10 and 11 sermon outline if you would die will be done on earth as it is in heaven an earth where the kingdom is Come and all its fullness how God's people have long for that for 2000 years but What do we do in the meantime? What do we do before that day when God's will is fully done on earth as it is in heaven? This is very much the question then. It is hard to overestimate how much Rome was revered in the Mediterranean world 2000 years ago. Before the Roman ascent to power an authority in 29 BC the world was disordered and chaotic. There was civil strife there was international war there was economic collapse and with Rome came stability and order. The Roman navy patrol the Mediterranean piracy was overcome so that there was maritime trade and commerce. There was an end to strife and war roads were built so that travel and commerce became easier. Lawless outlying areas were brought under control. The language facilitated again commerce and industry and so there was a great appreciation in fact for many they began to say that Caesar Augustus was God. The God had come down the prince of peace had come and brought peace to the world in a way that these folks had not known and so Arise a form of religion called the emperor cult the worship of the emperor that spread from city to city in region to region after While it becomes rather competitive we love the emperor more than you love the emperor right we worship the emperor more than you love the emperor. That wasn't such a bad thing if you wanted goodies from Rome was it but absolute power corrupts absolutely doesn't it? And so it didn't take real on for empires to come along like Nero. Nero who kicked his pregnant wife to death. Nero who then took a young boy neutered him and married him. Nero who killed his mother. Nero who was declared insane by the Roman Senate and committed suicide but not before he had slaughtered thousands of Christians including most probably the Apostles Peter and the Apostle Paul. And so this is the environment that Christian lived in which the emperor is worshiped and he is declared to be God and Christians will say nothing but the Jesus is Lord and so they're paying a terrible and horrible price and the question is how are they supposed to live in this environment? What were their choices? What would be your choice suddenly a military regime rule and what we're doing right now is illegal what was the choice 2000 years ago where you could hide right? You could find a cave you could practice your religion in private and in secret you could hide and try to ride it out and save the skins of you and your family. Or perhaps you could establish some sort of escapist theology and tell yourself that God this isn't really happening God loves his children and you will not allow any evil or ill to the fall those who are his own an ancient name it and claim it. God means nothing but good and now that we're Christians life will just prosper it's the very kind of thinking that's led through the ages Christians write songs like not a shadow can rise not a cloud in the skies but his smile quickly drives it away. Is that what your Christian life is like? Not a doubt or a fear not a sigh nor a tear can abide while we trust in obey. Is that what Christianity? Is that how the Bible describes Christianity that there will be no doubt no fears no size no tears if we just trust. That's escapism that's a lie well there's another option and this is the option put forth in Revelation chapter 10 and chapter 11 where Jesus Christ says to his ancient church do not hide do not be afraid. Do not try to deny reality go out into the darkness and be light and you'll be killed you will be killed but do it anyway and you will have eternal rewards so here it is. Follow me and it will go well with you no no no follow me and it will go bad for you at least it will go bad for you in this world but in eternity you will have your rewards are you willing to go and be my witnesses don't hide don't shave the truth walk out into culture and be my light be my witnesses. That's what God said to do 2000 years ago and I don't think he's changed his instructions. So turn to Revelation 10 and 11 and what we find is two visions remember these visions fall in the context of trumpet blasts of wall and destruction for those who are rebellious on the earth against the things of God. So six trumpet sound and then there's an interlude there's an interruption and we get a vision of an awesome angel right chapter 10. There's an angel so big that he stands astride the entire earth he's got one foot in the seas and one foot on the land and the picture here is not if this is not a precious moment coffee mug. This is this is not a pudgy little cupid with an arrow this is not an effeminate blonde curly locked celestial being you know with a harp this is an angel with you know fire in his eyes and hell in his nostrils and and this is a warrior. And in his book in his hand there's a book and that book is writing all over it and that writing is the word in the things of God it's the gospel it's the only way to escape the wrath of God being poured out in the seven trumpet blasts and God says to his man John on the aisle of Pat must do what. Take the book from the angel and and eat it eat the book it will be as sweet as honey and yet it will leave bitterness in your stomach. And so it is the Bible says that that the law of the Lord is is sweeter than the honey is sweeter than honey is sweeter than the drippings of the honey calm we know the gospel is sweet that we deserve the wrath and judgment of God. And so there's the recipients of his kindness in his love he knows our name he cares about us he he puts our names on his name on our forehead the on this is his own children sweet sweet sweet sweet gospel. But we also know that same book contains what warning whoa trouble for those who will not repent for those who will not surrender their hearts and their minds to