Come Out Of Hiding (Revelation 6 + 7) | Pastor Jake Sweetman

In this message, Pastor Jake continues our series through the book of Revelation, unpacking Revelation 6:12–17 and Revelation 7 to answer a crucial question raised at the end of chapter 6:

“For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” (Revelation 6:17)

Revelation 7 serves as a powerful interlude between the sixth and seventh seals, revealing:

• The 144,000 servants of God, sealed on their foreheads (Revelation 7:1–8)
• A great multitude that no one could count, from “every nation, tribe, people and language” standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Revelation 7:9–10)

In this sermon, we explore:

• How the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls each describe the period between Christ’s first and second comings from different angles (Revelation 6–8; Revelation 8–11; Revelation 15–16)
• Why the New Testament describes the entire church age as tribulation, not only a brief period at the end (John 16:33; Acts 14:22; Romans 8:18–25)
• How God’s judgment often looks like letting our false refuges fail (Romans 1:24–28; Galatians 6:7–8; Jeremiah 2:13)
• What it means to be sealed with the seal of the living God (Revelation 7:2–3; Ephesians 1:13–14; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22) in contrast to bearing the mark of the beast (Revelation 13:16–18)
• The symbolic meaning of the 144,000 and why this represents the fullness of God’s people, not a limited ethnic subset (Revelation 7:4–8; Revelation 14:1–5)
• The connection between what John hears (the numbered 144,000) and what he sees (the uncountable multitude), and how both images point to the same redeemed people (Revelation 5:5–6; Revelation 7:4, 9)
• The contrast between those who hide from the face of God and the Lamb (Revelation 6:15–17) and those who stand before the throne in white robes (Revelation 7:9, 15)
• How our identity and allegiance—not our social status, politics, or tribal labels—determine whether we stand in the day of judgment (Philippians 3:7–11; Colossians 3:1–4; 1 Peter 2:9–10)

We also meditate on the stunning promise given to those who belong to the Lamb:

“Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
He will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
(Revelation 7:16–17)

If you’ve ever prayed, “How long, Lord?” (Revelation 6:10; Psalm 13:1–2; Habakkuk 1:2), this message will call you out of hiding and back into your God-given destiny—to follow the Lamb, bear His mark, and stand in His righteousness, not your own (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:1–2; Hebrews 10:19–23).

📖 Key Scriptures Referenced

• Revelation 5–7
• Revelation 12; Revelation 13; Revelation 14; Revelation 21–22
• John 16:33
• Acts 14:22
• Romans 1:24–28; Romans 5:1–2; Romans 8:18–25
• 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Ephesians 1:13–14; Ephesians 6:10–18
• Philippians 3:7–11
• Colossians 3:1–4
• 1 Peter 2:9–10
• Galatians 6:7–8
• Psalm 13:1–2
• Habakkuk 1:2

Subscribe and share this message with someone who needs to know that in Christ, they do not have to hide—they can stand.

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Transcript

 If we've not met before, I'm Pastor Jake, and my wife Nicole and I have the great joy of being able to shepherd this amazing church, one church in three locations, and we feel like the word of the Lord for us in our future is that we would be one church in many more locations as the Spirit leads us and calls us to multiply.

It's really not that complicated.

We just plant.

We water.

We water.

 we cultivate, we grow, we bear fruit, and in that fruit is the seeds of multiplication.

And the destiny of every single church is wrapped up in the fruitfulness of its people.

And so as a church, we don't focus on growth numerically.

We want that, but we understand that the only reason we grow numerically is because we all grow spiritually.

We grow up, we bear fruit,

 And in the fruit that you bear, there are seeds that God wants to sow in other people's lives to bring that same transformation in them.

And in this way, the kingdom of God spreads throughout the world.

I know that because it's been working for 2,000 years.

That's a pretty good track record.

You good?

Okay, we're going through the whole book of Revelation right now.

And we had Dr. David Campbell with us last Sunday.

Wasn't he outstanding?

Just did an amazing job.

 opening up Revelation chapter 6 for us.

Well, at least some of it, because he got a little carried away.

He went down a few tangents and rabbit trails.

So he left a little bit of chapter 6 for me to have to cover in order to help chapter 7 make sense today.

So pray for me, because my job was made harder this week.

That's always the risk when you bring in a guest.

You never quite know what's going to happen.

 It's good.

Okay, so come with me to Revelation chapter 6.

We're going to begin our reading in verse 12.

