"The Great Multitude" Sermon: Revelation 7:9-17

“The Great Multitude”

[Revelation 7:9-17]

November 6, 2011 Second Reformed Church

            Today is All Saints’ Sunday, and as we remember those who have died in the faith, and especially those who have died during the past year, we turn to John’s vision of the Kingdom.

            As we open the book of Revelation, we ought to understand a few things:  John wrote this book while in exile on the island of Patmos, off the western coast of what he would have known as Asia – what we call today, Turkey.  John was writing in the late sixties A. D.  At this time, Nero was emperor of Rome, and he was viciously running a campaign to slaughter Christians and stamp out Christianity.

            John wrote his book under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit to the seven churches of Turkey:  Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.  They were experiencing the wrath of Nero, and John wrote this letter to them to be an encouragement to them – and all Christians.  The book of Revelation is not a horror story – it is not meant to scare us – the point of the book is to comfort.  John wanted to assure the churches that no matter how horrible the persecution was or could become, there was no reason to fear Nero and his troops – or any evil –  because Jesus is our Victorious Savior.

            As we look at the book of Revelation – and we’re only looking at one passage today – not the whole book – we ought to understand it as a book of comfort and hope – not one of terror.  The same Jesus Who saved people from the seven churches of Asia – Turkey – is our Savior today, if we have believed the Gospel.

            If you believe that God came to earth in the Person of Jesus, died for our sins, physically rose from the dead, and ascended back to the Throne of the Son, the worst possible thing that you can imagine ever happening to you will be less than the hope and the joy that we can confidently believe is coming.

            Jesus said, “So have no fear of them [the devil and his demons], for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:26-33, ESV).

            And Paul wrote, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18, ESV).

            This hope – that John shows in the book of Revelation – is the hope we have for all those who have died believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Death is not the end, and those who believe in Jesus Alone for salvation will be raised to life imperishable – life in Glory.

            One more thing we need to recognize as we look at the book of Revelation – it is written in code.  John did not want the Romans to get and understand the book, so he wrote it in code using first century Jewish symbolism.  The symbols of Revelation must be interpreted in light of first century Jewish symbolism or we will come up with something other than what God is revealing.

            What is the revelation of the book of Revelation?  Jesus has already won.  And no matter how many battles seem to be lost in this life, we are eternally safe in Jesus.  He is completely victorious and will not lose even one of His people.

And so we come to the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation.  The chapter opens with angels gathering 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel – sealing them – claiming them as elect unto salvation.  The chapter opens with God announcing that He has not forsaken biological Israel.  In fact, 12,000 out of each of the twelve tribes will be saved. 

What does that mean?  It does not mean that there will be exactly 12,000 saved out of the descendants of each of the tribes of Israel.  The numbers twelve and ten are numbers of completion in Jewish numerology, and the twelve tribes represent the full people of biological Israel.  So, God is saying that everyone whom God intends to save out of biological Israel will be saved.  There are and will be Jews who believe in Jesus as the Savior, and every one that God intends to believe will come to faith.  That is what the opening verses of the chapter mean.

Then John sees a great multitude, as we read.  These are from every nation and tribe and people and language – and these people are standing before the Throne and the Lamb – these people have also believed savingly in Jesus.  These are the non-Jews – the Gentiles – you and me – all those who have no biological heritage in Israel, yet have believe in Jesus as Savior.  People like those who were part of the seven churches of Asia.

The promise that God made to our father Abraham was “I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,” (Genesis 26:4, ESV).  From the beginning, salvation was not just for the Jews – it was first to the Jews – but also to all people – anyone of any nation or tribe or people or language who believed savingly in Jesus.  We see in the Scripture that from the Creation, until Jesus, almost all of those who profess faith in the Savior Who was to come were Israelites – only a few were non-Jews.  But after Jesus came, most of those who believed in Him are non-Jews, though Jews still come to faith.

This great multitude is standing before the Throne and the Lamb.  The fact that they are standing before God symbolizes their reliance of Christ for their position before God.  They are only able to stand in God’s Presence because they have been saved by Jesus.

This great multitude is dressed in white robes.  White symbolizes purity – holiness – which is theirs in Christ.

This great multitude waves palms.  Waving palms was symbolic of victory and triumph.  They are symbolizing the victory and triumph of God in saving them from His Wrath.

And then John records that this great multitude cries out, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”  They attribute Sovereignty and Kingship to God and the Lamb.  Under the Roman Empire, one was required to bow before the Caesar and recognize him as the sovereign king of the empire.  The fact that they are crying out shows that they were willing to endure anything to be able to proclaim Jesus as the Caesar – the Lord of Heaven and earth.

Also, we see that the great multitude attributes salvation wholly to God and the Lamb – not to anything they did or did not do.  Salvation is the choice of our Sovereign God.  No one is received into the Kingdom by choosing salvation.  God chooses those He wills for salvation.

At the crying out of the great multitude, the angels and the elders and the four living creatures – all the beings of Heaven who have perfectly obeyed God from the beginning, fall down on their faces and worship God.  Why?  Turning your face away, covering your face, and especially bowing down – putting your face below the Sovereign’s Feet – was a sign of reverence, worship, and adoration.

As we come into the sanctuary, we join together as the Church to worship God – we stand before His Face right now – but in the Kingdom, we will see Jesus face-to-face, and the right response in seeing Him will be for us to fall on our faces – in wonder and awe and thanksgiving and praise.  If worship is truly “accomplished” in our sanctuaries, we will “see” God and cry out in praise and thanks for Who He is.  Worship is not first and foremost about us becoming better people or feeling better about ourselves or life or whatever or “getting something” – the purpose of worship is for us – like the beings of Heaven – to fall before God – at least in our hearts – and say, “You’re amazing – thank You for being God.” 

