Message Information
- Key Scriptures: Revelation 7:9-17, NASB
- Series: Sent for the Sake of the Gospel (2026), no. 13
- Date: Sunday, August 30, 2026 (Morning)
- Venue: Central Baptist Church — Lawton, Oklahoma
- Speaker: Jared Byrns
- Audio File: Open/Download
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Keeping the Goal in View
While we are airing family information, a few months ago, because the price of everything is going up—this is not news to you all—Charla and I had to sit down. I’m looking at the numbers coming in and going out and saying, “These are not pretty numbers.”
So we had to have one of those husband-and-wife budget discussions, and those are never fun discussions. We don’t fight about it, but I feel bad telling her no, and I also feel bad looking at the numbers. She’s thinking, “But the kids need this, and the house needs this.” So we did something different this time.
Instead of saying, “We’re going to have a budget discussion,” I said, “We’ve got to figure out what we need to do differently, so let’s sit here and brainstorm about where we want to be in 25 years.” We know that it’s God’s plan, and He can lead however He wants and wherever He wants. But within that, what is our goal? What does life look like at retirement?
And when I say retirement, I love what I get to do. I don’t see myself ever fully retiring in the sense of laying around a pool or playing golf, those kinds of things. But what do we hope for? Her thing was, “I want to have the financial freedom to be able to drop everything and go be with our grandkids and go see our grandkids wherever they are.”
We have some of our kids who are planning—they want to live in our backyard. But we also have some kids who are interested in foreign missions. So there’s going to be some logistics involved in being able to go visit all the grandkids. That was her thing.
For me, it was, if I retire from full-time pastoring at some point—and don’t worry, I’m not there yet; some of you may say, “Oh, shucks, he’s not there yet”—I would love to be able to go work on the mission field for months at a time.
What we got out of that discussion was that we had very similar ideas: just freedom to do ministry, whether it came to missions or ministry to our family, that kind of thing. Suddenly that discussion of the household budget didn’t seem so daunting, because suddenly we’re on the same page and we know what we’re working toward. We know where the goal is.
Again, God can do whatever He wants with that. Jesus may come back before any of that is ever an issue. But our goal at this point—that’s what we’re working toward. And it helps us now, on a daily basis, to make decisions: Is this moving us closer to the goal or further away from the goal?
The Great Multitude
I bring that up because this series that we’ve been going through throughout the summer is about being sent for the sake of the gospel. This is our last message in that series before we go back to Luke. That’s the plan for next week, unless God shows me something different.
We’ve been studying how to share the gospel and what we need to do to prepare ourselves to be people who do share the gospel and make disciples. But I felt like it would be wrong to end this series without looking at the goal. Where do we hope that what we are doing now is heading?
God outlined that goal for the Apostle John in Revelation chapter 7. We see what the ultimate goal of all of this is: of us gathering to encourage one another so that we can go out equipped and empowered to share the gospel and make disciples.
It’s all leading toward what we’re going to see in Revelation chapter 7, something that we call the great multitude. The International Mission Board talks about the Great Commission—which we have talked about in this series—the command that Jesus gave us to go and make disciples, and this great multitude as being the bookends of everything. In between, we’ve been given a great invitation to extend to people.
We want to look at this great multitude in Revelation chapter 7, starting in verse 9 and reading through verse 17. Here’s what the Apostle John wrote:
After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all the tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, “Amen, blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.” Then one of the elders responded, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they? And where have they come from?” And I said to him, “My Lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. “They will no longer hunger nor thirst, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any scorching heat. For the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of the water of life. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”
We’re given this beautiful picture in Revelation 7 of the great multitude. Part of what makes it so beautiful is that it comes in the midst of all of the strife, all of the things that have come before, the tribulation that John writes about, the battles and the wrath that is poured out on the earth. In the midst of this, we see the scene from heaven.
Right before this, 144,000 Jewish believers trust in Christ and become witnesses. Then we come to this scene in heaven with this great multitude standing before the throne. This great multitude embodies our goal for everything we do.
If we understand, kind of like with the retirement discussion, that this is the goal, and we keep in mind what the goal is and where we’re aiming, it informs our decisions here on a day-to-day basis.
The Gospel Can Restore the Fallen
What we see coming out of this multitude, right off the bat in verse 9, reminds us that the gospel we share is powerful to restore the fallen. This great multitude reminds us of the power of the gospel, the way it can transform people.
We see several descriptive phrases and details in verse 9 about this great multitude. The crowd, first of all, was innumerable. He says, “a great multitude which no one could count.” This demonstrates the scope of the gospel.
