November 5, 2023 – Revelation 7:9–17

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Hope Lutheran Church
Manhattan, Kansas
November 5, 2023
Revelation 7:9–17
Music can inspire people. And you pick different music for different settings. So what’s your theme song? The one you go back to over and over again?

• In daily life?
  
  • If you’re an athlete, you probably listen to something to get you hyped up before your game
    
  • If you’re heading to the gym or out on a run, you probably pick songs that make you feel motivated and energized
    
  • If you’re trying to get things done around the house, you probably sing “Whistle While You Work” to yourself to make your chores more enjoyable
    
    • Having the right song for the right setting can make all the difference. So what’s your theme song?
      
• How about in Christian life? What’s your Christian theme song? What song gets you? What songs makes you sob like a child all over again?
  
  • 868 By Faith – Sang it when I graduated from Seminary with all my classmates and sang it again when Camryn and I got married
    
  • 783 Abide With Me – When my dad had cancer back when I was in high school, the words brought me comfort more times than I can count
    
  • 884 Lord, When Your Glory I Shall See – It was the anthem we always finished with when I was in the Seminary choir. And I just can’t sing it without thinking of the people who have gone ahead of me into heaven
    
    • Having the right song for the right setting can make all the difference
      

Today God wants to give you two new theme songs to sing
They’re found in Revelation 7

1. A Song of Salvation (v. 10)
   
2. A Song of Strength (v. 12)
   

A Song of Salvation (v. 10)
Why do we need a Song of Salvation anyway? Well, we need it because of what happened way back in Genesis

• In Genesis 1, you see a sort of refrain that finishes each day of Creation: “And God saw that it was good.” And then, after God finished when he created mankind “It was very good”
  
  • God had created a perfect world and placed humankind at the top of that creation. And this is how things were meant to be
    
• But keep reading. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve listened to a lie from Satan
  
  • Satan told them that God was keeping something from them and that if they just disobeyed God’s one command, then they would be like God. They sinned and broke the one rule God had given them
    
• We’re still dealing with the fallout of what happened back in that garden when Adam and Eve sinned. We can see that as we go through life in a world that’s clearly broken by sin
  
• In our reading, John called it “the great tribulation” and it’s happening right now. It’s not off in the future. It’s not something that’s  going to happen just before Christ returns. It means great suffering or trial. And we know we’re in the middle of it because…
  
  • Our lives from beginning to end are full of pain and struggle
    
  • We have complicated and broken relationships with other people
    
  • We get sick. Death is impossible to avoid
    
• And It’s not just that we live in a broken world. It’s also that we’re sinners
  
  • That sin of my past that I’m afraid is going to come back to haunt me
    
  • That thing I said to someone I care about that keeps me awake late at night when I’m alone with my thoughts
    
  • The bad choice I made and now I’m dealing with the consequences
    
  • Guilt for the times I did things I shouldn’t have or didn’t do something when I could’ve
    
  • Those times when I can’t forgive myself for what I did and doubt whether anyone else would be able to either, let alone a holy and righteous God
    

The world is broken by sin. And we add to it with our own sin. And so we want – we need – someone or something to save us. What do I think will save me?

• Maybe you just try to avoid those things that are out there. Pretend like they don’t exist even though they’re staring you right in the face
  
• Or maybe you’re tempted to turn to substance abuse in all the forms it can take. Because even if they can’t actually save you, at least they can take the hurt away for a little bit
  
• Or maybe living in a sinful world, living with our own sin, it turns into anger. Anger towards the people who love you and who wanna help you. Maybe even anger directed at God. Because how could a God who says he loves me, let me deal with something like this
  
  • But none of those can actually save me. They don’t give any kind of salvation that lasts. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a broken leg and expecting it to get better. It just doesn’t work, no matter how hard you try
    
    • We need to be saved by someone else. Someone else has to step in and save us
      

That’s exactly what our God has done. Salvation comes from him. He’s done that for you, for me, for our loved ones who have gone before us to heaven

• God shares a Song of Salvation with us
  
  • He saves us from the brokenness and tribulation of this world. He saves us from our own sins. John saw it this way in his vision:
    

One of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, 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, made them white in the blood of the Lamb

• God doesn’t shake his finger at us to point out all the things we’ve done to wrong. He doesn’t accuse. He just comes with a message of pure gospel to tell us that sins are forgiven and we have eternity with him forever
  

That’s the theme song of our salvation. That’s how God saves us
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.”

• But God doesn’t stop there. He gives us another theme song we can sing during our life right now…
  

A Song of Strength (v. 12)
After seeing the salvation that God has brought to his people, those in heaven join in another theme song. It’s right there in verse 12:
Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!

• That’s not just a song we have to wait until we get to heaven to sing. We can sing that song right now. It can be our theme song today
  
  • The God of all glory, wisdom, power, and strength isn’t just some far-off God who doesn’t care about us. This is OUR God. RIGHT NOW
    
  • You have the God of all glory, wisdom, power, and strength right with you as you go through all of the things that you face in this broken world
    
  • You have the God of all glory, wisdom, power, and strength as you face uncertainty
    
  • You have the God of all glory, wisdom, power, and strength with you when confronted with trials and troubles on every side
    

If we’re real though, it might not always be so easy to see that

• There are times when it might feel like we’re in the dark and all alone. Like God isn’t there. Like he’s left us to fight for ourselves
  
  • And so this theme song might become difficult for us to sing
    
    • When those thoughts creep into our minds, what do we do?
      
• We look to the Lamb who is there with our God in heaven. Cause what did God send his Lamb – what did he send Jesus to do?
  
  • The Lamb of God came down into the brokenness of this world
    
  • God’s Son set aside all of this glory in heaven and left to be with us
    
    • Our God saves us from the brokenness of this world by breaking his Son on the cross
      
    • And because of that, because Jesus shed his blood for you – because the Lamb of God was slain to take away your sins – that means you’ve been washed. You’ve been set apart. You have salvation
      

Think about that for a second – The God of glory, wisdom, power, and strength wasn’t willing to stop at anything so he could save you. He wanted so badly, so desperately to have you with him forever in the glory of heaven.
He let his Son go through the worst thing imaginable to save you

• He’s taken care of your biggest problems – sin and salvation. And that means he is with you and will take care of you through all of the other things you face in life too
  
• Even when this world feels like it’s spiraling out of control, look to the Lamb and know that God’s going to make everything right. When your life is afflicted by the sin, know this: God is going to fix it
  
• And soon a day is coming when your life will be like what John saw toward the end of our verses
  

“They are before the throne of God; and he who 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.’”
Your theme song is a Song of Strength. Your theme song is a Song of Salvation

• And you know what’s so awesome? So amazing? The cherry on top of it all? Right now, even though we aren’t there yet, we get to sing these songs with all the people who have gone before us and are already in heaven
  
• And a day is coming when we’ll all get to join in this song face-to-face, next to each other, before the throne of God and the Lamb
  

We’ll all together join that glorious song:
Salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!

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