The Lamb, the 144,000 and the Harvest of Earth

We continue now, as like I said, I think we've landed on third base and we'll be heading

home over the next couple weeks in this book of Revelation.

Something that has been exhausting, something that has been exciting, something that we

haven't gotten to anything yet, I feel like, in the book of Revelation, which I think I

have to just take a breath in that.

But we're coming up to, we're seeing the Lamb come back and we are getting to a very specific

place in the book of Revelation when scholars have studied this book from left to right,

right to left, if you're Hebrew, and understanding of what this actually looks like.

And we're going to do a little bit of a deep dive, it's a little more than a rabbit hole,

but understand there's a deep dive of a correct understanding of what the 144,000 are and

kind of who they are, what it is, and all of those things.

And we start by talking about the faithful.

So now over the coming couple weeks you're going to be talking about the faithful.

We talked about that last week, that God is ultimate faithful.

He is the essence of faithfulness and thank God because we're not.

We try our best, we believe we should be faithful, we try our best to be faithful in this thing

or that, but he himself is faithfulness.

That if we say, okay, I'm going to try to have my faithfulness be like that of God,

that is great, though in knowing we're going to fall.

That Revelation 14 stands in contrast to what I deemed troubling scenes that we've seen

over the last couple Sundays.

That there's been tragedy, there's been terror, that if we actually made this movie or if

we put it through AI, Veggie Tales could not do it justice.

There'll be a lot of slain vegetables in that scene because what we're seeing is that final

judgment because, think about this, because of God's faithfulness that ever since the

beginning there was going to be this eternal line in the sand.

And 37% of you, a percentage I just made up, really don't like that because you don't like

living in black and white.

That you like 90 shades of gray.

God makes it very clear, there is no gray here.

There is none.

If you find yourself in the gray, you need to dive deeper.

You need to understand the line that is here.

So here we see the Lamb standing victorious, the faithful remnant of God's judgment and

mercy unfolds to the harvesting of the earth.

So Rachel, as a resident farmer, I know, roll your eyes, I get it.

Some of you else, become farmers and I'll use you.

When do you harvest?

In the fall.

But why do you harvest?

Oh, I stumped the farmer.

You're not a farmer, don't answer.

To feed people, but do you harvest and give away all the bad stuff?

No, it's when at the right time in the right season, right now you're tracking where I'm

going, good, that you harvest, you take into your barns, into the storage, into all of

that because that was the plan.

That throughout the year, farmers have their crops attacked by all these different things.

I'm not going to listen or list anything because it's going to show how much I don't know.

You already know that, but I don't want to say it aloud.

But understand that the final harvest here means something.

It's the harvest of the earth.

That chapter 14 reaffirms for us key doctrines of election, of the perseverance of the saints,

and of God's sovereignty.

This harvest should be a secure encouragement for us and what the lamb and the 144,000 represent.

So let's jump in, the first five verses of chapter 14.

Then I looked, and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 who had his

name and his father's name written on their foreheads.

And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud

thunder.

The voice I heard was like the sound of the harpists playing on their harps.

And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures

and before the elders.

Remember, that's a tie all the way back to the beginning.

No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who have been redeemed from the earth.

It is these, it is these who do not, or who have not defiled themselves with women for

they are virgins.

It is these who follow the lamb wherever he goes.

These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the lamb and in their mouth

was no lie or no lie was found for they are blameless.

Alright so given that, this might get awkward, but given that description of the 144,000,

read all of it, I'm not reading it again.

How many of you are 144,000?

So what in the world?

Like we're not going to do an anatomy class, I'm not here to be your health teacher, right,

but you know, the reasons why I'm not, Joey, Teddy, Jack.

Ouch.

I'd love to say I've never lied, but I just did, so I'm not there.

So what in the world does this mean?

How in the world can we actually find comfort in this when you read it and go, nope, not

me.

So the 144,000 in Revelation 14 is symbolic, but it's hotly debated.

It carries historical and theological significance.

Now we're going to get a little on the nerdy side, okay, don't worry, this is a little

bit of the rabbit trail of the 144,000 because a misreading of this gets you a misreading

of the entire book.

And we actually have a world religion, a cult, actually multiple, that follow a literal misunderstanding

of this and have led many, many people astray in this world.

So the symbolic use in Jewish tradition, the Jews were all about numbers.

They loved numbers.

Numbers represented everything.

If you want to get into that, The Dust of the Rabbi by Ray Vanderlaan, phenomenal, there's

plenty others, I just like Ray better, that he does a great job of really diving into

numbers.

