I mean, if your life stinks, if you're broke and everything hurts and nobody likes you, you got no problem longing for heaven. But if your life is full, If you got a family that you love being a part of, you got possessions you enjoy, it is much easier for you to forget all about eternity. Welcome back to the Summit Life podcast with J.D. Greer. I'm Molly Vitovich.
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Now back to our series in the book of Revelation. It's just getting good. Revelation 6 to 7 is essential to understanding the very culmination of biblical history when people from all tribes, nations, and tongues will worship God together.
So let's listen in now. Here's Pastor JD. I want us to stand together at all of our campuses, if we could, together for the reading of God's word. This is how we will do it this week.
Okay, everybody, stand. Revelation 7 as I read it to you. Revelation 7, verse 9. After this, John said. 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 And crying out with a loud voice: salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they all fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.
Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these, John? Clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? 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. Blessed is the one. who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear. And those who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
And all God's people said. Amen, amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. How many Mission Impossible fans do we have out there?
Raise your hand, Mission Impossible fans. I have always loved Tom Cruise in those movies. He is no Nicholas Cage, but he at least gets an honorable mention from me. Each one of the 422 Mission Impossible movies basically starts the same. Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, of course, opens a suspicious-looking package that contains an invitation to save humanity from some sinister villain hell-bent on a global catastrophe.
It is never an easy mission, of course. Otherwise, the movie series would have been called entirely possible and only mildly interesting missions. No, these are impossible missions, and they require Tom Cruise to, what, drive 100 miles an hour down a crowded European street, to jump between roofs of downtown skyscrapers, to dangle off train cars teetering on the edge of collapsing bridges, and, of course, most important of all, for Tom Cruise to run full speed for seven. Several sustained, painful minutes through back alleys and crowded marketplaces with one too many of his buttons undone on his shirt. Y'all, I don't know what it is about Tom Cruise and how the man thinks he looks when he runs, but that is a staple feature of his movies.
And all the while, of course, Tom Cruise exchanges cool-headed, witty banter with the beautiful, perfectly manicured model who somehow got stuck beside him in his daring escapade. You know, really relatable stuff. In the pages of our Bibles, you and I are given an even more impossible mission than anything ever given to Ethan Hunt. Should you choose to accept it, it is called the Great Commission. Matthew 28, 19 and 20 is where we find it.
You stay there in Revelation 7. But go, therefore, Jesus said. Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Matthew tells us that when Jesus had said these words, he ascended back up into heaven, which I guess is his version of making the invitation just disintegrate in our hands.
Now, it is important for us to note. That this was not a new command that Jesus just pulled out of nowhere. Jesus was not like, hey guys, look, I think we got a great product here. It's obviously testing well in the market. Let's take it global.
No, this was the fulfillment of one of the oldest promises in the Bible, a promise that God had given to an old, sterile man and his old barren wife, Abraham and Sarah. In Genesis 12, he had appeared to these two octagenarians to tell them that he had chosen them to rescue the human race from the curse of sin and all the woes of Genesis chapters 3 through 11. He was going to do that by bringing forth from them a new nation. And then from that nation, he would provide a forgiveness of sins that would bless the whole world, all the nations of the earth. At the time, it seemed an impossible and unrealistic mission.
But here in Revelation 7, we see it fulfilled. Impossible Mission accomplished. This great scene in Revelation 7, however, comes only at the end of two chapters about something called the Great Tribulation. Which we skipped in our reading. You can look at it there in verse 13.
We saw it referred to. Look again at that verse, if you would. Then one of the elders addressed me, John, saying, Who are these, John, clothed in white robes that are around this throne worshiping Jesus? And where did they come from? John, I said to them, Sir, you know not me.
And he, one of those elders, said to me, John, 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. That great tribulation is what chapters six and seven are about. In fact, the great tribulation is going to be the subject of the next 14 chapters of the book of Revelation.
The Great Tribulation is the main focus, historically speaking, of the book of Revelation. This morning, I am going to introduce the tribulation to you. I'm going to do my best to answer a couple of theological questions for you, and then I'm going to show you how it leads into this glorious vision of chapter 7. By the way, I should point out, chapter six is the point in the book of Revelation where most people stop reading. Because this is where the book gets less inspirational and more confusing and scary.
But there's a lot of great stuff in there, okay?
So let's go. Let's go. Back to the start of chapter 6, verse 1. If you got your Bible, flip back one chapter. Let's start there.
Now, John says, I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals. If you remember, last week we had encountered the problem of the scroll, which we said is like the title deed to the earth. The title deed of the earth, which no one except the Lamb was worthy to open, because it had been sealed with seven seals. These seals we saw represented God's judgment against sin. The meaning of all that we saw is that nobody can lead us to the life that God has for us, nobody on earth, at least, because encountering any of these seven judgments would destroy us all.
