Revelation 7 Shepherded by the Lamb

The Church’s Core Values and Commitment to Expository Preaching

You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation. Let's listen in.

Good morning, Recast Church. Welcome to everybody. I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here. Just want to start off by saying I'm grateful that you have taken time out of your beautiful spring morning here in Michigan to join us.

Yeah, a little sarcasm there. Wow, really, snow. No, that was not hail, you guys. I saw it. It was nice, big, beautiful flakes at my house anyways. But anyways, I hope that we are able to get past that and actually rejoice in the Lord this morning.

I'd encourage you to make yourself comfortable. For those of you that this is your first time here, there's coffee, there's juice, there's donuts over there. You can get up at any time and take advantage of those, and they are free.

So take advantage of that while those are there. I want to point out that RECAST is an acronym for our core values. And those of you that have been attending here for a while, you knew that, but many of you don't realize that.

And so the core values here at our church, it's really nice that it's right there in our name. The R and the E is for replicating. We desire to be a church that replicates the love of God in our community.

Our goal is to eventually plant other churches, but also replicating the love of Christ in the hearts and lives of people around us. The C stands for community, that we want to be a blessing to the place where God has planted us, and that particularly is this community and the neighborhood that you live in and the workplace that you're at.

Authenticity is the A, and simplicity and truth. So that rounds out the core values there. And the last letter in that drives everything that we do here. And that's one of the reasons that I take a book of the Bible, like we're going through the book of Revelation right now.

We went through the book of Colossians earlier. We went through the book of Genesis, the book of Acts. We take a book of the Bible and we go through it chapter by chapter and work our way through thought by thought because we believe that the word of God, that is all the way from Genesis to Revelation, all 66 books are the truth and have the power to transform our lives.

I could get up here and show you movie clips and give you some great anecdotes and thoughts, but that would get pretty boring and you'd get to the limit of my knowledge and my ability to keep you entertained or keep you moving in any way, shape, or form.

And so it's our conviction that the word of God is the truth that has the power to transform and change us from the inside out. And so all of it is truth. But in the name of authenticity, I want to share with you that a reality as we encounter this next text in Revelation and as we're walking through Revelation, any of you ever read the book?

You've read the book of Revelation? Some of us have. And so you already know that I've got my work cut out for me as we go through this series. And some of us, to be honest, it's like if you read through the Bible in a year, you go through that plan, you get to Revelation, and it's like, my mind just exploded.

I don't really understand all of this. And we can rush through it and maybe not give it much attention. But I want to let you know that this stuff isn't easy to wade through and it's not like I'm looking for pity or like, oh, Don has to work hard on this part this week.

But I don't read these chapters, just read it, write down some thoughts, and bring it to you. That's not the nature of my week. I spend hours working on preparing, reading, studying, praying, reading, studying, praying some more, and reading a lot of scholarship about these and trying to work through it.

And our text this morning is an example of a chapter that I've worked hard to understand and now I get the opportunity to stand up in front of you and I've come to some conclusions, but I come to some conclusions sometimes that I hold quite loosely.

Now there's some bedrock here, there's some foundational things that we see in the book of Revelation that are beneficial. But as I've told you throughout the last couple of weeks, I'm not going to launch out into trying to figure out who this person is or in this future, what is this country represent, or who is the Antichrist, or when is Christ going to return?

I don't believe for a second that that's the reason that this book exists. And so you might be disappointed when you see a series on Revelation and nobody even makes a guess at who the Antichrist is going to be.

And I'm not going to do that for us. But I am bringing forward a message that I'm trusting in the Spirit.

To press on us the truth of God's word.

And there are indeed some fundamental things that we're going to encounter here in chapter 7 that are important for us to grasp, that are the reason in part why the book of Revelation exists. So our text this morning is going to have two movements as we kind of set the stage for worship and thinking this through and kind of hearing a little bit of God's word and where we're going before the band comes up to lead us.

The text has two movements. We see the sealing of 144 ,000 servants of God on earth. If that doesn't make any sense to you, that's the way it was to me when I first read it as well, and we're going to talk through it and hopefully by the end of our time together that makes sense.

But also equally, so if that's verses 1 through 8, but then verses 9 through 17, we're going to be given a vision of a huge multitude that's in heaven. 144 ,000 on earth, something's going on with them, but there's a huge multitude in heaven that's doing something, something's going on with them, and there's this distinction between this group on earth and this group in heaven, and that's what we're going to be looking at.

