Sermon Tone Analysis

*The 144,000*

 

*Intro.

*

This morning we are going to continue through our verse-by-verse study through the book of Revelation.

Chapter six from last week revealed the first six of seven seals opened on the scroll held by the slain Lamb.

One of the main proponents of a Jewish homeland in Palestine was Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the leading spokesman for organized Zionism in Britain.

Weizmann was a chemist who had developed a process to synthesize acetone via fermentation.

Acetone is required for the production of cordite, a powerful propellant explosive needed to fire ammunition without generating tell-tale smoke.

Germany had cornered supplies of calcium acetate, a major source of acetone.

Other pre-war processes in Britain were inadequate to meet the increased demand in the Great War, and a shortage of cordite would have severely hampered Britain's war effort.

Lloyd-George, then Minister for Munitions, was grateful to Weizmann and so supported his Zionist aspirations.

During the first meeting between Weizmann and Balfour in 1906, Balfour asked what payment Weizmann would accept for use of his process and was told, "There is only one thing I want: A national home for my people."

Balfour asked Weizmann why Palestine — and Palestine alone — should be the Zionist homeland.

"Anything else would be idolatry", Weizmann protested, adding: "Mr.

Balfour, supposing I was to offer you Paris instead of London, would you take it?"

"But Dr. Weizmann", Balfour retorted, "we have London", to which Weizmann rejoined, "That is true, but we had Jerusalem when London was a marsh."[2]

Weizmann eventually received both monetary compensation for his discovery and his place in history as first President of the state of Israel.

* This week we are in chapter seven, but we will not see the seventh seal yet.

* Instead, we will see God’s command to withhold the winds of judgment, the sealing of the 144,000, and we will get a glimpse into heaven at “the state of Christ’s ‘servants’ during the entire period of Tribulation.”

* *The Four Winds of Judgment* \\ Revelation 7:1-3 says, “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree.

2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God.

He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

\\ \\ The Seal \\ i. 1.

The Identification (7:1)

A.     The Answers Cults and Religions Give

a.       Jehovah’s Witnesses -

b.

The Mormons –

c.

The Seventh Day Adventist –

d.

The Amillenialist –

                                                                           i.

Believe the church cf.

7:4

                                                                         ii.

Twelve tribes represent Jews.

iii.

Carefully distinguished from 144,000 and the Gentiles in vrs 9.

e.

The Premillenialist

                                                                           i.

Literal interpretation

                                                                         ii.

Jews, sons of Israel (7:4), Implied from the contrast in (7:9)

                                                                        iii.

The 144,000 come from the twelve tribes of the house of Israel.

iv.

In scripture there are twenty nine times that the list giving those tribes is mentioned.

v.