I was going to read all of that and all of chapter 7 for you to start the service, but then I figured I wouldn't have time to get to everything I need to get to.

So...

 If you have a paper Bible, I would love for you to open it so you can see where we are.

I think it's so helpful to visualize the text in front of you because I'm going to need to summarize chapter 7 for you.

And I want you to be able to see it so you understand what it is that I'm summarizing.

Revelation chapter 6 and verse 12 is where I'm going to begin.

And we are picking up right now.

 We're picking up at the end of the first set of seven judgments that Revelation details.

Remember, Dr. David talked last week how Revelation has a consecutive series of seven judgments.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry.

I'll say more about that in a moment, and hopefully that'll help make it more clear.

But we're picking up right now at the end of the first set, the opening of the seven seals that are on the scroll that Jesus took from the Father.

Yeah?

Yeah.

 Or at least like 30% of you with me?

I can work with that.

I can work with that.

Okay.

It says, I, this is John, I watched as he, Jesus, opened the sixth seal.

There was a great earthquake.

The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair.

The whole moon turned blood red and the stars in the sky fell to the earth as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

This is all symbolic.

 language, the heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

So as we come to this opening of the sixth seal, we are brought now to the end of human history.

We're looking at what takes place before the very end.

Verse 15, then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

 They called to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne that is the father and from the wrath of the lamb that is the son.

Why?

For the great day of their wrath has come.

And here's the guiding question for the entirety of this passage.

Who can withstand it?

 Who can withstand the revelation of the wrath of God against evil in the world?

Now, as you're reading the text, this is all the activity that goes along with the opening of the sixth seal.

And as the reader, you're expecting now for the narrative to detail to you the opening of the seventh seal.

I don't know if you know this, but seven comes after six.

There's some basic math for you this morning.

That's what you would expect as you're reading.

Did you just say, whoa, that's so great.

Don't, no, we can't, we can't, we can't.

 We absolutely can't.

I promised my 12-year-old son that if he goes all of 2026 without ever doing the thing, then I will give him $20 at the end of the year.

So far, so good.

So far, so good.

 So we're expecting the opening of the seventh seal, but that's not what happens when you keep reading in the narrative.

And chapter seven begins.

It says, after this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth.

And so there's this vision that gets shown to John in chapter seven.

And this is what we call in Revelation an interlude.

Everyone say that word with me.

Say interlude.

 Throughout all sets of the seven judgments, between the sixth and the seventh, there is an interlude that takes place in the text that introduces a delay from the sixth to the seventh judgment.

Does that make sense?

And that delay is a vision to help reground us in who we are, what's going on in the midst of the chaos of this world, and how we're called to live.

This first interlude here is comprised of two visions.

The first vision is of the servants of God who

 who number 144,000.

If you grew up reading Left Behind, I'm sure you have all kinds of questions about the 144,000.

They got it wrong.

Okay, we'll just say that and we'll say more about it in a moment.

There's the vision of the 144,000 servants of God on earth.

And then the second half of chapter seven is a countless multitude of people from all around the world who stand before the throne of God and they worship him.

 And I just want to read the end of chapter 7 to give you an idea of what these people are experiencing.

Media team, if you guys are able to quickly make your way to verse 15, that would be awesome of chapter 7.

If not, just listen closely.

It says,

 Never again will they hunger.

I just want you to pay attention to how different of an experience this is to the first group of people we met at the end of chapter 6 who are asking mountains and rocks to fall on them that they may be hidden from God and the Lamb.

These guys are sheltered with God's presence.

Never again will they hunger.

Never again will they thirst.

The sun will not beat down on them nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.

He will lead them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear.

 from their eyes.

These two visions in chapter 7 of the 144,000, the multitude in heaven, are meant to be interpreted in light of each other.

And so that's what we'll spend a bit of time doing today.

The title of the message is Come Out of Hiding.

 If you've ever experienced tremors from an earthquake, as I'm sure many of us here in Los Angeles have, then you'll know that you don't really think much about the ground that you're standing on until it begins to shake.

Revelation is written to churches living in that moment, in the moment of shaking, when the ground no longer feels stable.

And in that moment, Revelation does not promise escape.

Revelation gives perspective.

 That's what this book was written to give us.

Back in Revelation 5, Jesus receives the scroll that contains God's plan for history, which is the redemption of those who belong to him and the judgment of evil that corrupts his creation.

And from that moment on in chapter 5, everything else in Revelation flows as God's plan for history is being outworked through the reign of the Lamb.