Christ. Every prophet every pastor every evangelist every preacher every teacher for that matter every Christian who has tried to take the word to somebody knows what it means to say that that book is sweet and that book is bitter and the attempt to prophesy and tell others is a sweet and bitter experience. Don't you know that have some of you shared the gospel with family members and had them I remember a family member bowing her head it's one thirty two o'clock in the morning and in our kitchen. One of my sister in law giving her life to cry sweet sweet one of the sweetest moments of my life have you shared those very words with other family members and have them tell you what. Well I'm already a Christian I've always been a Christian but they're not. Or you know you're just a fanatic I think there's lots of ways to God and all that rejection all that close heartedness and close sweetness and bitterness last weekend in this room the call went out to stop hitting this news button right. Stop putting God off stop a delay here the warnings of God now and respond and do you know what people in this room respond there were some in this room with hearts were made stop by the Holy Spirit and they said yes to Jesus. In the very same words provoked in other people in this room what a greater hardness of heart and only gave them another opportunity to say what. No to God this book you break it and you eat it and it is at once sweet and at the same time it is bitter and so it has always been for the people of God. Now there was a second vision chapter 11 it's this interlude of assurance here the whole world is collapsing judgment of God is being poured out environmental disaster we talked about Trump it's one two three and four. Trump at five is horrendous local storm and you think of AIDS and you think of cancer and you think of you know Trump at six 20 million horsemen riding over from the River Euphrates and and death in the plague of death all over our world and a death enters our lives and assaults us and in the midst of that also it stops and God says chapter 11 and I told John go to the temple and measured out and marked out the inner court of the temple. Now in the Old Testament we use the word temple we're referring to a literal physical structure in the New Testament we talk about the word temple we're referring to people we are God's handiwork we are God's temple this is the temple of God built not with mortar but built with human stones right. We are the temple of God and so here's this interlude of assurance in the midst of this rampant atrocity and destruction and decay comes the word measure out the temple measure out my people mark them off it's the very same thing we found a couple chapters ago in the midst of the seven seals being broken open after six seals God stop and he said now let's consider in the midst of all this my people and remember he says seal them all. Sealed them all put my mark on their forehead the exact same thing is being said here all my people my church gathered into a one group now are measured they're marked off they're they're regarded separately from everything else because what is about to happen is 42 months of what will appear to be unrestrained wickedness unrestrained wickedness from the time of Christ first advent to the time of his return there will be unrestrained wickedness. wickedness and it will appear at times as if the church of Jesus Christ is completely swallowed up and destroyed and in the midst of this time come to what two witnesses now what who are they are these actual people no the two witnesses you have to understand to understand the whole book of revelation what part of the Bible do you have to be very familiar with what part of the Bible you have to know the old testament you've got to particularly know the minor prophets and the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel because everything in revelation comes right out of the old testament matter fact is that whole passage about eating the book and it will be bitter and it will be sweet turned to Ezekiel chapter don't literally right now because you're so spellbound listening that you wouldn't want to be diverted but Ezekiel chapter three verses one through eight guess what God says to Ezekiel take the book eat the book it will be bitter to you it will be a sweetest honey to you it will be bitter to you is the exact same passage every passage virtually in revelation you find in the old testament isn't that fascinating you don't find the answer to interpreting the book of revelation on the front page of newsweek Israel did this Russia did that China did that all now I understand revelation you find the key to interpreting all the symbolism and imagery the book of revelation by turning backwards in your Bible to the old testament so when it says we have two witnesses and those two witnesses are two olive trees well what's that olive trees and the old testament represent Israel is real to olive trees to lampstands represent what the lampstands and revelations chapter one represent seven lampstands are each place in the seven churches the lampstand represents the church olive trees represent Israel but we have a picture here is in the midst of this darkness in the midst of this darkness the key God will always have his witnesses his church his people who are the two witnesses that you you're in the story these two witnesses go out into the darkness into the world and they take on the beast and they're given by God extraordinary power and ability that's beyond them Jesus said to his apostles what greater things will you do when the spirit comes upon you and so though they are weak and though they are just creatures they function with supernatural power until the time of their witness is over and then it says the beast from the abyss will what he'll murder them he will defeat them and he will murder them and he will humiliate them and their bodies will