Revelation 14:1
Let’s hear God’s word together,
starting at the first verse of Revelation 14. It says this,
then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with
him 144,000 who had his name and his father’s name written
on their foreheads. 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 harpist 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 the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed
from the earth. It is these who have not defiled
themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who
follow the lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from
mankind as firstfruits for God and the lamb, and in their mouth
no lie was found, for they are blameless. Then I saw another
angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim
to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language,
and people, And he said with a loud voice, fear God and give
him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship
him who made heaven and earth the sea and the springs of water.
Another angel, a second followed saying, fallen, fallen is Babylon
the great. She who made all the nations
drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality. And
another angel, a third followed them saying with a loud voice,
if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a
mark on his forehead, or on his hand, 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. Here is
a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments
of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven
saying, write this, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord
from now on. Blessed indeed says the spirit
that they may rest from their labors for their deeds follow
them. Then I looked and behold a white cloud and seated on the
cloud, one like a son of man with a golden crown on his head
and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of
the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud,
put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for
the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So he who sat on the cloud
swung his sickle across the earth and the earth was reaped. Then
another angel came out of the temple in heaven and he too had
a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from
the altar. the angel who has authority over the fire. And
he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle,
put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of
the earth for its grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his
sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth
and threw it in the great wine press of the wrath of God. And
the winepress was trodden outside the city and blood flowed from
the winepress as high as a horse’s bridle for 1600 stadia. Then I saw another sign in heaven,
great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are
the last for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw
what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire. And
also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the
number of its name standing beside the sea of glass. with harps
of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and
amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true
are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O
Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations
will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been
revealed. Amen. This is God’s word. May
it be a blessing to us. Well, It seems like we keep hearing
the same things over and over. And we do, but just with maybe
a different twist, a different vision, a different piece of
insight. And so tonight we get into the
third set of cycles of seven. It’s the fourth set of sevens. We had the seven churches, the
seven bowls, the seven trumpets, and now this set of sevens. But this is the third cycle of
a war between the saints and Satan or between God and Satan.
The third set of cycles of seven of not only the war, but the
persecution and the hardship during the time between advents.
And then we come to the final judgment. And next week we’ll
get to the judgment portion of this third cycle. But why the
repetition? Why does the word of God keep
giving us this encouragement, these pictures of these things?
Well, if you watch the news, if you look at culture, you say,
what is the world coming to? You school teachers, we mentioned
earlier, you see the state of children. We heard this week
from Dottie Latta’s boys that during her 40 years of teaching,
three generations, She saw the decline in parenting in her school
teaching years. And so we sometimes say, what
is the world going to? It’s going to pot, we like to
say. So we look at these visions, these cycles of evil and revelation,
and we wonder sometimes, is it safe to live on earth? Is it
worth living? Can something be done? Is the
kingdom of God powerful and strong enough? And we remember what
Jesus told the disciples. He said, I will build my church.
I will build my church on this earth and the gates of hell will
not prevail. And so God is building his church
on earth in a wasteland. He is taking the worst piece
of property that one could imagine, one no real estate developer
would ever pick and choose. And on that piece of property,
he is building his outpost of heaven. And tonight, as he reminds
us an outpost of heaven, he reminds us of a couple of things that
ought to bring us a great encouragement. And the way this passage flows,
it’s best looked at from the perspective of the four things
that John saw. It doesn’t come out in the ESV
very well, but in other translations, each section begins with the
phrase, I saw. And so we’ll take a peek at each
of those. The first thing that John saw in 14, one through five,
he saw a lamb and 144,000. It says in 14, I looked and behold,
on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 who had
his name and his father’s name written on their foreheads. Now, before you go getting out
your pocket mirror and checking your forehead to see if you have
any stamp or insignia upon you, we have to understand he’s speaking
spiritually here. First, he’s speaking about 144,000 figuratively. It’s a 12 times
12 times a thousand number. Maybe the 12 tribes of Israel,
the 12 apostles times 12, 144, then times 1000. It’s a complete number. And so
we see a picture here of the church, the church, and they
are marked with the name of God, the father, they have his name,
his label, his imprimatur, his stamp on them. And so he sees
the lamb and the 144,000. One of the things that we remember
as we read through the Bible, um, is that we are looking forward
to a heavenly city. Uh, the, the church, the people
of God, we’re not looking forward to an earthly city. Now this
world will pass away. Uh, this world will fade away.
