SNBS - Revelation Part 7 - Critical Thinking

Revelation 11 and the Two Witnesses

Good evening, and welcome to Sunday Night Bible Study with Pastor Josiah Shipley of Wynton Baptist Church. We are here to start Revelation 11, and I told you guys that we would spend most of this lesson on logic, and I told you we might get through the whole chapter, that's not going to happen.

We're probably just going to stay within the first two verses, and then we'll finish chapter 11 next week. So, Revelation 11, verses 1 -2 will be part 7, and while we will be dealing with the text, we're going to do something a little different today.

I might title this, God Created Us to Critically Think, or something like that. God Gives Us the Ability. We're going to focus on just the first two verses of Revelation 11, and do the rest next week, okay?

By the way, shout out to Austin Stewart for painting my office, it looks awesome. Alright, this is Revelation part 7. If you haven't checked out any of the other videos, they're on Wynton Media Ministry on YouTube.

Go subscribe there, watch those videos, and that would be awesome. Alright, what we have here in Revelation 11 are the two witnesses. Now we'll talk about them in detail next week. We don't know the identity of them for sure.

Many people think it is Elijah and Moses, or maybe Elijah and Enoch, or maybe two new people we've never met before. But here's what we have before we even get to them in the first two verses. These are what I want to focus on.

Measuring the Temple in Revelation 11

Verse 1. Then I, John, was giving a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple.

Leave that out, for it is given over to the nations. They will trample on the holy city for forty-two months. Remember, we're dealing with three and a half year periods. The book of Revelation sometimes calls that forty-two months, which is three and a half years.

Sometimes it calls it twelve hundred and sixty days, which is roughly three and a half years. Sometimes it calls it a time, times, and a half, which is from Daniel, which is three and a half years. Remember, the seven year tribulation is being broken up at a three and a half year mark, and that's where these witnesses are then taken to heaven.

So let me read a little further, and then I'll talk about the logic I want to talk about. They will trample on the holy city for forty-two months. Verse 3. I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.

These are but two olive trees and two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone would harm them, fire pours out of 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 their days of prophesying, and they have the power over the waters to turn it into blood and strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they desire.

We'll read all that next week. Basically, these guys are prophesying the word of God in Jerusalem for three and a half years. But did you catch the first part? This is what I want to focus on. Verse 1 and 2.

John was giving a measuring rod to measure the temple of God, and not the outer courts, because those are given only to the Gentiles, but only the inner courts. When I did this lesson last week in person, on the screen I put a Google image of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem right now.

For those of you who don't know, while Jerusalem is in the state of Israel, part of the agreements, the peace talks over the past few decades, included the Temple Mount, the site where the Temple used to be, being an Islamic holy site.

So Muslims can go there and pray and worship. The Dome of the Rock is there. There's an Islamic mosque on that Temple Mount. And a Jewish person is not allowed to go on the Temple Mount and pray. There's like 11 gates into the Temple, all guarded by Israeli guards, and Jews are forbidden to pray on the Temple Mount.

They can pray at the Wailing Wall, but they are not allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. That is an Islamic holy site. That was part of the agreement. Now, I want to read that again. God commanded John to go measure the Temple of God and the altar.

You can look on Google right now, and there is no Temple of God and no altar. So what does that tell you? Guys, please keep in mind that the Bible is not a storybook. It's history. It really happened.

There is no such thing as Christian history and secular history. There's just history, and it's God's. It really happens, and it really is happening, and it really will continue to happen. And what it says will happen.

If the Bible says that John has to go measure the Temple, that means John at some point is going to go measure the Temple. There is no Temple, therefore, at some point, there has to be a Temple again.

Does that make sense? Guys, God created all creation and saw it was very good, but only one of His creation made it in His image. That's mankind. Now, just like God is triune and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we are trichotomy, in other words, body, mind, soul.

But more than that, of all His creation, we're the only ones that can love Him deeply and know Him intimately. He gave us a brain that can critically think, that can use logic. God created logic. God created critical thinking.

Right here in Revelation 1 and 2, it says John will measure the Temple. I can Google that there is no Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem right now. Therefore, that means someone's going to rebuild that Temple one day.

And I believe that because the Bible says there's going to be a Temple. Does that make sense? I want to give you a couple more examples of this, and then I want to give you six steps of what to do when the Bible doesn't make sense to you.

When your logic seems to say something different than the Bible, what to do? And it's okay to be honest about that. I checked with God. God is a God of logic. We are made in His image. We are His only creation that is said of that we can know Him and love Him intimately.

He gives us the tools to know Him, and it doesn't primarily come from divine epiphanies or visions. It comes from us thinking. A couple examples of critical thinking that can help you understand the Bible.

Scripture Interprets Scripture

We know that Luke wrote Acts. So if you're reading in Acts 16 or 17, and Luke is writing down, and Luke says Paul and Barnabas left and went to Troas. After that, we sailed to Philippi. The use of the word we there should tell you something.

It should tell you that Luke got on the boat. He just inserted himself in the story. See? Critical thinking. Another example, Matthew 28, 19 through 20. Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I've commanded you.

