Sealing God's People
Notes
Transcript
Nightmare & Reality
Nightmare & Reality
“Sometimes you’re in the middle of a nightmare which seems so real, so powerful and so horrible that when you wake up you can hardly dare to believe that it was only a dream, that the accident didn’t happen, that so-and-so is still alive after all, that the monster attacking you was just in your imagination. Often it is difficult to tell which is dream and which is reality.”
John is facing a similar problem with the little communities to whom he is sending this book. They are about to face a nightmare. Persecution is on the way, and they must be ready for it.” -NT Wright
Have you ever had a dream that felt so real you had a hard time convincing yourself it was just a dream?
How did you respond?
Read Revelation 7:1-8
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea,
3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
What are the angels at the four corners of the earth doing and why?
The idea of “harming the earth, the sea and the trees in verse 3 is harsh. This, we remind ourselves, is God’s good creation, the natural order of which he said “very good” in Genesis 1 and from which, as we have seen, ceaseless praise arises before God’s throne.
Why, then has the authority to harm God’s creation been given to these angels?
It would seem as though man has tainted that creation.
The “seals” on a scroll were the kind of sticky wax whose purpose, in the ancient world and sometimes in the modern as well, was to keep important documents secure against prying eyes. You could always tell if the seal had been broken, since it would be stamped with the mark of the one who had sealed it up.
SHOW IMAGE OF SEALS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST…
How does the term seal take on a new, though somewhat related, significance here? (vv.2-4)
Who makes up the 144,000 that John hears will be sealed (vv. 4-8)?
What benefit might the “seal” offer to those marked with it?
Read Revelation 7:9-17
9 After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.
10 They cried out in a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?”
14 I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat;
17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”