There is a monastery in Portugal perched high on a 3,000 foot cliff and accessible only by a terrifying ride in a swaying basket. The basket is pulled on a single rope by several strong men, who perspire under the strain of the fully loaded basket.
Some time ago, an American tourist, who visited the site, got nervous about half way up when he noticed that the rope was old and frayed. Hoping to relieve his fear, he asked, “How often do you change the rope?”
The monk in charge replied, “Whenever it breaks!” Whoa! (Todd Catteau, www.sermoncentral.com/illustrations/sermon-illustration-todd-catteau-humor-confidence-70025.asp)
I think that’s the way some people view their journey to heaven, especially when times are tough. They feel like they’re on a swaying basket being pulled to heaven by an old and fraying rope, hoping it doesn’t break anytime soon. They’ve lost any sense of security, so they grit their teeth and hang on for dear life, afraid to take any risks for Jesus.
Maybe that’s how some of you feel this morning. If that’s the case, then you will be encouraged by the story of those who come to faith in Christ during the Great Tribulation.
They will face persecution like no believer has ever known it before. They will pay a great price to profess the name of Christ, and many will lose their lives for it. They will be under tremendous pressure to give up their faith and deny their Savior, and yet they will do just the opposite. They will be bold witnesses for the Lord. They will take unimaginable risks to spread His fame around the world. They will go all out, refusing to be paralyzed by fear.
The question is: Where will they find the security to do that? Where will they find the courage to stand for Christ? Where will they find the confidence to go all out for Him even during the Great Tribulation? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Revelation 7, Revelation 7, which tells us not only where THEY found their security, but where WE can find it as well.
Revelation 7:1 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. (ESV)
After the start of the Tribulation, God sends four of his angels to hold back the winds of judgment and destruction for a time. Why?
Revelation 7:2-3 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.” (ESV)
God wants to mark out His own. He wants to distinguish those who belong to Him before He judges the rest of the world.
Revelation 7:4-8 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. (ESV)
God seals 144,000 Jews. He puts His seal of ownership on them, and He secures them for safe delivery into His kingdom.
At the beginning of the Tribulation, after the rapture of the church, 144,000 Jews will look at each other and say, “Oh boy, did we make a big mistake!” All of a sudden, they will realize that they were wrong about Jesus. They will understand that He indeed is their Savior and Messiah, and they will put their trust in Him.
That’s when God will seal them. In other words, He will put his mark of ownership on them. He will mark them as His property, as His possession.
In Bible days, when a man sealed a document, he would drop a piece of wax on it, take off his own special signet ring, and press it into the wax. That showed that the document was uniquely his, that it belonged to him alone. But more than that, it secured the document for its intended destination, much like a registered letter does today.
Several years ago, when I was appealing an insurance company’s denial of coverage, I asked a lawyer friend for help. He had represented an insurance company in the past, so he knew what to say and what NOT to say to get the best results. He reviewed every letter I wrote to that insurance company; and when I got his approval, I sent them all “registered mail, return receipt requested.” It cost extra to send the letters that way, but when the post office put that special sticker on that letter, a seal (if you will), it was my guarantee that the letter would arrive at its intended destination.
Well, that’s what God does for 144,000 Jews during the Tribulation. He puts a seal on them. He marks them as His own, and He guarantees their safe delivery through the tribulation into His Kingdom.
Flip over to Revelation 14, Revelation 14 and verse 1: “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 143,999…” Is that what your Bible says? No! “And with Him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”
Not a single one of them is missing. They are ALL standing with Jesus in heaven. NONE of them lost their salvation. Every single one that God sealed made it to heaven. Not a one was lost, not even during the great tribulation.
Think about it. If God can preserve all of His people during the Great Tribulation, don’t you think He can preserve all of His people today? He sure can, and He will! Because Ephesians 1 tells us that God seals every believer.
Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “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.”
God gives every believer His Holy Spirit, who is God’s seal, God’s mark of ownership, and God’s guarantee that we will arrive at our destination in Heaven. Please, if you’re not a believer, I urge you: put your trust in Christ, and…
FIND YOUR SECURITY IN HIM.
Find the courage to run the race that He has set before you. Find the confidence to live for Him.
Four years ago (2011), Sony Pictures produced a great baseball movie, called Moneyball. It begins with Oakland A’s general manager, Billy Beane, upset by his team's loss to the New York Yankees in the 2001 postseason. Beane also faces the impending departure of his star players, and the A’s limited player payroll makes it nearly impossible for him to put together a competitive team for 2002. Then during a visit to the Cleveland Indians, Beane meets Peter Brand, a young Yale economics graduate with radical ideas about how to assess players' value. Sensing opportunity, Beane hires Brand as the Oakland’s assistant general manager.
Ultimately during the 2002 season, the Athletics win an unprecedented 20 consecutive games, setting the American League record. However, despite all their success, the A's lose in the first round of the postseason.
