Server Outage Notice: TheSeed.info is transfering to a new Server on Tuesday April 13th
| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Rev. Sjirk Bajema > Are You In That Number? | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) |
REVELATION 7:1-8
(Readings: Revelation 6:1-7:8)
Are You In That Number?
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
There is a old Negro spiritual that is very popular, particularly amongst Jazz musicians. You will know it – almost everyone does! I mean, who hasn’t heard, ‘When the Saints go Marching in”?
It is a song about looking forward to glory. And so the lyrics of the first verse go like this: “Oh, when the saints go marching in, oh, when the saints go marching in, oh Lord I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in.”
This is also very much the theme of the text before us. Much as it may seem to speak of totally unrelated things it is actually about the believers going to heaven.
The context helps us here. While the opening words, “after this,” might suggest another time following chapter 6, what is being described in our text is more likely to be occurring before or during the time frame of chapter 6. You see, chapter 6 is about the judgment of God, a time when the earth is being harmed. Yet chapter 7 begins describing a period when the earth hasn’t yet been harmed.
Remember, the apostle John is seeing a vision. It is a particular vision in the most incredible series of visions any man could ever have. And as he has this particular vision he notes that it comes after the vision he’s had in chapter 6.
And so it is we come to a first aspect to our text. This is where we look at the verses 1 till 3. So let’s consider... TRANSLATING THE LANGUAGE HERE.
So far John has been shown this most terrible scene of a terrifying and complete destruction of the earth, symbolised by the dreaded four horsemen. But now he sees another four things. And what are they, boys and girls?
Ah, they are angels – four of them. And now we know, don’t we? Because angels usually turn up when God is doing something for or through his people!
But we cannot separate these angels from the way we are being spoken to by God through the apostle. This is a vision that comes to us through an apocalyptic literature. It is a language which needs to be translated.
Here we are helped by the concepts John tells us elsewhere in Revelation. Very quickly we notice the use of metaphors.
A metaphor is a figure of speech where a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. For example you might say, ‘Life is a highway’. But your life is not actually a major road. You are simply picturing what life is like through something people can understand. So your life is like travelling along a certain path.
In our text there are the four corners of the earth in verse 1. These are not actually four definitive corners to our planet – its round after all! Nor are there four winds on the earth – there’s a lot more! But by this word picture we see God is in control. John is seeing in his vision a time when the Lord is holding back what has the power to harm the earth.
So while the four horsemen were let go into the world to cause all kinds of harm, these four winds are held back from doing that. Verse 1 ends with saying that the angels are holding back these four winds so “that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree.” Congregation, we’ve got a completely different view of the same thing as chapter 6.
And certainly those Jews then would know this metaphor through the prophecy of Zechariah. There in the sixth chapter of his prophecy the prophet told of four chariots with horses of the same colours going out to the four winds of heaven.
But still we’re wondering, aren’t we? Why is there a different force at work here? And what is this all about? Indeed, who is this for?
So let’s go on, shall we? In the verses 2 and 3 John continues telling us of his vision. And he writes, “Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and 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.””
Through the angel who comes from the east, the Lord tells us the meaning of what is going on here. It is actually about you and I – the people of God in this present world!
And this is further aided by the trees very probably being a picture of something that is vulnerable to high winds. So they represent believers here. The original Greek supports this as it can be translated “in case a wind keeps on blowing,” which would mean the winds of destruction have already begun to rise up.
What we are especially drawn to here, however, is the sealing done to the servants of the Lord on their foreheads. Why did that need to be done? And how is it done?
The seal itself was probably a signet ring like that used by Oriental kings to authenticate and protect official documents. From Revelation 14:1 we learn that the mark it leaves on the forehead is the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father.
The Hebrew Scriptures help us here also. In Ezekiel 9 a ‘man clothed in linen’ is told in the verses 3 and 4 there to “put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations” being committed in Jerusalem. He was to do that before six executioners would take vengeance against the wicked idolaters.
This is what the apostle Paul explains in the first chapter of Ephesians. There in the verses 13 and 14 he declares believers have been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.
So when those searing winds begin to blow, the servant of God is already sealed against their power. The horsemen ride out upon their work of destruction – but the church has been made indestructible.
You see, we have his seal upon us. As the apostle says in 2nd Timothy 2:19, the Lord knows those who are his. It’s because we are his that he will keep us through the tribulation.
It won’t mean, though, that we are completely protected. Christians can sometimes think they are immune from defeat, trials and suffering if their faith is pure. Yet for the Lord the real evil is sin and compromise with sin. And so he makes his people eternally secure from the destruction of sin. He protects his people from being overcome by sin. And often that means we will have defeat, trials and suffering.