 The risen Jesus is reigning from the throne and he's patiently and purposefully bringing history towards its intended end and the renewal of all things.

And that plan unfolds in Revelation through consecutive sets of seven judgments.

Like I've said, the main three of those seven judgments are associated with the seven seals of the scroll, the sounding of seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of God's wrath.

Now these judgments, they're not random disasters.

 they're also not the result of God just having like an outburst of anger towards the world.

In fact, much of the judgment that is described in Revelation is the result of God allowing the world to experience the consequences of its sin.

Allowing us to experience what happens when we reject the truth and refuse to live in alignment with the truth.

Similar to how if you live your life violating gravity, gravity is going to violate you back.

 How many just know that that's true, right?

God's judgment works a little bit like that.

In other words, if we could put this first slide up, judgment is often what happens when God lets your false refuges fail.

 Each set of seven judgments retells, or the technical term for it, is recapitulates the same stretch of history that is between the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus.

And each set of seven looks at that same stretch of time from a different angle.

And it brings us to the end of history by the time we get to the sixth

 judgment in each set where we picked up today.

And just when you think the narrative is about to wrap up, John then doubles back in his vision and describes the whole thing over again from another angle that Jesus shows him.

And ultimately what the judgments describe is what life is like in a world where the Lamb of God reigns and the world is resistant to him.

And that is an age that Revelation and the rest of the New Testament, by the way, labels tribulation.

 Tribulation is not merely a period of time at the very end of history.

We all come to this book, or many of us come to this book with all kinds of preconceived notions from what we learned when we were 12 or 13 years old.

So I just need to do a little bit of level setting for us.

Tribulation is not merely the period of time at the very end of history.

According to the New Testament, tribulation is the entire period between Christ's first and second coming.

That tribulation began with the cross.

Just ask Jesus if it felt like tribulation.

 It did.

It began with the cross that was the beginning of birth pains and it carries on all throughout the age of the church ultimately until it concludes at the second coming of Jesus Christ where he comes to make all things new.

Now towards the very end of this age, it does seem that the Bible describes an intensification of tribulation.

 That things potentially get worse, get harder, but then at the same time, it is those very conditions that cause the light of the gospel to shine even brighter and to bring multitudes of lost souls to Jesus.

So as history progresses, we might say that we can expect darker shadows and brighter lights.

 Now, as much of these sets of seven judgments recapitulate the same time period, it is also true that there is clearly movement and progression going on as you read Revelation.

History is moving somewhere.

So each cycle intensifies, pressing us towards a final day.

There's a couple different ways that we see that.

One is that after the seals, the trumpets, and the judgments, each of them concludes with a storm.

 thunder and lightning and earthquakes.

But if you look closely at the end of each set, the storm gets like worse each time.

It intensifies.

Another way we can see that it's moving history forward is the scope of the impact of the judgments broadens.

So like if you read the account of the seven seal judgments, it affects a quarter of the earth.

 The trumpet judgments affect a third of the earth.

These are symbolic numbers.

And the bowl judgments affect the entirety of the earth.

So the message behind the symbolism is that history is not merely cyclical.

It is moving forward.

Humanity is not fated to experience the same cycles of pain and brokenness over and over again in a never-ending loop.

Listen, the Bible doesn't do fate.

The Bible does destiny under the sovereign reign of God.

 God is sovereignly leading us towards a day when evil will be totally defeated and all things will be made new.

And you and I are to participate in that destiny as free will active agents in partnership with God.

And this dynamic of destiny is true for your own life.

 One of the byproducts of any worldview that tries to remove God from the picture is that they can't help but make life cyclical or fatalistic.

Whether that be Hinduism's doctrine of reincarnation, where existence is just an endless cycle that you are trying to escape, or secular nihilism, where we are reduced to matter in motion.

Life is the product of chance.

Our choices are largely conditioned by environment and biology.

 And our future belongs to a universe that is not really going anywhere In either case, whether it be secular or spiritual History isn't moving towards renewal It is either endlessly repeating or quietly winding down And in a world like that The best you can do is cope But you cannot hope And yet the Bible calls us to be a people of hope One of the great tragedies of the secular age

 is that millions of people have been confined to worldviews that quietly teach fate instead of destiny.

That life is something that happens to you, not something that is moving somewhere.

But the human soul was not made for resignation to fate.

It was made for purpose, and it was made for destiny.

And for some of you, the very best thing that Revelation could offer you in terms of truth is the assurance that there is a sovereign God seated on the throne,

 who loves you and is guiding history towards an unfathomable day of beauty and brilliance without stain, without blemish, without wrinkle.

