The Great Crowd (Rev. 7:9-10)

This sermon was preached on 3/2/2013

Many of us are familiar with the concept of a big crowd; we have seen the great New Year gatherings in the big cities of the world or else we are aware of the crowds that attend great sporting occasions. No doubt several football matches occurred today that were watched by large crowds. But all these crowds can be numbered, unlike the vision here in Revelation 7. 

1. A message of comfort

The Book of Revelation was not written to Christians living in comfort, it was written to believers that were suffering for the faith. Even the author of the book, the apostle John, although now a very old man, was suffering for his faith, having been banished from the city of Ephesus to the prison island of Patmos. No doubt, as he looked around him at the many Christians who were sharing his exile, or as he recalled the Christians whom he had left behind in the big city of Ephesus, he would have realised that God’s people needed comfort. But what could he possibly do to give them such consolation? 

John could not do very much by himself, but fortunately there was someone else who was very concerned about those suffering people, and that was Jesus himself, although now living in heaven. He was aware that they needed assurance that he would win in the end. So he sent them, through John, a book full of word pictures that would show them the reality of life and of the certainty of their hope. 

There are many Christians today who suffer the same problems and need the same encouragement. It is interesting that the places where the church is growing are places marked by tyranny, famine, war, death and martyrdom. What can be said to them to give them hope? The same things that were said to the early church by Jesus when he urged his people to hold on, to keep on witnessing for him, and to anticipate the glorious experience that would yet be given to them in heaven.

At the moment, the church in our country is not experiencing such dreadful circumstances, although it did so in the past and may yet do so again. Instead we are on the sidelines, numerically small, and ignored by the vast majority in society. This is not a pleasant experience to have, and therefore we need comfort. What comfort can be given to us? The same encouragement that was given to his day by the apostle John when as the spokesman of Jesus he urged his readers to hold on, to keep on witnessing for their Master who had died for them and paid the penalty for their sins, and to anticipate the glorious experience that would yet be given to them personally in heaven. So it is a message of comfort.

2. A message of challenge

In addition to giving directions regarding obtaining comfort, the vision of Revelation 7 is also a message of challenge.

The description in chapter 7 is, in a sense, the answer to the question at the end of chapter 6, ‘Who can stand in the day of the wrath of the Lamb?’ In chapter 6, there is a list of awful events that occur frequently, although these events are depicted in symbolic language. We see tyranny, warfare, famine, death, persecution and the terror of the Day of Judgement. Apart from the last one we are very much aware that the other events occur all the time. Thinking about them can lead to a sense of oppression and a concern as to how one can survive such experiences. 

Even if we manage to avoid those five negative experiences, and people living in our comfortable society can do so, we all have to face up to the fact that in the future there will be a Day of Judgement. That day is not only for those whom society regards as bad. Instead it will involve everyone who ever lived, including you and I. And the Day of Judgement will not only involve our outward actions. In addition it will be an accurate assessment of our hearts. The real ‘us’ will be revealed at that time.

The fact is that all of us have thoughts and actions that embarrass us. What is important is what we will do about them because if we don’t do something about them God will on the Day of Judgement. He has warned us beforehand about what will take place. Our lives will be assessed and the warnings have been given. If we have not repented over our sins and trusted in Jesus as our Saviour we will face the awful prospect of divine, endless punishment.

The challenge is whether or not we will stand in the crowd depicted in Revelation 7. We can ask ourselves, ‘As John gazed on this vast number, did he see me there?’ John does not list the names here, but elsewhere in this book he tells us that there is a list – he calls it the book of life. Is your name recorded there? That is the message of challenge that comes from this vision of the great crowd.

3. A message about Christ

Last week, a great crowd gathered in Washington for the inauguration of President Obama. The size of the crowd told us about the importance of the president. In a far higher sense, the size of the crowd in Revelation tells us something about the importance of Jesus.

First, here we see the result of the great commission. We recall the occasion, described in Matthew 28, when Jesus sent his apostles out to evangelise the world. If we had been there, and were aware of the failure of these men only a few weeks before, how they had denied their Master, we would conclude that this occasion was a remarkable example of Jesus’ forgiveness but we would not expect very much to happen as a result. Yet these men were to turn the world upside down. They were also to be martyrs for the faith. They were also the forerunners of a vast number of others who would spread the faith down the ages. At any given time, the number of converts would appear small, but at the end of the day they will together result in a number that no person can count. The Great Commission will be effective. In Scotland, there were Christians in 1900, none of whom are alive today. But Jesus has ensured that there are other Christians today. None of us will be alive in 2100, but the Great Commission will still be fulfilled by those whom Jesus raises up to serve him. And here in Revelation 7 we see the results of the Great Commission of Jesus.

