A man in business for himself enjoyed so much success, he had to move to a bigger place. The move was rather burdensome, but it was nice to have a larger warehouse and a bigger sales office. So on the day of the grand opening a friend sent him some flowers to celebrate.
However, the order got mixed up at the florist shop, and the businessman received a bouquet that was intended for a funeral. It came with a card which read, “My deepest sympathy during this time of sorrow.”
When the businessman’s friend found out, he immediately went to the florist to demand and explanation. The florist met him outside the shop and was obviously upset. He said, “I am terribly sorry about the mix-up with the flowers, but I hope you will understand. Your situation is not half as bad as the one down at the funeral home. The folks there received your flowers accompanied by the card which read: BEST WISHES IN YOUR NEW LOCATION.” (Bible Illustrator)
What a great card for the funeral of a believer! When we as believers die, we move from a cramped, difficult situation to much larger and nicer quarters. The move itself may be burdensome, but the new location is out of this world.
Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Even if we go through a lot of pain in this life, even if we go through some tribulation, it will be worth it all when we get to glory.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Revelation 14, Revelation 14, where we see a group of believers who will go through more pain and tribulation than any of us will ever experience in this life. In fact, they will go through the Great Tribulation itself; but on the other end, they will stand victorious with Jesus Himself and sing His praises. Look at it.
Revelation 14:1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb (i.e., Jesus), and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. (ESV)
The 144,000 here are the same 144,000 Jewish believers that were sealed in Revelation 7. There, before the trials of the Tribulation got too intense, God set aside 144,000 Jewish believers for Himself. He sealed them with a special mark on their foreheads. He wrote His own name there to show the world that they belonged to Him, and to protect them from the evil one.
Then, during the Great Tribulation, Satan does everything he can to make their lives miserable. He starves them to death, as we saw in the last chapter. He persecutes them, and he kills them.
He is able to mutilate their bodies, but he cannot touch their souls. For here they are, all of them, standing with Jesus. Not a one of them is lost, and that’s what happens to the redeemed in any age. We who know Jesus will stand victorious with him no matter what happens to us on this earth.
Dan Richardson, a radiant believer and a godly man, lost his battle with cancer. At least that’s the way it seemed from the earthly perspective, as his body wasted away and died.
But there is a whole different story form the heavenly perspective. Here is the piece that was distributed at his memorial service: Cancer is so limited… It cannot cripple love, It cannot shatter hope, It cannot corrode faith, It cannot eat away peace, It cannot destroy confidence, It cannot kill friendship, It cannot shut out memories, It cannot silence courage, It cannot invade the soul, It cannot reduce eternal life, It cannot quench the Spirit, It cannot lesson the power of the resurrection.
Romans 8 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:35-37).
We, who are the redeemed of the Lord, we, who are believers in Jesus Christ, we will stand victorious with Jesus in glory.
And we will sing with joy before the throne. That’s what the Tribulation saints will do. With a loud, booming voice, they will sing a new song in heaven. On earth, they sang a lament song of pain. But in heaven, they will sing a loud song of praise.
Revelation 14:2-3 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. (ESV)
It was uniquely their song. None of the angels could sing it, because none of them had experienced what they experienced; none of the angels had been “redeemed from the earth;” none of them had been purchased out of slavery.
Shortly after the Korean War, a Korean woman had an affair with an American soldier, and she got pregnant. He went back to the United States, and she never saw him again. She gave birth to a little girl, and this little girl looked different than the other Korean children. She had light-colored, curly hair. In that culture, children of mixed race were ostracized by the community. In fact, many women would kill their children because they didn't want them to face such rejection.
But this woman didn't do that. She tried to raise her little girl as best she could. For seven years she tried to do that, until the rejection was too much. She did something that probably nobody in this room could imagine ever doing. She abandoned her little girl to the streets.
This little girl was ruthlessly taunted by people. They called her the ugliest word in the Korean language, tooki, alien devil. It didn't take long for this little girl to draw conclusions about herself based on the way people treated her.
For two years she lived in the streets, until finally she made her way to an orphanage. One day, word came that a couple from America was going to adopt a little boy. All the children in the orphanage got excited, because at least one little boy was going to have hope. He was going to have a family. So this little girl spent the day cleaning up the little boys – giving them baths and combing their hair – and wondering which one would be adopted by the American couple.
The next day the couple came, and this is what the girl recalled: “It was like Goliath had come back to life. I saw the man with his huge hands lift up each and every baby. I knew he loved every one of them as if they were his own. I saw tears running down his face, and I knew if they could, they would have taken the whole lot home with them.
