Word of Salvation – Vol. 24 No. 17 – February 1978

 

The Sealing Of The Church

 

Sermon by Rev. M. P. Geluk, Th. Grad. on Revelation 7

Scripture reading: Revelation 7

Psalter Hymnal: 162:1,2; 235:1,2; 469; 172:5,6; 310

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Probably one of the most talked about figures of the Bible is the number 144,000. Interpretations of this number have ranged from mild to wildly extreme. Also, in this chapter, mention is made of the great multitude of the redeemed, and one of the questions that arises is the relationship between the multitude and the 144,000. But before we look at this chapter in detail, let us firstly, by way of introduction, look at some aspects of it generally.

The six seals have been opened and John had been given to see what is happening and what will be happening. The four horsemen are riding out over the face of the earth and there are conquests, wars, and the horrors that follow, which in turn bring economic scarcity, and of course all resulting in destruction, famine and death. The fifth seal showed the many martyrs who have been persecuted for their faith by the enemies of the kingdom of heaven. The sixth seal showed to John the passing away of the universe just before the new heaven and the new earth are brought in.

These six seals, when they were opened, showed to John what is taking place during history and with the passing of time, yes, right up to the time of the second coming of Christ. Now there is a seventh seal and that will bring the trumpets of judgements and we are told about that in Chapters 8 and 9. But before John gets to see what these will bring, God shows him something else which is of great importance to the Church. It is the sealing of the servants of God, the 144,000.

You see, the question that so often and so easily arises in the minds of God's people is what is the fate of the believers during those six seals? There is war, its horrors, shortages of essential things, famine, destruction, disease, sufferings, and death. Now in all these hardships and calamity where does the believer stand? He is not excluded from it. So what is his lot and position in the midst of it all? Well, this Chapter 7 aims to tell us.

It is primarily a chapter of great comfort to God's people. It speaks about the Sealing of the Church. In this chapter, mention is made of an angel who has the seal of the living God, and he puts this seal on the foreheads of the servants of God.

The first thing that we have to do is find out the time of this sealing. When are the servants of God sealed? After we have answered that, then we have to find out who they are. We know that they are God's servants but just who does that include? The 144,000, or the great multitude of vs.9, or both of these? Then when we have answered all that, we finally need to know why they are sealed, and that will really bring home the comfort to us that is in this chapter. So the questions that face us as we look at this part of God's Word about the sealing of the servants of God are:

1. When does it take place?

2. Who are they? - and

3. Why are they sealed?

1. Well, let us first see when this sealing took place?

The chapter starts off with John saying: "After this I saw...!” 'After what?' we might ask. Well, after all the things that were shown to him in Chapter 6 where the six seals were opened before his eyes. But we need to keep in mind that the things John saw did not take place there and then. In a short space of time John gets to see all these things of the six seals in the vision he received. But the actual happening of the things he saw takes up all of history, right up to Christ's second coming.

The four horsemen, for example, with the woes of war, horror, destruction, famine and death have been and still are riding out over the face of the earth. They will continue to do that until the end of the world. The fifth seal showed the persecution of God's people and that too has been going on for a long time, and indeed will still go on until the end of the world. But the sixth seal which showed the destruction of this present world at the second coming of Christ, is of course still to happen, it is still future.

Now when we keep all that in mind, then we will understand that Chapter 7 does not follow Chapter 6 in the order of the actual events. The book "Revelation" does that all the time of course. Its chapters criss-cross through time and history many times.

Chapters 1 - 3 gave us a picture of the actual condition of God's Church in the world, from the early New Testament days, right up to the second coming. But the reader is not left at the second coming, no, he is brought back again to those early New Testament days and then again he travels through time and history up to the second coming, but this time he sees, not the inward condition of the Church, but the sufferings that are brought upon the human race from the four horsemen, and the persecutions of the Christians from the outside. This makes the book "Revelation" so very worthwhile to study of course because it is so relevant all the time.

Now this sealing of God's servants, when did that take place? Where are we to put it in the history of the Christian Church? Well, let us see.

John saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree (vs.1). We see here that these four angels have the power to hold back, or to let go, the four winds that will do great harm on the earth. But before they do anything at all, there is another angel that John sees, who comes from the east and who has the seal of the living God. This angel calls out to the other four not to harm the earth until God's servants have been sealed. Before harm comes to the earth, and of course to the people living on it, God's servants have to be sealed. Before any destruction takes place, the servants of God must be sealed.

