Do you all remember where you were on September 11, 2001? I can remember, I was in a math class in Coppell, TX, when everything stopped. Our teacher turned on the television, and we all saw the World Trade Center engulfed in flames. 9/11 was the single largest broadcast event, with billions of people watching in shock at the destruction that killed thousands of people. It was the worst attack to occur in American history. But when we get to our passage tonight, we’re going to see something worse than the 9/11 event, and then an event that will also be broadcast to billions of people across the world. The difference between the event being broadcast in Revelation chapter 11 and 9/11 is that this event in the Bible will ultimately point us to God’s glory and His plan for the redemption of humanity. His design for His people to be brought from death to life. So take your Bibles and turn with me to Revelation chapter 9, we’re going to be in Revelation chapters 9 through 11 this evening.

Now if you’re visiting with us, you’ve joined us for Our City Church’s opening series, a four part series through the book of Revelation. We’re in part 3 of 4, and we’re smack dab in the middle of the tribulation, How the World Ends. Now to catch us up on how we got here, Revelation is the last book of the Bible. One of Jesus’s disciples, John, has been exiled to a remote island called Patmos because of his testimony and because of the Word of God, during a time when the world was against Christianity. Jesus shows up to him and gives him a magnificent, detailed vision, and tells him, write down what you see. Write down what you have seen, what is, and what will take place after this. We’re in that third division right now, what will take place after this. Now the tribulation takes place in three parts. There are three separate judgments. First we see the scroll opening up in Revelation 6-8, with massive judgments against the world, which line up with what Jesus says will happen in Matthew 24. Next, we see the trumpet judgments, which look a lot like the plagues over Egypt, and affect the world. Last week, in Revelation 7-8, we saw that the purpose of the tribulation is the final call to Christ. God will redeem 144,000 of Israel, and multitudes of people will come to Christ as a result of the tribulation. The first four trumpet judgments in Revelation chapter 8 are judgments against the world, and demonstrate the problems with making this earth our permanent residency. As Christians, we are citizens of Heaven, and we know that this earth is not our home. This earth and everything in it are going to go away, and God is going to make all things new, where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, Heaven is our permanent home. And when we get to Revelation 9, the tribulation makes a shift, from destruction of the world, to destruction of the ungodly. All those who are going to come to Christ as a result of the tribulation have come, and we’re left with the hardest hearted people who are all that are left. The church has been raptured. Taken up. Harpatzo’d. Multitudes have come to Christ, but multitudes have ignored the call. So take your Bibles and turn with me to Revelation chapter 9 and let’s jump in.

The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth. The key for the shaft to the abyss was given to him.

-Revelation 9:1

Now what’s with the star, and what is this abyss? Anybody wondering that? I want to explain this quickly, because this is key. No pun intended. See what I did there? When else have we seen a star falling in the Bible? In Isaiah 14:12, it describes Satan’s fall from Heaven.

Shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens! You destroyer of nations, you have been cut down to the ground.

-Isaiah 14:12

This star is an angel falling from Heaven. Remember when Jesus explained when he had the stars in his hand in Revelation 1 that the stars are the angels. And this angel is not being sent, this angel has fallen. Big difference in choice of words there. And this abyss is the holding place of the fallen angels, the Nephilim. I’ll give you a couple places in the Bible where we come to this conclusion. In 2 Peter 2:4 it says:

For if God didn't spare the angels who sinned but cast them into Tartarus and delivered them in chains of deepest darkness to be kept for judgment;

-2 Peter 2:4

Jude 6 says:

And the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deep darkness for the judgment on the great day.

-Jude 6

And remember in Luke 8:31, when Jesus cast out demons and they begged Him not to sent them into the abyss? Then, in Revelation 20, Satan will be imprisoned in the abyss before he and everyone else apart from God will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. So this fallen angel…

…opened the shaft to the abyss, and smoke came up out of the shaft like smoke from a great furnace so that the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the shaft.

-Revelation 9:2

This is a controlled attack on the earth, by the fallen angels who have been locked up in the abyss for thousands of years going back to Genesis 3. But remember, God is in complete control.

Then locusts came out of the smoke on to the earth, and power was given to them like the power that scorpions have on the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only those people who do not have God’s seal on their foreheads. They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it stings someone.

-Revelation 9:3-5

This is hell on earth. The Bible tells us that hell is eternal, it’s a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, darkness, suffering, it’s a burning place. One pastor said, hell isn’t the reason to become a Christian, but it’s a reason. And why five months? Five months is the lifespan of a locust. You can look that up, but the bigger message is that this tribulation, this suffering is temporary. But hell is eternal. And in verse 6 we see this utter picture of hell:

In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

-Revelation 9:6

God is giving the world a preview to what life will be like without him. Remember the purpose of the tribulation is the final call to Christ.

Next, John sees the locusts appearing for battle like horses. And then, it looks like he’s describing Cobra helicopters, modern warfare and mass destruction. Led by…

…the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he has the name Apollyon.

-Revelation 9:11

These two words mean the same thing: destroyer. Remember how we left off last week? There were three woes coming, from the last verse of Chapter 8. In Revelation 9:12 we see:

The first woe has passed. There are still two more woes to come after this.

