Sealed, Saved, and Secure

AI Summery

Mark Oshman (00:00.367)

Welcome. My name is Mark. If you have a Bible, we're in Revelation chapter seven this morning. You can begin to make your way there. Um, I don't know. Anyone, anyone on tick tock? Any tick tock? I didn't, I didn't guess that we would have a huge tick tock crowd. Don't be afraid. I know some of you on tick tock. Come on. Some of you on tick tock. Well, uh, apparently a few weeks ago, uh, there was a something kind of blowing up on tick tock, a hashtag rapture talk. Did you see this?

Rapture Talk, there was a South African pastor who said he got a vision from God that said that the rapture would happen during Rosh Hashanah, September 23rd. And this began to get some traction and spill over to Instagram and YouTube shorts and others. And people were sharing their anxieties about the rapture. Others were sharing tips, how to prepare and what to do with your pets, apparently, when you get raptured.

Others were mocking Christians that you believe in a rapture. Of course, September 23rd came and went and there was no rapture. Then this pastor said, that was the Julian calendar or the Georgian calendar. I meant the Julian calendar. So it was going to be this week, October 7th, when the rapture was supposed to happen. Of course, we're all still here. So either we're not Christians or it didn't happen.

I remember in middle school, this is before the internet, 1988, before things went viral on the internet, there was a viral thing going on. remember talking to other middle schoolers about how in September of 1988, there was going to be a rapture. I was like, what is that? they're like, the Christians are just going to get sucked up into the sky. It's going to be awesome. And so we were all like, OK, rapture's coming. And that came from a guy who was a

former NASA engineer who kind of became a self-proclaimed, hey, you threw me off here. Who's running the slides? Who's running the slides?

Mark Oshman (02:07.463)

No, actually because I need to get some instructions. Okay.

Mark Oshman (02:14.606)

Alright, okay.

You can throw that up there, he wrote this book.

Mark Oshman (02:22.702)

So Edgar Weisenhunt, he was a former NASA engineer, became a self-proclaimed Bible prophecy scholar. He wrote this book, gave out millions of copies, and so eventually made its way to Powell Middle School over here in Littleton. We heard about this. 88 Reasons Why the Rapture is in 1988. I love the subtitle, The Feast of Trump. There you go. That's also what Rosh Hashanah is called. And he was just arguing there, was, it's going to happen. And of course,

88 came and went. the next year he said 89 reasons the rapture. was off on one. It's going to happen in 1989. And of course that came and when he did this two more times in 1993 94 came and went this this kind of happens all the time. And and that's one particular view one particular framework to approach the book of Revelation and and before kind of digging into this book with you guys over the last couple of months and

digging deeper I kind of thought well that's one view not kind of seeing that but by but I'm starting to come to see that bad theology is not just bad because it misses the point of revelation it's bad because it hurts people. mentioned to you last week that there's a silent persecution going on in the world right now a silent genocide rather of Nigerian Christians in.

at hands of Boko Haram. Well, they heard about this prophecy from the South African pastor. And I saw one video of these Nigerian believers who are under intense persecution right now. They had gone out to the forest and they were waiting for the rapture that day in September and they were crying out to God and they were begging and just waiting and waiting and waiting. And of course it didn't happen. And I felt my heart broke for these people.

because they were about to go back into their village and go back to the face of persecution. And in their mind, either this guy was wrong or God had failed them or all these things. It's bad theology hurts people. And it misses the point of the book of Revelation, which is not to hurt anyone, but to actually encourage us deeply. See, the book of Revelation is a discipleship manual for how God's people can overcome.

Mark Oshman (04:45.452)

tribulation, trials and temptations in a world that is opposed to God's kingdom. It's a discipleship manual. It's meant to comfort, encourage and strengthen Christians that are facing these kind of trials and temptations. Rightly understood that the book of Revelation should be the most comforting book to those Nigerian Christians right now. Because it's meant to give them strength in the face of tremendous evil.

