The Mixed Multitude (Revelation 7:1–17) | Coronation (Part 15)

Transcript

JRNT 514
The Mixed Multitude
Revelation 7:1-17
10/26/2025
Jesse Randolph

Good evening and welcome back to our Sunday evening study in the book of Revelation as we continue with our study of this book and admittedly rapid pace. In recent weeks we’ve encountered John’s heavenly throne room scene or his vision in Revelation chapter 4. Then we rolled right into Revelation chapter 5, where God, sitting on His throne was looking for someone worthy to open the scroll that He held in His right hand. You’ll recall that initially, John as he took in this scene in Revelation 5 was weeping. Since as he took in this vision of this throne room, there was no one worthy, or so he thought, to open the scroll. And that scroll, the contents we saw were where God was laying out in detail His eternal plan, His divine plan for how He will bring judgment on the earth and its people in the future, after taking the Church out of the world in the Rapture.

In this vision, one of the twenty-four elders who were gathered around the throne of God told John in Revelation 5:5, to “stop crying,” because there was One who was worthy to open the scroll. That elder said to John also in Revelation 5:5, “Behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Then John saw “a Lamb standing” it reads, as if one slain in the midst of the throne. That Lamb, of course was the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who was slain for the sins of the world. And then, having found One who was worthy to open the scroll, these three choruses of praise and worship broke out.

First, the four creatures and the 24 elders sing this song, in Revelation 5:9-10. “Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain and purchased for God with Your blood people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And You made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.” And then the angels jumped in and joined the creatures and the elders around the throne, saying “with a loud voice,” in Revelation 5:12, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” The chorus broadened yet again, in verse 13, to “every created thing (it says) which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea.” And this group was saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.”

Well, that led us to our text last time in Revelation 6, where the Lamb in John’s vision, opened the first six of the seven seals which represented these different phases or stages of future judgment on the earth, specifically, during the seven-year Tribulation period, that follows the Rapture of the Church out of the world. The first four seals involved the judgment ushered in by those four horsemen. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse as they’ve been known popularly. The first rode in, in Revelation 6:2 on a white horse. As he did so, he carried a bow, but it was a bow with no arrow, and he wore a specific type of crown. Not the diadem that Christ will wear when He comes at His Second Coming, but instead this was a wreath-like crown. I made the case when we went through this text that this rider is representative of the bloodless victory that antichrist will experience in the early part of the Tribulation.

Then there was the opening of the second seal in Revelation 6:3-4 where this rider rode in on a red horse. And he came galloping through the earth with a sword in his hand which represents war and conquest, slaughter and bloodshed, which will come upon this earth in the Tribulation as this man, the rider, takes peace from the earth.

And then there was the opening of the third seal, in Revelation 6:5-6 where the rider was on a black horse which represents the worldwide plague and famine which would come upon the world in the Tribulation.

And then there’s the opening of the fourth seal in verses 7-8, where this rider rode in on a pale horse. This sickly-looking horse with a greenish pallor, representing grim death on this massive scale.

There’s the opening of the fifth seal in verses 9-11, and there we are introduced to this group of the martyred dead. The Tribulation Martyrs, as they’re known, are looking to have their blood avenged by the Lamb.

With the opening of the sixth seal in verses 12-17, John witnessed this vision of a series of additional destructive events, which would be brought about in the future period of Tribulation. In fact, let’s go ahead and read verses 12-17 to lead into our text for this evening. This is seal number six as it was opened by the Lamb. Verse 12 he says “Then I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man his themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence 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 is able to stand?’”

What is being described here with this opening of seal number six is this terrifying time of cosmic upheaval, as God’s righteous wrath bottled up for all of these years, and all these decades, and all these centuries, and at this point all these millennia, is now being poured out on this wicked planet and on its people.

Let me just say this now in all these years after John is writing this, knowing what we know about what the Bible teaches, about the imminency of the Rapture. Knowing that we, as the Church can be and will be literally taken out of this world at any moment according to God’s perfect timeline. Snatched away to meet the Lord in the air. An event which will trigger the events we’re now working through in this section of Revelation, the Tribulation.

That ought to spark in us a genuine passion and a genuine urgency, to get the message of the Gospel out to the lost here in the community the Lord has place us in, i.e Lincoln, Nebraska. We do have an E-Team at our Church. And there’s good reason for that. But that E-team doesn’t replace our job to go out and be witnesses, all over this community and wherever the Lord might send us. There is a reason why as a Church we deemed it worthwhile to invest in a pastoral intern whose focus is going to be on evangelism. To come alongside our evangelism team and to share the hope of Christ with the lost.