be dragged through the streets and they will be the object of a public shame and derision and ridicule and in fact the picture is it will be a holiday I mean people will exchange gifts at their demise but I would suggest to you today that there is no better copy in the newspaper still today that when when some church is exposed for its failing when some Christian blows it when some minister commits adultery when there's some scandal in the church the the the community at large loves that and if that were the end of the story it would be a pretty dark interlude wouldn't it we stop the story we stop the play and God tells us this little bit it wouldn't be real encouraging until these words and after being killed and being humiliated Christ comes with Jesus the king of kings and Lord of lords is pronounced to be king over all the earth and the kingdom in heaven becomes the kingdom on earth and so God's people's prayers for thousands of years that die kingdom come die will be done on earth like it is in heaven is finally come to pass okay got it got it all right what do we learn from that what are our lessons the first lesson is this before anybody walks out there into the darkness and says I am going to be a light in the midst of my culture no matter what it costs me for Jesus Christ and at whatever sacrifice in the matter what fear I am going to be a light there's something we have to do first we have to eat the book right we've got to eat the book with who are we what what what what what what the world seeing us they're going to see us they're going to see light in us we're not part of the answer we're part of the problem right I mean how are we going to go out in culture and bring the kingdom of God to bear in our world when we can't bring the kingdom of God to bear in our own life you know we struggle in our own marriages in our own families in our own businesses and and we're such failures and we can't get you know how in the world are we well we've got to eat the book have you ever tried to be something externally that you weren't internally they're trying to be that they were trying to put on something that just wasn't in there it couldn't come from the inside out just the other night I had the experience I was given the awesome privilege of preaching in a black church predominantly black church in inverness Thursday night and it was quite an experience you know one thing I learned in the black church they respect their preacher it was a needy friend I felt called the they and then their worship I just thought of some people who who think our worship isn't traditional enough and I just I have a field trip I want you to go on with me I want you I want you to meet some of your brothers and sisters and and and how they worship but let me tell you something it's over one and it was like full-bodied aerobic you know you don't have to go to the gym after work you just go to church and because they were wiping the sweat and and so here's the music it's cranking and they are moving and they are singing and they're having a ball and and there's about seven guys they're from seven rivers and you had no trouble picking them out because they are white on white in the midst of this trying to you know because they're got to hands up and they're slaying and they're feeling it I'm gonna take some I said okay I'm in their world I'm gonna go with it they get their hands up I'm putting my hands up they do whatever they do I'm gonna do and you had to just died laughing because I just don't get it I just don't you know I don't have rhythm I you know I clap like this you know here was somebody trying to be on the outside what just wasn't there on the inside they were trying to forgive someone outwardly when you haven't forgiven them yet and we're late I forgive you you know your whole face your whole demeanor says I'd like to punch you but your words are I forgive you and then and people feel real forgiven them don't they they feel real restored they're trying to be joyful on the outside when you're miserable on the inside how many Christians and their witness to the world is trying to do something outwardly I'm supposed to be a witness I'm gonna be a witness the trying to be something outwardly that they're not inwardly it won't happen until we what eat the book until we take the words of the truth of God and we ingest them in such a way we digest them that they become a part of us a part of our heart our life our structure we believe them a couple weeks ago I said the gospel is like for for many of us is like putting coins in a coke machine right you put your four coins in to get your coke but no coke comes out and you have to bang the machine right and get those coins to fall down in their slots and so often this book that we would fight for we believe in it's the word of God the grass winners the power page but not the word of God it stands forever all fight for it I believe it is the truth but we're just as anxious as the people who don't believe it we're just as materialistic as the people who don't believe it why how could that be because we haven't what haven't eaten it we haven't made it a part of us we haven't said you know what I have a God I don't have to sit in bed awake in nice tossing and turning I have a father he really does have the whole in his hands he really does do nothing but his children's good he knows me he knows my name he knows my situation he loves me he's the epitome of honesty and fairness and then that which is good he's all for me and I believe it the friends we will not impact our world until we want until we eat the book until the book becomes integral to who we are so that so that that which is in us comes out from us Carol and lampening can say God told us to open our home but they didn't do it not until what until sitting in a class they were confronted with the radical truth of the wild love of God for them when that got in then the behavior came