Second, we see the fulfilment of the prophecy in Isaiah 53 which says that the Messiah will see his seed and be satisfied. In that prophecy, the Messiah was isolated in his suffering, without human company, abandoned by all. Yet the prophet predicted that the suffering Messiah would see his seed. And where is this large crowd gathered? They are standing in front of Jesus and he for the first time sees his seed, those for whom he died, all together in his presence. When they look on his face, they will see from the expression of his eyes that he will be satisfied, that he will consider his sufferings to have been worthwhile.

Jesus longed for this day. Remember the occasion when he healed the centurion’s servant (Matt. 8:5-13). The soldier had revealed his faith when he said that Jesus could heal the man by a word where he was and did have to go to the house to see him. Jesus responded by commenting on the soldier’s faith, saying that it was superior to any he had found in Israel. And it seems as if speaking to that soldier caused Jesus to see the coming day when many would come from the east and from the west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the heavenly celebration.

On another occasion Jesus was teaching that he was the Good Shepherd (John 10). During his teaching, he said that he had other sheep that were not of the Jewish fold. They are the Gentiles that he must bring and form one flock over which he would be the shepherd. And here in Revelation 7 we discover that the flock is complete and Jesus their shepherd will lead them into the fountains of the water of life.

Third, this gathering is an answer to the prayer of Jesus for his people, recorded in John 17, when he asked the Father that they be allowed to behold his glory. This is what they are doing here, gazing and contemplating the glory [the beauty and the splendour] of the Saviour. His prayer will yet be answered and we will have this soul-satisfying experience of gazing at the glory of Jesus.

When this happens, we will realise the purpose for which we were made. God did not create us to be satisfied with earthly things, no matter their beauty and splendour. For example, when I was younger it was one of my ambitions to see the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I had seen pictures, but I wanted to see the real thing. About eight years ago, my wife and I went to see it and it truly is a tremendous sight. Yet I have not been back to it and I don’t suppose I will go there again. But I know that if I were to go there and look at it for a month, I would be bored, never mind to go and look at it for a lifetime. But we will gaze at the beauty and splendour of Jesus for ever, as he mediates to us all the resources of God and conveys into our eternal experience the fullness of God’s love, peace, joy, gentleness, etc. We will see it exhibited in Jesus and experience it transferred to us by Jesus. 

Truly the great crowd has a wonderful message about Jesus.

4. A message about the covenant

In this large crowd, we see the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham. We recall that God appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees. Ur was one the cities of the ancient world; for example it had two alphabets, which means that in that matter it was more advanced than we are, for we have only one alphabet. We are not surprised that God should convert a person in such a city; after all God does need to have people among the movers and shakers of life. No he doesn’t, and he showed this by sending Abraham away from Ur to a place he had no idea where. Then a decade or so later, he promised Abraham, now a hundred years old, that he would have innumerable descendants. Who are the children of Abraham? They are those who believe in Jesus Christ, who receive the blessings promised to Abraham. God said to Abraham that his seed would be like the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky as far as numbers would be concerned. And here they are, the big crowd, the number promised by God to Abraham so long ago.

5. A message about Christians

This passage also depicts for us the meaning of salvation when it says that we will wear white robes and wave palm branches. What do they signify?

First, it illustrates a public holiday, a festival occasion. There may be an allusion to the Feast of Tabernacles, that feast of joy that marked the climax of the Jewish year and anticipated the heavenly world. But it was also the case that the populace wore white robes and waved palm branches on public feast-days when they celebrated the generosity of their rulers. Heaven will be an eternal festival, the marriage supper of the Lamb, in which we will feast for ever on the limitless generosity of the Saviour.

Second, it illustrates a victory parade. When Roman generals returned in triumph from their military campaigns that ensured the security of the city, the populace would wear their white attire and palms of victory as they celebrated the conquering hero. And heaven will be an eternal celebration of the victory of Jesus over the powers of darkness as his followers forever revel in the fruits of his triumph. 

Third, it illustrates the fullness of adoption. It was the custom in Rome, when a child was old enough to appreciate what it meant to be the son of a Roman citizen, for that child to be given a white robe to wear. And if ever there will be a day when God’s people will appreciate what it means to be a child of God, as they stand on the threshold of entering the fullness of their inheritance, it will be then as they and their Elder Brother together enter the new heavens and the new earth of which they are the joint-heirs.

Fourth, it indicates that our place in heaven depends on the cleansing of the blood of the Lamb. We will have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. All our eternal blessedness will come because Jesus died on the cross of Calvary. How much we owe him!  

Lastly, are you in the crowd?