As Beane sits alone in the clubhouse, Brand attempts to convince him that he has “won pretty big,” but Beane is unconvinced. So Brand invites Beane to the video room, where he has cued up a segment of tape for Beane to watch. It’s a clip about a player named Jeremy Brown, a catcher from their minor league baseball team, the Visalia Oaks. Take a look… (show Moneyball Jeremy Brown Clip)
Brand narrates as the clip plays: “The Visalia Oaks and our 240-pound catcher Jeremy Brown, who as you know, is scared to run to second base, this was in a game six weeks ago. This guy [the pitcher] is going to start him off with a fast ball. Jeremy's gonna take it to deep center. Here's what's really interesting, because Jeremy is gonna do what he never does—he's gonna go for it; he's gonna round first and he's gonna go for it. Okay!
“In the video, Jeremy rounds first and appears to be headed for second, only to stop and crawl back to the security of first base. He clings to first base like a frightened child clings to a teddy bear.
“This is all Jeremy's nightmares coming to life,” says Brand.
“Ah, they're laughing at him,” says Beane.
Brand says, “Jeremy's about to find out why; Jeremy's about to realize that the ball went 60-feet over the fence. He hit a home run, and he didn't even realize it.”
Beane stares at the screen as Jeremy finally discovers that the ball went out of the park and then jubilantly rounds the bases for home.
Beane smiles and asks, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
“It was a metaphor,” Brand responds.
“I know it was a metaphor,” replies Beane. (Moneyball, Sony Pictures, 2011, Directed by Bennett Miller, Chapter 16, 2:01:53 to 2:03:34; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn7C6jgl0RI)
It’s a metaphor not only about life, but about eternal life. My dear friends, Christ has already hit the home run that brings us home. Because of His death on the cross, God declares the believing sinner “righteous.” “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” Romans 8:1 says. So we don't have to live in fear anymore. We don’t have to keep on crawling back and clinging to first base. Instead, we can confidently move forward, crossing all the bases, as we make our way toward home.
When you know that (you know that you know) you’re going to heaven, there is nothing that can stop you. Tell me: Do you KNOW that you’re going to heaven? Are you absolutely sure?
Well, let me assure you: You can KNOW it today. You can be SURE of your eternal destiny this morning. You can be certain RIGHT NOW that you will make it to heaven when you die. All you have to do is trust Jesus Christ as your Savior. All you have to do believe in Him. 1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may KNOW that you have eternal life.”
Put your faith in Christ and KNOW that you have eternal life. Find your security in Him. More than that, put your faith in Christ and…
FIND YOUR SALVATION IN HIM, as well.
Find the joy of victory in the very presence of God himself.
Put your faith in Christ and be a winner. Be a champion, as the tribulation saints will be.
Revelation 7:9-10 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!” (ESV)
You see, not only will God seal 144,000 Jews during the Tribulation; He will save a great multitude of gentiles as well. People from every nation, tribe and language will put their trust in Christ as their Savior. And as a result, they will be God’s champions. They will be winners. They will be victors in the fight against the forces of evil.
When Rome’s armies came home from the battle victorious, they would wear white robes and wave palm branches just as we see the tribulation saints doing here in verse 9. On earth, they were defeated, or so it seemed. Revelation 6:9 says, they “had been slain for the word of God.” However in heaven, they are champions; they are winners. They return home as victors in the battle between good and evil, with all of heaven cheering them on.
Revelation 7:11-12 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.” (ESV)
All of heaven praises God for the victory these martyred saints won on earth. On earth they were cursed, but in heaven they become a cause for celebration. So it is with every believer in Jesus Christ. When it seems like we have lost on earth, in heaven we are counted as champions in the cause of Christ.
In November 1964, anarchy broke out in the Belgian Congo. Assemblies of God missionary J. W. Tucker knew he was at risk, but he stayed where God had placed him. One day, a mob attacked and killed him with sticks, clubs, fists, and broken bottles. They took his body, threw it in the back of a truck, drove a good distance, and then tossed his corpse to the crocodiles in the Bomokande River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
J. W. Tucker had risked everything, but it looked like he had nothing to show for it. Then 30 years later, John Weidman, a close friend of Tucker's, was in the country (by then known as Zaire), and he learned how God used that missionary's sacrifice.
The Bomokande River flows through the middle of the Mangbeto tribe, a people who were without any gospel witness. However, when civil war broke out, the Mangbeto king was distressed with the violence and appealed to the central government in Kinshasa for help. They responded by sending the Brigadier, a muscular policeman with a strong reputation. Tucker, the missionary, had led the Brigadier to faith in Christ just two months before he was killed.
Well, the Brigadier determined to bring peace to the Mangbetos the only way he knew how, and that is with the gospel. As a new Christian, he did his best to witness, but he there was no response. Then one day he heard of an ancient Mangbeto tradition that said: “If the blood of any man flows in the Bomokande River, you must listen to his message.”
So the Brigadier called for the king and all the village elders. They gathered in full assembly to hear his address. “Some time ago a man was killed, and his body was thrown into your Bomokande River,” the Brigadier began. “The crocodiles in this river ate him up. His blood flowed in your river. But before he died, he left me a message.