And you are called not merely to observe that future, but to step into that future and participate in that future in partnership with God to bring new creation into the world as an agent of heaven coming to earth.

 That's how you're to think about your life.

God has a destiny for you.

Your life is going somewhere.

You are not just existing.

You are journeying with Jesus and his church toward a celebration so great, the end of the book says that the entirety of the cosmos will be in attendance.

That's where you're going.

 Now how about we just begin by letting that reality shape how we show up to Monday morning at work.

How you show up to your co-workers at your place of work.

Like you ought to approach your life as a person with God-given destiny and mission.

 This is what the scriptures are inviting us into.

And this vision of life, it leads us to just one more pattern in these judgments before we dive into the text, which is especially relevant for our passage today.

It is, as I said earlier, that there is an interlude that takes place between the sixth and the seventh act.

And instead of moving to the end, there's an interruption to the flow of the text.

And these interludes are unexpected.

 But they serve a very significant purpose because amid the chaos of tribulation, they re-anchor you to the heavenly reality and they serve to clarify who you are and what your life is about.

You see, as human history moves forward, the church is not immune to the heat of tribulation.

You know that.

 and that tribulation marks the entirety of this age, and you feel the heat of that in your life, and those of us who have the hope of Christ in the midst of tribulation, we are likely to ask the question that the church asks earlier in chapter 6.

This is the question that they ask.

How long, Lord?

How long until the pain goes away?

 How long until evil is quenched and justice is fulfilled?

How long before earth unites with heaven?

You see, there's a very real feeling of delay as we make our way through this age, and we feel it the most when we are suffering, when the diagnosis comes, when the heartbreak happens, when the pressure builds.

Humans are capable of a whole lot, but nobody makes it through tribulation untouched.

 And as we are touched by tribulation, even the non-believer, I find, has the sense that this is not the way things are meant to be, that something needs fixing, that you and I were made for more, and that inkling is the longing for eternal life that God has set into the heart of humanity.

And the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is just that a Christian knows where to look for that longing to be satisfied.

 They can look beyond the cycle to the ultimate solution, the sovereign God, and therefore they can walk through the trials that tribulation brings, knowing that the one who has already overcome those trials is walking alongside of them.

And because of the promise of his resurrection, we have the promise of victory even in the midst of our suffering.

See, if you've ever felt the delay that comes with the question of how long, Lord, understand that that question is actually an invitation.

 And there's a certain clarity that God will meet you with when you ask him that question of how long.

The church asks that question right before we began our reading, and they're not given a timeline in response.

God doesn't tell them how long.

Instead, God reorients them back to their purpose.

 And that's what the interlude does.

It calls us back to following the Lamb.

This is a powerful paradigm, a practice for your own life, that every time you endure something that causes you to ask the question of how long, understand that the very pain that caused you to ask the question is an opportunity for you to be reoriented back to your purpose of following Jesus, carrying your cross, so that you can shine the light of heaven into the world through your pain, through your suffering.

 This is part of the purpose that I see in these interludes, and our text today is one of them.

It stands between the sixth and seventh seal, and it exists to answer the haunting question raised at the end of chapter six.

Look at verses 15 to 17.

 the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

They called to the mountains, and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?

And that's how chapter 6 ends, just letting that question linger.

We've seen many times throughout this journey that numbers have a lot of symbolic value in Revelation.

 So as God's judgments reach a crescendo here, John lists out seven distinct people groups.

Kings, princes, generals, the rich, the mighty, slaves, and free citizens.

And what's significant about this is that seven is the number of completion, of totality.

And so the seven different categories of people indicate that the totality, the entirety of humanity is represented here.

And then when you look close at the people groups, you see that the list spans from kings to free citizens to slaves.

 And all of them are in the same position as God's judgment reaches its crescendo.

They're all trying to hide from the one seated on the throne and from the Lamb.

None of them are immune to judgment.

None of them are exempt from God's justice.

None of their social positions grant them any kind of moral virtue in the eyes of God.

Nothing about their identities, we might say in modern terms, is able to save them.

 They cannot appeal either to their power or their lack of power, their prominence or their lack of prominence, in order to stand in the face of holy, righteous judgment.

Anything that they would point to about themselves melts before God's righteous anger against sin, because beneath all of the exteriors that they would cling to and point to, they are, like all of us, sinners.

 Now, we have to tread a little bit carefully here when we get to this point in the text, because scripture does show us that God has a concern for the economically vulnerable and lowly.