But what I believe in part is that God is answering the final question that we saw in chapter 6. I kind of gave it a rhetorical answer, and I think it's intended with that force, but now he's going to answer it specifically.

Remember that chapter 6, if you have a Bible, you could glance there, chapter 6, verse 17 said, and the great day of their wrath, if there being God who sits on the throne and the Lamb, the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?

And that's how our text ended last week. Who can stand? Who can stand in the face of the wrath of God and his Son? And I rhetorically answered that none, certainly none who actually face that wrath have any hope of standing, but there will be some standing.

That's what we see in our text. There are going to be some standing. Not through that wrath, but away from that wrath, apart from that wrath. You see, the book of Revelation does not leave us.

Without hope. It is a hope-filled book for those who would run to God.

Rather than run away from God. Chapter 7 serves as a huge dose of hope in the middle of these sealed judgments that have spoken of significant destruction.

And wrath from God.

See, I'm convinced here this morning, Recast, God is interested in offering hope to his people. He is interested in us being a hope-filled people who know where all of this is going. Even here in a book that indicates divine wrath and judgment increase as time goes on towards that end of the age, we find hope in our great shepherd, and he will shepherd us and will shelter us.

I'm going to invite the band to come up right now and shift gears a bit as we think about this text as a wrath sandwich with hope in the middle. And I call it a wrath sandwich. Some of you eat those Oreos and you eat the whole thing.

Some of you scoop out that really tasty middle. And this is kind of like, this chapter is the middle. It's the sweet stuff with kind of more bland stuff on the outside, like my kids who like to eat all of the yucky part of the Lucky Charms and then just have a big bowl of marshmallow stuff at the end, any of you ever do that?

Well, that's kind of like what we're looking at here. Chapter six is wrath and judgment for sin. Boy, I just related the outside of an Oreo to wrath. That's probably a chintzy illustration, but chapter six is wrath and judgment for sin.

Chapter eight is wrath and judgment for sin. But chapter seven stands here in the middle.

As a reminder of hope.

It's like God knows we're gonna be moved to fear when we read about this great tribulation coming. And he's letting his children know he's got us. Here in the throne room of God, those who have been pulled out of the great tribulation will exclaim with shouts of praise, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

This is a pause of praise.

Here in the midst of chaos and judgment and wrath. And that's what we're doing here kind of as a symbol of that in our gathering each and every week. When we gather and sing and listen to God's word, we're pausing in the midst of the chaos of each week to remember that salvation belongs to our God.

So let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there,.

To Revelation 7.

If you need a Bible, please do me a favor and just raise your hand. We're not gonna call you out. There's a guy back here with some Bibles. Mike will bring you a Bible. If you don't have one on your lap, but we just love for people to be able to see that.

The things that I'm reading, the things that I'm saying are coming straight from the word of God.

But follow along.

Recast, this is what God desires for us to hear this morning. And we're gonna do something a little bit different.

This morning.

As you notice, the band is already up there. But I'm gonna ask you to do me a favor. I'm gonna ask you to stand for the reading of God's word. And then we are gonna go straight from the reading of this word into praise and worship of our great God.

So follow along, Revelation chapter 7. 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. And 12 ,000 from the tribe of Joseph, and 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, 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 worshiped God 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 where have they come from? 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 anymore.

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.

I'll encourage you to get comfortable.

Thanks a lot to Dave and the band for leading us. I'm just grateful for their willing service to us each week to lead us before God's throne. Remember that if any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts, you're not gonna distract me.

If the seat you're sitting in gets uncomfortable, you can get up and stretch out in the back. Remember, restrooms that we use are at this end. Men's upstairs, women's downstairs. We try to reserve the restrooms on this end of the building for the kids' ministry, so use the ones that are down there if you need that at any time.

But ultimately, our focus is over the next half an hour or so hopefully to keep our attention driven towards the Bible, so I'd encourage you to have that open on your lap as well. Revelation chapter seven is where we're at for those of you who maybe got here a little bit late and weren't here for the reading of that.

