I invite you to open your copy of the Word of God to the seventh chapter of the book
of the Revelation, the final book in the Bible, and the only book in the New Testament dedicated
primarily to prophetic themes.
We are looking at the seventh chapter, which is something of an interlude, a parenthesis
in the action.
You recall that in chapter 6 we studied the six seals, but now we have a parenthesis before
the seventh seal on the scroll is opened in chapter 8 and verse 1.
Chapter 6 closes with the question, for the great day of God's wrath has come, who is
able to stand?
Chapter 7 perhaps is something of an answer to that.
You will notice that he begins the chapter by saying, after these things, and then in
verse 9 again he says, and after these things.
Frequently John uses that little phrase or other words to indicate that he is transitioning
on to a new phase of what was revealed to him.
So after the six seals had been opened, after that he was given this vision as recorded
in chapter 7.
That may mean that chronologically chapter 7 occurs after the six seals, but more likely
it means that after the six seals had been opened, John was given the information of
chapter 7 to sort of fill out what had not been said thus far about the realm of heaven.
Some things have been said, but John is giving us additional information here.
In other words, what he sees in chapter 7 may not occur chronologically at this point,
but is rather a broad overview of things happening in heaven along with the six seals and beyond
that.
Maybe it would be good for us to take a look at the outline here that will help us just
put it in the context.
We have here the six seals that are opened, and then chapter 7, the 144,000 saints sealed
the songs of saints and angels.
You will notice that it calls it here the first interlude.
There are three of them, and they occur in each of the three series of judgments that
are poured out upon the earth as recorded in the book of the Revelation.
Each interlude occurs between the sixth and the seventh instrument of judgment, whether
it be seals or trumpets or bowls of wrath.
The interlude occurs between number six and number seven.
As I've already suggested, these interludes seem to occur to fill in information that
is important to know before we would go any further.
This information is given here to assure that there will be many millions of people saved
during the tribulation period.
There will be a mingling of mercy with the judgment of God that will be poured out upon
the earth.
It is called the great day of His wrath, and yet in the midst of God's wrath being demonstrated
upon those who have rejected Christ, those who had not had an opportunity to hear the
gospel in this age in which we live will be given an opportunity to hear the gospel in
the tribulation.
As seems clear in this chapter, there will be many millions of them who will come to
faith in Christ.
John is an eye and ear witness of the things that he talks about.
You will notice he says, I saw and I heard.
He's not passing on secondhand information.
He's saying, these are things that I saw, that I heard, that I want to tell you about.
What he is an eye and ear witness of are three groups.
The angels, there are some angels spoken about.
The Israelites and the multitude.
You should have an outline in your hands, do you?
The angels are mentioned 67 times in the book of the Revelation, excluding chapters 2 and
3 where John is instructed to write to the angel at whatever church.
Other than those occasions, 67 times angels are mentioned.
We sometimes fall into the trap of our culture which separates the supernatural from the
natural realm.
In this age of scientism, we tend to believe, as the world certainly does, that what is
invisible is unreal.
There is a separation between the supernatural and the natural.
The supernatural is invisible, the natural is visible.
We can't see this, we can't put it in the test tube, so we just lay that aside.
We don't believe in it, and we just believe in the natural.
But in fact, is that the worldview of Christians?
Ought it to be.
Is it the worldview that the Scriptures present to us?
Indeed, it is not.
There is not a separation between the supernatural and the natural.
There certainly are two different realms, but they overlap.
There's a working of the supernatural realm in that which is natural, in human affairs,
in human history.
And angels help carry that out.
Whether they be the elect, holy angels of God, or they be the demons, the fallen angels
that fell and followed Satan.
This morning I told you a story about a band of angels that appeared in Ecuador.
Well, there are some people hearing a story like that would really put it down, who would
say, come on, you know, that's fantasy.
Angels are, that's part of the ancient theology.
It's sort of like mythology.
It belongs back there where people believed in those things.
But angels are as real today as they were then.
Angels are as real in 1992 as they were real in perhaps the year 92 or 95, whenever it
was that John received this vision from God.
They are active in our world today.
I shared with a few of you in a small group that I met this last fall a pastor who's
become a friend of mine.
He was a black brother who passed as a church in Delaware.
And shared the story with me that a couple of years ago he was going through a very difficult
time in his church.
It was a very severe struggle with leadership and a couple of people who had been long time
leaders in the church.
And there was a struggle for power as sometimes happens in established churches.
