The Revelation 7:13-17 | Episode # 1050

October 17. 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 7:13-17

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day,

especially today in Jesus name.

Then one of the elders, meaning one of the people that are the church. This is a picture of the church. Remember when you see elders, here is four and 20 elders, is a picture of the whole church.

One of the elders. I love it when one of the elders starts talking to John.

No, he said. Then one of the elders said, saying to him, who are these arrayed in white robes and where did it come from?

Now, I want you to hear me.

Anytime. The Bible just kind of goes out of its way to tell you something, is trying to tell you something. Okay?

Like when.

When Jes. When Joshua is talking to the. The command of the Lord's host outside of Jericho and the commanders of Lord's host says to him, do not be afraid. And then later on he says, do not be afraid.

And then later on he says, did I tell you do not be afraid?

You probably ought not be afraid.

Okay,

Here there is an actual.

What I would call an interlude to the story where one of the elders is going to come and narrate what's going on.

Which means I don't have to ask questions as to what's going on.

I just can look at it and know.

Right?

All right. He says here,

who are these arrayed in white robes and where did they come from? And I said to her, said to him, sir, you know.

Which means,

I don't know,

but you know.

And he said to them,

to me,

these are the ones who come out of the great Tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

So now a lot of times people read that and say, these are the ones that are this a finite group that come out of the tribulation.

You can read that Greek phrase this way. These are the ones who are the result of the great tribulation.

Does that make sense?

So these are the ones who are the result of the great tribulation well, how long does that last?

For me, I think it's a thousand years. The Great Tribulation. The Great tribulation is three and a half years. The tribulation, what we call the tribulation, is seven years,

which is the 70th week of Daniel.

But the result of the Great Tribulation is what?

The Millennial kingdom.

The result of the Great Tribulation is the bringing of the creation back the way it was supposed to be.

Are you following me?

And the Millennial kingdom.

That's why I think that this number is far bigger than the Old Testament saints and even the New Testament saints or the bride of Christ the Church.

I think it is billions, if not trillions of people.

Now, how can that be, Pastor? Well,

you know,

we've made these things called rocket ships.

We even made one recently that we could catch in the air before it crashed to the ground.

Now, let me tell you something. That's the result of thousands of years of technology.

Are you following me?

But Jesus,

without any technology,

could walk through a door,

which means he intimately understood the laws of nature that we have really no understanding of,

which is called subatomic particle theory.

In subatomic particle theory,

I can walk through a door and come out on the other side without being hurt.

Now you go, well, how can you do that? They don't know.

They just know it can be done.

Now, the cool thing is we know the person who created subatomic particle theory.

So if all of you, all of you out there who wonder, are there planets out there that we can live on?

Well, there's another thing that I know.

I know the person who knows the answer to those questions.

I also know that he told Adam to subdue the whole of creation.

So I believe in that thousand years where humans don't grow old,

their bodies don't wear out,

I believe that we populate everything and the number of redeemed is billions and trillions.

Now, Pastor, is that absolutely true in the Bible?

I could be wrong for sure.

I could be totally wrong about it. But this passage indicates to me, look, if you said.

And most people, when they're reading the book of Revelation, he's coming back next week, right, Pastor? No,

no, I don't know the day. Don't ask me if I predict the day. It ain't happening that day.

Okay,

all right.

But I know this. If he comes back with the number of people that are on the Earth now, and everybody on the Earth gets redeemed, after that, I can count them.

He says here, no man can count them.

So that's got to be a lot of people.

A lot of people.

He says these are the ones who come out of the great Tribulation and are washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Notice, robes cannot be made white without what the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore,

they are before the throne of God. And they serve him day and night in his temple. And he serve him where?

In his temple.

That's his heavenly temple.

And his earthly temple.

They serve him day and night.

Notice this.

And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. He tabernacles with them.

Notice this. This feast of tabernacles is all in here.

Okay.

He dwells with them. Did he dwell in the midst of them? In the wilderness? Yeah.

The Shekinah glory of God was on the tabernacle in the wilderness.

And the tents were all around the tabernacle. He dwelled among them.

They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. Why? Because he gives them manna from heaven and he gives them water from the rock.

And they both had the same source.

The sun shall not strike them, nor any heat.

It's going to be fall all the time,

or early spring,

the greatest times of the year.

For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, will shepherd them and lead them to the living fountains of water.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Which mean they are going to mourn over sin.

Do you mourn over sin?

I do.