The Vision of Revelation as Dreamlike Apocalyptic Imagery

But thinking about the book of Revelation, I think we ought to think in terms of trying to explain a dream to a friend. Have you ever had that happen? You're trying to explain a dream to a friend or someone in your family or whatever, you had a dream, anybody?

Am I the only one who's ever tried to do that? I mean, trying to explain what happened in a dream and it's kind of a little bit crazy and a little bit weird stuff going on and you're kind of like, and then this happened, and no way, and it's, you wake up with some fuzzy understanding and some of it's vivid while other parts of it kind of fade away and I don't know if you're anything like me if that's the case for you.

But Revelation is kind of like trying to explain a dream where parts of it come back to you and sometimes things don't seem quite sequential and there's a lot of imagery and there's pictures and everything is basically the description of a picture that John sees.

Now, I wanna be clear that I think John was given exactly what to record here by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I don't think it's quite the same scenario as when you're trying to remember a dream and maybe you forgot part of it or something like that.

I think it's completely and utterly what God desired and at the same time, it's still written in that apocalyptic language that is very vision-oriented and the contents are not meant to give us a clear chronology.

Instead, apocalyptic literature is meant to give us an impression or a feeling. You should walk away from a chapter of the book of Revelation with a feeling or a sense to something coming down the pipeline.

And at the opening of the seven seals, we should feel some fear and some sense of overwhelming awe at the devastation of the Great Tribulation. That should have been some of the impression from chapter six last week was just awe and wonder at the devastating effects of sin.

Now, some of us have reaped some of the consequences of sin in our own lives. Have any of you experienced that where there have been consequences,.

There have been difficulties?

And we know that according to Scripture, it even takes it a step further and says, sin leads to, can anybody fill that out?

Death.

In an ultimate sense, sin leads to death. And we know that the judgment of sin that is coming on the world is indeed called, in our text, a Great Tribulation. But now here in our text this week, chapter seven, things take an upturn where last week we were meant to feel some of that fear, some of that awe, some of that impression of destruction.

Things turn upward in our text here this morning and we're brought from the depths of wrath and destruction from the first six seals last week to the glories of protection and shelter. Chapter seven appears like an oasis in the midst of God's wrath.

A protected zone where the wrath of God does not fly fierce as it did last week. And I want to point out that God hasn't changed between chapter six and chapter seven. We're not looking at a new God here, a different God.

Chapter six was the old God and chapter seven is the new God. It is the same God who is the rightful, just, holy judge of the world, is the same one who is the righteous and gracious savior to those who run to him.

And I would suggest to you that the only difference between wrath and protection is which direction you are running. Are you running to God for protection or are you running away from God for protection?

So all of us are seeking protection. All of us are seeking something to fulfill us or something to satisfy us or something to make us whole or complete or something, but we're running in a direction. Are you running to God for salvation, running to God for peace, running to God for hope, or are you running away from God?

And in the first three verses of our text this morning, there's this kind of weird picture. Again, seeing pictures, seeing images, just like very similar to having a dream. He observes five angels and there's interaction between these five angels.

Four of them are holding back the winds of judgment. Again, a figure of speech, wind, being a common metaphor throughout scripture for the judgment or the wrath of God and they are holding it back while another commands them to hold out just a little while longer until the servants of God on earth, on earth, that's where this is taking place, can be sealed.

The fifth angel comes from the east and he has in his hand the seal of the living God and he is getting ready to seal the servants of God on earth. The dramatic vision of this need not be literal. I want to be clear about that.

It's unlikely that there are four angel airbenders force pushing back the winds at a literal four corners of the earth, which by the way, if you think about it, we actually will use the literary phrase four corners of the world, four corners of the earth.

Do we believe that it's a cube then? Do we believe that it's a square? Some people have been critical of scripture on this point. They kind of get past that. I mean, it talks about the circle of the earth in Job and in Psalms.

I mean, did they believe that it was square? Did they believe that it was flat? All of this stuff, you can go to town on that with your own opinions and thoughts and conspiracies and this, that and the other.

We use figures of speech too, even in our scientific age and that's exactly what I believe they're doing here. Now all this dramatic vision points to one simple thing. God will not bring about the final course of his judgment until he has the right people under the umbrella of his protection.

There's something that's holding back and stemming back the tide of judgment on this planet. There's something that's holding back the great wrath of God in tribulation and it is simply this. There are some who he is going to number under his umbrella of protection before that day arrives.

