Today we are asking the question, Why must we all be focused on getting the Gospel out, not just here and around our nation, but to the ends of the earth? First of all, we are commanded.
Acts 1:8b (NKJV) ... you shall be witnesses to Me ...
The Command is clear – “You shall be witnesses to me.” And we will receive power to be that witness and we shall be that witness here at home and around the world. Also in Matthew, Jesus gives the Great Commission:
Matthew 28:19–20 (NKJV) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
The main command here is to "make disciples." Baptizing and teaching are participles in the Greek. This are the things we do in making disciples. A disciple is a student, always learning, always following. Notice the command is to "make disciples of all the nations." This brings us to our focal passage today. Why did Jesus command us to this? To take the gospel to the ends of the earth?
If you get nothing else out of this morning message, please do not miss this, it is all about giving glory, honor, thanksgiving, power and might to God. All the world needs to be called to sing His praises. We do it to bring all these things to Almighty God and to the Lamb, which is Jesus. It’s all about Jesus.
Revelation 7:9–12
Have you ever been in a large crowd, I mean, a really large crowd? Although I have been in some pretty big crowds, when I think about the giant crowd mentioned here in Revelation 7, I simply cannot fathom it! I can’t imagine seeing a crowd that is so large that it cannot be numbered. To look up some records for large crowds I Googled for a few statistics and visited the website for the Guiness World Book of Records for others. I discovered that:
The most people simultaneously slimed is 3026 and was achieved by Nickelodeon Australia at the annual Nickelodeon Slimefest in Sydney, NSW, Australia on 15 September, 2012.
The most people blowing bubbles simultaneously was 34,529 at 198 venues around the UK for an event organized by Flair Plc and Gazillion Bubbles (both UK) on 3 July 2007. (The British do like to gather for the strangest purposes!)
The largest crowd to watch a regular-season college football game was composed of the 113,090 fans who watched the University of Michigan and the Connecticut Huskies on September 4, 2010, at Michigan Stadium.
The largest number of visitors to a single department store in one day (and it’s not WALMART on a black Friday!!) is an estimated 1.07 million who shopped at the Nextage Shanghai, in Shanghai, China on December 20, 1995. (That number over the years have decreased due to online shopping).
All over the world, people gather in large crowds for many purposes, but as exciting as some of those gatherings might be, they all pale in comparison to the innumerable crowd of Revelation 7. I want you to try to envision this giant crowd of people in Heaven. Take a moment to try to imagine such a sight. People from every walk of life, every culture, every nationality -- so many people that they cannot be numbered. And then, notice the angels who join in on the praise and worship of Jesus Christ! WOW! Can you imagine what it would be like to be in the midst of that glorious worship service? [1] Any mega-church worship performance, or stadium filled crusade will pale in comparison.
Revelation 7:9 (NKJV) After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
Can you begin to see the importance of reaching the whole world? There will be someone from every people group, from every tribe, every language, standing before the throne of God. It is arguable that John was seeing all the saved of all history here. There are languages today that did not exist in John’s day. There are people groups and nations that did not exist. For that matter, there are people groups and languages no longer in existence today, that where present a thousand years ago. They will be represented too, before the throne. This verse tells us that all groups will be represented before the throne. There will be so many that one person could not count them all. This means all these groups have been reached with the gospel at some point in time.
Matthew 24:14 (NKJV) And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Going to the ends of the earth must be deliberate. How? Sending and supporting missionaries, sending shoeboxes will open doors for missionaries with the Gospel. What we are doing today to dedicate these shoeboxes is not to be underestimated. God will work wonders with what we send. There will be those standing before the throne and before the Lamb because someone cared enough to pack a shoebox.
Not only will they be standing before the Throne, they will be clothed with white robes, Clothed in white, means purity. They have made pure and clean, not by what they have done, but what the Lamb that was slain did for them.
Revelation 7:14b (NKJV)
.. and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
The author of the New American Commentary made this observation: In that expression the reader is introduced to one of the most salient insights to be found anywhere in the Word of the Lord. Few stains on light-colored clothing are any more difficult to remove than the stains left by blood. Yet here garments have been made white by having been soaked in the blood of the Lamb! In fact, “washed,” the word employed is an indication that cleansing is involved. Here, once again, is the theology of sacrifice and the theology of substitutionary atonement. In the mind of the author of the Apocalypse there is no doubt but that one’s ability to stand before God in purity is determined entirely on the basis of the shed blood of the Lamb and its application to the unholy and stained lives of those who come to the cross. Few more beautiful pictures could possibly be imagined than the remarkable contrast of men made pure through the sacrificial and substitutionary blood of the atonement of the Lamb. [2]
As a note, the first part of Rev 7:14 this whole verse indicates that these standing before the throne and the Lamb have come out of the Great Tribulation, meaning the quite terrible last 3 ½ years of the 7 year tribulation period where there will be persecution against Christians never seen before in the history of the earth. It will be a time when things look very dim for the faithful on earth.
