Rev 7 Sealed

David Johnson

Revelation • Sermon • Submitted 18 days ago • Presented 21 days ago

0 ratings

· 1 view

Notes

Transcript

I-Intro:

When I was 14 years old and had just come to follow Jesus I started out to read the whole Bible.

It was ambitious but I had thought…Ok if God revealed himself to me just reading the sermon on the mount then what else could be in here?

I actually vividly remember reading the book of Ezekiel for the first time…It was like my imagination was stirred…

See early on in my experience with God, when I was a little kid, we went to a church where the pastor had a moral failure…

And this haunted me because in my little kid mind, pastors should be perfect! Pastors should be like the voice of morality!

So early in my life I learned that people who look religious sometimes are not very religious at all…

And later when I was 14…I had come to know Jesus and accept him as my savior and then for some reason I read the book of Ezekiel…

Now here is what is happening in Ezekiel

God is showing Ezekiel…I’m going to judge my own people by the hands of Babylon…Israel is going to be ransacked…And this is my judgment on Israel for worshiping other gods…

Now, Ezekiel is a guy who has been training his whole life to be a priest in the temple…And really on the eve of him turning 30 the official age that you can start…Babylon came and carted him off to exile…But right before this happens God gives him a series of visions

I always remember chapters 8-9 in Ezekiel because they have such vivid imagery

Chapter 8 is God showing Ezekiel what is happening in the temple…He has Ezekiel dig through the wall and he sees 70 elders worshiping images of bugs and idols

and then another 25 men worshiping the sun

And its almost like…See Ezekiel…I am saving you from this religious hypocrisy. And when I was a kid…wounded by church leadership at an early age…It was huge for me…Because it was like WOW…God does care about the religious leaders…He does hold them accountable!

Then chapter 9 happens and it is of particular interest to what we are going to look at today:

Ezekiel 9:4–6 ESV

And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house.

I remember reading this for the first time…Thinking of that pastor who had a moral failure thinking…Because God said…Begin in my sanctuary…Begin in my house!

God doesn’t save you because of your profession, He doesn’t save you because of how religious you look

He saved a remnant of his people who were devastated by what the state of worship had become

He saved a remnant of people who were faithful to him And it was the religious professionals that were killed…

And the way he saved them? Was to put a mark on their foreheads…And death would passover them…

Just like the first passover…Those who listened to Moses would put a mark of blood on their doorpost to show their faithfulness to God.

So we just finished reading chapter 6 of Revelation and there were terrible scenes of death and destruction because of the wrath of the lamb

We saw how people were running to the hills and calling on the mountains and the rocks to crush them rather than putting their faith in the Lamb…

And John asks the question at the end…

Who can stand?

Just like in Ezekiel’s day the question was who will be able to stand God’s judgment?

So today as we get into chapter 7 of the book of Revelation this answers the question of who does stand…And it looks a lot like Ezekiel 9

Turn with me to Revelation 7

Revelation 7 ESV

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 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.” 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, 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 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 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.”

So, in the book of Revelation we should never ask, what happens next, we should ask, what does John see next…This kind of all happens simultaneously with everything else…And in the next couple of weeks I am going to show you a bit of a timeline of revelation because it doesn't all happen in a linier way

So first, John sees these 4 angels at the 4 corners of the earth..

Now the ancient world kind of both knew that the world was flat and round, in literature it was portrayed as flat…so these 4 angels are sort of seen holding back the winds…

It is a way of saying that these 4 angels are holding back the destruction that is to come…

Last year we had those three strong thunderstorms at the beginning of the year where all the trees went down…Here at our church we had to remove trees because of those storms and we didn’t want a tree falling on our building…just those winds were destructive…But could you imagine if winds from every side blew at the same time?

And these angels are told don’t harm anything because God’s people need to be sealed

Do you hear the echos of Ezekiel?

And again…The story of Ezekiel finds its roots in Exodus

During the Passover meal the people of Israel were to Concentrate their firstborn males, why?

1. Israel is considered God’s firstborn…

2. God just saved all of the firstborn males because of the Passover ceremony, while all of the Egyptians firstborns died

So get the imagery here with me because it is important:

During the Passover meal, all of Israel is sitting around a lamb…

And they are to set apart or make holy their firstborn son because God saved them and then look what Exodus 13:9 says about this

Exodus 13:9 ESV

And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.

Do you get what God is doing here…He is reminding the people of Israel that you will forever be marked by this event!

That you will forever have to center your lives around and be formed by the lamb..

This idea of being “sealed” by God did not start in Revelation, it is everywhere in the Bible…Exodus 13, Ezekiel 9….

