Missions Paul

Here’s a brief re-cap to the Churches in Turkey:

• It’s been tough but Jesus is with us.
• Let’s get our lives right for Jesus is with us.
• It will get worse before it gets better but Jesus is with us.

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white 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.” (Revelation 7 v 9-10)

John sees an uncountable great multitude in his vision at a time when it would have been possible to count the followers and churches of Jesus both Jew and Gentile. Can you imagine the encouragement this gave John? Christianity is here to stay and it will increase across every nation, tribe, people and language. More than just the increase in number we also see the victory and just like the picture of the Lion and the Lamb we have the white robes and the palm branches. Everyone would understand the palm branches and remember the military expectation of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry but what about the white robes? This is to come. We will read of it pointing to those who have laid their lives down just like Jesus did.

God is the ruler over everything. He could have let the world perish and receive their deserved judgment but He chose through the work of the Lamb to save, to rescue.

Remember Jonah? He was in a desperate situation. He was facing only death. Jonah was unable to save himself. But God intervened and rescued Jonah and you know the story which points so much to the work of Jesus. But what does Jonah proclaim?

“But I, with shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. I will say, ‘Salvation comes from the Lord.’” (Jonah 2:9)

There is no other way. There is no other person. Jesus the Lamb is how you will be rescued. It is useless to look for other things or people than to Jesus. There is no one else.

Do you need rescuing today? Then go to Him no other. Learn dependence on Jesus.

That’s what John was seeing and what he heard.

If we take Revelation literally and as a timeline then we are definitely going to become unstuck.

This next section is an interlude of which there are several throughout especially seen by the use of the songs of heaven set in the context of the judgment.

We are going to read lists of the 12 tribes with 12,000 in each all making up a total of 144,000. The list is strange but visions can be can’t they? Why is Judah mentioned first ahead of Reuben who should have that place? Where is Dan? Why Manasseh?

Let’s read:

“After this I 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. 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: “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were 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.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.” (Revelation 7 v 1-9)

Judah is seen as the renewed people of God, maybe that is why he is mentioned first and not Reuben. Dan is omitted maybe because the Jews thought the Anti-Christ would come from him or maybe simply because though you might have spiritual heritage it doesn’t mean a thing. Manasseh? Did he become a separate tribe? Was he making up the 12 with Dan’s omission?

The questions continue and I don’t know how people can interpret John’s vision in so many ways when really no one truly knows.

Is this an end-time physical army? Is this Jewish evangelists with an end-time harvest field of Jewish believers in Jesus? Do we get a mark on our fore-head? Is this in contrast to the 666 mark that will soon appear in the vision?

You can write novels, theses and films all on this one section of the vision and still be wrong.

Perhaps the message in this interlude is this. There may well be more but for the 7 churches and for us isn’t this one thought the most important: we survive!

The 12,000 and the 144,000 make it to the end of the vision and the holy community of the new heaven and new earth.

John heard the number 144,000 but then notice ‘I looked’ just like what happened with the scene of the Lion and the Lamb. What did he see? You would have thought he saw 144,000 but it was a multitude he couldn’t count.

The answer to the question do we make it? YES we make it!

Evil is permitted to do its worst but even though we will suffer we will survive. Jesus got to the resurrection but He went through the suffering and so will we. Are we not the end-time army of God with the sword of the Spirit not the weapons of the world taking the good news to the four corners of the earth? Yes we are!

How would you describe the traumatic destruction of the twin towers on 11/9/01? How do the Ukrainians describe right now what it is like to come under the shelling of their enemy? What about natural disasters? How do you paint a picture of those when you are experiencing them at their worst? The terrible earthquakes in Afghanistan and Iran of this year? Or the fires across Europe this summer? Remember Boxing Day 2004 and the Tsunami in the Indian Ocean? How would you describe these events?

These Revelation churches were not alien to natural disasters. In AD17 a massive earthquake described as “the greatest earthquake in human memory” by a Roman author called Pliny the Elder would remain fresh in their memory for many a year. Actually Sardis never fully recovered as a city according to some historians.

