Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text for today’s meditation is Revelation 7: 9-17

Revelation 7:9 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, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" ¹¹ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." ¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" ¹⁴ I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "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. ¹⁵ "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. ¹⁶ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷ For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Rev 7:9-17 ESV)

There are many products designed to remove stains from our clothing. When you go to the store and look at all of them do you know which product to buy? There are so many, how do you know which one works the best or if it even works at all? Well, you can go to the web where there is a blog that lists the top ten stain removers.

1. Oxiclean Max force laundry stain remover
2. Tide stain brush
3. Tide to go – I keep one in my desk drawer
4. Spray & Wash Dual Power Laundry stain remover
5. Oxiclean stain remover wipes (Disconinued)
6. Zout stain remover
7. Spray & wash stain stick
8. Shout Gel
9. Bio-Kleen Bac out stain and odor eliminator
10. Clorox bleach pen

What a list! According to this list Oxiclean Max force laundry stain remover is the ultimate stain remover. Some of these names are interesting. Shout; who thought of the name shout? Are you shouting because you are mad you spilled something on you or are you shouting for Joy because this product removed the stain? Then there is the guy that shouts at you to advertise Oxiclean. Does he think that shouting at us will make us want to buy his product?

We use quite a few different things to get the stains of our lives out of our clothes. The question is do all the stains of our life come out of our clothes? I had a stain on one of my clergy shirts that wouldn’t come out. I shouted at it every time I washed it and eventually it became unnoticeable but it’s still there. What about stains like mustard, wine, grape juice or the unbelievably hard to get out blood. Of course you use cold water for blood but even then it’s almost impossible to get out especially if it sets.

John describes who is standing before the throne of God and Jesus, he says "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." Who is this multitude and why are they in white robes?

Remember, Revelation is apocalyptic writing; it is a vision of what it will be like during the end times. Also remember it is written by John to the Christians in Roman controlled cities to encourage them to persevere in their faith. John had to write it in a code that the Christians would understand but not the Romans. The multitude from every nation, tribe, peoples, and language are the believers that are going to heaven when Jesus comes back on judgment day. They are a great multitude that no one could number from everywhere; Jews and Gentiles. The white robe on the believer is the righteousness credited to them by Jesus when He shed His blood as He suffered and died on the cross and rose again on the third day. The white robe of Jesus’ righteousness is what God sees when the multitude stands before the throne. He doesn’t see the sins; He only sees Jesus’ righteousness credited to the believer. So, these are the believers on judgment day. So who are the believers? That would be you and I. Jesus shed His blood on the cross for you, the believer, one of the multitudes from every nation, tribe, peoples, and language. You are in the multitude and you are wearing a white robe.

Did your robe start out white? No, it didn’t. It was stained with your sin. Let’s look at this shirt as your robe of righteousness while you are here on earth. Do you stand any chance of keeping it clean on your own? No, your sin stains your robe and you can’t get it out.

(Put stains on t-shirt)

Wine stains – sin of addictions; alcohol, drugs, pornography

Grape juice stains – lying and cheating

Mustard stains – gossiping

Ketchup – coveting

(Take shirt down)

You are covered with stains, the sins that keep you from righteousness. You may try to remove them yourself and gain your righteousness with good deeds. (Dunk shirt in bucket of water) Oh, if I can just be good enough. Can you ever be good enough? No! Will those good deeds ever remove the stain of the sin? No!

So how do you remove the stains and make your robes white? Just like your clothes your robe of righteousness needs to be cleaned, you need a stain remover. You need the ultimate stain remover. The ultimate stain remover is the blood that Jesus shed for you on the cross. John says "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." That seems rather odd that blood that we know stains is the ultimate stain remover and makes your stain filled robe of righteousness just as white as can be. Jesus shed His blood so you can be credited with the righteousness He earned by dying on the cross. He shed His blood as the payment for all sins. His blood removes the stain of sin. (Put the stained shirt in the red liquid, pull out the clean shirt) You can’t do anything to remove the stain of your sin. Only the blood of Jesus, the ultimate stain remover, can remove the stain and make your robe white.

I think the makers of shout read this passage. I think they had in mind shouting for joy that the stain is gone. John records the reaction of the believers to having their robes made white by the ultimate stain remover, the blood of Jesus’; "and crying out with a loud voice, another way to translate that is "and shouting, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" Just as John the Baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus; "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" The ultimate stain remover, Jesus’ blood, shed for you! Nothing here on earth can compare, not even Oxiclean Max force laundry stain remover.

Amen.