"This message concerns God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to this world to save people who were sinners. He died for the sins of the world; He died for my sins. I received this message, and it changed my life.” As the Brigadier preached, the Spirit of God descended and people began to fall on their knees and cry out to the Lord. Many were converted.
Since that day, thousands of Mangbetos have come to Christ and dozens of churches have opened as a result of the message from the man whose blood flowed in the Bomokande River. (George O. Wood, general secretary of the Assemblies of God; www.PreachingToday.com)
It seemed like he had been defeated, but God used his death to bring eternal life to thousands! My dear friends, we cannot lose! Even if they kill us, they cannot stop us; and when we’re cursed on earth, we become a cause for celebration in heaven.
Oh, if you haven’t done it already, put your faith in Christ and be a winner!
In addition, put your faith in Christ and be washed. Be cleansed from the guilt and shame of sin. That’s what will happen to the tribulation believers.
Revelation 7:13-14 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. (ESV)
That’s not only true of those who trust Christ during the Tribulation; that’s true of every believer today, as well. The Bible says, “The blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). Christ shed His blood on the cross for us! He died in our place so we wouldn’t have to. He took the punishment for our sin, so we could live with Him forever.
In Scotland, where they raise a lot of sheep, sometimes you’ll see a little lamb running around in the field with an extra fleece tied around its back. In fact, if you look closer, you’ll see little holes in the fleece for its four legs and a bigger hole for its head. That’s because its mother has died.
Now, if the shepherd tried to introduce that lamb without the extra fleece to another mother, that new mother would butt it away. She wouldn’t recognize the lamb’s scent, and she would reject it because it is not one of her own lambs.
Thankfully, most flocks in Scotland are large enough that there is usually another ewe that has recently lost a lamb. So the shepherd skins the dead lamb and makes its fleece into a covering for the orphaned lamb. Then he takes the orphaned lamb to the mother whose baby just died.
That way, when she sniffs the orphaned lamb, she smells the fleece of her own lamb. And instead of butting the lamb away, she accepts it as one of her own. (From Peter Grant's sermon, In What Way Is Jesus Christ Different? www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s a picture of what Christ did for us. He is the Lamb of God, who shed His blood for us. He died so that we could be clothed with His own righteousness. Now, God accepts us as His own, and we are forever His!
My dear friends, if you haven’t done it already, please, trust Christ as your Savior. Call upon Him today, and ask Him to save you from your sins. Then you too will be a winner. Then you too will be washed.
Then you too will be a worshipper of God in heaven. You will be celebrating with the angels of God forever. That’s what will happen to the tribulation believers.
Revelation 7:15-17 “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.” (ESV)
Can you imagine that? A lamb being a shepherd. But this is Jesus, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”
Do you know, in Bible days, it was a disgrace for a shepherd to lose even one sheep? But here, we see that Jesus, the Lamb, loses none of His sheep. He guides them ALL to the springs of living water. He guides them ALL to eternal life. He guides them ALL to the abundance of heaven, where he will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Think about it. If Jesus will lose none of His sheep during the terrible days of the Tribulation, then certainly He will lose none of us who trust Him today.
Like the tribulation believers, everyone who trusts Christ will be celebrating in heaven forever. In John 6, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:37-39).
That promise is for you. Put your trust in Christ, and find your security in Him. More than that, find a sure and certain salvation in Him, as well. Know TODAY that you are going to heaven when you die. Then you can live EVERY DAY for Him.
He was just a little fellow. His mother died when he was just a child. His father, in trying to be both mommy and daddy, had planned a picnic. The little boy had never been on a picnic, so they made their plans, fixed the lunch, and packed the car. Then it was time to go to bed, for the picnic was the next day.
He just couldn't sleep. He tossed and he turned, but the excitement got to him. Finally, he got out of bed, ran into the room where his father had already fallen asleep, and shook him. His father woke up and saw his son.
He said to him, "What are you doing up? What's the matter?"
The boy said, "I can't sleep."
The father asked, "Why can't you sleep?"
In answering, the boy said, "Daddy, I'm excited about tomorrow."
His father replied, "Well, Son, I'm sure you are, and it's going to be a great day, but it won't be great if we don't get some sleep. So why don't you just run down the hall, get back in bed, and get a good night's rest."
So the boy trudged off down the hall to his room and got in bed. Before long, sleep came – to the father, that is. But it wasn't long until the little boy was back. He was pushing and shoving his father, and his father opened his eyes. Harsh words almost blurted out until he saw the expression on the boy's face. The father asked, "What's the matter now?"
The boy said, "Daddy, I just want to thank you for tomorrow." (Benjamin Reaves, "Living Expectantly," Preaching Today, Tape No. 65; www.PreachingToday.com)
When we think about what our Heavenly Father has planned for us, we can’t help but say, “Daddy, I just want to thank you for tomorrow.” Thank Him today, not only by the words you say, but by the way you live your life.