They mourn over sin also.

Back. Jesus said, blessed are those who mourn.

There's nothing wrong with mourning. Lots of times we think of mourning as mourning over death.

And in many ways, mourning over sin is mourning over death because death is the result of sin.

But the main thing we mourn for is loss.

We mourn over loss.

And anyone who has tasted sin and death,

which is all of us,

have much to mourn for.

We all have much to mourn for.

But the Bible says he'll wipe those tears away,

which means he doesn't keep you from mourning for that.

He just comforts you in the midst of it.

Remember, heaven is the fullness of the Christian. Life is the fullness of the Christ likedness. Life is to be as Christ is.

Did Jesus weep?

Yeah.

In fact, there's the shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus. Jesus wept.

Where did he weep at?

He wept outside the tomb of Lazarus, right?

Yeah.

Now, if you think about it,

why would he weep? Didn't he know he's fixing to raise him from the dead?

Yeah,

but there was still death there.

And by the way,

I kind of think he weeped over Nat Lazarus having to come back.

Okay, I'm going have to do this to you. Hate it for you. Here we go.

But he also weeped and mourned over death.

He does.

It glorifies him that we would do so.

The altar of God is full of tears.

The altar of God is full of those who prostrate themselves.

The altar of God is full of redemption. The altar of God is full of goodness. The altar of God is full of power. But if you don't have all of it,

I want you to hear me. You can't have any of it.

If you don't have all of it, you can't have any of it.

What do you mean? Well, look, the Holy Spirit ain't gonna just break himself off and give you part of him.

If I'm gonna have his goodness,

I gotta have his redemptive work. If I'm gonna have his redemptive work, I gotta have his power. I can't deny his power and have the redemptive work.

Right?

Bible says that there'll be believers that have a form of godliness but deny his power. If I deny his power,

I deny the power by which I'm redeemed by. I deny the power by which I'm cleansed.

I can't deny his power.

If I focus all on the cleansing and none on the joy, eventually people are going to grow tired of that because the cleansing brings about joy, which brings about power.

How many of y' all ever been in a worship service after you've been there for a while? A while. A while. A while. And had the call at the end to be the same thing over and over and over again, even though the verses are about different stuff.

Wouldn't that be focusing on redemption and excluding joy and power?

Just asking that question.

If there's no expectation of the miraculous of God,

how can they ever be real? True expectation of the redemption of God?

If there's no expectation of the goodness of God, the joy and the power and the peace that comes from that,

how can there ever be redemption?

Who wants to be redeemed back to who they are?

Nobody wants that.

So every time we come, we should seek those things.

Every time.

Some Sundays should be joyful Sunday. Some Sunday should be redemptive Sunday. Some Sundays should be power Sundays.

You go, preacher. Do you plan which?

No.

I am not the Holy Spirit.

Are you following me? Y It may seem like I'm becoming omnipresent, but I'm not okay.

Rod is not the Holy Spirit, even though he might seem all powerful.

Are you following me?

He's not.

The Holy Spirit's the Holy Spirit.

So you should come seeking with your palm branches,

right?

You should come seeking the Holy Spirit to do what he does all the time.

And that for me is makes this group of people real powerful. You go, who are they?

They're redeemed out of the tribulation. That's who they are. I don't know who they are. I don't know their name. John didn't know him. I don't know.

But we will.

And the angels are fired up about them too, by the way.

Real fired up about them.

And we are too.

We're the one falling on our face fired up about it.

Amen.

Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for your word.

Father, I thank you that your Holy Spirit has a work that you have commissioned to be done.

Father, your Holy Spirit has a work that Father, your son promised would be done.

And so, Father, we want to experience that work. We want to experience the redemption that's provided by your son.

Father, we want to spend the joy and the goodness that comes from your will and your presence. And, Father, we want to know the power of your spirit.

And so, Father, I ask in the name of Jesus that we would always be a church that seeks those things that looks over and Father does not consider a person's tribe or nation or tongue or language.

But Father is always seeking redemptive work to be done in our community, among our people. Father, who we are?

The people that go to grocery stores with us and the gas stations. Father. The people that are in the courthouses and Father, that eat in the restaurants. The people that sleep in neighborhoods that are.

Father, just a few miles from our houses. Father, we ask that we would be a people that are salt and light and power and Father goodness to those people that they might see our love and glorify you for it.

Father, we ask for that in Jesus name,

Amen.

As you go today, I pray that.

The Lord will bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.