Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Revelation 7:9-17

Theme: Catching a glimpse of Heaven

Date: 06/17/2018 File name: Resurrection19.wpd

ID Number:

In his letter to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

(Colossians 3:1–4, NIV84)

The command is to regularly think about Heaven, and heavenly things.

For those who have been raised with Christ, i.e. “born again” turning our mind toward heaven, anticipating heaven, longing for heaven, ought to be a natural occurrence.

After all ... This world is not our home, we’re just a-pass’n through.

Unfortunately, the Bible doesn’t give us an abundance of details as to what heaven will be like, but it does give us what we need to know.

What Scripture does reveal to us we should take to heart so that we have hope.

The Bible says that heaven is paradise.

Jesus, when speaking to the thief on the cross who repents, says that he will be with Him that very day in paradise (Luke 23:43).

Where is Heaven?

I don’t have a clue, but for two millennia God’s people have been comforted with the promise, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor.

5:8).

To be with Jesus, wherever that is, will be enough.

In all, seven biblical characters are given a glimpse of Heaven.

Six of them pass on to us important information about what Heaven is like.

Elisha and his servant.

In 2 Kings 6:15-17 they are given a glimpse of the host of heaven.

They saw horses and chariots of fire—a heavenly army—surrounding and protecting them.

Isaiah the Prophet catches a glimpse of the Lord, seated on a throne, high and exalted.

He hears the seraphs crying out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory,” (Isaiah 6:3).

Ezekiel the Prophet was by the river Chebar, and he saw visions of God (Ezek.

1:1).

Around the throne of the eternal, glorious God, Ezekiel sees a flashing, sparkling, spinning rainbow of brilliance.

In pictures almost impossible for us to fathom, the Prophet describes the sovereignty, majesty, and glory of God and the incredible beauty, symmetry, and perfection of His heaven.

Much of it very similar to the visions in the Book of Revelation.

Stephen, as he was about to be stoned to death for preaching the Gospel, looked toward heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, (Acts 7:55-56).

Paul the Apostle, in 1 Corinthians 12 is caught up into Paradise, and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak, (1 Corinthians 12:4).

And of course the Apostle John, hears a voice, looks and sees a door standing open in heaven, (Revelation 2:1).

He enters, and what he sees and hears is recorded in the book we are studying.

In the glimpses we get of heaven in the Scriptures two features stand out; God is always central, and worship is the priority of Saints, and Angels, and Fantastic Creatures.

As we arrive at the verses before us, we see the Church in Heaven after the dreadful end of the Great Tribulation.

I. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE KINGDOM

1. from vs. 9-17 we can glean six characteristics about God’s eternal kingdom

A. GOD'S KINGDOM WILL BE A LARGE KINGDOM

“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.”

(Revelation 7:9, NIV84)

1. John looks and sees a great multitude that no one could count

a. God is not stingy with His grace ... aren’t ya glad!

b. the NASB provides a more literal translation of Rev. 7:9 ... “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, ... ” (Revelation 7:9, NASB95)

1) the word behold in our vernacular means hold on to your seat, ‘cause you’re about to see something really, really spectacular

2) John sees a sea of believers standing before the throne of God, and these are just the believers who came to faith during the Great Tribulation period

“Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” 14 I said to him, “My lord, you know.”

And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

(Revelation 7:13–14, NASB95)

c. while rebellious mankind experiences the cataclysmic judgements of God, and the reign of the Antichrist tightens his grip on the world, revival sweeps the globe

1) a great multitude is swept into the Kingdom

2. this vision must surely have renewed the Apostle John’s joy and hope, as he realized that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ would not only survive, but that it would thrive

a. there is coming upon the faithful a time of terror such as the world has never seen

1) but John tells us that regardless of the suffering the saint on earth may endure during the Great Tribulation, that the glory of the kingdom will be worth all the suffering

3. God's Kingdom Will Be a Large Kingdom

B. GOD’S KINGDOM WILL BE A MULTI-ETHNIC KINGDOM

ILLUS.

The Apostle Peter, in his encounter with a God-fearing Gentile named Cornelius, discovered that God is no respecter of persons.

1. in other words, God does not judge a person by their external ethnic characteristics

a. as I’ve been preaching through the Book of Revelation you’ve heard me say on several occasions... if you’re a racist, you’ll not enjoy heaven

1) you’ve heard me say it several times because the multi-ethnicity of the saints in heaven is a repeating theme in Revelation

2) could it be that God is trying to tell us something????

3) God’s kingdom is an inclusive kingdom

2. the Gospel is meant to bring men together, not divide them

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

(Galatians 3:26–29, NIV84)

a. what was God’s promise to Abraham?

1) God makes a promise that He will bless all nations through Abraham's family and descendants (Genesis 12:3)

2) Gentile Christians, along with Jewish believers in Messiah form what is now termed “spiritual Israel” — we call it the Church, the Body of Christ, the Fellowship of the Saints

ILLUS.

In Romans, the Apostle Paul uses the illustration of wild olive branches— Gentile believers, being grafted into the cultivated olive tree—that is believing Israel.

This makes every believer—weather Jew or Gentile—a child of Abraham and a part of the Abrahamic Covenant.

The promise is that Abraham will have both a physical and spiritual progeny that will be as numerous as the star in the sky, or the sand on the shore.

b. in one of the great Old Testament prophecies promising to include the Gentiles in His redemptive plan, God says ...

“ ... I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’

I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”” (Hosea 2:23, NIV84)

1) Hosea is saying that God does not limit His redemptive plan to those who are the physical descendants of Abraham

2) He "counts" as "children of promise" whom he pleases—including Gentiles of every stripe

3. gospel-people must be as gospel-inclusive as is God

a. in Ephesians 2:1-10, the Apostle Paul describes the work of Christ that once and for all broke down the vertical wall of hostility that lies between a holy God and a sinful people

1) God’s grace is greater than all our sin

b. in Ephesians 2:11-22 the Apostle continues to explain that the work of Christ doesn’t stop there, but it even broke down the horizontal wall of hostility between people

1) God’s grace ignores the Melanin count in a sinner’s skin ... so should we

ILLUS.

At the SBC Annual meeting last week in Dallas, a Georgia Baptist church was expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention over charges of racism.

The convention's executive committee voted to withdraw fellowship from Raleigh White Baptist Church in Albany, Georgia.

The church—which had dwindled to about 20 members—rented out its facilities to a Black Southern Baptist Congregation that ran about 150.

But when some of the Black congregants showed up early one Sunday, they were told to wait in their cars, and denied the use the restrooms.

The Mallary Baptist Association has also withdrawn fellowship from the church.

After investigating the situation, the association found “intentional discrimination toward individuals based solely on the color of their skin.”

ILLUS.

Unfortunately, racism is an equal-opportunity-sin.

I was dismayed to read last week about a segregated meeting that took place in April at a conference called The Gospel Coalition.

The organization describes itself as a Christian organization that seeks to serve the local church by providing gospel-centered and Christ-focused content.

The closed meeting was a break-out session in the associated women’s conference.

They were polite about it, but clear, the break-out session was a “WOC”-only event, WOC referring to “Women of Color.”

In order to have an “honest discussion” about racism in the church, white Christian women were excluded.

However you slice it, this meeting discriminated on the basis of race.

Let that sink in for a moment.