I remember the event at which Michelle and I started to grow old. In 1996 the Smashing Pumpkins were on their Infinite Sadness tour. For some inexplicable reason they booked the Dow Event Center in Saginaw Michigan and for an even more inexplicable reason Michelle and I bought tickets to the show. I mean we liked the Smashing Pumpkins but as we sat in the upper deck of the Dow Event center surrounded by thousands of alternative rock fans screaming their heads off, we realized we didn’t like the Smashing Pumpkins as much as we thought. The sound was deafening; so deafening that when the Pumpkins came out for their third encore, we decided to leave. Shortly after that concert we got married, had a kid, and bought a minivan.
What is the loudest event you have ever been at where people were cheering and shouting? Was it a concert? I wouldn’t be surprised. Ted Nugent, Led Zeppelin, and AC/DC are all known to put on eardrum-rattling concerts. Ted Nugent once played a concert so loud that farmers who lived 18 miles away complained.[1] Maybe the loudest event you have ever been at wasn’t a concert, maybe it was a sporting event. That wouldn’t surprise me either. I have done a little cheering and shouting myself in the Big House, at Lambeau Field, Truist Park and even in Sanford Stadium. When sports fans get excited, they cheer and shout. Lately Michelle and I have been watching documentaries on soccer and have discovered those fans are out of their minds. I bet the cheering and shouting at those games is insanely loud. But the loudest event on earth occurred in 2014 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Kansas City Chief defeated the New England Patriots and the cheers and shouts of the 77,000 spectators hit a deafening 142.2 decibels. It is commonly thought hearing damage occurs at 130 decibels. 142 decibels is louder than when a jet airplane takes off!
I got to thinking about loud events where people are cheering and shouting when I read our lesson from Revelation 7:9-17. In the book of Revelation our ascended Savior gives saint John a glimpse of the glory that awaits us. In chapter 7:9 John sees “9… a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language”. There isn’t a stadium or concert hall on earth that could accommodate the great multitude that John saw. When John tells us no one could count them it makes us think of the time LORD told Abraham I will “make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.”[2] When John tells us they are from every nation, tribe, people and language it is likely, that since the number four is the number associated with the earth, John is using four words to describe the totality of the earth’s believers. Johns sees this great multitude and then in verse 10 John tells us they “10… cried out in a loud voice”. What decibel level do you think that cry reaches? The sheer number of people cheering and shouting makes me think it is beyond deafening.
But unlike a Smashing Pumpkins concert this is one event Michelle and I won’t walk out on and I am exceedingly confident it is an event you will want to stick around for as well. Because you see, as loud as it might be, it is not the volume of the cheering and shouting that astounds us it is what is shouted, to Whom it is shouted, why they are shouting, and who the shouters are that makes us eager to attend this event.
In verse 10 John tells us what the great multitude is shouting. There John writes, “10… they cried out in a loud voice “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”” The great multitude is not cheering and shouting about a favorite song being played, they are cheering and shouting about a game winning touchdown, goal, or homerun, they are cheering and shouting about salvation. You see, the people who make up the great multitude are described by John in verse 14 as, the ones “14… who have come” and still today are coming “out of the great tribulation” or what we might call life. The people who make up the great multitude know what it feels like to live in a fallen world where the dirt forced them to toil for food, the environment regularly tried to rob them of shelter, and their bodies slowly succumbed to disease and decay. They know what it feels like to have suffered the consequences of sin whether from the hands of others or a result of sin within themselves. The great multitude have known hardship and suffering; they have experienced what John calls the great tribulation; they have lived what we call life. Which is why they are cheering and shouting about salvation. They have come out of all that. They have come out of the great tribulation, they no longer know hardship and suffering, they no longer live what we call life.
We see the great multitude cheering and shouting about salvation. Now let’s see to Whom they are cheering and shouting. In verse 9 John tells us the great multitude is cheering and shouting “9… before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” I suspect you already know Who the Lamb is. I suspect the words of John the Baptist cry out from the recesses of your memory as you recall that he once pointed at a prophet from Nazareth and said, “Look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[3] but so that there can be no doubt this John identifies the Lamb in verse 14. There he tells us the great multitude “14… washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. Now perhaps it is the confession of the prophet Isaiah that cries out to you. Perhaps you recall something about your filthy rags being exchanged for a robe of righteousness or your scarlet sins becoming as white as snow. Or perhaps Paul’s word to the Corinthians are ringing in your ears, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[4] Either way you know Who the Lamb is; you know to Whom the great multitude are cheering and shouting because He is the same one to Whom you direct all your prayers and praises. It’s Jesus. Jesus is the Lamb at the center of the throne. Jesus is the one Who has shed His blood that robes might be washed and made white. Jesus is the one who called the great multitude out of the tribulation which is why Jesus is the one to Whom they cheer and shout.
John has shown us the great multitude cheering and shouting to Jesus about salvation. Now let’s see why they are shouting. It is not simply because they are relived that they have come out of the great tribulation, or no longer know hardship and suffering, or no longer live what we call life. It is so much more than a celebration of what they have been called out of. It is a celebration of what they have been called into. If you don’t mind, I am just going to re-read word for word what John wrote in verses 15-17. I think the words the Holy Spirit inspired him to write are more than adequate to explain why the great multitude is cheering and shouting. John tells us, the great multitude “15… are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 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.” The great multitude are not just cheering and shouting about a final encore at a concert or victory at a game. They are cheering and shouting about a lasting legacy of purpose and protection, satisfaction and pleasure, joy and happiness. The great multitude are not just cheering and shouting because they have been delivered from tribulation. They are cheering and shouting because they have been delivered to heaven!
John has told us what the great multitude shout, to Whom they shout it, and why they shout. But before we leave here today, I think it is important that you see who is doing the shouting. Throughout these verses John has left you several clues as to their identity. They are from every nation, tribe, people and language which means they are also from your community, from your neighborhood, from your group of friends, from your family. They wear the same white robes of righteousness that are worn by all who believe in Jesus as their savior. They live in heaven along with all the others who believed Jesus when He said, “because I live, you also will live.”[5] You want to see who is doing all the cheering and shouting? Do me a favor. Close your eyes and try to imagine the scene that John describes for us this morning. Tell me, do you recognize anyone? I do. I see a couple of friends, a grandparent (a few of them actually), I see a mother, I see souls once entrusted to my care. Who do you see: a friend, a grandparent, a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a child? Do you see them? I assure you, if they believed in Jesus as their savior, they are there. They are before the throne of God cheering and shouting to Jesus about the salvation which delivered them to heaven.
Now open your eyes. My dear friends, your God did not give John the vision of the great multitude to make you sad and your pastor did not share the vision of the great multitude with you this morning to fill you with sorrow. God gave this vision to John, and I have shared this vision with you not to remind you what you have lost but to remind you what you have to gain. One day in the future some pastor somewhere is going to share with his congregation John’s vision of the great multitude cheering and shouting to Jesus about the salvation which delivers believers to heaven and someone in that congregation is going to close their eyes and they are going to see you. Amen
[1] https://www.e3diagnostics.com/blog/turn-it-up-to-11-the-loudest-live-events-ever-recorded#:~:text=A%20fun%20fact%20about%20Ted,as%20loud%20as%20130%20dB.
[2] Genesis 22:17
[3] John 1:29
[4] 2 Corinthians 5:21
[5] John 14:19