These shoeboxes, packed with much love and prayer, will be shipped out quite literally to the ends of the earth. In the past we have had shoeboxes, that we have packed, to the Philippines, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Cameroon and many other places. Where these are going, I do not know but the effect and impact of these boxes are not to be underestimated. Jesus said:
Matthew 24:14 This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Why is that? What will be the result of the gospel preached to whole world and to all the nations? John, in his vision of heaven, saw what will take place in heaven one day soon and that is the subject of our focal passage today. You see that what these shoeboxes will have a part in is this: bringing the Gospel to the whole world.
Revelation 7:9–12
There are only 4 words common to all languages: Amen, Alleluia, Okay, and Coca-Cola. The one I want to focus on, amen, is a word we all know and say regularly, regardless of what language we speak. It is the most universal of all words. Listen to someone pray in German, Korean, French, Portuguese or Spanish, and they’ll end their prayer with “Amen.” But what does it mean? Amen is a word that is mostly untranslated in our Bibles. One reason is that the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint/LXX) didn’t translate the Hebrew. Instead of using the Greek equivalent word “genoito,” meaning “let it be”, or “so be it. So the NT writers did likewise and used Greek letters to form the (transliterated) Hebrew word, “amhn.”.[1]
In the book of John, Jesus used the Greek transliterated word “amen” at the beginning of His sayings, often in the Gospel of John He would say “Amen, Amen,” which would be often translated in our English Bibles as “Truly Truly,” or “Verily Verily.”
Looking at our focal passage today, we have the scene around the throne and around the Lamb were the multitudes clothed in white (more on them in a minute) and along with them where the angels and 24 elders and the four living creatures. And what were they, the angels, elders, and living creatures saying?
Revelation 7:12 saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Notice how they began and ended with Amen. Often when I state a biblical truth, a godly truth, many of you would respond with a “Amen!” It is the same here. The angels, elders and living creatures were giving an “amen” (or "so be it") to what the multitudes were saying, and they were in full agreement. Now who were these multitudes and what were they saying? First let’s look at the multitudes.
Revelation 7:9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands;
Earlier in chapter 7, we read about 144,000 that are sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel. These are not them. Whereas the 144,000 are on the earth and from all tribes of Israel, these multitudes are in heaven. Let’s look further at these people standing around the throne. John was asked who these people were.
Revelation 7:13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?”
Who are they and where did they come from indeed. John is overwhelmed by it all. He just doesn’t know. The question was asked to explain, not to see what John knew, for it is clear this elder knew.
Revelation 7:14 I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Remember John is being shown these events and he is not given information on when these things will take place. As far as John is concern, this all was happening in his present and near future. The church in Johns day was experiencing great persecution. The Greek tense for “come out” indicates they have come out and are presently coming out. The great tribulation could come at any time. There are those today that are losing their families and their very lives today by beheading and torture. Try and tell them they are not going through a great tribulation.
Those coming out of the great tribulation here certainly include all that have gone before. But what is important here is the washing of their robes, more on this in a moment. But we are commanded to preach and present the gospel to all nations.
Mark 16:15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Those who hear and respond to the gospel are the descendants of Abraham. God promised Abraham that his descendants with be like the stars in the sky and the dust of the earth.
Genesis 13:16 I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.
This verse is just one of many times God makes this promise to Abraham. As Christians, we can consider ourselves descendants of Abraham.
Galatians 3:29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.
The same with the multitudes before the throne. These are the heirs according to the promise of God to Abraham some 4,000 years ago. Now note this, they are (Revelation 7:9) “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.” They are from all over the world. Some will be part of this group because we sent these shoeboxes.
According to the statistics from Samaritan’s Purse, on average, one person comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus for every three boxes sent. We are sending approximately 660 boxes this year, that represents around 220 people who will be saved over the course of time as these boxes are actually distributed in distant lands. There will be those standing before the throne and before the Lamb because someone cared enough to pack a shoebox.
The throne here is the very throne of God and the Lamb is Jesus. And in the presence of God, they are “clothed in white robes,” which represents purity and righteousness.
The reason their clothes are white is not because they necessarily lived lives of total holiness and purity, but because the blood of the lamb, the sacrificial Passover-like death of Jesus himself, has rescued them from slavery to sin, making them able at once to stand in the very presence of the living God. [2]
It is all about Jesus. Jesus had done all that is required. Earlier in Revelation 5, we read of the song the 24 elders sang:
Revelation 5:9–10 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
Not because of anything we have done, but because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross, we and others who are saved will be able to stand before the throne dressed in white robes.
Back to Revelation 7:14 “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” 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.
Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. [3]
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. We have been washed clean, from the filth of sin, by the blood of Jesus. 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.[4]
And then we read in Revelation 7:9: “And palm branches were in their hands.” This brings up images of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. They are celebrating victory and deliverance. According to William Barclay:
“The deliverance which He (Jesus) 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.” [5]
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, and worn,
but is seen as victorious. Victory in Jesus! (Good title for a hymn!) What are they, the multitude stand around the throne, shouting and singing? Listen to the praises of those standing before the throne. And hear what they are saying. And this is what the angels and the 24 elders and the four living creature were saying “amen” to:
Revelation 7:10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
“Salvation to our God” – other translations say Salvation belongs to our God … and to the Lamb. Salvation does not belong to us. But we benefit from it. We are the recipients of that salvation. We have been bought with a price:
1 Peter 1:18–19 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
When we realize the full significance of all this, and I’m not sure we will until we are before the throne in heaven and in the presence of the absolute Holy, we will not be able to help ourselves but to fall down on our faces and worship.
Revelation 7:11 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,
What an overwhelming thing to experience. And the angels, elders and living creatures give an amen to what the multitude had shouted out, and they add:
Revelation 7:12 saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and 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 all of creation needs to be giving glory to God.
Revelation 5:13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
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 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has 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.
We will never experience a worship experience on earth like we will experience in heaven. It will take all eternity to proclaim the praise, glory and honor due to God and Lamb for the salvation God Almighty possess of which we benefit. God wants to give that salvation to all.
2 Peter 3:9b … but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
Will you be part of the un-numbered multitude praising God? Who will you be telling about the praises of God?
[1] From the sermon “Amen” by Robert Leroe found at www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/amen-robert-leroe-sermon-on-worship-purpose-72007.asp?page=0
[2] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone, For Everyone Bible Study Guides (London; Louisville, KY: SPCK; Westminster John Knox, 2011), 75.
[3] Hymn: "Jesus Paid it All," words by Elvina M. Hall
[4] Paige Patterson, Revelation, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 39, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2012), 203.
[5] William Barclay, ed., The Revelation of John, vol. 2, The Daily Study Bible Series (Philadelphia: The Westminster John Knox Press, 1976), 27.