These disasters have always been with us but they seem to be getting increasingly prevalent.

These ever-increasing moments around the world find people like us struggling for the words to describe the devastation. It is akin to John’s vision which turns nasty and leaves us and I’m sure him with feelings of hopelessness.

“I watched as he 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 earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 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 usfrom 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?” (Revelation 6 v 12-17)

When you read this slowly then there’s nothing left is there?

We don’t have to take what John saw literally, there’s a lot of symbolism here. I’m not sure about the caves and the sky, the sun and the moon. It’s a vision. He is struggling to describe what he saw, he uses once again the word ‘like’.

But one thing is clear, whether you are the most powerful or the poorest you are facing what appears to be a natural disaster and yet is known as a judgment from God the Father and in fact the Lamb’s anger. This is not an earthquake in Turkey 2,000 years ago or in Afghanistan and Iran of this year, Tsunami’s in the ocean, neither are they the areas of the world suffering conflict either in Europe or terrorism in New York. No. This is the ‘earth’. This is ‘every mountain’ and ‘every island’. This is nuclear and maybe that is the right word to use! This is the ‘great day’ of God’s wrath upon the earth.

And at the end of this 6^th seal we are simply left with the question of this: will we stand? It is what every follower of Jesus has asked when they are in the epicentre of a disaster.

If what John saw is the disaster of all disasters, let’s say it is an end-time disaster that eclipses all other disasters that ever have happened. Will we survive? Even today, if the U.S. or Russia, France, China, U.K. or Pakistan, India, Israel, Iran or North Korea pressed certain buttons, would we be okay? The rhetoric from leaders around the world can bring fear into many. What about the followers of Jesus? Are you equally afraid?

We are left wondering.

If this really happens and you and I are alive when it does, will we be alright? We need an answer to that.

Surely this is part of the gospel message isn’t it?

But will John find peace? Will he get the answer we all need? We shall find that out.

As the Lamb opens the next seal we realise that not even God’s people have been exempt from the suffering caused by the four horsemen.

We too are caught up in the deception, war, famine and death.

However, what this section also reveals is a window into this heaven for those who have died in Christ.

“When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of everyone who had been killed for speaking God’s message and telling about their faith. They shouted, “Master, you are holy and faithful! How long will it be before you judge and punish the people of this earth who killed us?” Then each of those who had been killed was given a white robe and told to rest for a little while. They had to wait until the complete number of the Lord’s other servants and followers would be killed.” Revelation 6:9-11

We continue to be careful not to read anything into the description of John’s vision. But think on what these martyrs are experiencing. Here are 7 things heaven could be like from what John saw in these 3 verses.

1. They went to heaven after they had died on earth. Heaven was their next stop after earth. There was no purgatory place. Absent from the body present with the Lord. Your loved one who lived Christ may have died in your eyes prematurely but they instantly moved to better living conditions, heaven.
2. They were recognised in heaven. Their identity as martyrs on earth were not eradicated in heaven. Their story on earth is still part of their story in heaven. They are the same people. My grandma used to say she would recognise me in heaven because my shirt tail would still be out! Will you be able to recognise your loved one? Absolutely!
3. They shouted. To be able to do that means they have some kind of physical form in that they had a voice box, a recognised vocabulary and we can even see their emotion and their thought processes. speak, there is at least some physical form to them. They are also each given a robe to wear on some physical form of a body.
4. They are fully aware of what is happening on earth. They know their murderers have not been judged yet. How I don’t know. Is there a window? Is there heavenly CCTV situated all over the earth? I don’t know but I do know they know! They know that it’s not finished on earth yet. The heaven that John saw with those who have died in Christ is perfect but nevertheless is waiting for the New Heaven and New Eartg to appear.
5. They are asking God questions, so He is there with them. They are seeking to learn what His will is regarding justice. Heaven appears to be a classroom of understanding. They are praying to God. ‘As on earth as in heaven’ they have prayed for many years and now even in heaven they are still praying.
6. The martyrs remember they were killed. What else could they remember? How comforting for those in mournful pain on earth to know they are remembered in heaven. It’s not just one way!
7. They declare God as Master, holy and true; they can see this perfectly and have a better understanding of justice than we have on earth. Heaven makes sense of it all.

