“No Less Days to Sing God’s Praise

A Sermon Based Upon Revelation 7: 9-17

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

November 20th,  2016  (Series: 7/7, Amazing Grace)

This final message on the wonderful, beloved song, “Amazing Grace,” brings us to the final verse.  But this verse, as it appears in our Hymnals today, is not a verse Newton wrote.  

This much beloved verse, was adapted by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s in her famous novel, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Though the verse still reflects John Newton’s original ending, which spoke of ‘a life of joy’ beyond the ‘veil’ of this life, and of God being with ‘forever’ his, these words came straight out of some of the worst oppression America has ever known and now speaking to the hope of all God’s people of a better world still to come.  (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/New_Britain_Southern_Harmony_Amazing_Grace.jpg).

When we sing “When we’ve been there, ten thousand days, bright shining as the sun,”  we sing of the hope every human has for both ‘light’ and ‘life’.   Such an image springs straight up out of the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, which is not as much a book about the end of this world, as it is a book revealing the never ending hope of God’s grace, which comes to the world through Jesus Christ and but also takes us beyond the life we now know.  

As we well know, the book of Revelation concludes with images God being the ‘light’ where God’s people will rule with him ‘forever and ever’ (Rev. 22:5).   In the text we have read, this image of hope is first revealed, as ‘one hundred forty-four thousand’, who were ‘sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel’ (7:4) joining with ‘a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation….standing before the Lamb, robed in white…”  saying: “Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (7:9-10).   All these are sealed and saved multitudes are joined by ‘the angels around the throne’ along with ‘the elders and the four living creatues…”  All together they form a mighty, never-ceasing chorus, singing,  “Amen, Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!  Amen” (7: 11-12). 

What John saw in his ‘heavenly vision’ and what appears, through much blood, sweat, and tears in this final verse of “Amazing Grace,” points us, from the human point of view, to the divine point of view, that has found a divine grace that has no limit, no boundary, no stopping place and no stopping point.   God’s grace is a grace that is as ‘forever’ as our God who is ‘forever and ever, Amen.’

GRACE UNCOUNTABLE

Of course, interpreters of the book of Revelation have come to interpret this hope of ‘eternal grace’ in many various ways.   Some, in fact, see the sealing of the 144 thousands a ‘select’ ‘chosen’ or ‘special’ group of people--which is, of course, correct.  But what is often overlooked in this picture, is that this 144 thousand are forbearers and representatives of the ‘great multitude’ that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language.   The ‘chosenness’ of a few, just like the chosenness of the Jew, was not to supersede nor prevent others, but it was to point to the saving of this ‘great multitude no one could count’ and still ‘cannot count’.    Never has the God of Israel, been a God to play favorites, for the sake of having favorites, but God plays favorites for the sake of bringing ‘grace’ to all. 

We, especially those of us in the evangelical tradition, should know better than most; that ours is a God who desires the ‘salvation’ of the world, bringing a message of grace through Jesus Christ to the whole world.  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES….”   This is the desire of God in giving us grace---not just to save us, but to bring saving grace to all.   For if the gospel of Jesus is not for ‘all’ of us, treating us all as equal objects of God’s love, then the gospel of Jesus Christ is not a gospel for any of us, for when it refuses even one who seeks it, it will  cease to be good news for all of us.

Sometimes, especially when we can only see the differences among us, we try to isolate, insulate, or relegate grace to only a few of us, by thinking that they have gotten it wrong, because we know, that we have gotten the ‘truth’ just right.    When I was living in eastern Germany my world got smaller, as my vision of God’s grace became larger, when I encountered some very nice folks who were taking care of my dog while I was on vacation for two weeks in Greece. 

When I came back and found how well they had treated my dog,  I commented to the Kennel owners how wonderful they seemed, and I could not help ask, even in that pagan country, whether or not they were people of faith.  “We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses!”   Now, here in America it is my custom to disagree with Jehovah’s Witnesses, like it has been in my past to look down upon Mormans, Catholics, or just about any other Christian group that does not see and interpret it like I do.   Of course, this comes more out of my past, maybe even parents, churches and preachers, who were trying to teach me right.   But the older I get, and the more people I meet, life gets less complicated.  I agree more and more with C.S. Lewis’ word that there are really only two ‘types’ of people; those seeking God or those running from God.  Any other detail is no longer that important.  Since everything is about ‘grace’,  we  shouldn’t revert back into any kind of legalism, but only stay with the goodness, grace, and mercy of God.

GRACE UNSTOPPABLE?

That the gospel of grace is for ‘all’ is clearer to me, but it is still very much a mystery to try to answer ‘who’ will actually make up this ‘great multitude’ and who will not.   Some have even gone far enough to suggest that if God is love, and God’s love and grace is much more determined ours, so we can stop it, even if we wanted to.  This means, at least to some, that every soul will eventually be saved by God’s amazing grace.