-Revelation 9:12

Remember that a “woe” is an event of destruction. This word is used across the Bible to describe God’s judgment. This is the final call to Christ.

Next, the sixth angel blows his trumpet. Four angels are released who were bound at the Euphrates River. Now, throughout biblical history, the enemies of God’s people always came from the other side of the Euphrates River. Babylon, Assyria, The Parthians, and this is reminding us that there is always opposition to the Gospel, but this is controlled opposition. Two hundred million troops kill a third of the human race. Global, destructive warfare. By this time, when you track what’s happened, if 20% of the world’s population was raptured, that’s what I arrived at when I studied the statistics around professing Christians, then 25% were killed at the fourth seal judgment, then a third are killed here at the sixth trumpet, you’ll have about 40% of the world population left. Almost 5 billion people are gone. Trust me, you won’t want to be around for this. And for those people who are left…

The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands to stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk. And they did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.

-Revelation 9:20-21

As Christians, we are full of the Holy Spirit, who guides us into repentance. Repentance is simple, it just means that you were walking one direction, away from God, and you feel this thing the Bible calls conviction, which is the Holy Spirit telling you, “turn it around!” and then you repent, and start walking back towards God. But in this situation, where we are in the tribulation, no one is repenting. We call this unrepentant sin, and it’s evidence of lostness. All the Christians are gone, and God is sending this clear and present calling, and no one is responding. God’s call requires a response.

I want to acknowledge that this is a hard message to hear. The tribulation will be a time of massive worldwide destruction. In chapter 10 of Revelation we see an interlude. We see the call for the Christian. We’re called to proclaim Christ. John sees an angel coming down from heaven. This angel has just been in the presence of God.

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face was like the sun, his legs were like pillars of fire, 2 and he held a little scroll opened in his hand.

-Revelation 10:1-2

This angel tells John,

“There will no longer be a delay, but in the days when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet, then the mystery of God will be completed, as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

-Revelation 10:6-7

All of this is going to make perfect sense.

Then the voice that I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, “Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, “Take and eat it; it will be bitter in your stomach, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.” Then I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It was as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I ate it, my stomach became bitter.

-Revelation 10:8-10

As Christians, we grieve because of the lostness in the world. The message of salvation is sweet, but it comes with a hard feeling that is the reality that the people who are not saved, are going to experience the things we just read about for eternity. This is why at Our City Church, we want to share the good news of Jesus Christ with as many people as possible. We don’t want anybody, not any of our friends, any of our neighbors, even our worst enemies, to be separated from God. The Gospel is sweet, but the alternative is awful. That’s why we need to take this seriously.

And they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages, and kings.”

-Revelation 10:11

The work of the Christian is ongoing. Our proclaiming Christ does not end. This is not one and done,

The Christian life is a lifestyle of leading people to the Lord.

Next in Revelation, and this is where we will end tonight, two witnesses show up. I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth

-Revelation 11:3

This sackloth symbolizes their grief and their mourning over the lostness of the world. I believe these are Moses and Elijah, because look at what verses 6 says:

They have authority to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the days of their prophecy. They also have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague whenever they want. When they finish their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war on them, conquer them, and kill them.

-Revelation 11:6-7

This beast from the abyss is the forerunner to the antichrist, before the antichrist takes power over the world. There is great rejoicing from all the lost people in the world. The news was broadcast to everybody, and everybody is celebrating, they’re sending each other gifts. It looks like all hope is lost.

Do you ever feel that way, by the way? It’s hard to explain suffering in the world. Why does God allow people to suffer? It’s an age old question. When we lost Brittany’s dad to brain cancer, we prayed so hard that God would heal him. That he would live. And he died. Why would God allow this to happen? I want to tell you that as humans, the one thing we get wrong more than any other thing, is that we’re focused on the wrong miracle. The ultimate miracle, the final miracle, is our resurrection to eternal life. When you’re in Christ, the body you live in right now will die. These bodies are not perfect, we break down, we get sick, these bodies will pass away. When Jesus was here on earth, his cornerstone miracles were raising dead people to life. Three times, he raised dead people to life: the widow’s son, then Jairus’s daughter, then Lazarus. When you read these accounts, you notice a pattern. Jesus waited until the only hope that was left, was God. All of our hardship, all of our suffering, exists so what we will be in lock-step with our savior. I can’t tell you how many testimonies I know, where the person who was saved was brought to the point of complete dependence on God.

But after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” They went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies watched them.

-Revelation 11:11-12

Have you ever heard “God won’t give you more than you can handle?” That is not true at all when it comes to going through hard things. Sure, the Bible says you won’t be tempted to sin beyond what you’re able, because that’s the work of the Holy Spirit. But when it comes to hardship and suffering,

God gives us more than we can handle so we have to handle it with Him.

The death of these witnesses is not the end of the story.

The purpose of the tribulation, the purpose of all the hard things in life, is to bring us to complete dependence on Christ. Jesus has delivered us from death to life. This side of eternity is short. You ever hear someone say “Life is short”? That is also not true. Life is eternal. Eternity does not start when you die, we will all live forever. It’s a matter of where you’re going to spend eternity from the moment your body here dies and onward. Will you be absent of the body and present with the Lord, or will you be in the abyss? Jesus talks about this in Luke 18.

Don’t wait until it’s too late.