There is a reason that I got up this morning and shared in front of our morning crowd that we are making Christmas this year not about us, not about traditions, not about even our personal family choices, but about reaching the lost in this community with the hope of Christ. Why do we do all of that? Because we have this earnest desire to see Jesus, who it says in I Thessalonians 1:10, will “rescue us from the wrath to come.” We want to see Him rescue many more before He unleashes His judgment and His fury on this planet. That’s why we do all of those things. It’s not just lip service. It’s not just words. It’s not just guys doing their job. It’s a passion to see souls won, because what we see described here is really going to happen. That’s why.

What I was saying is where we left off last time was John’s vision of the Lamb’s opening here of seal number six. When we get to Revelation chapter 8 next Sunday night, we’re going to see John’s vision of the opening of the seventh seal, that’s recorded in Revelation 8:1-5.

But first, here in Revelation 7, there’s this break in John’s vision, what many have called an interlude. Where John describes this vision that he had of these two distinct groups of the redeemed people. What I’m going to call here a “mixed multitude.” And this interlude here in chapter 7, hasn’t been added haphazardly here. No. The Spirit directed that this would be placed right here in this section of Revelation. And not only that it’s logical that this material is placed where it’s placed between seals number six and seven. Again, though look at the end of chapter 6, and specifically, the end of verse 17 of chapter 6. It says there that the “kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man,” they are begging for the rocks and mountains to fall on them. To end their misery in this period of the Tribulation. Not only do they cry out in their misery, but then they ask this question. Look at the last few words of verse 17, “Who is able to stand?” In other words, who is able to possibly survive this terror. Who is able to withstand the wrath being poured out by almighty God on this planet, as laid out here in this passage.

Well, here in Revelation 7, and through the Apostle John, God answers that very question. He answers the question, “Who is able to stand?” He does so by introducing us to these two groups that we’re going to see described here in Revelation 7. Two groups who are able to stand. Two groups who are safely preserved from the outpouring of God’s divine wrath on this planet during the dark and distressing days of the Tribulation.

In contrast to chapter 6, and even 5, as chapter 6 especially is moving in the chronologically of the events of the Tribulation period forward, chronologically through these various events. Seals numbered 1-6 and we’re going to see more chronological events leading all the way through the Tribulation up to Revelation chapter 19. But our text for this evening in Revelation 7 is sort of an outlier in this sense that it doesn’t really advance the narrative forward chronologically. Instead, John and the Holy Spirit here, is directing our attention to these two distinct groups.

First is the 144,000, the sealed servants who, we are going to see this evening that they represent this Godly remnant of Israel on earth during the period of the Great Tribulation. Then second, as this great multitude of the martyred dead in heaven, the saved saints, those who died as a testimony for their faith from every people group, tongue, and nation.

With that we’ll get to work on our text, starting in Revelation 7:1-3. Our first point for verse 1-3 is THE DELAYED DESTRUCTION. Let’s go ahead and read it. “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out 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 or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the slaves of our God on their foreheads.’”

So, verse one here “after this” meaning after the judgments he witnessed through the opening of the first six seals, John sees this new amazing situation unfold. There, it says, “standing at the four corners of the earth,” John saw these “four angels.” Now that language, some have argued is not a testimony to the earth being flat with four literal corners. That’s not what this is saying and that’s not what this is supporting. Instead, this is a testimony to the power and to the might of God’s angels, as they hold back the power of the wind that is otherwise able to come upon the earth and cause all kinds of havoc and destruction.

The point here is really that these angels are doing so, they’re withholding the winds, and withholding judgment from every possible direction. They’re holding back the four winds of the earth it says, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.” So, these angels in obedience to God and actually with great power, are restraining all of the great wind systems, they hydrological systems of the earth. They are keeping the wind from blowing on land or on the sea.

