But I Say unto You: Be Blessed Richmond s First Baptist Church, November 5, 2017 All Saints Sunday Revelation 7:9-17 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands A few weeks ago I had a dream so vivid that I got up and wrote it down so I wouldn t forget it. But you know how it is when you write something down in the middle of the night: when you look at it the next morning it rarely makes sense. That s how it was this time, because this is what I wrote: I had a dream where I was sitting in the balcony at some big church. I was invited to come forward to the railing at one point and look over at what was happening on the main level. The crowd stretched out in every direction as far as the eye could see, literally hundreds of thousands of people. There were television monitors showing what I couldn t see from where I was standing: a man with no shirt on, sitting on a pew with his arms around his two sons, which, instead of seeming strange, seemed inclusive, as if everybody were welcome at this church; and then another man, maybe Indian, digging through the books on a library cart with one foot. But again, it seemed inclusive, not strange. Anybody want to interpret that one? When I look up the word dream in the dictionary it says: A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Did you get that? These images, ideas, and emotions come to us involuntarily. We don t have any control over our dreams. When we are in them they can feel as real to us as any other experience, but later they leave us scratching our heads and wondering: what was that all about? The Book of Revelation has that quality about it, as if John had woken up from a dream and written down everything he had seen. There are dragons in this book, angels and archangels, terrible battles, beautiful 1
promises. It s a fascinating dream, but it s not only that: it s a dream that takes place within a nightmare. The nightmare is the historical reality in which this dream was dreamed. Near the end of the First Century A.D. the Roman Emperor, Domitian, was persecuting Christians. One of his predecessors, Nero, had soaked Christians in creosote, set them on fire, and used them to light his garden parties. But Domitian was just as bad; some thought he was Nero come back to life. He had Christians thrown in jail, boiled in oil, or beheaded if they refused to say Caesar is Lord! Domitian is almost certainly the one John has in mind when he writes about the Beast of Revelation. And his persecution of Christians is almost certainly what is meant by The Great Tribulation, or, The Great Ordeal. John was the overseer of seven churches in Asia Minor at that time, what Catholics or Episcopalians would call a bishop, and what Baptists might call a Director of Missions. He felt a responsibility for these churches. They were under his care. Can you imagine what it did to him when he heard that one of his flock had been put to death or imprisoned for his faith in Christ? I think about Mike Robinson, the Director of Missions for our local Baptist association. Mike is a good man: he s always smiling and telling funny stories about the things that happen in our churches. But I wonder what he would do if he were getting daily phone calls about pastors, deacon chairmen, and WMU directors being beheaded or boiled in oil. Can you imagine what kind of dreams John had in those days? The Book of Revelation may be exactly what he wrote down in the middle of the night. And he may have chosen to use this part today s reading as his sermon at the annual meeting of the Ephesus Baptist Association. It s a sermon with precisely two points faithfulness and endurance and if you can get 2
those you will get the point of the entire Book of Revelation. Beginning with chapter 7, verse 9, John says: After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen. Think about it. Imagine John as the Director of Missions of the Ephesus Baptist Association, speaking to the messengers from the seven churches who have gathered for the annual meeting. It would have been a small crowd. If those seven churches were house churches, which they probably were, there wouldn t have been more than twenty or thirty people in each one. Suppose the total membership of the seven churches of Revelation was less than two hundred? Suppose that number was getting smaller by the day as Christians were persecuted and put to death? And then suppose the Director of Missions, in his sermon at the annual meeting, began to talk about a multitude of fellow believers that no one could count. It s a beautiful dream, and a good reminder to us that God doesn t count as we do. At that associational meeting so long ago they may have looked around and said, There aren t very many of us here. Maybe following Jesus isn t as important as we thought it was. Maybe we should give up on him, pledge our allegiance to Caesar, and enjoy what s left of our lives. But then John said, I looked and behold, there was a great 3
multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb! A great multitude, John says; too numerous to count; from every nation, tongue, and tribe; and all of them affirming that salvation comes from God alone. It reminds me of that time the prophet Elijah complained that he was the only one left in Israel who was still faithful to God and God said, I have 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. When those of us in the American church these days complain about declining attendance and offerings God might say, Have you seen what I m doing in China, in India, in Africa? That dream of a multitude was an appeal for faithfulness. John might have said, I know things are difficult and dangerous, but let s don t give up now. We are not alone. There is a multitude of people too numerous to count, from every part of the world, who know as we do that salvation comes from God alone. But that wasn t the end of the dream. Beginning with verse 13 John says, Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from? I said to him, Sir, you are the one that knows. Then he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. 4
That multitude? That innumerable host from every nation, tongue, and tribe? Apparently those were the Christians who had died in the Great Ordeal : the persecution of Caesar Domitian. And this is an appeal for endurance. John is saying to the members of those seven churches, Don t give up and don t give in. Hold on to your faith in Christ even if they threaten to kill you, even if they do it! Look at these. That s what they did. And look at them now, standing before the throne of God, dressed in white, waving their palm branches and singing his praises. They will hunger no more and thirst no more. The Lamb of God will be their shepherd. He will guide them to the springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Can you imagine how comforting that would have been to Christians in a time of persecution? Can you imagine how well that sermon would have been received at the annual meeting of the Ephesus Baptist Association? But here s the truth: it might have been well received at any time, and in any place, because even though we are not always being persecuted we are always dealing with something. In the Beatitudes Jesus says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, and we say, Yes! That s us! He says, Blessed are those who mourn, and we say, Yes, that s us, too! In John s time they would have said yes when he got to that part about being persecuted for righteousness sake, but in every time and in every place we cling to the hope that we have not been forgotten in our suffering, and that someday God himself will wipe every tear from our eyes. Not all of us will go through the Great Ordeal, but all of us will go through something. I think about those whose names were read earlier this morning. Often when things get bad I get a call. Someone on my staff will say, I think you need to go by and see Mary, and what that usually means is, I don t think Mary has a 5
lot of time left. So I go, and I find Mary at the height of her suffering: stage four cancer of some kind or another; one of those that eats you up from the inside. I find her gritting her teeth and fighting the pain, but what I also find is that she is not in any danger of abandoning her faith. No, she is holding onto it with both hands, as tightly as she can. And when I offer to pray she nods her head and squeezes her eyes shut, and I say, Lord, you know Mary. You ve known her all her life. You were the one who knit her bones together in her mother s womb. You were the one who brought her forth into the world. You have been watching over her every day since. Watch over her now. Hold her life in your hands. And when the time comes carry her over from this world to the next so gently that she doesn t even feel it. I ask it in Jesus name. Amen. And when it s over I open my eyes and she opens hers, wet with tears, and mouths the words, Thank you. Blessed is she. The next day or the day after that I get another call letting me know that her suffering is over, and because I m an old romantic I picture it happening just the way John dreamed it, with God himself holding her face in his hands, reaching up with his thumbs, and wiping the tears from her eyes. And I think what she might say to us if she could is what John said to those churches in the Book of Revelation: Don t give up on your faith even if everybody around you is giving up on theirs. Don t give up on your faith even if you have to suffer for it. Hold fast. Keep believing. Because this is not a dream; This is real. Jim Somerville 2017 6