Well, the subject we're going to be diving into may seem something depressing, martyrdom, the great tribulation. And yet as we read through this section, I want you to notice the incredible joy, the delight that these martyrs have in God. It's framed in a totally different light than many people give to this subject. Here are the word of God. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from all ethnic nations and tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palm branches in their hands. And they shouted with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living beings, and they fell down before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, saying, Amen, the blessing, and the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honor, and the power, and the strength to our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders reacted, saying to me, who are these that are clothed in the white robes, and where did they come from? So I said to him, my lord, you know. So he said to me, these are those who come out of great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his sanctuary. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them. They shall not hunger anymore, nor thirst anymore. The sun will absolutely not strike them, nor any heat, because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of waters of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Amen. Father God, we thank you for your Word. And we thank you that by your grace we can have joy even in the face of a situation like the Great Tribulation. And we pray that as I give an exposition of your word that you would anoint me and keep me from error and enable each one of us to benefit from this portion of scripture that we are looking at. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated. One of the perplexing questions that Christians frequently have to answer is, why would God allow believers to suffer and to be martyred? And some Christian apologists have tried to answer that question by looking at the outcome, because they say martyrdom many times purifies the church, many times it causes the church to grow. And that is often the case, that in the face of martyrdom there has been an explosive growth of the church, and many times it has purified the church, but that is not always the case. Sometimes people idealize persecution, and we just want to set that record straight. It is not always the case. There have been times of persecution in the history of the church where a church has been completely wiped off the face of the map in one region, not to grow back for several centuries. There have been times when people have compromised their faith. They have apostatized as a result of persecution. The Epistle to Hebrews was very concerned about the Hebrew believers in his day and about the possibility of them falling away, of them apostatizing as a result of persecution. So a good outcome is not a foregone conclusion. We should never welcome persecution. I've heard Christians actually praying for the Lord to bring persecution to America, and actually I've heard Chinese Christians praying that God would bring persecution to America to wake us up, you know, because look at how we have thrived under persecution. I don't think that's a biblical prayer. It's not the prayer of Jeremiah. Yes, he brought God's message that they deserve persecution, but he called them to repentance. He longed for repentance. What we should be praying for is that God would bring repentance so that persecution is not necessary. In fact, we ought to be praying that prayer that we sang in the song earlier where we're saying, show your mercy, your mercy flows. and let your love, your anger stem. Remember mercy, O Lord, once again." So let's not idealize persecution. This describes a persecution where the church was almost extinguished. almost. And Jesus prophesied that it would happen that way within one generation. Matthew 24 describes the Great Tribulation as being so great that if God had not cut it short, there would not be a single believer who would have survived. For the sake of the elect, he did cut it short, but even though the Great Tribulation was cut short by two years, there were still regions of the world where the church was completely extinguished. And as I said, it took several centuries in some of those regions before there was a Christian presence there once again. And so the question comes, why? Why would God allow that? Almost no writings survive from A.D. 70 through 100. We just have a tiny, tiny handful of writings. And the reason is because they face the greatest tribulation that this world has ever brought against the Christian church. It happened with a vengeance. Now, futurists deny that the tribulation under Nero could have been the Great Tribulation. They put that off into our future. And so today what I want to do is I want to deal with the eschatology of the Great Tribulation, and then perhaps next week we can get into some of the glorious themes that are connected with the tribulation, including, by the way, the honor of dying as a martyr in Christ's army. That is an incredible honor. But next week's sermon will explain why there is so much joy in this passage. We'll be looking at the subjects of dedication and joy and vision and death and heaven and rewards and other issues like that. Both groups in chapter 7 represent the kind of Christians that have the potential of turning the world upside down. Those are the kind of people that Satan hates, hates with a vengeance. Now, some Christians get nervous at that point, but it's important to understand that God can protect His people. He can. We revel in the awesome protection that God gave to the 144,000 Jewish Christians in the first century. in verses 1 through 8. With persecution all around them, they escaped. Not a hair of their head was harmed. God preserved them. So God is able to preserve us during any persecution that we might face, if that serves his purposes. And that's what makes verses 9 through 17 all the more a puzzle. J. Adams said this about the contrast between the two groups. However, across the Roman Empire, a greater multitude of believers will soon suffer martyrdom. Having seen so many others escape, they must now die. Is God fair? Is He truly in charge? Lest they question the wisdom or equity of God, the problem is anticipated and answered. They are shown that it is just as much God's will for some to be slain as for others to be sealed. Did you get that? It is just as much God's will for some to be slain as for others to be sealed. God had many purposes for this tribulation. I will just anticipate a few. It vividly shows Christ's kingdom arising out of darkness and moving toward the glorious light that we see at the end of the book. It starts with war and ends with peace. It gives hope that the church, if the church has survived the greatest onslaught of Satan ever to exist upon planet Earth, it can survive any onslaught that Satan might give in the future. It gives us hope by showing that Satan gave his absolute best effort at destroying Christ's kingdom and it was not successful. It gives us hope by showing that the most ferocious opposition that Satan has ever been able to muster is in our past, not in our future. I'm glad we don't have to face the Great Tribulation in the future. I'm very glad about that. But it also shows, as I mentioned, the great honor and privilege of dying as a soldier advancing his kingdom. Anything that the Great Tribulation Well, another thing that the Great Tribulation did was to make crystal clear the enmity that exists between the world and Christ. Sometimes it's a hidden enmity, but when given the opportunity, it will always result in tribulation. And this is why Christians must maintain an antithesis. When Christians willingly send their children to government schools to be discipled by the world, they are denying that a war exists. They are denying that antipathy exists. James 4, verse 4 says, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. There is nothing neutral in life. Everything must be placed under the feet of King Jesus, and of course Satan wants the exact opposite. He wants everything placed under his own feet, right? And yet there are so many Christians who are AWOL in this great battle. Now the way that the passage is written, it describes the victory that these martyrs had by not compromising. The Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius and the governor Pliny, we have all of their writings, and they complain about Christians and how ridiculous it is that these Christians are unwilling to compromise by calling Caesar Lord. It's such a simple thing. What's wrong with them? Why are they so obstinate, Pliny said. The Romans thought that the Christians were being petty. when they refuse to acknowledge Rome as soteres, the Greek word, as savior, as welfare giver. In fact, many commentators point out that verse 10 is a slap in the face of Rome's claims to be the source of salvation. The Roman coins declare Caesar to be savior, and verse 10 says, no, salvation belongs to God alone. Mark Antony, a contemporary of Julius Caesar, said that Julius Caesar It said his only work was to save wherever anyone needed to be saved. The Christians were unwilling to acknowledge Caesar as Savior, and it signed their death warrant. Now, it really offended Rome. Romans could not understand it. After all, they said, we give far more liberties, we are far more compassionate than any empire in the past. We allow any religion to exist so long as that religion acknowledges the lordship of Caesar. You know, it's sort of like saying, you know, it's okay if you have a Christian flag in your church so long as the flag of Caesar is just a little bit higher. Okay, that's basically what it amounts to. And the early church was unwilling to do that and it sealed their death warrant. I think that Chilton's comments are right on the mark when he said this. In direct contradiction to the state-worshipping blasphemies of Rome and Israel, the Church declares that salvation is the province of God and His Son alone. In every age, this has been the basic issue. Who is the owner and determiner of reality? whose word is law. Is the state the provider of salvation? For us as for the early church, there is no safe middle ground between faith and apostasy. So let's dig into this passage a little bit. We're only actually going to get through one verse, verse 9 today. Verse 9 starts by saying, After these things I looked. So that indicates, as I've mentioned before, that there is a sequence in these chapters. The heavenly party in verses 9-17 comes after the sealing of the 144,000 in verses 1-8, but verse 1 says that the sealing of the 144,000 comes after the events of chapter 6, verses 12-17. Now some weeks ago I showed that chapter 6, verses 12-17 occurred in May of AD 66. And if you want a precise date, it's Artemisius 21. Now that's a Macedonian date. And unfortunately, my ancient DOS program, that's a beautiful calendar conversion program that takes into account all of the intercalations that have happened and the changes in the Hebrew calendar, I can't get it to run. So until Tobias can get my DOS loaded onto my new computer, I can't check the dates. So the dates I've been giving the last two or three weeks could be off by just a few days. It could be five, six, seven days here or