They Have Washed Their Robes & Made Them White

Revelation 7 and the Sealing of the 144,000

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Our scripture reading tonight is.

Taken from the book of Revelation, chapter 7, verses 1 -17. After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.

Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and the sea saying do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

And I heard the number of the sealed. 144 ,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Reuben. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Gad.

12 ,000 from the tribe of Asher. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Naphtali. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Manasseh. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Simeon. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Levi. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Issachar.

12 ,000 from the tribe of Zebulun. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Joseph. 12 ,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed. 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.

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 they worshiped saying, Amen.

Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come?

And 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 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 Fall, the Curse, and the Need for Covering

In the name of Jesus. So there were Adam and Eve in the garden. The serpent had envenomated them with his words. Did God really say? Prior to that they were created naked and without shame and immediately upon biting into the fruit that God had told them not to eat, the first thing they realized is that they were naked.

They put together fig leaves to clothe their nakedness and their shame and then did something very foolish. They hid from God as if anybody can do such a thing. Where can you go to hide from God? Climb Mount Everest and hide in a cave in the deepest recesses of the earth.

Can you hide from God? He's there wherever you go. This creation belongs to Him. And so God then punished our first parents, put us under the curse that we all find ourselves in right now. The one that we are languishing under.

The one we wish would soon pass. The other day I received a text message from a pastor friend of mine. He was struggling with something. And I reminded him to pray for his enemies. And he said thank you for reminding me of that.

And I said to him I wish I didn't have to remind myself of that myself, but I do. I hate. And I mean this hate being a sinner. And his response to me was in a sense kind of the theme for our sermon tonight.

He says, soon pastor. Christ said, behold, look, I make all things new. And He is. We were plunged into this curse, subject to sin, death, and the devil. Disease, suffering, pain. All of this we've brought upon ourselves.

And the toil of work and the meaningless of this existence. All because of our sin. The text then in Genesis in that chapter pretty much leaves off with the fact that God had killed two animals to clothe Adam and Eve.

To clothe them. Not the fig leaves that they had put together. But something had to die so that their shame could be covered up. And so it is, now we fast forward. We've seen the connection between Christ and the fact that He was suspended between heaven and earth, naked as a blue jay.

The text makes that very clear. And then He was shrouded in the swaddling clothes of the grave wrappings, right? And then upon leaving the tomb, it says that His clothes were all folded up nicely. Which means Jesus exits the tomb, naked.

Second Adam. First born of the new creation. And this gives us hope. Behold, I make all things new, Jesus says. And so now in the book of Revelation, some more of this garment theology begins to start to be woven in, in a way that we can start to see the end.

What is it all culminating in? Where are we heading to? We're heading somewhere, right? Or are we just endlessly circling the sun? Well, we are heading somewhere. This text is a little bit tricky to interpret.

And I will not be spending a lot of time going through all of it. But let me kind of help you with something here. If you think through the book of Revelation, you've got 24 elders. 24. That's 12 twice, right?

I'm no good at math, but I do know that 12 and 12 is 24. 24 elders. 12 elders from the New Testament, the 12 tribes of Judah. 12 apostles in the New Testament together, the 24 elders, right? And what is the significance of the number 12 in Scripture?

Do you all know? Have you ever sought to think about it? It's a pretty important number. It seems to occur at least a couple of times, significantly so, and then repeated, right? Have you ever thought, why were there 12 tribes?

Why are there 12 apostles? Stumped? Should I play the Jeopardy theme music? Well, time's up. We'll take eschatology for 400, thank you. But here's the answer to the question. And it seems kind of simple, but it actually is the simple idea.

12 in Scripture is the number for the church. The church of the Old Testament and the church of the New Testament. Each with 12 elders, if you would. And so, this number then gets woven into what we read in our text and let's work our way back through it and we're also going to spend a little bit of time near the end of the book in Revelation 19 and 20.

It says, after this I saw the four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth. Which, by the way, this is one of the texts that the.

Atheists go to and say, see, you guys believe in a flat earth.