And he calls us to reflect the same heart, that we would have that same softness, that gentleness, that care for those who are in vulnerable positions.

And so we must not dismiss that truth while at the same time recognizing that scripture does not teach us that our social position saves us.

 Your position in society might move God's heart towards you, but your heart still has to be moved towards him in order to be saved.

We still must respond to the good news of salvation through Jesus, who became the most lowly and the most vulnerable for our sake that we may be lifted up to the throne of God.

So while we are careful to affirm God's care for the vulnerable, we also must clearly say with scripture that God does not grant entrance into his kingdom based upon social location.

 Belonging to a particular people group does not give us moral high ground in the kingdom of God, and it is not what saves us.

No human identity, whether it is derivative of external factors or based upon something that we feel, has any power to declare us righteous before God, which is why when everything is finally brought into the light at the end, we see that every identity proves too weak

 to bear the weight of salvation that we have placed upon it.

It is important to say because the question of salvation is ultimately a question of identity.

We are constantly being catechized in this world to believe that belonging itself is what makes us safe.

That if we belong to the right group, if we belong to the right party, if we voted for them and not for them, if we assume that we're justified, that we hold

 moral high ground if we stand with this tribe and not that tribe then we are taught that we are secure and it is a false gospel offering false salvation your money and your mansion can't save you no amount of boxes that you check on an intersectional identity matrix can save you what

 whatever identity we idolize in this life, that is what we trusted in for salvation, on the great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb, we will join the rest of humanity from the lowly to the mighty, asking the mountains and the rocks to cover us and fall on us and to hide us.

That request is grounded right in the Old Testament prophetic literature, in which the mountains and the rocks are the, what are they?

They are the high places where Israel built their altars to worship false gods.

 It is an ironic picture that the very idols that provoke God's judgment are the things that people look to for protection.

See, you will know what you worship by what you reach for when the ground starts shaking.

And it seems to me that this is just another version of Adam and Eve's self-made coverings of fig leaves after eating from the forbidden tree in the garden.

 The idea here is that the idols we bow before in this life will be the very things that we try to hide behind when God's righteous judgment is fully brought to bear on the world.

But we will not be able to hide.

The idols will not cover us.

They will melt like wax at the coming of Jesus.

And if we have trusted in them for salvation, then we will utter the same question as the rest of humanity.

Who can stand?

Chapter 7 has the answer.

 John sees four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding back destructive winds, which again represent God's complete judgment against evil.

And before that judgment is allowed to begin, it says in chapter seven, verses two and three, 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.

He says, don't harm them until what?

Until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.

The symbolism of a seal on the forehead has to do with ownership.

It has to do with your allegiance.

In the Greek, that word seal is like a signet ring that a king would wear in order to mark something that belongs to him.

 So in the same way that later on in the text, the non-believers who bear the mark of the beast signify their allegiance to Babylon and their allegiance to an idolatrous world, so also the servants of God bear the mark of God, which signifies their allegiance to the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb.

And so none of this is literal.

There's no tattoo you need to get.

There's no tattoo you shouldn't.

Well, there are some tattoos you shouldn't get, but it doesn't have anything to do with Revelation.

 This isn't about avoiding the use of certain technologies, although maybe you should avoid the use of certain technologies, but it has nothing to do with revelation.

This isn't about whether you should get a vaccine or not get a vaccine.

This isn't about you walking into a cafe and they're cashless and they require you to pay with a credit card and you should make a stink about that.

It's not about that.

This is about identity.

Who are you?

Even better, whose?

 are you?

Who has marked you?

The phrase, the living God, the seal of the living God, is used twice in the Old Testament in relation to contrasting God with idols.

So the fundamental issue throughout this whole text is whether you belong to an idol or you belong to the Lamb.

 Who have you identified yourself with?

Idolatry is always a question of identity.

Who do you belong to?

Who are you serving?

Do you belong to self?

Do you belong to followers?

Do you serve your appetite?

Do you serve your sexual desires?

Do you serve money?

Do you serve prominence?

If you wore a name across the front of your forehead that declared who you are serving, whose name would it be?

 Ultimately, it's our lives that tell the story.

You see, the seal or the mark that you bear is a figurative sign that is made visible through the way that you live, through your values and through your behavior.

Those things always flow out of identity.

This is why I begin my day as often as possible

 giving God thanks for the gospel and rehearsing the story of the gospel in prayer.