And if I did that, I would ruin it.

And you all know that because it's hard for me to count, okay, or do simple math.

Joey, can I get in?

He's not even here, okay?

Does anyone know where Joey went?

If the rapture happened, we're all, that's, oh gosh, okay, we haven't even got to the

rapture yet, that's another sermon.

Okay, the multiplication of 12, okay?

The number 144,000, I actually wrote it down, Sarah, because I know you'd call me on it.

12 times 12 times 1,000, don't do the math, put your phones away, it's right, okay?

144,000 represents completeness in a manner familiar with the Jewish apocalyptic texts

and the literature that was around in the first century.

12 is associated with God's covenant people, 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 apostles representing

the fullness of God's people across Old and New Testaments.

The symbol of wholeness that we have to understand, because I know 12 times 12 is not 144,000,

but the thousand, multiplying these 12s by a thousand suggests in the way that we look

at the text, the literature in the Greek is the vast completeness, a multitude representing

God's people, not just a literal number.

And especially reformed theologians have gone a little bit of a step further and view this

symbolic rather than literal, embracing a vision of the totality of the redeemed, okay?

The totality of the redeemed.

So the Dead Sea Scrolls, that community that found those and have used that in what I would

call kind of biblical advancement, if you will, of bringing not only truth but evidence

to biblical claims, another rhyme for another time, the idea of the remnant of a chosen

group often depicted as 12 tribes mirrors the revelation symbolic use.

The community saw itself as God's elect remnant, a remnant set apart for special covenantal

purposes.

John's use of 144,000 parallels this, emphasizing a remnant faithful to God amidst widespread

apostasy.

In the early church, the imagery would signal to a Jewish and Gentile audience alike the

continuation of God's covenant across the old and new messianic covenant rather than

being limited to an ethnic Israel.

The 144,000 is often seen as inclusive of the entire spiritual Israel.

We get that from Galatians 6, marking the full number of redeemed in Christ.

So let's go a little bit deeper because you have to see what, it's not just the number

but just like a lot of things, you need the context.

You have context, you have subtext to what's going on.

First you have the Mount Zion as a symbol.

Mount Zion is historically the symbol of the location of Jerusalem and anticipated to be

the gathering point for God's people in messianic times.

Here in Revelation, Mount Zion symbolizes the heavenly Jerusalem and the ultimate gathering

of God's people.

The Lamb's presence, we see the Lamb come back, this is his third time on the scene.

The Lamb standing there indicates the gathering is under the authority of Christ.

And here's a key little backdoor curveball.

Those under the authority of Christ will live under that authority.

Yet there are times in our lives the authority of Christ, Christ's definition of who you

are may be different than what you're feeling and understanding that you do not trump Christ's

authority.

The authority in the Godhead, the authority of Christ, you do not get to say, no, not

for me, no, I want my own authority.

No, now you are breaking one of the first two commandments.

Yet we do that, as a society we do that.

Be your own God and do not pass go, do not collect $200.

The minute you want to be or the minute you think life is there to please everything you

want it to be, that's not the authority of Christ.

The authority of Christ is not a Burger King motto of have it your way right away.

That is so anti-biblical, we could probably do a year-long sermon series on it.

It's not about your happiness and pleasure.

It's never been about that.

If everyone's salvation is rooted through Jim's happiness and his pleasure, there will

be no Chicago Cubs, the socks would rain, the bears wouldn't stink, and the bulls would

figure it out.

But it's not, and so I persevere.

We are called to persevere even in the depths of our soul where there is friction with the

word of God.

Because at the end of the day, the friction you are having with the word of God on the

last day doesn't stand.

The lamb is present on the mountain because his authority is his authority and the authority

of the covenant.

So we see this 144,000, we see these markings on their forehead and we'll get to that.

But understand that the 144,000 here is a symbolism in apocalyptic literature, a non-literal

approach, by taking a literal approach of the 144,000, then you are walking the road

of Jehovah's Witnesses.

And they apply unique reading not commonly used in the book of Revelation.

Liberal Christians, especially reform believers, typically view the apocalyptic literature

in this as a lens of God's elect, God's redeemed.

And where the Jehovah's Witness world religion or cult falls in on itself is that they institute

a different class of people, that there are classes of people within the Revelation understanding

of the 144,000.

Jehovah's Witnesses teach that only a small group, a literal 144,000, has been privileged

of being anointed, their words not mine, and ruling with Christ in heaven.

