Revelation 7, Pt 3

Tonight we will finish our study of Revelation 7. So far, through v9, we have seen what looks like 2 groups that turn out to be different ways we are shown the same group.

While the four winds are held back by four angels from harming the earth and the sea, we see a group of 144,000 (vv4-8) who are SEALED from every tribe of the sons of Israel. 

Then we see a second group, a “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages...” in v9.

Then we said that these two groups are actually ONE: the 144,000 being all the saved and sealed of God, the true Israel from the OT and the NT...the 144,000 representing ALL WHO have been sealed with a secure salvation by God...whatever will come against God’s church, all the way to the end, cannot separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Then we see in v9 the numberless multitude, telling us that God’s people, God’s church from the OT and the NT is both a massive and a diverse multitude from all over the world...this is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 12) that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed.

And then we get a PICTURE of that vast, sealed multitude IN HEAVEN!

LET’S READ ABOUT IT IN vv9-17:

Revelation 7:9-17

9 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, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing 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 saying, “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, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,

and serve him day and night in his temple;

and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

the sun shall not strike them,

nor any scorching heat.

17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of living water,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

And here is what John saw:

-they are standing before the throne and the Lamb (there in the very presence of God and Christ, which is a return to God’s original design.)

-they are clothed in white robes: the righteousness of Christ (see v14), the wedding garments for His wedding feast with His Bride the church...(Matt 22:1-14)

-with palm branches in their hands, representative of the Feast of Tabernacles, where booths were made from palm branches to signify Israel’s exodus from Egypt...this numberless multitude have been brought out of Sin and Judgment into God’s salvation in Christ, the Lamb...God has made them victorious and triumphant...

-and THEY HAVE BECOME PART OF THE GREAT WORSHIP OF HEAVEN...the worship we saw in chs 4&5...

And they cry with a loud voice (just think of what this must sound like!)

-10: “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 

God is the great saviour, the great rescuer, the great deliverer of His people, And the deliverance which God gives is the greatest deliverance of all, for it is not the deliverance of escape; it is the deliverance of conquest. It is not the deliverance which saves a man from trouble it is the deliverance which brings a man triumphantly through trouble. It does not make life easy, but it certainly makes life great. It is not part of the Christian hope to look for a life in which a man is saved from all trouble and distress; the Christian hope is that a man in Christ can endure any kind of trouble and distress, and remain erect all through them, and come out to glory on the other side (The Revelation of John, Vol. 2. “The Daily Study Bible.” Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1959, p. 32).

God is the one who SAVES! The sovereign saving King on the throne, through His Son, the Lamb...He ONLY saves through His Son!

-11: then all heaven (?) begins to worship, prostrate on their faces:

Revelation 7:11

11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,

NOTE: in 5:12 there is a 7-fold praise...they share six of the same words of praise and the difference is 5:12: wealth and in 7:12: thanksgiving...

Thoughts here from Douglas F Kelly:

-12: Blessing: eulogia: or PRAISE is due to Him forever and forever...

Glory: doza: the great shining out, splendor, radiance and beauty of WHO GOD REALLY IT...it is His greatness showing itself (this is redemption! We spend eternity glorifying God and not ourselves!)

Wisdom: sophia: Wisdom shown, eg, in God’s saving plan...Romans 11:33-36

Thanksgiving: eucharistia: again, SALVATION! Not complaining, but thanksgiving...In EVERYTHING give thanks...1 Thess 5:18

Honor: tim-ay: the WORTH of God...the surpassing, infinite worth or worthiness of His person...who He is and what he does...

Power: dunamis: the infinite ability of God: to create, to save, etc.

Might: isxus

Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

-13: John is then asked by one of the elders: “Who are these...?”

-14: John said “Sir, you know.”

the elder answered:

Revelation 7:14

14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

NOTE: is the Great Tribulation a period different than the tribulation the saints face throughout the church age? Many think so, many others do not. A very significant point is that Revelation teaches us that TRIBULATION will be the experience of the saints in all the history of the church until Christ returns...with the possibility of the greatest of all tribulation at the end surrounding His coming...

But those who die sealed in Christ will suffer tribulation (Rev 1:9: John “your brother and partner in tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus...) and will conquer, but not because of their own superior power to resist, but those who washd their robes white in the blood of the Lamb...

NOTE: the Lambs blood, not theirs!

And because of the blood of the Lamb, Christ, their future has been and will be

...the glorious description of life in heaven in vv15-17:

Revelation 7:15

15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,

and serve him day and night in his temple;

and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

-In the very presence of God

-serving Him, right in His presence, his temple

-sheltered by His presence...

Isaiah 4:4-6

4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. 5 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.

Ezekiel 37:26-28

26 I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. 27 My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 Then the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.”

Revelation 7:16

16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

the sun shall not strike them,

nor any scorching heat.

No lack of any kind throughout all eternity...

Revelation 7:17

17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,

and he will guide them to springs of living water,

and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

The Lord will indeed be their Shepherd, guiding, providing, protecting, comforting and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever...