A Sermon for Pilgrim Church on Revelation 14
We have come full circle and reached the end of the age again. The last chapter in which the end of the age was reached was the final part of chapter 11. Chapters 12 and 13 looked at the tribulation of the church age in more detail and from a different angle. The devil is the driving force behind the persecution of the saints and he uses the beast and the second beast (aka false prophet) to do his work. The task for believers is to avoid compromising with the world and the idolatrous religious system set up by the second beast. But now in chapter 14 there is good news because this chapter describes the final judgement of unbelievers and the reward of believers.
1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless. (Rev. 14:1-5 NIV)
In stark contrast to the second beast, who looked like an innocent lamb but was a wolf (13:11), here is the Lamb of God with the people he has redeemed. This is the victorious Lamb, who is victorious precisely because of shedding his blood for sinners. He stands on Mount Zion. In the OT, Mount Zion is God’s city, his eternal dwelling place (Ps 48:2; 125:1; Isa 24:23). On Mount Zion are the remnant saved by the Lord (2 Kings 19:31; Isa 37:32; Joel 2:32). The NT says that Jesus is already reigning on Mount Zion, in that he has fulfilled Ps 2:6 (see Acts 13:33 quoting Ps 2:7). Mount Zion is called the heavenly Jerusalem in Heb 12:22. Here in Rev 14:1 it is the end-time city where God dwells. The victorious Lamb has the remnant with him in God’s dwelling place.
The 144,000 have been mentioned before in Rev 7:4. Here it is the same group of people but the description of them here is different and often misunderstood. Instead of the seal described in ch 7, in 14:1 the 144,000 have the name of the Lamb and of his Father written on their foreheads. The saints have taken the name of Christ by responding to the gospel and continually witnessing to that name through suffering (Rev 2:3, 13). In the OT, the name of the LORD was in his holy temple (e.g., 1 Kings 9:1-3) and God’s people in the OT are called by his name (2 Chron 7:14; Jer 14:9; Dan 9:19). Thus, with the name of God and of the Lamb written on their foreheads, the saints are in the presence of God. This is greater than the presence of God in the church on earth. Here the saints have joined the Lamb in his heavenly dwelling place. The suffering is past because they have received their reward. This is the fulfilment of the promise given in 3:12 – “The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.”
On Mount Zion are very loud sounds of harpists playing. This is the sound of worship (see 5:8). It is extremely loud because the saints gathered on Mount Zion are a great multitude, gathered together from every time and place right up until the end of the age. Together they sing a new song. In every instance of people singing a new song to the LORD in the OT (Ps 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isa 42:10), they sing of the LORD’s great deliverance and his righteous judgment on the enemies of Israel. They speak of God’s victory over his enemies and the worthlessness of idol worship. No doubt these are the things which the saints will sing about in glory.
The worship includes no one who is not part of the 144,000, those redeemed by the Lamb. This implies that although the unbelievers may at some point be forced to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:10-11), they will not become part of the worshipping community of heaven. Only those who have experienced God’s deliverance from sin and from idol worship are included in the heavenly worship. People who have placed their trust in Christ and refused to worship the beast are the people who will sit on Mount Zion worshipping the Lamb of God.
So far so good, but verses 4 and 5 are trickier. “4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.” If we take these descriptions as literal it will rule out most of us. A literal reading of this passage implies for a start that the 144,000 are all men and they are all virgins. Previously, we saw that the 144,000 are the whole people of God, not just male virgins. We would not expect the whole church to be celibate. That has certainly not been the case in history and the Bible speaks positively about sex within marriage. So, like the rest of the book, we must think in terms of symbolism not a literal reading here.
One way of understanding this is to do with the fact that in Ch 7, the 144,000 are engaged in a holy war. Israelite men going off to war would keep themselves from women (Deut 23:9-10; 1 Sam 21:5; 2 Sam 11:11). Thus, the 144,000 are to keep their focus on the Lord and his holy war and not be distracted. The other way to understand this is through the connection between idol worship and sexual immorality. When Israel joined the people from surrounding nations and worshipped idols, this was figurately called prostitution (Exod 34:15-16; Lev 17:7; 20:6; Deut 31:16; Ezek 16; Hosea 1-3). Revelation uses the image of a prostitute to describe the unrepentant world (17:1-5). In contrast to this, the church is to be a pure, faithful bride of Christ, not defiled. Paul uses the word “virgin” in this way in 2 Cor 11:2. Celibacy in this passage refers, then, to the pure devotion of the bride to Christ. It is a reminder to never compromise with the idolatrous world.
The firstfruits do not imply that there are others to follow. It is more a reference to an offering to God that begins the new creation. The whole nation of Israel is referred to as the firstfruits of the Lord’s harvest (Jer 2:2-3) and therefore the whole church may be the firstfruits of the Lord in Rev 14:4. No lie is found in their mouths (compare the remnant of Israel in Zeph 3:13). The godless are liars who slander believers (Rev 3:9), worship false divine rulers (13:4), believe the lies of the antichrist (13:14) and will be eternally condemned (21:8). But the saints tell the truth of the gospel (6:9-11; 11:3; 12:11) and refuse to worship idols.
6 Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth–to every nation, tribe, language and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” 8 A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” 9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” (Rev. 14:6-11 NIV).
At first glance an angel proclaiming the eternal gospel seems to be doing the job that the church is tasked with. However, there is a second understanding of gospel being used here. The gospel is not merely the good news of redemption for those who believe but also the good news that the enemies of God’s people will be brought to judgment (see Nahum 1:15). The gospel has consequences when rejected (Rom 1:16-3:21; 2 Cor 2:14-16; Acts 17:18-32). The angel commands people to worship the true God because the hour of his judgment has come. We hope that at least some of the people will repent at this announcement but, given what follows, quite likely they do not. True worship is given by believers or angels (twelve times in Revelation), but the unbelievers will be forced to comply with the command to give glory to God (see 15:4 and Dan 4:34) as a part of the final judgement. (Compare what happens in Acts 14:15-18. The gospel is proclaimed and yet the people still persist in idolatry.)
This is followed by a second angel announcing the fall of Babylon the Great, a name which Nebuchadnezzar gave to the kingdom he had built (Dan 4:30) and whose fall God had promised in Isa 21:9. The literal Babylon has already been destroyed and will not rise again (Jer 51:24-26). This, then, is not the country who took Judah into captivity. Babylon is used figuratively in 1 Pet 5:13. Early Christians used the name Babylon as a code for Rome. Babylon was a place of exile under a regime which destroyed God’s temple. Rome had destroyed the Jewish temple and was oppressing both Jews and Christians. Although Rome would have no doubt been in the minds of the first readers when the fall of Babylon was announced, Babylon includes all the wicked world systems up to the end of time.
Babylon, or the wicked and corrupt world system, “has made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” The adultery is not actual sexual immorality so much as idolatry. The idol worship that Babylon engages in and makes others engage in has been a repeated theme in the book so far. The people of the earth worship the beast and they take his mark because without it there is no economic security (13:16-17). However, although the nations are made to drink from the wine of her adulteries, it does not seem to take much to force them into cooperating with her. Idol worship is the default setting for sinful humans (Rom 1:18-23). Babylon’s wine is the kind that removes any capacity to understand what people are engaged in (see Hosea 4:10-12). Since the nations are drunk on this wine, they cannot see that they are worshipping worthless idols.
Another angel then announces the punishment for those who worship the beast and who take his mark. In a parallel fashion to drinking the wine of Babylon’s adulteries, they will be made to drink of the wine of God’s fury, poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. The full-strength wine here implies this is not a partial judgement but the final judgement. This is the cup of wine that “the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs” (Ps 75:8; see also Isa 51:17). The joy of the gospel is that Jesus has drunk the full cup of God’s wrath in his death. He said as much in the hour before he was arrested (Luke 22:42; John 18:11). God’s wrath was spent in the cross and yet the people who refuse the gospel and instead worship idols must experience that wrath for themselves. The last judgement involves completely undiluted wrath and fury from God. Whatever judgements happen prior to the last judgement may be tinged with mercy, but this is not.
“They will be tormented with burning sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” The penalty for unrepentant idolatry is serious, severe, and not to be taken lightly. The torment is probably not physical but it is nonetheless real and dreadful. When Jeremiah describes the cup of the LORD he says. “When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad” (Jer 25:16). There is no respite from the torment and it cannot but help to send people insane because there is no escape. Is this torment eternal or does it come to an end at some point? The lake of fire and sulphur is the same place where the devil, the beast and the false prophet end up. “They will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (20:10). Compare these with descriptions of God (and Jesus) who lives forever and ever (1:18; 4:9-10; 10:6; 11:15; 15:7). I think we can only conclude that the torment goes on eternally.
