Okay. All right. Well, condolences once again to the gators. But the Huskers one, so there is some reason to be happy still. Well, we have many more reasons to be happy, particularly from our passage this morning. If we... I trust we'll get to chapter 14, the first five verses, although we probably need to go back and just wrap up a little bit. A little bit from chapter 13. But to open this morning, I'll read from chapter 14 verses one through five, and then we'll pray. Let's hear God's word. Then I looked and low on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chased. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb. And in their mouth no lie was found for they are spotless. Let's pray. Almighty and most gracious father, we give you praise and thanks this morning. We thank you that you have set apart this day for us to come and worship you, to be with your people, to hear your word and to meditate upon it, to sing your praises. And Lord when we read a passage like this it makes us long for that heavenly scene and heaven the glory. For that time when we too will follow the Lamb wherever he goes and when we will be truly spotless. We know a Lord that our sins have been wiped away and have been fully atoned for by the blood of the Lamb. And yet we battle in this body of flesh and in this world of sin we battle against sin every day. Lord we pray that you would make our redemption more complete, more powerful in our lives subjectively as we know it is objectively complete. We thank you for your word this morning in this class and in the worship service and we pray that you would do your good work through it in our lives that we might be salt and light to a world that is in darkness. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen. Okay, last week we came to the finish of chapter 13 although we did look at the number 666 in pretty brief fashion so I don't simply want to run on by that. There are a few other things that I wanted to say and there may be some things you wanted to say as well. Now the the mark of the beast the 666 everybody knows that has been that has been controversial and has been the I don't know that the stuff of novels and movies and so forth. Who can remind us of the view that was suggested here in class last week about the 666 being literal or figurative or anything else about what we what we discussed it may not be visible. And was there anything in the text that made us come to that conclusion or that possibility entertain that possibility right exactly there's the mark on the redeem there's the excuse me the ceiling of the redeemed which we read about in chapter 7 the redeemed the 144,000 were sealed with the seal of God remember that the angel says to the angels at the 4 corners of the earth with the 4 wins. Do not let those winds blow yet until we have sealed the people of God on the forehead with the seal of God and that was 144,000 and from that text it's doubtful that that seal is anything literal or visible in fact throughout the New Testament we have Paul for instance saying that we have been sealed with the promise totally spirit which is not a visible thing. There's something that every Christian has and it's it's an indelible it is an irremovable mark sealing with the Holy Spirit also in chapter 14 which we read at the outset you remember that these 144,000 they appear again chapter 14 and they have the lamb's name and his father's name written on their foreheads again questionable whether that would be a any kind of literal mark. So that at least makes us question whether the 666 is or must be a literal visible mark on the head or the forehead or the or the hand. So that's a sort of general point that we made at the end of class last time. I can see the question arising John's mind back there. Right, calculating the number, let me just look and see what the the word is. Yeah, I mean I don't think it's the kind of idea that we have in our mind of working things out with a calculus or arithmeticly but it's a bit of an odd word actually. Stones pebbles were used in the ancient world for all kinds of things for counting for voting for maybe as a ticket to get into places so we're actually for pebble pebble eyes to put it in sort of a literal wooden way which can also which we kind of vote cast your vote like blackballing somebody it can be counting up pebbles for numbers and so forth. So I don't know if I'd read too much into that but there, there have been as you know many attempts to do so. There are a couple of different ways at least that this has been approached. We could do it this way. There's a method known as Gamatria. It's actually from the same Greek words that we get our word geometry from. It has to do with counting. This was a method used in the ancient world and we've probably heard of it some degree in the modern world as well where you would take the letters of somebody's name and count up their numerical equivalence. It's like if we went ABCDEFG and so on A would have a numerical value of 1, B of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and so on. So if you take the letters in some name and add their numerical values up you get a certain total. So the thought is on the part of many interpreters that this is what the 666 is for because the text says it is the number of a man. So does this mean it is the combined total of the letters of that man's name? That's one method that has been used. Now if you take this method you can either go with a sort of a preterist past view that we've talked about before or a futurist view more associated with premillennialism. That is you can try to identify it with some figure in the past or with some unknown figure yet to come. Probably the most common. If you've ever heard much about Christian teaching on prophecy or read prophecy books or seen prophecy movies, you will have seen it applied to some future character. I remember just after graduating from college, I went to see my old college roommate and as soon as he met me at the car he said, Chuck, come here, I have to show you something. So I got out and went right in and he took me to a study and he wrote down a name and added up the numbers and it came out to 666.