there. But I did find an online a calendar that claims to be doing the same thing. I'm not sure if it takes account of all of the intercalations or not, but let me give to you the Gregorian modern dates for some of these passages, and it'll help you to have a little bit of a feel of where we're at. If the online calculator is correct, chapter 6, verses 12 through 17 occurs on May 2, May 2, or the ancient Macedonian calendar of Artemisius 21. Revelation 8 verse 1 occurs on May 16, so it's not very many days after that. That would be the Hebrew date of Sivan 6. Revelation 8 verse 7 takes place on September 6, or the Hebrew date of Tisri 1, which is the first day of the Feast of Trumpets. And I think it's just so cool how even the festivals line up in this book. So you've got these trumpets blasting. When did they start? When did the armies come into Israel? It's right at the Feast of Trumpets. And so these are some of the dates that we're going to be looking at. Now, Josephus dates the start of the war in April. So that would be back in chapter 6. because of the Roman procurator's attacks on Jerusalem, swiping 17 talents of gold from the temple, killing 3,000 Jews, turning a blind eye. In fact, he may have sicked the three Jewish groups, the Zealots and two other Jewish groups who were just devastating the countryside. They were plundering villages and cities. He fomented trouble. He wanted trouble with Rome, I mean, between Rome and Israel. So already in the last section of chapter 6, we're seeing very, very tense times. So Josephus sees the war as having started then. Others see the war proper as starting in chapter 8, verse 7, when Cestius invades with his Roman legion. And a case could be made for either position. But at least it lets you know approximately when the events of chapter 7 take place, somewhere between May 2 and May 16. So when verse nine says, after these things, it doesn't mean 2,000 years later, okay? It means immediately after. What had initially confused me about this sequence is that I thought that this passage dealt with all of the saints who had died during the whole Great Tribulation. Well, that would bring it all the way up to AD 68. And then in chapter eight, you're coming back to AD 66. And the sequence didn't seem to make sense to me. until I looked at the Greek and then started reading the commentaries on verse 14. And the Greek of 14, where it says, those who come out of the great tribulation, is a present participle, it's an ongoing tense, indicating that the coming out has not finished yet. There are more to come out, and there are still two more years of tribulation, according to the book of Revelation. So once I saw that, I said, okay, it all beautifully fits together. Here's how one commentator worded it. And by the way, this guy is not a preterist, he's a futurist, but at least he sees the Greek grammar clearly. It says, the present tense, those coming, contrasts with the two errorists that follow, have washed and made them white, and stresses that they are continuously coming out of the great ordeal. The tribulation is clearly conceived as a prolonged process. So they're still coming out, and as each martyr comes to heaven, they are received with joy, but that's not the main reason they're rejoicing. They are rejoicing that God's judgments have now begun to fall upon Israel. And we'll be getting to that later. He's at least set the machinery in place to bring these judgments. But that brings a huge problem into the minds of some people. They think that there is no way that there can be the multiplied millions listed in verse 9 saved and martyred in the first century. No way that that could happen. Now you guys like puzzles, right? So that's what we're going to be looking at today is I'm going to focus the rest of the sermon on this puzzle proving that there was indeed a glorious harvest of multiplied millions from every nation, tribe, people, and language by 8066 And secondly, that there was indeed a slaughter of those multiplied millions that justifies us calling this the greatest tribulation that the world will ever see. When we put those two points together, you've resolved a major issue in eschatology. So look at verse 9. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from all ethnic nations and tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palm branches in their hands. Now this is an astonishing fact, that the church has grown from 120 in the upper room to multiplied millions in less than 40 years. The number of Christian Jews who survived, we saw last time, was 144,000. Now, this is the thing. If 144,000 is considered by John to be a small, very countable number, how big is the innumerable multitude in the second half from around the world? Well, it can't just be in the hundreds of thousands, as some commentators try to make it out to be. It has to be on the level of multiplied millions. The Greek indicates it's such a large number that it is incalculable. So you can see why some people feel like we need to put this off into the future. They just don't see how they can justify the numbers from history. Now, there is debate on whether this is a reference to every nation, tribe, people, and language within the Roman Empire. or whether it refers to every nation, tribe, people, and language within the whole world. Now I'm open to either position. I'm going to present both of them to you this morning. Most partial preterists say it's only referring to every nation, tribe, people, and language within the Roman Empire, and that's possible. But either way is astonishing. It is absolutely astonishing, and I'll give you the evidence for either interpretation. Now, before we look at the external evidences, I want to look at what the infallible Bible says. Jesus said that before the temple and the old covenant could be destroyed, the gospel had to reach every nation. This is the way Matthew 24 words it. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." The end of what? Well, in context, he's talking about the end of the temple and the end of the Old Covenant age. And before the old covenant age could come to an end, the gospel had to reach every nation. Now, many people are skeptical that that could have possibly happened in the first century, but Jesus guaranteed that it would happen within one generation. He said, Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. So he ought to know he never makes any mistakes. That ought to settle the question. But let me read Matthew 24, 14 again and include the next two verses that come after it. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place, whoever reads, let him understand, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. At the second coming, there will be no opportunity to flee. It's gonna be in a flash. And so it's clearly talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. In fact, if you look at the parallel in Luke, that verse adds the phrase, when you see Jerusalem surrounded with armies. So it's clearly talking about the destruction of Jerusalem. So Jesus prophesied that the gospel must reach all nations before the great wrath could be poured out upon Jerusalem. And the question is, did it happen? Now, obviously, I've just read in Revelation 7, verse 9, that it did happen. But just so that you can see my interpretation is correct, I want to look at some other scriptures and the testimonies of early church fathers that this did indeed happen. But first of all, turn back to Revelation 7. Let me define each of the terms in verse 9. Ethnic nations is the Greek word ethnos and refers to a nation or race ruled by a common ruler. The word tribes refers to socially and genetically related groups within a nation, like the 12 tribes of Israel or the 80-plus tribes that existed in Greece. So Greece is a nation and it has 80-plus tribes that exist within that nation. You've probably heard of the Dorian, Spartan, Cretan, Macedonian tribes. Well, those are just four of 80-plus tribes in Greece. The word for peoples probably refers to even smaller people groups, probably clans within those tribes. And the word language is literally tongue, and it can refer to both language as well as to a dialect. Now, don't worry, I'm not digging myself into a hole that I can't get out of. The gospel really did go that far. But I think you can see why I say this is an absolutely astonishing passage. If you do not understand the fact that there were millions of believers by AD 66, you will not understand why the Great Tribulation's attempted genocide was the worst tribulation against true believers that this world will ever know. So even though I'm only preaching on one verse today, I hope that I'm going to give enough background to understand the rest of the passage next week. So how many people are in this multitude? I'd give you a little bit of a feel for the numbers. Let me give you some modern statistics, and they may not apply to the first century, but I think it'll at least give you a little bit of an idea. According to Ralph Winter, there are about 24,000 ethnoi, or racial groups, and there were many more in the first century. Now, just imagine a church in every racial group. It's hard to imagine. Now what about languages? If you don't count the tens of thousands of distinct dialects in the world today, there are 7,097 distinct languages. If you add dialects, there are 39,491 dialects today, and apparently a lot of the languages have died out since the first century, so there were probably a lot more back then. Now if there was a church in every group that has one of these 40,000 languages, you're talking about an incredible, almost an unbelievable feat of the gospel of Jesus Christ within 36 years. Now just as a side note, I think you can see why the gift of tongues was so important in the first century. It was absolutely essential if the church was to meet this goal that before Jerusalem could be destroyed, it had to reach every language, every ethnoi. Jesus said that. So tongues is not just about jabbering something that nobody knows. For example, the apostle Matthew had the gift of tongues, and history tells us when he went to the country of Ethiopia, he instantly was able to preach the gospel in all 70 languages that occur in that nation and was able to establish churches in all of those tribal units. Why? He had the gift of tongues. That's what tongues was for. It would be an inconceivable task apart from the gift of tongues. He didn't have to spend weeks or months or years. In 1 Corinthians 14, 18 through 19, Paul said that he spoke in tongues more than the Corinthians did. He did it outside of the church, and he had to do it because he was trying to reach every tribe, every clan of people that was out there. He was not against tongues. He was just against the misuse of tongues by these Corinthians who were able to speak these languages. They had no need to do so in worship, and they thought, hmm, I'm gonna show off and speak in Swahili. I know there's no Swahilis here. They would start speaking and doing different things, and it was of no benefit to anyone. Without the gift of tongues, this phenomenal miracle would never have been able to be accomplished. Now, I've already mentioned that there is debate over whether this is a reference to every nation, tribe, people, and language within the Roman Empire, whether it's the whole world. And I'll be giving you evidence that it