out they didn't hear in that class you must adopt kids and they said okay hold on to it no they heard God has adopted you he made you his son and his daughter and out of that realization came what well then we'll then we'll approach our world with the same open arms friends before we're going to impact anybody do anything be like to anybody we've got a what we got to eat the book second John was told eat the book and then go what prophesy second we have to penetrate the culture okay that means we don't hide from the culture that means we're not afraid we're not we're not seeing our point our hair out saying you know the gains are running through the streets and they're going to take our kids and and the whole world is is going to hell in a hand basket and oh you know this is the picture I get of most Christian hiding fearful afraid instead of saying into the darkness we go because this is my father's world and if die if I die then I die but I will penetrate the culture and we must go into the culture with what what do we have to give the culture the gospel the gospel played out in word and indeed so we go to our culture we've got to penetrate the culture with the gospel and that means our words of the culture can't be don't abort kids stop sodomizing stop getting divorced make clean movie that's not the gospel that's a moral code that's not what the church can be postured to penetrate the world because when the world hears that what do they say what are what are they learning from us that the way that one gets right with God and goes to heaven is by doing what by keeping the rules keep the moral code then God will love you and they look at us and they don't see us keeping the moral code so well so the message to the world has to be what is the religion says I don't put on outward behavior and then God loves me I am I I experience I don't behave and then get the blessing of God I received the blessing of God's love as my father given to me as a free gift and then I what and then my heart has changed and I start to obey it has to be in that order we go to your neighbors with the with the gospel of Jesus Christ not with the frown on your face because they because of the way they behave pastor friend says that a woman came to him and said pastor do you think abortions wrong and he said yes I do it she said do you know what I'm starting to think that too you got to know she is a long time resident of New York City she's an attorney trained in an Ivy League school she is a card carrying active member of the ACLU and she said three abortions and she says I'm starting to believe that too abortions wrong isn't it she said you know what if I to come to your church and I found any pro-life literature I would have walked out before I ever stayed for a service but I didn't get pro-life literature when I came to your church I got Jesus and now that she has Jesus she's transformed on the inside and so what's coming out of her right behavior it's all so important we follow the right order with these things abortion is wrong the church should say so but only after we say to the world what it's Jesus that we need it's Jesus that's our hope gospel penetrate the culture with the gospel gospel word and gospel it is not just about getting people into heaven it is about getting heaven into people and so we go out into our culture and we love our neighbor selling the pastor's class and the Bible doesn't say anything much more simple than that go love your neighbor and I'm not so sure the church needs any greater indictment than that I mean if you don't do any harvest thing any church ministry at all do you love your neighbor literally I mean those people that live right around you and I was selling the pastor's class tonight I got a new idea don't invite them to church no matter what you do don't invite them to church why would I say that don't you want to become I do so don't invite them because the last thing your neighbor needs is to be a project their people and you could learn a lot from them and you know what you probably need their health in this world you'll gain from them maybe more than ever gain from you so get off our high horses and go love our neighbor gospel word gospel and visit our church we're visiting someone in our church they were very sick and they were telling us how in the visit they were telling how church folk are providing meals and prayers and cards and visits and people coming over and mowing their lawn And then she said something that touched my heart even more. She said, and our male carrier goes to the church. And she comes to my door, brings the male to my door. So every day she can see how I'm doing. And if she needs medicine or groceries, the woman said, I give the male carrier my list of what I need. And the next day when she brings my male, she brings that too. I don't even know if you're allowed to do that. But you walk out into the darkness and you take Jesus with you every day. The ministry isn't something you come to church and do on Wednesday night. It's your life. Gospel word and gospel deed every day. That's the deep book, penetrate the culture. Third, be resolute because it's hard, right? What's going to happen when you walk into the darkness, the darkness, just will thank you profusely, won't they? Is that the message of the Bible? What's the message of what happens to the two witnesses? What happens? What happens to you if you walk out here and say, I will be your witness? Did Jesus say, listen, it'll just be you'll just have the sweetest, happiest life? It will be hard. There will be criticism from within and without and you will want to quit and you will be tired and you will give and give and give and you'll feel like there's no fruit. I'm just talking about raising your kids, right? Let along your neighbor so those folks who go out to the key center and go to prisons and bring the good news of Christ, do you think they get weary? You get weary