Sermon

Introduction: If we look around at the world today and see war, persecution, sickness, unemployment, broken families and anxious hearts, we may well ask, “Does all this tribulation, all this hardship, mean anything? Where is God?” The truth is that the “tribulation” in your life and mine is being counted.

Two thousand years ago the apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos, a desolate quarry. By then he was already an old man. A lonely old man, watching the church suffer cruel persecution under the Roman Empire, watching many, many believers killed and many more Christians wavering in fear. It was in that darkness that God opened a door in heaven to old John. And what did old John see? Not the suffering of earth, but the eternal celebration of heaven. A vast crowd that no one could number, gathered together from every nation, tribe, people and language, robed in white, palm branches in their hands, worshipping at the top of their voices.

So we can see that our Christian hope is not “optimism” (blindly believing everything will turn out well), nor is it “pessimism” (despairingly believing everything will turn out badly). Our hope is built on the eschatology of the “already and not yet.” That is: we have already been saved, but we are not yet fully redeemed; we have already shared in the victory of the cross, but we have not yet entered the final rest. Revelation 7 is the climax of that “already and not yet” scroll: yes, the tribulation on earth is real, but the celebration in heaven is more real still. And this eternal celebration has already begun. Which means that everyone who holds on to faith in the middle of suffering today is already one of that crowd “that no one could number.”

From this passage we can see a clear structure, the journey from tribulation to the throne, and we will look at it in three parts:

1.  Every Nation Made One: Standing Victorious by the Blood of the Lamb (vv. 9–10)

2.  The Angels Fall Facedown: The Whole Universe Worships with One Voice (vv. 11–12)

3.  Rest at the End: God Himself Will Wipe Away Every Tear (vv. 13–17)

I.  Every Nation Made One: Standing Victorious by the Blood of the Lamb (vv. 9–10)

Verse 9 begins like this. Old John says, “After this I looked…” “After this” is a common transition word in Revelation. Earlier in this seventh chapter, in verses 1–8, we were told of the “144,000” Israelites who were sealed, and that sealing symbolises God’s protection of those who belong to him. The 144,000 is a “limited number”; it symbolises completeness (12 × 12 × 1,000) and it represents the people of God in the Old Testament, the twelve tribes. But then old John sees a picture larger than the 144,000 Israelites: a crowd “that no one could number.” This is the community of believers of every age, every place and every race. And it fulfils the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 22:17: “… make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore.”

What is more, this countless crowd is “from every nation, tribe, people, and language.” This expression is repeated five times over in Revelation (5:9; 7:9; 11:9; 13:7; 14:6). What old John is stressing is this: the vast crowd these people belong to has broken through every barrier of race, culture, language and national border. That is to say, in heaven there is no “Jew versus Gentile,” no “white versus black,” no “East versus West” — only one united worshipping people.

So the ultimate fruit of the gospel is not merely the individual’s “salvation of the soul”; it is a whole new human community that crosses every fence, every obstacle, every division. You could say that Revelation 7 is the final fulfilment of Ephesians 2, where we are told that Christ tore down the dividing wall and made the two into one. So, brothers and sisters, there should be no distance and no prejudice today between us and a Christian of another race, another culture or another class. For your identity and mine in heaven is already announcing it: that wall has fallen, it has been torn down.

There was a church some time ago with a refugee in it who had come to faith. He had fled a war and was living as a stranger in a foreign land. The war had taken his hometown, his property and his family, and had forced him into a country where he knew nobody and could not speak the language. But one day God declared to him through Revelation 7:9 that his real “citizenship” is not what his earthly passport stands for, but citizenship in the kingdom of heaven, gathered from “every nation, tribe, people, and language.” That brother was greatly comforted. And when he took the initiative to meet and have fellowship with Christians of other races in the local church, he shared that he felt God had given him an early taste of the “oneness” that is coming in heaven.

