Revelation 7:9-17 "Interlude (Part 2): The Great Multitude"

Lesson Handout

Introduction – Having identified the 144,000 as (most likely, though not all Christians agree) Jewish evangelists/missionaries, the rest of chapter 7 seems to indicate that they will spark a great revival – not just among the Jews, but we’ll learn in this passage, that this revival will be global and result in a vast multitude of people coming to faith in Christ during the tribulation period.

Verse-By-Verse Notes

Verse 9

• Note the multi-ethnic nature of the people of God. This is the eternal plan of God in redemptive history realized: to redeem for Himself a people: Jew and Gentile alike – people of every ethnicity, language, and culture. One people redeemed by One God.
• There is no place in any belief that one people, nation, color, or ethnicity are superior or inferior to another. So, the end to racism then is not critical theory or social activism, but the gospel. Laws may change through activism, but hearts change only through the gospel.

Verse 10

• Salvation is entirely the work of the Lord. See Psalm 3:8; Jonah 2:9; Psalm 37:39; etc.

Verse 11

• The response of the angels, elders, and living creatures should inform our own response to God in worship. This verse rebukes our proclivity to apathetic worship.

Verse 12

• Note the sevenfold nature of the redeemed’s praise: Blessing, Glory, Wisdom, Thanksgiving, Honor, Power, Might. Seven is the biblical number of fullness, completion, perfection. In other words, the triune God is worthy of TOTAL PRAISE.

Verses 13-14

• The vast multitude is identified: they are tribulation saints.
• The contextual implication seems to be that these are those who were brought to faith through the preaching and ministry of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.
• Note that the only righteousness and purity that will be admitted to the throne of God is that of his Son, which is pictured here as robes washed white in His blood. So to continue the answer the question at the end of chapter 6, “Who can stand before the presence of him seated on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb?” Only those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Verses 15-17

• This description is very similar to how John describes the eternal state in Revelation 21 & 22. The point is that the suffering of the tribulation saints is over. Praise God.
• We can also be encouraged because these verses teach us that the suffering of God’s people, whether Jew or Gentile, and across all salvation history, will one day come to an end.

BIG TAKEAWAY: THROUGH CHRIST ALL THE REDEEMED WILL ONE DAY TRADE THEIR SUFFERING FOR PRAISE TO THEIR REDEEMER