The rest of the faithful will live on earth.

This creates a two-tiered system of salvation that we as Christians ultimately reject.

If there's a tiered system to salvation, then we understand it completely wrong that Christ

died, Christ is all and is in all.

And so we understand that though they believe in the tiered system, we don't, and it actually

contradicts the New Testament.

Ephesians 4 teaches that all believers share in one body, in one spirit, and one hope of

their divine calling in Christ.

The division of hope in the heavenly classes and earthly classes completely contradict.

And here's the kicker, 2024, Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the elect, those 144,000, that

number has been completed already.

Yet if you do the work, and here's where it fits into that works righteousness, that many,

if not all, cults do and world religions do, if we see that, now all of a sudden I can

work, I can go door to door, I can do all the things to try to get to a heavenly class,

then really you're just gonna be in the earthly class.

You're gonna be JV salvation, you're not gonna make it to varsity.

So a distinction here is that the Jehovah's Witnesses interprets this great multitude

as those who are not part of the 144,000 but still redeeming themselves.

I can't redeem myself.

I can claim myself as righteous but then my wife's gonna tell me I'm wrong.

We don't get that.

Believers in Christ don't get to dictate themselves.

It doesn't work that way.

So understand that this group takes a theological isolation to what this 144,000 actually means.

Now what happens when they come to your door?

You show them love and grace.

I'll tell you a quick story.

We're in Crown Point and we had Mormon group come to the door and a couple months later

Jehovah's Witnesses and I always offer to them, I said I will make a pot of coffee,

you'll see me make it so I'm not putting anything in it.

I verbalized this to them.

I said I will give you a half an hour of my undivided attention if you give me 10 when

you're done.

The Mormons ran, the Jehovah's Witnesses took me up on it.

So we sat in my living room.

They walked, well first it was a K-cup so they were good.

But understand that they got there, they went for about only 15 minutes.

And I said you have another 15, I want to be true to what I said.

And they said no Jim we're good.

They knew I was a pastor, they knew that I was a believer and I asked them flat out,

what if I'm 144,001?

Why would I accept an earthly class to salvation when my Jesus, what Christianity tells me

is that I will reign with him as sons and daughters of the King in glory.

You're not even telling me I'm on a perfected earth.

Why would I put my hope and my faith and my trust in that when the three of us, there

was two of them because they always go in pairs or more, I said why don't the three

of us seek Christ together so then we don't have to worry about a number but we worry

about eternal life into glory together.

They left.

But what I like to think happened is maybe just maybe a little seed of doubt, it's okay

to put a seed of doubt in a worldly cult.

It is okay that that's one way that we can fight the spiritual powers of that.

And I'm hoping that one of them isn't okay with being 144,001 and that that could lead

to some kind of life change.

Who knows?

Sometimes we plant our seeds, maybe they said that guy's crazy, must have been day drinking

and they got out of there.

I have no idea what their thoughts were right because they left so abruptly.

But understand that this 144,000, if we follow apocalyptic symbolism, is the understanding

of God's elect, God's completeness.

And we have confessions that speak to that, the Belgian confession being one that I quote

often.

But these 144,000, God's complete, God's seal, there's something on their foreheads.

The seal on their foreheads marks them as belonging to God.

This is something that I know cattle farmers do.

They brand their cattle, the ones that they own, the ones that they've saved from fields

or they bought or whatever, that they brand them.

That the seal, but there's a reason why.

People get stuck like, the seal, oh the mark of the beast, oh left behind, heaven help

us.

Understand that God is sealing for a reason because of what is going to come.

I said we've got to the third base in this, but we haven't seen anything yet.

Yet we've seen a lot.

That the seal is resembling the seal of God commanded for the Israelite priests in Exodus

28, affirms that they are consecrated to God and faithful in their testimony.

So in your testimony is there contradiction that as you tell your testimony, the power

of your testimony, who is getting the credit, who is getting the glory.

If telling your testimony, you come out on top, then you are failing in your testimony

because your testimony should be old life, cross, new life, and end on the cross.

Why that?

So understanding that the mark represents God's covenantal claim on his people.

But I think there's some of us that don't like that either because we have it in our

mind.

We're going to be our own people.

Come hell or high water, I'm going to be my own individual self.

No, you cannot be your own individual self and be bought with the blood of Jesus.

His covenantal seal is on your life.

Well, how does this look practically?

Let's go back a couple months.

One Sunday we're baptizing a baby and the next Sunday one is making profession of faith.