Coming back to the second half of verse 9, what are these countless people doing? They are “standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” Remember that in the Old Testament sinful people could not stand before a holy God, because God’s holiness would consume the sinner. But look: these people are standing there. Not lying face down, not running away, but standing. Which means their sin has already been cleansed. Their clothing says the same thing, for the text tells us these people are “robed in white.” In Revelation, white symbolises purity, victory and the glory of resurrection. And they did not bleach these robes themselves; as verse 14 says, they were “made white in the blood of the Lamb.” So this is a gift. It is the robe of Christ’s righteousness.

These people also have “palm branches in their hands.” In Jewish tradition the palm branch symbolises victory and joy (Leviticus 23:40; John 12:13). It is also the imagery of Israel’s Feast of Tabernacles. That feast celebrated God’s provision for them in the wilderness, and it foreshadowed the rejoicing of the last days. These people wave their palm branches, and “they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

Clearly “salvation” here is not the private business of “I have been saved”; it is that “salvation belongs to God.” God is the source and the owner of salvation. Do you see it? This great crowd is not saying “we have won.” They are saying, “God has won, the Lamb has won, and we have been included in his victory.”

II.  The Angels Fall Facedown: The Whole Universe Worships with One Voice (vv. 11–12)

Next, old John’s eyes move from this great crowd to “all the angels.” These angels are standing around the throne, the elders and the four living creatures. And what are these angels doing? Verse 11 tells us: they “fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God.” These angels are the highest of created beings, and yet here they are, humbly face down on the ground. They do not snatch at God’s glory. And that stands in the sharpest contrast to the pride of fallen humanity on earth. People are forever trying to “make themselves great”; the worship of heaven is about “making God great.”

Then in verse 12 we see that this worship and praise of the whole universe is a sevenfold praise: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength, be to our God forever and ever. Amen!” We know that “seven” is the number that stands for “completeness” in Revelation. That is to say, what the angels offer is complete worship. And every item on this sevenfold list of praise corresponds to some attribute of God:

Blessing: God is worthy of praise. Glory: the radiance of God’s very being. Wisdom: the perfection of God’s plan. Thanksgiving: the richness of God’s grace. Honor: the supremacy of God’s position. Power: the reality of God’s rule. Strength: the limitlessness of God’s might. And this sevenfold praise goes on “forever and ever.” That is to say, this worship is not a temporary emotional high, and it is not improvised on the spot; it is a state that continues into eternity.

I once served in music ministry alongside a married couple, and we would often meet together for fellowship. In talking with one another we found this. Sometimes, especially when we were not in a good place ourselves, we would grow anxious. And we would come away feeling that “after a whole service of worship I am exhausted, and I could not even sense God’s presence.” Later, when we studied Revelation 7:11–12 together, God let us see this: real worship is not about “how well I performed,” it is about “God’s glory being declared.” Once we saw that, we began to put down the anxiety over “whether I led it well.” We also saw that in our preparation we first need to fall facedown ourselves within the worship of heaven. So, brothers and sisters, our worship here every Lord’s Day is not something we come to perform; it is a worship already in progress in heaven that we come to join. And when we can really think of it that way, we will find real release; we will begin to enter into praise and worship of God and enjoy his eternal presence. And our worship, like the worship of those angels, will become part of the whole universe’s answer to its Creator.

III.  Rest at the End: God Himself Will Wipe Away Every Tear (vv. 13–17)

Then verse 13 says, “Then one of the elders asked me, ‘Who are these people robed in white, and where did they come from?’” This question is rather like the questions a teacher asks students in class. The teacher of course knows the answer; he asks in order to lead the students to think. The elder here of course knows the answer too, and he asks because he wants to lead John — and all of us readers down through the ages — to think more deeply.

And old John answers humbly, “Sir, you know” (v. 14a). Old John does not pretend that “I understand everything.” He admits, “Lord, I do not know; you tell me.” So a truly mature Christian is someone who knows what he does not know. A spiritually proud person tends to say, “I know it all”; a spiritually humble person keeps saying, “Lord, you know.”

Then old John is given the first part of the answer: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation” (v. 14b). There are several different views on what “the great tribulation” means here, and let me mention them briefly:

Historical persecution: the suffering Christians have borne from the first century until now, a persecution that has not stopped even in our own day.

The great distress at the end of the age: the great trial before Christ returns (Matthew 24:21).

