A Great Multitude
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Introduction
Last week’s passage introduced us to the 144,000 Jews that will be saved during the tribulation. In this week’s passage, we meet a great multitude. This multitude are gentiles “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.” They are different than the 144,000 previously mentioned. The multitude are numberless, the 144,000 are numbered. John heard the number of the 144,000 but saw the great multitude. The first group are Jews and the second group are gentiles.
Follow along as I read our passage, Revelation 7:9-17.
This great multitude will be the sheep Jesus talked about in Matthew 25:31-40. The 144,000 witnessing Jews will be persecuted by the world. They will be hungry, cold, need clothing, be thrown into jail. They will be sick and thirsty. The great multitude will be the gentiles during that time who hear and believe the message preached by the 144,000. These gentiles will provide food, shelter, water, clothing and protection for the 144,000. It is to this great multitude Jesus says:
40 “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’
This multitude is also different than the church. The church is “caught up” or raptured before the tribulation. This group is from the tribulation. They will be kept through the tribulation, not kept out of it like the church. This great multitude was written about in Daniel.
1 “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.
What can the church learn from this passage about future Christians of the tribulation?
Encouragement
Encouragement
There is encouragement.
A time is coming upon this world which is so terrible that it has never been witnessed before. John is telling them that if they endure this perilous time, if they continue their walk through the suffering that the promised glory will be more than worth anything.
You may ask, how could people stand in their faith during a time so terrible? When adversity knocked them down, did they pick themselves back up?
We have many phrases we use to help encourage others.
Keep your chin up.
Live and learn.
Be happy.
Be yourself.
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.
They didn’t endure because of any human power or might. None of these tribulation saints endured because of themselves. They endured by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God doesn’t expect us to face daily struggles on our own either.
13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
It is only through the strength of the One who endured the cross that we are expected to do anything.
Many of these tribulation saints will be martyred and join their fellow martyred saints in heaven. Even though they were tortured, beaten, brutalized and murdered on earth for their faith and for their service to the 144,000, in heaven they still sing their psalm of salvation.
Victory
Victory
It is in victory these saints arrive in the presence of God and the Lamb.
This is the same group from Revelation 6:9.
9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained;
Now, John sees them standing in the presence of God, clothed in white robes and a palm branch in their hands. 7:9 tells us there are so many, no one could count them. This doesn’t mean God can’t count but that no one man could count them. God knows exactly how many there are and He told the martyrs under the alter to wait until their number is complete. Their number is now complete; they stand in the presence of God and the Lamb and praise Father and Son for their salvation. Their praises so great that the angels fell prostrate and worshiped God.
Take courage church, God is on His throne. Jesus has promised to never forsake us. No matter what difficulties lay ahead, no matter what circumstances you face, no matter what, God the Father is on His throne, God the Son is advocating for us and God the Holy Spirit will walk right beside us every step of every day. Take courage because the victory belongs to the Lord.
Every Nation and All Tribes and Peoples and Tongues
Every Nation and All Tribes and Peoples and Tongues
John uses a phrase which is used five other times in Revelation.
There won’t be any group of people who don’t hear the Gospel. Someone might say it isn’t fair that so many will perish during the few years of the tribulation and find themselves forever separated from God. However, there will be 144,000 evangelists preaching about the kingdom, a great multitude who will also be living witnesses to the truth of God, who will be seen standing in their faith while tortured and demands made for them to reject Christ. Even in the face of the church being raptured, they will deny God. Some people refer to that event as the secret rapture. It won’t be a secret. People will hear the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God. People will witness Jesus in the crowd, see people coming out of their graves and witness living individuals caught up into the clouds.
Those who live through the time of the tribulation will have no excuse when they completely reject Christ.
We Americans sometimes get the idea that we hold the truth of the Gospel, that we hold the true way of worshipping and anyone doing differently than us can’t be Christian.
Christianity isn’t an American thing; it isn’t a European thing, it isn’t something that is withheld from Muslim countries. It isn’t a white religion or a black religion. Christianity is the true melting pot of the world. John 3:16 doesn’t say, that any American who believes in Jesus; it doesn’t say whomever has the right amount of money, the right clothes, lives in the right country. “Whoever believes in Him.”
I think we will be surprised who we meet in heaven.
White Robes and Palm Branches
White Robes and Palm Branches
Notice they are clothed in white robes and holding palm branches.
They don’t just have on white robes. They have white robes which were made white by the blood of the Lamb. This is a common saying in church but think about it. When is the last time you wore something white and spilled something red on it? What happened? Did that spot of red turn the white even whiter? What happens when you toss a red shirt in with your whites? How white do they come out?
6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Clothing is used to give us a visual picture of both sin and righteousness. When someone is dressed poorly, we might say they are dressed like a bum. If they have on their best, we say, they have on their Sunday finest.
Our greatest efforts at life produce nothing but dirty clothes. At our best, our righteous deeds are equal to a filthy, unwashed, sweat soaked, mud stained shirt.
It is through Christ’s righteous act on the cross that we can put on clean clothing. It is because of the victory on the cross we become clean.
A palm branch is another symbol of victory. Being given a palm branch is a visual statement of being victorious.
Being clothed in a white robe and holding a palm branch is a visual image of a victorious person; a person who is completely triumphant and victorious. The elder saying the white robes are because they were washed on the blood reminds us that it was Christ’s victory that was given to us. His righteousness was imputed to us and our sins imputed to Him. He took away our sins so we could be clothed in His victory.
Whose clothes are you wearing today? Are you wearing the clothes you have worked to earn? Are you wearing dirty, stained with sin clothes or are you wearing clothes that have been washed in the blood of the Lamb?
You might have on your Sunday’s finest but if they are your clothes, they are like filthy rags.
Do you want to be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Do you want to know where your eternal destination is?
The closing words of our passage say, “God will wipe ever tear from their eyes.” Church, the sufferings in this life, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual will be wiped away and replaced with unimaginable glory. The day is coming when God will erase every cause of tears and suffering. That is encouraging, that is true victory.
Let’s pray.