And then John all of the sudden hears something

Revelation 7:3–4 ESV

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:

So what’s amazing about this list is that it is actually missing a tribe…The tribe of Dan is not mentioned…Why, because the tribe was believed to be so sinful that the Jews at the time believed that the antichrist would come from Dan’s tribe

So John Purifies the list…Dan is replaced with the son of Joseph…

And also, people make a big deal about the 144,000…They want to know who exactly these people are…can I be a part of the 144,000?

But the reality is that numbers in the book of revelation are Symbols and not Statistics!

So 144,000 is

12x12x1,000

It’s John’s way of saying who is there, who is marked for redemption?

The number 1,000 is what the Greek mind would call a great multitude. And we know that in the greek mind at this time, saying the number 10,000 was almost like saying Infinity…

So 12x12x1000 is a reminder of the infinite grace of God

So who is sealed for redemption? Who is sealed for salvation? A great multitude, greater than we could ever count…

The complete people of God!

And get this, because it is important…

Just as in chapter 1 where John hears a trumpet and turns to see Jesus and in Chapter 5 a Lion in announced and John turns and sees a lamb

He heard Israel…he heard the tribes…but he turned and saw the church

Revelation 7:9–11 ESV

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,

So John turns to look at what has been announced…and he sees a great multitude of the people of God…dressed in white robes holding palm branches praising God…He looks for Israel and sees the church..

See He had just mentioned the 12 tribes but now he says all tribes…He hears Israel but then sees the church, God’s grace made available to all people, all nations, all ethnicities unified in the lamb!

Some commentators have said that these are different groups of people but I’d argue that they are actually the same people…

That these are the people of the church…these are the people who have their lives centered on the lamb…they are the 12 tribes, the 12 disciples times a great multitude 1,000! An uncountable group of people!

And is says that these people are getting sealed…Marked for redemption…

It would remind us of a singlet ring that royalty had to seal documents…one that carried with it a mark of identity!

It would literally be the same seal that God used to seal the heavenly scroll that the lamb was opening

I am convinced that this scripture is reminding the church, that

When your life is centered in the lamb then you are sealed for redemption!

You are covered

Again, I am convinced that revelation preaches believing loyalty for salvation...

So last week we asked the question..>Who can stand? Those who have marked their lives with Jesus!

Just like the Exodus, centered around the table at the Passover meal is the lamb and the central imagery there is who will your life be marked by?

Will your life be centered around pharaoh or around the lamb?…Just like Ezekiel…Will your life be marked by worshiping false gods or mourning over injustice?

In revelation, what does everyone talk about? 666, the mark of the Beast!

And we are so formed by movies that we take that and interpret scripture with it…But in a few weeks when we get there, I think you’ll see that the mark of the beast is just a parody of this seal…of what happened first in Rev 7 the seal of God

You can go on YouTube and be entertained for hours by mark of the beast videos…

But it is simply a

…it is a cheap knockoff of the seal of God…

And so what is this seal? Lets get specific

2 Corinthians 1:21–22 ESV

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

A seals is a mark of ownership and identity

When our identity is built on Christ, He will help us stand firm

Craftsman often have a seal that they put on their work…Jesus Establishes his ownership over us by giving us his sprit that enables us to reflect him.

Ephesians 1:13–14 (ESV)

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Did you catch that? When you believed, you were marked with a seal! And what is that seal? The Holy Spirit, God himself!

Ephesians 4:30 ESV

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Do you get this? God himself is our seal. The presence of God with you is your mark…all others are a cheap knock off!

Marking people goes back to page 1 of the bible

After Cain killed Able…He knew he was a deadman…And so God marked him as an act of grace…so that no one would harm him

the Israelites Marked their flesh in circumcision

Just as in the Passover festival you mark your entire household by the blood of the lamb…

Ezekiel marks the faithful….Its everywhere in the Bible

Believing in Jesus and being shaped by him, we are marked for salvation

But I love this…Later in revelation, John goes into more depth about what this seal says

Revelation 14:1 ESV

Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

So He is saying that this mark is actually a name and it’s the name of the Jesus and the father written on the forehead…

This is a first century way of referencing character!

When Jesus looked out at this great multitude…he saw a people who looked like him!

Being sealed in Jesus means that we take on his character

He saw a people who allowed their life to be shaped by the lamb!

What is your life marked by?

Is your life marked by Jesus? Is the imprint of the lamb on you? do you have his character?

Or are you marked by the politic of the empire?

I think we all need to ask this question

Who are we most shaped by?

why?

Because it determines, who will stand! When God’s Judgment stands…those who are shaped by him will stand with him

Revelation 7:13–14 ESV

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.

The great Tribulation:

Some of us will have to unlearn some of the things that we have learned

I know many of you might read this and go immediately to a timeline for tribulation

This phrase was probably brought into our culture the most with the left behind books.

But what is John talking about here?

