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 7:2-17

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." ⁴ And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: ⁵ 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, ⁶ 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, ⁷ 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, ⁸ 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed. 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."

Remember your parents telling you not to "go along with the crowd?" I learned that lesson the hard way. Remember me telling you about my first car, the VW bug with the plywood floor that I dearly loved? Well, I had a group of friends that liked to play a game of chase in cars. You chased a car through town until he lost you. Then you switched places and did it all again. I went along with the crowd and was actually quite good at it because of how nimble the VW was. I should have listened to my mom. Has anyone seen a VW bug lifted up on a rack? The rear wheels tilt in. Well, one day while chasing one of the cars I made several tight turns back and forth and the rear wheel buckled under the car and put my car in a skid. As I tried to bring it around I hit the curb and flipped the car on its side and slid down the sidewalk. We climbed out through the sunroof, flipped the car back on its wheels and sped off. The next day I realized I broke the front wheel supports and had to junk the car. By "going along with the crowd" I lost my first car. Now I was left without a car and no way to get back and forth to swim practice. How stupid of me, "going along with the crowd." By the way my kids haven’t heard that story; I was sworn to secrecy by Laurie. It seemed like fun at the time but the consequences were not worth it.

We have a choice; we can either go along with the world’s crowd or God’s crowd. Jesus tells us what choice we are to make. As Christians, we must resist going along with the world’s crowd. Verse 14 talks about the ones coming out of the great tribulation. Resisting the temptation of the world’s crowd is living in the tribulation. The time of tribulation is the time between your baptism and judgment day. Life in the tribulation is not easy; it hurts and many tears are shed. You can get beat up pretty bad trying to resist the world crowd.

No, we are fouled and defiled by the filth of our surrounding environment. The filth in our environment surrounds and constantly bombards us. The moral degradation we watch on TV is amazing. Things God describes as abominations are now commonplace and widely accepted in our weekly TV programs. Things like Homosexuality, adultery, sorcery, and mediums are all represented in most TV programs. We are bombarded by filth on the internet as well. Do we guard ourselves from this filth? No, we dive right into the middle of the filth and wallow with the world’s crowd. It is by our own falling and failing that we become fouled and defiled by the filth of our surrounding environment. The struggles and agony of the life in the tribulation must not be minimized. None of this sounds like there is much hope for us to be part of God’s crowd, does it?

The challenge to resist "going along with the world’s crowd" isn’t just physical. The challenge is internal as well. We constantly fight the old Adam inside each of us. You know, the voice inside of you that says "it’s ok just this once", or "no one will ever know", and my favorite "it’s not wrong if you don’t get caught". The old sinful Adam in you is powerful but we are called to resist and that truly is tribulation.

Through the tribulation we become fouled and defiled. We have talked quite a bit recently about being defiled and fouled in our Wednesday evening bible study of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Lord says He is holy and therefore He wants us to be holy by going along with God’s crowd not the world’s crowd. But do we live a holy life? Do we go along with God’s crowd?

But there is hope! God calls you into His crowd in baptism. You are one of those sealed. You are one of the 144,000 through the washing and Word of baptism. You are part of the new Israel.

12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

Notice that none of the tribes are missed in the sealing. None of them are left out. It is complete. You are sealed and washed clean in your baptism. Your sins are forgiven through the working of the Holy Spirit and you became part of God’s crowd. God keeps you in His crowd. Some may ask "how is it we are all in God’s crowd when there were only 144,000 sealed?" The 144,000 represents the new Israel from all nations. Verse 9 says there was a great multitude that no one could number standing before the throne. They are from every nation, all tribes, and peoples and languages. They, we, are in God’s crowd. And in God’s crowd you can resist going along with the world’s crowd. God wants you to be holy because He is holy. The best part about being in God’s crowd is that God brings you to the final judgment described here by John. We don’t get to the final judgment through anything we do. We don’t resist going along with the world’s crowd so we can get to the final judgment, we resist because God is bringing us and that is how we respond.

John describes what it will be like after the judgment through the words of the elder."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."This is your future; this is where we will meet again those that have gone before us in the faith. Your robes that were tattered, torn, and horribly defiled by life in the tribulation are plunged into the bloodbath of the Lamb’s blood and removed dazzling white. That same living and exalted Lamb serves as shepherd for the gathered saints. They drink from the spring of the water of life and find complete nourishment and protection in God’s Tabernacle. This is your future. Don’t let the present reality of tribulation diminish the fact that this is your future.

Tribulation is only for a while but life with the Lamb is forever. Even though the multitude was so large no one could count it, God still takes care of you individually. The Christian life begins and ends personally and individually with God’s call into faith and out of the grave. He called you individually at your baptism. And it is to you, the individual Christian that God comes to wipe the last tear from your eye. The last tear is the final remnant of life in the tribulation. Even though He comes to you individually to wipe away the last tear; you do not live in isolation, you are not alone. You are part of the grand crowd that cannot be numbered. You are singing and celebrating in an unimaginably spectacular and delightfully deafening chorus. Can you picture the joy? Wanda and I were talking earlier this week and she told me she would see Bill again. She said it with such joy. She will see him again. He too is one of the multitudes. We may be in the tribulation but we have hope and joy. We have grown so accustomed to it like an old comfortable shoe. We forget how glorious and joyous it really is. This is the joy God wants us to share so that all nations, every tribe, people and language will truly stand before the throne and before the Lamb.

This is your future; the last tear of the tribulation will be wiped away by God himself.

Amen.