These sealed judgments, in other words, stand in the way. of the world God has for us and our entry into it. I introduced the seven seals to you last week, but let's just go through them again, okay? The first seal, you can see all this in chapter six. The first seal is oppression.
Or domination, symbolized by a rider on a white horse with a crown on his head and a bow in his hands. This rider is the one we call the Antichrist, and the crown he wears represents world domination. Later, we will learn that the first part of his reign is relatively peaceful. He unites the world under one world government and he brings a lot of prosperity. But then, about halfway through his reign, he turns violent and oppressive, which leads to the second seal, war.
That's symbolized by a bright red horse, the rider of which has a great sword in his hand. The Antichrist, after initially promising great peace, brings great war onto the earth. The third seal, famine. Is symbolized by a rider on a black horse with a scale in his hand. The famine, obviously, caused by all the wars, and the scale indicating the rationing of food like you would have to do in a famine.
The fourth seal is death, symbolized by a rider on a pale green horse with Hades, or read that as the destruction of hell, following close behind him. Verse 8 tells us that during this judgment, a quarter of the world's population will die.
Now, just for frame of reference, during COVID, somewhere between 0.1, 0.1 and 0.2% of the population died. Here, it will be a quarter of the population, 25%. We are talking about massive death. The fifth seal is the cry of the martyrs. Cries of how long, O Lord, believers are going to suffer greatly during this time, both under the persecution of the antichrist, because I mean, if he's antichrist, he'll also obviously be antichristian, and believers also suffer the calamities that the earth is going through.
These judgments are not directed at believers, of course, but you and I live in a world going through these judgments, and so we suffer under them like everyone else does. The sixth seal is cosmic disturbances, John tells us, which points to massive environmental problems and not the kinds caused by throwing plastic straws into intercoastal waterways. Verse 12 says there are great earthquakes. Like worse than the one in Russia this week. And the sun became black as sackcloth.
This might refer to volcanic activity and how it could darken the sky. It says the moon becomes like blood and the stars of the sky fall to the earth, which points to not just earthquakes, but meteor showers and other terrible things. The seventh seal is the great silence in heaven, which we will get to in chapter eight.
Now I realize all of that sounds really intense. really dark. Really bad. But in chapter 7 John pivots and directs our attention away from what's going on on earth and back up toward heaven, to what God is doing in the midst of all this. And John shows us that in the midst of all this judgment, God is still moving in redemptive ways.
You see, where sin and judgment abound, grace much more abounds. Chapter 7, you see, is all about the 144,000 witnesses whom God raises up during this time. Witnesses who will, we will later learn, lead in the greatest revival in world history during the midst of this tribulation. In fact, if you got your Bible open, look at chapter 7, verse 3. It tells us they have a seal on their heads that ensures their protection.
This seal does not protect them from all suffering. It just means that they will be supernaturally preserved in their mission as they evangelize the whole world. The Antichrist will not be able to stop them. In verses 4 through 8, John does the rather odd thing of telling us that it is 12,000 from each tribe and then listing out all the tribes. Then he heard, then I heard, he said, the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.
From the tribe of Judah, there were 12,000 sealed. From the tribe of Reuben, there were 12,000 sealed. And he goes out to list out the names of the other 10 tribes and point out the 12,000 from them.
Now, for those of you who are bad at math, 12 times 12,000 is 10. Is 144,000, which is where we get that number. And as we've learned, the numbers in Revelation are full of symbolism. 12, as we've already seen, is the number that represents the people of God, as in the 24 elders. Consisted of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles, symbolizing God's people in both the Old and New Testaments.
The number 1,000 symbolizes fullness and totality in Revelation.
So the fact that we have 12 times 12 times 1,000 indicates that this is a full and total evangelizing body. It is very important to note that these are not the only people saved during the tribulation. I point that out because Jehovah's Witnesses will try to tell you just that: that these 144,000s are the only ones who go to heaven. Have you seen them standing at the front of the RDU airport inviting you to come and take their material? If you go up and talk to them.
And I'm not saying that I have. And I'm not saying that I haven't, okay? But if you do. This is what they will say. They will say at the end, only 144,000 go all the way to heaven.
But Revelation 7 very clearly indicates that this is an evangelizing body who is going to lead in a global revival, bringing lots and lots of other people from every tribe and tongue to heaven with them. That's why that opens chapter 7 and the vision we saw at the beginning, the vision of all these people around the throne. That's what ends the chapter. It's the 144,000 that helped bring this vision to pass. And that brings me to the first major theological question I want us to tackle this morning: who are these 144,000?
Are they actual Jews? Or is this just a metaphor for the church? You see, some believe that the 144,000 is symbolic. It's a symbolic number pointing to the church itself. It calls them Jews, yes, but the church, they believe, the church is the new Israel.