God will make a new heavens and a new earth. And the Bible tells
us that a new Jerusalem from heaven will come down. This is
why, um, Oh, what’s his name? Can’t find the lost ark. Indiana
Jones, right? This is why we can’t find some
of the grand finds that if we were to find them would be amazing
features in religious tourism. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we
could find the ark, the boat? Wouldn’t it be special if we
could find the Ark of the Covenant? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we
could find Moses’ staff that budded? Wouldn’t it be amazing?
I mean, we could sell tickets. Airlines would make money. There’s
gold in them there, Christian hills. But God has taken those
things to heaven. the realities to which they pointed
are in heaven. And we remember in Hebrews 11,
that those people of faith died in faith, not yet arriving at
the city of God, but they will someday see it as we will. And
so we look for a heavenly city. We look for a new Jerusalem come
down out of heaven. And so when John writes this
to us, he’s speaking to us about the ultimate goal of the church,
the ultimate goal of the people of God. God gathers, God protects,
God names his people. We’re not looking for a literal
head back to Jerusalem sort of event, but we are looking for
the new Jerusalem come down from heaven. And here’s a picture
of saints with God’s name marked on them. What does this do for
us? What does this encourage us?
How does this encourage us? John saw, and he saw the lamb
and the 144,000. What does a glimpse of these
give us? Well, it reminds us God protects
his church. He protects his people. He marks
them with his name, but he keeps his church complete. It also
reminds us that What we do in church is also what we will do
in heaven, and that is sing the praises of Almighty God. One
person has said, well, in this day and age, if you are bored
in church, you’ll be bored in heaven, because heaven is nothing
but church just for a whole lot longer. And so one of the things
we’ll do as we see the people of God here doing is we will
sing praise to God. And notice what it says. The voice I heard, verse two,
was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they
were singing a new song before the throne, before the living
creatures, before the elders. No one could learn that song
except the redeemed. We heard today in Sunday school
that singing in church ought to be loud. It doesn’t have to
be rock and roll. It doesn’t have to be modern
or contemporary, but it should be loud as saved people sing. And so what does he show us here?
He shows us the Lamb of God, and he shows us his church, and
they are safe for they are holy unto the Lord. There’s a second
thing he sees. It comes in verses 6 through
13. It says, I saw, and then it describes three angels, three
angels doing three different things. One preaches the gospel,
one announces the fall of Babylon, and the third announces eternal
punishment. Won’t that be a sight to see
screaming through the sky, not a Not a modern day aircraft,
not a blimp, not a little propeller plane out on a Saturday joyride,
but to see these angels announcing to the earth, the gospel, all
of it, the fallen doom of Babylon, and then announcing eternal punishment. Now these are three things that
we ought to be preaching and proclaiming in the church. We
ought to preach the gospel, right? It is good news. And in that
good news is warning of judgment. We joke from time to time about
our approach to evangelism is you don’t want to go to hell
now, do you? And we joke about that and we
joke about it because that’s not all the gospel is. The gospel
is good news. It’s good news of salvation.
But sometimes we omit the judgment part. It’s not kind. It’s not
friendly. It’s not politically correct. But here we have an
example of the angel preaching the gospel and preaching all
of it. There is no good news without
first what? Bad news. And so we proclaim
that God is a holy God. He’s angry at sin because he’s
righteous and he cannot stand it. And that he will punish sin.
There will come a day when his mercy is ended and he will judge
the earth. So seek the Lord while he may
be found. Call on him while he is near. Another aspect of these
angels’ ministry of the church is we should proclaim to others
that what you are doing, the way you are living, will lead
only to death and judgment. dare not offend anybody in their
habits, their hobbies, their proclivities, or whatever. But
these angels proclaim to the dwellers of the earth that Babylon,
or evil, is fallen. We should proclaim to the hearing
world, to the dwellers of the earth, that God will judge all
of their sin, and they will not get away with it, though it seems,
at least for a short while, they are. and then we have eternal
punishment. The most famous sermon ever given
on American soil is Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I
encourage you to maybe not get a copy and read it, but find
a recording of it, particularly the recording, I think, done
by Max McLean, where he gives the tenor and the the sense of
the sermon as he reads it. Sinners in the hands of an angry
God. He speaks about the sinner walking over the pit of hell
as if on a rotten bridge. And he gives that phrase from
the Old Testament, and their foot shall slip in due time. There’s not enough of that sort
of preaching. It doesn’t fill pews. It doesn’t nurture the
saints. It’s not uplifting. It’s not
seeker sensitive or whatever complaint we might draw up. But
this is the ministry of these angels to preach the gospel,
to declare Babylon fallen, and to proclaim eternal punishment. But there’s a note here to the
church, to the 144,000, to us. There’s two notes of encouragement,
one in verse 12, one in verse 13. Number one is in verse 12,
and that is, A call for the endurance of the saints. God has not forgotten
the wickedness. He has not forgotten our suffering.