“He saw me out of the corner of his eye. Now let me tell you. I was nine years old, but I didn't even weigh 30 pounds. I was a scrawny thing. I had worms in my body. I had lice in my hair. I had boils all over me. I was full of scars. I was not a pretty sight. But the man came over to me, and he began rattling away something in English, and I looked up at him. Then he took this huge hand and laid it on my face. What was he saying? He was saying, ‘I want this child. This is the child for me.’” (Lee Strobel, "Meet the Jesus I Know," Preaching Today Audio #211)
That’s our story, spiritually! We were wasting away in sin, eaten up by the worms of self-indulgence and full of scars. But our Heavenly Father came along, laid His hand on our face and said, “I want this child. This child is for me.” Then he paid a high price to rescue us from our sin. He let His only Son suffer and die on a cross to pay the price of our redemption. Now we belong to Him – we who have put our trust in Christ.
1 Peter 1 says, “You were ransomed (or redeemed) from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
No angel in heaven has ever had that experience. No angel in heaven knows what it is like to be redeemed. No angel in heaven knows what’s it is like to be trapped by sin and then set free.
But we do – we who have trusted Christ. We have been redeemed. That means we will stand with Jesus in glory, and we will sing with joy a new song of redemption.
All because we are special to God. We are set-apart to Him, belonging to Jesus Christ and uniquely His.
Revelation 14:4a It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins.
That is, they are morally pure. They are not involved in sexual immorality. That’s the negative side of redemption. They have been set free from sin, but on the positive side…
Revelation 14:4b “It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes.”
They obey Christ. They imitate Him. You see, to be redeemed means to be set free from sin, so you can serve the Savior, so you can live for Him.
Revelation 14:4c “These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.”
Redeemed people are special people. They are “firstfruits for God and the Lamb,” verse 4 says.
Many years ago, I tried to plant a garden when we lived in Ellsworth. I’m not very good at gardening, so I ended up with just a few tomatoes, a couple of zucchini, and one watermelon. That was all.
I remember buying the watermelon seeds, thinking, “Oh boy, we’ll have plenty of juicy, sweet watermelons this summer.” I planted the seeds and waited eagerly for the first shoots to come through the ground. Then I watched as those shoots grew into vines – very long vines with lots of white blossoms.
Those blossoms eventually turned into little green balls. And as one of them began to grow, so did my anticipation. I checked on it every day. None of the others seemed to be doing too well, but that one just kept getting a little bigger every day.
Finally, the day came to pick it – that first watermelon! I went out to the garden, cut it off the vine, and brought it into the house. (Pretend to carry it like a small football). What did you expect, a 300-pound state-fair prize? With my skills, I was lucky to get a 3-pound watermelon. But I tell you, it was delicious. When I sliced into it, the juice ran, and that first bite was really sweet.
It was the only watermelon I picked that summer. I waited until the first frost in the fall for the other ones to get big enough to pick, but they never did. Only the firstfruit did. The rest were a big disappointment.
That’s the world in God’s eyes. Most people are a big disappointment to Him. But we who have been redeemed, we’re like firstfruits to Him, sweet and delicious, the very finest in all the world.
We are special to God not because of what WE have done, but because of what HE has done. We were sinners, enslaved to sin, but God rescued us from our sin. He took us immoral, disobedient liars and turned us into pure followers of Christ.
We, the redeemed, are special people, because God has made us spotless people. He has turned us sinners into saints.
Revelation 14:5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless.
Literally, they are without blemish or spot.
In 1463, members of the City Council of Florence, Italy decided they needed a monument to enhance their city. They commissioned a sculptor to carve a giant statue to stand in front of city hall. Someone suggested a biblical character wrought in the neoclassical style, an expression of beauty and strength.
They approached Agostino di Duccio, who agreed to their terms. Duccio went to the quarry near Carrara and marked off a 19-foot slab to be cut from the white marble. However, he had the slab cut too thin. When the block was removed, it fell, leaving a deep fracture down one side. The sculptor declared the stone useless and demanded another, but the city council refused. So the gleaming block of marble lay on its side for the next 38 years, a source of embarrassment for the whole city.
Then, in 1501, the council approached another citizen, the son of a local official, asking him if he would complete the ambitious project, using the broken slab. Fortunately for them, the young man was Michelangelo Buonarroti. He was 26 years old, filled with energy, skill, and imagination. Michelangelo locked himself inside the workshop behind the cathedral to chisel and polish away on the stone for three years.
