Revelation: The Reality of Heaven (7:7-19)

Hello, friends.

This is Pastor Creighton.

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Our second lesson is from Revelation chapter 7, verses 9 to 17.

Revelation 7:9–17

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, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

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 worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen.

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these clothed in white robes?

And from where have they come?

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.

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 shut will shelter them with his presence.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.

The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

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 word of the Lord, thanks be to God.

We are your people and the sheep of your pasture pasture.

Grant us, Lord, to hear your voice and to follow where you lead, that we may attain that promise that you give us of everlasting life.

We pray in Jesus' name our good shepherds.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So over the few millennia of our Christian tradition, our Christian heritage, there's been uh many arguments given for uh God's existence, and broadly speaking, for the truth and reasonableness of our Christian faith.

Faith does not mean we blindly subscribe to any odd thing we hear.

Faith is uh reasoned, and faith responds to God's revelation, his word to us in such a way that it it trusts, it ascends.

So there's been many arguments made for God's existence.

Famously, Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century argued from cause and effect that all effects that we observe have a cause, and there can't be an infinite regression of causes.

At a certain point, there needs to be a self-sufficient, non-contingent, uncaused cause, the cause of all other causes.

And Aquinas concluded that's what Christians call God.

That's not the last word on God, but that's certainly, I think, a well, it's an argument that I think still holds water nearly 800 years later.

There's been many other kinds of arguments, moral arguments and arguments from conscience, like Newman argues.

If this all sounds kind of heady, this is why pastors are so weird.

This is what we talk about when we get together, is this kind of stuff.

There's one argument, though, amongst all of these arguments that can tend towards a sort of cerebralism.

One that I think really grips me, one that I think really speaks to life and as we live it and as it's experienced.

One that I think we can't help but being drawn to, and that's an argument you could say from desire, or desire and its correspondence, or maybe you could say it's an argument made from longing.

And this is an argument often credited to C.

S.

Lewis, who, you know, of Narnia fame and et cetera, the great 20th-century Christian thinker and writer.

Lewis observes that every physical uh desire or longing we have has a correspondence in an object that satisfies that longing.

So, say for example, in about 20 or 30 minutes my tummy's gonna start rumbling, and that's gonna tell me I'm hungry.

And broadly speaking, that's going to correspond to food, which satiates my hunger, more specifically, the nachos I plan to have later today.

But my physical longing, so to speak, corresponds to that physical object.

We can also think of something like loneliness corresponds to friendship and spending time with those that we love.

The things we long for in this earthly life have an earthly correspondence to them.

Well, what about those longings we have that go beyond our this worldly experience?

What about longings for something like uh, how about something like peace or security?

I mean, to some degree we experience a relative peace.

We live in a peaceful country called Canada, and I don't wake up wondering if the barbarians are going to show up at my door on any given day.

But yet we've never known a time that has truly been characterized by nothing but peace and harmony, have we?

I mean, we see day by day pictures coming out of Ukraine that remind us that we don't live in a world of peace.

We long for that.

And especially if we experience the suffering that comes with seeing peace disrupted, well, we we long for that peace.

How about something like rest, like real renewal?

I mean, something like that might lead us to take a vacation, and that's a wonderful thing too, but vacations come to an end, don't they?

And it's back to it.

And for those of us who experience the exhaustion of this kind of toilsome life, we long for a rest that lasts.

Or how about the big elephant in the room?

That veil that hangs over the human race that Isaiah 25 talks about.

It's called death.

For those of us who know what it is to grieve and mourn the loss of someone we love, we long for a day where death is no more.

Or maybe for those of us who experience the fear of our own death, we long for a day where death is no more.

What do we do with these kind of desires?

It's not just like hunger that has an easy correspondence with our this worldly experience.

These desires seem to reach beyond our this worldly experience.

Are we supposed to just grow out of silly fantasies like this?

Grow up, live in the material world that we're in.

Here's what Lewis observes.

I think this is so profound.

Lewis writes, if I find myself, pardon me, if I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

Think about that for a second.

If we experience a desire which nothing in this world can truly satisfy, then perhaps it's most reasonable to think that there is another world for which we are created, that those desires correspond to.

A desire for peace, a desire for rest, a desire for true comfort.

Maybe for us earthly sufferers, there is hope that lies beyond this world as we experience it.