That name was Henry Kissinger. I don't know if you all know this but I don't remember how he did that. Whether it was H Kissinger, Henry Kissinger, or just Henry, I don't even remember. But that is the kind of method and you've probably, some of you have seen this applied to other people. I'm sorry Clinton does not work. It does not work. If any of you, I know I can read your minds. I'll never mind. I won't go there. Does it work? Does what work? Well that's the question. Some people will try to identify it with a name, come up with a name and do this. Now you've got a number of inherent problems. Which language do you use for one thing? If it's a foreign leader to use English and if it's an American leader, would you use English or would you use Greek or Hebrew or what? There are problems with this. We talked about a futurist attempt to figure out a coming world ruler and put that world ruler's name and somehow make it fit the 666. There have been the temps by Preterus of all kinds. The most common one, some of you may have heard of this, is the Emperor Nero. Now if you take the Greek spelling of Nero Caesar, it doesn't look like that in Greek but if you did it in Greek, then it doesn't work in Greek. What you have to do is transliterate it into Hebrew letters. When you get to the word Caesar, you can go, there are two ways you could do it. You could do it this way, this would be a defective spelling that you could have a yode in there which gives the eye sound. You have to do it without the yode. In other words, it almost seems like you've got to mess with it a little bit to get it. But if you do it in Hebrew, transliterate it from Greek to Hebrew, you can get Nero Caesar and that adds up to 666. A lot of people think that what he means is the name Nero Caesar. If you read a lot of Preterus, that's what you'll come up against. Therefore, if it's Nero, it's obviously past. This is talking about the first century and it's the whole key to Revelation and that approach is what? Revelation is about the past and particularly the first century and particularly 70 AD and the destruction of Jerusalem, which almost happened under Nero. That is, Nero started the campaign against Jerusalem was begun in his reign but was not finished by him. But anyway, the idea would be it would be Nero. I would say, even if you took this view, that the 666 is a cipher for Nero Caesar, it wasn't very long in the church and with the in Judaism. Before the word, the name Nero becomes a symbol for evil, the symbol for oppression. And so even if it did mean Nero Caesar, that would not necessarily mean that the book of Revelation was written before AD 70 and had to do with the destruction of Jerusalem. Because it could just function like another name like Babylon as a symbol. It could be a symbol for a bloodthirsty evil tyrant who was bent on destroying the church. So I just want to point that out that even if you take that view, it doesn't necessarily set the book before AD 70. Any comments or on this? Is this, everybody understands this method? Okay. There are other approaches. But we come to this one, it's almost like it's an obstacle. We have to work around and it's given it for a reason. It's something very tangible for us to kind of attach ourselves to it. So we see people who have not read the things where they've had it to have a very composed name and it's going to be a part of another part of that. But there are these efforts by people like this process. But we have it here. Why do we have it here? I'm not trying to explore if I choose one more. That's a good point. And I would want to make the point. I'm not probably, it comes off that way. We're not really trying to trivialize this approach. I don't take this approach, but because many interpreters over the years have taken this approach, many interpreters that I respect a lot. So, but when we get, let's go to another approach and then we'll come back to the question, so why is it there? Another approach is that it's symbolic. What would it be symbolic of? 666. How could that be a symbolic number? It's a repetition of 6, isn't it? 660 and 6. Why would that, okay, well there's a false, maybe a false, why, why 3? Well, there's a false trinity, there are 3. We have the dragon, the beast, first beast and second beast. You have throughout this passage a sort of mock trinity already there. I think I saw another hand, John. But yeah, I think they probably could have said something like that, but your point is that symbolically this may make that point in a symbolic way. Yes, that, well, what is it not? It's not 777, is it? I mean, it's not a symbolic number for perfection or completeness would be 7. And this is not that, this is like a failed attempt to be at 7, or it's something imperfect. Attention's often drawn to the fact that mankind, man, Adam, was created on the sixth day, on the sixth day. And in Greek in this passage verse 18 says, for it is the RSV says, for it is a human number, now maybe some other versions say it is the number of a man. Okay, some question about translation there, it's very legitimate to translate it like the RSV does, rather than it is the number of a specific man, it is a human number, a number of man, a human