So, where
are we at this point in the story? In
Revelation 1-3, John has a vision of Jesus.
Then we read about the letters that were to be sent to the seven
churches. Then John shares another
vision in Revelation 4:1 which says, “After this I looked, and there
before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard
speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what
must take place after this.’”
Whereas the first 3
chapters talk about something in the present during John’s time, he seems to
switch his focus to some future time.
“The voice” told him that something would take place “after this.” We don’t really know how far in the future
he’s talking about yet. We just know
that God is about to share prophecy about some future events. In Revelation 4, God gives us a picture of
what worship is like or what it will be like in heaven.
In Revelation 5 we learn about a “scroll” which represents
prophecy of the ends times. The only one
worthy to open it is Jesus. The scroll
is closed by seven seals. A seal was a
method of keeping a document closed until it was opened only by the
recipient. Hot wax would be dripped onto
the end of a rolled up scroll. This was
to show that it hadn’t been opened and tampered with while on the journey to
the recipient. Oftentimes, a family or
government official would have a unique image incorporated on the face of a
ring or some other object. This image
was unique only to them. The image would
be pressed into the wax to show that the scroll was from them. The scroll that Jesus has in his hands has 7
seals. He’s the only one worthy to open
them. As each one is opened we gain a
better understanding of what is to take place before He returns.
The sixth seal is in Revelation 6:12-17:
“I watched as he opened the sixth
seal.There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of
goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky
fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island
was removed from its place.
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the
rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the
rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us
and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of
the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can
stand?”
This
event is connected to Joel 2:30-31 which says, “I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire
and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The
opening of the sixth seal seems to be “the great and dreadful day of the
LORD.” In Revelation 6:16 it’s called
the “wrath of the Lamb!” And as terrible
as some of the things we read about in the first five seals, I don’t think we
find the wrath of God. In the fifth seal
it says that the saints were martyred because of the “inhabitants of the land”
(Rev. 6:10) and not from God.
This is where
we come to Revelation 7. This seems to
be an encouraging prophecy for those Christians who will go through a really
hard time in this world.
“After this I saw four
angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds
of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on
any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of
the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been
given power to harm the land and the sea: ‘Do not harm the land or the sea or
the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.’ Then
I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of
Israel.
From the tribe
of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe
of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe
of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe
of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe
of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe
of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.”—Rev. 7:1-7
The scripture
is very clear. The 144,000 people are
not Gentile Christians or any other group of people. They are from the people of Israel. To make sure that there was no confusion
about who “Israel” was John goes further by giving the number from each
specific tribe of Israel. Starting at
verse nine John has a vision of a multitude of people. Apparently, the amount is more than 144,000
people in heaven. It’s such a great
number that John doesn’t even give a number.
It’s beyond numbering. There goes
the theory where some people say that there’s only going to be 144,000 people
to get into heaven. I don’t know if the
144,000 Israelites are in the great multitude or not but I do know that the
size of the second group way outnumbers the first.
“After this I looked and there
before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation,
tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the
Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and
to the Lamb.”
All
the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four
living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped
God, saying:
“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and
power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who
are they, and where did they come from?”
I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great
tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb. Therefore,
‘they are before the throne of God and serve him day and
night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over
them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will
not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the
throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” --Rev. 7:9-17
Who are the ones in this “great
multitude”? “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev.
7:14) Notice that it doesn’t say that
“these are the ones who worked their way into heaven”, or “these are the ones
who didn’t sin much during their life”, or “these are the ones who knew a lot
about the Bible”, or “these are the ones who sacrificed and did a lot of good
for people in this world.”
If heaven is a perfect place then God
won’t allow sin to be in it. Can you
think of one sin that you can erase from your past? It’s impossible. We need someone who is outside of space and
time to cleanse us from our sin. These
people found God’s forgiveness and their robes were made “white in the blood of
the Lamb.”