See, I think it's Lewis's observation here that resonates so deeply with Revelation chapter 7.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

We've been working our way a little bit through the book of Revelation as our uh Anglican lectionary has kind of been leading us through it.

Revelation chapter 7 has good news for earthly sufferers, especially those who mourn, those who desire rest, those who look for security.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

The good news of Revelation chapter 7 is this that the deep spiritual longings of earthly sufferers correspond to a heavenly reality.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

The longings of us earthly sufferers correspond to a true heavenly reality.

And I think that that's good news, friends.

The good news is that our longings will lead us to a world that is already but not yet.

A world that is coming with our Lord Jesus, and it gives us hope in the very present trials and tribulations of this life.

The longings of earthly sufferers correspond to a heavenly reality.

So I want us to look at Revelation chapter 7.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

I'd like us to ask just a couple of questions in our time.

I'd like us to understand who this crowd is that John sees here in his heavenly vision.

I want us to understand this heavenly thing that God does for this crowd, this heavenly promise that God makes.

And then I want us to land somewhere in verse 15 here and consider what this heavenly reality means for our present experience of this world.

So let's start with who this crowd is.

Let's look at verses 9 and 10.

And if you have your Bible, if you have your order of service, I encourage you to turn with me to Revelation 7, verse 9.

Revelation 7:9

As you do, let's have a quick recap.

Last Sunday we looked at Revelation chapter 5, and that placed us in the heavenly throne room that John is in.

Revelation 5 · chapter mention

John is having this heavenly vision of the lion who conquers, who's really a lamb who's been slaughtered for our sake and who has secured victory for all time.

And this supremely worthy lamb is going to take the scroll of God's plan for salvation and realize it.

So in chapter 5, we see that the Lamb is worthy to open up this seven-sealed scroll.

And in chapter 6, one by one, the seals are opened, and God's judgment upon evil and earthly opposition to his good kingdom is being poured out seal for seal.

And towards the end of chapter six, rulers and authorities that oppose God's kingdom are asking, who can stand against God's judgment?

And chapter seven is something of an interlude.

It's going to answer that question: who is worthy to stand in the wrath to come?

In chapters, or pardon me, in verses 1 to 8, John hears about 144,000 Israelites sealed with the promise of God's salvation.

They're going to be carried through this tribulation.

They are worthy to stand in God's judgment.

And this 144,000 is one of these puzzling questions, I suppose, of Revelation, perhaps one of the many.

I'm always of the mind that when we see a number in Revelation, especially a big round number, we probably shouldn't think this is so much of a calculation as it is a symbol.

It's meant to communicate a truth.

And the question is, well, what does this number symbolize?

And I want to suggest that it symbolizes the complete sum of all of God's covenant people.

Those who have God's stamp, God's seal of his Holy Spirit upon them, who are going to be brought through the tribulation.

And it's important to consider that 144,000 is not so much a literal number.

Some interpreters see it that way.

Some have even suggested that it's only 144,000 at the end of history that truly is going to be saved.

I think that gets us into trouble.

And I think that we know that that's not the case because of what John sees next.

He hears 144,000 sealed, but he turns and he sees something different.

Kind of like how he hears about a lamb, or pardon me, a lion who's conquered, but he turns and sees a lamb who's slaughtered.

These are meant to be mutually informing images of one another.

Verse 9, this is our reading this morning.

John says, 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, he says, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

So what is it that John hears?

He hears 144,000 sealed among Israel, but he sees what a crowd that cannot be fathomed by human calculation.

He sees a numberless crowd and a multi-ethnic crowd, a multinational crowd.

God's seal of salvation is not just for ethnic Israel, nor is it just for 144,000.

It's for this fathomless multitude of his people called out from all corners of the earth.

This is the fulfillment of God's promise all the way at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 12 that from Abraham, the patriarch of Israel, from Abraham all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

God's plan for all nations has come to pass.

This crowd is a multinational, multi-ethnic crowd, sealed by God for salvation.

And this crowd knows suffering.

I say that because of what the elder tells John about this crowd in verse 14.

The elder turns to John and says, These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.

This word tribulation you could translate as suffering, as an ordeal, or quite literally, it's a weighty pressure.

How are we supposed to understand this tribulation?

I like what Pastor Darrell Johnson has to say.

He says that the great tribulation is what takes place when the kingdom of God invades this world and comes up against kingdoms that are inconsistent with it.

It's kind of like how two tectonic plates kind of meet together and cause an earthquake.

