The Two Witnesses

Revelation 11

Story to read: The Two Witnesses
Bible: Revelation 11

1. What is a witness?

Ask the group. Most will say: someone who saw something.

Push a bit further. A witness is someone who saw something and lives differently because of it.

• You watch a bike crash at a corner, and after that you slow down at that corner. You are a witness.
• You see somebody go from miserable to glowing because one person paid them a compliment — and now you give compliments. Witness.

You cannot un-see it. That is what makes a witness.

2. Two witnesses turn up

In chapter 11 two witnesses appear, and they are a picture of the church — of us.

And at last, we think, the powerful bit. And it is powerful: they do enormous miracles, and nobody can touch them.

But people are frightened of them rather than glad. And when the two witnesses are finally killed, the whole world is relieved. People send each other presents about it.

That is a hard thing to read, and children notice.

3. The turn

Then everything changes.

At their weakest moment — dead, mocked, with everyone celebrating — God stands them up. And suddenly enormous numbers of people want to know God.

Why then? Why not during the miracles?

4. Why weakness convinced them

Here is the answer worth spending time on.

Lots of people spend their whole lives making sure they never look weak or helpless, because they believe that if they ever do, it is over. Everything lost.

Then they watch somebody go through exactly that — helpless, humiliated, finished — and keep hoping. And God turns out to be there at the bottom.

And they think: then maybe it isn’t over for me either.

The miracles impressed people. The weakness gave them hope. It was the second one that changed them.

5. So what does that make us?

Put the question to the group gently and directly:

Would you like to be the kind of person who gives people hope like that — even if it means some people laugh at you for a while first?

Because that is the job description. Not being impressive. Being the person who keeps hoping where everyone can see it.

6. And then the trumpet

Chapter 11 ends with the seventh trumpet and a shout: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.”

Not will become. Has become. The witnesses looked like they lost, and the announcement is that the takeover has already happened.

Memory verse: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord.” (Revelation 11:15)

Look for yourself

Two quiet minutes. Nobody has to say anything out loud.

You are standing in the street. The two witnesses have been lying there three days, and people have been sending each other presents about it.

Then they stand up.

Look at the faces around you. What happens to them?

Now swap places. You are one of the two. Which part would have been hardest — the speaking, or the lying still and waiting?

7. Prayer

Jesus, thank you that you were strongest when you looked weakest. Help us to keep hoping where people can see it, even when it is embarrassing. And thank you that the kingdom is already yours. Amen.

Appendix: Ideas for leaders

Opening activity: Ask for real examples of things the children have seen that changed how they behave. Take two or three. It defines “witness” better than you can.

Craft idea: Two paper figures standing back to back, holding a lamp between them. On the back, each child writes one person who might see them keep hoping this week.

Questions:

1. Why were people relieved when the witnesses died?
2. Why do you think the weakness convinced people when the miracles didn’t?
3. Who is watching how you handle things going wrong?

Song suggestions: A song about Jesus reigning; something about courage.

Prep note: The mocking in 11:9-10 lands hard with children who are bullied. Make sure section 3 follows quickly — the gap between the mockery and the standing-up should be short.