There are many today that are suffering in such a way that it would be hard to convince them that they are not in the midst of the Great Tribulation. There are others that believe this is reverence to the persecution that the early Christians were suffering in the time of John. Regardless of who, here is the point not to be missed, they were standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Rev 7:9) “with palm branches in their hands.” Waving palm branches have long been the symbol of victory. Do you remember Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?
John 12:13 (NKJV) took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!”
The waving of Palm branches signifies there was victory. These that are before the throne and before the Lamb are overcomers. Jesus said in our present life there will be tribulation, but rejoice because He has overcome the world (John 16:33).
William Barclay, a well-known and noted Scottish commentator said: “The shout of the triumphant faithful ascribes salvation to God. It is God who has brought them through their trials and tribulations and distresses; and it is his glory which now they share. God is the great saviour, the great deliverer of his people. And the deliverance which he gives is not the deliverance of escape but the deliverance of conquest. It is not a deliverance which saves a man from trouble but one which brings him triumphantly through trouble. It does not make life easy, but it makes life great. It is not part of the Christian hope to look for a life in which a man is saved from all trouble and distress; the Christian hope is that a man in Christ can endure any kind of trouble and distress, and remain erect all through them, and come out to glory on the other side.” [3]
I want to take a moment and look at the promises Jesus made to those that overcome the world. He made these promises in His letter to the seven churches:
Revelation 2:7b (NKJV) To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” ’
Revelation 2:11b (NKJV) He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.
Revelation 2:17b (NKJV) To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.” ’
Revelation 2:26 (NKJV) And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—
Revelation 3:5 (NKJV) He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Revelation 3:12 (NKJV) He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
Revelation 3:21 (NKJV) To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
We are to encourage one-another with these promises and encourage fellow believers around the world. Becoming a Christ-follower can and will be full of discomforts, persecutions and trouble. But oh the rewards of overcoming. To be standing before the Throne of God and the Lamb, who is Jesus, clothed in His purity, shouting victory. These , the church, is not seen as weary, battered, worn, but is seen as victorious. Victory in Jesus. (Good title for a song!). What are they, the church, shouting and singing? Listen to the praises of those standing before the throne:
Revelation 7:10 (NKJV) and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Note some details: Salvation is not ours. Salvation belongs to God and God alone.
Psalm 3:8 (NKJV) Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is upon Your people.
Salvation is entirely of God and of the Lamb – Jesus. We are the benefactors of that salvation. We were bought with a price:
1 Peter 1:18–19 (NKJV) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
I do not believe we will fully appreciate that until we find ourselves standing before the Throne, when we see the Lamb that was slain, when we see the precious, pure, and holy.
When we see the blood that washes us clean so we will have pure white robes to wear, we will not be able to help ourselves and sing praises to Him. Victory in Jesus! The key is who will sing these praises now?
But that’s not all who is around the throne.
Revelation 7:11 (NKJV) All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
The Angels, the Elders, the living creatures all fell down and worship God. All creation will worship. But let me clue you in to a little detail. The angels cannot appreciate salvation like we can. They were never in a state to be saved from. That is why they do not sing about salvation. But here is what they do say:
Revelation 7:12 (NKJV) saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
This is the bottom line, all glory belongs to God. We reach out to those around us and to the world because of all need to be giving glory to God. Two chapter earlier we read in Revelation about all creation is to give glory to God.
Revelation 5:13 (NKJV) And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Paul tells the Philippians about all creation bending the knew:
Philippians 2:9–11 (NKJV) Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is the why of the command to go and make disciples and why we are to be witnesses to Jesus. Because all the world need to be singing His praises. A day is coming when all will be proclaiming His glory, the key is who will proclaim it now?
1 Peter 2:9 (NKJV) But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
That is what we need to do, proclaim His praises to the world. That is what we are doing with these shoeboxes this morning. These boxes will go out proclaiming His praises and his love to world that desperately needs to hear it.
Have you been called. Have you experience this love of God through Jesus? It is truly all about Him. We stand defeated in the world, but the Word tell us that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37).
Jesus calls us just as we are, because we cannot make ourselves clean or pure or right with Him. That is what He does. We are washed clean in His blood and with His love and power, we are transformed into victors over the world. Have you experienced His victory today?
[1] Borrowed heavily from www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/a-glimpse-at-a-glorious-crowd-paul-tuck-sermon-on-what-is-evangelism-42507?page=0
[2] Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 203.
[3] William Barclay, ed., The Revelation of John, vol. 2, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: The Westminster John Knox Press, 1976), 27.
