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GALACTIC NEWS FROM THREE ANGELS #12

CRYING IN THE CHAPEL

In his book, The Crisis of the End Time, my friend Marvin Moore tells a story that happened to him — oh, about 37 years ago now. He was attending a Christian youth rally . . . and this had to be about 37 years ago, because he’s less of a youth today than I am, and I’m well into my 50s. But he has a vivid memory of that meeting, and of who was leading the singing. It happened to be our very own John Thurber, who used to be in our Voice of Prophecy quartet.

Anyway, John asked the congregation to stand and sing with him the great classic song by John Lowry, “Shall We Gather at the River.” And as Marvin began to sing with all the other believers, he just got a picture in his head of someday being in heaven, maybe standing there on the banks of the River of Life. With good friends there, sharing and talking about how incredible the New Jerusalem was.

But one more variable kind of injected itself. Because Marvin had been going through a rather tough time just then. Some personal trials. And all at once, as he sang with the others, “Shall We Gather at the River,” the desire to be in heaven was just huge. Huge! He wanted to be there so bad. And without realizing it, all of a sudden he was crying. Tears coming down his cheeks. And a friend of his noticed and came over, and without saying a word just put an arm around Marvin; somehow they got through that song together.

Well . . . 37 years. And he still remembers singing that song. And listen to what he writes in his book about that memory:

“I needed that. I needed his hug, and I needed to think about heaven that morning and weep.” And then he adds this very personal testimony: “That was holy joy.”

It was holy joy, he suggests, because it was WORSHIP. Him connecting up with God, with the King of the universe — in the proper relationship: Creature . . . and Creator. A man . . . and the Maker of that man. Just Marvin and God: “Shall we gather at the river?”

On the very same page he tells another story on himself, this one more recent. He and his wife were visiting a college church in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was a big, full church, and so they had two services. He and his wife went to the early church service, and just enjoyed beyond words the experience of singing and hearing the huge pipe organ. They did an opening hymn that lifted God up for His love and majesty.

“I love to sing those hymns,” Marvin writes, “because they transport me to the heavenly sanctuary. I get a picture in my mind of God on His throne and millions of the redeemed standing before Him with all the holy angels. I imagine that I’m among them, my arms uplifted, praising God and Jesus Christ.”

Well, on this particular Sabbath morning, the same thing happened. That organ was just taking him right up to heaven; the words were so meaningful. And all at once, he couldn’t go on. The tears of joy were there, and he couldn’t sing. After a line or two, he tried again . . . and just couldn’t do it. He was so caught up in worship that he choked up; he had to stop and simply revel in the joy of the Lord, the tears.

“I imagined that I was listening to the angels, the 144,000, and the vast multitude from every nation, tribe, and language praising God before His throne.” And then those same four words again: “That was holy joy.”

That was such a moving worship experience, he confesses, that when it came time for the second service, he said to his wife, “Honey, you go on home to Mom and Dad’s place if you want to, but I’m going to stay for the second service.” And then his P.S.: I just had to worship God again.

Well, friend, I guess a lot of us could tell stories like Marvin’s. “Amazing Grace,” maybe. Some of us just cannot get through that song. Forget it. Have you heard it done by the bagpipes? It blows you away. I don’t know why, but God and worship are just in that song.

Or “The Hallelujah Chorus.” Or “I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy.” I’m sure you must have a title too — a song title that brings the tears and holy joy.

But I want to take you back to something Marvin said right in the middle of his story. He imagined being up in heaven, and singing with the angels . . . and with the “144,000.” In fact, that’s the title of this chapter: “The Spiritual Experience of the 144,000.” And maybe you’ve noticed that mysterious number in the book of Revelation, which comes here in chapter fourteen verse one, right after the end of chapter 13 and another mysterious number: the dreaded “666" of the Antichrist.

Well, friend, both of these numbers are outside the scope of our target seven verses in the middle of Revelation chapter 14, and we’re having enough difficulty staying on track without detouring over to these additional mysteries. But I do want to think with you about the topic of worship, and the experience God’s people are going to have here in these last days of earth’s history.

Listen as I read the first few verses of chapter 14, and I’m going to share it from the wonderful paraphrase, The Living Bible.

“Then I saw a Lamb,” John writes. That would be Jesus, of course. “. . . Standing on Mount Zion in Jerusalem, and with Him were 144,000 who had His Name and His Father’s Name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven like the roaring of a great waterfall or the rolling of mighty thunder. It was the singing of a choir accompanied by harps. This tremendous choir — 144,000 strong — sang a wonderful new song in front of the throne of God and before the four Living Beings and the twenty-four Elders; and no one could sing this song except those 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. For they are spiritually undefiled, pure as virgins, following the Lamb wherever He goes.”

Isn’t that an incredible word picture? Now friend, I have to confess: I don’t know all the details about who will make up the 144,000. Christians debate that, probably even more than they do the details about the “Three Angels’ Messages” we are trying to study in the next verses. But there are some things we do know about these people.

First of all, they have Jesus’ name, and God’s name, written on their foreheads. Maybe just figuratively speaking; we don’t know. But what a wonderful thought: to be a person who has God’s name, and our Redeemer Jesus’ name, right there on our foreheads, in our minds. We love to think about the goodness of God; we love to consider all that Jesus has done for us. So the 144,000 will have those kinds of thoughts.

Secondly, we see that these people not only think about Jesus and what He means to them. They follow Him! The original King James puts this on their resumé:

“These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.”

We’re going to find as we continue our study that obedience to Jesus is at the very heart of the Three Angels’ Messages. Loyalty. Faithfulness. Obedience.

But then this third, crucial point. These people — this saved bunch of sinners from the one rebellious, lost world – “redeemed from the earth,” it says — love to worship. Friend, mark that down and underline it a hundred times and then put your Bible and church hymnal next to it. The people of God in the last days will be people who love to worship God. They love to sing. They love to look up at heaven with tears in their eyes and think about God on His throne. They love the words to the new song by Jack Hayford: “Majesty! Worship His majesty!” They love to pray. They love to be in church. They love to arrive, and they hate to leave.
In his book, The Crisis of the End Time, after telling his two stories, Marvin makes this biblical observation:

“The 144,000 will be above all else a worshiping community!” And then he adds: “I believe that those who proclaim the Three Angels’ Messages” — which we’re studying right here — “in earth’s darkest hour will be a community of people who praise God in glorious, rapturous, joyful worship. And . . . until we learn to really worship, we won’t really proclaim the message.”

What do you think of that? And in our last one minute here, let’s return to the message being proclaimed by that first angel in verse seven, which, we’ve discovered, is really US. It’s us who proclaim. But here’s the message again:

“Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment has come. And worship Him who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

So right here in this last great trilogy of announcements, or warnings, or invitations, is a call to worship. Worship God because He’s the Creator. Worship Him because judgment is coming. But most of all, worship Him because you love Him, because the name of His Son — and His name too — are written in your forehead, fixed in your mind and sealed in your heart.