Apparently, these Christians have
gone through some portion of the final seven years of this world that’s
mentioned in places like Daniel 9 and Matthew 24. Matthew 24:21 says, “For
then there will be great distress (tribulation-NASB), unequaled from the
beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.” Jesus quotes Isaiah 13:10
and 34:4,
“Immediately after the distress of those days
‘the sun will be darkened, and the
moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the
heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the
sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send
his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the
four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”—Matt. 24:29-31
Maybe this is the same event described in Revelation 7:1
when the four angels put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of God. According to Jesus, this is the point of His
return. Daniel says, “There will be a time of distress such as
has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time
your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.”
--Daniel 12:1
One of the reasons the gospel is such good news is that God
will not allow anyone to get away with any sin.
How is that good news? Well, turn
to Romans 1:17. It gives us one of the
main aspects of the gospel that the church doesn’t talk about these days. We like to talk about the love of God, his
forgiveness and mercy. But this passage
says, “For in the gospel a righteousness
from God is revealed…” One of the
main aspects of the gospel, alongside of love, mercy and forgiveness, is that
God is righteous. For example, Romans
1:18 says, “The wrath of God is being
revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who
suppress the truth by their wickedness…”
Romans 2:16 says, “This
will take place on the day when God will judge men’s secrets through Jesus
Christ, as my gospel declares.” In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians he said, “All this is evidence that God’s judgment is
right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for
which you are suffering. God
is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to
you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus
is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” --2 Thess.
1:5-7
The Christians that Paul was writing to were really
suffering. They were facing all angles
of persecution, including death. The
Christians that John wrote about in Revelation 7 were going through the same
things. Today, Christians, alongside
people of other faiths, are suffering greatly by people like ISIS. There have been beheadings placed on social
media so that the world can see and be terrorized. I hate to see them get away with any of
that. I hate to see any other dictator,
country, or whoever get away with evil like that. The good news is that they won’t get away
with it. God will judge and punish every
sin that anyone has ever committed. It doesn't matter if those cowardly ISIS guys wear a hood so you can’t see their
face. God knows who they are and they
will pay for it. What were the Christian
martyrs crying out to God in Revelation 6:10?
They said, “How long, Sovereign
Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge
our blood?” God is a righteous
judge. He will “pay back trouble to those who trouble you…” --2 Thess. 1:6
But haven’t you and I troubled people? Haven’t you and I sinned? Doesn't that mean that there’s no hope for us
since we’re guilty too? If heaven is a perfect place then how can we be let in?
We can choose to be punished for our sins or let Jesus take the punishment for
us. Paul said, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.” --2 Cor. 5:21 Jesus offered a gift for us
by dying on the cross and being punished by God for our sins. You can either accept a gift, ignore it or
reject it. When I was in college I chose
to let Jesus take the punishment for me.
He already did it 2000 years ago.
The gift was already offered. I
just needed to receive it.
So, as we take communion we need to remind ourselves that
God is righteous, and that the gospel reveals the righteousness of God, and
that His death for us demonstrated His righteousness as well as His love. Can you think of anyone that’s hurt you? Jesus paid for that. Can you think of anyone you’ve hurt? Jesus paid for that. Can you think of any way you’ve been
mistreated? Jesus paid for that as
well. Can you think of any way you’ve
mistreated someone else? That’s been
paid for too. Every hurt, every pain,
every letdown, no matter if it was done in the light or done in secret, every
sin has been punished.
God never broke any of His own rules. He declared that every sin must be
punished. If He doesn’t punish every sin
then He wouldn’t be righteous. He would
be breaking His own rules. The good news
is that He is righteous. And He made a
way so that He could punish our sin and we could still get to heaven even
though we’re sinners. That’s why the
authors of the Bible praised God for His great wisdom in how He fixed a problem
that, according to human wisdom, seemed like a dead end. God gave us communion in order to remind us
of this. And as John says in Revelation
7:14, “they have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
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