And thus replaces Israel in all of God's plans going forward. Pretty much, they say, anytime you see Israel mentioned in the New Testament after Jesus' resurrection, you should just read it as the church, because the church has replaced Israel.
Now, is that true? Are these 144,000, are they actual Jews? Or is this just a metaphor for the church? Then we'll follow that up with a related question. Is this great tribulation of chapter 7, verse 14?
Is that great tribulation? Is it a literal period of time, seven years, that is coming in the future? Or is that just a metaphor for the age that we live in now?
Now, I just want to say, wow, great and very astute questions. I can tell you really wore your theological big boy pants today, okay? Are you ready? Are you ready on the first? I think the 144,000 point to a special place for believing ethnic Jews in God's future.
Like I said, some say, some say that we, the church, have completely replaced Israel and all of God's plans for the future, that God has no more plans for ethnic Jews. That's all been collapsed. Into the church, but here is why I don't think that's true. First, the fact that John lists out all the different tribes. gives a distinctively Jewish character to this group.
Right, you don't get more ethnic Jew than listing out the tribes. Second, other Bible writers very clearly point to a future for ethnic Israel. Stay there in Revelation 7, if you will. But if you're super fast with your Bible, you can jump with me over to Romans 11. If you're not, just hang on, I'll put it on the screen for you.
Romans 11:11, the Apostle Paul in this chapter is talking about how the nation of Israel mostly rejected Jesus. Right? I mean, Jews for the most part did not and have not embraced Jesus as their Messiah. Verse 11, so I ask, Paul says. I asked, did they, the Jews, stumble in order that they might fall?
In other words, did their stumble over Jesus mean that they have permanently fallen out of God's plan? Paul's answer? By no means. Rather, he says, through their trespass, their disbelief in Jesus, salvation came to the Gentiles.
So as to make Israel jealous.
Now if their trespass meant riches for the world And if their failure meant riches for the Gentiles, How much more will their full inclusion mean? Israel's rejection of the Messiah, their stumble, Paul says. actually opened the door for us. The Gentiles, you and me, to be saved because most of us in here are Gentiles or we're non-Jews. You see, because Jews in the first century mostly rejected Jesus, the apostles began to focus most of their preaching on the Gentiles.
That means Paul says, he's writing to Gentiles, the Romans. That means Paul says, we Gentiles got a greater chance to be saved because Jews wouldn't listen. Their stumble opened a door for us. But Paul hastens to add, that's not the end of the story for them. There is still a future, full inclusion coming for them.
See that? And Paul reasons, and this is what's important: listen, if the Jewish people's rejection of Jesus led to all this Gentile salvation, I mean, imagine what's going to happen when they embrace him. God promised that ethnic Jews would be a blessing to the world. That's Genesis 12. Even their unbelief was a blessing to the world, Paul shows.
Paul reasons: if they bless the world, even through their rejection of Jesus, imagine what their embrace of him will lead to. That seems to point to the same thing John is talking about in Revelation 7. When these Jewish people as a whole begin to embrace Jesus, it is going to lead to the most massive revival the world has ever seen.
Now, one more place on this, okay? Go to Acts chapter 1, Acts 1. Again, everybody else stay in Revelation 7. But if you're super good with your Bible, you can join me in Acts 1. I'll put it up here for others of you.
Acts 1:6, Jesus is on the mountain after giving the Great Commission. He's getting ready to ascend back up into heaven. This is after the resurrection, all right? After he's given the great commission, and the disciples ask him before he ascends to heaven, they look at him and they say, Hey, Jesus.
Now that you've died and resurrected. Will you at this time restore the kingdom? to Israel.
So you can very clearly see here, right? That after the resurrection, all of the disciples Still believe God has a plan. in the future for the nation of Israel. After listening to Jesus. The greatest teacher ever.
Teach about the kingdom for three years. Including hearing him teach on it for 40 days after the resurrection, they all still believe. There is a role for ethnic Jews in God's future plan.
So, when somebody tells me that the church has replaced Israel and there's no more future for ethnic Jews in God's plan, I want to say respectfully, but really? After hearing Jesus teach about the kingdom for three years, the disciples, you're telling me, are still confused as to the basic nature of the kingdom Jesus is sending them out to proclaim? Even more interesting to me, though, than their question is Jesus' response to it. Jesus didn't say When will I restore the kingdom to Israel? Fellas, don't you get it?
The church is the new Israel. There's no more ethnic Israel. You've replaced Israel. But that's not what he said, is it? No, instead, he said, Acts 1:7, it's not for you to know the times or seasons, so the father is fixed by his own authority.
No, you will receive power to go out and be my witnesses. In other words, Jesus doesn't deny that there will be a future for Israel. Instead, he says, it's just not for you and me to know when that time is. implying that God does indeed have a time for them.
So again, I see a literal future for Israel, and I think this is what chapter 7 refers to.
