Revelation 7 Garden to Garden

15 Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and every slave and free person hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of their wrath has come! And who is able to stand?”

THE SEALED OF ISRAEL

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, restraining the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel rising up from the east, who had the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were allowed to harm the earth and the sea: 3 “Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of the sealed:

144,000 sealed from every tribe of the Israelites:

5 12,000 sealed from the tribe of Judah,

12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,

12,000 from the tribe of Gad,

6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher,

12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,

12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,

7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,

12,000 from the tribe of Levi,

12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,

8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,

12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,

12,000 sealed from the tribe of Benjamin.

A MULTITUDE FROM THE GREAT TRIBULATION

9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

Salvation belongs to our God,

who is seated on the throne,

and to the Lamb!

11 All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying,

Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom

and thanksgiving and honor

and power and strength

be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

13 Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are these people in white robes, and where did they come from?”

14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

Then he told me: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 For this reason they are before the throne of God,

and they serve him day and night in his temple.

The one seated on the throne will shelter them:

16 They will no longer hunger;

they will no longer thirst;

the sun will no longer strike them,

nor will any scorching heat.

17 For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne

will shepherd them;

he will guide them to springs of the waters of life,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Scriptural context

Here we are, back in the saddle after a short break. I wanted to take this opportunity to also thank Peter and Herman for jumping in for a few weeks to cover while I was on leave.

But now we are back and we are about to finish our garden to garden city series.

And so having had Christmas and new years between our last message and today, i think it is a good idea to quickly sum up the big picture Bible story till where we are up to.

Because again without the context of the rest of Scripture, today’s passage in Revelation 7 doesnt make much sense.

So as we have seen, the whole story revolves around the problem of Genesis 3. So God had created the world, he made it very good, but then through sin and disobedience Adam and Eve broke the world. But the big problem with this is that human beings were created to walk and talk with God. We were designed to be in a relationship with him, but because our sin, we can’t be in God’s presence.

And the whole story of scripture, the golden thread that runs throuhgout the Bible, is in essence an exploration of solving that problem. How can God be with his people?

How can we, the sinful broken people, be in his presence without getting consumed by the fires of judgement?

And so as the story of scripture unfolds, this question gets answered slowly.

With Abraham we learn that it will be via the instrument of Faith.

Via Moses we learn the solution will come through the nation of Israel

Through the book of judges we learn that it will come through one of Israel’s kings

Through the history of ISrael we see that it will be a king from David’s line.

Through the books of Kings and Chronicles, we see that all human kings in Israel are actually inferior and broken - so we need a better king than even Israel’s greatest king.

And part of this picture that is being built through this story, is that a purely human solution will never work. It can’t. Every time humans try in and of themselves, and in and of their own strength to bridge the gap between us and God, it ends disasterously.

And even Israel, the nation that was supposed to be this great arrow pointing to God, ends up as corrupt as the nations around them. And toward the end of Israel as a nation, we see that Israel even went so far away from God that they end up sacrificing their own children as offerings to the Idol Molech.

And so the question remains. How is it that God will be with his people, if his people continually turn away from him?

The answer is that humans needed to be purified from their sin. But the consequences of sin is death. So how can we stand the purification, but also end up living, surving the process.

And of course we can’t we needed someone to go through that for us.

And so finally Jesus comes, he is Emmanuel - God with us. He, being fully human could live a perfect life so that he can stand in our place. And being fully God, could take the outpouring of God’s wrath and cleansing fire on himself and survive.

And so every person who has faith, who beleives and trusts in him, is transferred from death into life in Christ.

And so we get to live forever in him, having been cleansed through him. Through his death on the cross, and resurrection 3 days later.

And so that is where we are up to.

And that is all good and well, as far as the individual beleiver is concernced.

But what abotu the rest of the world?

You know the whole of creation is broken and groans under the weight of sin. So how is that going to be fixed?

Well revelation gives us the answer.

God will remake the world through judging it.

And the chapter just before this one, chapter 6 is where this starts to happen.

Jesus comes, he opens the seals on the scroll of judgement, and with each seal being opened, another part of the world comes under judgement.

Seal 1: The white rider a military conquerer coems to defeat the powers of the world.

Seal 2: The red rider, the one who takes peace from the earth and allows people to slaughter each other.

Seal 3: The black rider, and great famine on the earth

Seal 4: The pale green rider, and death and hades decend on the world.

Seal 5: Those martyred for their faith crying out to God to judge the world.

