![]() ![]() According to the promise of Jesus given to the seven churches in the opening chapters of this book, he told them in several places that he would take the church (i.e., the true believers of this present age), to be with him before this last seven-year period would begin upon the earth. I want to try and put some loose ends together here. They are 144,000 male Jews chosen out of Israel - "Christ's Commandos," as we called them earlier. And they are seen together, the Lamb (Jesus). This means that they were on earth, in Jerusalem, not in heaven. The opening sentence tells us they were "standing on Mount Zion" - the temple mount in Jerusalem. It is important to see exactly the location where these 144,000 and the Lamb are seen. No lie was found in their mouths they are blameless. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. ![]() And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. 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. In Chapter 14 they reappear, and we will see their ministry described: In Chapter 7 we saw these 144,000 were chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, 12,000 from each tribe. John Wesley once said, "Give me a hundred men who love nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the whole world for Christ." I think Wesley probably underestimated, because in the 14th chapter of the book of Revelation, to which we come this morning, we read that Jesus chose not just 12, not even 100, but 144,000 men, and with that number he would to shake the world in the closing days of this age. ![]()
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