Now, I want to be very clear here. This is a very important caveat. You listening? I know. that we are watching a number of things play out globally right now.
And what I am saying is not about an interpretation of current events or a commentary on international affairs. Believing what I just said does not mean... Believing that God has a future for Israel, that you are signing on to everything the nation of Israel does today as an act of God. Or saying they get some kind of privileged position in world politics, okay? Those involve different questions.
I generally am a supporter of Israel. But saying the nation of Israel is part of God's future plans does not automatically mean becoming a part of the Zionist political movement, okay? And that leads me to our second question. You still with me? Listen, I got some killer takeaways for you guys in the end, okay?
But tighten your belt and put on your nerd glasses for about seven more minutes, okay? Second question. Is this great tribulation referred to in 714? Is it a literal period of time? Seven years.
coming in the future. Or is it just a metaphor for the age that we're living in right now? There are some. Who say it's just a metaphor? It's just a symbolic representation of the age we live in now, an age that is filled with suffering.
And disease and natural disaster, and anti-Christian world leaders, things like the stuff we see listed out in the seven seals. But I will just say. I believe the tribulation is an actual seven-year period coming in the future. I want you to notice that with both of these questions and the answer I've given you, I've used the words, I believe. And I think words I typically don't use in the main points of the messages I preach here, and that is because I recognize.
that this is a place where faithful Christians can, in good conscience, disagree. At our church, we don't think uniformity in our perspectives on the details of the end times is part of central Christian belief. And it's okay if you don't see eye to eye with me on all the finer details here, okay? When we all get to heaven, Kurt Cameron and I will be very gracious to you, I promise, okay? I promise I won't say, I told you so, okay.
But I didn't want to just not teach on any of this.
So, I'm trying to show you the essentials, what we can be united on, and then I'm showing you how I interpret the details, and then I'll leave it to you to come to some of your own final conclusions of the details, okay?
So, like I said, I believe. That the tribulation is an actual seven-year period coming in the future. And I believe that. Because I think it makes the most sense of all the biblical data. All the stuff in Revelation, all of it, is written as if we're talking about actual events.
involving actual people that are actually going to take place in the future. We are experiencing the beginning tremors of those things. Like the early shocks of an earthquake that's coming, but there's a future intensification of them that is coming. In fact, I showed you this the first week. Remember this verse?
In one of John's other books, the Apostle John, same one that wrote Revelation. says to this church, this is the spirit of Antichrist. Which you have heard is coming into the world. And is already here. You see that?
John believes that an Antichrist is coming into the world. That's future. But his spirit, the demonic spirit behind him, is already present. The fact that these powers are at work in the world now, which they are. Doesn't mean there is not a future intensification of them also.
In fact, this is important. I think the best way to see the tribulation is as an intensification of what we're already going through. That's future time. or all the things. we are experiencing right now in the world are going to come to a sharp crescendo.
and a hit. Think about how much of life revolves around relationships. Family, friendships, dating, marriage, even the way we handle conflict with people we care about. Relationships shape so much of our daily lives. But if we're honest, they're also one of the areas where people feel the most uncertainty.
What does healthy dating even look like? Is marriage the ultimate goal? How should Christians think about sex? And how do you handle disagreement without damaging the relationship? Those are the kinds of questions Pastor JD addresses in our new resource called From the Beginning: God's Design for Relationships.
It's a collection of practical, gospel-centered articles covering topics like the myths of singleness, the purpose of friendship, preparing for marriage, redeeming dating, and even 10 ways to fight like a Christian. Each chapter also includes reflection questions to help you apply these truths in your own life. We'd love to send you from the beginning as our thank you when you give to support Summit Life this month. Visit jdgreer.com to give and we'll email it to you immediately.
Now, let's get back to Pastor ChD. Yeah. The other reason I believe that the tribulation is an actual seven-year period coming in the future. Is I believe it's what is most consistent with how the prophet Daniel talked about this time period. Do you remember, okay?
Do you remember how I told you in our first week? That in the 400 verses of the book of Revelation There were more than 500 Old Testament references, more than one per verse. And do you remember? Which book I told you, which Old Testament book was the most referenced book? In Revelation.
Daniel, that's right. All theologians, okay, I'm not on controversial ground here, but all theologians, amillennialists, premillennialists, post-millennialists, all of them. Agree that this tribulation is a fulfillment of Daniel's 70th week. The book of Revelation is all about Daniel's 70th week. They all agree on that.
Let me show you what we're talking about. Daniel 9, verse 24. This is an angel speaking to Daniel somewhere around the mid-6th century B.C. He says, 70 weeks are decreed about your people, the Jews, and about your holy city, that would be Jerusalem, to bring the rebellion to an end. That's what's going to happen at the end of these 70 weeks.