number. So that throws the number into the category of symbolizing man, it's a human number. Well, man was created on the sixth day. Six is one short of seven, one short of perfection. Other writers have drawn attention to the fact that in Daniel, trying to recall the verses here, but Daniel's vision of the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, that everybody had to worship this statue. That was 600, excuse me, it was 60 qubits high and 6 qubits wide. There may be some significance to that image that everybody had to bow down and worship. Here in Revelation 13 we also have an image, the image of the beast that people are supposed to worship. So sixes have a sort of symbolic significance as one short of seven. If that isn't in general the right approach, then what would this be saying? Well, again, we've noticed from last week how receiving the mark identifies one with the beast, it's like the beast's mark of ownership. Just like the mark on the head of the redeemed is the mark of God's ownership, it's called God's seal on the believers. And therefore it would be, well in John's day, the probably the most immediate reference had to do with worshiping the image of the emperor. False worship, particularly false worship of the state or the representative of the state. You know, there are all kinds of false worship, of course, but the emphasis in chapter 13 seems to be with the beast a government, an authority, human authority structure that is oppressive and particularly oppressive against Christians. As I said last week, there's always a tendency with ungodly human government, a tendency towards totalitarianism, towards making itself to be God. And we see this breaking out in violent ways at different times. It's not always blatant. In our country today, we would have to say it's not a particularly malevolent form. It's only a potential, but we see it breaking out in other parts of the world in a malevolent form. And so I would say that we've got to, this is the one big difference with a totally futurist or even a totally past view of these things. That is, on the view that we're suggesting here, we've got to be wary today. You know, every day, throughout the church age, we've got to be wary of the beast and wearing the mark of the beast, whatever that might be. There's always the potential for human government to break out against the church to assert its own deity as opposed to God. And whatever it would be in a given culture would be the one that would set one apart, that would mark one with the mark of the beast, the mark of that oppressive government. Well, that would be the 666. In John's day, it was probably worshiping the emperor. And we know that a couple centuries later, at least, they would, the government would even give you a certificate, although libellus. A certificate, if you had offered sacrifice to the emperor to give you a little certificate. So there was something tangible, something visible and physical that may have been for them that time, their mark of the beast. So it prompts us to ask today, what would it be? What could it be? Or could it be any one single thing, maybe not any one single thing in our culture? Particularly when the beast becomes malevolent in persecuting the church. Yes. Well, that's a good question. Would it have to be limited to a secular government? The way I look at Revelation 13, the first beast, the one from the sea, seems to be more of a secular or more of a governmental image. But the second beast that rises from the earth has much more the religious dimension. So it seems like there, it's the earth beast supporting the worship of the sea beast. And so there's always a religious aspect to it. There's always, and I think, you know, when we look back through history, you tend to see this when the church is being persecuted, there's some religious motivation there as well, either on the part of, in the first century, unbelieving Jews, or later on pagan worship, they didn't want Christians emptying out their temples and so forth. Possibly throughout history, we know that the reformers tended to identify the beast with the papacy and their own Catholic church in general. Well, I don't know if that is the interpretation, I don't think it is, the interpretation of the beast. But it could be that at some points there are aspects, aspects of the church that would be supporting a hostile power against other parts of the church. Do you want to say some more about that? So I think that's always a very important and insidious factor. The religious motivation often drives or supports persecution of the church. The struggle right now, with symbolism, the symbolism of a loyalist gives that the visions are so different, that if you are trying to connect this vivid vision with something big history, then it is to take more imagination and make it symbolic. And that's the point I think that maybe it's for the superficial leader to come so quickly to looking for some events in history. It's more specific to look at symbols, but I think the kind of elements that makes it difficult for me to look for the symbol. Yeah, that's a fair point. That's a good point. It is easier to say that it's got to latch on to something specific in