And those on earth that will be sealed are said to be 144 ,000, specifically Jews from the various tribes of Israel.

That's what the text says.

Now I realize that all throughout this series and the book of Revelation, I'm open to the accusation of picking and choosing what I believe is metaphorical. So for example, in this text, I'm going to tell you that I do not, I could be and I'm open to it, but I don't believe that the number 144 ,000 is a literal number.

I don't think that it's gonna be counted. And if you counted all of the people from the Jewish race who are saved during the tribulation are going to number exactly 144 ,000. I'll get there here in a minute and explain that.

But then I'm also saying that I believe.

That they're gonna be Jews.

Well, why do I pick to believe that they're literally Jews but I choose the number to be a figure of speech? Well, I do a lot of research and I really work through this and I really pray a lot about it and that doesn't mean that I always get it right.

I may not always get it right. But I do believe that they are literally ethnic Jews because of the detail that John shares in verses four through 11. They are designated in verse four as from the tribe of the sons of Israel.

Now, if you would have read this in the first century when it was written, how do you think they would have understood that? They are talking about Jews, right? That's how they would have understood that in that timeframe.

Further, he goes into length, even as I was reading, did you get a little of the repetition in there? Did it kind of wear on you a little bit after I said 12 ,000 like 12 times? And it's listed according to tribes, these 12 ,000.

And instead of just saying 12 ,000 from each tribe and leaving it that, sometimes you want scripture to say that, right? Like you're reading through the Bible and you've got a limited amount of time, you wanna just, could you just summarize that for me?

Like, couldn't you have just said 12 from each tribe and been done with it? But John uses precious parchment and scroll to list them out. I believe to indicate to us that we're talking about literal Jews.

Now the number of those sealed is I believe a highly figurative number from understanding that a lot of numbers, there's a lot in the Jewish tradition that has to do with an understanding or some kind of symbolism tied to and associated with numbers.

12 is the number of spiritual fulfillment. How many apostles were there?

12.

How many tribes of Israel were there?

12.

It's a spiritual number of fulfillment, like the right spiritual number is there. And now why would that be? Okay, 12 times 12. So the number of spiritual fulfillment times the number of spiritual fulfillment, this is gonna be the right, right, right number multiplied by a large number by Greek and Roman standards, 1 ,000.

I think it's not, it's just shy of when I mentioned myriads and myriads of angels standing around the throne a couple of weeks ago in my message, I said, I think that's like a bajillion, right? Like they didn't have that word invented, so they used that one.

I think this is shy of saying that. I think he's saying something different here.

With this word picture.

Instead, I think John is saying the right number, the right and perfect spiritual number of Jews will come into the kingdom in the last days.

And it will be a lot. There will be a lot of them.

There will be, as Paul said in Romans, and Israel will be saved, and there will be a movement among Jews in the end of time. I believe that the significance of the sealing matters for one primary reason.

I believe that the church is gone when this sealing happens. I believe that the church is gone when all of this is going down in the first seven verses. I mentioned last week that I do not think that the church will endure the wrath of God that was expressed at the opening of the sixth seal.

Some time in there,.

And the book of Revelation doesn't give us a time of departure of the church, but I believe that that's literally going to happen sometime in those first five seals. So what we see in chapter seven is the literal salvation of a large group of Jews during the great tribulation, and they will serve as powerful witnesses on this planet during that time.

The idea of God sealing a person in the Old Testament, it really was an Old Testament concept that began with Abraham and circumcision, a sign on the flesh that showed that they belonged to God. But that culminated in a invisible work that we now talk about in the church as the sealing work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life.

It is said that the Holy Spirit seals you to salvation. Now, wouldn't it be really great if there was a physical mark on the body of a person who was a believer, like it just showed up and on their forehead, they prayed, embraced Christ, asked to believe in him, and all of a sudden something appeared on your forehead or something like that?

Well, that would be a very literal understanding of this. I don't believe that that's what the case is. And so we have a non-physical sign that still manifests itself in our lives, and that is simply that the Holy Spirit is alive in us.

Our behavior changes, our desires change, our hungers and appetites change, our affections change to love the things of God, and that's the sign of God's life in you and his sealing of you. Now, I don't believe that the seal on the heads of these Jewish believers protects them and secures them from all harm, but rather it seals them as saved by the Lamb of God.