That's the tribulation we experience when the kingdom of God is breaking in to the order of this world and renewing it, and yet faces that opposition of sin and this worldliness.

If the question is, is the tribulation something that's past, something that John is experiencing and his readers experienced, which for us is past tense, or something in the future, something yet to come, then I think the answer simply is yes.

I think it's something that defines this time that we live in between Christ's first coming and the initial inauguration of the kingdom, the already, but the not yet as well, when Christ comes again in glory to establish his kingdom completely.

Johnson continues by saying, in John's mind, the tribulation has been on since Jesus came.

And it was on in John's day, and that's why he's in exile.

And it has been on through all church history, and it is on even now.

I think if we pause long enough, we know what it is to experience this kind of tribulation, to experience the tremors of God's kingdom breaking into the order of this world, to feel the tension between living on earth and yet being called to a heavenly citizenship.

Friends, this is why we pray especially for persecuted Christians Sunday for Sunday.

Because they know especially the tribulation, the ordeal, the suffering that takes place in the in-breaking of this kingdom to the opposition of this world.

This is a crowd that knows suffering, but they know suffering in the past tense, because notice what the elder says.

These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.

They're leaving suffering behind.

Earthly suffering is being exchanged for a new, a renewed heavenly reality.

They're leaving it behind.

So, what does all this mean?

I want to suggest this that if we are in Christ, this is our crowd.

This is the crowd to which we belong.

Because what defines this crowd, we see in verse 14, that they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

This is a crowd defined by the sacrificial atonement of Christ on their behalf.

They are covered, as it were, by the blood of the Lamb, which has washed them pure and made them holy, and brought them into God's holy and heavenly kingdom.

If you are in Christ, your robes, as it were, have been washed white, and this crowd is your crowd.

What heavenly thing does God do for this crowd?

If we belong to this crowd, this is what God commits himself to do for us.

Let's look at verses 15 to 17 here.

Therefore, the elder says, This crowd, they are before the throne of God.

They serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.

The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

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.

What's God doing for this crowd?

This multinational crowd called out of all nations, out of all history, gathered in God's heavenly temple throne room.

What's he doing for them?

Well, in verse 15, we see he shelters them.

This word shelter you can also translate as a dwelling or a settling.

And I wonder if the Bible is a big story of sheltering in this sense, of finding our true dwelling place.

Think about the Exodus.

God calls his people out of oppression and bondage and into a promised land.

Or how about the exile?

God's people, wayward people who are in a faraway and distant land, are being called to come back and occupy this land that God has given to them.

For those of us who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, we read in John chapter 1 that the word becomes flesh and dwells among us.

John 1 · chapter mention

And that the climax, the crescendo of the whole biblical story of salvation is that the dwelling place of God is with man.

Revelation 21.

The Bible is a story of finding true dwelling, true shelter.

And what does that look like?

Well, in verse 16 we read that those who are in Christ shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.

The sun will not strike them, nor its scorching heat.

It's as though they're protected from all of the disorder of a wayward and fallen creation.

Things are being renewed, things are being restored as they always were intended to be.

See, for us sufferers, who long for peace and security and for true shalom, this is God's promise to shelter us, to give us a true and peaceful dwelling in his presence.

God shelters his suffering people.

God promises to shepherd his suffering people.

Did you catch that in verse 17?

The lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water.

See, a shepherd leads and guides and nourishes and cares for his flock above all else.

And a good shepherd is even willing to give his life for the sheep.

And the wild thing about this image, I think, in verse 17 is that the lamb becomes the shepherd.

That's a bit of a role reversal, isn't it?

Lambs don't usually lead shepherds.

Or pardon me, lambs don't usually become shepherds, do they?

But what does it say about this Good Shepherd?

It says that this good shepherd is gentle.

But that this good sac this good shepherd, this lamb who was slain, is a self-sacrificing shepherd who gives it all for the sake of his flock.

There's nothing he withholds, even his very self.

Isn't that why we celebrate Good Shepherd Sunday?

Because this is who our Good Shepherd is.

And what does this Good Shepherd do?

He leads his flock to springs of living water.

I can't help but think of Psalm 23, which is such a beautiful psalm in so many ways, perhaps David's greatest hit.

But it's a psalm that comes up time and time again, or it's requested time and time again, whenever I do funerals, or maybe I do a bedside visitation towards the end of life.

