He Shall Wipe Away Every Tear

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 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 dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

We are now come to the 4th Sunday of Easter this morning. As this is the Easter season (Eastertide), we reflect during this time the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and its implications. Last week we looked at the text from Revelation 5. Today, we shall continue by looking at Revelation 7:9-17.

Revelation can be a difficult book to understand. Many well-meaning Christians as well as those who are less than well-meaning have proposed many different schemes to understanding this book. There are those who hold to the rapture of the church starting in Chapter 4 before a seven-year tribulation. Some hold to a rapture in the middle of the Great Tribulation. Some see a post-tribulation second coming of Jesus. Then there are theories about the millenium. Some are pre-millennial, others post-millennial. and yet others a-millennial. This refers to whether the 1000 year reign of Christ occurs before or after the Tribulation or whether the millennium actually will happen at all and reduces the millennium to a symbol. Then there is the identity of the 144,000, the relationship to the three sets of sevenfold judgments.

I guess at this point, I have to make some decisions about the context of this week’s passage. I want to state that I might be wrong here in my interpretation, seeing there are so many out there. I will do my best here, but I think in general, what I have to say is theologically sound, even if the details turn out to be different. Revelation, until recently, was thought to be written during a persecution by the Emperor Domitian in 96 AD. However, there are many who feel the book was written during the reign of the Emperor Nero prior to the fire in Rome in AD 64 which instituted the first major persecution of the church who was wrongly blamed for starting the fire. There are those who find 666 in the number of His full royal name. It was also written before the Jewish war of 66-73, a seven year war, which brought great tribulation to the Jewish state and resulted in the destruction of Jerusalem and final defeat at Masada in 73 AD. In the middle of this war, Nero was forced to commit suicide which resulted in several of his generals fighting to replace him, including Vespasian who was at that time encircling Jerusalem. The siege was lifted for a season while Vespasian’s army departed for Rome to fight and conquer his opponents to the throne.

The Jews thought this removal of Vespasian as the hand of God , and they celebrated this. But Jesus had warned His disciples to flee when they saw the return of Vespasian's army, now commanded by his son, Titus. Matthew tells us that they were to flee quickly. If they were on the rooftop or the field, they were not to stop inside to gather belongings. The church at this time fled for the city of Pella and escaped the destruction of Jerusalem. This was the middle of the Jewish Great Tribulation.

Jesus prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and said that this was the punishment for the rejection of Him by the Jews. Many of the prophecies in Matthew, Mark, and Luke were fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem, This established the truth that Jesus was a true prophet. He said that this current generation (40 years) would not pass until all this was fulfilled. As He spoke this around AD 30, then 40 years makes AD 70 when the Temple was destroyed.

So much of the detail of the Apocalypse of Matthew in the 24th chapter has already been fulfilled. I am suggesting the same is true for the Book of Revelation. But at the same time, prophecy often had a twofold fulfillment, the first being a type of the second fulfillment. An example of this is the Immanuel prophecy of Isaiah 7:14. Isaiah made this prophecy during the rule of the wicked King Ahaz long before Jesus came in the flesh. The detail before and after this verse tells us that a deliverance would happen in Ahaz’s day, and that the kings of Israel and Syrian who were oppressing Judah would be dead before this special child was weaned. The context says that Isaiah married a prophetess who was a virgin at the time. By normal means, they had a child named Maherhalalhashbaz. This son is identified as Immanuel in Chapter 8. But is points to a greater deliverance that would happen hundreds of years later when the Virgin Mary would conceive a child by the Holy Ghost and give birth to Jesus. We see that much of the detail was contemporary to the day of Isaiah, but it also points to a greater deliverance and fulfillment than the temporary one under Ahaz.

So how does this double fulfillment affect the Book of Revelation? It seems to me that much of the detail of the book was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem. This was a catastrophic judgement confined to Israel of the day. But is points to an even more catastrophic and worldwide judgment which will occur before the return of Jesus Christ. Does this mean that there will be a seven year Great Tribulation and mid tribulation rapture? Perhaps, but perhaps we should emphasize that there will be a time of great trouble like that which befell Jerusalem, only worldwide and worse.

When we now zero in on this morning’s text, we have to identify who this numberless crowd of martyrs standing before the throne in white garments who had been washed white in the blood of the Lamb. First of all, we know that this group is different than the 144,000 virgins chosen from Israel which was identified earlier in chapter 7. These came from all the nations (Gentiles). Both of these groups have a song to sing; only the 144,000 could learn the first. The song by the numberless crowd around the throne is similar to the song sung in Revelation 5:11-14 which we covered last week. Here is says that this numberless group had come through the Great Tribulation. As the Gentiles were not subject for the most part to the destruction of Jerusalem. this Great Tribulation must refer to a later time. If this refers only to a specific period of tim such as a seven year period at the end of the age, then this song refers exclusively to martyrs who died during this time. There have been numberless martyrs for Christ beginning with Stephen and the Apostle James, then Antipas in the Book of Revelation who was a prototype which was about to happen to Christians of the seven churches he addresses. Hebrews also prophesies in chapter 12 that the Christians were about to suffer the shedding of their blood. So martyrdom by horrific means will be nothing new when the Great Tribulation begins.

