Post Tribulation Whites

Revelation 7

¹³ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

¹⁴ And I said to him, “Sir,^[b] you know.”

So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 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 dwell among them. ¹⁶ They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; ¹⁷ for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.^[c] And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

We have just come out of two weeks of Wimbledon tennis tournament.  And a rule of Wimbledon,  which makes it distinctive,  is that the dress code is white.

You won't get away with very much variation on the white theme.

And Wimbledon always takes place in the summer,  albeit a British summer.
I remember watching as a kid,  because my mum was fanatical about the tennis, and the old analogue TV barely seemed to cope with the brightness of the sunshine reflecting from the white of the players clothes, and the players almost seemed at times to be little white smudges on our screen.

Well that was one or two players.

In this scene we are told that gathered around the throne are a great multitude,  from every tribe and tongue,  too vast to count,  all dressed in white and holding palm branches.

I think poor John would perhaps have benefited from some Ray-Bans to gaze at all that.

A multitude too vast to count must be an awful lot.

That seems an understatement,  I know,  but there is no way to do it justice.
Remember this.

God promised Abraham that his descendants would outnumber the stars,  even the grains of sand on the beach.
And remember earlier,  John numbers a hundred million angels. And this crowd are too many to number.

I think it is safe to say,  there are rather a lot of them.

I am told that there are more people currently alive than all those who have lived in history.

I don't know the truth of that.  But it is quite a thought.

If God were to save all the people currently on the planet, there would be more people in heaven than not.

I like that thought. A lot.

And how much room is there around this throne!!? 

But who are these people?  Who are the ones in white?

These are the ones,  says the elder,  who come out of the great tribulation.

And how did they get this white?

They washed their robes,  not like Andy Murray's tennis whites are washed with Daz,  but in blood. The blood of the Lamb. 

Still makes the best whites ever.

Nothing cleans up our stains like Jesus blood.

Nothing like a little irony,  is there?

Blood is messy.  

It stains.

To this world,  metaphorically speaking, you wouldn't want to get covered in Jesus blood.  And to this world,  Jesus' blood makes a mess. 

But from a heavenly perspective,  it removes all stains.  There is no more powerful detergent in all eternity.

What can wash away my stain,
What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

I don't know if or when the great tribulation is coming,  but I do know that regardless,  we will face trouble.  I know that following Christ still requires some luggage. Cross bearing is an essential prerequisite.  And faith costs.  It is as simple as that.

To be loyal to Christ is costly

In this world you will have trouble.

"Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me."

If you are struggling,  you must occasionally ask yourself;

Is this worth it?

And none us know what heaven will be like,  not really.  But we are given a hint.

And how does this sound?

Day and night in the presence of your God.

Unlimited access to the Throne.

No hunger.
No thirst.
No more being assailed by the elements or wearied through heat.

Jesus himself shepherding you to a place of eternal refreshment.

Every tear being wiped away from your eyes by God himself.

How potent is this?

Every tear.

Every time you ever cried. 
He was there all along.
And he will erase the pain of each of them.
He will touch your face and heal your heart.

Just wow.

And the blood that achieves all this.  The messy crime scene of the crucifixion,  the gore that we are currently sliding around in, 
this blood is achieving all this,  as we live for him.

So be of good cheer.

He has overcome the world.

Amen