The same winds that blow all around the earth, that bring about all these major natural events. Hurricanes and blizzards and tornadoes. These angels are able it says, to shut it all down, “so that no wind can blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.” They have power to bring harm. They have power to bring destruction. They have power to let lose the winds from any one of these four corners. Doing so it inflicts catastrophic damage on the earth. But they don’t. Instead, they are depicted here as holding back the winds. Preventing further damage from being done to the earth. The scene that’s being portrayed here is really one of eerie calm. Picture, especially in a place like Nebraska. A place where there was no breeze blowing. Can you imagine no wind in this place? That would be crazy. It would be too silent. It’d be too quiet. There’d be no sound of waves breaking on the seashore in this scene. There wouldn’t even be the sound of a leaf rustling in the woods in this scene. These angels are corralling the winds of judgment, waiting for the seal of God’s chosen people from the Tribulation to be completed, to protecting those people from the carnage and the wrath that is to come.

Then in verse 2, John sees another great wonder, and this is a still-mightier angel appearing from the east. He says, “Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun.” From the east. This is a fifth angel. A more powerful angel. One who is here is described as “having the seal of the living God.” Look at what this angel does. Still in verse 2, “He cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea.” So, this fifth angel bearing this “seal of the living God” is calling out in this loud voice, loud enough to reach the other four angels who were stationed at the four corners of the earth. And as he did so, we’re going to see, he’s speaking out, he’s speaking loudly to prevent those four angels from unleashing the winds, unleashing judgment.

The instructions from this angel from the east were clear. Look at verse 3, he is depicted here as saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the slaves of our God on their foreheads.” Now those “slaves” those sealed ones, will be introduced in verse 4. But we can already see that this angel from the east is seeking to protect them. Apparently, they have some sort of special ministry to fulfill and to carry out in the Tribulation. It’s a ministry of witnessing and so they’re to be protected from further physical judgments that will come upon earth during the Tribulation so that their ministry during the Tribulation could be accomplished.

How this group would be singled out and protected, we see here in verse 3 was was through a seal. A physical seal of some sort which was placed on their foreheads. About as conspicuous a body part as one could choose to be set apart. This would be a seal which would indicate their ownership and their security. A seal that would indicate that these individuals, the sealed ones, are redeemed people, who are owned by God, and secured by God. This seal would identify all who would encounter them, that they are God’s special servants, under God’s special protection. Also, this seal, as this physical mark of identity would keep those who were sealed physically safe from their enemies on earth, allowing them to accomplish their service to the Lord.

That brings us now to the next part of John’s vision in verses 4-8, where we do learn the identity of these sealed ones. Our second point these are THE SEALED SAINTS. So, it’s the DELAYED DESTRICTION, now it is THE SEALED SAINTS. Verses 4-8, He continues on and says “And I heard the number of those having been sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 having been sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 having been sealed.”

Now this text, these five verses have been a source of massive controversy over the years. We could spend the rest of 2025 working through all the wacky theology that is developed out of these five verses. Not just wacky theology but cultic theology has developed from bad teaching from this very passage, these five verses.

For instance, the Seventh Day Adventists believe that the 144,000 in this text are true believers today. And they would say that you can know that a person is a true believer, and you can know that someone is one of these 144,000 based on whether they follow Seventh Day Adventist teaching. Specifically, if they observe the Jewish Sabbath, if they observe Saturday as their day of worship. According to official Seventh Day Adventist teaching they believe that only those who worship on Saturday will be the ones who go to heaven. That’s according to their official doctrine and dogma. In fact, they believe that Sunday worship like what we do here at Indian Hills, is the mark of the beast. They believe that they are the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7. They believe that they are the ones who are going to heaven while we who worship on Sunday are in league with the devil and with the antichrist. It’s a hard claim to make; because not only does it butcher the actual context of Revelation 7, but because it completely ignores passages like Colossians 2:16. Paul writes that “no one is to judge you in food or drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.”

There’s also the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They also really mess with this text. In their earliest days, you must remember the Jehovah’s Witnesses are maybe 150 years old, maybe closer to 200 now. But when the Watchtower Society was in its infancy, they claimed that the 144,000 mentioned here in Revelation 7 were not Jews who embraced the Messiah but instead, shocker, Jehovah’s Witnesses. Those are the 144,000 they would say. The Jehovah’s Witnesses said, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are the 144,000 and therefore the sealed and the saved ones. They took that number literally at least. They believed in 144,000. Well, problems started to arise and for understandable reasons when the membership rolls of the Jehovah’s Witness movement exceeded 144,000. Because now you must start playing games of exclusion like Tommy’s with us, Jill is not. Because she’s 144,001. Well to get creative, anybody that’s part of a cult group or part of an apostate religious group, must get creative when you run into issues like this.

