Of All Nations | Revelation 7:9-17

For the past few weeks we’ve been in a series called The Great Commission where we’ve been doing a deep dive into Matthew 28:18–20:

Matthew 28:18–20 NLT

18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

A few weeks ago we talked about the authority of Jesus, after that we talked about what it means to go, and last week we talked about how we make disciples. Tonight is about the nations. It says in the Great Commission that we are to make disciples “OF ALL THE NATIONS.”

Tonight is gonna be a bit different from a normal sermon. We’re gonna be in Revelation 7 tonight, but I want us to do a bit more than just read the passage. I want us to get creative tonight. I want us to read this passage like we’re watching a movie.

Have y’all ever started watching a movie from the middle of it? It’s the absolute worst, but to keep us from reading three chapters in Revelation, we’re gonna start in the middle of this movie.

But I do want to show y’all what has been happening in the movie up until now. For those who don’t know, Revelation was written by the apostle John (the same guy who wrote 1 John) and in Revelation chapter 4, John starts having these wild visions.

Starting in chapter 4, John gets transported into heaven. God the Father is sitting on the throne and there a many beings worshipping God. Then in chapter 5, John notices that God is holding a scroll. And an angel calls out, “Who is worthy to open the scroll?” And it looks like no one was worthy to open it. And it seems like it’s a pretty big deal for this scroll to be opened because John starts weeping. But then an angel tells John that he doesn’t need to weep, because Jesus is worthy to open the scroll.

So then we see Jesus take this scroll from God the Father and then every living creature in existence begins worshipping Jesus. And in chapter 6, we see Jesus beginning to open this scroll, but before He finishes opening it, we see this scene in chapter 7.

So we caught up in the movie? Alright I’m gonna read our passage for us.

[Scripture Reading]

Revelation 7:9–17 NLT

9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. 10 And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. 12 They sang, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me, “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?” 14 And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white. 15 “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter. 16 They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun. 17 For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

So we’re gonna divide up this movie scene into three sections so we can figure out what’s going on.

1. The Peoples (v. 9)

“Peoples” despite the way it may look, was not a typo. There’s a reason I use that word instead of “people.”

Revelation 7:9 NLT

9 After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands.

Notice how it says this crowd is made up of every nation, tribe, people, and language. Think about this for a second. This is wild! Every single language, every nation, every tribe is going to be represented in heaven! It’s not just one group of people or a few groups of people, it’s every group of people (or people groups) standing in front of the throne worshipping Christ. That’s why I use the word “peoples” instead of “people,”, because its more than one people.

Before we dive any deeper into this, I want us to define what a people group is. There’s a website called Joshua Project that is all about praying for other people groups and they have provided a definition of a people group.

- People Group: A significantly large group of individuals who perceive themselves to have a common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, class or caste, situation, etc., or combinations of these.

So in other words it’s a group of people that are similar enough to be able to function together as a society.

So let’s demonstrate this for a moment. Let’s say everyone on this side of the room speaks French and everyone on this side of the room speaks Hindi and we don’t have a translator that speaks both. It’s gonna be nearly impossible for you two to function together as a society because you can’t communicate with one another. So what’s gonna likely happen is this side of the room is gonna go make their own little town while this side of the room may go somewhere else and make their own little town. Y’all form two separate people groups because y’all can’t communicate with each other.

We call this a cultural barrier. It’s a difference in culture that makes it difficult for two cultures to come together.

Yet we see here that every people group according to Revelation 7 are gonna be in Heaven. The cultural barriers that used to exist are gonna be broken and we are all gonna be unified in Heaven. But why would God do this?

2. The Purpose (vv. 10-12)

Revelation 7:10 NLT

10 And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!”

Notice the way John words this. He just described a a huge crowd of people, as far as the eye can see made up of every people group, then he says they were shouting with A great roar. The NASB says they cry out with A loud voice. So this multitude of people from different cultures are all crying out in one unified voice. And look at what they’re crying out. “Salvation comes from our God… and from the Lamb.”

The lamb, if you don’t know, is Jesus. You see before Jesus the Jewish people would sacrifice these lambs to God as a payment for their sin. But this wound up only pointing to the true sacrificial lamb.

When Jesus became a human, He, also being God, would live a perfect righteous life without sin and would die on a cross and become THE sacrificial lamb. He took on the wrath we deserved for our sins, so that through Him we have salvation from those sins. And we now get to spend eternity in heaven.

This is what all these people were saying to God. And this worship continues in verses 11 and 12:

Revelation 7:11–12 NLT

11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell before the throne with their faces to the ground and worshiped God. 12 They sang, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

These elders and four living beings were explained in previous chapters of Revelation, but for the sake of our discussion tonight, we’re not gonna focus on them too long. But we essentially see the entirety of Heaven, both humans and divine beings, worshipping God and bringing glory to Him.

This is the vision I want us to focus on right now. In eternity, every people group standing in front of God, every divine being standing in front of God, worshipping Him; enjoying His grace, and bringing glory to Him.

That right there is what we as Christians are moving toward. Seeing that as a reality.

3. The Promise (vv. 13-17)

Revelation 7:13–14 (NLT)

13 Then one of the twenty-four elders asked me [referring to John], “Who are these who are clothed in white? Where did they come from?”

14 And I said to him, “Sir, you are the one who knows.”

Then he said to me, “These are the ones who died in the great tribulation. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white.

