A Vision of Victory: Revelation 7:9-17

Revelation 7:9-17 contains one of the most glorious visions of God’s people found anywhere in Scripture.  Here, John recorded a vision of God’s people in victory in order to encourage believers that God will keep His people to the very end.  It functions much like the visions that Joseph received as a teenager: it is just enough of the picture to keep Him faithful and call Him to endure (Genesis 37:5-11).  Robert Mounce says that the purpose of this vision “is to grant a glimpse of eternal blessedness to those about to enter the world’s darkest hour” and point them to the ultimate hour of triumph.[1]  May this vision of God’s people in victory stir your heart up to face anything that God may call you to face! 

 [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.” (Revelation 7:1-17 ESV)

1. Tour of the Text (7:9-17): the Saints in Heaven

1. Their Description (9-10)

Revelation 7 contains two complementary visions of God’s people.  In verses 1-8, we are given a picture of the Saints on Earth, and in verses 9-17, we are given a picture of the Saints in Heaven.  John describes the saints in heaven as a great, innumerable, multi-ethnic multitude that is standing and singing.  That this multitude is innumerable is an allusion to God’s promises to Abraham concerning the number of His offspring (Genesis 15:5: stars, Genesis 32:12: sand).  God is seen here as faithful to have kept this promise to Abraham.  That they are a multi-ethnic multitude also shows God faithful to have kept His promise to bless all families of the earth through Abraham’s offspring (Genesis 12:1-3) and shows Christ faithful to have built His church as He said He would (Matthew 16:18). 

Notice two activities that John describes about this group.  First, they are “STANDING before the throne and before the Lamb” (9).  This is the answer to the question the earth dwellers asked in Revelation 6:17: “who can stand?”  We’ll talk about why in a bit, but for not notice that this group is not fleeing to the rocks and caves to hide from God.  They are standing victoriously before Him!  They are “clothed in white robes,” which is the attire of heaven in the book of Revelation.  They symbolize both purity and victory.  The “palm branches in their hands” are also symbols of victory and festiveness.  This is a victory celebration and they are all declaring they’re victory cry!  This is their second activity described.  They are SINGING, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”  They credit God with the entirety of their salvation.  God saved them, God sealed them, and God kept them! 

2. Their Audience (11-12)

In verses 11-12, all the angels, elders, and the four living creatures (seen standing around the throne) fall on their faces before the throne and worship God in response to the song of the great multitude.  They affirm the truth of the song of the great multitude, saying, “Amen!  Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”  Robert Mounce has an excellent quote about this verse in His commentary: “If there is ‘rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents’ (Luke 15:10), how unbelievably great will be the joyful adoration of the heavenly host when ALL the redeemed stand before their God!”[2]

Also, notice the double “Amen!”  They agree with heaven’s victory cry.  I wonder, would the angels “Amen!” the songs that we sing?  Would they “Amen!” the truths that are declared from this pulpit?  Church, we should strive to know, sing, and preach the kind of theology that angels affirm. 

3. Their Identity (13-14)

We now come to the identity of the great multitude in verses 13-14.  One of the twenty-four elders then asks John a question that elder already knows the answer to, but one that John doesn’t.  The question however, is important because it lets us know what God want us to understand about this great multitude.  The elder asks John WHO this great multitude is and WHERE they come from (13).  This means that WHO they are and WHERE they come from is very important. 

They are first those who have persevered through the great tribulation (14a).  This answers the second question.  The elder identifies the multitude as “the ones coming out of the great tribulation.”  A difficult question to answer at this point is: What is “the great tribulation”?  Is this referring to a final period of suffering or to the sufferings of church throughout history?  In His Olivet Discourse on the end times, Jesus quoted Daniel 12:1, referring to a time of “great tribulation” that was to come in the last days, a tribulation like nothing the world has experienced since its creation (Matthew 24:21).  But remember that according to the eschatology of the book of Revelation (and the rest of the New Testament), we are already in the last days.  John said in Revelation 1:9 that he was already a brother and a partner in “tribulation” to these readers.  Also, Jesus spoke of the “tribulation” that the church at Smyrna was facing and still to face.   I think it is also important to remember that we are still in the context of the opening of the seven seals, the fifth of which was described in Revelation 6:9-11, which spoke of the fact that a certain number of believers were still to be slaughtered before the end.  Revelation 7:13 seems to indicate that they have now come through that great tribulation.  So, I tentatively think that this should be thought of in the same was we thought of the earlier seals.  “Great tribulation” refers to the sufferings of the church throughout history, but also refers to a more concentrated time of suffering at the very end (like a woman’s contractions). 

