The Book of Revelation: Revelation 6 and 7

Speaker: David Mitchell

Passage: Revelation 6 and 7

Hey, it’s great to be back. My name is David, and my family and I have been with Vintage for about ten years or so now. Today, I’ll be teaching on chapters 6 and 7 of Revelation. We’ve been in the Book of Revelations for a while now. Recently, Pastor Greg took us through chapter 5, and Pastor Dustin taught on chapter 6. But before we move forward, let’s go over a bit of context. 

First and foremost, Revelation is a letter written to a real group of churches, seven total, about 2,000 years ago. Every time I come into the letter, especially chapters 6 and 7, as the teaching team will attest, I realize how little I understand of the letter. Revelation is also a letter inherently about politics and power. 

Before we jump into Revelation chapters 6 and 7, I want to state a couple of foundational things. 

A LETTER FOR THEM AND US

The first one is this: Revelation is a letter written to them and for us. It is a letter that was written specifically to these historical groups of people, these seven churches. It was not a letter written to them about this apocalyptic future where they would listen to the letter and say, Well, that sounds kind of interesting John, but it doesn’t apply to us. It’s two or three thousand years in the future.

No, this letter was written to them to help guide them through the tribulation that was coming. It is also a letter that is written for us. In other words, it was canonized into Scripture because not only did it apply to the church then, but it applies to the church today.

If you grew up like me, and your theology of the future was based on the Left Behind books, this could all be very confusing. Wait. Aren’t we supposed to be raptured out of this? Aren’t we supposed to be gone when there’s tribulation? If we think that way, we read Revelation sipping our coffee and thinking, Wow, it’s really going to suck for all those people, but I’m going to be an observer to all of that. 

But the point is this: we are not intended to be passive observers of Revelation. It is a letter that is written about how the church is to respond in the face of suffering and tribulation. That is what it’s about.

A LETTER FOR THREE STAGES OF THE FUTURE

Secondly, for the original audience, Revelation was about their future, but it was specifically about three stages of the future. It was about their immediate future, i.e., what was about to happen in the months and years to come. It was also about their distant future, i.e., what was going to happen to future generations of believers like us. And it was also about the cosmic future, i.e., how does this entire story get concluded?

For the seven churches, it was about their immediate, distant, and cosmic future. For us, we should recognize that Revelation is about something that happened in the past, i.e., the tribulation that came on believers in the past. It is about our present, the tribulation and judgment that we currently find ourselves in, and it is about our future. So, when it comes to Revelation, we are not passive observers. It is about our past, it is about our present, and it is about our future.

A LETTER ABOUT GOD’S JUDGMENT

Number three, this revelation is about God’s judgment and God’s sovereignty. Now, one of the complex things that we see in Revelation chapters 6 and 7 is that God is not causing the suffering, the tribulation, but He is allowing the tribulation. In other words, Revelation is about the reality that any time a group of people replace the governance of God with the governance of man, chaos ensues.

I’m not saying that every circumstance of suffering that you find yourselves in is brought on because of the judgment of sin. It’s not that. In fact, Jesus implicitly speaks against that when they come and say, Hey, why was this man born blind? Was it because of his sin or his parent’s sin? Jesus says, No, it wasn’t because of that, but that the glory of God might be seen in him. 

If you are personally, individually, in a place of suffering, Revelation is not saying it is definitively because of God’s judgment. What Revelation chapters 6 and 7 say is that when a group of people choose the governance of man over the governance of God, then the natural outflow of that is suffering and chaos. 

Think about when the people of God came to Samuel and demanded a king. They said, We want a king so we can be like all the other nations. God replied, If you have a king, the king will take your children, he will take your money, he will take your food, and you will suffer. But the people responded, We want him anyway.

Sure enough, in the following years and decades, in the future of the people of God, they experienced famine and suffering and war and pestilence. Why? Not because God was causing the suffering but because God was allowing it. God was saying to them, If this is the world you want, then this is the world you will get.

So, the question that we come to is, Well, why does God allow suffering? And really, what we see in chapters 6 and 7 is that God allows what you choose. If a people collectively choose to reject His governance and choose their own governance, then Revelation chapters 6 and 7 tell us about what will unfold.

REVELATION 6 AND 7

Okay, so we’re going to jump into the Scriptures and read about twenty verses, starting with Revelation 6:15. This is in response to the judgments unfolding in front of the people. The seals are being opened, and judgments are coming out into the world. God is not responsible for the judgment, but He’s allowing the judgment. Here we see how the people of the earth respond.

“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?’”