The tribulation of every believer’s whole life: Acts 14:22, for example, says, “It is necessary to go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”

But the key here is this: these people have “come out of the great tribulation.” That is, they have already been through it, they have already overcome. So tribulation is not the end point; God’s throne is the end point. This is that “already and not yet” we keep coming back to: these people are “coming out of the great tribulation,” while we on earth are still in “the great tribulation.” But the vision of heaven assures us that one day we too will “come out of the great tribulation.” This is not “escaping reality”; it is “facing today’s reality carrying the victory of the future.” The famous French writer and Nobel laureate in literature, Romain Rolland, said something close to this: “There is only one heroism in the world: to see the world as it is, and to love it.”

That was the first part of the elder’s answer to the apostle John: “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.” And the second part of the answer says, “They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” This is the most crucial line in the passage. As I mentioned briefly earlier, the white robes of this countless crowd were not woven white by themselves, and were not bleached white by themselves; they were washed white in the blood of the Lamb. How can blood “wash something white”? Surely that is against all common sense. Blood normally stains a garment red. But on the spiritual level we know this: the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

Years ago I read an interview in Christianity Today. It told of a sister who, in giving her testimony, spoke of having had an abortion, and of how for many years afterwards she was bound by a crushing sense of guilt. She always felt, “I am unclean; I am not fit to worship; I am not fit to come before God.” Then Revelation 7:14 opened her eyes and said to her, “Your white robe, your cleanness, is not something you keep yourself and not something you manufacture by your own effort; it was washed white in the blood of the Lamb. The precious blood of Jesus is enough to cleanse the sin of your abortion, and enough to cleanse every past that you feel is ‘unclean.’” So by the grace of God she was able to come with confidence and receive that cleansing, and then to pass the same grace on to others struggling in the same way.

So Revelation 7:14 tells us again: the blood of Christ has washed us and cleansed us once for all, for ever, and with full effect. That is to say, we are not “washed all over again every time we fall”; we already stand in the position of having been cleansed. So we need never again be bound by shame or chased by self-reproach. We simply need to repent and come again before God. And our repentance is for the restoring of intimacy with God; it is not so that we can be justified all over again.

Straight after that, verse 15 says, “For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple.” Because these people have been cleansed, they can serve God in God’s presence. “Day and night” means continually, and without ever growing tired. It is true that service on earth can sometimes leave us weary; but the service of heaven is complete joy, and even “day and night” without stopping we are still full of strength. Why? The answer is in the next verse.

“The one seated on the throne will shelter them” (v. 15b). In the Old Testament God once dwelt among the Israelites in the tabernacle. In the New Testament, John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And this verse today tells us more still: in heaven God will himself spread his tabernacle over his people and shelter them. Then there will be no separation between God and us any longer, because he will be completely present with us.

Verse 16 then describes what it will be like in that day: “They will no longer hunger; they will no longer thirst; the sun will no longer strike them, nor will any scorching heat.” This is in fact the fulfilment of Isaiah 49:10 in the Old Testament. In that day the sufferings of earth, whether hunger, thirst, or the scorching heat of persecution, will all be past.

More than that, verse 17 goes further and says, “For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne will shepherd them; he will guide them to springs of the waters of life.” This is one of the most beautiful paradoxes in Revelation. A lamb is normally the one shepherded by a shepherd, but this Lamb is himself the Shepherd, and he will shepherd them, those who belong to him. Jesus had already said, back in John 10:11, that he is “the good shepherd,” and now in heaven he goes on shepherding his flock.

And this good Shepherd will also lead his people to “springs of the waters of life.” This is the ultimate fulfilment of the garden of Eden in Genesis 2:10, of the rock in the wilderness in Exodus 17:6, and of Jesus’ promise in the Gospels (John 4:14; 7:37–38). No more thirst, only life that never stops flowing.

And finally, God will himself stoop down and with his own hand wipe away every tear (v. 17b). Notice this carefully: it does not say “there will be no more tears”; it says “God will wipe away every tear.” Every one of our tears was truly there, and God himself will come and comfort us. Our tribulation is real, our pain is real, but God’s comfort is real too, and it is the final word.

