revelation: unveiling reality “do christians escape the...

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Revelation: Unveiling Reality “Do Christians Escape the Great Tribulation?” Revelation 7 Kevin Haah

May 29, 2016

Turn on Timer!

[Slide 1] We are in a middle of a series entitled, “Revelation: Unveiling

Reality.” The Greek word that is translated as revelation is the word Apocalypse which

means unveiling. Revelation was written to show people who were persecuted and

people who are going through hard times that reality is more than what we see with their

eyes—that things are not as they seem. Seeing this unveiled reality helps us to be faithful

during hard times.

[Slide 2] Today’s sermon is entitled, “Do Christians Escape the Great

Tribulation?”

In chapter 4, John was led to a vision of the throne room of heaven, with four

living creatures who represent the natural order, and 24 elders who represent the church

worshipping God Almighty. In chapter 5, John sees a scroll in the right hand of the God

with seven seals. This scroll contains the plan of how God will make things right, how

God will bring the Kingdom of Heaven down to earth and eradicate all injustice,

suffering, war, violence, poverty, illness, suffering, and even death.

John heard that the messiah, the Lion of Judah, could open the seals. John

expects to see a roaring lion, but, when he looks, he sees a slain little baby lamb, the utter

opposite of what he expected. This is the mother of all plot twists. The little lamb can

open the scroll because he gave his life away in sacrificial love for everyone. The power

of love is greater than the power of coercion.

And this Jesus, the lamb, is on the throne. And all creation, everything in the

universe, in heaven and earth, is worshipping the lamb. Worthy is the lamb who was

slain! He is able to open the seals of the scroll, to bring the Kingdom of Heaven down to

earth.

Then, in chapter 6, the lamb opens the seals of the scroll. The opening of the first

four seals coincides with coming of the four horsemen of apocalypse: conquest, war,

economic injustice, famine, and death. When the Kingdom of God comes, it presses in

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on the world, and there is resistance and opposition resulting in misery and terror. In

many ways, this explains the reality of the world now.

When the fifth seal is open, the martyrs who died while maintaining their witness

cry out to the Lord: How long, Sovereign Lord? How long will you tolerate this

resistance to the way of the lamb? They were told to wait a little while longer.

Then, the lamb opened the sixth seal. What happened is a gruesome image of a

cataclysmic event--sun turning black, moon turning blood red, and stars falling to earth.

It’s not literal. It is a poetic image of a very real cataclysmic event. Opening of the scroll

is the coming of the presence of the holy God. The pressure on this world is coming to a

cataclysmic point. The holiness of God is not compatible with the ways of the world, and

the cosmos is starting to crack at its foundation.

When the holy presence of God comes near, people get so scared that they run

away into caves and cry out, “the great day of their wrath has come (remember wrath is

of God is really the righteous judgment of God), and who can withstand it?”

Chapter 7 answers that question: who can withstand it? It is one of the most

comforting chapters in Revelation. God seals those who have been redeemed by the

blood of the lamb. God protects and enables believers to be faithful even through the

tribulation; but they have to face it and go through the tribulation. There is no promise of

escape. But, there is a promise that they are protected and enabled to withstand it.

Now, before we read about that, let me pause here and address a related issue.

Some people believe that before Jesus comes back, all followers of Jesus Christ will be

raptured. They will essentially disappear from earth and be with Christ. After that, some

of them believe that the world will face this great tribulation; so, believers don’t go

through this great tribulation. Some of them argue that God would never allow his

children to go through tribulation. Sometimes, this perspective is called “pre-trib

rapture.”

[Slide 3] Is that really biblical? Is rapture biblical?

Did you know that rapture is not in Revelation? There is no discussion of

anything like that. I know that some of you are surprised. Instead, Revelation gives us a

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different picture than the idea of rapture. Before I tell you what it says, I want to examine

the claims of those who believe in the rapture. There are only two passages that have

been used to support rapture.

[Slide 4] Let’s go to Luke 17:34-37 34 I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and

the other left. 35 Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

37 “Where, Lord?” they asked. He replied, “Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather.”

Throughout Christian history, this passage was interpreted to mean that the person

who was taken away is not taken to a good place but to a terrible place. That’s why when

the disciples asked Jesus where they are taken to, Jesus said “where there is a dead

body”—meaning it is not a good place. It is a place of vultures gathering.

Then for the first time, this passage got associated with 1 Thessalonians 4. And it

got associated with the idea of rapture. No Christian that we know of have ever espoused

this view until around 1830 when a theologian named Darby proposed this view. It

caught on in Europe in the 19th Century but most people in the United States thought this

teaching was very strange. But, in the 20th Century, this viewpoint became very

popularized by songs like “You’ve been left behind” by Larry Norman and the fictional

series, “the Left Behind Series” by Tim LaHaye. I remember watch a movie about this at

church when I was in high school and getting freaked out.