history. And if we haven't seen something specific that corresponds, it's also very easy simply to say, well, it must be future. So that's you can see the attractiveness, I think, of that approach. And as I think we've noted a number of points along the way, the literal approach obviously has a bunch of problems as well. You could try to take even the beast image literally. I mean, is God able to raise up a beast that has feet like a bear, mouth like a lion, like a leopard and so forth? Well, yeah, it's possible for God to create a beast like that. I mean, so you could say, well, this is a literal, hairy, red beast that everybody's going to worship. You know, in other words, how far do you press the literalism there? It's always a question. And I'm not entirely discounting this approach, particularly with the reference to Nero. It just may be that there is something to that. But then I would say even the Nero figure becomes a symbol, becomes a symbol for a tyrannical emperor, a tyrannical world leader. Yeah, that's a good point right from the very beginning. In fact, in the first verse he talks about the angel symbolizing it or signifying it by sending his angel to a servant, John. We look at the word, even the word there is a word for symbolize or signify. And nobody really can deny that there is symbolism in the book. But some approaches, of course, try to take everything literally, unless it's specifically interpreted for us. And I think, as you pointed out right from the beginning, that's not the way it was intended to be taken. I think there was a hint of it. Ed? It's a little bit, and it's like Satan to be in the prostitute. They have characters that are opposing the church and that prostitute is productive and the beast are oppressive and Satan is deceitful. Is it, do they all kind of, that is kind of the old manipulation of another as it's supposed to be all encompassing in terms of, like you were saying, government is one year of oppression, religion, fear of oppression. And there's the seductiveness of the world around you in this pleasure. That's good. Seems like you've read Revelation before. That's good. Yeah, we should do that. And when we get to chapter 17 in particular, there we have the harlot Babylon presented to us, and she's riding on the beast, the sea beast. So yes, we do eventually have to talk about all the dragon, the first beast, the second beast, and Babylon, the harlot, and what they all signify. I think you did a very good job with that. The dragon as the deceiver, the deceiver of mankind, Satan, and the first beast of, let's say, governmental oppression, state oppression, supported by some form of religious motivation, the second beast. And Babylon, haven't gotten to Babylon yet, but I think the seductive culture that supports the state as well, or the state supports it, whichever way you want to look at it. Yeah, but that's good. We'll get to that in chapter 17. But it is interesting in these chapters, right now, chapters 12 to 14. We have all these enemies introduced to us, chapters 12 to 14. And then we're going to see from chapter 17 on the destruction of each of those enemies. And really in reverse order, too. It's Babylon that will be destroyed, the account of it is first, Babylon, and then the beast. And then finally, Satan is destroyed at the end of chapter 20. Yes.
And it were the case that in some circles of the church at that time, there was some awareness of some connection between Nero and 666 that he could stick up on that and reinterpret that as a symbol of humanity, or humanity as Babylon. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why I've said that this, I'm not entirely sure that this doesn't work, but I don't think that it is the full significance of it. I think it's definitely got a symbolic aspect such that it applies to the church throughout the church whole church age. So there you have to ask, not only, what did it mean in John's day, but what does it mean in our day? And not just what might it mean to some future generation when we're raptured out of the earth, but what does it mean to us? So, and this, I think, is also set for us in the very beginning of chapter 13, where it says that the beast has its rule, well I guess it's verse 5, for that exercises authority for 42 months. And remember that 42 month period, that three and a half year period, we've identified before as the whole church age. And that, again, tells us that the beast is around throughout the whole church age. It's not necessarily in its most malevolent form always, but it's there. I think we're going to see that again when we get to chapter 17, when chapter 17 tells us about the heads of the beast. And actually the beast was, is not, and is to come. We'll see that coming and going in nature of the beast. Dr. Hill, what would be the message for the truth? If we identify this as the impressive power of states coming from history, I don't see here any commandment or any course of action from the church to follow. Is it just be a word that this will happen? Or is there a message for the church on how the church truth will be? Yes, there is. And probably a section that I haven't said much about yet in chapter 13 is up in chapter verses 9 and 10.