The gospel isn’t just for one or two people. It’s not just for a handful of people. It’s not just the really easy cases that Jesus is able to save. One day, when we are in heaven, the numbers that are there will be beyond what we are able to count or imagine.
That’s an important reminder because the need is staggering now. Yesterday, Jeff and I took a group of kids to a conference at OBU for kids who are exploring the call to ministry. Several of us went to the same breakout session on missions. A gentleman there put up a map where every red dot represented 50,000 people who do not know Jesus.
There were entire countries that were solid red. Folks, Bible Belt America was solid red. Now, it’s because we’re not talking about percentages. We’re not saying everybody in this part of the world is lost. But even around us, if every dot represents 50,000 lost people, some of these places, the dots blurred into blobs. You couldn’t count the dots, let alone the people.
Basically, everywhere on earth that there are people, there are people who don’t know Jesus and people who are lost. The need is staggering.
But we’re also shown here that the response is staggering. By the time John looks out, he sees so many people that he can’t even imagine it. He can’t even begin to count it. John did not have words for the numbers of people he saw, and that speaks to the power of the gospel to reach millions and millions of people.
The Gospel Reaches the World
It also tells us that the crowd was worldwide. They came from every nation and from all the tribes and peoples and languages. The gospel is able to reach everywhere.
God has chosen to use us. God has chosen to use His people to communicate the gospel. That’s why we go to our friends and neighbors and family members. That’s why we spread the gospel here. That’s why God also calls some of us out of churches like this one to go to places where nobody’s ever heard.
As I’ve shared with you earlier in this series, the reality is that there are people in Lawton, Oklahoma, who’ve never heard. We think that’s impossible because there’s a church on every street corner. I’m not saying they’ve never heard of Jesus. I’m not saying they’ve never heard of God.
Although one time I did have a foreign exchange student from Germany—Germany, the country that brought us Martin Luther—ask me, “Who is this God person you keep talking about?” And I believe she was serious.
I’m not saying that most of our friends and neighbors and people around us have never heard of God or never heard of Jesus or never heard of the Bible. I’m saying they may have never heard the gospel articulated. They know about the church. They know about the Bible. They know there’s stuff you’re supposed to do and there are rules about getting in. The world assumes that the message is just, “Do better and be like us.”
There are people in our own community who have never heard the gospel articulated: that, yes, they are sinners, and Jesus died to pay for that sin in full and rose again to prove it. It’s not about what they could earn or what they could deserve. If it were about what we could earn or deserve, God would have written us off a long time ago. It’s about what Jesus accomplished for us.
And God chooses to use us. God chooses to use those who’ve come to that knowledge to carry that knowledge to people, and it ends up going around the world.
We spent time yesterday praying for people groups we’ve never heard of—ethnic groups in India that have 2,000 people and maybe one or two Christians among the whole population. There are still people in this world. There are still groups, still nations, still languages where the gospel needs to be proclaimed.
That’s why we go where God sends us. That’s why we give to support those who go further out. That’s why we pray for their efforts, because we’re aiming for this great multitude.
The Gospel Brings Us into God’s Presence
The text shows the effect that the gospel had on each of these people, because it says these people from this great multitude were standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were actually in the presence of Jesus. This is what the gospel has done.
It has taken sinners who could not ever earn the grace of God, could not ever earn the right to be in the presence of God, and it has brought them right into the presence of the Lamb, standing right before the throne in His presence.
And it’s not in His presence in fear. It’s not standing before Him for the judgment. It says they are standing there clothed in white robes. These white robes show that they have been cleansed. They are standing before the Lamb, and they are cleansed. They are wearing white to show that they are clean. They are righteous in the sight of God.
Is it because they were really good people and did everything right through their lives? No. It’s because of what Jesus had done for them.
And it says palm branches were in their hands. They’re waving palm branches. This reminds us of the triumphal entry. That is what you would do to celebrate the King when the King came. They are there worshiping Jesus.
They are clothed in white. They are in love with the Lamb, and the Lamb is in love with them. It’s something that could never have happened if not for the work that Jesus Christ accomplished for us. These were sinners, and they were saved by grace.
But even more specifically, if we skip ahead a little bit—even though we’re going to talk about this more later—verse 13 tells us that these are sinners who were saved during the tribulation. These were not the people who got their act together early on. These are people who had rejected Jesus, or at least had not accepted Him. They had failed to respond to Jesus initially.
But when they finally turned to Him, after all the years of wandering, He still was there ready to receive them and ready to change them. The way these people are described gives us a powerful reminder of what the gospel can accomplish.
