Sermon Tone Analysis

Hopefully you all remember last week that we talked about the sealing of the 144,000.

We looked at three different theories surrounding the identity of the 144,000; and you heard my humble opinion that these were a literal number of Jewish people that will be sealed during the Tribulation.

Can anybody remember why I think that this is a literal number of Jewish people?

It has to do with verses five through eight.

Yes, thank you.

I believe the number is literal because it specifically lists how many will come out of each tribe of the Jewish nation.

So in summary, last week’s passage dealt with the salvation of a great number of Jews.

Tonight’s passage, on the other hand, deals with the salvation of a great number of Gentiles.

To see what I’m talking about, please turn in your Bibles to Revelation seven, and we’ll be reading verses nine through seventeen.

Again, Revelation 7:9-17.

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.

And cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.’

And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, ‘Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.

Amen.’

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, ‘What are these which are arrayed in white robes?

And whence came they?’

And I said unto him, ‘Sir, thou knowest.’

And he said to me, ‘These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’”

Before we begin, let’s pray to the only One who is worthy of our prayers.

Tonight’s passage breaks down into three neat sections.

The first section is the activity of the saints in verses nine and ten.

The second section is the praise of the angels in verses eleven and twelve.

And the final section is the explanation from the elder in verses thirteen through seventeen.

Let’s look now at the first section.

Let’s read verse nine one more time.

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.”

Ok, a couple different things to notice about this verse.

The first thing is the number of people involved in this multitude.

How many people does it say are in this multitude?

Yes, a number so big that no man can number.

Now, is the number so big that God cannot number it?

No, and praise God it’s not!

God will not only know the exact number, but He will know the number of hairs on each one of their heads!

And you know, I was trying to think of how big of a number it would have to be for me to not know the number, but unfortunately, that number’s not very big!

Every Sunday morning, I try to keep an accurate count of how many people are here, but when we hit about thirty-five I start getting really confused; and some of you men that help count out there can attest to how difficult that task is.

But thankfully, that does not mean that there’s going to be somewhere between thirty and forty people in Heaven!

What we have here is a throng of people so large that it would be foolish to even try to guess.

We are talking about millions and millions of people here.

And notice who makes up this multitude.

It is the same descriptor that we saw a few weeks ago.

It is people from every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue.

And I hope you remember that we talked about how that means that there will be at least one representative from every people group on the planet in the Kingdom of God.

And you probably noticed that these people were all wearing white robes.

Now I know we’ve talked about this before, but what do their white robes signify?

Yes, their innocence before God, because of the blood of the Lamb.

The final thing I want you to notice about verse nine is at the end, where it says that they are holding palm branches in their hands.

Does this holding of palm branches ring any bells for anyone here?

That’s right, it reminds us of the Triumphal Entry when Jesus came into Jerusalem.

In that Triumphal Entry, the people thought that Jesus was coming as a conquering king; but instead, He came to die on the cross.

But this time, this massive throng is beginning a true Triumphal Entry; because this time, Jesus is coming back as the conquering King!

And can anyone remember what the people said that day as Jesus was riding into Jerusalem?

They said, “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Hosanna is a Hebrew word that basically means, “Please save us!”

But notice that this throng does not say “Please save us!”

Notice what the crowd says in verse ten.

“And cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.’

They do not say “please save us.”

Instead, they say, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne!”

When this verse says “salvation to our God,” we have to understand that as “Salvation belongs to our God.”

Salvation is from our God.

This massive throng is not praying that God will save them.

No, they are praising God, because they have already experienced the salvation from our God.

So just to recap verses nine and ten, these verses tell us of a humongous group of people who are having a perfected version of the Triumphal Entry.

They are ushering in Jesus, who this time is coming as the conquering King.

And instead of asking Jesus to save them, they are praising Him that He already has saved them.

Verses twelve and thirteen tell about the angels’ response to this praise.

These two verses read, “And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, ‘Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.

Amen.’”

Hopefully these two verses will jog your memory from something we looked at about a month ago.

Back in Revelation 5:11, 12, we have an almost identical praise from a throng of angels.

In both of these passages, there is said to be a massive number of angels worshipping around the throne.

Also, in both of these passages, the angels pour on seven specific praises to God.

In fact, there are only two small differences in the praises offered.

In Revelation 5, the Lamb is said to be worthy of riches, while in chapter seven God is said to be worthy of thanksgiving.

Also, chapter five says that the Lamb is worthy of strength, while chapter seven says might.

To the extent of my knowledge, I do not know of any significance in the differences in the two passages, because they are both showering on praises to God.

In this verse, the word “amen” serves as bookends around the seven praises.

Notice that the angels say “amen” before and after their praise of God.

Who can remember what the word “amen” means?

Thank you.

The word means “true!”

It is the angels’ way of validating their message by saying that everything they say about God is true.

Look at what happens after the angels finish their praises.

Look at verses thirteen and fourteen again.

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, ‘What are these which are arrayed in white robes?

And whence came they?’

And I said unto him, ‘Sir, thou knowest.’

And he said to me, ‘These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Essentially, one of the twenty-four elders asks John who the identity of this massive crowd is.

John correctly turns it around by saying that the elder knows.

The elder responds by telling John that these are the saints that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb.

Now, the challenge for us tonight is to try and figure out exactly who this crowd is.

What did the elder mean when he said that these were the saints that came out of great tribulation?

Well, like so many other things we’ve looked at in Revelation, there are different theories out there.

Thankfully, there are only two main theories for this question.

The first theory is that this crowd is the same crowd from chapter six, and that they represent all of the martyrs throughout the ages.

They are the saints that came out of great tribulation, meaning that they are the saints who went through considerable persecution.

That makes sense, doesn’t it?