That’s what the Jehovah’s Witnesses did. Instead of bowing to the plain meaning of Scripture, like we’re going to get into tonight, they changed their position, and they’ve revised their doctrine, to again try to make this Scripture about them and their group, which it clearly is not. How they did that, to overcome the fact that there are only 144,000 mentioned here, but their membership roles exceeded 144,000. They tried to get everybody in their movement onto the team so to speak; they had to claim that there was actually and earthly group of 144,000 and another heavenly group of 144,000. So, what John really meant was 288,000. Ok, but then their membership exceeded 288,000. Then they had to start creating a third group of 144,000 to make sure all of their members were in the boat. You just see the madness of how this perpetuates and they must keep revising their policies and doctrine to try to make themselves fit within the text. That’s the story in a nutshell of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. That’s the cult groups, that’s the apostate groups, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses.

But even within more orthodox (lower case o) circles, like with our Reformed brethren. You will find them saying that verse 4 here where it says that there were “144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.” Now I read that and I see the word Israel and I think “Wow that’s talking about Israel.” Well folks in other theological camps will say this isn’t really about Israel. This is really about God’s redeemed people of all time. The one people of God. This is really about the Church. The biggest problem with that interpretation is that you can’t find the word church here anywhere and the context clearly militates against this being about the Church. This very clearly is describing Jewish tribes. There’s an itemized list here, a literal itemized list as you see in the 28 other lists of the tribes of Israel in the Old and New Testament.

You see them there. Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. To take that language, “144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel” and make it about anything or anyone other than literal, historical, ethnic Jews; is to do a great disservice to the actual text. It’s to abuse the plain meaning of Scripture. What is being communicated here in Revelation 7:4-8 in context, is that there will be Jewish people who are saved during the Tribulation. This passage on its face is about Jews being sealed and saved during the Tribulation. It’s not about the Church being the true Israel. If it were, you should ask some church person who thinks that this is about the Church, you should ask them what tribe are they from, and see what response that engenders. They won’t be able to tell you because they’re not of Israel.

This is about 12,000 men being chosen by God from these 12 different tribes of Israel who will be supernaturally protected from the terrible events of the Tribulation, who will be sealed and saved for God’s service in the Tribulation and by the way these are men. I know that’s not a very PC thing to say. But the 12,000 times 12, these are men. How do I know that? Look with me at Revelation 14:1-5. It says, “Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb.”

We’ll get into this text later when we study that passage. But note the reference in verse 4 to these men being “ones who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins.” These are men. These are single, virgin men. These are men who I believe are keeping themselves from the sexual promiscuity like many other sins which will plague the Tribulation period. We must remember the Holy Spirit, the restrainer, in II Thessalonians 2:7 says will be “taken out of the way” during the Tribulation. As sin overtakes the world during the Tribulation, sin will be inundating this planet. There’ll be all sorts of wickedness and debauchery happening on planet earth. One of which would be prevalent sexual morality. Even beyond what we see today. What that means here in chapter 7 is that these 12,000 times 12, they’re going to stand out like bright lights of purity in those dark days.

Now one other matter to address and I’ll do this briefly, are the names on this list of the 12 tribes and 12,000 of each tribe. As I mentioned earlier there are 29 lists of the 12 tribes in the Scriptures. Sometimes different names appear on one list than appear on another. And then sometimes you’ll put the different lists side by side and see certain lists go in one order and certain lists go in a different order. They’re not all the same. It’s no different here, in Revelation 7. For instance, rather than both of Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, being listed here, we see only Manasseh in verse 6. Ephraim is not there. Joseph presumably, his father is put there in his place. Levi is often left out of lists of the 12 tribes all throughout the Scriptures. But here we see him listed in verse 7. Then there’s this matter of the tribe of Dan who is not there. Dan is one of the original 12 tribes of Israel, but here he’s not on the list. Why?

Well, all sorts of theories have been thrown around, and speculation has been offered over the years. Some say that Dan’s omitted because He was, that tribe was one of the first to go into a period of idolatry and wickedness. We see that in Judges 18:30 and I Kings 12:28-29. Some who take the position that the Antichrist will be a Jew, speculate that the omission of Dan’s name here must mean that the Antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan. I don’t think we have enough information to be dogmatic about why Dan is left off this list here. So, I’m going to leave it at this super basic and simplistic conclusion which is that John didn’t put Dan’s name here because the Spirit didn’t move him to put Dan’s name here. I’m going to leave it there. Total cop out but I’m OK with it.