How many times do we pray for Jesus to come?

As John sees the horses released upon the earth. Deception, war, death and the pandemic causing suffering to so many in the world. What is the prayer he is hearing in chapter 6?

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” v1

When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” v3 

When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!”v5

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” v7

But look at the revelation …

John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne 1:4

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” 1:8

Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 2:5

Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 2:16

except to hold on to what you have until I come.2:25

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 3:3

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. 3:20

Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” 4:8

 “Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.” 16:15

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. 22:17

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. 22:20

The four living creatures, representing all of creation (human and animal) are not calling for the horsemen to come but for the Lamb, Jesus Christ to come. It is the prayer of Revelation and it is surely our prayer today, Come Lord Jesus!

This is difficult to understand when the horses are riding rough shod over your life because when you are at the centre of deception, war, death and pandemic you wonder where God actually is.

How is God in control? Look at the verses of the horses again.

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals v1.

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown … v2.

When the Lamb opened the second seal v3.

Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power… To him was given a large sword v4.

When the Lamb opened the third seal… v5

When the Lamb opened the fourth seal … v7.

I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth v8.

Can you see what John is saying? He saw it was the Lamb who released the horses. The riders were given their ammunition and ability. It may look like they had taken them but they were given.

This is not a God who is in crisis but in control.

Today each one of us are close to coming underneath the horses of judgment. Winters of discontent, economic pressure like never before, threats of missed payments on utilities and loans, insecure jobs. We have come through a pandemic and have lost loved ones in a blink of an eye either to Covid or some other disease. Further afield catching malaria always brings fear to both young and old.

The whole earth and its inhabitants stand underneath the pain, the suffering, sin and death. No one is immune. We all die. However, for the followers of Jesus, we do push back against evil and injustice, we are not afraid to stand up for the downtrodden, but we do so knowing that God is in control. Within this world mess there is a redemptive long-range purpose of salvation that is so much wiser than we are and if we hold on we will get to see that at the very end.

If there could be a sentence between chapter 5 and 6 it would be this: How will all those 5 wonderful chapters of victory and the heavenly throne room come into fulfilment?

The answer is here in chapter 6 and onwards. It is the darkness having to come to the surface. It is dealing with the pain of the soul of the world. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ but it is also the revealing of the hurt in the darkest recesses of this earth.

Let’s see what happens when the Lamb opens the seals.

“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword. When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two poundsof wheat for a day’s wages,and six poundsof barley for a day’s wages,and do not damage the oil and the wine!” When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!”I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6 v 1-8)

This is not a literal timeline, either in order of the horses or actually even what comes next in terms of the trumpets and bowls. We are going to have several chapters of difficult gloomy reading before evil is finally overcome in chapter 20 but we are seeing it already in our lifetime. It may happen in the future, it has happened in our past, in the time of John’s generation and it is happening in our present. But it will come to an end. There will be an end as we will see.

We recognise each of these horsemen.

So here comes the white horse, a conqueror ‘bent on’ defeating others. With a crown speaking of victory (a small v for the Lamb is the Victorious One) this horseman represents those deceivers who claim other nations are indeed their own and they take by force.

Here comes the red horse with its superficial appearance of peace but there was no peace. He played with peace, talked of peace but removed peace.

The black horse then comes forward representing the economic problems where prices for ordinary commodities, wheat and barley, shoot up in price and the rich (who have the oil and wine) simply get richer.

Finally, the pale horse with its destructive death to many through famine, pandemic and war. The white, the red, the black and the pale have all been riding through the world in every generation.

These riders on the horses are not coming in our future towards the end of the world. They are here now. They were here yesterday.