could have been the whole world, but let's assume just for now that it's a reference to the Roman Empire. If it was literally fulfilled, it still represents a massive number of converts. How many nations existed in the first century? Well, if you just count the nations of the Roman Empire, it's around 130. For me, it's not that hard to imagine a church planted in all 130 nations, but it gets a little hairier when you look at the tribes. How many tribes existed within the Roman Empire? It's hard to calculate, but it's definitely in the tens of thousands. The Greek word for tribe was applied to the 80 plus tribes in Greece. It was applied to the 35 tribes of Rome proper. But let's just take a look at some of the tribes that Rome conquered. The Celtic peoples had, according to the Wikipedia listing of all of their tribal names, around 600 tribes. That's just the Celts. Illyria had 61 tribes. Wikipedia lists Thrace and Dacia as having over 100 tribes. Wikipedia lists an enormous number of Germanic tribes. Ancient writer Pliny claims that the Roman province of Asia had 282 communities that we would call tribes. Galatia had 195 ruled by chieftains. Anyway, I think you get the point. If you begin adding up all of the tribes in Rome, you're coming to the tens of thousands. But here's where it really blows your mind. It appears that a church was not only planted in every tribe, but in every subgroup called people, peoples, which probably refers to clans. If a church was planted within each of those, I think you are forced to believe that there were multiplied millions of Christians by AD 66. That's just in the Roman Empire. which may be all that's being referred to here. Now, could that have happened? Yes, it could. Now, I want you to turn with me to Romans 1, and I really do want you to look at this because this is important stuff for us to master and understand. Romans chapter 1, and we'll begin reading at verse 5. Through him, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name." So there's the word nation, and Paul affirms that whatever it means, there were people who had the obedience of faith in all nations. Look at verse 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole Now the word world there is cosmos. It could refer to the Roman Empire, but it could refer to planet Earth as well. So by AD 55, when Paul wrote Romans, the gospel had already founded churches throughout the whole world, however you define that. That's long before AD 66, the year of our chapter. That's 11 years before. Now flip over to Romans 10. and verses 14 through 18. Now let me just set up the whole context of that chapter. Before Paul talks about the destruction of Israel in verses 19 through 21, He says that the gospel must first go into all the world. So he's doing exactly the same thing that Matthew 24 does and what Revelation 7 does. He's saying that before God's wrath can be poured out upon Israel, the gospel has to go into all the world, into every nation. Okay, Romans 10, beginning to read at verse 14. How then shall they, this is referring to the Gentiles, how then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, indeed. Their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Now turn over to Romans chapter 16 and verse 25. Now to him who was able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest and by the prophetic scriptures made known to all nations according to the commandment of the everlasting God for obedience to the faith. Now premillennialists insist that Matthew 24 verse 15 can't be first century because not all nations have heard the gospel by that time. Yet we've looked at several scriptures that indicate that all nations had the gospel made known to them in the first century. Now Colossians is even more explicit. Turn to Colossians chapter 1 Colossians chapter 1, I'm beginning to read at verse 5. because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth. So throughout the whole world, there was fruit of conversions happening similar to what had been happening in Colossae. Now skip down to verse 23. If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. Now most translations translate it the way the New King James Version does here, but some translate it in all creation under heaven, or in the whole creation under heaven. But hey, that doesn't soften it a whole lot. All three translations indicate that this gospel has gone way beyond the boundaries of Rome into the whole creation under heaven, or if you prefer, to every creature under heaven. And people say, that just can't be. I mean, did the gospel really go to China? Did it go to Europe? Did it go to Africa? Did it go to India? Come on. What are you saying? And I just respond, first of all, take Colossians 1.23 seriously, and you cannot say that Revelation 7 verse 9 cannot be fulfilled. It doesn't matter how you interpret Colossians 1.23. If you apply the same interpretation to Revelation 1 And verse 9, you've got to say that that was fulfilled. Paul has given several Scriptures saying that it did indeed go to all nations, under the whole creation, under the whole of heaven, in the whole world. Okay? It's astonishing. Now, there are two reasons that there are skeptics, despite Paul's clear language. And the first reason is that they don't see entire tribes coming to Christ in one generation today, and so they don't believe that it can happen in the past. And I've read a number of authors who have said that. Well, I think that's ridiculous. We have seen quite a number of tribes that have become 100% Christian in Irian Jaya and Papua New Guinea and Indonesia and Africa and Asia. In fact, the two tribes that my parents worked with in Ethiopia in one generation went from