The wicked will experience the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb, not as something glorious and peaceful, but as those who are forced to acknowledge what they would not acknowledge while on earth. They will be unable to forget the truth of who they spurned and rejected. They will know that the saints they persecuted are now in glory but they can never join them. There is no rest. As Isaiah says: “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. ‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (Isa. 57:20-21 NIV). There cannot be rest because rest is found in Christ alone. It is his reward for the saints (Rev 14:13).
12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. 13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labour, for their deeds will follow them.”
Patient endurance was exhorted in Ch 13 because suffering must be endured patiently in order to remain faithful while the beast and the false prophet reign on earth. Here patient endurance is exhorted again. This time there is a promise that those who die in the Lord are blessed because they will receive rest. Although the believers suffer now because of their refusal to worship the beast, this suffering will come to an end. It is hard work being a Christian because we must continually resist wickedness. But rest is coming and that rest is forever. There is a huge contrast between the wicked and the righteous. The wicked want everything now and lose everything for eternity. But the righteous are willing to lose everything now so that in eternity they gain it all. This is why we can say that their deeds follow them. There is no more hard work to do in heaven. I doubt that this means we will do nothing at all in eternity. But whatever tasks we have in the eternal kingdom of God will not be odious or difficult. They will be done with joy.
14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. 17 Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. 18 Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.” (Rev. 14:14-18 NIV)
We have here another passage announcing the final judgment, describing it as a harvest. The two harvests are probably simply two separate descriptions of one harvest of the wicked. John 4:35 indicates that the fields are ripe for harvest, meaning that the disciples should go and proclaim the gospel to the lost. However, by this chapter of Revelation, it seems that the time for responding to the gospel is past. God has given people time to repent but eventually that time comes to an end (2 Pet 3:8-10). There is a finality about this section.
The one sitting on the white cloud is like a son of man. This is a plain reference to Dan 7:13. It is Jesus, who comes on the clouds of heaven, who reigns forever and ever. But it is not simply that Jesus reigns over the saints. Revelation 14 is about how he also judges the living and the dead (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5). This is what the sharp sickle in his hand represents. It harks back to Joel 3:12-13. “Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow–so great is their wickedness!” The Judgement Day has arrived and it is time to gather all the wicked together.
There are several angels in this passage. It may seem odd that Jesus has to be told by an angel to use the sickle to begin harvesting the earth. Angel simply means messenger, so we may suppose this angel is sending a message to Jesus from God the Father that the time has come for final judgement. Jesus said that the Father alone knows the day and the hour (Matt 24:36; Mark 13:32). Various angels join with the son of man in harvesting the wicked. Who all the different angels are does not seem particularly important. What is important is what they do with the harvest of grapes.
19 The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. 20 They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia. (Rev. 14:19-20 NIV)
Here is an allusion to Isa 63:1-6, in which God speaks of trampling the winepress of the nations and treading them down in his wrath. The blood of the nations was poured out on the ground. Rivers of blood is a gory image. It is an image that sparks the imagination to think of uncountable numbers of dead bodies slain in battle. This should not, of course, be taken literally as if there will be actual rivers of blood on the earth. However, God’s wrath against sin and against sinners is quite real and totally just. The image of blood is appropriate because they have refused the blood of the Lamb, which frees us from our sin (1:5), and instead poured out the blood of the saints (6:10). At the Last Judgement the blood of the saints will be avenged. Just as the outer court of the temple was trampled in 11:2, now the wicked who trampled on the saints are trampled upon outside the holy city. There is poetic justice in this event. The saints are inside the holy city and their rest is there, but the wicked are outside experiencing the wrath of God with no rest.
The blood flowed out of the press for a great distance. The number 1600 (as in 1600 stadia) can be read symbolically a couple of ways. It is 4×4 x 10×10. 4 is the number of creation or the natural realm and 10 means all, suggesting that the whole earth is covered by the blood. Alternatively, we could read this as 40×40, and 40 is the number of punishment (See Gen 7:4; Num 32:13). Either way we should not be expecting literal rivers of blood in which battle horses can swim. Another way of looking at this is that there is a contrast between the glorious river of living water that flows from the throne of God, even deep enough to swim in (Ezek 47:1-6), and the horrifying river of the blood of the wicked that flows out of God’s winepress of wrath, deep enough to come up to the horses’ bridles.
The encouragement in this passage is both positive and negative. The positive is that for those who remain faithful to Jesus, a reward awaits. The saints will live forever with the victorious Lamb on Mt Zion and their rest will be glorious. The negative is that those who refuse the gospel and persecute the saints will experience the final severe judgement, in which they must experience the undiluted wrath of God upon their sin forever without end. These should both spur us on to perseverance and encourage us to never compromise with the idolatry around us.