There's going to put a stop to all sin. We're going to atone for iniquity. We're going to bring in everlasting righteousness. We're going to seal up vision of prophecy. It's all going to come true, and there's not going to be any use for it anymore.
And we're going to anoint the most holy place, which means that God will be reunited with His people. 70 total weeks, Daniel says, involving the Jews and Jerusalem. Until the end of time.
Now, very important. A week in the Jewish language, just means a period of seven. It could mean seven days, could mean seven months. Or it could mean, as it does here, seven years. a week of years.
So one week is seven years. And how many weeks are prophesied? 70.
So 70 weeks times seven years, that's 490 years. You're like, I had no idea we were going to be doing this much math this morning. Oh, you just wait, okay? What happens at the end of those 70 years, verse 24? Rebellion is brought to an end.
Stop is put to sin. Iniquity is atoned for. Everlasting righteousness will be brought in. Biblical prophecy is fulfilled. Most holy places restored.
Okay. It's going to be awesome. But notice, verse 25, that Daniel breaks these weeks up, breaks these 70 weeks up into three segments. Seven weeks, 62 weeks, and one week. All right, well, verse 25.
No one understands this. From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. I'll come back to that in a second. This is when it starts. The 70 weeks starts here.
Until an anointed one, literally in Hebrew, that is Messiah. The ruler That gap will be seven weeks. and then 62 weeks.
Now When do these 69 weeks, 62 plus 7, when do they start? They start with the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. That decree was given by King Artaxerxes in 445 BC. That story is told in Nehemiah 2. We'll actually study it together next year.
Starting at 445 BC, there will be seven weeks. Roughly 49 years. Which is how long, by the way, they say it took to rebuild Jerusalem. And then he says it will be followed by 62 more weeks.
Now watch this, this will blow your mind. After those 69 weeks are over, Daniel 9:26 says. After the 62 weeks, the anointed one will be cut. Off.
So seven weeks and 62 weeks equals 69 weeks. And then the anointed one, the Messiah, will be cut off. 69 weeks. It's 483 years. If you start here at 445 BC, And when Artaxerxes gave the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, And you add 483 years, it brings you.
to 32 AD. Which is roughly the day that Jesus was crucified and he was cut off. This is a pretty amazing prophecy, if you ask me. God gave Daniel the date that Jesus would die some 500 or so years before it happened.
Now, I know some of you that are super quick at math. You go, well, wait a minute, 445 plus 483 doesn't get us exactly to 32 AD. That's because you have to use a 360-day year. Which is what Jewish people at the time used, that would get you to 32 AD. That brings us to right here.
The end of the first 69 weeks when the anointed one is cut off. But Daniel continues, Daniel 9:26. After the anointed one has been cut off, the people of the prince who is to come.
Now, this is no longer the Messiah. This is the prince who is to come. He will destroy the city and the sanctuary. We're talking about the Antichrist. He will make a strong covenant with many for one week.
There's your 70th week. And during that week, he will put an end to sacrifice an offering. Here, Daniel is referring to the Antichrist who will come, he will conquer, he will rule, and for the first half of his seven-year rule, it's going to seem like everything is hunky-dory. But then things will change. and all hell will break loose.
Seven years of tribulation. That he's referring to is the book of Revelation, the main subject of Revelation. Revelation is Daniel's 70th week. Again, all theologians agree on that. The question is is when does the 70th week start?
And is it a letteral seven years? Or is that number just a symbolic number that indicates a time of trouble that we are already in now? Or does it point to a time in the future?
Okay. All right, an actual seven years, an actual seven years coming in the future. And is there like an unidentified gap of time? between the end of the 69th week and the beginning of that 70th week. That's the question.
I read it. as an actual seven-year period coming in the future. Because first of all, the previous 69 weeks were basically literal. And I think John presents it in Revelation as something coming in the future, things he says that must soon take place. And that's what leads us to this incredible scene at the end of Revelation 7, the culmination of biblical history.
After this, I looked, John said, and behold, a great multitude that nobody could number. From every nation and all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands, and crying out together with a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
So I've got two major... takeaways for you. And like I said, You can and should embrace these fully. Even if you disagree with me on the details, some of the details of how it all shakes out. Or if you're just one of those people who are like, look, Pastor, I still got no idea what you're talking about.
pre-mail, a mail, post-mail. I still don't know what any of those words mean. In fact, I got a friend who calls himself Pan Mill. Meaning, he doesn't know how it is all going to go down at the end, but he knows it's all going to pan out with Jesus on the throne, okay?
So whatever you are, whatever you are, this is the part I really want you to pay attention to. These are the takeaways, okay? Two things. Number one, write down B. alert.
Be alert. Many commentators point out the similarity of the sealed judgments in Revelation 6. With the things that Jesus prophesied would happen on the earth. in his Olivet discourse. in Mark 13.