zero to over 95% Christian, even according to government statistics, and we're talking hardcore evangelical Christians, and the other tribe was over 93%. That's in one generation. It can happen. And yet these same authors, when you point those things out, they say, well, they couldn't be genuine conversions. I'm saying, why? Why do you say that? Why are you such a skeptic? They are so individualistic that they cannot believe that covenant theology can embrace an entire tribe or an entire nation. And yet, is that not what the Great Commission commands us to do? It does. Make disciples of all nations. He's talking about Christian civilization, Christianized nations. So this passage gives us a faith that God can do a mighty work of conversion in our own day. Yes, even within a generation. Are things bad? Of course they are. Were they as bad as they were back then? No. And so we ought to have faith that God can turn things around and begin to take the actions of faith. But the second reason people are skeptical is that they either haven't read history, or like some modern evangelical authors, they say that the early church fathers who talked about these things having happened must be exaggerating. They say that. They say Tertullian and Justin Martyr and some of these other guys, we can't take them at face value. They could not have happened. It must be hyperbole. But I believe it was not. And part of the reason that the church was able to spread so quickly was that there were Jewish communities in virtually every village and hamlet of the Roman Empire. And God was using a remnant from those synagogues to spread the gospel. And it actually started at Pentecost. Acts 2.5 says of the Jews who came to the festival of Pentecost in Jerusalem, and there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from, get this phrase, from every nation under heaven. They got converted over the next several weeks. They got discipled. They were sent as missionaries back to what? Every nation under heaven, and those missionaries apparently had a tremendous success. So it wasn't just up to the twelve apostles. There was a multitude of Jewish converts who took the gospel back to their nations, And however you want to interpret that phrase, every nation under heaven, they were taking the gospel there. Now, concerning just the nations that the apostles themselves reached, Philip Doddridge summarizes the evidence. He says, the accomplishment of this extraordinary prophecy is admirably illustrated by Dr. Arthur Young on Idolatry, Volume 2, pages 216 to 234. It appears from the most credible records that the gospel was preached in Edomia, Syria, and Mesopotamia by Jude, in Egypt, Marmorica, Mauritania, and other parts of Africa by Mark, Simon, and Jude, in Ethiopia by Candace's eunuch and Matthias, in Pontus, Galatia, and the neighboring parts of Asia by Peter, in the territories of the seven Asiatic churches by John, in Parthia by Matthew, in Ascidia by Philip and Andrew, in the northern and western parts of Asia by Bartholomew, in Persia by Simon and Jude, in Media Carmania and several eastern parts by Thomas, through the vast tract of Jerusalem around about into Illyricum by Paul, also in Italy, and probably in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, in most of which places Christian churches were planted in less than thirty years after the death of Christ, which was before the destruction of Jerusalem. Now that's incredible. History tells us that the apostles themselves reached all of those areas. Now you add to the apostles the numerous other missionaries who also had the gift of tongues, it's quite believable that it wasn't just every region of the Roman Empire that was reached, but every region of the world itself. Now I'm not dogmatic on this. and how you should interpret it. It may very well be a reference to all people groups in the Roman Empire. I'm just saying history itself shows the gospel went way beyond the Roman Empire and that persecution went way beyond the Roman Empire. I've read archaeological evidence that indicates the first century Christian presence in China. That was discovered in the 1980s. and confirms the claim that the Church of India has always maintained that Thomas came to them first in the early 60s, then went to China, preached the gospel throughout China, then went back to India and died. I've already mentioned Ethiopian history saying that Matthew preached the gospel in all 70 languages of Ethiopia. Now what about the Americas? Interestingly, there's some archaeological evidence of Jews in various parts of America that goes back to the first century. And some of these sites seem to indicate that they were Christian Jews. And there is some debate on whether they were just Jews, whether they were Christian Jews, but you can think of the boulder in Las Lunas, New Mexico that has the Ten Commandments written in a Hebrew dialect. Cyrus Gordon of Brandeis University near Boston has vouched for its authenticity. Or you can think of the Yuchi Indians who know all the Hebrew names for God. And they say they got that as far back, it's been passed down as far back as they can remember. Where did they get the Hebrew names for God? Or you can think of the beautiful keystone artifact found in Ohio. That's a fascinating artifact that has Christian Hebrew written on all four sides and appears to go back to the first century. Other evidences of early Hebrew Christians in America are the Ohio Decalogue, the Los Lunas Decalogue, the Back Creek Stone. And there are other things that are popping up in various parts of the world, including various islands out in the Pacific and other areas. Now, do we need to believe that? Do we need to have that question settled? I don't think so. I don't think so. If we take this universal language as reference only to the Roman Empire, then it still means that millions of Christians have been converted by 8066. But if we take the various scriptures literally, then multiplied millions of people had come to Christ around the world. That's the good news. That's the good news, the power of the gospel to spread like wildfire. Now, the bad news is that the church was almost wiped out as a result of the Great Tribulation. Verse 14 says that the millions who were saved from every nation were martyred and are now in heaven. And by calling it the Great Tribulation, most commentators believe that it's referring back to Matthew 24. In Matthew 24, Jesus describes the Great Tribulation in these words from verse 9. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. So it's not just the gospel going to all nations, but they're going to be hated by all nations. Jesus goes on, for then there will be great tribulation. such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect sake, those days will be shortened. If it wasn't for God's mercies, there wouldn't be any Christians left in the world. That's how severe the tribulation was. And Christ insisted it would happen within that generation. So Jesus spoke those words in 30 A.D. The Great Tribulation was supposed to have lasted seven years until 70 A.D., at least according to the agreement that Israel and Rome had come up with each other. They were in covenant with each other. But God cut it short. It ended in 68 A.D. So, yes, it did happen in less than a generation. Have you ever wondered why there is almost no information from the church between the years 8070 and 8100? I think it's because little of the church survived. The hostile Jews used civil authorities everywhere in order to exterminate the church, and they were a formidable force. Neil Faulkner's research shows that Jews made up 20% of the population of the eastern provinces of Rome, and both Gentry and Barrett show how Jews made up 15% of the overall population of the empire. It's 10% in the west, 20% in the east. But history makes it quite clear that multiplied millions of Christians were tortured in the most hideous ways and killed for their faith between the years 62 and 68. B.H. Warmington examined the secular evidence of persecution of Christians in Rome, and he believed, quote, that, quote, almost the entire Christian community at Rome was destroyed. The Right Honorable Charles Kendall Bush said that Tacitus and Suetonius show, quote, Christians were persecuted and almost exterminated by Nero. One of the earliest church fathers, Justin Martyr, debated with Trifo, a Jew, and complained that Jews were responsible for the extermination of the church. That's what he calls it, the extermination of the church in the first century. And he says, so far as you and all other men have it in your power, each Christian has been driven not only out of his own property, but even from the whole world, for you do permit no Christian to live. Trifo, the Jew, responded, hey, get over it. We Jews were almost exterminated by Rome as well. And he responds, yeah, that's because of your criminal conduct and your rebellion and your fighting against God and fighting against the Christians. But Christianity itself had engaged in no crimes that deserved the bad mistreatment from the Jews, yet, quote, we are taken away out of the earth. Now, I'm not going to get into today the Jewish-Roman connection. But Justin Martyr says that the church was virtually exterminated in the first century. It went from multiplied millions down to next to nothing. Now he was born in 100 A.D., would have been somewhat familiar with the history of the earlier church. And Jesus predicted this. He said, but beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. He told the Jewish leaders, therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. By the way, crucifixion was only done by Romans. And yet here he's saying the Jewish leaders are going to crucify. Well, it shows their control of the Romans in the first century. But it says, some of them you will kill and crucify, some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. This was the greatest tribulation against the church ever, not only because of the heinousness of Nero's tortures or the millions that were slain, but also because of the percentage of Christians that were killed. Now, you're gonna run across people, and I've looked at their websites, who will say, no, there's been greater tribulations, and so this can't be a reference to the Great Tribulation. All you need to do is ask them, was that tribulation that you're referring to, was it a threat to the whole church worldwide? Obviously not. and yet it was in the first century. The church has grown nonstop since 70 A.D. Now, it has been diminished in some regions of the world, but worldwide, it has never stopped growing. Of the increase of Christ's kingdom and of peace, there will be no end. Now, that brings up another question. If the church was almost obliterated in AD 66, how could it grow sufficiently to once again invade almost every level of society by the second century? In a letter to Trajan in AD 112, which is just 36 years after our chapter, Governor Pliny complains that Christianity has now invaded every level of society, is spreading like a contagion, like a disease, He blamed Christians for the fact that some Roman temples now are almost entirely deserted, religious ceremonies are neglected, that people that are selling meat that had been previously offered to idols can't find any buyers. I mean, language like that shows the incredible spread of the gospel after AD 70. 