This is salvation that is occurring here. And to be clear, I do not believe that this is a literal tattoo or a branding, but rather a figurative seal, like I mentioned, that the Holy Spirit is sealing our hearts.

Now, there are indicators in the chapters that are coming about these 144 ,000 that these who are sealed will not be protected from the wrath of humanity, but they will be sheltered from the wrath of God.

Now, that's something that's fundamental to an understanding, a proper understanding of what it means to be a child of God now. Does God pour his wrath out on us now? No. But do we experience the effects of the fall now?

Absolutely.

Can we experience the wrath of mankind now?

Absolutely.

Can we experience the wrath and the chaos of a broken world?

Absolutely.

But we do not experience God's wrath any longer because the wrath of God has been poured out. Where? On Jesus Christ at the cross for those who are his. Many scholars make all kinds of stretches to try to explain why this text might be here in this location, because I don't know.

If you noticed, we didn't get the seven seals open yet. Did any of you notice that last week? We only got six of them.

This is an interlude. This is a pause.

This is a pause for reflection, reminding us, hey, hey guys, I wanted to remind you, you're safe, you're gonna be secure, and not only that, I'm gonna bring forward a group who is going to be witnesses all throughout my history.

Many scholars are trying to stretch to figure this out, but it seems like an interruption in the seals of judgment to many. I think it demonstrates to us God's ongoing patience, even during the final seasons of judgment.

God is not giving up on the world here in the end, but he even goes to great measures to continue to present this large group of witnesses here in this context to those who are eager to reject him, to those who are running from him.

He still provides witness, even when the church is gone. But John's vision, and here's where I get to why I say the church is gone, because we're gonna see the church here. The church is coming in the next eight verses.

So what we've seen so far is we've seen what's going on on earth, but John's vision now is taken from the events that are going on on the earth, and he's given a, it's pulled back, and his eyes are cast back up to the throne room of God again.

And we see that in verse nine, and what he beheld is a throne room of heaven again. And I believe that this movement from earth to heaven in his vision is key to understanding that these are two different groups of people that are talked about here.

Some people like to think of, they try to make the Jews figurative here for the church, and so we'd be looking at two parallel accounts of the church, and that might be getting a little too nuanced for you, but I believe that we're looking at one group on earth and another group in heaven, and that is significant.

That's the key to understanding this text. In verses one through eight, John has been observing what's going on on earth, nine through 17 in heaven. And now he catches a glimpse, and there he sees not 144 ,000, but instead a multitude that no one could count, he says.

Now, hear me carefully. Have we not heard some symbolic language already in the book of Revelation for large numbers? Have you heard some numbers like myriads times myriads, and all these different words and terminology that's used, and he is very eager and willing to use symbolic language to demonstrate large crowds and large groups.

And here in a book of that kind of symbolic language for large numbers, John refuses to attempt to even give a word picture for this group that he sees around the throne. He doesn't even give a number.

He says, I'm not even a monkey with a literary illustration for you. This is a number that no one can count. This is a huge group of people standing around the throne of God. He doesn't use myriads times myriads.

He doesn't use 144 ,000, a gathering beyond number. And he determines that it's made up of humans, people. From every political entity, from every ethnic group within those political entities, from every division that people come up with, to all language groups.

He's going over the top to say this is a composite of earth. This is a grouping of people gathered from everywhere before the throne of God. And they are clothed in white robes. They are carrying palm branches.

We're gonna see that they're praising the Lord. The palm branches indicate that they are celebrating. Like the Feast of Tabernacles, a great celebration every year in Israel where they would carry palm branches.

Or the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, that celebration, the king is here. These people are ready for a festival. That's the imagery of the palm branch. And they're clothed in white robes showing that they are pure, that they are physical.

I believe that there are all kinds of indications at this point in the text that the resurrection has already occurred.

That there's been a rapture.

There has been a going up to heaven for those who are his. The last time we saw, here's one of the reasons why. The last time we saw any humans within the throne room of God was last chapter at the opening of the fifth seal.

They were called souls, and where were they? They sat down under the altar of the Almighty.

That's where they were located.

It was given, and they're asking, how long, oh Lord, how long until you will exact judgment on the earth, how long until you'll make it right, how long until you will bring it to completion? And they were given a white robe and told to wait just a little while longer.