Seal 6: Earthquake, the sun turning black, The stars falling to earth, the sky being torn asunder.

And in the midst of this, the pwoerful, the rich, the kings, the nobesl and the generals, the slave, the poor and everyone else on earth flee for shelter.

God was coming to judge teh world, and humanity could not stand it.

And the question hangs in the air - what will happen to us? On this great day of judgement, what will happen to humanity? Where will we be?

After all who can stand on the day of the Lord?

Who can stand in the judgement?

Chapter 7 invites gives us the answer.

Those sealed and protected by the lamb.

And so today we are going to start by looking at the question,

well who are these people who are sealed and protected by the lamb?

You see

Chapter 7 begins by reciting the list of those who have been sealed.

Now I have to acknowledge that exactly who these 144000 are,

has been the topic of great debate for many years.

Some people believe that this a literal 144000,

God’s specially appointed and anointed saints.

This is the view the Jehovah’s witnesses hold.

And of course it is only the elite in the JW’s a who are included in this 144k

Some believe that this represents a group of Jewish believers.

That is the physical Israel,

who came to faith and trust in Christ.

Some believe that this 144000 is really an army of believers

who will carry out God’s justice on earth.

I see very little evidence to support this view,

but there are people who believe that this is a literal heavenly army

made up of believers,

who will carry out God’s war on the earth.

And some believe that this 144000

is a symbolic representation of all believers.

Now there are strengths and weaknesses with every approach.

But I believe the correct way to read this

is to see this as a symbolic representation of all believers,

and there are a number of reasons why I believe this is the best interpretation.

Firstly, in the Bible,

and especially in the new Testament

the people of Israel,

the true Israel,

is made up of those who trust in God

The true Israel is not Israel by physical decent, but rather those who are spiritually Israelites,

Those who are faithful believers.

I think it is likely therefore that this 144000

refers to the complete number of all of God’s believers.

And there are 12,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel

This represents the full number

Of each of the tribes of the true Israel.

In addition, there are also some abnormalities

within the list that is given here.

For example the tribe of Judah comes first,

when normally the tribe of Reuben will be listed first

in the genealogy is of Israel.

The tribe of Judah comes first because Jesus

, the King,

comes from the kingly tribe.

Jesus,

the lion of Judah,

heads up God’s special people here, as the true leader of the true Israel.

We also see

that the tribe of Dan is missing.

The tribe of Dan,

fell away from Israel

because of the gross idolatry that Dan committed.

There was a common thought in the day this was written

that the Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan.

And nevertheless

Ezekiel chapter 48 shows us that each of Israel’s tribes,

all of Israel

will in fact be honoured

and share in the rain of Christ.

So Dan is missing from this list only symbolically

, not physically.

So I think there are a lot of good reasons to see this as spiritual Israel,

as a symbolic representation of all believers.

There is great hope in this for us.

We know that whatever happens

God has marked out his people

for his protection in the day to come.

When God seals his people

is a sign

it is a promise of divine protection

It is a stamp that says

These ones are mine, and nothing will touch them.

That means friends, that god has marked us.

He has given us a label that beats every other label.

He says – you are mine, and because you are mine, you are under my protection.

See you see friends

we don’t have to worry about the labels that other people give us.

We don’t have to worry what the world thinks of us.

We don’t have to worry about feeling like we don’t belong,

because not only do we belong to God’s own people,

he has stamped us with his own seal,

to prove without a doubt,

to authenticate without a doubt

that we are his.

We are his people,

we are his treasured possession.

He loved us so much that he gave himself unto death

so that we could be sealed

stamped with his seal.

He promises us his protection from his divine wrath to come

Is this because we deserve it? Is it because we are such good little Christians?

No.

He seals us, he protects us from his wrath,

Because he has already taken all the wrath for us.

You see when he dies on the cross

He took God’s wrath

he takes it on himself

and dies in our place.

All the plagues

and all the destruction

and all the bad things that happen in Revelation

are really meant for us.

Friends, the reality is that it would be right and proper for us to suffer the wrath to come.

Who of us here can say, we have never sinned?

The wrath belongs to us.

But because we are now his children,

because we trust in Christ for our salvation,

because Jesus stands in our place

we don’t have to suffer that.

Instead Jesus himself took all of that suffering,

that death,

that destruction on himself

and died in our place.

We are sealed and protected by the lamb.

That is the first thing we have to see,

the second thing is that this group of people is made up of Every nation and Tongue

Every Nation and Tongue (9)

Revelation 7:9 CSB

9 After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands.

So if we understand the 144000 as all of the believers,

Then we can see that v9-12, this great multitude, is just another vision of the same group of people.

