Revelation 7:1-8 "The 144,o00"

Revelation 7:1-8

Ezekiel 9:3-11

The 144,000

If you remember back in chapters 4-6, we have seen this vision of heaven: God is sitting on his throne, all creation is worshipping Him, and then in chapter 5, John zooms into that vision and sees God sitting on his throne, holding a scroll in his right hand.

This scroll had the judgement and redemption of the world written on it. This scroll had seven seals which kept is closed.

No-one was able to open the scroll apart from the Lamb who was slain- Jesus.

In chapter 6, we saw, Jesus, open the scroll and peal back one seal at a time, he pealed back the first seal and a white horse was let loose, he peeled back the second seal and a red horse was let loose, the third seal and a black horse was let loose and the fourth seal and a pale or green horse was let loose.

Remember, these first four seals represented the judgment of God on this earth which has been reoccurring over the last 2000 years, and will continue to happen until Jesus returns.

Jesus then opened the 5^th seal and we see the souls of the martyrs, who had been killed for the faithfulness to God’s word, sitting under the altar, pleading with God to bring perfect justice to the earth, and to avenge their innocent blood.

Then the sixth seal was peeled back and we saw the end of the world as we know it, stars falling out of the sky, mountains and islands being uplifted, and so on……and then we get to chapter 7, which is where we are today.

And you would think, chapter 7, would be the opening of the seventh and final seal, but it isn’t…..we don’t get to the seventh and final seal until chapter 8.

What we have in chapter 7, is a pause in the opening of the seven seals, a very important pause which answers the question at the end of chapter 6, the question is this, who can stand?

Who can stand in the face of God?

Who can stand the wrath of the lamb?

And so now, in revelation chapter 7, John pauses from opening the seals and answers this hugely important question

Who can stand?

Who can stand the judgement of God?

And the simple answer,  to who can stand?

The 144,000 – that is who.

But the more complicated answer is who exactly are the 144,000…….. but before we answer that really important question, let us first look at why, and how these 144,000 are able the stand in the face of God’s judgement, how and why are these 144,000 able to survive the wrath of the lamb

Well, Revelation 7:2-3 gives us the answer:

Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, ³ saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”

When that final day of judgement comes, which is described in the sixth seal, where all will be judged, only the 144,000 will be able to stand, because and only because, they have been sealed by God Himself.

Only the 144,000 will survive the judgement of God because God has sealed them with his own seal of protection. God has marked them out, as one of his own.

This is what a seal does.

It protects, and it authenticates.

God protects and marks those who are His.

During the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, we see in Ezekiel chapter 9, that God, before the Babylonians went into the city and destroyed it,  marked out those who were his. He sent his man clothed in linen with a writing kit, to put a mark on the foreheads of all who were his. And those whom God marked, were spared and taken into captivity and those who were not marked were destroyed.

Now, this marking that God did on people’s foreheads, was not a physical mark, but it was a spiritual mark, and it a mark was given according to the whether a person’s heart was idolatrous, or whether their heart was faithful to God.

Look at Ezekiel 9:3-4 with me:

Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. ⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”

This man clothed in linen who had a writing case at his waist, was a heavenly being sent by God. And his job was to go through Jerusalem and mark on the foreheads, not a physical mark but a spiritual mark, of all those who refused to worship other so-called gods, all those who mourned over the idolatry that was taking place in the temple of God, all those who were truly faithful to God.

And all those who were marked, or sealed, were spared from the total destruction of the Babylonians. Those that were spared, were sent into captivity, ready to fight another day.

Those who didn’t receive a mark, those who were not sealed, faced the full force of the Babylonians, and were destroyed. They were the ones who were worshipping other so-called gods, either in gods temple, or in their own homes.

Those that were able to stand in the day of judgement, were only able to stand, because they had been sealed and marked by God Himself.

Likewise, God’s final judgement on this earth will not come, until all those that God has sealed and marked have been counted.

But can we take this number of 144,000 literally?

Out of all the believers who have ever lived in the history of this world, will only 144,000 people actually make it?

Well, if you are a Jehovah witness, you believe that there will only be literally, 144,000 believers who will be with Christ in heaven, but don’t worry, the rest of the other un-anointed beleivers will live on the earthly paradise- according to the JWs at least.

If we were to take this number literally, then we would for consistency have to take the next part literally, there will literally be 12,000 from the tribe of Judah, literally 12,000 from the tribe of Rueben and so on……..

And guess what, the people who take this literally, are actually carrying out DNA tests of all people across the world, to find out whether they are in the family line of Judah, or Rueben or Gad. They truly believe there will be 12,000 people come from each of these tribes, which will be the 144,000 that will go on to evangelise the rest of the world.

A great and godly man, John MacCarthur believes that this 144,000 represents the 144,000 Jewish people who will spread the gospel to the rest of the world.