It’s clear in the book of revelation that John sees the “great tribulation” starting when Jesus came to earth…

Why…One of the major themes of the gospel that we all have to understand is that Jesus didn’t just come to die for our sins…

He came, died and rose again so we can be made into new creations

So we can be remade into his creation! And this is a turbulent process…

So if you want a timeline for tribulation here it is .It is both Now and not yet

When has there not been tribulation for christians around the earth? It just has always existed…But is there coming a great day of tribulation? Yes

I think and I am convinced that the “great tribulation” has a lot to do with Romans 8…

Because what Romans 8 is preaching is that the new creation has to come and the old creation has to pass away…and that is a painful experience…

It says all of creation is groaning for the kind of people who have the new creation in them! If you follow the lamb…that is you!

Remember the main point of revelation is Jesus opening this scroll that will bring about once and for all this new creation

And Jesus taught us what this new creation would look like when he told parables about the kingdom…

It would be like a mustard seed that is so small and so insignificant that no one would notice and it would eventually grow into a huger plant that couldn’t be ignored and spread like wildfire

Or that it would be like yeast that would work its way into the dough and eventually take this lump of dough to a loaf of bread

The new creation comes with tribulation…its not easy

Now get this because it is so important…

When Israel had to come out of Pharaoh’s kingdom…It was painful….there were 40 years of walking through the dessert…

When Israel returned from captivity in Babylon they had to rebuild all of Israel…

When Jesus had to defeat death and raise from the dead it took his own life to do it…

We are so shaped by our consumer culture…that if you buy some product all of your problems will go away…That life will get easier…

Are you tossing and turning in your sleep? Buy our special pillow and sleep through the night! Act now and we will send another one for free!

We see this all the time that the church forgets that whenever God is doing something new, it takes time and there is pain involved…

So Act now, come to Jesus…get into heaven now…Get your best life now! No it doesn’t happen like this….

So come to Jesus, he will heal all of your diseases, he will wipe every tear he will be your good father he will give you a new character….Eventually!

Remember Jesus said it takes a death in order to come to him… A death to self so that the new creation can be born…

See Jesus calls us to be a new creation and that is work…We actually have to die to our old selves…

We nee to leave our past on the alter!

The idea that in coming to Jesus everything is instantly different sounds more like an infomercial than reality!

When I first came to Jesus I had a foul mouth…and in an instant I was changed! NO, not at all, it took a couple of years of slipping and changing my pattern and taking thought captive…

There is work involved in following Jesus

and it is turbulent…

But for the believers living in Rome at the time that revelation was written, it would have felt like a Great tribulation was upon them!

For Christians during the protestant reformation, it would have felt like the great tribulation was on them

For Christians living in Russia during the cold war…It would have seemed like the great tribulation was there

For Middle eastern Christians living during the rise of ISIS…That was a great tribulation

For African Christians whose neighbors are Bokah Harram, it would feel like the great tribulation

For Chinese christians and North Korean christians right now. They must feel like they are living in the midst of a great tribulation…

Following Jesus will always be a threat to power because it says your power is a sham and only the lamb has real power

But remember the question from the previous chapter is who can stand in this kind of tribulation?

The invitation is to stand in the midst of tribulation but it is not a promise for deliverance from it all

Did you notice in the verse we just read that the marked ones were coming out of the great tribulation? In other words they went through it, but they were able to stand for their faith

They were tortured and they didn’t deny him

How do we live in some of the tensions of the world? Because we are in this tribulation tension…Revelation wants to remind us that there is an empire…vs the lamb

But you who follow Jesus, You are marked by the lamb!

We are all stuck in this time where the old kingdom dies and the new kingdom comes

We are all in this great tribulation…

And in that we have to ask the question which side are we most marked by

When it all collapses, who will stand?

I love the way this chapter ends

Revelation 7:15–17 ESV

“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.”

This chapter ends with something

It reminds us that the lamb is actually the shepherd…for those of you who have Psalm 23 memorized…this is what that is referencing

The lamb who is on the center of the throne wants to mark you with himself! He wants you to be a part of his own life…

And I think the question that I have for you today is so simple it is crazy…

The scriptures say that for all who believe will be sealed by the holy spirit

Who is your life shaped by?

What has forever marked your life?

What is your life organized around?

Will you be able to stand in the multitude with God?

I also have an invitation for you today:

We have two people who have decided to stand and to get baptized today

These are people who have given their lives over to Jesus and are marked by the lamb…

I have never done this before in the 20 years I have been in ministry but the Lord prompted me this week to open up baptism to anyone who wanted it …

Baptism is an outward sign of an inward reality

That Jesus is your Lord and savior…

Baptism publically declares this

And not only that, in the book of acts its where we see the Holy Spirit falling on people.

So if your here is you have this little heart fluttering thing whenever I bring up baptism…you need to drive home wet today!