Preaching the Gospel from Revelation

The story of the Bible from the beginning to the end is about Jesus, about his work of redemption.

Revelation chapter 7 records a climactic scene where a vast multitude of people are worshiping before God's throne. The question for each one of us is, will our face be in that crowd? Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains why this picture should motivate us to share the gospel. We're going to end by thinking of paintings. Don't misunderstand me as if I know a great deal about painting. I don't at all, but it doesn't stop me from thinking that one day I might.

And so, one must live with hope. But if you think of this as a great painting, all right? When painters paint—I've seen this from going to galleries—before they have the final picture, there are often other little mini paintings. Or there are actually thumbnail sketches. Sometimes the work is done in pencil, and there are pencil drawings before you have the final piece. What I want to do is suggest to you a couple of the pencil drawings that precede the completion of this big picture.

I hope you can follow my line of thought. First little thumbnail sketch is God's call and covenant with Abraham. Okay, so we'd have to go back into Genesis. We're not going to go there, the call of God to Abraham, and to create a people that are his very own. And that covenant picture, both in the Old and in the New Testament, is, as you know, God's free decision to call out of all the peoples of the world a people to be his own special possession as he becomes their Redeemer.

It means more than that, but it doesn't mean less than that. God has pledged himself from all of eternity what the Father has planned, the Son has procured, the Spirit applies, and the great work of redemption to put together a people that are his very own, and it is the utterly undeserved privilege of all who have come to trust in Christ to find themselves included in that big company. And when you read, then, the drama of the Bible, if you read it with that thought in view, then the little individual bits and pieces suddenly take on a far greater and far more comprehensive significance.

So, for example, Ruth the Moabites. What about the way in which God chooses to use the triple bereavement in the life of Naomi to forward his purposes in these things? What is happening? The covenant promise of God that I am going to have a people that is vast in its complexity, that extends to the ends of the earth. Look up in the sky, look down in the sand, he says. And as you read through, what is happening? God is keeping his purpose, he is fulfilling his promise, he is employing his servants, he is enlarging his people.

And he's still doing it. That's one little sketch. The other thumbnail sketch that I put down in my notes was the calling of the disciples. The calling of the disciples. I did this arbitrarily, but I did it purposefully, because in Mark chapter 1 and verse 15, although the NIV says that Jesus then stands on the stage after John the Baptist, and he says, The time has come… In fact, he doesn't say, The time has come. He says, The time is fulfilled. The fulfillment of time. That is a better translation.

Why? Because Jesus is declaring that the whole process, the whole promise of redemptive revelation in the Old Testament finds its fulfillment in him. The time has come. The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel.

And that explains why in encounters with people, everything is moved dramatically forward. Remember, with the lady at the well in John chapter 4, she says, When the Messiah comes, he'll explain all of this. He says, Excuse me? I who speak to you am he.

The time is fulfilled. Or, in the synagogue in Nazareth, when they were used to having the various speakers at the equivalent of the Mullins' lectures, and they were all coming in and going out, the same old stuff all the time, and eventually they realized that it's the boy from the carpenter's shop, he's giving the talk. He's doing the reading, and he's going to give the talk. And he read from the passage of Scripture, and then he sat down, and it's recorded for us that all the eyes in the synagogue fastened on him. They could never have imagined what he was going to say.

His opening sentence was a killer. Today, the Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. Or third thumbnail sketch. The beginning of Acts. Acts chapter 1.

Here's the other thumbnail sketch. Post-resurrection. Okay, Jesus, say the disciples, we get it now, let's go. We thought the whole thing was over. We're delighted to know that it isn't. We're starting to figure it out. Your death was part of the plan.

Okay. Well, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now, Jesus? Nationalistic flavor of their request is understandable, but it's wrong. And Jesus has to recalibrate their thinking in terms of the giving of the Spirit and the proclamation of the gospel. Fellas, this is not about a temple in Jerusalem.

This is not about the nationalistic focus that you have in relationship to the Jewish people. This is about the Spirit of God being poured out upon you, and don't go till he comes, and when he sends you, then you go exactly where you're told, and you're going to discover that there are countless people who will be ushered in to the kingdom. You will be my witnesses after the power of the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. Goldsworthy puts it like this. Instead of the expected glorious reign of Christ in the new Jerusalem, we learn that the scepter of the risen Christ is the preached word that will be the focus of the worldwide missionary endeavor of the church. And that drama then unfolds. For example, Peter then preaches in Jerusalem, and he says, There is no other name under heaven by which men may be saved.

He then has to go through the experience that is crystallized in the house of Cornelius, and he suddenly gets it and he says, I now realize that God does not show favoritism. In other words, there is no special nation status. Britain, in its history, suffered dramatically as a result of certain segments of the evangelical church conceiving of something which was essentially called British Israelism. They read all of the promises in relationship to the fulfillment of the kingdom of God directly in nationalistic terms. They were so jingoistic as to think that somehow or another God was uniquely committed to Britain and to its empire. Let me ask you where the British Empire is today.

