Revelation 14:1-20

Up to this point, things have looked pretty bleak but there is a positive change coming, a turning of the tide and assurance for the believer.

We are about to take a look back to the Heavenly celebration John wrote about in Chapter 5 and the 144,000 of Chapter 7 .

1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

Rev. 14:1 fulfills the prophetic words of Psalms and Hebrews…

Psalm 2:6 - “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

Hebrews 12:22 - But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

The marks on the hands and/or foreheads of the 144,000 bears the Father and the Son and signifies the protection and possession of God.

Many believe that these marks are tangible but this does not necessarily have to be so…

1. The mark or designation could be achieved through the use of a phylactery as we see in Deut. 6:8

Deuteronomy 6:8 - You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

A phylactery was a small box [often made of leather] that Hebrew men would wear around their heads and left arm every weekday morning during prayer.

They contained verses from the Bible and were a constant reminder for the believer of God and His Word.

2. The marks could be imprinted or branded on the skin in some way

3. God marking the individual’s head/hand could be symbolic or spiritual in nature. God guides our hands and our hearts.

2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, 3 and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

The new song is the “Song of the Redeemed ” celebrating God victory over sin through the Lamb

Their song belongs only belongs to and is sung by those who have experienced the Lord’s redemption.

This is another indication that the 144,000 may not be a literal number but representative of those who have been saved during the tribulation, which would be consistent with Rev 5:9…

Revelation 5:9 - And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,

These singers and their harps will reappear in the next Chapter beside the “Sea of Glass .”

The song they sing is the “Song of the Redeemed .”

4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, 5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.

The 144,000 [whether figurative or literal] are those who are gathered as “firstfruits ” by God. They lose their lives for the sake of the gospel, that God may gather a greater harvest because of their faithfulness.

So what do you think? [circle your answer]

a. The 144,000 are literal, virgin/chasten Jewish men

b. The 144,000 is representative of all the redeemed of the tribulation.

6 Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.

7 And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,

10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!”

Beginning in verse 6 is the only place in the Bible that we see angels commissioned to preach the gospel .

However what we do know is that “fallen ” angels have appeared on earth, for the purpose of spreading a false gospel.

Mohammad said an Angel appeared to him. Joseph Smith said that he was also visited by an angel.

But God make clear by the hand of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1:8 - But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 - For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

That is why believers must stand firm…not for the sake of argument … but for the salvation of those that have been led astray.

In our present day we need to be weary of anyone who claims that they have had a vision or were visited by “so called” heavenly messengers…some may even claim to have been visited by Jesus himself…

How do we know that no one today is visited by Jesus?

Because we know where he is. He is in Heaven. And isn’t scheduled to return until he returns in the clouds to receive us unto himself in an event that we call the “rapture .”

14 Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.

This is Jesus . The Lord of the harvest. Who first came as a gospel sower , and is going to return as a gospel reaper .

Matthew 13:37 - He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.

15 And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.”

16 So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.

John sees Christ gathering [reaping] his own to him.

Matthew 3:12 - His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

17 Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

18 And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.”

19 So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

20 And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.

This is a look forward to “The Battle of Armageddon”

The word trodden means trample . And it symbolizes the Lord trampling every nation that has risen against Him and Holy city [Jerusalem].

Winepresses have been used throughout scripture to signify God’s wrath and judgement against sin .

Isaiah 63:2-6 - “Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? 3 “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption2 had come. 5 I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. 6 I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

The Battle will be so bloody that the blood will run as high as a horse’s bridle for 1600 stadia or 183 miles .

That is just shy of the north to south length of the nation Palestine which is 200 miles in length.