Jesus uses a lot of the same imagery. He uses the same language. And it is clear he's talking about the same events. In that chapter, Mark 13. Jesus uses the word alert seven times.
Times. Everybody say with me the word alert. Look at the person next to you. If they're sleeping, tap them on the shoulder and say, alert, okay? That was a lot of people.
Sorry, I didn't know many people were asleep. All right, be on guard, Jesus said. Be alert. Because you do not know when the time will come. These seal judgments, you see, show us That this present world is not our home.
And Jesus tells us seven times. When he talks about these judgments, to be alert. Because it's so easy. to let this present world become your home and get lulled to sleep here. I can tell you that from personal experience.
That is especially true. When you got a pretty good life. C.S. Lewis said wealth And comfort and the praise of people have a way of knitting a person's heart to this world. Right?
I mean, if your life stinks, if you're broke and everything hurts and nobody likes you, you got no problem longing for heaven. But if your life is full If you got a family that you love being a part of, you got possessions you enjoy, it is much easier for you to forget all about eternity. Y'all listen to faithful Christian life. Means walking by faith. with confidence in what we cannot see.
That means prioritizing what you can't see and feel. And again, Listen, church, I will tell you from personal experience, that's hard. Because here's the thing. The praises of people feel real to me right now. You feel chuffed.
when you get them. And you're like that flower that starts growing toward the sun of people's praises. You ever seen that? You got a flower in a flower pot, and the sun's over here. And so the flower starts growing that direction toward the sun.
I'm like that with people's praises. I start getting praise and I'm like, ooh, I want to hear that again.
So I start doing things even subconsciously that make me start leaning that direction to try and get that praise again. But then the life of faith comes along and tells me: do not seek the approval of others. You seek the approval of Christ, and that's hard. Because I can't see him or hear his voice yet. And that means I got to intentionally correct myself.
Sometimes it feels unnatural. I am not going to grow toward this praise over here, which I can see and feel. I'm going to grow toward his praise, which I can't see or feel yet. That's the life of faith. In the same way, the physical pleasures of the world are real right now.
Sin feels good. I know you're not going to say amen to that, but it's true. Like the country preacher says, if sin ain't fun, you ain't doing it right, okay? It's fun. Riches and comforts feel real.
When I was this week, when I was president of the SPC, I was in charge of the convention meeting, which has several thousand people in it.
So they end up renting out the whole hotel that they hold the convention in. And they put you in the presidential suite when you're the president because, again, the whole thing's rented out.
So my whole family checks into this room, and y'all, it is just palatial. I mean, several adjoining rooms. Everything is plush. It looks out over the whole city of Nashville. And my son.
It was like 11 at the time. He gets in there, opens the door, and just like it starts running from room to room, checking everything out. Dad, look at this. You know, open the free. Dad, look at this.
It's all free. I'm like, no.
Okay, he's like, look at this. Look at this. After about five minutes of going room to room and yelling out, Dad, come check this out, he finally just collapses on the bed and says, Man, this is making it hard not to love earthly things. And I was like, amen. It is hard to forego things you can see and feel.
For invisible things you can't see or feel with. Are you with me? It's hard. But without faith, you see, it's impossible to please God. Which means you got to train yourself to live this way.
My friend, Pastor Conway Edwards, out in Dallas, says that when Jesus uses the word alert. My friend Conway says he thinks of the image of a sprinter. That's the word Jesus is calling out, poised and ready to go. You know this moment right here? It only lasts for a second or two.
But y'all, when I'm watching the Olympics, that second or two feels like forever. I get all tense in that moment and I'm not even the one running. It seems like the whole world just stops for a minute and then bang, it's on. That's how Jesus says we should be regarding his coming. I'm tuning everything else out, everything else out.
And I'm focused on that. I am listening for that. Mark 13, 33, be on guard. In Greek, that word is blepe. which means eyes wide open.
Be alert, Greek agrupēmete. Which means urgency, be poised, ready on a hair trigger because he's like, you don't know when that gun's going to go off.
Now, let me just ask you, does that describe you right there? Not physically, of course. There's only a few of us that are built like this, but is this your spiritual posture? I would say some of us. They'll look like that in our lives.
We're more like the runner at the starting blocks. She's not really paying attention. You're standing up looking around, you know? Noticing the outfit of the person next to you, their shoes. Oh, where did you get those shoes?
Listen, you cannot be alert and ready when you're focused on who has what and how much you have compared to somebody else. The life of comparison is the opposite of being alert and ready. Or you're up walking around, you're lollygagging, talking to people in the crowd, getting selfies, getting picked. You're so focused on this world that you're just not going to be ready. when that gun goes off.
And then you're going to realize that you spent your whole life focused on things that didn't actually matter. You structured your whole life as if this world were your home bee alert. Be focused. Eternity is just around the corner and that gun could go off at any minute. And these early trimmers of these judgments, they should already make you be aware of that, which brings me back to the vision in Revelation 7.
