We begin Revelation 14 this time. Even though there is about a third of the book of Revelation left, we are chronologically moving toward the very end of the Tribulation Period, and we are previewing the return of Christ Himself. Revelation 14 is going to give that prelude, and Revelation 19 will be the full picture of the return of Christ, but Revelation 14 leads up to it. This is a very pivotal point in the book of Revelation. The last two chapters we have been dealing mostly with those who are false. The false prophet, the false antichrist and the false dragon, Satan himself. So that has dominated Revelation 12-13. When we get to Revelation 14 however, we are looking at Christ Himself and the prelude to the return of Himself. So, this is a very important section. We are going to go through this rather slowly and see what God has for us.
Revelation 14 opens with us moving into a worship service of sort. It says in Revelation 14:1, “Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.” We are immediately introduced to two different groups of people. The first one is the Lamb Himself though we may not realize it at first. We talk about the Lamb of God and sing about the Lamb of God a lot. When you come to the New Testament, you find only two other times prior to the book of Revelation in which Jesus is called the Lamb of God directly. That is by John the Baptist in John 1:29 where he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” But, when we come to the book of Revelation, the title - the Lamb of God - is extremely predominant. Thirty-one different times He is identified as the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God in the gospels is the one who has come to take away the sins of the world. The Lamb of God in the book of Revelation is the Lamb who is coming in judgment upon those who rejected Him, rejected His Father, and rejected the gospel of redemption.
John is looking now, and he sees on Mount Zion the Lamb of God poised to return to the earth. With Him there are one hundred and forty-four thousand. We ran into these individuals back in Revelation 7. These are followers of Christ who have been marked and sealed by the Lord Himself so that nothing can harm them, and they apparently go forth and take the gospel to the world so that great multitudes come to Him at that time. This is the group that we see. As John looks at Mount Zion, he sees them. Some believe they have persevered through the whole Tribulation Period. We are coming to the last days now of that Tribulation. They have stood firm, following the Lord, proclaimed His message and they have survived throughout all the plagues and the trials of the Tribulation Period. Others like Robert Thomas believe that they have been martyred at this point or at least somewhere prior to this point and they stand ready to return with Christ with the rest of the saints at this moment. So, either way, we find that they are with the Lamb of God, and we find that they have the name of the Father on their foreheads. This is an indication of His control of them. His ownership of them. So, these are not simply individuals who are out on their own doing their own thing following the Lord. They belong to the Lamb, and they belong to the Father, and they are now ready to return and triumph with Him at the Second Coming . . .