And he didn't know if he was going to be able to stay or not.
It was very stressful on him and his family and the whole church was really going through
it.
One Sunday morning he got up to preach and was sitting on the platform during the song
service.
Didn't know if he actually could get up to preach.
He was so worn out and so stressed out by all that had been taking place he felt that
he might just have to get up and tell the people to go home.
He literally could not preach for them that morning.
And of course the song services and the churches of that culture tend to be rather lively and
exuberant.
But it wasn't catching with him that morning.
He was sitting there just depressed and feeling as though he was so weak he was unable to
go on.
So the song service ended and he still felt that way and he got up, stood behind his pulpit
and was prepared really to tell the people to go home.
But he said one word and then he said another word.
It just seemed as though he was able to get the words out and yet it wasn't with his
normal enthusiasm and level of strength.
But as he kept trying he looked in the back of his church and there standing at the corner
of his church was an angel.
Now he described briefly the angel in the meeting we were in together.
And so I wrote him after that and I said would you tell me some more about this.
Well I didn't hear from him until the first of December.
He called me from Delaware.
So I asked him some questions.
I said what did the angel look like?
He said well it's difficult to describe.
He said the angel was very tall, much taller than anybody else in our church and very muscular,
strong looking person.
And this angel had on him garb like a Roman soldier would have worn, pictures that we
see of soldiers in that ancient world.
And he said he was standing in the back of the church with his arms crossed like this.
And he said I knew immediately he was their standing guard over that service.
He said not only did I see that angel but he said I was so stunned by what I saw.
And he said I was the only one that saw it, no one else in the church saw it.
I was so stunned that I kind of shook and I looked the other direction.
He said there was a second one that appeared behind the church congregation in the left
hand corner as I was looking out.
He said the people were beginning to wonder by this time what's wrong with the pastor
up there because of the way he was looking.
And he said I turned around just automatically.
He said there were two of them standing behind me, all of them in the same posture.
And he said suddenly there was this deep sense within me that God was present and that God
was protecting our church and that whatever the battle had been, it was over.
That these angels had been sent and had become visible to me to signify to me that the victory
had been won in prayer.
And he said in fact that was the day that the battle broke and it's been blessed since
then.
And so angels are still very real today.
I believe that brother, he's not a loony tune.
He's not some way out charismatic kind of person.
He's a wonderful dear brother in Christ and I am convinced he saw what he saw.
Now John is going to tell us about four angels and then one angel.
He says I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth.
Angels are God's servants, God's emissaries and John sees them here as standing at the
four corners of the earth which seems to be an expression pointing to the four points
on the compass, north, east, south and west.
He saw them standing there holding the four winds of the earth that the wind should not
blow on the earth, on the sea or on any tree.
And so these angels have been sent by God to cause a qualm upon the whole earth, a complete
quiet.
There is no wind blowing anywhere.
You can imagine the stillness that that would create.
It's like the quiet before the storm hits and certainly in chapter eight the storm hits.
He says then I saw another angel ascending from the east.
By the way as we see these angels interfering in the weather system it makes me think of
Pat Robertson who prayed that the hurricane would miss Virginia.
Do you remember seeing that in some of the televised ads that his opponents were using
when he was running for president in 1988?
When I read things like this I think that maybe Pat Robertson's view of these things
is closer, much closer to reality than those who are his scoffers.
In fact it does appear that angels are able to interfere in the weather systems and here
they are doing exactly that.
And what the meteorological impact of no wind on the earth would be I don't know.
Somebody who studied meteorology could probably tell us.
By the way I'm not suggesting that Pat Robertson was entirely right in praying that if God
steers away from Virginia did he want to go to Delaware or North Carolina or what.
We have to leave those things in God's hands.
But my point is that his view of God being able to do that sort of thing is much closer
than those who mocked him.
Well there is another angel who ascends from the east which may indicate Jerusalem or Israel
having the seal of the living God.
So he has in his hands this seal which was the common kind of impression seal that was
known in that day.
And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the
earth and the sea saying, do not harm the earth, the sea or the trees till we have sealed
the servants of our God on their foreheads.
So now we begin to understand the reason for this quiet before the storm really begins.
And we begin to understand why there is this parenthesis of information that is given to
us in the flow of things chronologically.
Something has to take place.
The servants of God have to be sealed with the seal that the angel has.
It needs to be sealed, they need to be sealed on their foreheads.
And so we have the angels that John sees and reports about.
It seems that this seal is the mark of God's ownership, the mark of security and protection
for them.