There's something so beautifully comforting about this image of the Lord who is David, David's shepherd, our shepherd, who leads us beside still waters, who makes us lie down in green pastures.

There's something beautiful and intimate about that, but even more fundamentally, I think it points us towards our heavenly hope and our heavenly home.

Because that's not just sentimental imagery that David's writing about.

He's writing about the reality that will come at the end of the age.

God will be our shepherd.

He will give us true rest.

He will give us renewal.

And this living water that John writes about makes us think about our Lord Jesus' words that He gives us Himself as our living water.

He gives us eternal life, is what we read in John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

And all this means that when we hear the shepherd's voice, we turn to follow him.

That's what belongs to us as his flock.

That's what defines us as his flock, as those who follow after his voice.

See, I think this is good news for us world weary and restless sufferers, that heaven is a promise of divine shepherding, that God will care for us and have compassion for us, and will lead us, as it were, to living water, which wells up within us as a spring of eternal life.

God promises this suffering crowd that he will shelter them and shepherd them, but God promises also that he will soothe them.

Verse 17.

God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

This is not a promise that's unique to John's vision and revelation.

This is a quote from Isaiah 25, which I referenced earlier.

In Isaiah 25, the Lord is making a promise that for those in the shadow of death who know the reality of mortality, God promises, I will one day swallow up death.

I'm going to remove this veil that's cast over all of humanity.

Death is going to be swallowed up in victory.

Which Paul recognizes in 1 Corinthians 15 is the reality in light of Christ's resurrection.

God has swallowed up death itself.

So that every tear of mourning and grief that we shed in this mortal life should point us towards this heavenly hope.

It corresponds, as it were, to that divine and tender hand which will wipe those tears from our eyes.

And we will never know sadness again.

God comforts us, He soothes us.

See, friends, Revelation 7 tells us that all the longings of an earthly sufferer, longings for peace and rest and for true comfort in the valley of the shadow of death, all these earthly longings correspond to God's heavenly reality.

This day that He's promised will come.

When Christ comes in glory and brings his kingdom with him.

Sounds like I kind of just sit on my hands to wait for that day.

That's going to be nice when it gets here.

Here's where I want us to land, and I'm going to do this briefly, but I want us to land here.

What should we do about this heavenly reality now?

It's something that's inaugurated in Christ.

God does this for us, and yet he calls us to experience this heavenly reality, I think, in a particular way.

And maybe it surprises us.

Let's ask, what is this crowd up to in this heavenly vision?

This crowd that's been brought into heaven and the kingdom of God, what are they up to?

What are they doing?

Verse 15, they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple.

Does that surprise us?

It kind of surprises me because I'm inclined to think of heaven as this sort of celestial, never-ending five-star resort, you know, where I'm kind of waited upon by a never-ending angelic staff that anticipate my every need.

You know, and if that's my concept of heaven, then probably my sense of, you know, I'm closest to heaven on earth is when I'm being waited upon, when I'm being served.

When things are going my way, when things are easy and I can put my feet up.

But I wonder if this cuts against that kind of grain.

John sees us serving God day and night in his temple.

If that's our heavenly vision, that's our vision of living into all of eternity, is serving God, which is perhaps the most dignifying and noble thing we could aspire to do, then perhaps we are closest to heaven on earth, not when we put our feet up, but when we endeavor to serve.

When we endeavor to serve God and others in his name.

When we endeavor to serve as the royal priesthood that we are, that's what Peter says we are in 1 Peter 2.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.

See, we share in Christ's kingdom as royalty, but we also share in God's work, knitting heaven and earth together as priests.

And so in Revelation 15, John sees us before the throne of God's heavenly kingdom and serving him day by day in his temple.

We are royal priests, serving God for all eternity.

And so when we endeavor to serve God as royal priests right here on earth, well then we're living right in the intersection of this age and the age to come.

We're living in the intersection of heaven and earth.

And the chief example for us, I think, is our Lord Jesus Himself, who, you know, came to put his feet up and to be served, right?

The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

So, friends, for those of us who long for heaven, who long for our otherworldly desires to find satisfaction, we come closer to heaven as we serve as royal priests.

So we endeavor to do so.

So do you long for heaven?

Does your desire for peace and rest and comfort find correspondence only in the world to come?

So the most probable explanation for such desires is that we are made for another world.

Thanks be to God, that he will bring his kingdom in glory, and we will proclaim salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

Amen.

Thank you for listening today.

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