But what are we to make of these four angels and these four winds? Well, they are really the same thing as the four horsemen. In Zech.6:1-5 the four horsemen are spoken of in connection with the four winds. The four winds are also the four horsemen. It is a new view of the same thing. The wind is a symbol of great strength. The four winds represent north, south, east and west. They, when released by the four angels, are bringing about the same conditions as the four horsemen when they ride out over the earth. Only the winds are said to harm the sea and trees as well as the land, but then that is still the face of the earth really.

John then, and of course, with him all the readers of this book, are told of the woes, the destruction, sufferings, disease and death, that are released by God over the earth. The six seals told us that and these four winds remind us of it again. But before all that happens, God's servants are to be sealed.

This brings us to the meaning of the actual sealing. God's servants are sealed before all those dreadful things happen in order to keep them safe and protect them. When something is sealed then it protects the contents from being tampered with. Examination papers are sealed until it is time to open them in the presence of the candidates just before the examination. No one is allowed to tamper with the contents beforehand. Sealing further indicates ownership. When something comes from someone under seal, then the sender claims ownership. And thirdly, a seal also certifies that it indeed comes from whoever sent it. Now, that is the meaning of a seal in general. It points to protection, for no one must tamper with it; it points to ownership, for it belongs to the person who sealed it in the first place; and it also points to a certification, for it has really come from whoever sent it.

Now these servants of God receive a seal on their foreheads before all the woes and sufferings break loose upon the face of the earth. These servants of God also live on the face of the earth and they too will experience hardships and sufferings but there is a great difference between them and those who are not God's servants. God's servants are sealed and they only. The seal is from the living God and God the Father has sealed them so that no one can tamper with them and destroy them. God the Son has sealed them so that no one can undo the ownership He has of them, for He bought them with His own precious blood. And God the Holy Spirit has sealed them also, so that right up to the great day of full redemption at the end of the world, God's servants will know and experience the protection and safe-keeping of the Lord their God.

So Father, Son and Holy Spirit all take part in this sealing of God's servants. The living Triune God is there to protect and keep safe the servants of God. He seals them before the woes of hardships and sufferings, and whatever else are sent forth so that when they come, they will not go down and under. It is a great comfort to the servants of God to know that they are sealed and it is of course the doctrine of the preservation of the saints that we have here. The Lord knows who are His. Revelation 14:1 informs us that this seal is the Name of the Lamb and of the Father on their foreheads.

Now a bit further on we want to bring out even more the comfort of having that seal, but now we must first settle the question as to who they are.

2. Verse 4 tells us that the sealed are the 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel and the verses 5-8 list the names of those tribes. The 144,000 are the servants of God, that much is clear. But when you look at verse 9 then you read about the great multitude who must also be God's servants because they wear the white robes, indicating justification and cleansing from sin in Christ. They are holding palm branches signifying triumph and they stand before God's throne, singing a song of salvation. There is no doubt that this great multitude, which John sees in heaven, are all the redeemed, yes, all the saved people of God from all over the world. There are so many of them that John says that no one could count them. And they have come from every nation, tribe, people and language. This great multitude is the Church universal. It is all the elect, John sees all God's chosen ones in heaven before God's throne and rejoicing in their salvation in Christ. They have all been called, brought to faith, regenerated, converted, justified, sanctified and glorified.

So we have with this great multitude, the whole Christian Church, the Church the Lord Jesus Christ died for and saved from sin, death and Satan, and to whom He gave the kingdom of heaven so that they could live to God's glory and be heirs to life eternal on the new heaven and new earth.

In other words, the great multitude, the Church universal, are also God's servants. It is they who are sealed. Who else could they be?

It means therefore that the 144,000 of verse 4 and the great multitude of verse 9 are one and the same people. To turn these 144,000 into some select few, as the Jehovah's Witnesses do, is utter nonsense. Nor is there any basis for making the 144,000 the the saved Jews and the great multitude the saved Gentiles. You might object by saying that is specifically mentions 12,000 from every tribe of Israel. Yes, but a few comments are in order here.

Firstly, the tribe of Dan is not even mentioned in this list. Were there no believers in the tribe of Dan? Of course there were, yet Dan is missing. Furthermore, Joseph is included but there was no tribe of Joseph as such but of his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Both Manesseh and Ephraim received a portion of the land in Canaan but not Joseph and yet Joseph is in this list but not Ephraim. Moreover, it would be odd if exactly 12,000 were saved from each tribe whether large or small.