Here, I’m reminded of the concepts of grace that got Pastor Rob Bell much criticism, when he suggested exactly this, that since God is love wins, (Love Wins) and his grace never fails, that
eventually, somewhere in eternity, ever person will be redeemed and not one person will be fully or finally lost.   I agree with others who would ‘wish’ that this could be true, even to say that you’d be ‘mad’ or ‘mean’ not to wish it --that somehow, someway, and some day--- God’s grace will win over all resistance, all evil, and all human rebellion.   We do have pictures in the Bible of Jesus preaching to the dead, and the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church maintains that purgatory is real.  This is the described ‘place’ where the soul awaits final purging and final saving, in that coming biblical moment when God ‘makes all things’ new.

While many have used biblical texts to affirm such good hope—a hope that finally in God’s grace, all people will be finally be saved,  there are also biblical texts that would warn and remind us just how important, if not definitive, our own earthly lives and decisions are, here and now.   This perspective (held by realists, both Christian and Secular) points out that not only is our God a God of love, grace, and mercy; but God is also a God of justice, truth, and grace that is true and responsible, costly, not cheap grace (D. Bonhoeffer).   The theme of our lives and life choices do have ‘eternal’ implications which cannot be taken lightly, and must be taken seriously, or else, nothing in this world matters.  We should not ‘bank’ or depend on ‘grace’ even saving grace to go against human will. 

 According to Jesus, who spoke more about Hell than Heaven (Billy Graham), grace comes to us now, exactly because we need it now.  To refuse the loving, forgiving, redeeming grace of God now, according to Scripture, anyway you interpret it, will have a lasting and eternal impact upon the rebellious soul that continues to turn against God’s revelation of redeeming love and grace.  And as C.S. Lewis once answered in his book The Great Divorce:  “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.”  All that are in Hell, choose it.  Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.  No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it”.  Those who seek find.  To those who knock it is opened.” (chap. 9, par. 4).  

I thought it was interesting, that on the website “Goodreads.com”, right after the quote, it read:  “None of Your Friends have “liked” this quote. “  It was meant that none of my own Facebook or Goodread friends have read it, but who would really like it, if they did?   But just as there are things in this world, I do not like, that hurt, kill, and destroy, I take them as pointers and reminders that the reality being revealed in life is real.  As we all know too well, and to our own dislike and discomfort, some people continue to choose against love.  And since God is true love—a love that is freely offered and does not force itself upon anyone--all reality on earth and in Scripture, soberly points us, not only to a ‘heavenly’ reality, but also to that ‘hellish’ reality that can also be very real.  Hell is real, but it is not God’s choice.  “The door to Hell is locked from the inside” (C.S. Lewis, from the Complete C.S. Lewis, p. 626, Signature Classics). 

While grace is intended for us, it is also for everyone.  But even if it is intended for everyone, people can, do, and will refuse grace.  God’s grace is ‘unstoppable’ everywhere, except in the human heart, where it will not go, uninvited.  That’s because grace is unconditioned, but it never, and will never be forced.   Why would anyone refuse grace?  Ask Hitler.  Ask Stalin.  Or ask anyone you know, who is bound and determined to live their life, only on their ‘own’ terms.  When you encounter that person, you will find the only place ‘grace’ will not go.

GRACE THAT IS FOREVER

At the conclusion of this vision of people, singing eternal praise to God, an ‘elder’ asks John to identify ‘these people…robed in white, and then asks, ‘where have they come from’?  It’s a loaded, trick question, pointing to John’s own world of persecution and pain.   John throws the question back to the ‘elder’, who answers:  “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”   This is all ‘code’ language for the grace that Jesus has brought to all of us, in the ordeal that could be called ‘the great ordeal’ of any or all of our lives.  

What is most important, is not to identify which ‘ordeal’, but to discover who is this lamb who has saved them, and enabled them ‘to worship him day and night’ within the ‘temple’ being ‘sheltered’ by the ‘one who is seated on the throne’.   Because these have claimed this grace-filled lamb as their Lord,  they saved for an eternal, unending, and everlasting, existence, where there they ‘hunger no more’, they ‘thirst no more’; where ‘the sun does not strike them with scorching heat’, and where, the “Lamb” is their ‘shepherd’ who ‘guides them’ to eternal ‘springs of the water of life’  and ‘God’ himself…’will wipe away every tear from their eyes…” (7:13-17).

You can’t read these images of grace, without envisioning a grace that is ‘eternal’, ‘everlasting’ to join them in ‘giving thanks’ to this God whose grace also invites to ‘a world-without end, Amen!’  Because God is eternal, His grace is eternal.   An eternal God cannot give any kind of ‘grace’ in any other way.  His grace is a ‘forever’ grace that should make us ‘eternally grateful’ because we too, have been invited to envision, imagine, and of course, most of all, to receive and obtain such ‘amazing grace’.   As another old gospel song says, “After Ten Thousand Years, We’ve Just begun.”  Now, that’s grace.    Amen.