Just after saying that everyone dwelling on earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain, if anyone has a hear and hear, let him hear. If anyone is to be taken captive to captivity, he goes. And then there's a little bit of a translational problem with the next line, but I think it best to translate. If anyone is to be slain with the sword, he must be slain. Here is a call for the endurance in faith of the saints. So it is a call for the endurance and the faith of the saints and the notion, if anyone is to be taken captive to captivity, he goes, I think is a warning that two believers that you might be taken captive, that you might be slain with the sword. But this is a call for the faith and the endurance of the saints. It is a call, I think, for us to be wary of the state and of those institutions that support the state, not that the state is inherently bad, but that it has the potential. There's a saying by, there's a tribute to Karl Barg. I don't usually quote Karl Barg, but I think this is a good one. I think he was speaking about the German Christians at around the time of World War II, or maybe leading up to World War II. And he said something to the effect that they had too much of Romans 13 and not enough of Revelation 13. Remember, Romans 13 is where Paul essentially shows them legitimacy of government, human government. That's the powers that be ordained of God. And that's true. And Christian needs to believe that. But there's also Revelation 13 that shows the potential beastly nature of the state when it ignores God's laws and persecutes God's people. So, yeah, I think that it's a warning for the church throughout all the ages to be on the watch and to persevere and not to give in. Remember back in the letters to the churches, there were some churches that were feeling a brunt of persecution at the time, but not all of them. We're in fact that there were a couple at least, Sardis and the Laudicea, that were more compromising with the culture around them. And so, there's always a message to the church from Revelation, not to compromise. Not to compromise with a seductive materialistic culture, that if followed to its logical conclusion, it would lead to the persecution of the church. Right. Good point. Good point. Because we already talked about, we've already seen in Revelation the mark, the ceiling of the believer. This should be an assurance to them and an encouragement not to receive the mark of the beast. And I think that there's a deliberate contrast between the mark of the beast and the mark on Christians. I think that's a point that John wants to make by emphasizing that. That leads us very smoothly into chapter 14. I know we could probably go on to talk a lot more about chapter 13. But well, we've got more time later and when we get to chapter 17, we will revisit the beast again. Chapter 14 has a sort of a new beginning. Then I looked, then I looked and low on Mount Zion stood the Lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And as he was pointing out, I think it's significant that right in the beginning of this next vision, John sees 144,000 with the Lamb's name and the father's name on their foreheads as opposed to the beast's name on the foreheads or hands of the unbelievers. He sees these 144,000 therewith the Lamb on Mount Zion. He hears a great sound like that of many waters, like a sound of thunder, like a sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sang a new song. Evidently, this is 144,000. Before the throne, the four living creatures, before the elders, only they could learn that song. And then we have a description for in five of those 144,000. Now, what is this picture of? Worship. What kind of worship? Or maybe I should say, where is this worship taking place? In heaven, Robert says. Does that resonate with you? Does it seem like this is a picture of heaven? Are there any other possibilities?
That could suggest it was not in heaven, if it's out of heaven, although not necessarily. And you've also got the saying that these were redeemed from the earth, which also could be, that could be taken as meaning they were not in earth. Yeah, good. Anything else, any indicators that might possibly show us where this is taking place? Right. The 144,000 seem to be the one seeing the song anyway. And we have the notation at the very beginning on Mount Zion. Okay, now there are, according to your three basic approaches to Revelation, different approaches to the location of this scene. In a futuristic sense, it would be a reference, sort of looking ahead for the moment to the millennial kingdom and Christ and His people on Mount Zion. In Jerusalem, of course, Mount Zion is the temple mount in Jerusalem, at the time of an earthly reign. On a pretrous view, it might be a vision of encouragement to Christians at the time of the war with Rome that they would have their protection by God, whether the Mount Zion is on the earth or in heaven. An omelennial approach tends to see it as the heavenly Mount Zion. And so this is the heavenly scene. It's a little bit ambiguous as whether that heavenly scene would be throughout the church age or maybe right towards the end, just before the return of Christ. Now what would make us think that it might be one or the other? There are several factors that I think point in the direction of it being a scene in heaven. We have mentioned