Tremendous evil. I believe chapter seven, this encouragement, this comfort, chapter seven is meant to do just that and maybe to do that more than any other chapter in the whole Bible to strengthen our spines, to give us hope and encouragement as we press on together. So we're going to go to seven and in chapter seven that there's going to be a shift. Last week the first six seals were open but there's going to be a pause and

And movie directors or authors would say this is a framing device. John's doing something to frame the context of what's going on. So let me give you an example of a couple of framing devices that I came across this week. So my wife was traveling a lot this week. She was speaking with her mom in Canada. So was a bachelor at home by myself. And I did that. was scrolling through Netflix like what show could I watch? And I came across this show Zero Day.

I only watched three minutes of it, so I don't know if it's good. I'm just saying. it's Robert De Niro. He's a former president. And the show opens where he's frantically, he's in probably his own library. He's trying to open a safe. And while he's trying to get this safe open, the doors are being pounded on and they're giving way, they're giving way. And he's scrambling. He has to go find the code again and he gets the code. And as he's opening the code, as soon as the safe opens, the doors

bust open and then the scene cuts and it says three days earlier. That's a framing device. As a viewer, you're like, well, what's going to happen in those three days to get us to that point? Or think of another one, the best war movie of all time, Saving Private Ryan. It starts with James Ryan as an old man walking with his wife, his children, his grandchildren through the

Mark Oshman (07:07.682)

graves of Normandy with the crosses and the stars of David and he's visibly shaken, emotional. Eventually he falls to his knees before one particular cross and starts weeping and then Steven Spielberg zooms in on his face and it goes to D-Day. But you know, seeing that, you know, okay, this man survives in the midst of so many that gave their lives. What's the story behind that? It's a framing device.

So this is what happens in Revelation chapter seven. If you remember in Revelation six as the seals were broken the horse the four horsemen of the apocalypse start to ride across the face especially against the kingdom of God. False teaching false doctrine in the white horse. You have the anger rage and war and the red horse. You have the famine in the black horse and you have sickness suffering and death in the green horse. And then finally.

The martyrs crying out how long lord will you will you wait to avenge our blood and God answers their prayer in the day of the Lord in the judgment the Decreation of the universe and what happens is all of the unbelievers that they They start scrambling in the day of the Lord and we saw that in all the places that our world tends to look for in moments of crisis whether it's the rich and the powerful the kings and the Queens the government's the armies

poor, so anyone, there's no way to, there's nowhere to look for hope and so they all flee to the mountains, they go in the caves and they start crying out, not to God, but to the mountains, fall on us, fall on us, maybe if you fall on us then we won't have to stand before the Lord in his wrath and his judgment. That's how chapter 6 ended but the unbelievers asked the question at the end of chapter 6. In light of all this,

In light of the horses, in light of the decreation and the judgment of God, who can stand? Who can stand? And here John pauses and does a framing device. He is going to flash backward and he's going to flash forward in the narrative and answer that question. So Revelation chapter 17. Listen carefully, this is God's word.

Mark Oshman (09:30.498)

Seven, sorry. Thank you.

Yeah, chapter seven, verse one. He writes this, after this I saw. So after they said, who can stand? says, after this I saw. Remember in Revelation, doesn't always happen in chronological order. It's not what happens next, but what does John see next? And what he sees is actually a flashback. Chapter seven happens well before, in eternity before chapter six. And he says, after this I saw.

four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. This is they're holding back the judgment of God, the releasing of the horses, all those things. This is before chapter six. They're holding this back. It says, then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God.

This word seal becomes very important over the next few verses. We'll see it six times. Take note of it. I saw another angel rising from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God. And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

I heard the number of the sealed 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed. Same for Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed. Okay. What is going on? This

Mark Oshman (11:30.946)

This idea of sealed from eternity past has happened and to understand all that the metaphor and language of sealed means, it's very important in the New Testament and in the Old Testament there are multiple layers to this. And I think all of them are in view to some degree in this idea of being sealed. And the first one is sealed is a sign of protection. It is protection. So.

particularly in this passage, there's a flashback to the book of Ezekiel. And in Ezekiel chapter nine, God is going to send these six warriors into Jerusalem to judge the people of Jerusalem who are idolaters. That they've given themselves over to false worship and these six warriors are gonna come and destroy all the idolaters. But.