The Gospel Brings the Savior Glory
Another thing this great multitude shows us gives us reason to want to share the gospel and make disciples: We want to see this great multitude. We want to see the Lamb glorified. We want to see glory brought to the Savior. The gospel we share will always bring the Savior glory.
We see this in verses 10 through 12. When John sees the great multitude, he hears them crying out in praise, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.”
It doesn’t mean salvation belongs to Him like He’s saved and He’s holding on to it. It means salvation is something that is in His hand and in His power to distribute—no one else’s. Anyone who is saved is saved for one simple reason: God did it.
Again, it’s not what we’ve earned. It’s not what we’ve deserved. It’s not something somebody else handed out to us. It’s something that God accomplished. “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” They’re acknowledging that they’re saved because of Jesus and what He’s done for them, and they’re worshiping Him for it.
Folks, that’s an important reminder for us now, because sometimes we get up in the morning, and by the time we get out of bed, already the trouble of the day is piling up. We can find ourselves wondering, “I know I’m supposed to thank Him. I know I’m supposed to praise Him. I know I’m supposed to worship Him, but I’m just kind of feeling like life stinks right now.”
When we stop and think about it, we’ll realize how much God truly has blessed us. But that’s beside the point in this discussion. Even if He had never done anything for us beyond or beside salvation—and He has; He’s done so much—even if He had never done anything for us beyond or beside salvation, that alone would still give us reason to praise Him and worship Him for all of eternity.
Seeing these redeemed sinners who have come out of the tribulation before the throne, crying out and praising, the angels join in—and that includes the four creatures. We’re not getting into the four-creatures discussion today. Those appear to be some kind of angel, something God made. All of the angels and the elders join in, and the elders appear to represent the church, so these are people who came to Christ before the tribulation.
So, to my reading, everybody’s there. This is those who came to know Christ before the tribulation, and these are those who came to know Christ during the tribulation. Everybody’s there. Those who were already there join in. When this multitude from the tribulation stands around the throne and begins to worship the Lamb, everybody else joins in in verse 11 because they can’t help but worship Him for what He’s done.
We have reason to worship Him for saving us, but sometimes we’re reminded of that and our worship gets kick-started when we see what He does in somebody else’s life. Sometimes we see the power when He transforms somebody, when He gets a hold of them, when He changes them. That reminds us of what He’s done for us, and we go into worship mode all over again.
They cry out in verse 12, “Amen.” Amen is agreement. It’s not just a word to end prayer. It’s a word that indicates agreement. If we were going to translate it into English, we might say something like, “Let it be,” or, “Let it be done.” It makes me think of the _Ten Commandments_ movie: “So let it be written, so let it be done.” When they say amen, they’re agreeing with this.
“Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power and might belong to our God.” They’re describing who He is and what He’s done, and they’re worshiping Him for it as well. They belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.
We see in verses 10 through 12 that the gospel has transformed sinners, not just for their good, but also for the glory of God. Because when the change is made—we talked last week about not taking credit for the Lord’s work—when the change is made in us, who gets the glory for that? It’s God. He’s the one who made the change.
When somebody we knew back when, before Christ, runs into us again and says, “You’re completely different,” glory to God. It puts on display what only God can do. Anytime the gospel is proclaimed, anytime the gospel is lived out, anytime we see the effects of the gospel, Jesus is glorified in that.
As people who love and worship Jesus, one of our goals is, when we get to this great multitude, we want to see as many people as possible there for their own good, because we want as many people as possible to be saved. Even Peter says that about the Lord, that He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That’s His desire.
But we also want to see as many people as possible worship our Lord and Savior because He deserves it.
The Gospel Is Effective in the Hardest Cases
Looking at verses 13 and 14, we get into this discussion between John and one of the elders, and we’re reminded that this great multitude shows us that the gospel we share is effective even in the hardest cases.
I’ve already mentioned the identity of this multitude. I’ve already told you that these are people who were saved out of the tribulation. But it’s important that we revisit this because of what that means.
One of the elders in verse 13 asks John, “Who are these people?” John in verse 14 says to the elder, “Well, you already know who they are.” Sometimes in Scripture, questions are asked not because the person asking doesn’t know, but because the person asking does know and is looking for the opportunity to explain.
Jesus did that a lot. Jesus—fun fact—never asked a question He did not already know the answer to. This elder knows who they are. John tells him that in verse 14. The elder has asked so he can explain it to John. That’s his segue into explaining who these people are.
