"these In White Robes--Who Are They?"

“These in White Robes—Who Are They?”

Revelation 7:9-17

Today I am continuing a four-week sermon series on the Book of Revelation.

Revelation is so named because that’s exactly what it is.

It’s a revelation which the Lord revealed to His apostle John.

It’s a letter of hope and encouragement for those who are being persecuted for their faith and for those who are wondering if good really will triumph over evil.

It was given to enable Christians to keep the faith in the midst of so much that was pushing back on that faith.

It introduces us to the new clarity, the new vision that Jesus’ Resurrection makes possible in our lives.

(pause)

Not long before He was murdered, Jesus was at the Temple when He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem…how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”

In our Scripture passage for this morning, we get a picture of Christ gathering His chicks safely under His wings.

And it took His precious blood in order to bring it about.

(pause)

I have hurt my wife this week by not thinking about her feelings.

I’ve passed judgment on folks.

I’m sure that at least one point this week, but probably a couple of hundred times, I made a choice to do something or not to do something based solely on my own desires and interests with no regard for what God’s will might be or the needs of others.

I could go on and on, and this is just me this week.

These are just some of my shortcomings, my mistakes, my sins.

You all can come up with a similar list or something quite different.

In the meantime, all around us are other people making mistakes, poor choices, and doing things that harm others.

Every day people are abused, children are abandoned or neglected, and innocent people die in the crossfires of violent wars across the seas and in their own neighborhoods.

Then when you add those things on top of the suffering caused by illness and natural disasters, things can get pretty bad can’t they?

Suffering, whether self-imposed or otherwise, is a basic fact of human existence.

What are you going through this morning?

Is there pain in your heart that is nearly unmanageable?

Has someone hurt you deeply?

Are you suffering from an illness, a disease?

Do you have a daily battle with depression or anxiety, or both?

Are you so disgusted by the daily shootings in the news, the continuing occurrence of senseless acts of violence that you feel there is little if any, hope?

Do you feel like you’ll never make it?

Are you weeping over the state of our world?

Sin and the evidence of sin bring darkness, which is so thick that even a knife won’t cut through.

And if we try to ignore it, well, we aren’t really doing much to change it or make things better.

Victor Frankl wrote in his book: “There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even in the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is meaning in one’s life.”

In other words, we can be a part of the problem, or we can be a part of the solution.

In our Lesson from Revelation Chapter 7, John shares his vision of “a great multitude” of people “that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne [of God] and before the Lamb.”

John tells us that “they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches,” which is a sign of victory.

“And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

“Then one of the elders asked me,” John continues, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?

I answered, ‘Sir you know.’

And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’”

It is evident to John that the great tribulation coexists with the mission of the Church, an insight shared for much of Church history.

Augustine, for instance, argued that the millennium—the reign of Christ referred to in Revelation Chapter 20:4—and the tribulation are an actual ongoing experience of the Church.

Today, though, there are many different ways in which folks understand the tribulation.

One apocalyptic model that has become popular in recent years is pretribulation millennialism,” which is, for example, behind the popular Left Behind book series that came out some twenty or so years ago.

In that interpretation, the great tribulation and Christ’s reign are something that will take place only in the future.