In v1-8 we see especially

the covenantal nature of the people God saves.

That is v1-8 show us God’s people as an expression of the true Israel,

the people of God,

and shows us how he grafts us into that true spiritual nation of Israel

as believers.

So in v1-8 we see the what type of salvation God’s people experience – a covenantal one.

In v9-12 we see the scope and size of this covenantal love.

We see that God is not so much worried about Israel as special nation, per se,

But he has been working toward the salvation of the whole world.

There is this vast multitude,

from every nation

, every tribe,

every people,

every language

which no one can number.

God here,

has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham,

that Every nation would be blessed through him and his offspring.

. People from Every land

, every nation,

every people,

every language

will come and worship the king together.

What does this mean for us?

Why does this matter to us?

Well because this challenges us in two significant ways.

The first is that this is people from every nation, every people, every language.

There is no place for racial divides in the church. We are all sinners, there is no longer slave or free, greek or gentile. Black, white, brown, yellow, red - it doesn’t matter.

All are sinners, all who believe in Christ are washed clean in his blood. All are equal before the throne.

When Jesus departs earth, just befroe he leaves he gives the church one job - make disciples of all nations. All nations.

We have a global responsibility to carry the word of God, the Gospel of Christ around the world. We cannot keep it for people like us, it doesn’t belong to us. The church has a global responsibility to spread the word.

Now luckily in Australia that is very easy - most of teh world already lives here! But in the church there is no room for discrimination based on race, colour or nation of orginin.

All beleievers are brotehrs and sisters, joined by the blood of Christ.

So the first thing way this challenges us is that the gospel is for every nation, every people, every language.

And most people living in this country today would say, Amen, yay and verily.

We would agree with that wouldnt we?

We would heartily agree that people of every colour and every nation had equal value, because they are all made in the image of God. Being human has inherent dignity!

But, the second way this challanges us is in how this plays out.

You see it is people from every nation, every land, every people, every tongue.

They are not people from the same tongue. From the same people.

It is actually people in their diversity that praise Jesus before his throne.

In Revelation 21:24 we see this most clearly.

Revelation 21:24 CSB

24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

Nations will exist in heaven. The kings of the earth will bring their glory, which is another way of talking about the cultural treasures into heaven. But even if you don’t read that as specific cultural treasures, you have to admit that at the very least this verse tells us that the glory of the nations, will be in heaven. Glories which make nations, nationally unique.

The things that make a nation good, and beautiful, and different will be there in heaven.

And this goes directly against what our world is doing in many places today.

You see our society will say “yes it is true and good and right when you say that there is no difference in value between people from different nations or places”.

Because in the past, global mission efforts have got this quite wrong havent we?

During the great imperial era, the church brought the Word and the good news of Jesus, with the culture of white european expectations.

Being a Christian and trusting in Jesus, went hand in hand with dressing up in victorian suits and ties to attend a church that looked very much like the chapel back in mother england.

So the church in the past got this wrong, we tried to make nations western, while sharing Christ.

And so now we live with a heritage where evangelism goes hand in hand with imperial collonialism.

And so in reaction to that our world has turned against that which is white, european culture, and reject Christianity as but a part of that, and magnified traditional cultures instead. Glorified traditional religion instead.

And today many try to pretend that difference doesnt actually exist. We have tried to ignore race, and gender and nationality. But the answer is not to take white european culture and enforce it on teh world, and nor is it to reject Christianity as just another aspect of imperialism.

The Biblical picture is to have Christ redeem every nation and every tongue, and then to be the greatest and best version of that culture and nation they can be to the glory of God.

Be the most God glorifying Kenyan you can be. Be the best most Christ exalting Inuit you can be. But do it in unity.

It is, biblically speaky, very possible to be united in extreme and glorious difference,

becasue we are singing glory

and giving praise

to the Lamb.

We are saved and purified by the same Jesus.

We are brothers and sisters with the same father.

And we have the same king.

And in our father’s family,

we are focussed on the Lamb.

Every tongue, and every nation.

As different tongues and nations.

Because that is what we were made for. Look what all these people from every nation and every tongue are doing :

The point of being saved

Revelation 7:10–12 CSB

10 And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! 11 All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

One day, every nation, every tongue, every creature in heaven and on earth will bow down and worship, will sing praises to God. Because this is what we are made for.

This is what you have been made for.

So bring Glory to your king.

Amen.