I disagree.

The list of the 12 tribes is a stylistic list which represents the purity of God’s people, that all are joined to the head of Christ. This is why the first born tribe of Rueben isn’t listed first, it is Judah instead, because Christ, the head comes from the tribe of Judah, he is the Lion of Judah. This is why the tribe of Dan isn’t even listed, because the tribe of Dan had a reputation for being idolators. No, this list of the tribes of Israel, is written in such a way, that it represents the pure spotless bride- the church.

If this was literally true, and these 144,000 were only able to stand because of their Jewish genealogy, it would make the cross of Christ useless, it would make the sacrifice of the Lamb pointless, because it would mean, we are no longer saved by faith in Christ alone, by Grace alone, but we are saved also by our family heritage.

We would be building a wall between Jew and Gentile, which according to Ephesians 2, Christ came and knocked down.

If we were to read this 144,000 as literal, as literally tribes of Isreal then we would be believing in the lie of a two tier salvation system, only those who have the blood line of Abraham will be saved and the rest well…may be the others will be saved by the blood of the lamb.

The scriptures are clear- all are saved by the blood of the lamb- it is only by the blood of the lamb that anyone is saved.

This is why Paul told Timothy in his letters, to have nothing to do with endless genealogies, why? Because your blood line isn’t going to save you, only the blood of the lamb saves you.

Sadly, Isreal are carrying our DNA tests, to determine if you are a true Jew or not…..what a pointless exercise that is.

In Galatians 3:29, Paul makes this clear when he states,   `

And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

I don’t believe this number is literal,  and I also don’t believe as some do, that this 144,000 is just talking about the Jewish believers in Christ

No, I think this 144,000 represents all believers in Christ.

This number represents, me and you – now!

The first reason I think this number represents all believers in Christ, because the first time that these 144,000 are mentioned in chapter 7, they are just labelled as “servants of God”

Look at verse 3 with me again

³ saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”

Servants of God is a term for believers, not a special class of believers, not Jewish believers, not gentile believers, not some super humans, who reign with Christ while the rest of the normal believers live on an earthly paradise, but believers, these 144,000 are simply “servants of God”

Secondly, in chapter 14, the 144,000 are also mentioned again, and when we look at the language used in that passage, it makes it clear that these 144,000 are those that have been redeemed by the lamb, it describes them as

Those redeemed from the earth

Those who follow the lamb

This 144,000 simply cannot be a literal number, because everything that is associated with these 144,000 is also not literal but symbolic or spiritual.

What do I mean?

The 144,000 were sealed with a mark on their foreheads. It tells us in chapter 14, verse 1, that they had the name of the lamb and the name of Jesus written on their foreheads.

This is not a literal stamp on their heads, this is not a literal tattoo on the believers heads which has God’s name and Jesus name, NO, it is a spiritual mark.

Just like the heavenly man in the linen cloth put a spiritual mark on those God spared from the Babylonians, God has put a spiritual mark on those he has saved. God has sealed his believers as it says in Ephesians 1:14 with His Holy Spirit.

In Revelation 13, we are told that Satan puts a mark on all that belong to him.

And so, it makes sense that God puts a mark on those who belong to Him.

Both the mark of the beast and the seal of God, are not physical marks, literal marks, but they are spiritual marks, which means that the 144,000 is not a literal number, but a symbolic number which represents all of God’s people.

The 144,000 are described as virgins, in chapter 14, this is not literal virgins, but it symbolises people who have not defiled themselves by whoring after other gods.

The 144,000 is a symbolic figure, which is defined by symbolic labels.

I think, and many commentators also think, that the 144,000 represents all of God’s people, and how?

Well, 12 is the number of tribes of Isreal that God worked through in the Old Covenant, and 12 is the number of apostles that Jesus worked through in the new covenant.

And so 12 and 12 represent all of God’s people and because there are as many as God’s people as the stars in the sky (i.e., it is impossible for us to count this great multitude), we just come up with 12 x 12 x 1000, which gives us 144,000.

1,000 was seen in John’s time, as a huge number, like a gazillion and so it would be like saying 12 x 12 x a gazillion- these are all God’s people, across all time.

Now, if you are lost in all these numbers, let me leave you today with something to hang your hat on.

Just turn with me to Ephesians 1:13-14

It says this:

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Friends, do you believe Jesus is your Lord and saviour?

Do you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead?

If so, you have been sealed with his Holy Spirit.

If so, God has claimed you as his own

If so, come that day of Judgement, you will be able to stand

Stand, not on your own merit,

Stand, not on your own good works

Stand, not on your faith

Stand, only because God has graciously claimed you as one of his own.

God could only claim you as his own, because he sent his own, Jesus his one and only son, to take the judgement of your sins for you.

Let us pray.