing to witness, and the suffering needing assurance they are on the right path

Would you stand and let's pray. Lord, we pray that as we close with singing, God, that you would do a work in our hearts. Lord, we're all in one of those places today where maybe what we're not seeing is the hope at the end. So I pray for the downcast Christian that you would fill them, fill them with the Spirit, God.

Point them to that bright shining moment. Maybe some aren't seeing that the task of faithfulness, and you're calling them to take up that task in their marriage and their parenting, in their workplace, in their neighborhood, in their city. Maybe some aren't seeing the hardness of the road and they're feeling like, man, I'm suffering. I must be off the path. This is wrong, right?

Pray that you would encourage them and breathe life into them until the day our faith is sight. Amen.

Where this fits

Recent preaching context

The three sermons immediately preceding this one in the preaching schedule.

Mar 27, 2022

What to Fear and Fear Not

Because Jesus is the glorified King of Kings who walks among his churches, has conquered death, and loves his people, Christians need not fear any earthly threat or tribulation.

Revelation 1:9-20

Apr 10, 2022

The Citadel at the End of Time

The God who sits on the throne at the center of the universe—sovereign, holy, and merciful—deserves to sit on the throne of your life, and when you see him as he truly is, your only reasonable response is joyful worship and complete surrender.

Revelation 4:1-11

May 1, 2022

When the Man Comes Around

God is good and angry, and he is good because he is angry at sin and injustice, but the wrath of the Lamb can be escaped only through washing in the blood of the Lamb.

Revelation 6:1-17

May 8 · This sermon

Few There Are Who Die So Hard

The church is called to follow the faithful witness, Jesus, on the path from suffering to glory through faithful witness in every area of life.

Revelation 11:1-13

Take it further

Discuss · apply · pray

Small groups

6 discussion questions

What is the primary task that Revelation 11 assigns to the two witnesses—and by extension, to the church today?…

Daily readings

5-day reading plan

This week we follow the path Jesus walked—from faithful witness through suffering to resurrection glory—learning that our call to proclaim Christ in every area of life is inseparable from taking up the cross.

Prayer

Prayer: Faithful Witness Through Suffering to Glory

Father, we come before you as your church, the body of Christ, called to be witnesses in a world that opposes your truth. We adore you for y…

Family table

The Road Jesus Walked

This prompt invites your family to name one area of their own life where they're being called to witness—and to talk honestly about what mak…

Couples

Witness Together: The Path from Suffering to Glory

What area of your life—marriage, parenting, work, or something else—did the sermon challenge you to see as an arena for faithful witness to…

Memorize

Revelation 5:5-6

This verse crystallizes the sermon's central paradox: Christ conquers not through worldly power but through suffering and death—the Lamb is both Lion and slain. It anchors the church's own path: faithful witness that leads through suffering to glory, following the pattern Jesus himself established and inviting us to share in his redemptive suffering.

Couples · three questions over coffee

Witness Together: The Path from Suffering to Glory

What area of your life—marriage, parenting, work, or something else—did the sermon challenge you to see as an arena for faithful witness to Christ?
Where do we as a couple need to embrace the suffering side of following Jesus rather than looking for a path that avoids the cross, and how can we encourage each other in that?
How can we pray for one another this week to remain faithful witnesses, even when it costs us something?

Draft · pending review

Memory verse this week

Revelation 5:5-6

And one of the elders said to me, 'Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered.' And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Why this verse: This verse crystallizes the sermon's central paradox: Christ conquers not through worldly power but through suffering and death—the Lamb is both Lion and slain. It anchors the church's own path: faithful witness that leads through suffering to glory, following the pattern Jesus himself established and inviting us to share in his redemptive suffering.

Draft · pending review

Sunday-evening family table

The Road Jesus Walked

For the parent

This prompt invites your family to name one area of their own life where they're being called to witness—and to talk honestly about what makes that hard. Listen for where your kids see opposition or difficulty, and affirm that difficulty as normal and meaningful.

In the sermon, we heard that following Jesus means walking the same road Jesus walked—through suffering to glory. Can you think of one place in your life right now—at school, with friends, at home, online—where telling the truth about Jesus or living like Jesus is hard? What makes it hard? And how does it help to know that Jesus walked a hard road first?

works for ages 8+; younger kids can listen and offer one-word answers with parent guidance

Draft · pending review

Daily readings · Monday–Friday

5-day reading plan

Monday Acts 1:8

Jesus' final command to the church before his ascension was not to hide, but to go and witness—in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, to the ends of the earth. This is the church's singular task across every generation. When we gather on Sunday or scatter into our homes, our workplaces, our marriages, our parenting—we are always sent as witnesses of what God has done in Christ.

Tuesday Matthew 16:24

Jesus does not call us to comfort first and then, perhaps, to difficulty. He calls us to deny ourselves and take up the cross. This is the entry point to discipleship, not an advanced elective. The two witnesses in Revelation walk this same road—faithful, vocal, willing to die—because they follow the Lamb who was slain, not a king who conquers by armies.