And to our final thing here, number two, be confident. Be confident. Jesus wants us to see that when it's all said and done, y'all, this is what remains. And this vision shows us what we should be focusing on because, again, When history is over, listen to me. When history is over, that second house you saved all that money for and finally bought, it ain't going to be there.
And when history's over, all those accolades, it ain't gonna be there. When history is all said and done, that scene in Revelation 7, that's what remains. You see, faith, I've heard it said, is living in a way now that you know one day you'll be glad you did. One of my favorite mission stories of all time, y'all. Is one I heard in seminary?
It's a story of John Dobert. And David Niechman, two young Moravian missionaries in their early 20s who in the 1700s became burdened. To reach the inhabitants of one of the Caribbean islands, most of whom had been taken there as slaves. The two young Moravians wanted to go and share the gospel with these slaves, but the plantation owners said no. No, there's no one I'll let you do that.
There's nothing in that for us. And so the story goes, these two young men sold themselves into slavery in their 20s. They sold themselves into slavery to this owner so they could go live among those slaves and preach the gospel to them as one enslaved among them.
Well, as word spread about their incredible sacrifice, Moravians from up and down the eastern coast of the United States came to see these two men off. as these men were shackled with chains. And the boat that they were put on began to pull away from the shore to take them to the Caribbean where they would never be seen again. One of the two young men raises his shackled hands up and points at heaven and says, May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering.
So inspiring, right? But that's not the actual story. It is true. that the two young Moravians offered to sell themselves into slavery. But the plantation owner said no to that too.
So in 1732, these two guys boarded a ship. Not in chains, but as free men. And they went to live on the island not far from the plantation where all these slaves were kept. There, for the next 50 years, they prayed for them, they loved them, and they shared Christ with them any chance that they got. Historian J.E.
Hutton says this, for 50 years they labored in the West Indies. Without any aid from any other religious denomination. It was hard work. It was often mundane. It was often boring.
It often looked like it was bearing no fruit. But when these two young men finally died at an old age, they left behind 13,000 baptized converts on that island. And a streak of new churches in St. Thomas, St. Croix, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, and St.
Kitts. That's the true story. And honestly, y'all. I think the true version might be more inspiring to me than the exaggerated one. You wanna know why?
It's one thing to sell yourself into slavery in one dramatic gesture. But to get up every day and lay down your life for others. To serve them, to pray for them, to demonstrate Christ to them, that takes a resolve that goes down into your bones. You see, their statement: may the lamb that was slain receive the reward of his suffering, that was not said in one rhetorical cinematic flourish. That was said in the day-by-day sacrifice of their lives.
The vision that compels you to live that way, to get up every day and live that way, the vision that compels you to that is the vision in Revelation 7. Are you involved? Listen, y'all, because these two men obeyed. 13,000 slaves came to Christ. Whose life is going to be affected by your obedience?
See, I believe that there's somebody here. This morning, that God is going to call you to go live in Southeast Asia as a part of one of our church plants there. I believe there's some of you that God is going to call you to join out with our foster family ministry through organizations like Open Table or Safe Families. I believe there are others of you that He is going to lead you to adopt.
Some of you, he's leading you to join up with our prison ministry or our ministry to refugees or just to go overseas on your first mission trip and join with what God is doing around the world. Or for some of you, it's just to walk across the street or across your cubicle and to tell somebody about Jesus. Because these two men obeyed. 13,000 slaves came to Christ. What's going to happen?
When you obey. Y'all, just listen. Imagine with me for a minute. Being around that throwing there in Revelation 7. I want you to imagine yourself there, because if you're a believer, you will be.
I want you to imagine looking into the face of somebody who's there because you told them about Jesus. You got to see him baptized. They were reached because of your financial sacrifice. Because you insisted that you were going to bring your kid and make church a priority. They're there because they're the compassion child that you sponsored, whatever.
You're going to get to know that person for millions of years. And you're going to love them with a perfect love. Imagine how much you will love them at that point after you've known them for a million years. Don't you think in that moment you will be glad for any sacrifice you made to get them there? Don't you know that you'll think at that point that they were worth it?
Y'all, not only does this vision of Revelation 7 assure us our sacrifices are worth it. Summit, it inspires us to take audacious gambles in pursuit of this vision. See, because we know We know, don't we, that God has promised to bring it to completion. I've seen the end game. I've seen the end of the story.
I know what it's going to be. I know that what we're doing is going to work. Every once in a while here at the summit we get an example of that. In fact, I heard a story this year that just blew my mind. We had a college student here named Luke.
That's what I'll call him for the purpose of the story. He's an NC State student who was led to Christ by another summit college guy called John. Also at NC State. John discipled Luke. They began to share the gospel faithfully there at North Carolina Central.
