Revelations 7:1-5
Mercy
We are well into the tribulation by this time. So far, we have seen:
1. The relocation of John \\#Revelation 4:2\\.
2. After looking around heaven with John in chapter 5, a great
world war broke, followed by famine, death, and hell.
These kill 1/4 of the world’s population \\#Rev 6:1-8\\.
3. In \\#Rev 6:9-11\\, we see a great host of heaven’s
population gathered to worship and praise the Lord, and
although we are not for certain, I tend to think this is the
saved from all the ages past gathered to praise our holy God
and to watch Him exact His vengeance upon a sinful world.
4. Then in \\#Rev 6:12-17\\, we note that God’s judgment extends
beyond the population of the planet upward into the heavens
themselves, causing the sun to darken, the moon to turn to
blood, and the stars of heaven to fall to the earth.
According to Joel, these are the signs that the tribulation is in
full swing.
Joel 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens
and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of
smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and the
terrible day of the LORD come.
I do not know for certain but I have always thought that Joel was
speaking of events toward the beginning of the tribulation. If so,
he also speaks of a spiritual revival breaking out at that time for
he wrote:
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh;
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams, your young men
shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my
spirit.
Perhaps we are seeing the fulfillment of that prophesy here in
Revelation 7. Let’s consider some thoughts about this chapter.
I. Let’s consider time in Chapter 7.
A. \\#1\\ First of all, the judgments of the tribulation seem to
stop for a time.
1. This is another pause in what is happening. We had such a
pause back in chapters 4-5.
a. There we had the relocation of John which represents
the rapture of the church, but all of that chapter
and into chapter 5, our attention is then directed
to what is happening in heaven.
b. Now we have six seals loosed and then there is another
pause. God tells the angels which have power to hurt
the earth to "Hold up" for awhile.
2. I think they mean that God is taking care of business and
the earth can wait.
a. We labor under a mistaken notion that God reacts to
what we do on earth.
b. The truth is earth reacts to what God does in heaven!
c. When God says "Wait," "Stop," or "Start," earth obeys!
3. Even now as our world bows its back against God and
attempts to dethrone God, GOD IS IN CONTROL.
a. Man likes to think he had learned so much that he can
put God into His place, whatever he thinks that place
ought to be.
b. All man’s knowledge has done is to increase how angry
he can make God and to speed up how quickly he can
do it.
B. Considering time, we wonder how far into the tribulation we
are.
1. From \\#Daniel 9:27\\\, we understand that the tribulation
will last for 7 years (although there the 7 years is
called a week).
2. There are three main sets of judgments, 7 seals, 7
trumpets, and 7 vials. (\\#Rev 10:3\\, there are also
7 thunders.)
3. Does that mean that we have used up 1/3 to 1/4 of the
7 years?
a. In truth, we do not know.
b. The book of Revelation seems to give us an order of
events but not a rate at which the events will
happen.
c. For example, the war of Revelation 6 starts with a
spirit of conquering that goes forth and ends with
1/4 of the world dying, but we are not told how
quickly that happens.
d. If it is a conventional war, it might take a couple
of years for things to get that bad but if it is a
nuclear war, it might take only a few days, weeks, or
months.
4. All we can know for certain is that time is passing and
mankind is headed for the worst battles of his existence.
II. The Tools that God will use.
A. God is accomplishing His purpose. Here God stops the judgments
because He wants to mark one set of His tools, the 144,000
Jews.
B. Outside of the church, the 144,000 Jewish servants are the
most talked about servants of God in the Bible.
1. Religions have been started based on the 144,000.
2. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, a modern-day cult, was established
with the mistaken notion that they would be the 144,000.
a. They are cult. They teach that salvation comes
through works and belonging to their group.
b. Some do not know that the JW were started in the late
1800’s by a group who believed they were the 144,000.
c. They labored under the mistaken notion that when their
group grew to 144,000, Jesus would return.
d. Two sad realities:
(1) First, their group past that number years ago.
Sadly, today they number over 8 million and
Jesus has not come back.
(2) Second, they are not Jews! This cult was started
in America by Americans who gathered more
Americans into their number. While they are
world-wide today, they still are not Jewish.
C. The Bible makes it very clear that the 144,000 will be Jewish,
telling us that it will be comprised of 12,000 from each
tribe of Israel.