In other words, judgment is unfolding in the world. Those who are powerful in the world recognize they are weak in His Kingdom, and they run and hide. Chapter 7 now gives us a different picture.

“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: ‘Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.’”

In other words, Chapter 7 shows that judgment is coming and that those who are believers in Christ are not raptured out of it. It is not that God pulls them out of tribulation, but God says, I will stand with them in the tribulation. God says there will be a distinctiveness between how the people of God respond to tribulation and how the people of the world respond to tribulation.

The people of the world will hide in caves. The people of God will be sealed by Him. It is not that they are kept from all of the suffering, but they are sealed. There is some kind of protection and distinction that He brings to His people.

“Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, 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 12,000.”

This is the great multitude in white robes. Remember when Dr Ian Paul was here? He’s a British guy. We can trust him. He said that this is not a literal number of 144,000. How do we know that? In the next verse it says there was a great multitude that no one could count. What is 144,000? It is a perfect number multiplied by an immeasurable number. And so what he’s telling us is that the kingdom of God is perfectly immeasurable. 

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!’

Then one of the elders asked me, ’These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 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. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’”

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FIRST SEAL

What we see in Revelation chapters 6 and 7 are seven seals, four horsemen, four angels, an innumerable multitude, and in the midst of it all, we see one Lamb. Without that Lamb, we have complete chaos. But with that one Lamb, everything is changed.

So, Revelations 6 and 7 give us a great vastness of tribulation, but as we begin to go from a wide focus and zoom in, what we see at the very center of it all is Jesus on His throne. What we’re going to see later in Revelation is that the seven seals unfold, which leads to seven trumpets, which leads to seven bowls. It’s like, as Dustin would say, this kind of telescope extending out, giving us more and more clarity.

What are these seals? As each seal unfolds, what happens is a kind of suffering or judgment and tribulation is coming out onto the earth. In Revelation 6, we see the first seal open, and who comes out? It’s the first of the four horsemen. The first horseman is described as a rider on a white horse with a white robe and a sword. And you may say, Well, that sounds pretty good. Wait a minute, I’ve read Revelation chapter 19. Jesus is described the same way. 

The victorious return of the King: a rider on a white horse with a white robe and a sword. That’s good news, isn’t it? What’s different about the first horseman in Revelation 6 and the king in chapter 19 is that the rider in chapter 6, the first horseman, looks like the king but is not the king. This is a false teacher. This is deception.

BEWARE FALSE TEACHING

The first tribulation in Revelation is when a group of people, collectively, as a society, rejects the rule of God and replaces it with the rule of man. Then, the land is flooded with false teachings. And so, Church, Revelation chapters 6 and 7 tell us we better be equipped to know how to stand in the face of false teaching. The first thing Jesus will talk about in Matthew 24, when He’s talking about the future, is the coming of the false messiahs and false prophets.

The first tribulation is a tribulation of false teaching. In 2nd Timothy 4, he will write about how we are not to respond to false teaching. He will say that there are those who hear false teachings, and their ears are tickled.

What I’m struck by is this picture that goes back to how you and I are to be like bond slaves of Christ. The Old Testament talks about being bond slaves of Christ, which is when you go to your master and say, I don’t want to leave you. I want to stay in your presence. The commandment actually said to take the servant to the doorpost and pierce his ear on the doorpost.

The picture is this: in the face of false teaching, our ears are not designed to be tickled by words; our ears are designed to be pierced by the Master. If you and I are going to be those who stand in the face of tribulation, we must be those who learn to stand against false teaching. And we are surrounded by it. It is all around us.

TWO RESPONSES TO TRIBULATION

As we think about this sort of complex challenge where God is allowing this suffering but not causing it, we see in chapters 6 and 7 how God puts limits on what the horsemen can do. Yes, He allows these seven seals to come out and these four horses to come out, but what He says to the horse of death is, You can go to a fourth of the earth.

In other words, we see that even in the midst of all of this chaos, God is still sovereign. We can have these complex arguments about why God would allow these seals to be open, but the answer is simple. God is giving them what they’re asking for. He is giving them the world that they want. And so this passage is about what happens when a world rejects God. It’s about what happens in the past, present, and future when judgment comes forth onto the earth.

THOSE WHO HIDE

I want to look now at the response to this. First of all, we see the response of the people with all of the power on this earth. In Revelation 6, towards the end of that chapter, it says that they hid in caves. 

This takes us back to the prophecy in Isaiah 2:12-19, which says, “…For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high…Enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from the terror of the Lord and from the glory of His majesty, when He rises to terrify the earth…”. 