90 years later, in AD 200, Tertullian wrote a letter to the Roman magistrates defending Christianity, and he claimed this. Quote, nearly all the citizens of all the cities are Christians. That was in his region of the world. Now, evangelicals today, they say, yeah, he's exaggerating. There's no way that that could be true. But that's what he says. In his region of the world, he said nearly all the citizens of all the cities are Christians. The church can grow fast if it is dedicated like the church of the first three centuries were. They were driven by a vision of victory. They were driven by the principles of this book. And as a result, church fathers indicate that by the time of the Emperor Constantine, despite continued persecution, half the population of the entire Roman Empire was Christian. How could that happen? That's where the 144,000 come in. You wonder, why did God seal those 144,000? Well, I believe they were sealed and protected by God so that they could once again spread the gospel to the far reaches of the empire. And when we get to chapter 14, we're going to see they were indeed effective. They didn't even get married. They were virgins for the Lord. They were totally dedicated to spreading his kingdom. That's all that they did. 144,000 of them. One atheist organization that I visited recently had done a study trying to figure out how the church managed to grow to 34 million by 8350. That's his figure. It's a pretty conservative figure from my perspective. But anyway, this atheist organization came to the conclusion that it actually wouldn't be hard. If the church just had constant growth, not sudden spurts, but constant growth at simply the rate that Mormonism has had since its inception, that's 40% per annum, then if there were only 2,744 Christians in 80-70, that's their figure, not mine, okay? But if you imagine the church almost being extinguished, I thought, well, that's a convenient figure, 2,744 Christians in AD 70. There would be 33,882,000 in AD 350. So you don't even need national conversions like happened under Nineveh. You just need a grassroots movement of dedicated Christians who are so sold out to Christ, they're willing to lay down their lives if need be in order to see their neighbors and others coming to Christ. One thing I think that is obvious about both groups in this chapter is they are more focused on Christ than they are on themselves. They are more passionate about Christ than they are about themselves. And I think it would be awesome if the church of Jesus Christ today would be reawakened to the passions that drove both of those groups in the first eight verses in the last part of this chapter. I think this nation would be turned upside down if we once again embraced their priorities and their passions. Now, unfortunately, the exact opposite has happened. We have a wimpy Christianity that is spreading wimpy Christianity in other countries through missions. It does not believe the Great Commission is even possible. You talk to your average missionary and ask him if Christ has all authority over politics And if all nations will become Christian nations, and if there is coming a time when Christian nations and civilizations will be so godly that they will be living out everything that Christ commanded in every area of life, he'll probably look at you like he doesn't have a clue what you're talking about. Satan doesn't persecute those kinds of Christians that much, but they won't make that much of an impact either. Without faith, Scripture says, it is impossible to please God. And without a proper eschatology, it is impossible to have an adequate faith to conquer the world. And without faith in the future, our hope is robbed. And when hope is robbed, the church is demotivated and settles for something less than the Great Commission. So we really do need to get back to an eschatology of hope and faith that drove the Puritans and drove the pilgrims to make our early nation a light set on a hill, a city set on a hill. May it be so, Lord Jesus. Amen. Father, we thank You for the challenges of Your Word, challenges that call us to even be willing to die, to lay down our lives for You, to be passionate for Your cause. And I pray that You would stir up the church of Jesus Christ to once again embrace Your priorities and Your passions and to make a difference in this world. We long to see the nations of this world becoming a part of the kingdom of our Lord. of our Christ. And I pray, Father, that these nations in Europe and in America that have been stolen by Satan out of Christ's kingdom would be restored, that you would open up the books of heaven, that you would judge as a righteous judge and give restitution to the Lord Jesus Christ and cause this nation not just to be restored to Christ, but fourfold, or perhaps even sevenfold. Far greater holiness, far greater commitment to your law, far greater living out of your gospel than this nation has ever experienced. Father, I pray that you would cause the kingdom of your Lord Jesus Christ to grow, for His glory to be lifted up, Father, we believe that this prayer would glorify your name, that it would bring great joy to the angels of heaven. And even as you have done so many things for David and early fathers, we pray that for the sake of the fathers who planted this nation, the pilgrims and the Puritans who wanted this nation to be a light not under a bushel, but a light on a lampstand and a city set on a hill that, Father, You would accomplish above and beyond their wildest dreams. Father, cause the church of Jesus Christ to be as passionate as these martyrs were, as passionate as the 144,000 were. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.