1. That is going to be tricky.
2. As far as we know, even most Jews today do now know what
tribe they are from.
3. You say, "How will God do that?" I do not know, but it
would not surprise me if the Jews are not already working
on it themselves!
4. In Israel today, the material to rebuild their temple has
been gathered, the instruments needed to operate their
temple have been made, the priests have been selected and
trained, even the type of animals needed for their
sacrifices are being gathered!
D. Regardless of whether the Jews are working on this or not, God
will know which tribe every Jew belongs to.
1. \\#3\\ God marks them in their forehead.
2. Is this a literal or symbolic mark? That is, will it be
one that people can see or only one that God can see?
3. We do not know, but we do know….
a. That the mark means ownership.
Rev 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on
the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and
four thousand, having his Father’s name written
in their foreheads.
b. That something like this was done once before.
(1) In the days of Ezekiel, God used the Babylonians
to judge Israel.
(2) As it began, we read:
Eze 9:4 And the LORD said unto him, Go through
the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of
the men that sigh and that cry for all the
abominations that be done in the midst thereof.
(3) As far as we know, that mark was not literal. It
was a mark that only God could see.
(4) What was its purpose? To remind the people that
God knew those who were His.
E. What is not symbolic is what the 144,000 do.
1. So what do they do?
2. We are not specifically told.
a. \\#Rev 7:9-17\\ We surmise from the remainder of the
chapter that they are evangelists, winning the lost.
b. While I believe that the great host praising God in
Revelation 6 are the saved of the past age, gathered
to Jesus in the rapture; I believe that these are
those won to Jesus during the tribulation, in large
part, by the witness of the 144,000.
(1) Why?
(2) \\#14\\ These are those "saved out of the great
tribulation"
(3) The great tribulation is a phrase most often used
to describe the last 3 1/2 of the tribulation.
(4) So I believe these are those WILL BE saved and
slain for Jesus during the tribulation.
(5) God is associating that group of martyrs with
this group of Jews.
(6) Why? I think because these 144,000 will share
the news of Jesus with the world.
3. The title of the message is "Mercy." Why?
a. Because even while God is judging the world for its
sin, He is calling lost souls to salvation and saved
souls to be witnesses!
(1) And what a great host will be saved!
(2) I do not believe you will see God issuing a
judgment where He did not first show MERCY!
b. \\#16\\ These will know suffering but through that
suffering, they will come to know the Savior!
c. If you are sitting here lost and thinking, "That will
be me! I will not get saved right now, but I will
later, when I see these things coming to pass."
(1) I would say, "Don’t count it."
(2) Why? Several reasons but one is that I can not
imagine someone coming to Jesus in judgment who
would not come to Him in grace.
(3) If you reject Jesus in grace, I am not even sure
God will let you come to Him in judgment:
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them
strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
(4) If you want Jesus, you had better come to Him
now!
F. \\#Rev 14:1-5\\ Concerning their end:
1. It appears that the 144,000 have NO divine protection.
It appears that they are literally WITH Jesus by
Revelation 14.
a. As I have already mentioned, we do not know how time
flows through this book, but I believe the middle of
the tribulation is chapter 12.
b. That puts the sealing of the 144,000 on the front end
of the tribulation and their deaths on the back end.
c. So these will have a specific, powerful, but short
ministry.
(1) I believe they will know their end before they
begin—yet they will serve anyway.
(2) That is the kind of Christians we are supposed
to be.
(3) How about you? As things on this planet heat up
are you going to cool down?
2. Notice the welcome they receive:
a. \\#2\\ Heaven’s band welcomes them. This may well be
where the notion of a hero’s welcome came from!
b. \\#3\\ They get their own song.
c. \\#1\\ They get to stand with Jesus on heavenly Mount
Sion.
d. \\#4\\ They have a special relationship with Jesus
(i.e. They follow Jesus where ever He goes.)
3. Notice their nature is described:
a. \\#3\\ They did not defile themselves. I think that
means with idolatry. They stayed faithful, even
though it cost them their lives.
b. \\#5\\ There was no guile or fault found in them.
They did not sin with their mouths of their actions.
4. \\#4\\ Notice their position in the martyred of the
tribulation.
a. They are the firstfruits.
b. Many more are going to follow.
Perhaps we think of these as being unusual servants for the Lord,
but it should not be so. This should be the stuff that every
Christian is made of.
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