PAROUSIA AND THE GREAT MULTITUDE IN REVELATION 7

Parousia is the Greek noun used to describe the event of the Lord’s presence or coming. This term is used in Mt. 24, 1 Th. 4, and 1 Cor. 15, just to name a few passages.

In 1 Th. 4 Paul gives the Thessalonians assurance that those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, God will bring with Him at the event of the Lord’s coming. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord - 2 Cor. 5:8. “…God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” – 1 Th. 4:14.

Paul tells the Corinthians that at the event of the Lord’s coming we will receive our resurrection bodies, corruption will put on incorruption.

1 Cor. 15:20-23: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ's at His coming."

Jesus gave instruction to His disciples in His Olivet Discourse, recorded by Matthew, that the event of His coming will cut short the greatest persecution ever brought upon His elect and this persecution follows an event prophesied by Daniel, the abomination of desolation, when Antichrist stops the sacrifices and sets himself up as God in the temple.

In Mark’s account of the event of the Lord’s coming we learn God’s elect are gathered from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven – Mk. 13:27

If at the event of the Lord’s coming God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep, those who have died in Christ, wouldn’t these be the elect from the farthest end of heaven? And - if those who are alive and remain when the great tribulation is cut short and are caught up with the bodies of those who have fallen asleep, wouldn’t those be the elect from the farthest end of the earth?

The Lord tells us that just prior to the event of His coming and the gathering of the elect the natural lights will be extinguished. (Mt. 24:29, Mk. 13:24) John sees in the Revelation of Jesus, when the Lord opens the sixth seal, the natural lights being extinguished. (Rev. 6:12)

WHAT DOES HE SEE NEXT? (Rev. 7…)

One hundred and forty-four thousand from the twelve tribes of Israel being sealed on their foreheads…

…then…

“A GREAT MULTITUDE, WHICH NO ONE COULD COUNT, FROM EVERY NATION AND ALL TRIBES AND PEOPLES AND TONGUES, STANDING BEFORE THE THRONE AND BEFORE THE LAMB, CLOTHED IN WHITE ROBES, AND PALM BRANCHES IN THEIR HANDS…”

They are wearing robes and are holding palm branches…this great multitude is in bodies, resurrection bodies and they have come out of the great tribulation! (Rev. 7:14)

This great multitude can’t be anyone else other than the raptured church, those dear saints, both Jewish and Gentile believers, who throughout the centuries died in Christ, and also those who endured to the very end of the great tribulation, who were caught up with the bodies of the those who fell asleep in Jesus…and as the shells of these sleeping saints and the alive in Christ ascended, corruption put on incorruption…in the twinkling of an eye…

What do you think?

LONGING FOR GOD

I was recently asked if I ever missed someone so much I couldn’t breathe. That longing is exactly how the Lord wants us to long for Him. He is so worthy of our hearts and attention. David experienced this longing…Psalms 42:1…”As the deer panteth for the water brooks, so my soul longeth after Thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;”

He is always there, always big in a mighty way for us, it’s our passion for Him that waxes and wanes.

Christ chose to love the elect and to give His life for them. Love starts with a choice in the mind. We love Him because He first chose to love us. Paul tells us in Ephesians that we were dead in our sin. There is nothing in us to offer God to merit salvation. The only thing a dead person can do is stink and the stench of sin is worthy only of the wrath of a holy God. Since deadness cannot respond to anything God had to intervene on our behalf. He chose to love us by first writing our names in the book of life, before He even created us, or the world. Doesn’t that just blow your mind?! Then His creation fell into sin. Consider this - If He planned salvation for the elect even before He created the world, this means He planned for the existence of sin. He did not create and then sin ruined His creation and then He had to scramble at the last minute and figure out what to do about it. Everything exists because He has allowed it to exist, even sin. Why? TO PUT HIS GLORY ON DISPLAY! In His love He became a man and then He became the very thing which condemned His creation –He gave Himself over to sin bearing, paying the price for our sins on the cross. He bore the wrath of God on our behalf which we deserved. His sin bearing became a backdrop for His spectacular grace! A glorious, incomprehensible act to the human mind!

Paul writes about the process of salvation for the elect in Romans 8:30 – “And whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified (made righteous); and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” It’s written as if it were a done deal. Our salvation was secured in the past in God’s mind. At some point in time He makes sure our calling to Himself intersects with the gospel…the good news of Jesus Christ. For me it was when I was nine…at a neighborhood Good News Club. It was then when He removed the blinders to the truth of my sin, breathed life into me, and gave me the gift of faith.

How is your passion for God? Do you remember why He called you? It was to live to put His glory on display, to give Him the fruit of praise. It was so He could continue to lavish His love and grace upon you. We so don’t deserve such love and mercy. We only deserve death. Yet He chose to love us in spite of the stench of our sin. It is out of this love He has for us that we should desire to live for Him…to honor Him and praise Him. To be sure, my love for Him waxes and wanes. I don’t always give Him the attention He deserves and I battle with giving my heart to other things. It is at our final glorification - at His coming, or at our physical death prior to His coming, when our battling will finally be over. In the meantime, we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We are to walk in obedience…we are to consider the members of our body dead to sin and alive to righteousness. This battle starts with the mind and how we think. We do what we do and feel what we feel because we think what we think. For the believer, a successful and Christlike walk, a walk that gives honor and glory to God happens when they constantly saturate the mind with God’s Word and then walk in obedience to the Word.

Desire God above all else…seek to be a person after His own heart. When we seek to be a people after God’s own heart God will be glorified and we will experience spectacular joy.