We have been looking at the two witnesses. Remember in Revelation 9 we had the sixth Trumpet Judgment sounded. Then the action kind of stops and the timeline doesn’t move forward throughout Revelation 10:1-11:14. These next events take place somewhere in that period of time, but we don’t know exactly when necessarily. We do believe they occur in the first half of the Tribulation. We come to Revelation 11:14 that says, “The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.” The first woe was the fifth Trumpet Judgment. The second woe was the sixth Trumpet Judgment and now the final woe is the seventh Trumpet Judgment. He is calling them woes because of the devastation and the importance of these judgments.
Now, the chronology picks up and we are going back to where we were. I think our best understanding is that the midpoint of the Tribulation has now taken place at this point. With the sounding of the seventh Trumpet Judgment, we are now entering into the second half of the Tribulation, sometimes called the Great Tribulation. The antichrist has killed his antagonists – the two witnesses. He now has free reign over the earth and things are getting more intense and more difficult and uglier as time progresses.
We pick up in Revelation 11:15, “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying.” So, as this Trumpet Judgment is sounded, there are four events that are going to be described for us that take place at that time.
1. The reign of God, or Christ, begins. It says, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” Now, we know that our Lord is sovereign. He has always ruled, but over the history of humanity going back to the fall of Adam and Eve, the Lord has allowed Satan to be the god of this age. He has allowed humanity to have certain reign and privileges and has allowed them to sin basically whenever they want. The Lord is going to bring that to a close here. Remember in the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?” They were witnessing the finalization of that prayer in a very real sense. The Lord’s kingdom is coming. We know that according to the book of Revelation there are some very significant events to come, but we are getting very close to the end here and we find that the angels in heaven are rejoicing over the reign of Christ.
2. The second event is the reaction of heaven to this.
3. Revelation 11:16, “And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God.” We find the twenty-four elders fall on their faces, as they seem to do often, and worship God. They worship God for at least two different reasons here.
a. First, for His sovereignty as Revelation 11:17 says, “We give you thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.” They’re praising God and worshiping God because of His sovereign power in which now He is stepping up to begin to reign over the earth. So, they are excited about that. They are worshiping God for that.
b. Secondly, they worship Him because He is the Great Judge. The eternal and perfect judge. Revelation 11:18 says, “And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” Notice they worship God because He is the perfect judge . . .
