The Greatest Quilter

ENGAGE: Does anyone like quilts? Have you inherited a quilt? Do any of you know how to make a quilt from scratch?

Opening Question and Statement: A quilt is typically a bed covering or an item passed down through generations. It’s a tapestry of what you or a grandmother may have created using old clothing or other fabric lying around the house. A quilt is a decorative textile made by stitching together layers. (Ok, I don’t know anything about quilts, but after minutes of research, I learned" quilts are made of layers - and by sewing patches of cloth together). As we spend some time together, we will see how God, through his word, stitches together his people for his glory. We will see as we follow along that God, at the end of the age, will be glorified in the most colorful way!

SCRIPTURE: Let us dive into the word! Please open your Bibles to Revelation 7:9-10. (Page #________ /_______) I will be reading from the ESV.

Revelation 7:9–10 ESV

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The Word of the Lord – Thanks be to God, Amen!

THE ANALOGY: You all know that I know nothing about quilting, right? Ok, based on those “minutes” of study, I have learned that the creation of any quilt has 5 phases:

• Concept: picking a design, colors, and size

• Piecing: sewing together fabric shapes to make the quilt top design

• Construction: attachment of backing and batting to make a stuffed fabric sandwich

• Quilt stitching: decorative sewing to hold the layers together and form a design

• Binding: the fabric strip that holds the three layers together at the edge

As we look at Revelation 7:9-10, we also see five phases. Let’s list them.

Phase One - Great Multitude

Phase Two - no one could number

Phase Three - every nation

Phase Four - all tribes

Phase Five - peoples and languages

The first phase is this great multitude. The multitude is a large crowd of people. Not limited to leaders or nobility of a higher status. Just a large crowd of people. Myriad upon myriad, upon myriad, upon billions upon billions of people. Now, myriad means a countless or extremely great number. A myriad can be a unit of ten thousand. So, think about this for a second: ten thousand, upon ten thousand, upon ten thousand upon billions, so forth and counting. You all know I struggled with math, but it doesn’t take Albert Einstein to figure out that we cannot count to whatever number that may be. My head hurts thinking about it.

Then we move on to the second quilting phase, piecing together—the piecing together of an unforeseen number that no one could number. Allow me to attempt to explain the piecing together of the quilt through scripture. Gen 13:15-16 says 15 for all the land that you see; I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16 I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted.” Gen 15:5 says, “5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Gen 28:14 - 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Psalms 117:1 - Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! Isaiah 61:9 says Their offspring shall be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed. Luke 1:76-78 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways; To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God, Gal 3:28-29 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. We have been called out to be one people! One Church! One Bride in One Kingdom! “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.” Ga 3:16.

The Shift: We just talked about offspring, but God also deals with our sins and gives us a blueprint of how we should live and treat one another.

The third phase of quilting is construction. From every nation – God is constructing heaven to look diverse. He will pull people from every ethnos, from all corners of the earth. All of the different ethnic groups, colors, and hair textures that he has called to himself, both Jew and Gentile alike, are part of this construction or this gathering at the end of the age. We as a people should not have room in our hearts to exclude people. We should have space in our hearts to include and share the love of Jesus Christ with people who do not look like us. Dr. Tony Evans put it this way: “Racism isn’t a bad habit; it’s not a mistake; it’s a sin. The answer is not sociology; it’s theology.” We are called to guard the gospel. The best way we guard the gospel is by sharing the gospel with people. By sharing God’s word, we are planting that seed that God will nurture, or in quilting terms, we are setting the needle that God will thread.

Now, I would not know where to start constructing a quilt. Yet, our God Most High knew exactly where to start. At the time of our creation, he had already laid out the patterns so that the construction would be seamless. In so doing, our salvation was made seamless. We were seen as blameless and spotless before our God, standing firm in white robes with Jesus as our propitiation. Ponder this for a moment: If all the quilters of all the nations came together to create a quilt, they could not piece together a masterpiece, and neither could God, our creator!

On to the fourth phase of quilting, the stitching. This is where beauty ties everything together. All tribes are peoples, nations, and a collection of different ethnic groups coming together to create a beautiful pattern that connects everything back to God the Father, his glory, and our enjoyment. He gives us all things, even the beautiful concept of different ethnicities. We were created to live among one another with our differences. Yes, God gave us this beautiful Quilt Stitching we call race. Romans 11:33-36 “33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” This means that God is calling all who have called on the name of Jesus Christ and believed in him. Once again, he reconciles all people with himself.

The fifth and final quilting phase is binding. The phrase: All Peoples and languages repeats and echoes the fact that all tribes and nations will stand firm before God's throne. God does not show prejudice as to who can worship him. He does not display racism or exclude individuals who believe in him because of their ethnicity. Instead, He accepts all peoples, their different ethnicities, faults, failures, and weirdness, and He loves us. The quilt starts with Christ and ends with Christ. The last part of verse nine completes the entire passage and solidifies the vision of what our future hope reveals to us and how heaven will look.