already the fact that these are called those in verse three who have been redeemed from the earth, away from the earth, Oppo is the preposition used. The fact that Mount Zion, not only in the New Testament, but occasionally even the Old Testament, is used to picture the heavenly Mount Zion. My remember in Psalm 2, which is an exaltation, psalm and psalm for the king, which is also a messianic psalm. It's one that starts out quite of the heath and rage. Let's see, I'll just go back to that for a minute. Why do the nations conspire in the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and His anointed saying, let us burst their bonds of thunder and cast their courts from us. He who sits in heaven laughs. The Lord has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury saying, I have set my king on Zion my holy hill. I will tell the decree of the Lord. He said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and so on. I will set my king on Zion my holy hill. It seems to be referring to Christ's ascension and his enthronement in heaven. When we come to the New Testament, we have Hebrews chapter 12, 23 to 25. That's the place where the author says reminds us about the awesomeness of what we are about in Christian worship. He says, you've not come to a mountain that can be touched, Mount Sinai. You've come where? You've come to Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. The gathering of Festil angels, angels in Festil gathering, to the spirits of just mandate perfect. You've come to that heavenly Zion. There is already in the New Testament a very significant interpretation, a very significant view of Zion where Zion and Jerusalem, the holy city, become applied to the heavenly realm. The heavenly church, Paul tells the Galatians that our mother is Jerusalem above. This could be seen as the lamb and his 144,000 on the heavenly Mount Zion. I think that's supported also by the fact that in Revelation, when you have mention of Jerusalem by name, it's the heavenly Jerusalem. When you have mention of the temple specifically, it's the heavenly temple. So the heavenly Zion in Jerusalem on which the temple sits is just another way of talking about the heavenly gathering of God's people. It does seem that these 144,000 have undergone death. It does seem that way because it says they've been redeemed from the earth in verse 3. And we have again in verse 3, they sing a song where before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. Well, all the way through Revelation so far anyway, the throne and the 24 elders and the four living creatures are found in the heavenly throne room. Going back to chapter 4, chapter 4 and 5. So these are things that make me think it's talking about heaven. There's one other aspect. You might think this is a little tricky but... I don't so I'll say it. Back in chapter 12, we had a voice from heaven crying out and this was after at the point at which the devil was cast down out of heaven. And there was this great pronouncement about how the salvation and power of the kingdom of God has come. And then it said in verse 12, rejoice then, oh heaven, and you that dwell therein but woe to you, oh earth and sea for the devil has come down to you in great wrath. rejoice, oh heaven and you that dwell therein but woe to you, oh earth and sea. And what follows this vision? Well, right after that we have a woe coming from the sea, the beast from the sea, a woe coming from the earth, the beast from the earth. And then we have, I think, a scene in heaven. Just in reverse order of the way the angel pronounced it, rejoice, heaven, woe to you earth and sea and we have sea, earth and heaven mentioned again in consecutive order. In other words, this would be another indication of why heaven can rejoice, heaven and those who dwell therein. This would be an assurance, a vision of assurance, a vision of comfort, a vision of encouragement that though the whole world will follow the beast and receive his mark, you can be assured that you bear the name of the lamb and his father and you will follow the lamb wherever he goes. There are a number of pointed contrasts, I think, heath brought up one with the number or the name written on the forehead. If you go back to chapter 13 you also see in verse 3 how everyone on earth follows the beast. Well in chapter 14 we're told that these people follow the lamb wherever he goes. It's interesting a little vignette out of the second century for out to bring the actual book along, but in another one of these accounts of martyrdom, persecution broke out in the Gallic and modern-day France, cities of Vienna and Lyon. And at one point the story records how some Christians were brought before the governor. And one of the officials who was there, men named Vettius Pagethus, heard the accusations brought against the Christians and he started to defend them. And then eventually he confessed himself a Christian and he too then was martyred. And the text goes on to say that he is a faithful, genuine disciple of the lamb and he follows the lamb wherever he goes. So indicating that he's gone on to be with the lamb in heaven and now he follows the lamb wherever he goes. Just another beautiful picture I think of the saints rest in heaven comparable to what we've seen already in chapter 7 when we had another description about the essential not scorched them and so forth.