It's why every single time we gather, we will always be a people who sing the gospel, because the gospel is what informs my identity.

If I leave it up to my own feelings and my own thoughts, then I am a hopeless individual.

But if I rehearse the gospel and stand on the gospel, then I am accepted, I am loved, I am blessed, I am a son of God.

 And as I rehearse that identity, the way that I live, my values, my behavior flows out of who I know that I am.

And what this text is trying to show you is who you are and who you belong to.

Because if you can wrap your heart around who you belong to,

 that will sanctify you by the Spirit, and that will inform the way that you make your way through this life as you ought to as a servant of God.

You've got to be a person who rehearses the gospel.

Every day when you wake up, just take five minutes, just pray through the gospel from the birth of Jesus.

 to the ascension of Jesus.

Just hit all the points and go, God, thank you for that truth.

Thank you for the gospel that that now has changed the distance that used to exist between us.

That now I can come all the way close.

That because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't stand at a distance and ask as a beggar.

 I come all the way close and I ask as a son, I ask as a daughter, and I'm grateful that I have your attention, that I have your audience, and that your heart is inclined towards me to bless, to impart, to strengthen, to help.

That's what the gospel changes about who you are.

If you lived out of that reality, how do you think you would show up to work?

How do you think you would show up to your friends and family?

It would change everything about how you live because you know who you are.

 And that takes us deeper into the meaning of the text.

The servants of God in this initial vision are numbered as 144,000.

John says in verse 4 of chapter 7, I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

Now every number in Revelation is symbolic.

None of them are literal.

There's not literally going to be 144,000 ethnic Israelites who are left behind along with non-believers while the church is raptured up into the sky.

 That's not what the scripture is teaching.

First of all, those who are sealed here, the 144,000, are referred to as the servants of God.

Everywhere else in Revelation, everywhere else in Revelation, and the entirety of the New Testament, that phrase, the servants of God, is always, always in reference either to a Christian or the church.

Every single time.

Never just to ethnic Israel.

 Second of all, this list is highly irregular if it's meant to be taken literally, of the 12 tribes.

First of all, instead of beginning with Reuben, who was the firstborn son of Jacob, the son of Israel, it begins with Judah, which is the tribe that Jesus comes from.

The tribes of Dan and Ephraim are missing entirely, probably because this whole narrative has to do with idolatry, and in the Old Testament, Dan and Ephraim are associated with idolatry.

 The tribe of Levi is included in this list, but in Old Testament tribal lists, Levi is often excluded because the lists often have to do with land allotment, and the tribe of Levi, as the priestly tribe, did not receive a land inheritance.

And yet here they are included in this list because now all God's people are Levites, all God's people are priests, and the emphasis of Revelation is on the redemption of the world, not just a particular plot of land in the Middle East.

 So the tribes are representative of God's people who are oriented around the firstborn, the Messiah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

That's why there are 144,000, which is a number derived from the square root of 1,000 times 12, 1,000 being representative of an innumerable amount and 12 being representative of the entirety of God's people.

 The idea is that none of God's people are missing.

All are accounted for.

All who belong to him will be able to stand securely throughout tribulation and on the day of his wrath.

And in the meantime, they will serve God faithfully and fruitfully as they make their way through the wilderness of this age as an army.

 That's what becomes clear about the 144,000 later in chapter 14.

They are being described as the army of God engaged in spiritual warfare in the world.

And the thing that the interlude is alerting us to about this army in the midst of this tribulation is they know who they are.

They know who they belong to.

 Though a thousand may fall to their right, ten thousand to their left.

They know who they belong to.

They're walking with the Lord.

You are a soldier in the army of God engaged in a spiritual war where the dragon rages and makes war against the church.

What does that mean for you?

 For starters, make sure you are among those who are being counted.

Get in formation.

Lone soldiers don't fare well in cosmic battles.

Take your place in God's church.

No exceptions, no special cases.

Unique functions, yes.

Unique giftings, absolutely.

But every one of us meant to function with our gifts in the body of Christ as we follow Jesus together.

God has an assignment for us today.

 And we are participating in his plan to make all things new.

And we all have to be in on that plan.

Before God has a plan for you, God has a plan for us.

And his plan for you is informed by his plan for us.

For his church.

And we are called to be an army who engage in the spiritual fight as we make our way through this world.

 Time, this place.

This is a very significant truth in Revelation, and we'll see it even more clearly when we get to chapter 11.

It's this, that God's judgment does not accomplish its purpose apart from God's people on mission.

