Tribulation and White Robes

TEXT: Revelation 7:14
I 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.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Tribulation. It means to press down upon, to squash, to afflict, to oppress, to constrict, to distress, or to suffer.

Tribulation is that which goes on in a fallen, sin-sick world. Tribulation is vicious. It’s nasty. It’s real and it loves Christians.

Tribulation is the motto of the devil. Tribulation is the purpose of the demons. And you are the object of tribulation. It’s you… it’s the Christian that the devil especially wants to squash and afflict and oppress.

Look around you… you know tribulation. Tribulation is starving kids in Africa and obese kids in America. Tribulation is the abortion of unborn children. Tribulation is women pastors who serve in God's stead without His command. Tribulation is preachers who falsely tell you how to live a good enough life to get to heaven. Tribulation is feel good Chrsitianity that fools you into believing that Jesus is some happy clappy God promises you a life without tribulation. Tribulation is religious leaders who wrongly teach that homosexuality is intended by God as another gender.

Tribulation is the bully at school. Tribulation is parents who divorce. Tribulation is the son or daughter who’s disobedient. Tribulation is pre-confirmation students who could care less about the things of God.

Tribulation is the war in Iraq and rumors of war in Iran. Tribulation is hurricane Ike and forest fires in California. Tribulation is teenagers who die in car accidents.

Tribulation… it’s the result of sin… it’s the result of the devil… it’s the result of your own sinful flesh.

But after all of this tribulation, there is the Great Tribulation still to come. That Day will be marked by a great earthquake. The sun will not shine, the moon will appear as blood, the stars in the sky will shoot in all directions. The sky will roll up. On that Day even the Bill Gateses, the General Petraeuses and the President Bushes of this world will cry out to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?

Who can stand? Who can bear the tribulation of the end times? Who can stand the Great Tribulation of the Final Coming of the Lamb of God?

You can. You who have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb… that’s who can stand. In other words, it’s you who have been baptized… you who “have been clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covers all your sins. So shall you stand without fear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the inheritance prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (LSB Agenda 9)

You who have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb will stand through the Great Tribulation. Only you with your Jesus’ robe… your Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world robe… The robe that is dripping wet with the holy precious crucified blood of Jesus. You will stand because you have been baptized.

In baptism you drowned the Old Adam and you put on Christ. In Baptism, the bloody Jesus robe of righteousness you received as a gift is a status symbol… it declares you to be a child of God, even today. The Father has put his seal on you. The sign of the cross is upon your forehead and upon your heart. You are baptized, therefore you are redeemed!

In baptism, you wear the heavenly robe, the everlasting robe, the holy robe that will never wear out. Your baptismal robe glistens white even as the angel’s did at Jesus’ resurrection. Your robe is the clothing of “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.”

Your blood-soaked Lamb of God robe means that you have died with Jesus and you have been raised to newness of life. You have been clothed with the imperishable… “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where O Death is your victory? Where O Death is your sting?”

Who can stand these days of tribulation and the Great Tribulation to come? You can. You who have washed your robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.

In the Name of Jesus.