This group of people is secondly those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb (14b).  He further identifies the multitude as the ones who “have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  Now isn’t that a strange image?  What white garment that you have will remain white if you wash it in blood?  Obviously this is referring to a different kind of washing of a different kind of stain.  It is the stain of sin, wickedness, and rebellion, which is precisely why those who haven’t been washed cannot stand before the throne and the Lamb in chapter 6.  This stain incurs the wrath of God.  This great multitude was stained with the same sin, wickedness, rebellion as those who fled from the wrath of God in Revelation 6:12-17, but the blood of a substitute has satisfied the wrath of God that was due them.  This touches on a glorious truth called penal substitutionary atonement.  The word penal rightly implies that there is a penalty for the stain of my sin and rebellion that must be addressed.  Christ, the Lamb, addressed this penalty by bearing it Himself in my place, as a substitute.  This is why the word, “substitutionary” is used.  Because Jesus has lived, bled, and died in my place, I can now be reconciled to God.  His wrath towards me is satisfied.  This is the what atonement means, that two parties who were at odds with each other have now been reconciled.  That is why this great multitude can stand before the throne of God, because the Lamb has paid for their sins and bore the wrath of God in their place.  This is what it means to be washed by the blood of the Lamb: that you look to Jesus alone for salvation and trust Him and His finished work to make atonement for you and your sin.  There is no other way to be washed white before God.  There is no other way to stand before Him. 

4. Their Destiny (15-17)

Now it gets really good!  Notice the word, “THEREFORE” at the beginning of verse 15.  This means that because they have (1) come out of the great tribulation (persevered) and (2) washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb (been washed), they will have the following reward described in these verses.  Their first reward is that they will serve in and be sheltered by the Presence of God (15).  Their serving “before the throne of God…day and night in His temple” is a priestly picture (1:5-6, 5:9-10).  The picture is completed by the reality that they will be sheltered by the presence of Him who sits on the throne.  God’s presence is seen to be the great reward of His people. 

The second aspect of their destiny is that they will be satisfied and shepherded by the Lamb (16-17).  I connect verses 16 and 17 because of the word, “for” in verse 17.  It seems that the reason they will never again hunger, thirst, or be struck by the sun or any scorching heat (Isaiah 49:10) is because they will be shepherded by the Lamb and comforted by the Father.  The Good Shepherd will guide them to “springs of living water” that will eternally satisfy their souls.  That is what the images in verse 16 are meant to communicate: ULTIMATE SOUL SATISFACTION, and it will come by the gentle, loving hand of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ.  He will wipe away their every tear (17b).  God saved those whom He sealed; He did not loose any of His sheep.  This truly is a picture of a VICTORIOUS CHURCH.  

2. Thoughts from the Text

So let’s close with some points of application from this passage.  This is a glorious picture of the destiny of the people of God.  What I would like us to consider is that even though this vision reminds us of the people of God we will become, we are still the people of God now if we have been washed by the blood of the Lamb and we are to live like the people of God now!!!  How do we do this?  First, may we be a people with a rich theology.  There is such an accurate understanding of God’s grace in salvation in the victory cry of this great multitude.  “Salvation belongs” to God and the Lamb.  Have you really pondered the depths of what it means to be saved by the grace of God alone?  We bring nothing but our sin, rebellion, and spiritual deadness to the equation.  It is God who seeks us, God who draws us, God who makes our dead hearts alive, God who opens our blind eyes and deaf ears, God who gives us faith to believe the gospel, God who seals us for the day of redemption, and God who finishes the work that He starts in us.  What can we say but that our salvation belongs to our God? 

Second may we be a people of perseverance.  They have come from the great tribulation.  You don’t come from something unless you have been in something.  They are a group of people who have remained faithful even unto death.  Can we say that about ourselves, that we would die before we cave in on our allegiance to Jesus Christ? 

Thirdly, may we be a people who share God’s heart for the nations.  From God’s promise to Abraham to the fulfillment of it in this passage, we see that God desires a people from “every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” on the planet.  God has called His church to be the instrument that He uses to reach these people.  One of the ways we are seeking to share God’s heart for the nations is in our adoption of an unengaged, unreached people group in Uganda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Would you pray about giving and going towards these efforts? 

Finally, may we be a people who treat the presence of God like the treasure that it is.  Verses 15-17 present knowing and dwelling with God as the ultimate reward of heaven.  This reminds me of passages like Psalm 27:4 and 84:10: One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4 ESV)  For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 84:10 ESV)  Do you treat the presence of God like the treasure that it is?  Jesus had bled and died to give us access to it. 

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[1] Robert Mounce, NICNT: Revelation, 162

[2] Ibid. 163