When the work was finished, it took 49 men five days to bring it to rest before the city hall. Archways were torn down. Narrow streets were widened, and people from all across Europe came to see Michelangelo’s 14-foot statue – the now famous statue of David relaxing after defeating Goliath. Michelangelo had taken a massive, fractured waste of rock and turned it into a masterpiece! (Sam Whatley, Pondering the Journey, True Life Publishers, 2002, pp.17-18)
That’s what God does for those He redeems! That’s what God does for those who trust Christ as their Savior. He takes ruined lives and turns them into trophies of His grace. When we trust Christ as our Savior, He makes us special in His sight; He gives us a new song to sing; and He causes us to stand with Jesus victorious in glory. So I urge you, if you haven’t already…
TAKE YOUR STAND WITH THE REDEEMED.
Let yourself be counted with those whom God has purchased for Himself. Let yourself be counted with those whom God has rescued from Satan’s domain.
Trust Christ, who died in your place and rose again. Let Him deliver you from your sin, your immorality, and your deceit. Call upon Him, and ask Him to save you today. Please, before it is too late, take your stand with the redeemed. Otherwise, you will…
FALL WITH THE CONDEMNED.
You will be condemned for all eternity, tormented forever in a fiery hell.
That’s what the rest of Revelation 14 is all about. In verses 6-13, three angels announce judgment; and in verses 14-20, three angels carry it out. It is not a pretty picture. Look at verse 10, where it describes the fate of the unredeemed.
Revelation 14:10-11 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” (ESV)
This is what will happen to those who don’t trust Christ during the tribulation. This is what will happen to those who receive the mark of the beast. They will be condemned for all eternity, and that’s true of anyone who doesn’t trust Christ, even today.
John 3:18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
If you don’t put your trust in Christ, the Bible says, you are condemned already. Your sentence has already been passed. You’re on death row awaiting the lake of fire, which the Bible describes as the “second death” (Revelation 20:14).
Now, this is not one of the more comforting concepts in the Bible, but it’s the truth, and love demands that we warn people about the truth of rejecting Christ.
British evangelist, Rico Tice, in his book Honest Evangelism, talks about visiting a friend in Australia. Rico’s friend took him to a beach on Botany Bay, so Rico decided he had to go for a swim. He was just taking off his shirt when his friend said, “What are you doing.”
Rico said, “I'm going for a swim.”
“What about those signs?" his friend asked him. And he pointed to some signs Rico had not really noticed – Danger: Sharks!
Then with English pride, Rico said, “Don't be ridiculous – I’ll be fine.”
To which his friend said, “Listen mate, 200 Australians have died in shark attacks – you’ve got to decide whether those shark signs are there to save you or to ruin your fun. You're of age – you decide.”
Rico says, “I decided not to go for a swim.” (Rico Tice, Honest Evangelism, The Good Book Company, 2015; www. PreachingToday.com)
Jesus warns us about hell, not because He wants to ruin your fun, but because He wants to save you. The choice is yours. You’re of age – you decide. Please, decide to take your stand with the redeemed. Otherwise, you will fall with the condemned.
Michelangelo's final work was called Rondanini Pietà . It’s a piece on which he worked for ten years, but he ended up breaking the block. Giorgio Vasari, a contemporary of Michelangelo, said “[It] was full of impurities and so hard that sparks flew from under his chisel.” One of Michelangelo’s servants rescued the sculpture from the trash heap, and it survives to this day. When you look at it, you can see that it bears the marks of Michelangelo's chisel, but none of the beauty of his earlier works.
What happened? Well, Lorenzo Dominguez, another sculptor, talked about the dilemma and unpredictability of working with stone. He said, “The stone wants to be stone; the artist wants it to be art.”
That’s the dilemma we all face under our Great Creator’s hand. He wants to chisel us into the beautiful image of Christ, and the stone of our lives either submits to the chipping or it resists. If it submits, features of our Savior begin to emerge. If, however, it resists, and continues to resist, there will come a day when God will let the stone be stone.
C. S. Lewis put it this way. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “They will be done.” (Ken Gire, Shaped by the Cross, IVP Books, 2011, page 116; www.PreachingToday.com)
What’s it going to be for you? Are you going to let God have His way in your life? Or are you going to keep on resisting until God says to you, “Okay, have it your way”? The first way leads to life and beauty. The second way leads to death and eternal damnation.
I urge you: stop resisting the Lord. Instead, trust Him with your life. Depend on the One who died on the cross for you. Call on Him today: ask Him to save you from your sins, and ask Him to make you like His Son, Jesus. Then you too can look forward to a glorious and beautiful future, which will help you endure your tribulations today.