It's like, no.

This is all very symbolic language here and that's kind of the tricky part about the book of Revelation. So, the four corners of the earth that no wind might blow on the earth or sea or against any tree.

Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God. And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and the sea, saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

The Church Sealed in Baptism and Grafted into Israel

Now, if you read this the way the Jehovah's Witnesses read, you're going to come to the false conclusion that there are only 144 ,000 saved. Alright? And here's the problem. This is a symbolic number.

And if you spend a little time kind of working through the tribes here, it doesn't quite work. You know, something drops out, something drops in, but I'm not going to focus on that right now. So, I heard the number of those who were sealed.

144 ,000. 12 ,000 times 12 ,000. Got it? This is the church. Old and New Testament. It's all of the Christians symbolically represented. And you've got to remember that we Gentiles, according to Scripture.

Now, I don't know how much Jewish blood you Norwegians have in you, but I can tell you this German-Polish mix, I ain't got any. Alright? And so, you sit there and go, but, you know, I'm not Jewish. But see, here's the thing.

The Scriptures make it perfectly clear that we Gentiles are wild olive shoots, and we have been grafted into Israel. So, there you are, brothers and sisters. You are part of now the 12 tribes. I don't know which tribe you're a part of.

I was thinking I should be part of Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, but I don't think that works. It's another set of stories, right? Well, we read here. 12 ,000 were sealed from the tribes of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.

They were all sealed. And so, the whole church is truly sealed. Now, when were you sealed, made part of the church? Right there. And I'm sure that's the exact font that was used for some of you, right?

Yeah? That's where you were sealed. When God put His name upon you. The name of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And you'll notice here in our bulletin, preparation for worship. The sign of the cross may be made by all in remembrance of their baptism.

Their remembrance of your sealing. That's what that's all about. Historically, you know why people cross themselves? It's not because they're Roman Catholic. It's to remember their baptism. That's it.

Right? You know, when you see my grandson, Benjamin, coming up here, preferably without Mickey Mouse, but when he comes up to the rail, right? He's not taking communion yet. So I make the sign of the cross over his forehead like it was when he was baptized.

And I say, may the Lord bless and keep you in the waters of your baptism to life everlasting. Because that's when he was sealed. And he truly is. Right? So then, we get to this next picture of the heavenly multitude.

Look, I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number. It's a lot of people. Every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages. You see the great commission. Go and make disciples of all nations.

And now we look at the very, very end.

Will there be few saved? Just this tiny little remnant of people who are saved.

It's not what scripture says. Great multitude. No one can number it. Every nation, all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne, before the Lamb. Here it is. Clothed in white robes.

Jesus walks out of the tomb naked. We are clothed in eternity in white robes. You can almost say wedding dress. Of good Vera Wang here. And we have palm branches in our hands. Now this Sunday, it's Palm Sunday.

We will again have palm branches. But this Sunday, those of you who come, when you're given your palm branches, have your mind in two places. Two. The Palm Sunday that was. And the heavenly worship that comes.

Because that's kind of where we live. The now and the not yet. In the past and in the future. And this is the looking forward to the future. So as you wave your palm branches this Sunday, maybe even sing in your heart.

Cry out inside. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and they worship God saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.

Days without end. Amen. And now the Apostle John has one of the 24 elders address him. Who are these clothed in white robes? From where have they come? John, a little flummoxed gives the polite answer rather than saying, yeah, yeah.

He says, well, sir, you know, right? So he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed the robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Doesn't seem possible, does it?

Christ's blood makes our robes spotless white, and we're going to read in Revelation at the other end of the book what those white robes are here in the book of Revelation. The white robes are not us being clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

It's very easy to get the kind of the typology confused here, but you've got to keep a few things straight and let me see if you can do this from memory. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 and 10 for we are saved by grace through faith.

This is not of ourselves is the gift of God, not by works that no man may boast for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Keep that in mind when we get to chapter 19. We are created in Christ Jesus for what?