There was once a father who lost his beloved seventeen-year-old son, killed instantly in a car accident. Three years on, this father was still living in agony. Every time he thought of his son he wept. Every time his church spoke of Revelation’s promise that “God will wipe away every tear,” he struggled inside. He thought, “So are my tears not being wiped away now?” But God kept shining light on him through Revelation 7:17, telling him that it is not that God will not wipe away his tears now, but that the final and complete wiping away is before the throne of God. This does not deny that father’s present grief. Grief and pain are natural and normal. But this promise of God gave him an end point. It helped him stop going round and round in despair, and walk instead further along the road that leads to God’s throne. He can keep walking with his tears, until one day those nail-pierced hands themselves wipe away every one of them, and “Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more” (Revelation 21:4).

A month ago, at the 10th Chinese Congress on World Evangelization in Malaysia, I had the chance to have some fellowship and conversation with some fine pastors from mainland China. One of them, a pastor of a heavily persecuted church, told us that his members are constantly being arrested and their church buildings closed. When they gather, there are often tears and fear. But Revelation 7:9–17 is a passage they read aloud again and again. Through it God encourages them: “I have not counted you among the ‘closed churches’; I have counted you among the crowd ‘that no one could number.’ Your tribulation is not the end point; my throne is the end point.” That pastor shared that the brothers and sisters in their church often use a palm branch as a sign, waving it whenever they gather, to declare that the victory of Christ will in the end overcome every tribulation and persecution on earth.

Brothers and sisters, where is your “palm branch”? Today you may be right in the middle of a “great tribulation” of your own. Perhaps it is not “great persecution,” but it may be an illness that keeps you awake at night; a broken relationship; a child who has disappointed you and broken your heart; a job that has crushed you; a loneliness you cannot shake off; or a suffering that has made you doubt your faith.

Brothers and sisters, through this passage in Revelation 7 God is speaking to our hearts again today. He is helping us to see:

1. We are not alone. Your tribulation and mine is, in its very nature, the shared experience of the whole church and of the whole community of faith. You and I are not forgotten individual cases; you and I are part of that great cloud of witnesses.

2. We have already been cleansed. Not because of our good behaviour, but because of the blood of the Lamb. Today, at this very moment, you and I are already “robed in white” before God. We do not need to keep working to “earn” God’s acceptance and redemption. You and I already stand before God’s throne, to come and share in that worship and praise which the whole universe offers God with one voice.

3. Our ending is already settled. Your tears and mine are not forever; your hunger and mine is not forever; your pain and mine is not forever. The Lamb of God will shepherd us and lead us to springs of the waters of life, and with his own hand he will wipe away our tears. And this is our final rest, because today we can live carrying that certainty, even if today we are still weeping.

Perhaps as you hear this message today you are saying in your heart, “I understand all the teaching, but I am still in pain; I am still in the tribulation, and I simply cannot ‘come out’ of it.” Brothers and sisters, God does not deny your pain. On the contrary, God himself entered human pain: on the cross Jesus went through that ultimate “suffering.” He was rejected; he was shamed; he was killed. Jesus knows what “great tribulation” tastes like. But he rose from the dead, which is to say that he “came out” of the tribulation. And now he sits on the throne as the Lamb, still watching over us, still shepherding his people.

So you can bring your tears to him. Jesus will not say, “Stop crying.” He will say, “I have counted your tears, and one day I will wipe away every one of them.” And today, before that wiping away, Jesus has given you and me a promise: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Dear brothers and sisters, you and I are not walking towards darkness; you and I are walking from tribulation to the throne, towards that eternal celebration in heaven. Your name and mine have already been recorded among the crowd “that no one could number”; your name and mine have already been written in the book of life of that one people made from every nation.

Questions:

Facing the difficulties and tears in front of you now, what comfort does the passage’s promise that “God will wipe away every tear” bring you?

Facing members of the body whose background or views differ from yours, how should you live out the mutual acceptance of “every nation made one” that this passage describes?

Now that you know “the white robe is washed clean by the precious blood of the Lamb,” how will you put down self-reproach and performance anxiety, and worship God with confidence?