First of all, we see this picture of what happens when the power of this earth comes face to face with the power of God. The cowardice of this powerful group of people is that they dare not face the consequences of their actions. Instead, they run and hide and allow everyone else to suffer. 

I’m talking now about how we, as believers, respond to false teachings and the lies that are being told. How do we stand in the face of teachings, ideas, and philosophies that are destroying our earth? How do we stand in the face of abortion? How do we stand in the face of the mutilation of children? How we stand in the face of these things really matters, and Revelation teaches us that. 

Now, you and I could say, Is this reality?  I don’t know how much of the suffering that we experience on this earth is because of these seals being unfolded. I don’t know, but I would love to find out what Colorado would be like if we could rid our state of abortion. I would love to see what our state would be like if we could get rid of drugs given to children to change their gender. I don’t know what our state would look like, but it would be incredible to experience that. 

THOSE WHO STAND

So, we see the distinction between those who run and hide, even though they caused all the problems, and those who stand in that moment. It says that the distinction is that the believers are sealed. Revelation 7, verse 4, says, “Then I heard the number of those who were sealed…”

God is about to unlock all of these seals, all of this judgment, tribulation is coming, and He says, Wait, seal those who belong to Me. Again, it’s not that He pulls them out of the tribulation, but He says, I’m going to identify with them in the tribulation. I’m going to be right there next to them.

The believers are sealed by Him, which is distinct from being marked by the beast. Right now, again, if you grew up like me, everyone was scared of the mark of the beast. All kinds of new technology somehow related back to that. What I believe, and this is because Dustin told me, is that the mark of the beast meant something to the people hearing it 2,000 years ago.

This wasn’t God telling John to write a letter to a group of believers 2,000 years ago and say, Hey, the technology doesn’t exist at the moment but trust Me, you better watch out for the mark of the beast. You’re going to be dead, but you better watch out. No, He was telling them something that mattered to them, and He’s telling us something that matters to us.

The mark of the beast, the 666, was this numerical code that spoke of Nero. He was the ruler who came before Domitian, the ruler who was grotesque in how he led. So, what specifically is the mark of the beast? The mark of the beast is a sign of allegiance.

Is your allegiance with the rulers of this earth, or is your allegiance with God? That is what it’s saying. Those who hide in caves during tribulation are the people of the earth, those who are marked by the beast, and those whose allegiance was with Nero. In contrast, those who are sealed by God can stand confidently before the throne. That’s the difference.

You and I, in the tribulation that our world faces, can either be the kinds of people who run and hide in caves or we can be those people who stand worshiping before the throne. 

SEALED BY GOD AMID TRIBULATION

Chapter 7 of Revelation says that our salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb. It also says, “‘…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’”. When it says “day and night,” it’s not talking about a literal twenty-four-hour period, though you could apply it that way. But what it’s really talking about is the distinction between times of day, between times of light and times of darkness.

You and I need to be the kinds of believers sealed by Him, robed by Him, and before the throne in times of light and in times of darkness. If our state, country, and world are in a time of darkness, then our response to the world should be, You’ll know where to find us. We will be before the throne.

Lastly, it says that they are under the care of God. Chapter 7, verse 17 says, “…’For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” The people of God are present in the midst of this tribulation. If you grew up as I did, with this idea that you’re going to be raptured out of this thing, you’d be having a lot of questions right now. God, are you coming soon? Because things are pretty bad here.

But no, tribulation isn’t something that’s coming; we’re in the midst of it right now. The thing that’s embarrassing to me is that I’ve become so numb to it. It’s become just another headline. I have lost sight of what is going on in the world because of our choice to replace the governance of God with our own governance, with our own rule.

We are not raptured from tribulation, but we are sealed by Him. In the midst of tribulation, we must remain alert. The first tribulation is this false teaching, and our ears are not to be tickled. They are to be pierced.

When humanity replaces the governance of God with the governance of man, chaos ensues. As Greg asked our teaching team on Thursday, can we be the kinds of people who replace the governance of man with the governance of God so that peace might ensue? And lastly, Church, while the world may hide in their caves, we will stand courageously before the throne.

Let’s pray.

Father God, we come before the throne because we have been sealed. While we don’t understand it all, we know You have given us some measure of supernatural protection. What we see in Revelation chapters 6 and 7 is that this protection was given so we could advocate before the throne, so we could plead for a change of heart, and so we could work to rid our world of evil. God, may we be courageous. May we be those who disregard false teaching and get all of our teaching from Your mouth and Your throne. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.