[Slide 5] Let’s look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17: 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

(keep the verses up on the screen) The word translated as “caught up” is this Greek word:

“harpozo” and the Latin equivalent to this word is rapare, and that’s where we get the

term rapture. But, Darby misunderstood the meaning of the word, harpozo. The word

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harpozo is meant to describe how a leading citizen of a town will go out of town to meet

with an important dignitary and escort them into town. [Slide 6] F.F. Bruce, one of the

great biblical scholars of our time, notes:

When a dignitary paid an official visit to a city in Hellenistic times, the action of the leading citizens in going out to meet him and escort him back on the final stage of his journey was called the harpozo. So Cicero, describing Julius Caesar’s progress through Italy in 49 B.C., says, “Just imagine what harpozo he is receiving from the towns, what honors are paid to him!” and five years later he says much the same about Caesar’s adopted son Octavian: “The municipalities are showing the boy remarkable favor.… Wonderful harpozo and encouragement!”

This word is also used in the parable in Matt 25:6 where the brides go out to meet the

groom late at night, and the groom and the bride comes to the bride’s village, and also in

Acts 28:15 when Christians in Rome meet with Paul outside of Rome and walk to Rome

together with him.

The point is that we are not caught up in the cloud in a rapture to go away to

heaven while everyone else suffers and goes through tribulations. When the rapture

happens, the believers are harpozoed up in the cloud to meet him in the air to welcome

him back to earth. That’s what 1 Thessalonian passage is telling us. Other than these

two passages, there is nothing in the Bible that can be construed as saying that we will be

raptured.

Rather, the Bible, including Revelation, tells us that God is coming down to

establish a new heaven and new earth, meaning that God will restore earth. There are

literally tons of passages in the Bible about the end time, and all of them point to the final

destination as the earth. The final destination is not somewhere up in the clouds.

Now, why is this important?

This escapist theology actually affects the way we think about our present life

now. If we think that our destiny is somewhere up there and we are going to get raptured

up to avoid the mess and the pain of this world, we have no reason to care for this world.

It’s going to go the hell in the hand-basket anyway. Why should I try to make this world

a better place?

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The material world matters to God. It’s why He created it! Martin Luther was

asked what he’d do today if he knew that Christ was going to return tomorrow. He said,

“I’d plant a tree.” He had his theology right. Why? In the Kingdom, things will grow

better and more beautiful than they are now. God is going to remove the curse upon

creation and the things that are beautiful now will become stunning when sin and curse is

removed from this world. The material world is important to a material Christ.

Why do we fight against poverty, disease, oppression, hunger, environmental

destruction? Because this world matters to God and therefore it matters to us. God is

restoring this world, and we should line up to participate in what he is doing.

Our job is to manifest the kingdom now! We are to be first fruit. We are to live

in a way that we are a window to the future. We are to live now to reflect the way that

the world will be in the future. God loves the world and creation and we are called to

reflect that love. We are called to be environmentalists. We are called to care for

animals. We are called to bring justice for everyone. We are called to reduce suffering.

We are called to do common good. This is a kingdom agenda. Thy kingdom come. Thy

will be done on earth as it is in heaven!

[Slide 7] Now, if we don’t get raptured and escape the great tribulation, does

that mean believers have to go through all that?

That’s what chapter 7 is about. [Slide 8] Now, let’s go to 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 to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”

Remember, we are in the middle of the lamb opening the seals. He opened the sixth seal,

which was cataclysmic, and now, this passage tells us what happens to the believers. The

four angels standing at the four corners of the earth are holding back the judgment of God

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until an angel puts a seal on the believers. We will talk more about what this seal is later,

but this passage tells us that the believers are somehow protected.

[Slide 9] 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

5 From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, 6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, [Slide 10] 7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, 8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

Now, the Jehovah’s Witness says that this is literally 144,000--that only 144,000 are

saved. Again, numbers mean something in Revelation. 144,000 is 12 times 12,000. 12

is the number of the tribes of Israel. It is also a number that means “completion” when it

comes to the people of God. So, 12,000 is a way of saying a big number, and 144,000,

12 times 12,000, it is a way of saying a huge number. Do you remember when Peter

asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother? He offered up to 7 times.

Jesus answered, not 7 times, but 7 times 7. That means a big number, and if you multiply

that by 1000, it means huge countless number.

