The 144,000 – Parts
4-6
Begin
Text:
The
identity and purpose of the 144,000 has been
puzzling to Christians for 2,000 years. Because
the 144,000 come form the 12 tribes of Israel, some
Christians believe the 144,000 will come from the
Jewish race. They believe these 144,000 Jews
will be converted to Jesus after a rapture of the
church takes place, and the 144,000 will preach
the gospel of Jesus throughout the whole world.
On the other hand, a
number of Christian denominations believe the
144,000 will come form their particular church.
These denominations typically believe they are
“Spiritual Israel” – and as such,
the 144,000 from their church membership will
serve the Lord as Kings and priests when He takes
the saints to Heaven.
Other Christians say the
number, 144,000, is a symbolic number
– that is simply represents a numberless
multitude of people that will be redeemed at the
Second Coming. One thing is certain; there is no
lack of diversity among Christians!
I’d like to begin today’s
study by presenting a number of statements
(assertions) about the 144,000 and then, we will
examine the details. I would like to present
these conclusions first so that you can see what
the Bible actually says a lot about the identity
and mission of the 144,000.
1. The number,
144,000, is a literal number. It is literalbecause
there is no such thing as a symbolic number
in the Bible. The Bible says that 12,000 people
will be selected from the 12 tribes of Israel. If
the twelve tribes are literal, so is the number,
144,000. Yes, John saw a numberless group of
people taken to Heaven, but the 144,000 are not
part of the numberless group.
2. Before the
commencement of the Great Tribulation, Jesus will
thoroughly test and select 144,000 people from
all over the world to be His prophets. These
prophets will speak for Jesus during the Great
Tribulation.
3. 144,000
prophets will be selected from every language,
religion, culture and nation. That’s right,
under the New Covenant, the 12 tribes of Israel
are determined by the condition of their hearts
instead of genealogy, religion or race. Because
Jesus can read hearts, He will handpick 144,000 faith-ful-honest-hearted
people from every walk of life to speak for Him
during the Great Tribulation. At the present
time, most of the people who make up the 144,000 are
not Christian. However this will change. The
144,000 will become immediate followers of Jesus
just like Saul the Jew became Paul the
Apostle of Jesus Christ after meeting Jesus
on the road to Damascus.
The 144,000 will be given
words from Jesus to speak just like Ezekiel was
given words to speak. (Ezekiel 3; Revelation 10)
This means the testimony of the 144,000 will be “the
testimony of Jesus.” The 144,000 will be
given boldness and holy courage to fearlessly
deliver an unvarnished and antagonizing testimony
to their fellow brothers and sisters.”
They will not speak on their
own. They will speak with clarity and the
penetrating power of the Holy Spirit as did John
the Baptist. They will speak the truth in the
plainest of terms and they will suffer painful
consequences.
4. By suddenly
transforming 144,000 faith-ful-honest-hearted people
from every religion into followers of Jesus,
Jesus will have “converted brothers and
sisters” speaking to their fellow “brothers
and sisters.” This simple arrangement will
help to overcome the world’s greatest
problem: Religious arrogance. Consider this:
By choosing 144,000 people
out of every religion, tribe, language and nation
Jesus will be able to save the largest number of
people during the Great Tribulation because each
ethnic group of people will hear one of their own
speaking the words of Jesus… And those
within every culture, race and religion who love
truth will receive the words of Jesus and take
their stand with the 144,000!
The 144,000 will not be
soliciting money nor given to display and
theatrics. They will not be attended by a
20-piece band. They will not act pompous nor
“showboat.” Rather, they will
humbly speak “the testimony of Jesus.”
They will forcibly present the terms and
conditions for salvation as Jesus speaks through
them.
Because of the fear and
turmoil at that time, most of the Earth will be
inclined, at first, to listen to the 144,000
because of the horrible manifestations of God’s
wrath. I believe the 144,000 will predict in
advance, the timing and nature of each of God’s
coming judgments. As these events occur on time,
the 144,000 will gain credibility and it will
become clear to honest-hearted people that the
144,000 are speaking for Jesus.
Furthermore, the 144,000
will be able to perform miracles at will. This,
too, will give them credibility. As I said, the
144,000 will present the gospel of Jesus Christ.
They will address the religious errors and
practices of their fellow brothers and sisters.
Of course, this will anger a lot of people.
But, by using converted
brothers to speak for fellow brothers, Jesus will
be able to get around some of the religious
prejudices that presently thwart the advancement
of His gospel. Furthermore, this method of using
brothers to speak to brothers allows the honest
in heart within all religions to thoughtfully
consider the will of God from within their
religious paradigms.
(In
other words, a Moslem will not listen to a Jew
nor will he have to become a Jew in order to be
saved. A Protestant will not have to listen to a
Moslem nor will he have to become a Moslem to be
saved.) Very clever of God.
5.
According to Joel 2, the 144,000 will be both men
and women. The book of Revelation also says they
will not be ‘defiled by women.” This
phrase is often misinterpreted. The idea of not
being defiled by women comes from Ezra 9 & 10
where the Levites defiled themselves by
marrying foreign women during the Babylonian
Captivity. When the Jews returned to their
homeland after the captivity, this compromise was
discovered. In order to serve the Lord in His
temple, the Levites were put to a difficult
choice: they either had to divorce their wives
and leave their children or forfeit the
priesthood.