Those humans who had been saved by God acknowledged God as the Sovereign Lord and Savior, and then John saw the beings of Heaven cry out, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Glorifying God is crying out everything we know to be true about God and praising Him for it.  “It is so!  God is most blessed, most glorious, all wisdom, all thanks-deserving, all honor-deserving, all-powerful, almighty – for ever and ever and ever.  It is so!”

The beings of Heaven, who are perfect from the moment of their creation, and the humans who make up the great multitude – as well as the 144,000 – worship God in harmony for all of eternity.  From the moment of Creation and throughout all of eternity, the beings of Heaven and every person who dies believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ are engaged in perfect, eternal worship.  Being in harmony with them is what we strive for in our worship on earth.

Then one of the elders asks John if he knows who the great multitude is – to see how observant he is.  And John, in humility, turns the question back on the elder and tells him that he knows.  In other words, “You tell me.”

And the elder tells him that they “are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.”  They were yet to come through the tribulation to die.  What and when is this “great tribulation,” “great trouble,” “great pressure”?  Remember who John was writing to – the Christians in Asia who were suffering “great tribulation.”  The great tribulation is the period from Jesus’ Ascension until He returns.  The Christians of Asia who were being slaughtered for believing in Jesus are part of the great multitude.

John did not sugar-coat their suffering.  In fact, he told them that it was revealed to him that all those who call on the Name of Jesus for salvation would suffer in an unprecedented way until His Return.  All those who believe in Jesus for salvation are called to participate in the sufferings of our Lord, and for them, and for many in countries around the world, profession of faith in Jesus means death.

And some of you may be thinking, “Well, we don’t see that here, in the United States – the Christian Nation.”  The United States in an anomaly, but there is still persecution – it’s just more of a quiet persecution.  We don’t (often) slaughter people for professing faith in Christ (at this point in time), but there is pressure to marginalize them and quiet them and ridicule them – even by those who claim to be Christians. 

At our recent student exams at Classis, one of our ministers asked that the two students being examined be failed because they professed belief that God created the Creation.  The minister argued that belief in the historicity of the opening chapters of Genesis causes racism and the Nazi party.  It wasn’t murder, but it was persecution.

The good news John had for the churches in Asia was if they were put to death – or in any way persecuted for Christ – “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

John wrote, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7, ESV).

Because Jesus was put to death in the flesh, all those who believe in Him for Salvation have been cleansed of their sin – they have been forgiven for all of their sin.  If you have believed in Jesus Alone for salvation, you have been washed in the Blood of Jesus; you are wearing white robes which have been washed in the Blood of Jesus.  Symbolism.  If you have believed in Jesus Alone for your salvation, all of your sins, past, present, and future, including your sin nature, has been forgiven and purified in Jesus.

For the Christian, ultimately, death is not a problem.  Most of us don’t desire to be sick or to go through the process of death, but in a very real sense, we look forward to death, because death is all good.  The late Larry Norman was asked if he had any goals and he said, “Yes, I want to die.”  The reason he could say that is because he was a Christian and knew that his dying would bring him into the Presence of Jesus, our God and Savior.

Now, John was not encouraging suicide or being morbid.  John was revealing to them the sure hope that they and all Christians have that we have been forgiven in Jesus – through the suffering He endured for our sins – so, for the Christian, death is deliverance for everything broken and marred and evil and sinful.

Although we mourn those who have died in the faith, because we have lost them being with us for a time, we do not mourn as those who have no hope.  Paul wrote, “But we have this treasure [the Gospel] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:7-18 ESV).

Still God graciously gave John a glimpse of the eternal to give peace and hope to the churches of Asia and all those who see Christians die in the faith and for the faith:  those who have died are safe, well, pure, and holy.  They are in the presence of their God and Savior.  And they are worshipping:  “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple;” (Revelation 7:15a, ESV).

And this is the condition they are in:  “and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat” (Revelation 7:15b-16, ESV).  Those who have died in the faith and for the faith are protected by God and all suffering and pain has been removed from them.  This is not the end of the story – there is still the resurrection to come when Jesus returns.  But all those who have died believing that Jesus Alone is the Savior that God sent are with Him, healthy and at peace, waiting for the Day of Resurrection.

“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” (Revelation 7:17, ESV).

Jesus, the Lamb, is the Shepherd, Who cares for His Sheep – and has died for them:  “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures.  He leads me beside still waters” (Psalm 23:1-2, ESV).

Jesus guides each one of His sheep to the Living Water Who is Himself: “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life’” (John 4:13-14, ESV).

And God makes crying a thing of the past.  “You [God] make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11, ESV).

“for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:10, ESV).

The first century churches in Asia were suffering persecution, and they were being put to death by the armies of Caesar Nero.  John sent the letter of Revelation to the churches to put them at peace and reinforce and encourage their hope.  Yes, they were suffering the worst persecution ever know to the people of God, and it will continue until Jesus Returns.  However, all those who have died in the faith, and all those who will die in the faith, are received into Paradise.  They are free of sin – forgiven.  They are joyfully worshipping God.  And they are whole, healthy, at peace, waiting for Jesus’ Return, when we all who believe in Jesus Alone for salvation will be raised from our graves and reunited with one another to live eternally in the Kingdom of our God and Savior.

Let us pray:

            Almighty God, Who is sovereign over life and death, we thank You for the love of life and the Creation that You have given to us.  Thank You for giving us, not only this life, but the life to come, with Jesus, perfected and made holy like Him.  We ask that You would minister to us and give us Your Grace as we receive the bread and the cup.  Help us to hold fast to that hope that we can mourn the death of our loved ones and yet hold on with unshakable confidence to Your Promise that they are well, they shall be raised, and we will all be together in Your Kingdom.  For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.