Who Am I?
Who
are you? What defines your identity? On what foundation are you building your
sense of self? Perhaps you identify yourself by your lineage or ethnicity, by your
gender or age, or by your health condition. Perhaps you define who you are by your
personality types, by your political stance, or by your job history. But in each
case, they are like looking at yourself in distorting mirrors. Your true
identity is who God says you are. To be precise, through the Bible, the God the Creator, tells us who we really are.
Last week we learned from
Revelation 7:1-8 that we, the Church, are
the true Israel – the 144,000. And the two implications are: (1) we are the
sealed people of God, and (2) we are the army of God. Now in today’s passage,
Revelation 7:9-17, John sees the same community of God, the Church, from a different
perspective. In verse 9 he describes the church in this way: “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.” Then,
the Bible does zoom in to identify who the great multitude is in verse 14: “These
are the ones coming out of the great
tribulation. They have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” According to today’s passage
we can define our Christian identity in two ways.
“Great Tribulation”
First, Christians are those coming out of the great tribulation. What
image comes to your mind, when you hear the phrase, “great tribulation”? Many
of us have a tendency to think the great tribulation is yet to come. We believe
that it’s something people would experience in the end times, but not in our
times. But in fact, when Paul uses the word “tribulation,” 21 times out of 23
it refers to a present reality. In other
words, the Bible identifies the entire church age, including our present age,
as the time of the “great tribulation,” though the forms may vary.
The Book of Revelation, particularly
from chapters 13 to 18, exposes the three different forms of the great
tribulation, that is, physical persecution, intellectual/materialistic false
teaching, and moral compromise. First, the
beast out of the sea represents a persecuting power (13:1-10). This beast
is given power to persecute the church. Then and now, many of the Christians
brothers and sisters have been facing physical persecution, enduring. Second, the beast out of the earth represents false
prophets (13:11-18). This beast looks like a lamb, masquerading as a
counterpart to Christ the Lamb. And he deceives and leads many astray by performing
miracles and makes them worship the first beast. This beast has many different names
in different times, including Gnosticism, pragmatism, humanism, materialism, and
so on. Third, Babylon the prostitute
represents moral compromise (chs. 17-18). She is described as “the great
city.” The kings of the earth have committed adultery with her, and she gets
drunk with the blood of the saints. These are the devil’s three strategies: physical persecution, intellectual false
teaching, and moral compromise. In every church age Christians face this
great tribulation.
In our context the devil’s tactics today
are mainly intellectual and moral. Earlier I mentioned about several “–isms,” such
as, pragmatism, humanism, and materialism. They have one thing in common. “Self”
is at the bottom. So the purpose of life is
my happiness. The foundation of life is my
well-being: I believe in “useful”
God. I accept Jesus, so that I can to go to heaven. I worship God, so that He may give me peace and joy. I do good works, for it makes me
feel good. I serve God and get
involved in religious service, for God will do me good. In all of this, God is a means to an end. And at the bottom
of all this there is self – making much
of me. The devil makes Christianity
all about me – my happiness, my
well-being, my feelings, etc. Christians today are called to battle against
this false religion and be faithful. Christians are those coming out of this
great tribulation. This is the first Christian identity.
“In the Blood of the Lamb”
The second is that Christians are those who have washed their robes
in the blood of the Lamb. How can we, Christians, keep our way pure and
holy in the midst of all this tribulation? How can we win the fierce battle
against the devil’s subtle but powerful attacks? How can we be delivered from ourselves?
Referring to the Second World War, Chuck Colson notes that “many soldiers died
to bring about the victory in Europe. But in the Kingdom of God, it was the death of the King that assured
the victory.”[1]
Our victory rests on the finished work of Christ. We keep our way pure, we win
the battle, we are delivered from ourselves, by the blood of the Lamb! Christians are those who have been justified
and made righteous in the blood of Jesus. So we worship Christ, because He deserves our worship. We do good
works, because it pleases Christ. We
love Him, obey Him, and serve Him, simply because He is worthy to be loved, and obeyed, and served! Here at the
bottom there is Christ – making much of
Christ.
There is one particular sermon,
that I read over and over again. I keep it in my sermon folder. Its title is “Ten
Shekels and a Shirt” based on Judges 17 and 18, preached by Paris Reidhead. In that
sermon he shares his story when he went to Africa as a missionary. He didn’t think
it was right for anybody to go to Hell without a chance to be saved. So he went
to give poor sinners a chance to go to heaven. But once he got there, he
realized that they had no interest in the Bible and no interest in Christ, and
they loved their sin and wanted to continue in it. So pastor Paris just wanted
to quit and come home. One day he poured out his heart before God, then he
heard God say, “I didn’t send you to Africa for the sake of the heathen, I sent
you to Africa for My sake. They deserved Hell! But I love them! And I endured
the agonies of hell for them! I didn’t send you out there for them! I sent you
out there for me! Do I not deserve the reward of my suffering? Don’t I deserve
those for whom I died?” That changed everything. Pastor Paris said, “I was
there not for the sake of the heathen. I was there for the Savior who endured
the agonies of Hell for me. But He deserved the heathen, because He died for
them. My eyes were opened. I was no longer working for the happiness of man,
but I was serving a living God.”[2]
Worthy Is the Lamb!
Why should we come to the cross? Why
should we come to worship God this morning? If the answer is, because we will
get joy, or peace, or blessing, or victory (though we will have them), then that
means we are still at the bottom and we love to be made much of. But from
today’s passage we clearly see why Christians come to the throne and worship the
Lamb. It is simply because He is worthy!
They obey Him, love Him, and serve Him day and night in His temple, because He is worthy! So for Christians,
the bottom of their joy is Christ and His glory, and making much of Christ.
That’s the difference – what’s at the bottom.
Two young Moravians heard of an
island in the West Indies where an atheist British owner had 2000 to 3000 slaves.
The owner had said, "No preacher, no clergyman, will ever stay on this
island. If he's shipwrecked, we'll keep him in a separate house until he has to
leave, but he's never going to talk to any of us about God. I'm through with
all that nonsense." Three thousand slaves from the jungles of Africa
brought to an island in the Atlantic, there to live and die without hearing of
Christ. Two young Germans in their 20's from the Moravian community heard about
this island. They sold themselves to the British planter for the standard price
for a male slave and used the money they received from their sale to purchase
passage to the West Indies. The Moravian community came to see the two lads off,
who would never return again, having freely sold themselves into a lifetime of
slavery. As members of the slave community they would witness as Christians to
the love of God. Family members were emotional, weeping. Was this extreme
sacrifice wise? Was it necessary? As the ship slipped away with the tide, the
young men saw the widening gap. They linked arms, raised their hands and
shouted, "May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His
suffering!"[3]
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom
and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
“To him who sits on the throne and to the
Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might
forever and ever!”
Amen.
[1] Craig S. Keener, Revelation (The NIV Application
Commentary Book 20, Zondervan), 248.
[2] Paris
Reidhead, “Ten Shekels and a Shirt,” HeavenReigns.com
[3] Ibid.
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