How comforting to us—in this present crisis or any other one that comes along—to know that we are sealed in Christ and washed in His blood so that we can fight faithfully as long as we live on this earth. We fight in the sure knowledge that as soon as we have finished our work, we will join the great assembly in heaven. We will bask in the glory and presence of our Savior. We will praise Him with hearts unfettered by sin. We will celebrate His victory as part of the church triumphant. That is the destiny of every one of His children.

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10, NKJ)

We’ve been looking at the various pictures of the church given to us in the book of Revelation.  Revelation communicates God’s truth by means of pictures that draw their imagery from the Old Testament.  The first part of chapter 7 presents the church on earth as 144,000 OT Israelites arrayed in battle formation and yet singing as a great choir. This often misinterpreted picture reminds us that the church is always at war while on the earth and that it is a great and mighty army, who advances through its worship and service to King Jesus, the conquering Lamb of the vision.

In Revelation 7:9 there is a fascinating shift.  John looks again and the vast army of 144,000 Hebrews has been transformed into a “great multitude which no one could number.”  This confirms what we said in a previous post regarding the symbolic nature of the numbers used in Revelation.  144,000 is symbolic of the full number of God’s people (the church) in all ages.  This is why this same group can be described as a great multitude that cannot be counted and which includes representatives of all “nations, tribes, people, and tongues.”

There are important truths about the church communicated in this picture.  One is that the true church of God includes a vast number of people and not just a relatively small, select group.  This is encouraging!  The New Testament Church began with just a handful of people around 2000 years ago and has grown into a body of hundreds of millions and it is still not done growing. Another important insight from this passage is the reminder that the church is truly diverse.  Christ did not come to save a particular ethnic group or culture but to save and redeem sinners from all parts of the world.  The church is going to grow and the church is going to include all the nations of the world.  This is a great reminder that all notions of priority for this or that ethnic or racial group go out the window in Christ.  As Paul writes, “there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11, NKJ).

Read More