So, here, John heard 144,000, but (let’s go on)

[Slide 11] 9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

He heard 144,000 sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel, but he saw a countless number of

people from every nation, tribe, people, language, standing before the throne and before

the Lamb. The people of God are not just Jewish. They are from everywhere. It is made

up of blacks, whites, Latinos, Africans, Arabs, Armenians, Asians, Koreans, Filipinos,

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Israelis, Indians! It is a beautiful assembly of people from everywhere. Let’s go on:

[Slide 12] They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

[Slide 13] 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:

“Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”

Now, this scene looks like the believers who are sealed don’t have to go through the great

tribulation. I mean they are in the presence of God already! Let’s go on:

[Slide 14] 13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

14 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. 15 Therefore,

[Slide 15] “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.

16 ‘Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.

[Slide 16] The sun will not beat down on them,’ nor any scorching heat.

17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;

‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’ v ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

Those who are sealed are wearing white robes. And one of the elders tell John that

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“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.”

So, those who are sealed have persevered through the great tribulation, and now,

they are in the presence of God. The Kingdom of Heaven has come down and they are

washed in the blood of the lamb and in the presence of God. This is a picture of what is

to come, but this passage does not say to those who received this letter from John that

they will be beamed up so that they don’t have to go through the great tribulation. It does

not say to us that we don’t have to go through hardship. It does not say that we will not

be persecuted. It says that they will go through the great tribulation.

Now, what is this great tribulation? The word for great is the Greek word

“megas” and the word for tribulation is the Greek word “thlipsis” which means pressure.

So, it means mega-pressure. Remember, the Kingdom of God is coming. It is mega-

pressing on the world. The world is resisting and opposing the coming of the Kingdom.

It is what we talked about in chapter 6, and it is what we will talk about in chapters 8-11.

Hell is breaking lose in the world. The believers are caught in the misery that the

opposition has created. Now, this tribulation is not just of the future. It has been going

on for a long time. And there is more to come, and at some point, there will a great

tribulation coming.

[Slide 17] BUT, what does it mean to be “sealed”?

Seal is a signet that indicates ownership. You put a seal on something you own to

mark that you own it. That means God is saying, you are mine. No one is going to

snatch you out of my hand, as Jesus said. Not even the great tribulation. Nothing can

separate us from the love of Christ, as Paul said.

No matter what we are going through, no one is going to snatch us out of God’s

hands. He’s got your back. Does that mean that you are going to stand strong and not

fall into temptation and sin? No. It means that the blood of Jesus is going to wash you

clean. Even when we fall, we get back and we continue to place our hope in Jesus. He is

our savior. He is our rescuer! No matter what we go through the seal means that we are

going to make it.

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The seal also has a second meaning. John wants the fellow persecuted brothers

and sisters who are going through the great tribulation to know that the seal empowers us

to prevail. The seal enables us to be faithful. The idea of being seals was known in the

church already. Paul used the term several times to refer to the Holy Spirit.

Paul said to the Ephesians (1:13b-14):

[Slide 18] When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

In Ephesians 4:30, Paul said:

[Slide 19] 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

In 2 Corinthians 1:22, Paul said:

[Slide 20] 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.

In each of the passages, the seal is associated with the Holy Spirit. You were marked

with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. You are sealed in the Holy Spirit. All three

passages tell us that the Holy Spirit is a deposit of the redemption that is to come, the

inheritance that is to come. So, the Holy Spirit gives us a foretaste of what is to come.

This is an incredible statement. We know that what is to come is glorious.

If you look at the content of the worship at the end of the chapter, it gives us a

glimpse of what is to come.

• There is worship of the Holy God. The Holy Spirit enables us to worship and

enter into the presence of God.

• There is racial reconciliation as people from every nation, tribe, people, and

language come together in unity.

• There is no more hunger or thirst. The Holy Spirit helps us eradicate world

hunger and water problem.

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• The lamb is our shepherd. When we feel lost, we can find guidance through the

Holy Spirit because the lamb is our shepherd. The way of the lamb is the way of

the Holy Spirit.

• There are no more tears. The Holy Spirit strengthens us even as we go through

hard time. And the Holy Spirit helps us reduce suffering in this world.

• He will lead us to the spring of living water. This is the ultimate spring, the

spring of living water. This is what we are all thirsty for. This is what we are all

looking for. And the Holy Spirit gives us the living water. The Holy Spirit gives

us the taste of the beauty that is to come, and as we behold this beauty, as we

behold this power, as we live by the Spirit, we are enabled to be faithful even

through the hardest of hard times.

• We are people who have been sealed by the Holy Spirit.

• God did not promise us to beam us out of the great tribulation, or any hardship.

He promised to be with us by sealing us with the Holy Spirit and empowering us

to go through it with joy and hope.

Have you been sealed? Have you been redeemed by the blood of the lamb and received

the Holy Spirit?

Let’s pray. Invite Prayer team.

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