Therefore they before the throne of God and serve him day and night within his temple. He who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more and either thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat. 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. I think that the notion of following the lamb wherever he goes ties into that like the shepherd leading the sheep and everywhere he goes they follow. There is a very interesting description given in verses 4 and 5 of the 144,000 and remember just because I tend to forget things as I go. But the 144,000 we already identified in chapter 7 there they are identified as 12,000 from each tribe of Israel. So this would be a picture of the church as the true Israel, the church as the true people of God, 144,000. It is said in verse 4 they have these who have not defiled themselves with women for they are chased or virgins. Here is one place where I think it doesn't make a lot of sense to try to take that literally. That is why would only male virgins be counted here as 144,000 male virgins is what they would be literally. I don't find anything else in scripture that really sets apart male virgins like that that they should be presented in this way. I think it is a way of picturing the church again. It is not literal but symbolic. So that the whole church, just as the whole church can be pictured as the bride of Christ, the whole church can be pictured as the two witnesses, the whole church can be pictured as 144,000 Israelites, even sanctified for holy war. One of the several passages in the Old Testament, when Israel was preparing for war, the warriors had to abstain from sexual relations for a given time, they had to purify themselves, set themselves apart for this holy endeavor. This probably is drawing upon that kind of imagery and pictures the true Israel as pure and holy set apart and chased those who follow him wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God in the Lamb, in their mouth no lie was found for their spotless. Again, it is a perfect image of the church that there is no lie in their mouths, they are spotless. Again, this is something that can't be said of us apart from Christ's blood and apart from, I think, our heavenly existence or after the resurrection. But it's a future eschatological thing. Carolyn, they see your hand up. Oh, that's revealing, isn't it? Yeah, that would be a good way of putting it. That's a paraphrase, but even putting it that way spiritually pure. Is that what it says? End of file. Pure as virgins. That's making the metaphor explicit that way, to translate it that way. But I think the image of the church as the true Israel set apart, sanctified many times in the Old Testament. Real Israel is depicted as undefiled, as a pure virgin, even though realistic, literally, in terms of our daily life, we know that's not true, and yet in God's eyes we are purified and spotless. So that's why how it would take the picture here in Revelation 14. Any other comments, questions on chapter 14, verses 1 through 5? Let me see. The first fruits concept, Israel is often depicted as God's first fruits or the firstborn of God. James 1, 18, tells us that Christians are the firstborn, or excuse me, the first fruits of God. So chapter 14, 1 through 5, I think presents a picture of the heavenly security and glory of the church, those who are marked with the Lamb's seal as opposed to being marked with the beast's seal. Okay, well if there are no more questions, silence to all opposition. Bob.
And then you have a verse 2 where it says, the voice comes down from heaven, which makes it even more so highlighted to some of the sides of it. And I know, then it says that they are seen before the cleanse. Well, right now we go into the service where we are seen before the cleanse of God at times, too. So I still see it, I'm respectful for what you're saying. And I'm trying to grasp all this being verified here, but I just see at least in my English here, just up and down if you will, that I can't get away from. Yeah, there's sometimes prepositions mean a lot and sometimes they don't. You've got the one preposition out of heaven, the voice comes out of heaven. Does that imply that the people who are hearing the voice are not in heaven, or just that the whole scene, John, is hearing the voice and the voice is coming out of heaven and the whole scene is in heaven? That's possible, I would say, there the preposition is ambiguous, you know, just doesn't tell us a whole lot. You could maybe say the same thing for the preposition that is used for the redeem. They're redeemed from the earth, preposition apple, normally means away from out of the earth. But there again, maybe that could be used for a situation on earth, they had been redeemed from the rest of the earth, they're still on earth. There are other factors, you know, such as, I mentioned with the scenes moving from earth, sea and earth and back to heaven. I think that's one indication. The fact that Mount Zion and Jerusalem, well else were Jerusalem and the temple and throne of God are always in heaven throughout the age. And the fact that the, they're said to fall the land wherever he goes, and that seems to fit in with the shepherd imagery from chapter 7, where these multitudes are different. I mean there are other reasons, but yeah, it's a matter of looking at a lot of different things and just the term Mount Zion is another one of those things that by itself would be ambiguous. It could easily lead you to think it's on an earthly situation. Yeah, right. And that does go back to the heavenly scene of chapters 4 and 5. And you could always argue that this is after the New Heaven's New Earth, after that Jerusalem has been brought down to earth. You could argue that. But in revelations pattern, that would be after the millennium when the New Jerusalem comes down in chapter 21, chapter 22. So yeah, that's kind of where you have it. Mount Zion could be taken by itself, could be taken either way, without looking at a number of other factors. Okay, well, let's close and pray. We thank you again, O Lord, for the glory of the salvation that you have made known to us. And we pray that this word of yours would indeed be an encouragement to us, a motivation to us to endure and to persevere in faith, not to compromise with the beast. But rather to stay faithful to you as spotless and undefiled as your church, which you have redeemed by the precious blood of your Son. We offer you our worship now and pray that you would be pleased with it in Christ's name. Amen.