I want you to put yourself in John’s shoes for a minute. This man get’s transported to Heaven, sees all these wild things, sees a multitude of people from EVERY people group and every divine creature worshipping God, and one of the elders up there goes up to John and is like, “You know those guys?” Like he’s supposed to know what’s going on. Like, “Dude I have no idea what’s going on, how do you expect me to know who that giant crowd is.” Luckily John was much more respectful than I probably would’ve been. He says, “Sir, you are the one who knows.” Prolly good to be respectful to the giant elder heaven creature.

But it turns out this was a rhetorical question cause then the elder does tell John who this multitude is. He says they are the ones who died in the great tribulation and that their robes have been washed in the blood of Jesus and have been made white. In other words, it was through the death of Jesus that these people were able to be in Heaven.

Then John goes on to write this:

Revelation 7:15–17 NLT

15 “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter. 16 They will never again be hungry or thirsty; they will never be scorched by the heat of the sun. 17 For the Lamb on the throne will be their Shepherd. He will lead them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

These are promises God has granted to His people. God will give this multitude shelter, they’ll never be hungry or thirsty, and I like this one, they’ll never be scorched by the sun. In other words, no more sunburns in Heaven.

But it goes on to say He will be the Shepherd of His people, comforting us. He will give us springs of life-giving water. And He will wipe every tear from our eyes.

This is the kind of relationship we will have with God in Heaven. This is the promise God has given us.

Y’all Revelation is so cool. It can seem confusing, but the more you study it, the cooler it is. Revelation operates in this already/not yet structure. Have y’all heard of the already/not yet?

I’m gonna use salvation as an example cause it’s the easiest example. So if you put your faith in Jesus, you are saved, right? You can’t lose that, you’re saved. That’s the already, you’re already saved.

But you have not yet experienced the full blessings of being in Heaven. If I walk outside right now and stand there for about an hour, I can guarantee I’ll get a sunburn. So that’s the not yet. We’ve already been saved, but we’re not yet experiencing the fullness of that in Heaven. Does that make sense?

In the same way, God is already on the throne in Heaven being glorified. Yet this multitude that we see from every people group hasn’t happened yet. There are still people groups on this Earth that don’t have the gospel. The already/not yet. But one day there’s not gonna be a not yet. One day we’re gonna see the culmination of all these things and actually experience what John describes here.

So let’s equate this to our theme tonight. We’ve been watching Revelation like a movie tonight. Well there’s a prequel to this movie. Y’all know what a prequel is? If you’re a Star Wars fan like myself, I apologize I know that can be a sensitive word for you. But it’s basically a story that precedes an existing story.

What we just read, that’s the movie. That’s what this is all about. Right now is just the prequel. We’re in the events leading up to this right here.

The Prequel

When Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose from the grave three days later, we started this Prequel. We’re in the new covenant. Jesus is alive and we have a gospel message to take to the lost.

And we live today with that day in mind. Knowing how incredible this scene is and how much glory it brings to God motivates us to take the gospel to those who need it. To show others the gift Jesus has given us. We are God’s plan to reach the lost.

We saw how the gospel unifies all cultures in heaven. Well we see this happen many times here on Earth as well. We see cross-cultural boundaries broken and unity found across multiple people groups all because of the gospel.

I know it’s hard to share the gospel, I know it’s tough. So many times I’ve felt the need to share the gospel and shied away from it because I didn’t want to be rejected. I didn’t think the gospel would work.

The gospel one day will reach every people group on this Earth. It WILL happen. Whatever barrier stands between you and your neighbor… doesn’t matter. If the gospel is powerful enough to reach every people group, it’s powerful enough to reach your friend at school that has always ran away from God.

But that’s not the only reason I’m telling you this tonight. I know you’re all in middle and high school and you still have so much to figure out in your life before this is a possibility, but I want you to be thinking about if you’re called to go to another culture one day. To take the gospel somewhere that it isn’t already.

Show unreached people group

If you come on Sunday mornings this will look familiar. This is what we call an unreached people group. Remember that website I talked about earlier called Joshua Project? Well the info for this people group came from that website.

Walk through the details

According to Joshua Project, it normally takes about 2% of the population of a people group to be saved for the church to be firmly established and self-sufficient. So in other words, they shouldn’t need outside help from believers in other countries, the church in this people group is established enough to function and grow without outside help. 2% of the population being Christian is when they say a people group goes from unreached to reached.

This people group hasn’t reached 2%. In fact, they’re sitting at 0%. The Jat people are 100% Muslim. And there are 13.4 million Jat people. Guess what 0% of 13.4 million is. The Jat people need someone to take the gospel to them.

We know one day all people groups are going to worship God in Heaven. And we also know that we are God’s plan to reach the lost. He uses His people to take the message of the gospel to the lost.

So I know this might not be a possibility now, but I just want you to think about one day taking the gospel to an unreached people group.

Matthew 9:37–38 (NLT)

37 [Jesus] said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. 38 So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

Jesus here is saying that there are so many people ready to hear the gospel message, but few people want to take the gospel to them. So we should pray that God would send people to work the fields so that there would be a plentiful harvest and people would be saved.

I know you may not be ready to go to an unreached people group right now, but you are ready to pray.

We’re gonna pray for the Jat people. We’re gonna pray that God would save this people group, and that He would send out workers into the harvest field to bring the gospel to those who don’t have it.

[Let’s pray]