In chapter 9 and verse 4, if you look there, we have locusts that come up on the earth
out of the bottomless pit.
And we'll talk about the identity of these locusts and what they may be at a later time.
But let's just say at this point that I think that they are supernatural locusts.
They are not your typical cicadas that you like out there in the summertime on the trees.
These are creatures that are really demonic in their origin.
And it says in verse 4, they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth nor any
green thing or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
And so from that language we would understand that the seal is not only for identification
but for protection as well.
There will be another mark on other foreheads.
We see in Revelation 13 verses 16 to 17 that those who follow Antichrist receive a mark
from him as well.
This seal in chapter 7 is given to assure God's people of his concern and his power
which is with them as they are facing opposition, persecution, and even martyrdom at the hands
of those who are the Antichrists.
Well let's move ahead and talk about this next group that John sees in verses 4 through
8.
It is the Israelites.
And we notice that he says there's a total of 144,000 of them.
And he says that they are of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
And then he lists the tribes and says that there are 12,000 from each of them.
So we get the 144,000 by 12 times 12,000.
Well the question does arise among Bible scholars, who are these people now really?
Of course there are those who claim that because they are Jehovah's Witnesses they are or hope
to be a part of the 144,000.
The Seventh-day Adventists like to refer to this as do the Mormons and so on.
But who are these 144,000?
There are some Evangelicals who believe that they represent the church, that they are not
necessarily Jewish at all, but it's saved people in general and that they're simply
called Jews here because today in some of the language of the New Testament all of the
saved are called the sons of Abraham for example.
They also point to the phrase in Galatians chapter 6 where Paul speaks about true Israel
and they talk about other texts in the New Testament where it seems as though to them
at least that the church has replaced Israel in God's scheme of things.
Well of course there is some truth to that in that Israel has been set aside by God in
this age for his use as a nation.
God is doing something new in this age dealing with the church, a brand new entity, a body
that was created at Pentecost, comprised of both Jews and Gentiles who believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
But that doesn't mean that God is entirely finished with national Israel.
The fact that the Jewish nation still exists today is a remarkable testimony of the sovereign
plan of God and his faithfulness to them even in their unfaithfulness to him.
When it talks here about these 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel it
seems to me the best thing to do is to take it literally for what it says that these are
Jewish people.
It is a believing remnant out of the nation of Israel.
Because he talks about them being of the tribe of Judah, that is out of the tribe of Judah,
out of the tribe of Reuben.
So it's not all the Jewish people but it's a remnant that God elects from among the Jews.
These are sealed.
They receive this seal of God, this mark of God in their foreheads for identification
and preservation.
I believe that the best answer to the identity of these 144,000 is that they are the ones
who will be the primary evangelists of God in the tribulation period.
God is going to call them out very quickly to believe in Christ after the rapture of
the church has taken place.
They then will preach the gospel of their Messiah throughout the earth resulting in
the salvation of this multitude that we see in heaven toward the end of chapter 7.
So God calls them out, he seals them, and they become his flaming evangelists.
We see them again in chapter 14 beginning in verse 1 where John says, then I looked
and behold a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000 having his father's name
written on their foreheads.
And so this same group it would seem appear with the Lord Jesus on Mount Zion.
Now when is Jesus going to be on Mount Zion?
When is he going to actually land there on that mount in the city of Jerusalem?
Well the answer is at his second coming.
And so John at that point in chapter 14 seems to receive a vision of when Jesus comes to
the earth and he is there gathered to him these 144,000 who have served him in the tribulation
period who are thus sealed at this early point in the tribulation period for the work that
God has called him to in preaching the gospel during this time.
Just look back quickly with me at Matthew chapter 24 and notice a statement that Jesus
makes as he talks to his disciples about the end of the age.
He describes the conditions in the world during that future period of time.
And we have to acknowledge the fact that these signs that Jesus gives have often been present
partially to some extent throughout the 2,000 years.
But it seems to many people that never have all the signs been so powerfully present as
they are right now.
In other words that the signs for Christ's second coming to the earth, not the rapture
of the church now but his second coming to the earth which follows the rapture are being
put into place.
It is difficult to miss them.
But he says in verse 14, 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.
Now there are those who believe that that refers to this age in which we live now.
In other words that all of the tribes and nations of the earth have to hear before the
rapture can take place.
I don't understand it that way at all.
In the context of Matthew 24, Jesus is talking about his second coming to the earth, not
the rapture.