Good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, conduct our lives according to them. So when we get to Revelation 19, you can kind of see what this is all about. Keep in mind, even the very good works you do as Christians, they are given to you.

They were prepared in advance for you to do by God himself, lest you think that somehow you merit salvation with them. No, you don't. You don't. You do these things because God has prepared you to walk through these things.

So these have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God. 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 anymore. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

The Great Tribulation, the Marriage of the Lamb, and the White Robes of the Saints

Hope, this isn't the end. This is barely the beginning. What a hope that we have in Christ, that he himself will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and salvation itself belongs to our God. Revelation 19 verse 1.

After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven. We all know what that is, right? That's us. Coming out of the Great Tribulation, which by the way, pay attention to that phrase.

These are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. Oftentimes, people think the Great Tribulation is just the tiny little part at the very end of time when everything goes haywire. In reality, we learn from this passage, the Great Tribulation begins with Christ's ascension.

We've been in it for a while. Think about that. So here we are in Revelation 19 now. After this, I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of the great multitude in heaven crying out, hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just, for He has judged the great prostitute.

One of the evil characters who had allied herself with the beast and the dragon against Christ and His church. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of His servants.

Once more they cried out, hallelujah, the smoke from her goes up forever and ever. Wow, tough verse. Can you imagine singing a praise song in honor of the fact that God has punished such an evil and wicked being?

And yet, the heavenly multitude does. And there's the 24 elders representing all of the church and the four living creatures. They fell down and they worshiped God who was seated on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah.

And from the throne came the voice saying, praise our God, all you servants, you who fear Him, great and small. And then I heard what seemed to be the voice of the great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, hallelujah, for the Lord our God, the almighty reigns.

I can't wait to hear it. I cannot wait to hear this. I cannot wait to add my voice to this multitude and to sing this song. You will be there and you will be singing these words. Let us rejoice and exult and give the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.

There it is again, bride. Kind of white talk, right? For it was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. Now, this is not the righteousness of Christ that's being referred to because remember, this robe was dipped in the blood of the Lamb and was made white by the blood of the Lamb.

So this is not the righteousness of Christ. So what is this bright linen? For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Your good works that God has prepared in advance for you to do. These are the very things that Christ clothes you in and you'll think, but pastor, my good works are so feeble.

So many times, pastor, when I start to pray, I fall asleep or my mind wanders. Or when I have the opportunity to do good, sometimes I don't. I don't even want to get out of the chair to pick up the phone when I know that my friend has called me in need.

Instead, I just ignore it, let it go to voicemail and keep watching Netflix. I know, I know. This is why your good works are dipped even in the blood of the Lamb and made white. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, so write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. And then I fell down at his feet to worship him.

But he said to me, you must not do that. I'm a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. But the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Boy, on that verse right there, that last part, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

I could probably do a whole sermon series on that one verse. But we continue to read. Then I saw heaven opened. Behold a white horse and the one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and he makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called the Word of God, Jesus himself.

And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure were following him on white horses. What a spectacular thing this will be to see. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron and he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written King of Kings Lord of Lords.

Look at that. Jesus has designer clothing. Right? You think about those women walking around with Abercrombie, you know, whatever. Jesus has got King of Kings, Lord of Lords and it's all over his clothes.

So then I saw an angel standing in the sun and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, come gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and the riders and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.

And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who is sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.

These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse and all the birds were gorged with their flesh and everybody said, eww.

Awesome and awful all at the same time. But righteous are the judgments of God. Who of us do not deserve that fate? We all do. Yet God in his mercy has sealed us so that we do not suffer that fate with those who are so foolish to stand against the king of kings and the lord of lords.

The Thousand Years, the Final Judgment, and the New Heaven and New Earth

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain and he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who was the devil and Satan bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit, shut it sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until a thousand years were ended and after that he must be released for a little while.

And then I saw thrones and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God.

Quick note, church history is not, and I mean this, not full of martyrs who have been beheaded. That has not, and I mean this, been a popular way to kill Christians until now. Makes me worried. Because it makes it sound like there's going to be a lot of Christians who will lose their head.