Big picture back here in verse 4, “The number of those having been sealed.” John heard the number he says of those having been sealed. He goes ahead and lists them out in verse 5 onward, “from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 having been sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 having been sealed.” As John again is laying out these tribal identities of these 144,000 men, he is saying in plain language, I’ll just drive it home one more time, that these represent the literal twelve tribes of Israel. John is communicating is in this vision he’s receiving, is that God would continue to watch over Israel, even during the Tribulation, even in the time of Israel’s great distress, even in the time of Jacob’s trouble.

These tribes do not represent the Church. These tribes are describing Israel. Because I can’t resist driving the nail in even more, there’s a commentator named J.A. Seiss on Revelation who writes this. I found this helpful. He says, “Nor is there a vice or device of sacred hermeneutics, which so beclouds the Scriptures, and so unsettles the faith of men, as this constant attempt to read Church for Israel, and Christian peoples for Jewish tribes. As I read the Bible, when God says, ‘children of Israel,’ I do not understand Him to mean any but people of Jewish blood, be they Christians or not.” Indeed. John heard what he heard in this vision. It is not our place to suggest that John was mistaken and that what John really meant by Israel was the Church. We leave it with what he was communicating on the face of this passage, about these 12,000 times 12, representing the tribes of Israel and that God will protect them and God will show mercy to them during the coming period of Tribulation.

Well, as I mentioned earlier there are two groups of redeemed people mentioned here in Revelation 7. The first is this 144,000 sealed Jews from the 12 tribes of Israel which we just covered. The second is this innumerable host of Gentiles which we’re about to cover. Look at verses 9-10. If you’re taking notes, here’s our heading for this one, this would be third, THE MARTYRED MULTITUDE. Verses 9-10. John here now says “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

In verses 4-8 John had heard of this 144,000 who had been sealed for ministry on earth during these remaining days of the Tribulation. But now, starting in verse 9, he sees this new dramatic scene unfolding and this time, in heaven. So, it’s on earth that he has this vision of the 144,000 sealed Jews. But back in this heavenly scene, this even larger group has gathered. And he records here that he saw a “great multitude” beyond human computation. One “which no one could count.” The first thing John notes is that they were coming “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.” In other words, these were not Israelites, but Gentiles, coming from every nation, tribe, people, and language. Remember Christ’s Great Commission to His followers at His first coming, before His ascension was that they make disciples of all nations, Matthew 28:19. Jesus said to His disciples, in Matthew 28:20, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Well now, the end of the age had come, the Gospel had been preached, Acts 1:8, “to the ends of the earth,” and some had, in fact, been won to Christ, from every tribe and people and tongue.

The makeup of this multitude is quite different than that first group, the 144,000. This group that’s made up predominantly of Gentiles. Note their position in verse 9. They were “standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” Now that “throne” language takes us back to Revelation 4 and 5, to those glorious depictions of the throne of God with Christ right there in the middle of it. What is being communicated here in Revelation 7:9 and following is that even during the earth’s darkest and most dreadful hour as the days of the Tribulation rage on. God is still sovereign. God is still there on His throne. The Lamb, Christ Jesus, is still the Savior, even in the bleak days of the Tribulation. Those truths really converge here with these “saved ones” now standing before the throne.

We can call them “saved ones” because of what we see unfolding next in this scene. First, still in verse 9, they are described as being “clothed in white robes.” White robes stand for purity. These individuals have been forgiven. These individuals once lived these sin-stained lives that were bleeding scarlet red. But now they’re being depicted as being washed white as wool through these dazzling white robes that are now draped over them. Note what these white-robed individuals are holding, end of verse 9, it says, “and palm branches were in their hands.” That harkens back to that scene in John 12:13 where Jesus, during His First Coming as He’s approaching Jerusalem, as He’s entering Jerusalem, He encounters those who were waving palm branches to greet Him as He enters the holy city. Remember what the crowds were saying as He entered that holy city of Jerusalem, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.”


Well, here, this multitude in this Tribulation Era, is pictured as waving these palm branches “before the throne and before the Lamb.” In doing so, what they’re doing is confessing the Kingship of Christ. You would only wave palm branches during this period of history for kings.