His angels are ministering. His church is preaching and proclaiming.
God has never ceased to be at work. And though we may not see
it, we need to realize he is. And there’s a call to persevere,
to keep the commandments. We can never say, well, the whole
world has gone to pot. I might as well do what they’re
doing and join the party. Now there’s a call to persevere
and keep the commandments of God and to keep our faith in
Jesus. But there’s also a call to understand
that our labors are not in vain. Verse 13, we’ve heard a lot lately
if you’ve been to the graveside services of the handful in our
church that have gone on to be with the Lord. Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord from now on, the Spirit says, blessed
indeed, that they may rest from their labors. Their deeds will
follow them. We can rest in the righteousness
of Christ. And there’s a third I saw in
14 through 20 of chapter 14. And it’s, I have here, I saw
the harvester. There’s a picture of Jesus, the
son of man with a crown and a sickle. That’s probably not a, probably not a sight we would
expect to see. The crown, yes. The sickle, no. We never think
of a king with a farming implement. But here is Jesus with a crown
and with a sickle. It’s the end of the world. It’s
the second coming. It’s the final judgment. And often the Bible
speaks of it as a harvest. You know, Jesus says in his gospels,
there will be two working in the field. One is taken to heaven,
the other not. The end times. We have that terrible,
awful song in American hymnody. What is it? Glory, glory, hallelujah,
the grapes of wrath and all that. It’s a harvest theme, but the
end of the world is often seen as the great harvest. And so
we see in 14 through 20, the great judgment outside the city,
inside the city, God’s people are protected. But outside the
city, the wine press has pressed down and all the wicked from
the four corners of the earth are in the grape or wine press
and their blood flows. for miles and miles, hundreds
of miles, and it fills outside the city up to the noses of the
horses’ bridle. What a terrible picture it is.
We’ve sanitized Christianity, haven’t we? We’ve sanitized sin. We’ve sanitized judgment. And
here it’s depicted as an awful, awful event. And no one wants
to face the judgment of Almighty God. We want to rest in the one
who faced it for us. and who drank the cup of God’s
wrath on the cross. But it’s a good reminder, God
will take care of business. We need not to lose heart about
how evil this world has gotten. God will take his vengeance. And there’s a final I saw, and
it’s in the first four verses of chapter 15. It’s a picture
of the saints singing. I saw saints singing, you might
say. So what do we do in heaven? Well,
we sing. What do we see the saints doing
in heaven? We see them singing. Well, what are they saying? They
sing songs of redemption. And we like to say around here,
saved people sing. Well, you could say about heaven,
saved people sing forever. And it’s a good reminder of what
church on earth is. It’s a foretaste of glory divine. And what are they singing? What
are they singing about? They’re singing about God’s judgment,
displeasure of the evil things on earth, and finally making
all wrongs right, all wicked being punished, everything which
needed his hand of judgment is being taken care of. And they
sing, if you look in verses three and four, great and amazing are
your deeds. Oh Lord God, the Almighty, just
and true are your ways, oh King of the nations. Who will not
fear, oh Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come, they will
worship you. and your righteous acts have been revealed. So yes, maybe the world is going
to pot. These visions of wrath and persecution can seem a bit
disconcerting, but over and over and over, God is showing us in
Revelation, I take care of my people and I take care of business
in judgment. Amen. Let us pray together. Lord,
we pray that we might find encouragement tonight from yet another cycle
of you at work in this world, redeeming your people, protecting
them, and taking care of wicked people and their ways. And we
thank you that the Holy One, Jesus, just and true, His ways
are perfect, and we are found in Him by faith. And we rest
in Him this night and pray in His name. Amen.