Would it be wrong for me to suggest that America tracks right behind Britain? That there are large swages of contemporary evangelicalism that are so nationalistic in their approach to the gospel that they have missed this point entirely or have chosen to ignore it? That God does not show favoritism. You see it in relationship to the Middle East, in terms of Israel, in terms of the Arab population. Most of the stuff that is said, which we entirely understand, does not give any credence at all to the existence of those who love Christ and suffer for Christ in the Arab communities of the Middle East.

Why is that? It's because of a view of the Bible. It's because of a way of reading this stuff. Ideas have implications.

That's why you are sensible people. You must read your Bible and figure this out. The gospel shatters every man-made barrier of race.

Every man-made barrier of race. We have a story to tell to the nations that will turn their hearts to the right—a story of truth and gladness, a story of love and light. For the darkness will turn to dawning, and the dawning to noonday bright, and God's great kingdom shall come on earth, the kingdom of love and light. Well, come back now to the picture with me.

Back into the room, we did those little drawings. Let's come back and look at this great multitude that no one could count. Oh, says somebody, what do you mean no one can count? There are some numbers there in the chapter. I see that you're just trying to skip them. You started at verse 9, because you're afraid of the 144,000. How clever of you, beg! So now we've got Mrs. Jenkins in the Bible study who wants to tell us what the 144,000 is.

It's a good time to send her out to make coffee. Let me just say this. When you come to these things, it's important for us to remind ourselves that what John is doing in writing Revelation is not ministering to armchair theorists in the twenty-first century. He's writing to the battlers in the first century who are struggling to reconcile the fact of a risen Lord with the persecution and the frustration and the feebleness of their lives.

Every day they live their lives, they are harried and pressed upon from every corner. They're trying to say, Well, if we serve a risen Christ, why is the world the way it is? If he is the triumphant Lord, if he is the ascended King, what in the world is this mess? Look at my children, look at my grandchildren.

What am I supposed to do? That's why he's writing Revelation. He's not writing it so that people in the twenty-first century can get PhDs by explaining some intricate and marvelous interpretation. Some of the interpretations, their ingenuity is only matched by their improbability. And the more ingenious you are, the more improbable you probably are as well. Well, John, when he writes—and you get it in chapter 1—he's not writing from Never-Never Land.

He's writing from Ever-Ever Land. So beware these things. Beware these things. So what do you want to do with 144,000? What is who is in this company?

Well, I'll just lay my colors out before you and shoot me as I leave. I think we're on the right track when we see the number of 144,000 and the multitude as one and the same. As one and the same. From one perspective, from God's perspective, it's the perfect number, the square of twelve by the cube of ten. That's what John heard. That's the number, a definite total known only to God. For God knows them that are his. 2 Timothy 2.

That's what John heard. What did John see? What he saw, if you like, from a human perspective, was a numberless multitude. From God's perspective, this crowd is all Israel, the real Israel in Christ. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abram's seeds and heirs according to the promise.

The real Israel in Christ converted Jews and Gentiles. God sees that. From our perspective, it just looks like a vast crowd gathered together from everywhere. Again, you're sensible.

Read your Bible. But know this, that in this crowd there will be no empty seats. In this crowd there will be no no-shows. In this crowd there will be no returns at the door. No one will be showing up and saying, I don't need this ticket. You won't be able to go along half an hour before the performance and pick up a seat that somebody has decided not to fulfill. That is not for a moment to suggest that the kingdom is going to be sparsely populated, because it is a multitude that no one could count.

And they're not put together simply arbitrarily or willy-nilly. The individuals who are here in this company, according to verse 14, are those who are cleansed and clothed. Cleansed and clothed. But wait a minute, said Mrs. Jenkins, what about the Great Tribulation?

Mrs. Jenkins, I said, make the coffee. These are cleansed—these are the individuals who are cleansed and clothed. Those who by faith have received the gift of righteousness in Christ to clothe them before the search and gaze of a holy God. Clothed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.

That's who's there! Clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You get that in Zinzendorf's hymns. You get that in Watts. You get that in Newton.

You get it in Town and in Getty. As a boy in Scotland, I grew up with lots of hymns. Many of them are just buried now in my consciousness. I never get to sing them. I sing them in the car by myself.

One came to mind this morning. It begins like this, with harps and with vials. There stands a great throng in the presence of Jesus to sing this new song, unto him who hath loved us and washed us from sin, unto him be the glory forever. Amen.

And the second verse I always loved, goes like this, All these once were sinners, defiled in his sight, now arrayed in pure garments, in praise they unite, unto him who hath loved us and washed us from sin, unto him be the glory forever. Amen. Now, we're going to finish with a little exercise in imagination. I want you to imagine that the picture is up behind me here, that no one could actually imagine or count. And I want to ask you if you can see some faces. I think if you look up to your left and my right, you'll see the face of the lady who was looking for love in all the wrong places.

She met Jesus, she asked her for a drink of water, and her life was never going to be the same again as a result of that. You'll see her face up there. If you look over on the far side, you'll see the funny little guy who climbed up a tree in the hope that he might have seen Jesus, just the chance to get a look at him, little realizing that Jesus would stop right underneath this tree, look up and call him by his name and tell him he wanted to come to his house for a cup of tea.