Regardless, even if this song only refers to the martyrs of the Great Tribulation, the song in Revelation 5 which has no such limitation of time indicated that the song every Christian will sing before the throne will be like the one mentioned here in chapter 7, regardless of by what means they came there. Not all Christians suffer martyrdom. What is important is that they have redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Will we be there when the Saints go marching in? Do we desire to be included in that number?

The idea of washing one’s garments white in blood is an odd metaphor. Blood is one of the most difficult stains to remove. No sane person would expect white garments after washing them in blood. But what is impossible with men is possible with God. His ways are not our ways. No amount of bleach can whiten sins stains, But the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sins and will present us faultless to stand before His throne.

Besides the white garments, these martyrs will have a palm branch in their hands. We think of Palm Sunday when palm branches were waved by the crowds following as well as going out to welcome Jesus coming into Jerusalem. The palm branch was the symbol of Jewish independence. The palm branch was put on the coinage during the last period in which the Jews were an independent nation during the days of Judas Maccabeus and his successors. The crowds on Palm Sunday thought that Jesus had come to the city to overthrow the Roman nation rather than do suffer and die on the cross for their sins and the sins of the world. Because they did not understand, Jesus wept bitterly for them (Luke 19). This was the time for the Lamb of God to shed His blood to redeem those who would believe on Him, not to rule with earthly splendor. Because they rejected Jesus coming to Jerusalem on His own terms. The catastrophic judgement of Jerusalem prophesied by Jesus in the gospels and here in Revelation would soon come.

But now, all is different. The time of the suffering Lamb was past. Now it was time to celebrate the victorious Lamb who was raised from the dead on the third day. He ascended to the Father’s right hand until the time that all of God’s enemies would be defeated. This has happened at this point where we read from this text this morning. So bring out the palm branches and wave them. John saw this vision on the Lord’s Day. This is the true Palm Sunday to which the earlier Palm Sunday points. The earlier multitude cried out “Hosanna” which means “God save us!” This crowd celebrates salvation as a past even with an ongoing reality: “Salvation to our God who sits upon the throne, even (or “and” unto the Lamb. To this call by the saints, the angels, elders, and beasts responded with a sevenfold blessing. Here the sevenfold blessing begins with the Aramaic “Amen!” This word as the the meaning “so be it.” This signifies that they are in full agreement with what the martyrs said. As neither angels nor the beasts san sing the song, seeing they did not need Jesus’ redemption, they do not join in with the crowd. They simply amen what is said. But they do have a song of praise they can sing: “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength be unto our God for ever and ever! Amen! What a majestic scene, far greater than that of Palm Sunday and also eternally sung.

The the elders questioned John to the identity of these martyrs. His answer was: “My lord, only you know that. It seems to me here that John does not answer the angel directly but directs the answer to the Lamb who sat upon the throne. Although “lord” is often used to address superiors, in the presence of the Lord, such titles are meaningless. But as we have noted before when we read this we ourselves wanted to know the answer and have to realize that only the Lord knows the identity.What was important is that John receives and answer even as we do. These are those who have washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb as we have already noted.

These stand before the throne day and night and serve eternally in His presence. These had suffered many things for the witness of Christ. their reward is that they will no longer hunger or thirst. Nor will they be scorched by the heat of the sun. The Lord will personally feed them and lead them to springs of running water. Most touching of all is that He will wipe away the tears. All the pain they suffered will be no more. What a touching scene of personal care by the Lord. He has this numberless crowd in front of Him, yet He knows them by name.

But whether we are in this number specifically or not. Jesus’ care is not limited to the martyrs of the Great Tribulation. I do agree there are degrees of reward in heaven. But even the lowest place in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than the mightiest person on tis earth. All who believe in Jesus will worship before the throne, our tears will be wiped away as well. This should encourage us as we toil for the sake of Jesus. We have good news to tell to all people. Often we are rejected, sometimes violently. Rejection brings tears to our eyes as does the pains of persecution. We must remember that the Greek word for “witness” is “martyr.” One does not need to speculate much as to why the current English word “martyr” got its meaning. I cannot say whether myself or and believer will come to that day by martyrdom, by the normal means of death, by rapture, or alive on this earth when He returns. He comes for all his sheep. He will eternally care for us. And He shall wipe away every tear.

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