With them, there is another man who's got a writing device on its side. And he's been given this command to go and seal some people, to put a mark on their head. And here's what it says in chapter nine, verse four. It says, throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it. And he says to these six warriors, do not touch anyone who has the mark.

So those that are repentant, those that are grieving over their own sin and the sin of the city, they receive a mark or a seal on their forehead and they are spared from the judgment of God in this case. You think also of the Exodus when God has them put the blood of the lamb on their household so that they are in a sense sealed from the destroying angel. They're protected. This is the first thing that sealed implies, protection.

The other thing that sealed implies is ownership or belonging. So kings and governors and noblemen, they would have their own signet ring and they would seal their documents. And you would know that this belongs to whoever has the seal on it. Think of even chapter six, that the scroll had seven seals on it and only one who was worthy to open up the seals. This is...

Mark Oshman (13:56.142)

This belongs to someone. those that are sealed belong to someone. Slaves in the first century had marks or seals on their hand or their forehead to show who they belonged to. I think this is in view here as well. Seal implies a kind of character or nature. We see in chapter 14 that this seal is actually a metaphor for the name of God and the Son. So in chapter 14 verse 1,

Says then I looked and behold on Mount Zion stood the lamb and with him 144,000 who had his name and his father's name written on their foreheads. And I think this is metaphorical but to have a name in the Old Testament it meant your character your nature and so that the people of God had the character and nature of God. You looked at them and they like oh they represent the kingdom of light they represent the kingdom of of goodness. Look at their.

behavior, their nature, their speech, as opposed to those that have the mark of the beast who represent the kingdoms of darkness and the kingdoms of this world. But also throughout the New Testament, the way the apostle Paul uses sealed most often is in relationship to the Holy Spirit. Let me give you a few verses from there. Ephesians chapter one, verse three. It says, in Jesus, you also, when you heard

the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. Again, all these things are in mind, protection, ownership, character, and the Spirit. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory? Later in the book of Ephesians, he'll say this, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed.

for the day of redemption. So the Spirit is the seal on our lives. And then 2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come, to be sealed. His protection, is ownership, its character, its presence and power.

Mark Oshman (16:22.382)

of Holy Spirit and John says that he saw all those were sealed. says that was 144,000. Again, we should keep in mind a few things here. This is debated meaning behind this. So there are some like the cult of Jehovah Witnesses, when they started they said, oh, you have to be one of the 144,000 to be saved in the end.

And as they grew and once they got to 144,000, they said, oh, you have to know or be friends with one of the 144,000. It was very specific. And then others are like, well, this means that there's going to be 144,000 exactly that amount, exactly 12,000 from each one of these tribes. But there's a problem with that. There's a few, now, of course, God could do exactly that from exactly those.

But in the year 722 BC, the Assyrians conquered the Northern 10 kingdoms. So the Northern 10 tribes scattered them, intermingled them with all the Gentiles. They intermarried. Those that stayed got intermingled with other Assyrians conquered people. They became known as the Samaritans, kind of half-breed Jews. They were hated, in some ways, hated worse than the Gentiles. The 10 Northern tribes are the lost tribes. No one knows who they are.

There's no way of telling. Of course, God could tell and say, you have a little bit. That's a possibility, but that's probably not what's going on here. The number twelve is very significant throughout the entire book of Revelation, right? We've seen this already. We'll see it again in chapter twenty one. There are twelve tribes. There are twelve disciples. In Revelation twenty one, there are twelve gates. Each gate has the names of the twelve tribes. There are twelve foundations. Each one has the name of the twelve disciples. Twelve times twelve.

The number thousand throughout the book of Revelation and even in the first century, even in Jesus's own teaching, the multiply of the thousand just means a really, really big number. Doesn't necessarily mean a specific number, but if you take 12 tribes times 12 disciples times a thousand, you get 144,000. Furthermore, us Gentiles probably didn't catch this at all, but that list of tribes is not anywhere in the Old Testament.

