Revelation 14

We have seen that one of the major themes of the book of Revelation is that the gospel era, that period between the death and resurrection of Jesus and the final Day of the Lord, is a time of great struggle for the church on earth. Most recently, in Revelation 13, that fact was communicated to the churches by a vision of two beasts, one from the seas, and a second from the land who had a supportive role in promoting the worship of the first beast.

In this time of struggle for the church, a time when it is very conceivable that one might lose his life for standing firm against emperor worship, or any other popular idolatry of a given time and place, there will be occasions when the church will face active and obvious persecution. There will be other times when we will be largely ignored as irrelevant. Through all of this, people will be suffering, mourning, and dying, both inside and outside the Lord's assembly of worshipers.

If one of the main directives of this book is perseverance in the midst of trial, it is of great usefulness for the people of God to have a glimpse through the door to heaven to see what happens to those who suffer for their faith on earth after their adversaries have done to them all they can do. Intimidation and torture can only go so far. Death itself limits the power of the enemies of the gospel.

Seeing the perfected church, already in the present heavens, reminds us that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” We can learn that lesson very plainly from Romans 8, but we can also learn it through these visions given to John.

What is beyond the door to heaven today? John sees a Mount Zion that is above, and standing on that place of the Lord's presence is the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world. There are people there with the Lamb. They are the perfected force of that new Israel with the symbolic number of such powerful fulness, 12 times 12,000. They no longer face the wrath of the dragon or of the beast of this world. They are not subject to their own doubts and the severe discouragements that come to the church when our own plans for good are not in line with the Lord's better purposes. They have on their foreheads, not the name of the beast, but the perfect Name of the Father and the Son.

They have ears to hear in that place, and they have lips that speak. Even better, they are singing before the throne of God. They are the beloved who have been redeemed from the earth. They accompany Christ wherever He goes, and they have the perfect purity of those who are undefiled. They are a symbolic representation of the church, or perhaps some segment of the church above. This vision should excite our imagination and encourage our hearts through times of the greatest distress. The saints above are even now living for the Father and the Son, and they are happy and blameless.

This vision of heavenly glory must now be combined with the reality of the church on earth. Here the eternal good news of Jesus Christ is still being proclaimed, sometimes in the midst of open hostility. The church here below has a job to accomplish. It is the Lord's will that men would hear this sacred message through vessels of clay. He uses people to preach to other people all over the earth. That message looks ahead to the fact of a coming judgment. It looks back to the One who is the Lord of creation. By this Word proclaimed through the church, people everywhere are called to worship God, the Alpha and the Omega.

In that Word that somehow comes from heaven but is heard through the lips of men, the false hope of the world in the Babylon of this present age is confronted. Are you supposing that the power of people and the force of mighty governments will solve the serious problems that confront humanity? The Babylon of mighty rulers and armies will be a safe refuge for no one. The city of the world, with all her pride and her obvious accomplishments will not stand in the Day of Judgment.

During her few years of power, her three and a half of the New Testament age, she was very intimidating to many. If she withheld food, you would starve. If she sentenced you to death for crimes against her authority, you would die. She once caught people in the snare of her charms. But now suddenly she is fallen forever.

There was a day when it seemed that the only safe course was to worship the beast, to bow down before its image, to receive the mark, and to drink from the blasphemous cup. But God's wrath is now coming against the Babylon of the world.

Christ has taken that cup of wrath for all who are in the Lamb's book of life. He has entirely consumed the deadly brew for our sake. The rest must face that cup full strength. Who can stand such a punishment? We should turn again to Christ with renewed resolve every day, keep the way of God, which is love, and imitate the faith of Jesus.

If we die in the Lord, what more can the beast do to us. Much worse to play the game of idolatry today, and then face the torment of God's wrath forever. Will we rest in Christ, and find one day that our death is precious in His sight, and our labors not in vain, or will we face the winepress of the wrath of God forever? There will be no end to the blood on that Day of Judgment. But we worship a Savior who, when He was giving His own blood in His death for our sins, uttered these words: “It is finished.”