But that's an aside. Those who had not worshipped the beast or its image or who had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands, they came to life, reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not come to life until a thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

And when the thousand years are ended Satan will be released from his prison, will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea.

And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were.

And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. As we consider as Lent comes to a close our own sinfulness and this time of repentance let us ponder again the fate of those who persist in sin and unbelief.

It's terrible. So many Christians and theologians have tried to figure out a way to get the white out, get this out of Scripture but they can't. It's there. And I saw the great white throne and him who was seated on it and from his presence the earth and the sky fled away and no place was found for them and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne.

The books were open. Another book was opened which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. The sea gave up the dead who were in it.

Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each of them according to what they had done. Quick aside here as well. I cannot even tell you how many times I've had the question asked of me.

Pastor, do I have to be buried or can I be cremated? Let me ask you. The person who perishes at sea what becomes of their mortal remains? Fish food. Fish food, right? They become one with the calamari, with the tuna, with the little creatures and the shrimp and all the little things, right?

So their bodies go as far away as they can possibly go, right? And yet it says here God doesn't seem to have a problem pulling them all back together. So don't worry about that. Don't let somebody legalistically tell you you have to do it this way or that way because if that's the case legalistically then apparently the people who perish at sea are committing a great sin, right?

And they're not, right? So the sea gives up their dead. Death and Hades gave up their dead who were in them. They were judged each of them according to what they had done and you sit there and go, ah, well, yeah, of course.

But see, remember, we as Christians and Colossians too, it says the testimony of the rules that stood opposed to us has been canceled. That debt has been taken out. None of the pages that contain sins are in your book or mine.

All that's left are our good works, even our feeble ones. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven, the first earth passed away and the sea was no more. I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride.

There it is. Adorned for her husband. So we've read about our white robes, washed in the blood of the Lamb and made white. And now here we see the culmination of all of this. And we do see it is true.

Those white robes are a wedding gown. Christ himself adorns his bride. Beautiful. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people.

And God himself will be as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eye. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away.

And see, this is the story of every single one of those princess fairy stories, is it not? You think of Cinderella. Poor girl, born with a father who loves her. Comes under the power of a woman who hates her.

And she's living in abject poverty. And we all know how the story goes with the prince who sends out the invitations and how her fairy godmother shows up and how she makes it to the ball and the prince falls madly in love with her and then she loses her glass slipper as her carriage turns back into a pumpkin and her horses turn back into mice.

And just when you think evil is about to win, the great turn comes when the prince shows up with the other glass slipper. And despite all the efforts of the wicked stepmother and her daughters, the truth is found out.

And then we see always at the end, always at the end, the great wedding, them getting into the carriage, the rice being thrown, and them wandering off, and it says, and they live happily ever after. That's us.

That's us. We're Cinderella. We're that bride. We're the ones redeemed. And here we get this picture of all of this. It's coming. This is where it's all going. Christ clothes us and he adorns us and no longer are we naked and shameful and pitiable.

We are now decked out in the most beautiful wedding gown ever created in all of the universe. None can surpass it. And that's us. And so we see from these texts a unified theology from the beginning of scripture to the very end.

Clothing theology is a big deal. And the Holy Spirit would have you pay close attention to the details. Ponder them in your heart and cherish the hope that's to come. Think of the future that is coming when Christ himself shows up, not in glory to judge you to eternal damnation, but shows up in glory to put a wedding dress on you so that you can live happily ever after with him.

It's all there in scripture. And this is our hope. All of this is gift. So let us repent of the deeds of darkness and wickedness where those who continue to follow after these ways find their fate not at the wedding feast but in the great lake of fire.

Let us put behind our sinful deeds trust in the mercy of Christ so that he can clothe us, wash us, and take our robes and make them white with his blood. What an amazing Jesus and an amazing God we have.

I am so looking forward to the happily ever after. And it will be here sooner than you think. Maranatha. Come Lord Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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