And he's saying that before he comes again to the earth in his second coming, in his
return that in fact the gospel will be proclaimed to all the nations of the world.
Everyone will have a chance to hear in that period of time of great suffering in the earth
called the tribulation.
And who is it that will carry this message to all the nations of the world?
Well it seems to me that a reasonable answer is that it will be the 144,000 that we're
looking at being sealed in Revelation chapter 7.
Now let's just go back to that text again and I want to point out a couple of things.
First of all, in the listing of the tribes you will notice that Reuben is not first on
the list as you might suspect he should be because he was the firstborn of Jacob.
Of course Reuben sinned in adultery by going to his father's bed with his father's concubine
and because of that according to 1 Chronicles chapter 5 he lost his position as the firstborn
in Jacob's family.
He forfeited his birthright and Jacob makes that clear when he pronounces his blessings
upon his children in Genesis chapter 49.
And so taking Reuben's place as number one on the list is Judah.
Now this may be because Judah is the tribe from which Christ eventually came.
It is the Messianic tribe and so therefore it is honored, so it would seem, in this list
by being placed number one.
Of the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed.
Now if you know the names of the tribes you will notice that there are two that are often
listed that are not mentioned here.
One of them is the tribe of Dan.
The other is the tribe of Ephraim.
Why are these tribes not listed and others put in their place?
Levi for example takes the place it would seem of Dan and the name of Joseph takes the
place of Ephraim in this list.
Why is that?
Well again there are many answers given but the best one seems to be that both Dan and
Ephraim were tribes which led others in idolatry in ancient Israel.
Ephraim was the first tribe to follow idolatry, Judges 18 and verse 30.
And when Jeroboam set up his golden calves for the people of the northern kingdom to
worship, the location of one of those calves was in the territory of the tribe of Dan.
Likewise Ephraim was a tribe that was identified with idolatry.
And Ephraim led the division of the united monarchy after the death of Solomon.
Jeroboam was from that tribe and he led that northern part of the nation to divide against
Judah in the southern part of the kingdom and led that northern kingdom into gross idolatry.
And so both Dan and Ephraim are not represented by those who are sealed for God's special
work in this time of the tribulation.
There are other things I could say here but I think I'm just going to point out one more
thing and that is in the book of the Revelation you will notice that there are certain numbers
that seem to have significance.
One of those numbers is the number 12.
It is a number that sometimes means completion, fulfillment, perfection.
And not only is 12 significant but multiples of 12 are significant.
For example there are 24 elders around the throne, 2 times 12.
When the New Jerusalem is measured by the angels it is said to be 12,000 stadia in length,
width and height.
Its walls are said to be 144 cubits, which is 12 times 12 of course.
And there are 12 crops that come from the tree of life according to chapter 22.
And so the number 12 has some symbolic value in the book.
And here that may be the case as well although as I've done tonight I prefer to take these
numbers literally and we have done so.
Now we come to the third group of which John is the eyewitness and that is the multitude.
Chapter 7 verses 9 through 17.
He says, after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number
of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues.
The language back in chapter 5 verse 11 where we see many around the throne and they are
excuse me verse 9 where it is said that these people are from every tribe and tongue and
people and nation.
This is language which simply means there are people here in John's sight who come
from all parts of the earth.
And he sees them standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
Who are these people?
John's language seems to describe a teeming multitude with many different colors and languages
and styles of dress and so on I suppose.
It's a cosmopolitan kind of a picture.
It is a crowded kind of a scene like one might see in the ancient marketplace or which one
might see at Cub on the weekends.
It's just an overwhelming number.
My wife sent me to Cub the Saturday before Christmas and if I ever do that again, a teeming
multitude, when I read this I thought of Cub on the Saturday before Christmas.
Except here it could not be numbered.
It was a numberless multitude and they are standing in heaven and not at the checkout
line.
Now, the fact that they are standing there before the throne seems to indicate that they
are accepted by God and they are there in the place of honor and welcome.
And he sees them as being clothed with white robes.
Literally it says here a white stole.
The white stole seems to symbolize victory and salvation.
They are there with palm branches in their hands.
Palm branches are not mentioned much in the New Testament.
In fact, only twice.
Here and in John 12 in connection with the triumphal entry of Jesus when palm branches
were waved.
And there may be some symbolic connection here between the two palm branches.
The palm branches were used in conjunction with the feast of tabernacles in the Old Testament.