Mark Oshman (18:49.858)

That's not the list of the 12 tribes. Many of them there are there. But notice what it says. 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed. What's the big deal? The big deal is Judah never comes first. Judah is the fourthborn son. But of course we've seen Judah being a preeminent, the line of the tribe of Judah. And so maybe that's why he put it there. Reuben's the firstborn. And we have Gad and Asher, Naphtali. Then it should be Dan. Dan is missing. Instead he puts Joseph's.

son Manasseh but not Ephraim so one of the sons and not the others then Simeon Levi Isk'ar Zebulon Joseph and Benjamin what's going on here when a Jewish man like John is writing a genealogy which they were obsessive about genealogies and he begins to tweak it he's signaling to you and us I'm communicating something else here something else is going on so pay attention to that

So I believe and we'll see, I think we'll see this throughout the book of Revelation that 144,000 represents the totality of all of God's people, Jew and Gentile going forward. Say, okay. And if you don't think that, then I think the very next verse proves this. So this is the flashback and now he's going to flash forward. Remember in verse four, he says, I heard the number of the sealed 144,000.

Verse nine, after this I looked and behold, this is a pattern we've already seen. I heard about the line of the tribe of Judah, but when I looked, I saw a lamb as though he was slain. It's not what John hears that's important, but what he sees that's important. After this I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.

standing before the throne and before the lamb. What he hears is 144,000 but what he sees is, man I cannot possibly count all of this. This is a massive number from every tribe, every tongue, every nation. This is a fulfillment of the promise to the Jews. All the way back to Abraham. Abraham, when God calls Abraham this pagan living in the land of Ur, when he calls Abram.

Mark Oshman (21:15.476)

out of the land of Ur. gives him this promise in Genesis 15. says and he brought him outside verse five and he brought him outside and said look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to them so shall your offspring be. In verse 20 chapter 22 verses 17 18 says I will surely bless you. God speaking to Abraham and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

your offspring shall possess the gates of the of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed it was always God's plan to bless all of the people of the earth through Abraham through Israel again for those of you that are currently in Rick's Israel and the church class you get this already but but for some reason others are like no this is just the tribe of Israel and then this is the nations no

I heard 144,000 but what I saw was people from every tribe, every nation. They are clothed with white robes and with palm branches in their hands. This is a celebration of victory. And who's the victorious one? Well Jesus is. Verse 10, crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and

the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever and ever and ever, amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? I like John's response. I said to him, sir, you know.

He said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Those that are sealed are saved. They have the righteousness of God. They're coming out of the Great Tribulation. Again, some would say, that that is a seven year period after the rapture that that that is.

Mark Oshman (23:40.75)

what's going on here and I don't think that's what's going on here. The word tribulation, phalipsis, just means pressure. And it's a great pressure. So think of tectonic plates. When two tectonic plates smash together, earthquakes happen. Great pressure happens. And it says they are coming out of the tribulation. It is present tense ongoing. So it is whenever the kingdom of light,

runs up against the kingdom of darkness. We see this at the birth of Jesus. There is a great tribulation. Herod says, we're gonna kill all the firstborn sons and all the babies in Bethlehem. That's tribulation, that's pressure. Kingdom of light running up against the kingdom of darkness. It happened in the year 70 AD when Rome rolls into Jerusalem and destroys Jerusalem.

It continues to happen in the year 92 AD as the church is under intense pressure from the Roman government. It's happening today in Nigeria, it's happening in Iran, it's happening in North Korea and on and on and on. Whenever the kingdom of light bumps up with the kingdom of darkness, there is a great pressure, a great tribulation that is happening. And they come out of it, they come out of it having their robes made.

their robes made them white in the blood of the Lamb. This is a great image that we get righteousness, cleansing from the blood of the Lamb. We are saved by the blood. Well, again, the question though, at the end of chapter six was who can stand? It's the question of unbelievers. That they are terrified to stand before a holy

just God but you know who is standing we saw it in verse 9 I think that was verse 9 yeah I saw people from every tribe tongue language standing before the throne and before the lamb those that are sealed those that are saved are standing they're standing with absolute confidence why because they have been washed in the blood of lamb they have no fear of judgment because Jesus was judged