That is a sign and a symbol.

That is us engaging the covenantal seal of when we understand when the Holy Spirit has

showed us in our heart that we belong to Christ.

This signifies the assurance of salvation and a perseverance of God's grace.

So we have this seal and then we have this song, the song of the redeemed.

The new song may signify the unique relationship between the redeemed and God, reflecting their

special role as those who have endured and triumphed in Christ.

But what we pull from this is for what's to come.

The seal and the song is for what's to come because unfortunately and even some in the

here and now who think they claim Jesus, in the end the seal will not be on them, the

song will not be in their mouth.

And the rub here, the hard part of that is why?

Because the scripture tells us there are going to be some that say Lord, Lord and Jesus says

I never knew you.

So the challenge in this kind of confusing set of scriptures is how do you know that

you know that you know that you belong to Christ?

What is the evidence of that?

Not the lip service but the evidence and it's not just the works, it's the combination of

the two.

When people come to make profession of faith in the elders given the way our tradition

follows and walks through all of that, that one of the things the elders is looking for

is the evidence of faith.

For new believers there's not much because it might be the first step of the process

and the elders have to discern that.

For some it's almost like a culmination of maybe growing up in the church, maybe Christian

education, maybe camps or other conferences that they go to.

It's never a graduation of God but it's the start of a new journey and that is evidence

in their life.

If someone comes to church for the very first time and professes Christ as Lord and Savior

there's a lot of conversations around that.

And some of you don't like that because like, ooh, are you putting glories on salvation?

Well the elders are called to do that.

As a pastor I'm called to do that because you have people that will just say it and

not really believe it.

If we confess Jesus as Lord and believe true faith, going back to the Heidelberg, what

is true faith?

It is a knowledge and a conviction.

Anyone can say Jesus is Lord but do you really believe it and do you put it into practice

in your everyday life?

That is the weight of being an elder, of being a pastor, of having to walk through that with

individuals and if not, discipling them to go deeper.

So not only is there a mark across the forehead and a new song in their heart and in their

mouth, there's this call for purity and faithfulness.

So yes, there's a purity when it comes to kind of a understanding of the virginity of

these people, right, of the 144,000 and not to make it awkward or weird, you may have

to have conversations later in the day but call your elder.

Understand that these 144 elders, they are committed and unblemished.

They are rejecting the understanding that they alone can make themselves pure, that

it's God in them, preparing them as a bride.

This symbolizes a singular devotion, singular devotion to God, undistracted by any kind

of infidelity, spiritual, physical, anything.

The purity is seen as metaphorical, thank God, okay, is seen as metaphorical for their

steadfast love in a world of spiritual compromise.

So that was Warren Worsby when I was reading some of his thoughts that the thing that we

need to pull from this is that there's a world today that is telling you to compromise in

your faith because of your own truth and understanding all of those things, that if it contradicts

God's word, it contradicts your spirit.

At least it should.

It should be quote unquote that easy and understanding this, that this is the call, a symbolic understanding

of what God is demanding of you.

You get things like do justly, love mercy, walk humbly, trust in the Lord with all of

your heart, lean not on your own understanding.

Gospel, Testament and New, Jesus' sermon on the mount, go through each section.

It has to do with understanding who you are in Christ in a purified way and walking it

out in a purified way.

And for those that are not called to be married, that that is the sacred calling, right, to

abstain from the pleasures of the world to have a singular devotion in God.

In 2024, it could be seen as laughable for how much we love those physical pleasures

and whatever that looks like.

So how do we walk from this?

Because I haven't even started the sermon yet.

Where do we walk from this?

Some of you just got really nervous.

The application for this is we can trust that as believers, we are securely held in God's

covenant love.

In times of trial and spiritual opposition, remember that your identity is sealed in God

Himself.

There's a lot more that we can dive into about the 144,000, but we don't, that's not the

only part of the story.

We see three angels and we see God's warning in Revelation 14.

Revelation 14 says this, then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal

gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and

people.

And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment

has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

And another angel, a third, followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships

the beast and its images and receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will

also drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger and

he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the

presence of the lamb.

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night,

these worshipers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark in his name.

April, go back to the middle slide.

Really you're seeing this, that God is coming as conqueror king and what Satan is doing,

what Satan has been allowed to do is make a counterfeit every step along the way.

The 144,000, God's elect, they've been sealed, they've been given a song, they have been

acknowledged for their purity of their understanding of who they are in Christ.