Booze or tabernacles were built by the people of Israel out of palm branches and they lived
in it for the seven days of the feast symbolizing the pilgrimage of the people of Israel.
They have no permanent dwelling place here.
And it was apparently those palm branches that were waved by the people at the Passover
season when Jesus was coming into the city of Jerusalem.
Well, that feast in the Old Testament typically or symbolically points to the millennium,
the coming reign of Christ.
And so here we see this vast multitude standing there before the throne with palm branches
in their hands.
And they ascribe praise to God.
They're crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne
and to the Lamb.
So they're praising God for the salvation which they apparently have experienced.
And in verses 11 and 12 there's a response in heaven to it.
It says, all of 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 saying, amen, blessing
and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever
and ever, amen.
So there is this scene of worship before the throne of God.
And all of the creatures of heaven, the redeemed as well as the angelic, enter into it and
proclaim the greatness, the honor, the worth of God who lives forever and forever.
Well then there is a conversation.
One of the elders, that's one of the 24 elders around the throne spoke to John.
And it's sort of like a quiz.
He says, who are these arrayed in white robes and where did they come from?
Well, John isn't prepared to answer that.
He says, sir, you know.
And the elder said, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed
their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
And so now we begin to understand who these people are that John sees.
In the first place we note that they are not the same as the 144,000.
It's a different group.
The 144,000 are said to be Jewish.
These come from every tribe on the earth.
Furthermore, there's a definite number in this earlier group.
There is an uncountable number here in this vast multitude.
Secondly, we seem to learn that they are not the same as the church.
That is, if you take as I do, that the 24 elders there at the throne represent the church.
The church raptured, the church glorified and with the Lord.
The church is kept out of the tribulation, whereas these come out of it.
The church is protected from the tribulation by being taken home to be with Christ.
But these actually come out of the great tribulation.
Furthermore, we see the 24 elders, if in fact they represent the church, seated on thrones
around the throne of God.
But the ones in this vast multitude are said to stand around the throne.
There seems to be a slight difference here that the 24 elders actually are participating
in the rule of Christ the Lamb.
And that is the calling, that is the destiny of the church.
Whereas this vast multitude that's come out of the great tribulation share in the glory.
They're not participating in the rule, but they're sharing in the glory of redemption.
Furthermore, the elders are wearing crowns.
They've been rewarded for their service on the earth.
They're now reigning with Christ.
Whereas this vast multitude are said to have in their hands palm branches symbolizing their
victory.
So these are the redeemed, says this elder, that have come out of the great tribulation.
They had experienced its horror and now they have come out of it.
And he goes on to say, therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day
and night in His temple.
But what temple is this?
I'm not sure that I'm settled on my own answer to that because we learned that in the eternal
state there is no temple in the New Jerusalem.
But here it is said that these people serve God in His temple.
So if we take that and understand it literally, it may be that he's talking here about the
millennial temple.
That temple that will be built in the millennial reign so that the service there will not only
be given to the Jews, but to all of the redeemed.
I'm not frankly sure about that myself.
But we do notice that they are involved in serving God.
Some people have the idea that heaven is going to be one long vacation.
And they're rather worried about that.
They think they're going to get bored by idleness.
But in fact, whatever it involves, it does involve serving God and worshiping God.
There will be service to do for the Lord.
And we see that suggested here in what these redeemed are doing.
It says, He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
This is very similar language to chapter 21 and verse 3 where the eternal state is revealed,
where God tabernacles among His people.
The same language here means He spreads His tent over them to reside with them, to care
for them.
And as a result of that, it says, they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.
Suggesting that they had come out of great suffering in the tribulation.
But no longer will they hunger or thirst.
It says, the sun shall not strike them nor any heat.
For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them.
Literally means He will feed them.
He will nurture them and lead them to the fountains of waters.
Is this the same as the living waters that proceed from the throne in chapter 22 that
we see?
Perhaps it is.
The point is that their eternal needs are cared for and they have life that comes from
the Lord and is symbolized by this living fountain of waters.
And it says, God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
And again, that's very similar language to what is said about the eternal state in chapter
21.
And so the elder gives us the answer as to who the multitude is.
The multitude seen in chapter 7 is a group that has come out of the great tribulation.
From the earth.
They have been redeemed and they are now standing before God and they are there to do service
to the Lord and God is providing for their every need.
Although this is not primarily picturing heaven as it is now, I think that we can draw some
parallels to the experience of people who are now in heaven.
What is it like to be there?
What are they doing there?
