Out of Chaos

Text: Revelation 7:9-17

Focus: Unity

Function: Unity out of Diversity

Intro:

I don't know what I like most about this passage, verse 10: “All nations, all tribes, all races, all languages crying out to God in a loud voice: `Salvation comes from... ...the Lamb.'” Or, verse 17: “¹⁷because the Lamb, who is in the center of the throne, will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of life-giving water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Verse 10 is huge in the scheme of the Book of Revelation.

Remember, John writes this as a vision that God gives him about the suffering that Israel went through in 70 AD.

Remember, the people were sure the reason why they were destroyed was because they were not pure enough in their faith. That lack of purity was largely due to interracial marriage.

I don't know if the idea of racial purity because of religious reasons was as important in their national identity as it was to the common identity that we all feel as individuals who tend to figure out reasons to justify why they want segregate themselves.

This is huge. To have a Jewish prophet being overwhelmed as he is relaying an image of all nations worshiping Jesus together demonstrates to me the authentic nature of John's vision.

In a prison bible study that I was conducting about 25 years ago, I had a problem with a few people who came to the Bible study to disrupt and to proselytize toward another faith.

One made the claim that the Bible was written as a propaganda tool for one religion and it, as a history book, always paints them in the light as being the only decent people in the midst of evil doers.

I don't argue those points with people because they are useless. Instead, I want to just focus back, as this passage does, on Jesus.

If the Bible was merely a history of how God's people are better than others, then it would not include so much failure by God's people.

I see it as a story of God's love for humanity and people trying to figure this out.

It appears to me that John had a real live vision because if this were merely a religious story designed to vindicate the Jewish people over the rest of the world, then this image, this image that is so contrary to the current popular religious teaching, Jews and Gentiles, all nations, all races, all languages, eventually every single person coming to Jesus must have come from another source. I believe it was the miracle of the Holy Spirit as God led John to this vision.

It appears that every generation since this book was written believes that it was, and is, or will be about them.

Maybe God left it that mysterious. Or maybe, we believe that advertisers that it is always about us.

But for John to make this statement about the inclusive nature of the gospel was certainly a different story.

Remember, the Jews believed that the mixing of the races led them to the problems that they did and were now facing again.

But this passage isn't about how God's people are better than others as the detractors at my bible study were trying to say.

It's a passage about how big the crowd is that belongs to God and how diverse they are.

How did the world change from its nationalism and racism into a multi-national people?

John sees, in this vision, the desire of God: the desire that humanity lives together in harmony.

And it happens because of Jesus.

I learned a lot from those guys who were proselytizing in my bible study. We learned to love and respect each other.

I was pleased to meet men who hoping that God would include them as well.

And with those men, like this passage, I love to focus on Jesus.

Remember, they are worshiping the Lamb. John -or Jesus- choose this image of Jesus, the Lamb, as a way to remind people throughout ages of the power of sacrificial love for others.

If this was about the kingdoms of men, then it would not have included all those peoples.

The way Jesus died was certainly a message that the ways of human kingdoms merely brings death and destruction.

Jesus shows John this vision of humanity together, unified, as one, celebrating Jesus.

And of course, the obvious application is that if we are going to be the Kingdom of God, if we are going to be the Church then what we do on earth should reflect what is happening in heaven.

Unity is now, Amen?

And then that last verse, God will wipe away their tears.

I love the way the image changes here. We go from the worship of the Lamb to praise for the Shepherd.

And they are both one and the same at this point.

Or, at least the symbol changes.

The slain lamb becomes the shepherd.

Remember last week's vision, the Lamb was worshiped because the Lamb was slain.

This week, all that is known and now the Lamb is worshiped because He is the Savior.

And, as Savior, He becomes the Shepherd.

And, His qualification is the way He allowed Himself to die at the hands of the Romans who killed Him to maintain their control over their slaves.

Jesus said, “The First shall be last and the last shall be first.”

We get this picture of Heaven and we see that what is valued there is love, sacrifice and community. It is completely different than what is valued here by our culture, not by our faith.

It truly is an upside down kingdom.

And when we look at the teachings of Jesus, we see this love, sacrifice, give to others first,

When I was young, we used to sing a little Chorus in Sunday School. It was: “Jesus and others and you, what a wonderful way to spell joy.”

The emphasis was on the others before you. But in this day and age of personal rights and freedoms in the political arena, somehow, it seems as if Christians are crying more and more about personal rights instead of living for others.

In order to help with expenses during this transition, we have a young man boarding with us in Dayton.

He moved up from Hazard county KY with a friend because jobs were better. I think it is sad that a job that is still poverty level is what he was forced to move for, but he is an hard working man.

He struggles. His friend never spent any time with black people and left immediately because he didn't want to be around those kind of people.

But our young boarder is doing better. His father died of a drug overdose two years ago and his life has been hard ever since.

He is trying, but has a lot to overcome.

He asked me about this scripture Friday, “does Jesus really want us to lay down our lives for our friends?”

The man's world view is very racist, my son is married to a black woman and they are helping this young man through a very difficult time.

This is the kind of kingdom that Jesus came to establish.

It is upside down.

John has a vision of what Jesus is creating here on earth.