All this simply goes to show that these numbers and the list itself cannot be taken strictly literal. There are about twenty lists in the Bible of Israel's tribes and eighteen times they are all different.

No, what we have here is symbolical, as is the case so often in Revelation. The numbers simply point to fulness and completion. Moreover, Rev.21 speaks of the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles which is representative of the whole O.T. and N.T. Church. The 144,000 are the whole Christian Church, O.T. and N.T. included, it is the great multitude of verse 9.

That the name 'Israel' is used here should not cause us to limit the 144,000 to the O.T. church, for even the N.T. church with its many saved Gentiles is called by names which come from an O.T. background. For example, the Church is referred to as the twelve tribes (James 1:1; also Mat. 19:28; Lk.22:30). The Christian is the true Jew (Rom.2:29). The Church is the Israel of God (Gal.6:16) and Abraham's seed (Gal.3:29) or the true circumcision (Phil.3:3).

The 144,000 and the great multitude, therefore, are the one and the same thing, they are God's servants, the whole Church, and all its members have received the seal of the living God. In a loud voice they cry out: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the Throne, and to the Lamb."

And as soon as they have sung those words then the many, many angels around the throne, as well as the twenty-four elders, and the four living creatures, they all bow before the throne and worshipped God, saying: "Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!"

In a scene, reminiscent of Rev.4, heaven and earth, represented around God's throne, break forth in a tumultuous worship of God who has sealed the Church and brought her home to heaven.

3. It now remains for us to answer the question why were they sealed?

We know when they were sealed - before all the troubles in the world would break loose upon them. And we know who are sealed. But now, why?

The seal from the living God points to His protection, His safe-keeping, yes, to His ownership of His people, His servants. There is a great deal of comfort and blessing in that sealing - that is the why of the sealing to give God's people this comfort and blessing.

Christians are, as you well know, not exempted from the trouble that the first five seals bring. God's people are not insulated against suffering and hardship, persecution and physical death. There is pain, there is affliction, and Christians are not excluded from all this. Some of you are experiencing them right now. Chapters 4-7 of Revelation show the Church in tribulation as she exists on the earth. The four horsemen and persecution of Christians do affect God's people very much. But can we see the comfort and blessing of God in all of that? Can we see the why of the sealing?

One of the elders in Revelation 7 asked John where the great multitude came from and went on to say that they have come out of the great tribulation. Yes, they are saved, they have robes which have been made white in the blood of the Lamb. They are cleansed from sin and forgiven and made holy and they have come out of the great tribulation.

The scene is in heaven but for us it means of course that we are still in this tribulation. The Church on earth is still in the thick of it. And there, “...they will be before the throne of God, and serve day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the centre 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 words are, of course, very comforting, they are promises that will see their fulfilment for all God's servants upon the new heaven and the new earth.

However, I would like to leave with you the thought that already here and now these promises of God have meaning and application. For after all, is not this life, here and now, to be a foretaste of things to come? Isn't that what God is saying here? Surely, the Word is speaking here to those who are suffering now, who have pain and affliction, yes, you who are in tribulation. Surely, we are already now before God's throne. It is now that we may serve Him. Already now He spreads His tent, or His presence, over us. Even now He protects and keeps us. Already now He is our Shepherd. And now He is leading us to the water of the fountain of life. Yes, this very moment He is busy wiping away every tear from our eyes. God's people do their crying here on earth, there won't be any cause for them to cry in heaven.

These promises of God therefore do not apply only to heaven but they have application to God's people on earth already here and now. And what does it do for us in the midst of the tribulation of this life? Well, the Lord gives us perseverance, a Christian temperament and character. We may suffer loss but it brings us to new heights - our trust towards God. We may suffer sickness and pain but it brings us patience, long-suffering and a deeper Christian maturity. We may suffer insult but it causes us to look to Christ for strength more and more. We will one day die in the body but it will be our gain, for we will be with the Lord. So let the trials and sufferings come. They may harm us in the body and in the purse, but look what the living God does for His servants whom He has sealed for eternity! He gives them renewed faith, trust and inner strength.

With what better words can we conclude but those from Rom.8:35-39:

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all the day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Amen!