Crowds

"After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation 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 worshiped God, saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever Amen." Revelation 7:9-12

A couple weeks ago, Dr. Gary Ott, who is without a doubt the smartest, most accomplished person I know, was giving a report at church of his recent trip to east Russia. He had gone to visit Rod and Margi Powell and brought back a report of the work there. That region is particularly interesting because of the sheer number of people groups residing in a small area - most of them unreached. If you ever have an opportunity to hear Rod speak, you'll hear him talk about the prophecy in Revelation 7:9 that someone from every single people group on Earth will bow before Jesus. You will also hear of the large number of people groups which have never heard the Gospel. It is at this intersection where they serve so faithfully in an increasingly unstable part of the world.

I always love hearing Rod (and in this case Dr. Ott) talk about this because it's such an amazingly powerful promise. And it's always coupled with a story of someone he recently saw experience God and His Word for the first time - and being the first person ever of that ethnicity to do so. Such an awesome privilege! And while I don't want to diminish the importance of the prophecy that people from every people group will be present in Heaven, something else amazed me this time.

Read the first half of verse 9 again. "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues" It isn't just that we see representatives from every single people group before the throne, we see a "great multitude which no one could count." Stop. Think about that.

What's the largest crowd you can imagine? Personally, the largest crowd I've been in front of is about 25,000 at Creation. At one of the Luis Palau festivals, I've been in a crowd with 80,000 other people. My favorite concert DVD, U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle features a crowd of 160,000 people. According to Guinness, the largest turnout I could find was the 10 million people who show up to watch the Tour de France over its three week run. That's a lot of people.

I did a quick Bible search looking for the largest crowd recorded. In the Old Testament, 1 Chronicles 21:5 gives us the 1.1 million men of Israel who were battle ready. In the New Testament, Revelation 9:16 speaks of the armies of the horsemen as being 200 million strong. Revelation 5:11 speaks of a throng of angles numbering "thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand." If you're keeping score, that's several hundred million. What do all those crowds have in common? They were all numbered. But back in Revelation 7:9, we're given a glimpse at a crowd so much larger than any of these that it can't even be counted. We're told in verse 14 that these are the souls who have come out of the Great Tribulation - not even all of those who are present in Heaven.

So what does this mean? Be encouraged. I know the feeling of spending time sharing with people, only to see very little response. It's frustrating and demotivating. Some people go an entire lifetime without ever seeing a single person come to Christ as a direct result of their ministry. That does not mean that God is not working. Quite the contrary. We have a very clear promise that God in His grace is saving people from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue. And if that wasn't enough, the crowd of our brothers and sisters in Heaven will be so great that they cannot even be numbered.