So, the multitude around this throne as John saw them there, what they were doing was declaring that the king had won. The King Jesus is victorious. The waving of palm branches before Him was a testimony to His victory and the members of this multitude then, they were not only redeemed but they were rejoicing. They were not only virtuous having been washed, but they were proclaiming Christ’s victory. We must put that in context because they’ve been murdered. These are individuals whose lives have been cut short at some point during the Tribulation by what means we don’t know but they were executed. Yet they were actually conquerors. They’re actually victors, they’re actually victorious through Christ, they had conquered death and now they were standing there before the throne singing praise to God and waving these palm fronds before Him.

Now in verse 10 we see praise flowing out of this multitude. It says, “and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” So, as they cried out “with this loud voice” this group was praising God for His grace. “Salvation belongs to our God.” That’s another way of saying, “Praise God for our salvation.” Every one of these individuals had paid the price of martyrdom for his faith. But it was all over now. They had endured to the end. They were saved, they were in heaven, they were before God’s throne and they were rejoicing. With white robes on and palm fronds in their hand they were ascribing salvation to God and to the Lamb. Note there’s no boasting in their works or deeds here. Not even in the slightest. Instead verse 10, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne.”

Well, what we see next is that the angels and the 24 elders, and the four living creatures, we’ve encountered them already. They now join with this “great multitude” in worship in verses 11-12. It says then “All the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, ‘Amen, the blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’”

Here's our next point. This would be THE PROSTRATE PARTICIPANTS. When they see these Tribulation Martyrs standing before the throne, when they see them robed in their white robes of virtue, when they see them waving those green palm fronds of victory, when they see these conquerors lifting up their voice in worship, the elders and these four living creatures, they just can’t contain themselves. They join the multitude of these Tribulation saints, and they join them in falling down before the throne to worship God. And they break out in this seven-fold form of unrehearsed praise.

It's very similar to what we saw back in Revelation 5. There was another throne room scene where this same group of individuals was worshipping in similar terms. Now that was before the days of Tribulation fell on the earth. Now here in Revelation 7 the Tribulation has come upon the earth and they’re still worshipping God. They’re still worshipping Him though there are wreckages and carnage and destruction falling on the earth all over the place. Note how these words of praise of this collective chorus begins. It begins, verse 12, with the word “Amen.” And then they work their way through that sevenfold doxology, and then they end the way they began with the same word, “Amen.” This is actually the only doxology in Scripture that begins and ends with that word “Amen.” That word Amen means “verily” or if you like modern English, “truly.” It means truly. And what these angels and elders and living creatures are saying as they worship with the multitude of redeemed saints at this time. Those who had been spared and saved out of the Tribulation, they are saying Amen, verily, truly, the blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength, be to our God forever and ever, Amen.”

It is a glorious scene. It’s this worshipful scene and it’s all rooted in the salvation that these blessed saints have been granted. But at an even deeper level, this is all rooted in the God who gifted them that salvation. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

That now takes us to this next phase of what John saw in this vision as he takes down and records what we have here in Revelation chapter 7. Look at verses 1314. “Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘These, clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?’ And I said to him, ‘My lord, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’”

Our fifth point is THE REVELATORY ROBES. We have quite the interesting scene developing here in verses 13-14. John here in his vision, effectively drops us into this conversation that he is having himself with one of these 24 elders that we’ve encountered earlier, who we saw those elders represent the Church. They represent the Church which has been Raptured to heaven prior to the Tribulation. In this dialogue that’s recorded in these two verses, this elder is emphasizing to John the importance of recognizing who these white robed saints in this scene are.

The elder asks John in the middle of verse 13, “These, clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?” Now, the elder knew the answer to the question that he posed to John there. He knew all along who this multitude was. But through this elder, God wanted John to know. And through the book of Revelation as a whole in chapter 7 God wants us to know who this multitude is. And so this was this elder’s way of opening up this conversation to clarify for John and for us that this multitude mentioned the second half of Revelation 7 are not the members of the Church already Raptured, but instead these are believers who have been saved and then who died during the Tribulation.