God
had forbidden the Israelites from marrying
foreign women because God knew foreign women
would defile the nation. (Solomon is a good
example of what foreign women can do to a king
and to a nation.) The point here is that
144,000 will not be distracted from their
calling. They will not be held back by marriage
or familial relationships. The 144,000 will
belong first to Jesus and they will not allow human
relationships even their marriages to interfere
with their calling and mission. (More about
this later on.)
6.
For the most part, the 144,000 will be lowly
people humble people, not highly educated –
very ordinary people – upon whom the
extraordinary power and authority of the Holy
Spirit will rest. By temperament and disposition,
these men and women will range from timid to
aggressive. Intellectually, they will range from
simple to profound. Age wise, they will range
from young to old.
7.
Few, if any, of the 144,000 will know each other,
yet they will all say and do the same things.
8.
Most, if not all of the 144,000 will die as
martyrs during the Great Tribulation.
9.
Problem: Because the 144,000 are
scattered and diverse, because the 144,000 will
be ordinary people, because the 144,000 will not
be recognized by the world as prophets of God, a
big problem will arise. (Incidentally, the same
thing happened to Paul.) So, how will people be
able to tell whether the 144,000 speak for God or
whether they are demon possessed? (Remember, the Pharisees
though John the Baptist and Jesus were demon
possessed. Luke 7:33, John 7:20)
So,
how does Jesus prove to a diverse human race that
the 144,000 are His prophets, speaking His Words?
Two infallible witnesses will confirm the
authenticity of the 144,000: The Bible will back
up everything they teach. Even more, they will
speak with usual authority and the Holy Spirit
will give their words incredible weight –
piercing the heart and convicting those who hear
them with overwhelming guilt. (John 16:8) These
two witnesses, the Bible and the Holy Spirit,
will validate the message and the messengers of
Jesus.
10.
As firstfruits of the end-time harvest, the
144,000 will be sealed first. They will be first
to have their carnal natures removes. After they
are sealed, they will have no predisposition or
proclivity for sin as human beings currently do.
After they are sealed, the 144,000 will be Adam
and Eve before their fall. The 144,000
will be living examples of God’s covenant
promise to deliver us from the power and penalty
of sin. In other words, the gospel message
presented by the 144,000 includes God’s
covenant promise to set us free from the power of
sin.
The
wonderful thing about this is that after a person
is sealed, he will not be tempted to sin as we
now are. (Incidentally, the sealing explains how
sinners will be able to live on Earth after mercy
ends without sinning.)
11.
The 144,000 will accomplish in a mere 1,260 days
more than all Christian missionaries combined
have been able to accomplish in the past 2,000
years. Did you know that the population of the
world is nearing 7 billion? Did you know that the
total number of people claiming to be Christian
is only 27% of the world’s population? Did
you know that 50% of the world’s population
is under the age of 25? Did you know that 4
billion people live on less than $ 3 dollars a
day?
Did
you know that according to the American Bible
society, 3.5 billion people have never heard of
the name of Jesus and this number is currently
increasing by 78 million people per year? When
you ponder these statistics, one thing becomes
very clear: Unless the Lord Himself carries out
the gospel commission, the end of the world won’t
happen for two thousand more years!
Jesus
said:
Matthew
24:14 “And this gospel of the
kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a
testimony to all nations, and then the end will
come.”
12.
The 144,000 will not be self-appointed. In other
words, a person cannot volunteer for the job. In
fact, if it were not for Jesus appearing before
them and empowering them to do what he wants
done, they would not choose the job nor the
responsibility of being a prophet during the
Great Tribulation. The Bible reveals that the
life span of God’s prophets is usually short
and very painful.
13.
The 144,000 will be taken to Heaven on the 1,265th
day of the Great Tribulation (a Sunday?). They
will be presented to God as first fruits (a
sample) of the coming harvest of “sealed
souls.” The 144,000 will return to Earth
with Jesus at the Second Coming. The wicked who
put them to death will see them coming with
Jesus! But, millions will be redeemed through the
faithfulness, sacrifices and suffering of the
144,000.
14.
Why did God limit the number of prophets from the
12 tribes to 144,000 in the first place? What is
the significance of 12,000 being selected from
each of the 12 tribes? There’s an important
object lesson in this matter. It parallels “Gideon’s
army.” When God delivered Israel out of
Egypt, He wanted to make the nation of Israel a
nation of priests and kings.
God
wanted the nation of Israel to be a light unto
salvation for the Gentiles. So, God chose the
biological descendants of Abraham to be a nation
of priests and kings because He wanted a nation
of “faith-full Abraham look-alikes” to
serve as trustees of His gospel.
Originally,
under the Old Covenant or “Plan A” as I
call it, it was planned that Jesus would come to
Earth and die for our sins. THEN, Jesus would set
up His eternal kingdom on Earth. (Instead of
returning to Heaven.)
