Revelation 7:9-17
April 25, 2010
"The Lamb- The Shepherd"
Today we are looking at Jesus as the Lamb, the Shepherd our salvation and our God! The scripture I am working from today is one of great hope and encouragement written during one of the most trying times of Christian history.
I want to begin with a short video that will help us explore these themes, that takes us from Jesus birth and its announcement by the angels, to his sacrifice on the cross as the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
PLEASE ROLL THE VIDEO
The Lamb who is the Shepherd, the Sacrifice who is Salvation, robes washed white in blood, “I and the Father are one” all paradoxes of great power. All are images revealed and written to bring comfort and strength in time of suffering and need.
The Revelation given to John that we read from today was given to the strengthen God’s people in the face of intense persecution and the temptation to compromise the faith. This vision was originally “recounted by the seer (John) to inspire the communities to which he was writing. The vast throng (multitude) in heaven are those who will remain loyal despite the pressures of persecution and the threats of death.”
These words were written to inspire hope. They were written to 7 churches in Asia Minor with the understanding they were written to all churches who suffered persecution and as you hear the hope in these words they are written to all who suffer.
These 7 churches that you read about in the first 3 chapters of Revelation, they had all sorts of problems. They were being persecuted by the Roman government on the outside. On the inside they were rent with divisions over moral and religious issues. One was so successful it acted as if it didn’t need God anymore and one had just grown pure lazy.
There was intense pressure to compromise with the government and its growing cult of Emperor Worship. There were a 1000 other religions to chose from and even some within their ranks were saying that their freedom in Christ meant that they could do whatever act of idolatry or immorality they wanted to do and it didn’t matter they were saved.
It was a very confusing difficult stressful time where giving up was as simple as burning a pinch of incense at the altar of a Roman Emperor and the consequences were as serious as your own torture and death. Some were saying, “Oh come on. Do whatever, it doesn’t matter.” Others were paying for their faith with their lives. Jesus here was saying “I stand at the door and knock…”
In the midst of this situation comes Jesus’ Revelation to John and here in particular is a vision of heaven that looks beyond all the present difficulties, pain, suffering, persecution and divisions. In verse 9 we see all the redeemed all the saved that great multitude standing in heaven before the throne of God.
See verse 9, it says, “I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.”
Here we see the first paradox of white robes made so by being washed in the blood of the Lamb. Here we see the redeemed, all the redeemed standing before God waving the symbols of victory, palm branches in their hands. This is a vision of after the end of time when all death, mourning, crying and pain have passed away.
Now verse 10 is the first of three hymns that are sung in our scripture today. In the first they praise God for their salvation that came to them from God through the Lamb.
The second is verse 12 and praises God for “The Blessing” they have received, which is their salvation that allows them to stand before the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Now verse 14 tells who all these are who are gathered together here in Heaven. It says, “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.”
Now on first reading, you would think, like many do that this great multitude from “every nation, all tribes, peoples and languages” were only those who were martyred during the “Great Tribulation” at the end of time.
No! We live in that time of tribulation now! Just like the number 7 speaks of completeness in the numerology of the Bible so does the number 4. These 4 designations of the peoples of the earth that we are introduced to here (in the multitude) are the complete number of all who have lived and died, believed in Jesus and done the will of God.
We Methodists are not “pre” or “post” millenialists we are amillenialist believing that with Jesus’ death on the cross evil and death have been defeated and we await now the consummation of the age, which is the return of Christ. In the meantime all who live in love and believe will be saved.
I did a 22 week study on Revelation, which I will not repeat here, except to say the time of suffering is now between Christ’s ascension and his return.
Those who stand before the throne are all those who have suffered and remained faithful and would not compromise their faithful testimony of Jesus. Not all who stand in this multitude are martyrs to their faith. All, though, are those who lived and suffered in life and yet would not give up their faith.
Now today, I do not want to talk about the corrosive nature of our consumer society on our faith, or other aspects of our society that eat away at our faith and practice. I am not going to speak about the 100,000 Christians a year that are martyred for our faith. We here in America usually do not face that type of persecution.
I want to bring it down to a more personal level of personal suffering. In our personal suffering, either our own physical pain or emotional pain, we are tempted to forsake our faith and we need the strength of the vision in this and other scriptures to hold on.
We need the vision of the great multitude standing before God and the Lamb after the battle has been won and we stand in our victory robes waving our victory palm branches in order to hold on in our present suffering.
We need the image of verse 17 of the Lamb who suffered and died for us standing in the middle of the throne who is not only our sacrifice but our strong shepherd too. We need that image to hold on to when life is almost too much to bear. We need the image of God as our shepherd; the strong shepherd who provides for us green pastures, still waters and protects us with his rod and his staff.
We need the image of God in whose very presence we will one day no longer thirst, nor hunger, nor be struck down with heat. We need that image firmly stuck in our mind of our God who will “lead us to streams of living water and wipe away every tear from our eyes.” as verse 17 says.
We need to hold onto these images, these revelations, these words for them to be comforting in a time of present need.
One of the deepest and most profound honors I have as a pastor is to sit at the bedsides of those who are dying and speak with them and encourage them. It is a deeply spiritual experience.
I recently sat at the bedside of a dying woman whose words to me that day lifted up the deepest question of our hearts in times of suffering and sorrow. In barely a whisper she said to me, in fact I had to ask her to repeat it twice before I understood it, she said, “Why is it so hard?”
No answer I could give her, or could give you now could adequately or completely answer that question. It has haunted me ever since. At the time I said, “I don’t know, but when I get to heaven I will ask God. In fact, I have a lot of questions I want to ask God about suffering.”
But as I thought of that question and our scripture today, I realized that God has not promised us a lack of suffering now. Job 5:7 says, “Man is born to trouble as sparks fly up from a fire.” One pastor pointed out verse 17 says, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Not “God will stop all tears from being shed in this world.”
Here on earth we will suffer. We though have the choice of who and what we suffer for. We follow a God who is the Lamb, who as a man was acquainted with suffering.
We believe in a God who as a man suffered on a cross and through that suffering was saved and because he is saved, so shall we be saved. Our robes are washed white in his blood.
One writer wrote this: “Washing robes white in blood to make them white: reminds us that our suffering on behalf of faithful witness can be a continuation of the vocation of Jesus. He suffered as a witness for God and we can continue in that vocation for Colossians 1:24 says, “we can complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.”
As we suffer faithfully, be it by resisting temptations to compromise, physical martyrdom, or holding onto our faith in the face of personal suffering in this world. When we hold on, we are part of Christ’s suffering, part of Christ’s witness and hold a place in that great multitude in heaven.
Paul wrote “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” The Lamb is in the center of the throne in verse 17 and the Lamb- the Shepherd will wipe away every tear. And even if we do not understand our suffering; through our faith in Christ we can be victorious in it.
I close now with one more word of scripture that I read to the dying woman I spoke of. It did not deliver her of the pain, or the suffering, or answer her question, but it gave her hope and assurance of her ultimate victory in Jesus.
I read it to you in the hopes it will give you the same when your time of need comes. It speaks of the time of the New Heaven and Earth.
Revelation 21:3b, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Amen!