And then John’s response is recorded there in verse 14. He says, “And I said to him, “My lord.” And that’s not an expression of deity; that’s a polite form of address. It’s like how you would say “Sir.” John here is saying “My lord, you know.” In other words, “I don’t know who they are, Sir.” “But you do!” John here was confessing ignorance but at the same time He’s expressing this desire to know who this martyred multitude was.
And then in the second part of verse 14, this elder replied to John and filled in the missing details for him. It says, “And he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’”

Now a few things to note here. By the elder using that word “these” to refer to that martyred multitude, he is distinguishing himself from those whom he represents namely, the Raptured Church. He’s a representative of the Church. From this multitude of Tribulation-age saints. From those who have been “made white in the blood of the Lamb.” If I could say it in a different way, the fact that this crowned elder is describing this multitude to John, not with words like “we” or “us” together, but rather he’s talking about them, by using that word “these.” That’s evidence that not only this elder but the other twenty-three elders are representing a different group than the group that’s mentioned here in Revelation 7, namely the Tribulation saints. There is a clear distinction being drawn here, between the white-robed multitude and the crowned elders. Not only that, there is of course that distinction between both of these groups and the 144,000 from earlier in chapter 7. Those are Jewish sealed ones. They are all distinct. And it’s important as we study Revelation and keep moving through it that we keep all those distinctions in view.

Another item to mention here, back to verse 14, is that these white-robed ones are described for John, by this elder as “the ones who come out (it says) of the Great Tribulation.” Those words, “the Great Tribulation” is not just a throw away expression. Those words have meaning. Those words have a definition. They are harkening back actually to the words of Jesus, in His Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:21 where He says, “for then there will be a Great Tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.”

Jesus there in Matthew 24 is speaking on the Mount of Olives to His disciples. He is referring to a very specific future period that was coming, a period of divine wrath. The last half of Daniel’s 70th Week. This would be the final three and a half years of the Tribulation when disaster and persecution in the back half of the Tribulation would rise to these levels of horror and devastation that are just unparalleled.

Those days will be on the eve of Christ’s return, His Second Coming before He comes to usher in His Millennial Kingdom. That’s exactly the chronology by the way that Jesus lays out in Matthew 24:29-30. He says “But immediately after the Tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” Note that. “Immediately after the Tribulation of those days,” says Jesus, the “Great Tribulation,” the back half of the seven-year period of Tribulation. It says, “they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” That is what’s being pictured here, in Revelation 7:14, where this elder is saying to John as these Tribulation martyrs are literally pouring into heaven at this point as they’ve just died on the earth. He’s saying to them “These are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation.”

This isn’t allegorical. This elder isn’t referring to the saved of all time. He’s not referring to the Church. He’s speaking of a specific group this “great multitude,” (Revelation 7:9) who were martyred and translated to heaven at a specific time and then came “out of the Great Tribulation.”

At the end of verse 14, this elder who was speaking to John goes on to give him this additional description of this martyred multitude who came out of the Great Tribulation. He says, (end of verse 14) “and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” “Blood” of course, is not white. Blood is red. So, what’s being described here is this spiritual reality of this martyred multitude having been washed and cleansed by Christ’s shed blood. The only way that sins can be washed away whether for Church age saints or Tribulation martyrs, is through the precious blood of Christ. The precious blood that He shed through His death on the cross.

Romans 3:25 says, “God displayed Him publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.” Romans 5:9 says we are “justified by His blood,” and therefore “shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Ephesians 1:7 tells us that “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace.” He has, Colossians 1:20, “made peace through the blood of His cross.” One more. Peter says, in I Peter 1:18-19, “you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

In other words, just as it is for me and just as it is for you, if you’ve put your faith in Jesus, the blood of the Lamb will for these martyrs coming out of the Tribulation, be the basis of their assurance that their sin debt has been expunged and that their sin has been forgiven.

That takes us to this final section of this part of John’s vision here in Revelation 7 which we see in verses 15-17. “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His sanctuary; and He who sits on the throne will dwell over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will shepherd them and will guide them to springs of the water of life. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Our sixth point is THE REWARDED REDEEMED. Now note, just putting this flow of dialog together here, this is still in verses 15-17, the elder speaking to John. That quote from the elder runs all the way back to the middle of verse 14 and then all the way down through verse 17. He says this first as we pick it up in verse 15, “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His sanctuary; and He who sits on the throne will dwell over them.”