doing that? Do it anyway. Think of people who give sacrificially and so they can't go to Disney and the beach like it seems like every other family can do with their kids because there just isn't enough money to make trips like that and give anyway. Think of folks who open their home, they have other people in, they share their free time with others so they have less energy for themselves than practice hospitality anyway. You park far away on Sundays, way out there and sometimes it's raining and you're way back to the car and you get all wet. You know what? Park in Levy County anyway. You put your kids in Christian school, it's a long drive, you got to pay tuition and you know they don't have football and some other programs you want and roll your kid anyway. You decide you're going to go to nature coast community church, the new church in home of Salsa and you're thinking about it but they're not going to have the music and the choir and some of the other things that you've enjoyed so much and you'll have less contact with all the friends that you've made. Guess what? Go do it anyway. Jesus said it would be hard but it's worth it. Defending the unpopular kid in the youth group may mean that you'll be less popular, befriend them anyway. Join the church and your family will disown you for leaving the families denomination or the family whatever, join anyway. Walk, walk right out there like you're nuts. About my favorite illustration, the Coast Guard. Call comes in, New England Coast Guard station to man the boat, Mayday calls come in. And the captain hesitates and he hesitates because the storm is so bad that he can't, he's not convinced he can bring his men out there and that they'll survive. And so he keeps waiting for a break in the storm, he waits and he waits and he waits to call for help come and come and finally with no abating of the storm, the captain says, let's go. One of the men says, Captain, if we go out there, we'll die. We will not come back. And the captain says, it is not our job to come back. It is our job to go. Don't serve Jesus because it'll feel good. He said, go be my witness and for the cherry on the top was the last point. Do it with an unflappable, unshakable confidence because you know what? It will be fruitful. It may not be fruit you see in this world. One day every new will bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord. And all God's people will be gathered together. The other night we had some free time and my wife went to the movie store and rented that. We just she and I, you know, and so she took time and rented that romantic classic Shindler's list and really it's quite a story isn't it, if you've seen it. Here really a pagan Nazi industrialist, war profiteer has his heart changed, doesn't he? And he goes from using people to ultimately by the end of the war, he, by his own, with his own money, bankrupting himself saves 1,200 Jews from destruction, he harbors them. And the movie ends with all the Jews, all his Shindler's Jews around him. He sees all their faces of all his redeemed. Wouldn't it be cool if in heaven it was something like that? It'd be cool if in heaven you said, Lord, here I am, but I gotta admit I don't think my life made any impact. God were to say, let me just show you something. And he were to say, all right, whose life was touched by this one? And you're standing there and out walks a co-worker, out walks a somebody who was in the bed when you went and visited your uncle in the hospital that time and you prayed, you didn't even know they were listening on the other side of the curtain, but they prayed those prayer. They prayed the very same words they heard you praying with your uncle, you didn't even know. And out walks a kid from the youth group who accepted Christ in church camp. And you didn't know that that money you gave for a scholarship paid for that kid to go to camp where he met Christ. And out walks somebody from Chiba, Japan, and a street kid that Renee Johnson reached in the Philippines. And they're all gathering in that neighbor down the street who you thought was the biggest jerk on your block and your jaw drops that they're even in heaven. And they said, I was watching you and you're just overwhelmed. Well, that's not the best part. Then the crowd parsed in it and out walked your parents and out walked your kids and out walked your grandkids and out walked all the people that your kids and your grandkids touched. And then comes your great-grandkids and your great-great-grandkids and your great-great-great-grandkids and generation after generation that you didn't even live long enough to see. And your kids who were converted 30 years after you died, after you prayed and wept for them and they never became Christians and you died who, on their deathbed, remembered your faithfulness and gave their lives to Christ and gave their all come. At that very moment, will you stand there and say, I regret what I paid to be a Christian. You won't do that, will you? Every, every effort, every drop of sweat, every tear will have been left. Worth it. At the end of Schindler's list, Schindler tears off his Nazi pen and says, why didn't I sell this? I could have saved two more Jews with this. He looks at his car and he says, that was ten Jews. Ten Jews, I could have saved if I just sold my car. Brothers and sisters, when it gets to the end, we will have no regrets for anything we gave up in this world. Because so great will be the reward of those who are Christ in glory. So my friends, it is still light out. The seventh trumpet hasn't sounded. It's still light, but darkness draws not. It is incumbent on us to work while it is still day before the night comes. Is it not? If you are weary, join the company, all for his glory. This little light of mine, for two thousand years, God's people have said, I'm going to let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No, I will not. I will be his witness.