Later
on, when the time was right, it was also planned
that Jesus would purge the faithless in Israel
out of His kingdom. After this purge, Jesus would
then send out a pure nation of Israel (12 tribes)
into the world to invite everyone to come to the
city of Jerusalem and be saved from the great
destruction that was about to befall Earth. (We
covered this topic at length in our study on the
book of Ezekiel.)
This
scenario is just like the message in Noah’s
day. “If you want to live, come and get in
the ark.” In other words, everyone in the
world was to be invited to come and participate
in salvation because the time for the destruction
of sin had sinners had come.
And,
as you well know, “Plan A” was not
implanted because of Israel’s rebellion,
therefore, God established a New Covenant (which
I call “Plan B.”) God modified the
final gathering of the honest-in-heart in “Plan
B.” The result is that at the
appointed time, Jesus will send a measly 12,000
people from each of the 12 tribes throughout the
world with a message that will separate the sheep
form the goats in all religions. 144,000 servants
represent 1 prophet to approx 50,000 people.
So,
under Plan B….
a.
Everyone will hear the gospel invitation. Instead
of traveling to Jerusalem to get inside the city
(as in Plan A), people will be invited to enter
into God’s rest on His holy day. Of course,
the price in terms of persecution for doing so
will be great.
b.
Everyone will have to make a decision for or
against the demands of God on how He wants to be
worshiped. (You know about the fourth
commandment.)
c.
Everyone will be tested with persecution to see
what his decision really is.
d.
Then, those who take hold of God’s offer
through faith will be given the seal of God.
Eventually,
all who refuse to enter into God’s rest will
be forced to take the mark of the beast. Thus,
the sheep will be separated from the goats –
all over the world! After this separation has
been completed (and other matters resolved), all
the sheep will be gathered up into the air and
taken to the Holy City at the time of the Second
Coming.
The
point here is that under Plan B (the New
Covenant), Jesus accomplishes the separation of
the sheep from the goats in every corner
of the world using a tiny fraction of the army
that He would have used under Plan A! It’s a
Gideon’s army parallel…. And we
all know that Gideon didn’t get the glory
for that victory, the Lord did!
The harvest
“Not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty!”
The bad news for organized
religion is that God is going to “leapfrog”
all Christian organizations by doing something
very simple. He will choose people from every
religion to be His prophets – His
spokespersons for the end-time.
The simple plan of converted
brothers and sisters will help to deflect man’s
inherent religious arrogance and ignorance (both
of which are so great that they cannot be
measured). For example, what would be the
possibility of a devout Christian listening to
the gospel of a devout Moslem? And the reverse
is also true!
A devout Moslem cannot listen
to a devout Christian and vise versa.
So, God shows His love and
generosity to all of us. He addresses the
diversity of mankind by converting faith-full-honest-hearted
people within all religions and they will speak
to their own people for 1,260 days. How cool is
this?
When the dust finally
settles after 1,260 days, the harvest resulting
from the work of the 144,000 will be a numberless
multitude that comes from every nation, kindred,
tongue and people. God will be able to save the
maximum number of people this way!
What a merciful God! What a
God of love! Jesus will choose the humblest of
people as instruments of His glory to save a
world full of faith-full-honest-hearted sinners!
“Thank you, Jesus.”
Now that you have heard a
summery statement of my understanding on the
144,000, let’s look at some details to see
how these conclusions were reached.
Timing
4th Seal
Jubilee Calendar Ends - /
Today / --1,260------
70 Jubilee
cycles-------/------------------------------x--/-------------------
1994
WAIT!!
Earthquake
Full cup
Angels given seven
trumpets in 1994:
Revelation
8:2 And I saw the seven angels who
stand before God, and to them were given seven
trumpets.
WAIT!!
Revelation
7:3 “Do not harm the Earth until
the seal of God is put on the 144,000 servants.
These four angels have
been waiting since 1994 to hear the following
words: Revelation 10:6 … “There is no
more delay!
When the appointed time
arrives, the 4th seal will be broken
open and the punitive judgments of God will
begin. There will be a global earthquake.
This earthquake will break
up the world into small physical cells (thus
eliminating travel), and in each cell, there will
be a prophet of God. (1/50,000) The
infrastructures of Earth will be badly damaged
(transportation, communication, commerce,
banking, economy, etc.) There will be panic and
anxiety everywhere. The 144,000 will begin to
speak….
They will speak and the
world will hear the words of Jesus, “the
testimony of Jesus” through them. They will
predict the time and places of the first trumpet
judgment. Etc. They will present four messages
that we will discuss later on…..
Before
we close, I would like to show you an overview of
the relationships that exist between the first
four prophecies (P1, P2, P3, P4) in Revelation:
Four
Many
Second
Seals P1:
1798 1800 1844
Judgments Martyrs
Coming
/--------/--------/---------------x-----/-------------/----------------/
1
2 3
Today 4
5
6
144,000 P2
/x-----------------------------/----/
Trumpets
P3:
/---------------------/
1234 5
6
Two
Witnesses P4:
/---- 1,260 Days----/
7th
Trumpet
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