And I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Baptizing them in the name. How many names is that, guys? The name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God's divine name is Yahweh. That was His personal covenant name.

Three persons were mentioned there, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet in the name. What should that tell you? They all have the same name, God. See that? Critically think. God gave us the ability to do that.

A pastor does not have extra Holy Spirit juice. This isn't like Space Jam, where we get Michael Jordan's special stuff, and we pump up before the game, and before you preach, and before you teach, and the Holy Spirit gives you special revelation.

He's never given anyone else. God gave us the Bible, and we all, believing in the priesthood of a believer, we all have the same Holy Spirit in us that can read and understand. God's given us that ability.

All of us. Okay, so do you understand what I'm getting at right now? Why I'm stressing this? Because the Bible says John's gonna measure a temple. Right now, I don't see a temple, so I believe there will be a temple rebuilt.

I believe that. I really do. So Josiah, what happens when the Bible doesn't make sense to me? When something logical would make me think this, but the Bible says the opposite. First off, be honest that that happens, and it's okay that that happens.

God wants us to think. Here are six steps you do. I'm gonna say them and then explain them. Step number one, recognize that one of those can be flawed, the other can't. Two, trust that there is a harmony between them, you just haven't found it yet.

Three, don't quit looking. Four, memorize James chapter one, verse five. Five, use proper biblical harmonutics. Six, be willing to trust God over your own mind. Back to step one, recognize that one of these can be flawed, the other can't.

Logic, Bible. Bible can't be flawed, your logic can. Just like doctrine and theology. Doctrine is a teaching, theology is the study of. If it's the study of, that means there's a chance it could be wrong.

You're studying. If it's a teaching of God's word found from Genesis to Revelation, it can't be. So recognize that if one's gonna be wrong, it's not God, it's you. And that's okay. Two, trust that there is a harmony and answer between them, you just haven't found it yet.

God is not a God of confusion or chaos, but he's a God of order. He wants you to find the answer. There is an answer, you just haven't found it yet. So, step three, don't quit looking. Don't quit looking.

All the while, while you're searching, believe there is a harmony, you just haven't found it yet. And don't stop looking. Don't say something like this, Oh well, I guess we'll never know this side of heaven.

Well, that may be true, but God commanded you to keep looking. So guess what you're gonna do? Keep looking. Don't just say, oh well, I can't understand it, but I will when I get that. No, don't be a coward.

Keep looking. Don't say things like, we can't understand the will of God. I hate when people say that, because the Bible says the opposite. Let me give you a couple of verses. Ephesians 5, 17. Did you see that?

Understand what the Lord's will is. The Bible is commanding you to understand the will of the Lord. Guess what that means you can do? God's will will never contradict God's work. Romans 12, 1 and 2. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

That you can approve what is the will of God. Good, acceptable, and perfect. You can discern what is the will of God. The Bible just said you can. So quit saying you can't. And I'm not kidding. I think the first Bible verse everyone should memorize.

James 1, 5. Probably Psalm 1, 19, 11. James 1, 5. If any of you don't understand, you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously, even more than he asks, and without criticizing. He doesn't even say, I told you so.

Or you're so stupid, why did I have to... Or no strings attached. James 1, 5. Memorize it, and believe it. Step number five, biblical hermeneutics. Maybe I should do a whole lesson on this. Hermeneutics, H-E, are the rules for biblical interpretation.

One of those is to use scripture to interpret scripture. I could give a whole analogy and biblical examples of this. Excuse me. But basically, if one part of the Bible is not making sense to you, use another part of the Bible to find the answer.

Even though it was all written by 40 different writers, it has one author. And he makes sense. Sometimes the answer is in a different chapter, a different book. Use scripture to interpret scripture. And step number six, at the end of it all, if you still can't find a logical reason and harmony, while you're still searching, trust God over your own mind.

So at the end of it all, I don't understand it, but the Bible says this, so I'm going to believe it, even though I don't understand it. Now, the goal is for that to not be your whole sanctification, your whole spiritual life.

But until you find the answer, while you're still actually searching for it, believe God over your own mind. The concept of eternity. Can I explain to you the concept of eternity, that God has always been perfectly?

Nope. Do I believe it? Absolutely. Sometimes I read things in the Bible and I'm like, Hmm. Well, that's interesting. And why? And God, I don't really know if I would have done it that way. But you are God and I am not.

Which means your way is perfect. My way is not. Six steps for what to do when logic seems to contradict the Bible. I want you to go back and listen to those and put them to use. So, there's a little side lesson on Revelation 11, 1 and 2.

We'll finish Revelation next week. I want you to pay attention. These are steps on how to read the Bible. When you read it, read it as you would any other book. And read it not like you would any other book.

Like any other book in that it's sentences, subjects, verbs. They have meanings. Know those meanings. Not like any other book in that, trust that this one can't be flawed. Because it's proven itself over and over again.

Alright. I hope you like this little side lesson. It's important that we'll finish Revelation 11 next week. I love you guys very much. See you guys around. Bye.