THE DYNAMIC DUO

And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”  (Revelation 11:3)

There are things that go together: peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, peas and carrots.  There are names that go together: Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Batman and Robin.  Speaking of Batman and Robin—those two are known in comic book lore as the dynamic duo.  The caped crusaders are from a writer’s imagination, but there is a real dynamic duo that arises in the end time—not fighting crime in Gotham, but standing for truth in Jerusalem.  Revelation chapter eleven tells their story.

During the tribulation period, a temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem (Rev.11:1-2). Preparations are being made by Jews to bring this to pass.  It is the great yearning of their hearts.  It may be part of the peace settlement that Antichrist will promise to Israel to entice them to sign a treaty.  This temple, however, shows Israel still failing to receive their Messiah.  Jesus came and sacrificed His blood to establish the New Covenant.  Many times in the epistles it is stressed that returning to temple worship is rejection of His atonement.  Eventually, the Antichrist will enter this temple and defile it, setting himself up as God and demanding the worship of the world.  The measuring rod here is a symbol of judgment.  This temple doesn’t measure up.  Its worship is repudiated.

God will raise up his dynamic duo to proclaim the truth—to call Jews and Gentiles to Christ (v.3-10).  During earth’s darkest era, God will have His two lampstands shining brightly.  Their ministry is supernaturally confirmed by great miracles.  They stand in the spirit of Moses and Elijah.  Some think they are literally Moses and Elijah returned.  Some scholars suggest Enoch and Elijah.  While I respect their views, I believe more likely they are two who have the attributes of those mighty men of God, but not actually those servants.  Other things are clear.  They are invincible—divinely protected.  The Antichrist will want to silence them because they expose him for the liar he is.  Sinners will despise them because they confront their evil deeds.  George Whitefield said, “We are immortal until our work on earth is done.”  There comes a time when their ministry is finished—God’s appointed hour for His anointed heralds—and they are slain.

The world has a holiday.  What a celebration when they are killed—their bloated bodies are paraded before the gawking masses and beamed around the world by television!  Just when evil thinks it has triumphed, God shuts the party down (v.11-14).  Isn’t it reminiscent of what happened when Satan thought Jesus beaten and silenced in the grave?  Death was defeated—up from the grave He arose, with a mighty triumph o’er His foes!  In that resurrection power He will summon the dead in Christ back to life and with living saints rapture them.  The world tried to explain that away.  God will show them that reality by raising and rapturing the dynamic duo.  The scene shifts from earth’s temple to heaven’s (v.15-19) with the Hallelujah Chorus sung victoriously.  Lightning flashes and thunder rolls; more judgments fall on a world that despises God.  I want to be with that throng above don’t you?  Jesus is the way, the truth and the life—trust Him today and be on the winning side, not left behind to face these horrors of the tribulation!

CONNECTED IN CHRIST: Our Common Architecture

 

“having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”  (Ephesians 2:20-22)

Paul has described Christ’s followers as saints who are set apart for Him, subjects who are citizens of God’s Kingdom, sons who are part of God’s family and now as sanctuaries who house God’s Spirit.

In each of these analogies, the connection with Christ results in a connection with each other.  There isn’t a special category for an elite group of Christians called, “saints,” but all of those who belong to Christ are saints.  A Kingdom isn’t composed of a single citizen, but all those bound together in allegiance to the King.  Nor are we an “only child” in God’s household, but there are many sons and daughters.  It’s a big family!

This devotional will focus on how the Sovereign Architect has laid Christ as the Cornerstone, and from Him established foundational truth from the apostles of the New Testament and prophets of the Old Testament to build His spiritual temple.  Every believer is cemented together by love in this marvelous construction filled with the Spirit and manifesting His glory.

Everything is bound to Christ—there is no church without that connection to Him as the Cornerstone.  The structure cannot stand without the solid foundation.  God’s inerrant, infallible and immutable message written by His inspired messengers give us the canon of Scripture—that is the measure by which we test and align all that are then built upon this foundation.  The foundation is unshakable.

We are “fitted together,” as individual stones with different shapes and sizes.  None of us are identical, but all are essential in the construction—formed precisely according to the Architect’s design.  The fit is unbreakable.

There is growth.  Paul says the church, “grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”  Spanning the centuries, bridging the continents and cementing the cultures, God’s intent is for an ever-increasing sanctuary.  There is always room for another stone to be added until God decides to cap it off at the consummation of the age.  Thus, we welcome into our local church all those who have been received into God’s church.  The frame is unmatchable.

Driving this home, we are, “built together.”  Not of bricks and mortar, but living beings who have each been recipients of grace and expressed a common faith in Christ.  No termite can devour it, no fire can consume it, no weapon can destroy it and no storm can collapse it.  The fortifying is indestructible.

The same Holy Spirit that indwells you inhabits me, and all believers have become the Temple of God.  We are connected in Christ!