Once a year we have this very special service and it is one of my personal favorites. We don’t think about heaven enough, but we need to realize that the Lord has included so much about the glory we have to look forward to for a reason. He knows — our Lord really knows more than we realize — the tribulation we go through. In the vision in Revelation 7, the tribulation referred to is the “great tribulation.” Popular explanations of this great tribulation focus on the modern-end-times teachings referring to the very last generation before the coming of Christ…that “little season” of Satan’s release and an elaborate scheme of natural catastrophes coupled by the political persecution that Anti-Christ will rage (just think of LaHaye’s Left Behind series). We — in our Lutheran Church and confession — respectfully disagree with this interpretation.

The “great tribulation” is personalized to each of us living in this world confronted by Satan, anti-God worldly pressures, and our own sinful nature…these cause pain and distress; they cause tribulation…and the sum total of it through your life is your great tribulation. But we will come out of it. We will and we encounter a vision of your coming out of it — with all the other saints — in Revelation 7. Again, the vision is there for a reason. It is meant to encourage you dear Christian as you go through your great tribulation. We will teach on this and we will proclaim the great release promised you in Christ (through His victory for you).

Just some important reminders:

I look forward to seeing you in God’s house tomorrow!

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow’s sermon:

“The Ones Coming Out of the Great Tribulation”

(Revelation 7:13-14)

Rev. Dr. Alfonso O. Espinosa

The text: “Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, ‘Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? ¹⁴I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. There is a basic pattern in life that repeats itself over and over again. The pattern is represented in the Greek word from Revelation 7:14 thlipsis which is variously translated as “trial,” “affliction,” “distress,” and perhaps the most popular way of translating it especially here in Revelation: “tribulation”. The basic life pattern is that we are permitted by God in His mercy to go through tribulation and then – and most importantly – we are allowed to “come out of it.” Revelation 7:14 is a glorious description of all the saints, all of the Christians, what is called “the church triumphant,” all of you in glory with all other Christians throughout the ages finally released from all trial, from all affliction, from all distress, and from all tribulation. The picture is one of finally having arrived from this time of conflict and the end result is glory.

 

We see mini-versions of this even on this side of heaven. Some men and women enter the military and the first test is to make it through boot-camp. Boot-camp is grueling, but if one is strong enough to make it through, then there is – literally – a graduation and it is evident that the one who has completed the course is stronger and more vital than ever before. The soldier has passed this first major tribulation. When I minister to some of you who have gone through various surgeries: the process is like a tribulation. There is a period of anxiety working up to the surgery, then the surgery itself, then the time of healing. When it passes in success, you have a sense of release from the tribulation. If you are in college pursuing your bachelor’s degree, or master’s, or doctorate, the work in the midst of trying to finish is your tribulation, then graduation finally comes and you “come out of it,” you experience a release. If you are pregnant and you deal with the discomfort, and sometimes dietary restrictions, then the labor and the pain – this is the tribulation – then the release comes when you “come out of it.” When you are in a storm and you think you might die (you are in a tribulation of fear and anxiety), then there is calm when you come out of it, this is being released from tribulation; when you are unemployed and the strain of trying to make ends meet (this is a tribulation), then you find a new job and things are much better, you are released from the tribulation, you come out of it. Sometimes you are in the middle of a strained or rupturing relationship, you can be hurt, feel betrayed, feel broken-hearted, this is a tribulation, then God intervenes to give you hope, when that hope leads to healing and the Lord fills your needs you are released from your tribulation and you come out of it. When you are sick that too is a tribulation and you look forward to the day of release, when you will not have to deal with that chronic condition anymore, when it will be gone, wiped away, you come out of tribulation.

 

What John saw in his vision in Revelation were all the Christians who had ever lived coming out of all of their tribulations combined. And the sum total of all tribulations combined is what Revelation 7:14 calls the “great tribulation.” Some want to say that this adjective “great” can only point to the very end time when Satan is released for a “little while” just before Jesus comes again in glory (Revelation 20:2 and 20:7), but this will not hold. First of all, Revelation itself does not refer to the very end that way. Furthermore, Jesus referred to the A.D. 70 destruction of Jerusalem as a “great tribulation” in Matthew 24:21. The point is this: “since every Christian experiences testings of faith and witness…[that] becomes at that moment in time existentially a great tribulation for that believer. The picture of eternal glory of Rev. 7:14 is for the comfort of all Christians of all times as they experience whatever tribulations sorely test their faith and patience…For that Christian at that moment, his sufferings and trials are his great tribulation. And every Christian will experience tribulation (Brighton, Louis A., Concordia Commentary: Revelation, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1999, 196f).”

 

In Your Service and To Christ’s Glory,

 

Dr. Espinosa