And he explains it to John because this brings glory to Jesus too, because these could be what we would consider the hard cases. He explains in verse 14, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
Some of what makes these what we might consider the hard cases is that, if they’re there in the tribulation—my understanding of Scripture, and I know some people disagree on this, and that’s fine—my understanding is that if they’re there during the tribulation, they’ve already passed on the gospel or just haven’t responded.
Some of these people may have appeared hardened in their unbelief. We don’t know the heart or see the heart the way God does, and these eventually responded. But you and I might share the gospel with somebody, and they might reject it, and we might in our minds think they’re a lost case. They’re just hardened in their rejection.
God sees the heart better than we do. These people had entered the tribulation without Christ. So we might think they were hardened. We might look at them as hopeless cases.
If we read the tribulation, it does not sound like a fun time. That’s why it’s called the tribulation. These are people who turned to Christ in the midst of that tribulation.
What we need to understand by that is that these are not just conversions of convenience. The tribulation is described as an awful time. It does not mean that these people turned to Jesus just because their circumstances became difficult, though, because what we read about the tribulation is that it’s actually more difficult to follow Jesus in that time than not.
The easy road during the tribulation is to keep rejecting Jesus. The way Revelation describes the tribulation, those who turn to Christ in the midst of it lose everything. They can’t buy or sell. They can’t participate in the economy. They can’t take care of their kids. There’s all the loss and all the upheaval. They’re persecuted. They’re hunted and hounded to death.
It would be so much easier just to say, “Yeah, I’m going to go on rejecting Jesus.” The only way, the only reason you turn to Jesus in a situation like that tribulation is because you are completely, thoroughly convinced that He is everything He claimed to be.
These people, in the most difficult of circumstances, the worst things that humanity will have ever experienced, will have the most remarkable conversion.
That’s a reminder to us even now that we don’t write off the hard cases. We don’t write off the people who rejected the gospel once. We don’t write off the people for whom life would get harder if they came to Christ.
Because even now, the gospel is effective, even in the hardest cases. The gospel specializes in cases where all hope seems to be extinguished. And it can still transform people.
The Gospel Brings Eternal Joy
Then we come to verses 15 through 17, and we’re reminded by the great multitude that the gospel we share brings eternal joy.
This multitude that’s described here, those who are saved out of the tribulation, just like those who arrive in heaven before them, those who turn to Christ before the tribulation in our day, are before the throne of God, and they serve Him day and night in His temple.
They get to experience the presence of God as well because they heard the gospel and believed. They get to experience the presence of God for eternity because of what Jesus has done for them.
It tells us in verse 15 that He’ll spread His tabernacle over them. That doesn’t necessarily mean a lot to us. But in the first century, in Eastern cultures, they knew about tents and tabernacles and people living in them. This idea of spreading the tabernacle over them is bringing them into His presence and dwelling among them. God is taking them under His protection.
Verse 16 says, “They’ll no longer hunger nor thirst, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any scorching heat.” Who’s ready for that? Right? That sounds pretty good right now.
None of these things. There’s not going to be any suffering. There’s not going to be any need among His people. Why is that? Because He’s there.
Verse 17 tells us that He supplies our every need and He wipes away every tear. Jesus is the only thing we will ever need. And in His presence, we’ll experience eternal joy.
Yes, this great multitude is those who’ve trusted Christ amid the tribulation. But they’re not the only ones there. This is not a special offer only to those in the tribulation. This is the reality of everyone throughout history who trusts in Christ.
We have a relationship with Him now. We have peace with God now. Heaven is not just a promise of something someday. We have a relationship with God now and peace with Him, and our slate is wiped clean. We begin to be changed and transformed. All of these things are realities now.
But we also have the future hope of spending eternity in His presence, experiencing that joy. We look forward to that great gathering, that great multitude that’s gathered there, when those who have gone before are joined by this last great multitude who trust Him in the tribulation—all of those who turn and put their faith in Jesus. We look forward to that great gathering.
Make Heaven Crowded
We want to see as many people as possible there. The most hateful thing we could do is not care whether people were going to be there with us. We want as many people as possible to be there for their own good.
We want as many people as possible there for God’s glory. He deserves to be celebrated by every voice and every tongue that’s ever been created.
To sum it up in a short phrase that we used to have on our sign, back when we were able to put words on our sign: We want to make heaven crowded.
We want to make heaven crowded. That’s why it’s so important that we are faithful to proclaim the gospel now while we have the opportunity. That’s why it’s so important that we make disciples while we have the opportunity.
We’re sharing the gospel with people and then raising them up to be disciples who share the gospel as well, so we can make heaven crowded.