Wednesday 1 Peter 3:18

Jesus' death was not tragic accident—it was purposeful, redemptive, singular. *Once* he suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. When we suffer as witnesses, we do not suffer redemptively for others' sins as Jesus did, but we suffer *in union with* his suffering, as those already brought to God by his death. Our suffering has dignity and meaning because it is participation in his.

Thursday Revelation 5:5-6

The Lion of Judah—the symbol of power and victory—appears as a Lamb slain. This is the inversion of all earthly logic. The church conquers not by silencing its enemies, not by cultural dominance, not by avoiding the cross, but by faithful witness even unto death. The Lamb's victory came through apparent defeat; so too the church's witness proves strongest when the world believes it has won.

Friday 1 Peter 4:12-13

Peter tells us not to be surprised at fiery trials, as though something strange were happening. We are called to rejoice *inasmuch as* we share Christ's sufferings—meaning that suffering and witness are woven together in every arena of our lives. In your marriage, speak the truth of the gospel. In your parenting, model Christ's love. In your work, let your integrity witness. In your online presence, let Christ's name be honored. This is not one person's calling; this is every Christian's.

Draft · pending review

Small-group discussion

6 questions for your group this week

What is the primary task that Revelation 11 assigns to the two witnesses—and by extension, to the church today?

Revelation 11:3, Acts 1:8

→ How does this compare to what you thought the church's main job was before this sermon?
Look at Revelation 11:7-12. What is the sequence of events the witnesses experience, and what does their path reveal about the nature of Christian faithfulness?

Revelation 11:7-12
The sermon claims that the witnesses' suffering mirrors Christ's own path. Where in your own life—marriage, work, parenting, friendships—have you seen faithfulness require suffering or opposition?

Matthew 16:24, 1 Peter 4:12-13

→ In that situation, did you experience it as defeat at the time, or were you able to trust that God was at work?
According to the text and the sermon, how does the church 'conquer'—and how is this different from the way the world understands victory?

Revelation 5:5-6
If witness is the call of every Christian in every area of life, where do you sense God calling you to be a more faithful witness this week—and what obstacle (fear, comfort, shame) might be holding you back?

Romans 10:13-15

→ What would it look like to witness in that area without needing to see immediate results or approval?
The sermon emphasizes that Christ suffered once for sins to bring us to God, and that our suffering participates in that redemptive work. How does knowing this change the way you think about your own hardship or the difficulty of the Christian path?

1 Peter 3:18, Revelation 11:11-12

Draft · pending review

Pray together this week

Prayer: Faithful Witness Through Suffering to Glory

Father, we come before you as your church, the body of Christ, called to be witnesses in a world that opposes your truth. We adore you for your faithfulness—you do not ask us to walk a path you have not walked. Jesus, our Lord, went before us through suffering and death to resurrection and glory, and he calls us to follow him on that same narrow road. We praise you that his suffering was once for all, that it accomplished our redemption and made a way for us to be reconciled to you forever (1 Peter 3:18).

Yet we confess, Father, that we often shrink from the cost of witness. We are tempted to keep our faith private, to remain silent in our marriages, our workplaces, our friendships, and even in our homes with our children. We fear opposition. We fear suffering. We fear the loss of comfort and approval. We hesitate to speak the words of God in the places where he has stationed us. Forgive us for the times we have chosen safety over faithfulness, silence over proclamation, and the broad way over the way of the cross.

And yet here is the good news: you have not left us orphaned or powerless. You have given us the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, to empower our witness (Acts 1:8). You have commissioned us—every one of us, in every arena of life—to be witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You promise that as we share in Christ's sufferings, we also share in his resurrection and his glory. Death is not the end; it is the doorway to life. Suffering is not meaningless; it is the path by which you transform us and accomplish your purposes in the world (1 Peter 4:12-13).

So we ask you, Father, to give us courage. Strengthen us to speak your words faithfully in our marriages, our parenting, our work, and in every conversation you place before us. Help us to deny ourselves and take up our cross, trusting that you are with us and that you will vindicate your faithful witnesses. Give us eyes to see that the conquest of the Lamb—and therefore our conquest—comes not through earthly power but through suffering love and faithful witness unto death. And grant us the grace to live in light of the resurrection, knowing that our labor in the Lord is never in vain.

We commit ourselves to you this week, Father. Make us faithful witnesses. Make us willing to die to ourselves so that Christ might be proclaimed and glorified in our generation. To you alone be the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Draft · pending review

Where this was preached

About the church

Cross of Grace Church

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# Cross of Grace Church

A church preaching expository sermons through the books of the Bible.

## Sermons
- [What to Fear and Fear Not (Revelation 1:9-20, 2022-03-27)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/03/what-to-fear-and-fear-not)
- [The Citadel at the End of Time (Revelation 4:1-11, 2022-04-10)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/04/the-citadel-at-the-end-of-time)
- [When the Man Comes Around (Revelation 6:1-17, 2022-05-01)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/05/when-the-man-comes-around)
- [Few There Are Who Die So Hard (Revelation 11:1-13, 2022-05-08)](/CoGElPaso/sermons/2022/05/few-there-are-who-die-so-hard)

## About
- [About the church](/about)
- [Plan a visit](/visit)

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