We must always remember we’re only passing through here. This is not our home. And so we’re travelling through a broken and mixed-up creation with God’s directions. Hebrews 11, verses 13 till 16, makes that clear.
And so we come to the verses 4 till 8. Here we consider a second aspect. Now we note ... REALISING IT’S ALL ABOUT US HERE.
We began reflecting on the well-known Negro spiritual. “O Lord I want to be in that number...” And don’t we have some numbers here!
This time John doesn’t see but he does hear. It is announced that there are 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. Then it goes on to say there are 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes in Israel.
This is where we hear many different interpretations. A number of these relate this back to the physical nation of Israel, as though there will be a type of restoration of a geographical country in the end times. But that takes it away from what we have just seen in the verses above.
So how can the sealed in verse 4 be described as 144,000 Israelites? Very simply! If we are God’s servants, we have been sealed.
If we are then told there are 144,000 of us, when we know very well there are millions of us, this figure is yet another symbolic figure in the book of Revelation. The number twelve is a key symbolic number found throughout Scripture. And this means that twelve times twelve making one hundred and forty-four is super symbolic! There is completeness – a fulfilment – we see here.
And, then, if we find ourselves described as 144,000 Israelites, when most of us are Gentiles, we know this is about the new Israel. This is why the Church of Christ in Luke 22:30 and James 1:1 is described as the twelve tribes. In 1st Peter 1:1 it is called the dispersion.
And let’s note other connections between the old and new covenants. Paul says in Romans 2:29 that the Christian is the true Jew; the Christians in Titus 2:14 are God’s peculiar people; the Christian in Galatians 3:29 is Abraham’s seed; the Christian in Philippians 3:3 is the circumcision; and the Christian in Galatians 6:16 is the Israel of God. Further on in Revelation we see the New Jerusalem as the Christian’s home in Revelation 21. This is the New Jerusalem that has the names of the twelve tribes on its gates.
This also helps us to understand why there are tribal names missing from this list and why one on there shouldn’t be on there. You see, an ancient scribe didn’t get things mixed up when he was copying the manuscript. The Lord preserved in the order we have for a reason.
Levi is mentioned, and in an Old Testament list it wouldn’t be, because it has no inheritance in the land in order to serve in the Temple and teach throughout the countryside. And both the tribes of Dan and Ephraim are missing.
So, why? What’s happened? It all comes down to faithfulness.
In regards to Dan and Ephraim we have the worst two tribes. Ephraim led the civil war which divided the twelve tribes into ten in the north and two in the south. Ephraim and Dan together led Israel into idolatry.
The tribes that are mentioned are the faithful remnant. You cannot take this literally but rather symbolically. Just like it is Judah named first instead of Reuben, who was the oldest son. And the reason for this is obvious. Christ belonged to the tribe of Judah.
But above this all we see that the various irregularities of this list don’t affect the interpretation of these verses. The 144,000 are faithful believers about to enter the period of final testing. These represent all of the elect!
And this is where we fit in. We aren’t in glory yet. The saints haven’t marched through the gates of the New Jerusalem just yet. Indeed, we are right in the thick of things down here below. The beast and his henchmen are in full out battle with those in Christ’s army.
It is the most fierce battle. And it is not being fought with the physical weapons this world knows only too well. Rather it is a great spiritual struggle.
But we have been sealed. By faith in the doing and dying of Jesus Christ we are right with the Lord God through his Son.
John Bunyan in his book, Pilgrim’s Progress, pictures this vividly. There he pictures the life of a man called Christian through all the challenges in living the life of Christ as he follows the call heavenward. It’s no surprise the full title of Bunyan’s book is, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which is to Come.
That story centres upon Christian’s journey from his hometown, the “city of Destruction” – this world – to the “Celestial City” – that which is to come. In this journey there are many challenges and frustrations and desertions and struggles and temptations and persecutions, until he crosses over to Paradise.
Tell me, is that your life? Is your life a constant battle? Are you at war with the evil constantly around you and within you? Do you realise that without looking to the Lord in prayer and through his Word you’re lost? Are you in that number?
“Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call, oh, when the trumpet sounds its call; oh Lord I want to be in that number, when the saints go marching in." May you indeed be among those following right behind our Lord and Saviour – Jesus Christ. It’s not long now, and he will welcome you home.
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray...
O Lord God, how much don’t we want to be in that number! Yes, we always looking towards when we will cross over to that which is above.
But, in the meantime, you still have work for us here below. Help us to so live for you guided by your Word, through the power and illumination of your Spirit. In the name of the Living Word, Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
The source for this sermon was: www.rcnz.org.nz
(c) Copyright 2023, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
Please direct any comments to the Webmaster