You can see them in Jesus’ prophecy of Matthew 24: ““Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” (4-8)

The White horse of deception; the red horse of war; the black horse of death and the pale horse of pandemic; they are there in the prophecy.

Whether you look at the Roman Emperors leading up to and including John’s generation or perhaps in the generations after this first century persecuted Church, you will find pain, suffering, evil, sword, famines, death, you just run out of words, but the horses are there.

It is really easy to think that these 4 horses are in the future. But when one of the horses have rode right over your life, shortened it, terrorised it and brought so much pain to you then it is a further insult for some next generation to declare that “it wasn’t a horse at all, the dreaded horse is to come.”  

Just read the history of our last century. Read the news today. Look around have a think. Pray. You will like John see the 4 horses. They are riding rampant across this earth. Why? The pain of the soul of this world is coming into view. The Lamb is needed. The Lamb will come. But before we get there we need to see more, we need to understand more.

Dougall. Prince. Skipper. They were my childhood dogs. They’re dead now. I think!

 “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever!” The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.” (Revelation 5 v 13-14)

When I sing songs and hymns about all of creation worshipping God I definitely haven’t been paying too much attention other than to human beings doing so.

John sees the whole of creation understand fully and properly that Jesus the Lamb is God for He is worshipped equally as God the Father is. That’s the whole of creation.

I don’t know how this is possible or what it looks like. Man and mammals, birds and reptiles and everything in the sea all in worship? Insects, really? I can’t get my head around this. Perhaps John couldn’t? The whole of creation in worship! It would be like a restored culmination of perhaps what it was all meant to be like. A redeemed world around the throne.

“Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths …
wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds … Let them praise the name of the Lord …” (Psalm 148: 7-13)

Man’s destruction of the earth is the destroying of something that was created to worship and glorify God. We need to pay more attention to this.

I don’t preach about creation. Well, I do, but it is a world where man dominates and rules etc. I don’t even think about anything other than man as being of any importance.

But this morning I am thinking of Dougall, Prince and Skipper!

Don’t ever feel small against anything that comes from earth. Whether that be another person or a problem, a sickness or any situation. For you belong to a place that dwarfs your world and everything in it. Don’t ever lose your confidence because an intimidating voice comes against you. For you belong to a sound so deafening that it easily drowns out the sound of your world.

John is looking and listening. For the 4th song he hears not only of how worthy Jesus is to open the scroll but ….

“As I looked, I heard the voices of a large number of angels around the throne and the voices of the living creatures and of the elders. There were millions and millions of them, and they were saying in a loud voice, “The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory, and praise.” Revelation 5:11-12 CEV.

Millions and millions. “Thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.” (NIV); “The number of them was ^[myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands” (NASB)

Uncountable beings with uncontainable voices are around the throne of God. They sing of what the Lamb has done for us.

Imagine that day when you stand in the place of such vastness of number and the powerful sound of angels declaring what Jesus did for you.

I reckon we will wonder what on earth we were afraid of on earth!

When Jesus died on the cross it wasn’t for some end-time future settling of scores. It was for the NOW generation. His victory was for our NOW. We don’t live our lives hoping that we will in the end benefit from what Jesus has done. We benefit now. This is what we believe, yes?

“And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals,
because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reignon the earth.” (Revelation 5 v 9-10)

Jesus Christ is worthy to open the scroll because He was slain.

He can proclaim the plans of God, prevent the plans of Satan, bring understanding to our questions, to overcome every Domitian in every generation because He was slain.

We are a kingdom, a domain, an empire. We have a place because He was slain.

We are priests serving God and with intimacy with Him. We have a purpose because He was slain.

We reign and live victoriously. We have power because He was slain.

Whereas the world gives a message that the way to overcome and become important and rise to the top is to take someone else’s blood or manipulate/abuse them, Jesus does the opposite. It was His blood no one else’s.

It is there where and how our whole life exists. Any changes to that and we let go of our place, our purpose and our power. Because He was slain.