THE CONNECTION: Now, for the finishing threads, tie it all together. I want to make the connection that Revelation 7:9 is descriptive and prescriptive. What do I mean by descriptive and prescriptive? Simple. When I say descriptive, I am saying that the Bible gives us a clear picture or vision of what Heaven will look like when we all meet face-to-face with our Savior. The Bible says that all kinds of people we consider weird and strange will be at the end of the age standing before the throne with palm branches in our hands, crying out in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to the Lord our God and the Lamb.” WHY? Because if they accepted the call to follow Jesus, they were reconciled to God and became heirs of Abraham! When you read Colossians, we know that Colossae was an ethnically and religiously diverse city in modern-day Turkey where Jews and Gentiles co-existed.

When studying the core message of Paul’s letter in Colossians, we learn that Jesus Christ is the center of everything. In the midst of all of life’s distractions, all of the different things and activities that fight for our attention, the object of our affection and allegiance is simple. Jesus is, has, and always will be the ONE and the ONLY thing we truly need to experience life and the unity we are all so desperate for today. We all know the prayer Jesus taught us, as stated in Matthew 6:5-14. The part where the prayer says, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” should be a reminder that when we pray this prayer, we ask God’s will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Do we really mean what we pray when we pray this prayer? I ask this question because I look at the state of this nation, and those who pray this prayer every Sunday often do not live up to what this prayer suggests. If we ask that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, can we at least attempt to openly share our faith with people who look different from us? Can we try to make our churches a representation of Christ? Right? Yes, we ought to attempt to move our churches to the image of Revelation 7:9. It is a description of how heaven will look, yet it is also a prescription of how our congregations should look here on earth. While Revelation 7:9 is primarily a descriptive vision of the heavenly multitude, it carries significant prescriptive implications for the modern church. It calls all Christians to embrace diversity, seek unity in worship, live with hope, and engage in mission evangelism prescribed to us in Matthew 28:19-20. These prescriptive aspects help guide believers in how we should live out our faith Coram Deo (living before the case of God) in anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s ultimate plan.

INSPIRATION/REFLECTION: A. Can we do this? In Christ, we can. WE, as the church, can reach people three, five, and seven miles from our houses and churches. We live in a lost world; people need to know what we know and hear what we know to be true and self-evident about our God. We ought to apply Matthew 28:19 to our daily lives.

R. Yes, Quilting is hard. Adulting is hard. But We can respond to the prescription God prescribed to us. We can respond to the description written out for us to read. We can respond to this call by being intentional with our relationships. At the end of the age, we all will respond with, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!”

Hermeneutical Bridge and Closing Thought: So, let’s pray that God will allow us to display Revelation 7:9 in our daily lives and in our churches. Let’s be intentional about sharing the Gospel with different ethnic groups whenever we can. If I may remind you that “On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16)” At the end of the age, we all will see this name, we will know this name, and all ethnos will worship this name together. At the end of the age, YAHWEH will be glorified in the most colorful way by those of every nation, tongue, tribe, and people worshiping Him. This reminds me of a great old church hymn calling for all creation to join in praising Jesus. This collective praise is akin to the collective effort in quilting. The old hymn of the church is:

SONG: All Hail the Power of Jesus Name (pg ______ /______) Sing this song with vibrance!

Let every kindred, every tribe,

On this terrestrial ball,

To Him all majesty ascribe,

And crown Him Lord of all!

[We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1). Our witness shall go forth in God’s grace and surround every ethnic group we love, even if they do not believe in our God. The Spirit quilts the name above all names on the blanket of history, using pieces from every nation, tongue, tribe, and people using red thread, signifying the blood of Jesus to bring together all of those pieces together, creating a banner for the Glory of God alone. Just as a quilt is a beautiful tapestry made from many different pieces, the church is a beautiful assembly of diverse individuals unified in our worship to Jesus Christ. (God is the quilter in creation, history, and redemption power.) At the end of the age, God will be glorified in the most colorful way by those of every nation, tongue, tribe, and people worshiping Him. We should, as one body, emulate this vision of heaven in our congregations as we worship as one church.]

CLOSING PRAYER: Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Clothe your ministers with righteousness; Let your people sing with joy. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world; For only in you can we live in safety. Lord, keep this nation under your care. Guide us in the way of justice and truth. Let this message ring forth as your people go into the world and share the good news of Jesus Christ, the king. Grant us wisdom, shower us with mercy, and put Your will on our hearts so that we may boldly pray; let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us an urgency to live out the great commission and comfort of Psalm 23. Amen!

CHARGE: Here is my charge to you, the church: Go forth into your community, embodying the hands and feet of Jesus, and let His word be your voice! Seek out the diverse threads of humanity and then marvel as the Holy Spirit weaves them into the grand tapestry crafted by our Benevolent God.

BLESSING:

The Spirit of God inspires…listen! The Spirit of God transforms and grows!

The Spirit of God empowers…go…and be…and do!

And may you…those you encounter…and those who are touched beyond that encounter…discover and know the grace, love, and peace of our great God each and every day. Amen and Amen. By Pastor Scott Cervas.