Well then Luke, again, who's a brand new Christian at the end of His college years, as you know, he graduates, he puts his yes on the table. We always ask our students, hey, put your guest on the table, let God put it on the map. And he said yes. And he went through us with the International Missionary Board, International Mission Board, as a missionary to London.
Well, one afternoon while he's there in his two-year mission, journey out there. Luke was sharing the gospel in a London park. With a guy, and he says, he says, honestly, it wasn't going that well. He goes, I wasn't doing a good job. The guy I was sharing with was not responding.
But after I ended this painful conversation, A young South Asian Muslim man who I'll call David. Just approached me and asked if I was talking about the Bible. and asked if I could share with him the stories that I've been trying to tell the other guy. You see, turns out this South Asian Muslim man had been having dreams he could not understand. In this one recurring dream he was having, he said, I was walking across this desert, and a Christian woman that I'd met was on one side of the desert reading the Bible.
And across the desert was a group of people, and that group of people was my people. And they asked me what the woman was doing. And I told them she was reading the Bible.
Well, the people, my people in the crowd said they needed that book. They needed the Bible.
So to go get it and please bring it back to them. He says, so I took the Bible and started to cross the desert to bring it to them. But as I did, a voice from heaven said to me, first, I need to give you a new heart and a new spirit. David didn't even know that verse is in the Bible. He'd never read it.
Ezekiel 36, 26.
So Luke, our college student, tells him, I think that's a verse in the Bible. And they start to study the Bible together. They study the Bible for several months, and David really begins to get convinced that Jesus is the Messiah. But y'all as a Muslim, he really wrestles with trusting in Christ because he knows his family is going to reject him or even kill him if he trusts in Christ.
Well, David's mom in South Asia Gets sick, and David has to move from London back to South Asia. But he continued to read the Bible. He continued to correspond with Luke, and he got to a point there in South Asia where he says, I have to give myself to Jesus. And so we did.
Well, his older brother, who was training at the time as a jihadi warrior. Saw him reading the Bible one night. and asked David what he was doing and David told him that he had trusted in Christ.
So, David's older brother physically beat him, beat him that night, and threatened to tell their parents if he ever caught him reading the Bible again. But then? Later that night, He, the older brother, Had a dream of a man in white saying why are you persecuting me by hitting your brother? He wakes his brother up to tell him about the dream and his brother says, I think that's in the Bible too. They go looking, they find Acts 9.
That night, David leads his older brother, who'd been training as a jihadi warrior, to faith in Christ. They keep reading the gospels and start preaching and teaching and sharing Christ with people in the nearby villages. A couple of imams, which are Islamic religious leaders, they get saved. And they join up with this Bible teaching thing and they start to lead literally hundreds of people to Christ there in this part of South Asia. It's all taking place in one of the least reached regions on the planet.
In fact, so many got saved, they had to flee their home, these two brothers, for fear of death, but they kept going. By the way, I almost didn't believe this story when they told me. But there's an INB article written about it. It's linked in my transcript. You can look it up.
Well, last year, these two brothers in South Asia write to Luke. Who's now back in the US at this point? And ask him if he can come out to South Asia and teach. The two brothers had to baptize and plant churches.
So last April, Luke and John, the other summit college guy who'd led him to Christ, head off to South Asia to lead in these big mass baptisms over there. Our college pastor said, I was told him about this. He said, I remember Luke before he went. There's nothing really special about him. He wasn't a super Christian or the star.
He's just a student who took seriously God's call. to engage in the nations. And because of that, eternities are being changed. Y'all, that's the kind of thing Revelation 7 promises. And when you put yourselves in situations like that, You can count on it happening.
That's why I often compare the work of our missionaries over there to the, you know, the proverbial woodpecker I tell you about, you know, who just. Tapping away the telephone pole. Not doing anything. The pole just making noise. All of a sudden lightning strikes the telephone pole, splits it in two.
Woodpeckers like. You know. flies off, goes and gets his friends, brings them back. It's like, there she is, boys. Look at what I did.
And our missionaries are over there and they're just doing what they do. But see this vision right here tells them that God is going to make it work. And when that lightning strikes that place, like it did in South Asia, they're like, I knew it! I knew it. He said he would do it, and he always keeps his promises.
Hudson Taylor said there are three stages to every great work of God in the world. First, it is impossible. Then it is difficult. Bennett is done. That's where I got the title for this message.
Jesus invites you and me to realign our lives so we're part of this vision. To realign your priorities, your money, your time, and your heart. Are you in? If today's message stirred something in you, our team would be honored to pray with you. You can send us a prayer request at the email address requests at jdgreer.com.
Remember, if you'd like to receive Pastor JD's new resource titled From the Beginning, God's Design for Relationships, we'll send it right to your inbox as our thanks for your gift to this ministry. See you next time. Today's program was produced and sponsored by JD Greer Ministries. Yeah.