Some have taken this reference to that term “sanctuary” or “temple,” if you’ve got an NASB, to be a reference to the physical temple that will be located in Jerusalem during the Millennial Kingdom as it’s reported on, for instance, in Ezekiel 40-44. According to that view the elder, as he says these words to John in verse 15, he’s moving ahead on the eschatological timeline. He’s moving out of the Tribulation past Christ’s return to the Millennium. But he can’t move too far. He’s not moving into the eternal state, to the new heaven and the new earth because Revelation 21:22 says that there’s no sanctuary in that place. We’re told there through the witness of John “I saw now sanctuary in it. (Meaning the new heaven and new earth) for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its sanctuary.” Now that’s one view.

I would actually not hold to that view that in our text where the elder here says to John about these Tribulation martyrs that “they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His sanctuary,” that this is a reference to the Millennial temple of Ezekiel’s writing. Instead, I think the scene here keeping it in context, is still in heaven. This is before the millennium. We still have the Tribulation martyrs rolling in as they are martyred during the Tribulation. And that reference here in verse 15 to the “throne of God” and to the fact that “He who sits on the throne will dwell over them” that’s highlighting, I believe this heavenly throne room scene at the tail end of the Tribulation, not the physical earthly temple that will one day come back in the Millenium kingdom.

Here the basic idea I think that the elder is getting across to John is that these Tribulation martyrs who have been ushered into the immediate presence of the Lord, the Lamb, that they are before God’s throne, His heavenly throne where they serve Him day and night and God is dwelling over them. They are sheltered by the Sovereign God. They are protected by Him. They’re forever secure in His dwelling place. They’ve entered His courts in that heavenly throne room sense.

The elder continues in verse 16. He says, “They will hunger no longer, (He’s still talking about the Tribulation martyrs here) nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat.”

Each of those hunger, thirst, exposure, over-heating. Apparently, this would have been something these martyrs would have faced at some point to some degree during the Great Tribulation. But now the glaring sun and the burning heat and their growling stomachs and their parched throats were no more. Before God’s throne, before His heavenly throne these struggles, and these sufferings were no more. They were experiencing no more deprivation or pain. They were now being provided for perfectly and bountifully by this God who was now (it says) “dwelling over them.”

Verse 17, the reversal of their circumstances on earth during the Tribulation, that reversal now reaches its apex. It says for “the Lamb at the center of the throne will shepherd them and will guide them to springs of the water of life. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.” The Lamb of God here the Lord Jesus Christ, is described in this text in these highly pastoral terms. He is described as leading them, “shepherding them,” “guiding them” and He is described as feeding as He directs them “to the springs of the water of life.”

Whatever burning thirst they experienced during the period of the Great Tribulation is now remedied as they drink from these waters of eternal life. God the Father is described as comforting them. It says God “will wipe every tear from their eyes.” Their time spent during the Great Tribulation produced tears. But now that they’re gathered before God’s throne and God is depicted as wiping those tears away. Mercifully, He wipes away those sorrowful memories of whatever they endured during the Tribulation.

The point is in the presence of God and in the presence of the Lamb, before His throne, these Tribulation martyrs will not only be taken out of the world through their martyrdom and will not only be spared further suffering. But they’ll be comforted and cared for in the presence of the divine as they prepare for Jesus in whose blood their robes have been washed white to return and to set up His kingdom on the earth.

There we have it. The mixed multitude of Revelation chapter 7. If you take anything away this evening, just know that there are two groups here. There is the 144,000 Jewish witnesses in verses 4-8 and then in the rest of the chapter, what is being depicted is this “great multitude which no one could count, (verse 9) from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues.” Next Sunday night, as we move into Revelation chapter 8, we’re going to get into the Lamb’s opening of the seventh seal and maybe even the blowing of a trumpet or two. Let’s pray.

God thank You for this time this evening studying Your Word. Thank You that we can go to the book of Revelation and look forward to a lot. We can look forward to our hope in the new heavens and the new earth. We can look forward to kingdom realities. We can look forward though also as we’ve been studying in these last few weeks, to this existence that we will not be a part of. We praise You, God, that as we take in all of the Scripture, we know that these events of the Tribulation that we’ve been studying the last few weeks and will continue to study for many weeks, are events that we as the Church will not be there for. You will have already Raptured us. You will have already snatched us out of the world, taken us to meet You in the air and we praise You for that. We praise You Jesus that you deliver us, I Thessalonians 1:10, from the wrath that is to come. Knowing who You are, knowing what You have done for us, knowing what You have promised us and knowing what You are sparing us from. Help us to live more faithful upright godly lives for You this week to the praise of Your glory. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.