God is judging evil.

 but his judgment is meant to work in tandem with the mission of his people.

The two work together, just like we see in Exodus, right?

God sends the plagues upon Egypt, and Moses is the mouthpiece of God, calling even Egyptians to repent, which is why even Egyptians went out with Israel through the Red Sea in joy, as a mixed multitude, Exodus says.

So there is judgment, but there's also the mission of God's people to call people out of Babylon, out of Egypt, and to come into the people of God.

 Eventually, God will give people over to the hardness of their hearts.

But in the meantime, the church is called to do war against the dragon by plundering Babylon and populating the New Jerusalem.

And the fundamental way we do this is knowing our identity, who we are.

And that's what the rest of chapter 7 makes clear.

Look at verses 9 and 10.

I've got to move quickly because I'm running out of time.

 It says, after this, I looked.

Everyone say that word, say looked.

Say looked.

Remember that John heard about the 144,000.

And now he looks and he sees before him a great multitude that no one can count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

They were wearing robes and were holding palm branches in their hands and they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

 Now we've heard many times throughout this series that one of the literary devices that Revelation uses is the combination of hearing and seeing.

That oftentimes John will hear one thing and then immediately after that see another and

 And the two things are meant to interpret one another.

So the most famous example is in Revelation 5.

John hears about the lion of the tribe of Judah and he turns to see and it is a lamb standing at the center of the throne.

That tells us how does the victorious lion conquer?

He conquers by being a self-sacrificial lamb.

 What John sees interprets what John hears, and the exact same thing is happening here in chapter 7.

John hears about an army numbering 144,000 of God's servants, but then he sees a great multitude which no one could count from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne of God.

So are these two different groups of people?

No.

No, they're not.

What John sees interprets what he hears.

 The 144,000 symbolized the people of God engaged in spiritual warfare on the earth.

And what John sees is the same people, now revealed as an innumerable worldwide multitude, standing in heaven, singing praise to God who has given them victory in the war that they are still currently engaged in.

 And I want you to notice what they're doing.

These people in heaven, they are standing before the throne and before the Lamb.

Now remember what humanity was doing at the end of chapter 6.

They were hiding from the same God and the same Lamb.

And they were crying out, who can withstand His wrath?

Who can withstand His wrath?

 And here's the striking thing.

The word withstand in chapter 6 and the word standing in chapter 7 are the same Greek root word.

John is forcing a contrast here.

One group hides and cannot stand.

The other group stands confidently and does not hide.

Both groups appear before the same throne.

Both groups behold the same God.

Both groups face the same Lamb.

The difference is not the one they stand before.

It's the basis of their standing.

 Those who stand do so not because they were heroes, though some of them may have been.

Those who stand do so not because they were social elites, though some of them may have been.

Those who stand do so not because they were on the margins of society, though many of them would have been.

They are all just people like the rest of the world.

So how is it they can stand while the rest of humanity falls?

Verses 13 and 14 answer the question.

One of the elders asked me, these in white robes, who are they and where did they come from?

 In other words, why are they able to be before the throne of God in this way?

And John's like, beats me.

You tell me.

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.

Why can they stand unafraid before the one who is perfect purity and perfect righteousness?

Because of the Lamb.

They are standing not on their own righteousness.

They are standing in His.

 They've washed their robes in the red blood of Jesus and made those robes as white as snow.

They've asked him to cover them instead of trying to cover themselves.

And that is the difference.

But they did not trust in an idol.

They did not hide behind a false promise.

They did not place their hope in anything that this world values.

They trusted the lamb and that's what it means to bear the seal of God.

 It is to belong to the one whose blood alone satisfies justice and declares you righteous.

And you can receive that same cleansing today.

It will not come from another false offer of salvation that this world has planned to give you.

Your need for it cannot be drowned out by trying to ignore it.

You need salvation.

 And the only way to receive it is to humbly confess your need for the one who was humble enough to come and die on a cross for you.

That is what makes the multitude victorious.

That is what gives the army their confidence.

Therefore, verses 15 to 17, they are before the throne of God.

They're not hiding.

They're not running.

And they serve him day and night in his temple.

 Their life is characterized by heavenly cosmic purpose.

He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

This is taking us to the end of the book.

The kind of stuff that's narrated here in this text, this is what is at the very end of Revelation as we read about the renewed creation.

And so what Jesus does is he says, hey, the next 13 chapters are going to be a little bit bumpy, right?

 As you witness the judgment of God upon the evil of this world.

So let me just show you the end of the story.