And so what does the beast do?

What does Satan do?

He counterfeits it.

I'm gonna give you my own mark.

My guess is he's telling the people it's just like the mark of that guy.

It's just like his mark, right?

But it's just easier because you get to put yourself first.

It's just easier to take the mark of the beast because the mark of the beast is marked by

selfishness about wanting your own way, contradicting everything that the Bible calls us to, everything

that we are encouraged to repent of and walk in though it's hard.

First angel is proclaiming the eternal gospel.

The second angel, we see Babylon finally falling.

Third angel is the warning against worshiping the beast.

So I get this question, I've gotten it a couple times every week since we've been in it.

How do I, pastor, how do I know if I'm following God or if I'm following the beast?

I thought about this and I've given, I thought some decent answers, probably not some of

the great ones.

When it first came to me, but I've been thinking about this, it's been churning for a couple

weeks.

And again, I was not planning on preaching this the week of the election, nor do I ever

really want to preach a lot of politics.

But understand that the following of the beast starts with you.

Again, Satan doesn't want a relationship with you, Satan didn't die for you, Satan doesn't

really care about you.

It's not a what would Satan do culture.

Satan just wants you to live it up for you.

It's about your comfort, it's about your pleasure, it's about making sure everything you do is

right and you don't really give a hoot what anyone else thinks, even someone that may

be trying to spiritually correct or maybe try to bring some things back so that your

life actually aligns biblically and scripturally.

Well, you can't do that because it's my truth, it's my identity, it's my understanding.

Understand that that will fall short ultimately if your understanding is not rooted in scripture

because God has given his word, God has claimed his word over us.

And so we need to heed that message.

The way of the beast is self-centered.

The way of the cross, the way of salvation is Jesus-centered.

Now is that easy?

No.

Is it clean?

It should be, but we don't make it that way and so it's hard.

So what do we need to do?

As we take these warnings, as we get to the final harvest, let us heed the gospel message,

staying faithful and resisting allegiances that pull us away from God.

That is not a political statement.

Understand that first.

Heed the gospel message, staying faithful and resisting allegiances that pull us away

from God.

Every choice we make to honor God strengthens our witness and aligns us with his eternal

kingdom.

Out of our faith, we live this way.

So we got to get to the harvest.

We'll get to that quickly.

Revelation 14, then I looked and behold a white cloud and seated on the white cloud

like a son of man with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand and another

angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud,

put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth

is fully ripe.

So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped.

And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has the authority over the fire

and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, put your sickle

and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth for its grapes are ripe.

So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grapes harvest of the earth

and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

And the wine press was trodden outside the city and blood flowed from the wine press

as high as a horse's bridle for 1600 stadia.

So understand that here is the reaping.

The harvest of the world.

I love how it starts with the son of man.

What Jesus says about himself in the book of Luke, Christ enters the seed.

This harvest represents the gathering of the righteous, those who are in Christ and the

end of the age.

The second harvest, the grape harvest represents judgment.

The image of the wine press signifies the outpouring of God's wrath on the unrepentant,

a sobering depiction of final judgment, not only a final judgment, of final justice.

There's a dual nature here, because I was reading this kind of anew, I don't dive into

this, I don't really devote on revelations, it's way too scary, is an understanding of

the dual nature of these harvests.

Because as it was first starting, I was like, all right, wine on the vine or grape on the

vine, God, Christ says I'm the vine, you are the branches, fantastic, I'm going to be a

grape, hard stop.

No I'm not, you don't want to be a grape, right?

You want to be harvested before that, because these harvests illustrate salvation of God's

people and judgment of the unrepentant.

It reveals the just character of God, who God will separate the righteous from the wicked.

And I guarantee you there are people here that hate that I just said that.

Because God's all inclusive, it's just like Cancun.

No it's not, it's never been.

If that's your reading of the book, I think you got to go a little deeper, that God is

the one that is separating, he's made it very clear.

And what we seem to not understand at times is this isn't like, oh man, after revelation

we're all going to get it.

No, it's the end of the judgment.

It is the end of the world.

Because there's salvation and there's judgment.

There always has been and now we're walking in it in the book of Revelation.

Are we there in 2024?

I'm not going to wear a sign board and ring a bell, but what I want to pull from that

is there are people in my life that are unrepentant to Jesus.

They don't think they need him.

They think his salvation means nothing.

They think the church is a joke.

They think I only work one day a week.

Friends, we got to work on them.