Well, it says that they are worshiping God.
They may be involved in some kind of specific service for the Lord.
They are there enjoying the glory of God.
They no longer suffer.
They no longer have needs as they did upon the earth.
And it says that God is caring even for the tears from their eyes.
Now chronologically, chapter 7 comes before the resurrection that comes later in the book
of the revelation.
And yet these people are seen there in bodies.
They are not merely spirits that are invisible and floating around.
They are seen there, they are recognizable as people from all the tribes of the earth.
Which at least suggests to me that those who are in heaven now likewise have some kind
of covering for that soul that has gone to be with Christ.
That there is whatever you want to call the temporary body that they have, an identity,
a personal identity before they receive their resurrection body when Christ comes for His
own.
I think we can gain comfort from this regarding our loved ones who are with Christ.
For although this does not directly picture them, it suggests something of the condition
that they are in now with the Lord.
I've been giving some thought as to where heaven is.
And I have conjecture about that.
I grew up at least with the idea that heaven was somewhere beyond the universe.
That it was past the moon, the sun, the stars, and way out there beyond everything that we
see that exists.
Beyond that is where God is.
I've come to change my mind about that.
I believe that there is good reason to think that heaven may very well be right above the
earth.
That in fact it is close at hand.
You say then why can't we see it?
Because it's in another dimension.
Physicists, for example, have for a long time just toyed with the idea that perhaps there
is another dimension of things right here on the earth.
That while we are here in this setting, in another dimension, there could be a locomotive
going right through here at the same time.
These two dimensions don't even know each other exists.
All of that is theory of course.
I believe that it's not bad biblical theory, if I can put it that way, that heaven is near.
After all, John was on the Isle of Patmos and he looked up and saw a door open in heaven.
How far up could he see that door open in heaven?
We say well it may be just a vision.
Well perhaps it was.
But on the other hand, perhaps God has opened a door into the other dimension that exists
right there.
And John was able to see into heaven and then God said come up here.
Jacob saw a ladder reaching from the earth to heaven.
How tall a ladder could that be?
You say well is it 12 feet or 15 feet?
Well I'm not talking feet right now, we're talking about another dimension.
But I believe that if we could see it, as Stephen saw it for example, just before he
was killed, the first martyr, it says he looked up and he saw Jesus standing at the right
hand of God.
He was able to look into heaven and he saw right there before him that scene.
Was that merely a vision that he had?
Well maybe it was, but perhaps that realm is close.
You think about our loved ones who've gone to be with Christ and sometimes we grieve
that they are so far away and it does seem that way, doesn't it?
Yet in fact they may be actually rather close to us.
You say well they've been able to see what's happening on the earth?
I hope not.
In fact I don't think that they do.
I know that Hebrews talks about the great cloud of witnesses which surrounds us.
I don't think that those are people in heaven watching what's happening in this dimension.
I could be wrong and forgive me if I am if you're looking, but I think rather he's
talking there in Hebrews 12 about the faithful in chapter 11 who are encouraging us on as
though they were in the stands and we're out here on the field in the middle of the
game still and we're encompassed with those witnesses as it were from the Old Testament
saying go on with it.
But in fact the scene that John describes to us here with these people being with the
Lord out of the great tribulation may very well be just in that next dimension that is
not far from the earth as we know it at all.
We know that the Lord Jesus when he ascended went up and up and up until he got to the
clouds, the level of the clouds, however many feet they were in the sky that day and it
says that a cloud took him out of their sight.
And think that that's simply language and there were literally clouds there I'm sure
but it's language suggesting that he simply entered into that next dimension that is right
there somewhere around the clouds.
Well all of that is free.
You don't have to pay for it.
That's my conjecture about this heavenly scene that John describes to us where he sees the
angels who are involved in the weather system of the earth.
An angel who is involved is sealing the redeemed.
We're going to see angels involved in bringing judgment to the earth.
And he sees these people sealed and proclaiming the gospel throughout the earth and a great
multitude who come to faith in Christ in the tribulation period and who are then before
the throne of God, a multitude without number.
There will be many saved in the end.
I know that it says the way is narrow, few there be that find it and perhaps that is
true in ratio to those who are lost but the fact is friends that heaven is going to have
a lot of people.
Many are going to be redeemed by the grace of God and we will share eternity together.
I want us to sing about that and so I'm going to ask you to take your hymnal.
42, talking about that day when we all get to heaven.
Would you stand with me as we sing 542 in your hymnal?