Because there's going to be a lot of days where you feel like you're losing.

There's going to be a lot of days where your heart cries out, how long?

Jesus says, well, don't worry about how long.

 But let me tell you the ending.

You're going to be sheltered.

My Father is going to wipe every tear from your eyes.

I'm going to be your shepherd.

And I only do green pastures.

I only do streams of living water.

You're not going to be struck down by the heat.

The hungry won't hunger.

The thirsty won't thirst.

 The broken will be bound up with healing.

The sinner will be cleansed.

This is the answer to the question that Revelation 6 leaves you with.

Who can stand?

Not the mighty.

Not the rich.

Not the famous.

Not the influential.

Not the powerful.

Not the poor.

Not Republicans.

Not Democrats.

Not liberals.

Not conservatives.

 Not any identifying factor that you could point to.

No one gets to stand on the basis of any worldly thing.

Who can stand?

All of those who belong to the Lamb.

That's who gets to stand.

Not because of what you've done, but because of what He has done.

 and still is doing for you.

Let's all stand.

I'm going to keep all of our locations linked together for a moment.

Just be so sensitive to the environment right now.

Would you just be still?

 and I wanna call every single one of us to respond to the gospel of Jesus and to receive his invitation to be able to stand the truth of the matter is that if you long for justice in this world then you actually long for the judgment of God to come to pass because God is the only just one he's the only one who can judge perfectly

 the evil in this world.

So these visions are not for you to be intimidated, they are for you to be grateful.

And at the same time, they are for you to examine your own heart.

Because when you get to that day, you will not be able to stand on the basis of your own merit, your own resume.

It will only be the blood of Jesus.

His reputation, not yours.

 So across all of our locations, let's bow our heads and close our eyes.

And I want to call you to receive Jesus today.

That you may be able to stand throughout this age and on that last day.

Just to have an opportunity to humble yourself and confess your need for him.

Your need for his love.

 If that's you, would you respond even right now, just by lifting up your hand right where you stand.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Just lift it up.

Say, Jake, that's me.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Wonderful.

Beautiful.

Thank you, Jesus.

Hands going up all over the room.

Who else is there?

Would you do that?

Now respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Thank you.

Who else?

 We love you, Jesus.

We're so grateful for your grace, your mercy.

Surely your blood cleanses us white as snow.

Surely it is enough to cover every single sin, every misstep.

 where everything else fails to cover.

You cover and you cleanse.

You cleanse so that we can stand before God with confidence, gratitude, and boldness.

We give you thanks.

We give you thanks.

Church, let's just begin to give God thanks.

Even those of you who just lifted your hand a moment ago, you can give God thanks right now in the same way that somebody who's been following him for 50 years can thank him.

Just thank the Lord for the gift of the gospel.

 that you come to cleanse, Lord Jesus, even now.

You're walking the rooms of our church.

You come to cleanse hearts, minds, souls.

Thank you, Lord.

We bless you, Jesus.

We love you, God.

 I'm going to lead us in a prayer.

We're going to join our voices together across the entirety of our church.

Would you say this out loud for me?

For those of you who lifted your hand a moment ago, I'm going to give you the words to this prayer, but it's only so that you can talk to God from your heart in this moment.

And I'd love you to join along as we all pray this together.

Say this with me.

Say, Father, thank you.

Amen.

 For the Son, Jesus, thank you for coming to us, for walking in our place, living, suffering, bearing our sin, going to the cross, dying in our place, rising again.

 so we could have eternal life with God.

We receive forgiveness.

We receive mercy.

We receive your justice in our place.

Fill us now with the Holy Spirit that we would walk by your power and not our own.

In Jesus' name.

 Father, I do pray in the name of Jesus, the filling of the Holy Spirit in every single person who has responded to the gospel.

If that was you, just lift your hands again.

Expect to receive the gift of the Spirit even now.

Lord, fill them.

Fill them afresh.

Fill them anew.

 lord god living water filling every single vessel in jesus name if you're standing next to someone with their hand raised just put your hand on their shoulder lord we speak the blessing of god over them that the mighty power of the holy spirit would fill them flooding their hearts lord that they would walk by the power of god we thank you lord that your plans for them

 are to help them, to bless them, to prosper them, and not to harm them.

Because you are the God of our salvation, rescue, and redemption.

And God, we give you praise for their testimony, Lord, for the story that you're weaving together as they take the step to journey with you.

In Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen and amen.

Can we give God one mighty, mighty praise?

We love you, Lord.