And Zacchaeus's life would never be the same again. You'll see his face up there. If you look carefully, right in the middle, you'll see a big black man who was reading his Bible on the way home from a conference in Jerusalem and hadn't a clue what he was reading about until a little Jewish guy came up and ran along beside him and said, Do you understand what you're reading about? And he said, How could I ever understand what I'm reading about unless somebody explains it to me? And Philip says, Well, I guess that's why the Spirit of God told me to run along here beside the chariot.

Seemed like a crazy idea to start with, but now it's beginning to make sense. And he hops into the chariot with him, and he leads him to faith in Jesus Christ. You'll see his face up there. You'll also see the face of the thief who got it right at just the last minute. The one who turned to his friend and said, Don't you fear God? We are up here getting what our sins deserve.

He hasn't done anything wrong. Lord, will you remember me when you come into your kingdom? Now you say, Well, what would you do with this if you were preaching to a variegated congregation such in your own church? Well, I think this is how I would finish. I would say, Do you see your face up there?

Because it's a very interesting thing. John may have seen you, because he saw this. This was a vision of the completed picture. So there are actually faces. You may meet John in eternity, and he goes, You know what?

You're that guy—were you doing an MDiv? Because I'm sure I saw you, that when I had that vision of the huge big picture, you look familiar to me. But I'd ask my congregation, Do you see your face there? And they might say, Well, how would my face ever be there? And then I'd tell them that in Scotland, when it was like Tuesday was—miserable, raining all the time—I would take my pocket money sometimes, and I would actually go and buy a book that had what was ostensibly blank sheets of paper in it. I'm sure they must have come from America. It was an ingenious idea.

You have all the good ideas. And they were essentially blank sheets of paper, and what you did was you got a little jug of water, and you got a paintbrush, and then you put water on what was essentially a blank sheet. And it wasn't a blank sheet. Faces started to appear. Whoa!

Look at that! How did I do that? Did I make them come there? No, apparently they were there.

Yeah, but they wouldn't have been seen if I hadn't put the water on them, would they? And you also were included in Christ, says Paul to the Ephesians, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When somebody, as it were, took the paintbrush, dipped it in the glorious news of the gospel, and painted it over what looked to be a blank canvas, and suddenly another face appeared in the multitude that no one could count. And then I would say this, and this I say to you, is that if that is the case, and if we are in Christ, and if we do understand something of this in terms of the great call of the evangel and of gospel and of mission, then I might tell them about two of my favorite people in conclusion. One would be Charles Haddon Spurgeon. And I would tell them that on Spurgeon's tombstone in Upper Norwood in suburban London, you can find the verse from the hymn, "'Ere since by faith I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply.

Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.'" And then I would tell them of Eric Little, who won the gold for Britain in the 1924 Olympics, memorialized in Chariots of Fire, as now only seen by grandparents and old people that get the old movie out and watch it, it's worth getting. But forget the movie, after he had finally been a hero in Scotland and left for China, when he left for China from the Waverly station in Edinburgh, a great company gathered, not simply of his Christian friends but people in the community, because he was really the Michael Jordan of his day. He was as famous as that as an athlete. And the great assembled crowd was there, watching as this fellow who had the world at his feet was about to go and lose himself in China. And he got on the train, and he let down the window in the train, and he addressed the crowd, and he thanked them for coming. And then he paused, and all of a sudden he shouted, Christ for the world! For the world needs Christ! And then he led them in the singing of the hymn, Jesus shall reign where'er the sun, Doth his successive journeys run, And his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

When you're tempted to be buried under the weight of a secular world, when we are tempted to be discouraged by our apparent and sometimes realistic, inarticulate ineffectiveness, go and get this picture out and look at it. And remind yourself that God is still on the throne, that he will remember his own. Though trials may press us and burdens distress us, he never will leave us alone. God is still on the throne, and he will remember his own. His promise is true.

He will not forget you. God is still on the throne. We've been listening to Alistair Begg with a final message in a series called Preaching the Gospel.

This is Truth for Life. Our study today is a compelling reminder that the world needs Jesus. That's why teaching the Bible is at the heart of all we do. We know that when God's Word is taught, unbelievers will come to know and to love and to trust Jesus to save them from their sin and to give them eternal life.

That's why it's our prayer that many of the faces standing before the throne will be there because God's Word did God's work through the ministry of Truth for Life. When you donate, that's the mission you're supporting. Your gifts help bring the Gospel message to listeners all around the globe through Truth for Life. And if you give today, we want to invite you to request a copy of Alistair's book titled Pray Big, Learn to Pray Like an Apostle. This book explores Paul's prayers for the Ephesian church, and will encourage you to pray like Paul who prayed with confidence and with boldness. Request your copy of the book Pray Big when you give today.

Simply tap the image on the app or visit the website truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. You may have experienced turbulence on an airplane flight where your stomach churns and your mind starts to question the ability of the pilot. Life's ups and downs can bring a similar response. Is there really anybody in control of what's happening here? Alistair explores that tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.