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in their place on the cross and so they stand in victory. That's who's standing. All those who are sealed and saved, who will stand? You know, this is incredibly good news. As much as we in the West like to read ourselves into the text all the time and sometimes in very poor ways, like, there we are. No, this is the verse where you're in the Bible. Like if you zoom down enough, if you drill in, you might see

You can see Redemption Parker in this verse. You can see us standing with the multitudes from every tribe, tongue, and nation, the multitudes out of South America and out of Africa and out of Asia and even the multitudes out of Parker, Colorado, standing before the throne because we have the righteousness of Christ. have Christ's victory as our victory. His salvation belongs to us because he

gave it to us. Christ's cleanses us. Christ's Spirit has sealed us and saved us. So we should be comforted. We should be encouraged. In the face of the writers who seek to destroy us and the church, the kingdom of God continues to advance. What false teaching has derailed the church so that it has destroyed the church? Nothing.

What red rider has put so much anger and rage and war on the earth as to totally destroy the church? None. We stand in the face of the red rider. What famine, what plague, what sickness, suffering, or death in the face of the black and the pale rider has totally decimated the church? None of them have. We continue to stand. Jesus taught this, that in the end, the kingdom of...

of God will continue to increase and the kingdom of darkness will continue to increase until the very end. There will be greater and greater tribulation and yet we will stand. We will stand because we are unstoppable. I love what Eugene Peterson says about this. says these people are not only secure they are exuberant. This is a curious but holy biblical phenomenon.

Mark Oshman (28:24.876)

The most frightening representations of evil in Revelation six are set alongside extravagant praise. Revelation seven Christians sing. They sing in the desert. They sing in the night. They sing in prison. They sing in the storm. Any evil, no matter how fearsome is exposed as weak and pedantic before such songs. We see. And this is in no way to soft sell the tribulation.

suffering that we face, that our brothers and sisters are facing. We don't soft sell that at all, and yet we get to sing in the face of the writers because we know this is not the end of the story. I you've been there. I remember when my mom was dying of ALS and Matt Redmond's song, 10,000 Reasons came out. It's just this beautiful song that kind of takes you from life to death into eternity.

And literally as the days were approaching where she was about to die, she would sing this song. She was singing in the face of the Pell Rider. I will stand. You won't win. It's not the end of the

Let's conclude. So we are sealed, we are saved, we are secure. Look at verse 15. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence, literally translation, be a tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. That's a wild image. The lamb will be their shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He will lead me besides quiet waters. For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of living water. It's what Jesus promised the woman at the well in John chapter four.

Mark Oshman (30:42.104)

Follow me and I'll guide you to streams of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is a flash forward. This is Revelation 21. This is where the people of God will stand in joy having been sealed, having been saved, having been now secure forever and ever and ever. Imagine though, imagine redemption.

Imagine how we could advance the kingdom of God among our neighbors and the nations if we held on to these two great truths. we have been sealed. From eternity past, we have been sealed and we have been saved. And that will last forever and ever and ever. These are the realities by which we live. Imagine how fearless we could be in this world now.

Imagine the risk that we would take in this world now for the sake of the name of King Jesus because we know in the end there is no risk. There is no risk when this is our future and our past. And so we live in light of these realities. Imagine how eternally secure we are in Christ. So brothers and sisters, this is meant to encourage you, to comfort you. Hold fast. You have been sealed.

In Christ you are safe. You say, I don't know if I am. I don't know if my name's in the book of life. I could tell you right now, just trust in Christ and I promise you, your name is in the book of life. You don't have to get worked up about that. Turn to Him in faith. Say, I take everything I know me and I turn to you and I confess my sin. I repent of that. I want your life in my life. I want to be sealed. Bible says you will be sealed. In fact, you will have been sealed from eternity.

and then you hold on to this future vision, a day is coming where you will wipe away every tear. This is our reality and we get to live into that as a church, amen? Amen, let me pray for us to that end.