Revelation 7:9-17
What do you think about when it comes to Sunday worship? People gathering to sing songs/hymns, Bible reading, prayer, sermons? Worship services comes in all “shapes and sizes.” Revelation 7:9-17 presents us with an amazing worship service that is clearly happening in Heaven right now. Some things we notice about this worship service is that there is a massive congregation comprised of people from every ethnicity, culture, and nation. You can say that it is literally an international worship service!
In the center of all of this is God, The Lamb, and Living Water. Both God and The Lamb are on a single throne (Rev. 22:1). Living Water is proceeding from this throne (Rev. 22:1), and The Lamb leads people to the Living Water (Rev. 7:17). This means that The Lamb leads people to God’s throne to worship God, The Lamb, and Living Water because all three are receiving worship from the congregation. We know from John 1:36 that The Lamb is Jesus Christ. We know from John 7:38-39 that Living Water is the Holy Spirit. Wow, the Triune God is being worshipped in this passage!
The people who are worshipping God are all the people who have made it through the “great tribulation.” (Rev. 7:14) People have interpreted the “great tribulation” in various ways throughout Church history. Many people believe this event to occur at the End Times where many Christians would die for their faith in Jesus. I think a case may be made to understand the “great tribulation” as part of the Christian experience of struggling against sin, denying themselves, picking up their cross to follow Jesus. Biblically speaking, the End Times started with the birth of Jesus Christ. And since Jesus’ time, Christians have been called to pick up their cross and follow Christ, to say to God, “not my will be done, but Yours,” as Jesus said before His arrest, trial, and crucifixion (Matt. 26:38-44). Jesus’ great tribulation began in the Garden of Gethsemane and culminated with His death on the cross. And as Christians, we are called to pick up our cross and follow Jesus (Mark 8:34), entering into the great tribulation as Jesus did.
These people around God’s throne are also wearing white robes, “washed in the blood of the Lamb.” (Rev. 7:14) How an incredibly poetic way to describe people who have been made morally pure through Jesus’ death on the cross! Because of the death of Jesus (i.e., referencing the blood of the Lamb), those who trust that Jesus died for their sins have been made morally pure. In other words, they are clean in God’s sight, acceptable, not guilty of any sin because Jesus had died for their sins!
The great mystery is that we, as Christians, also participate in this worship service in Heaven through faith in Jesus Christ. Through faith in Jesus our sins are forgiven. Through faith in Jesus we deny ourselves, picking up our cross, following Jesus, entering into the great tribulation. Through faith in Jesus, being made clean through His death (i.e., Rev. 7:14, coming out of the great tribulation), and being made alive through His resurrection, we appear around the Throne of God alongside this great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) in this present time. We are already there, but at the same time we are not yet there because our worship service only lasts for a couple of hours! This is why Sunday worship with other Christians is so important. Through faith in Jesus, we enter the throne room of God, joining the Heavenly Worship Service with the angels and saints (i.e., Moses, David, Peter, Paul, etc.), and we briefly taste the eternal rest with these saints, but only for a short time now.
– How does realizing our Sunday worship service is also with the angels and saints change your view and attitude of Sunday worship?
– In what ways have Jesus’ call to deny yourself and pick up your cross been a trial/tribulation?
– What can we do to improve our Sunday worship?
– What role does faith in Jesus play in Sunday Worship?
– What about those who currently don’t believe in Jesus but are in our church’s worship service on Sunday?