And though they may not, their salvation may look different than yours, if they confess

with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and they believe in their heart that God raised them

from the dead, they're saved by biblical standards.

And here's the understanding, the biblical standard of salvation is not Jim Holland owner's

standard.

It's not Elder Paul's standard.

It's not Deacon Neal's standard.

It's not the Christian Reformed Church's standard.

It is the salvation that comes through Christ alone.

And here's the key.

A lot of us bring way too many people to that dance.

And it's not Christ alone.

It's all these other things that we want to add to it.

Don't.

The use I use internally and how I try to lead is the acronym KISS.

Keep it simple.

Okay, you didn't have to say it out loud, seven of you.

But understand that that is true.

Jesus is saying the same thing minus the stupid.

It's about you and me.

How are we walking this out under the Lordship of Christ?

So what is our response?

Our response to Christ doing the reaping?

Don't be a grape, but that's not my application.

Our response to Christ now determines our place in the final harvest.

Let us live with eternal purpose, pursuing holiness and encouraging others to turn to

God in repentance.

How are you going to do that?

That's another rhyme for another time because we have to live in the light of the final

harvest.

Two verses and 14.

Here is the call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of

God and their faith in Jesus.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the

Lord from now on.

Blessed indeed, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors for their deeds

follow them.

The Trilla family and the Brummer family, though devastated, both heard that and are

living that now.

And that's what I want us to understand.

I want us to understand blessed, go back to the Sermon on the Mount, I'm going to read

this a different way.

Congratulations to the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Okay?

Congratulations indeed, says the Spirit.

They may rest from their labors for their deeds follow them.

If you think you can live a Christian life and not do things, I think you're doing it

wrong.

They rest from their labor.

My challenge for you this week, what is your labor?

Who are you laboring for?

If it's for yourself or even through other people, you are a great servant, but if Christ

is not that first, you are a great servant on your way to bringing people to hell.

Congratulations to your labor.

We're already told that our labor is going to stink.

Thanks Adam and Eve.

Yeah, that's why perseverance and faith are so important.

They're eternally important.

Pastor, my labor right now is hard.

Labor in my marriage, labor in my job, labor in all of these things, it's hard.

Friend, keep going.

Don't look for the shortcut.

Wow, this is just hard, so I'm going to bounce.

Did Jesus do that?

We just celebrated this morning that He didn't.

He doubled down on it.

He said, do this in remembrance of me.

When's the last time you shed your blood?

I say that to the mirror first, this being a mirror.

I've never shed blood for my faith.

Maybe I've been hurt for my faith.

I've been lied to.

Maybe I've been backstabbed for my faith.

Maybe it's been the church, but we labor on.

I can't believe we sung that song, I'm out.

Really?

That's the commitment to the faith?

Oh, so and so.

Man, the chili at the couples club just wrecked my insides.

God's not real.

Really?

I make light of those things, but don't we live in a world that does that?

Man, someone said something really mean to me because of the faith.

Maybe God isn't real.

Go back.

Congratulations for your labor.

It's going to be hard, but I think the payoff is worth it.

But I want my payoff now because we act like little children when we don't get our way.

Hang in there because the labor is hard.

This passage concludes with encouragement, which I think we need.

Those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus, the blessing is for

the faithful who die in the Lord.

That will be declared to the Chorilla family tomorrow at Calumet Park.

That will be declared to the Brummel family when we do that graveside.

Because as they say their final earthly goodbye to their loved one, we take rest and we take

peace in the fact that they're done laboring.

They've been given their reward.

All right.

I think we're done.

Let's put these practical points up as we go into our week, as we go into yet another

fun set of passages next week.

First, embrace your identity in Christ.

As 144,000 marked by God, let us live confidently as people secured by His grace.

It probably means we should show grace to others.

Reflect on ways to deepen our relationship with Christ and understand your place in His

family.

Second, respond to the gospel's call with faithfulness.

Just as the angels call people to repent and avoid false worship, we must remain vigilant

to our allegiance to God alone.

That is not a political statement.

Identify areas in your life where you can reject worldly values that compete for your

heart.

Third, live in readiness for the final harvest.

The two-fold nature of the harvest reminds us that both salvation and judgment are coming.

Pursue a life of holiness, knowing that every decision you make shapes your eternal destiny.

And finally, preserve and hope of eternal rest.

The promise of rest encourage us to endure in faith in times of trial, focus on God's

eternal reward, and find ways to encourage others who may be struggling in their walk.

Until next week, let's pray.