Transcript

Prohibition was a dark period of American history. Gangsters ruled cities across the country, most notably Chicago, where the infamous Al Capone had set up operations.

On January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, making it illegal to produce, import, export, transport, or sell alcoholic beverages.

Federal, state, and local authorities were charged with enforcing this new law, with very little success, as underground “speakeasies” sprang up across the city.

They were supplied by a network of illegal stills and breweries, many of which were controlled by Capone. He also set up an elaborate system to smuggle large quantities of alcohol into the United States from Canada. As a result, liquor flowed freely in Chicago during the nearly 14 years that Prohibition was in effect.

To protect his enterprise, Al Capone used corruption schemes to prevent any major losses or stoppages to his operations. He did so by generously bribing federal agents, police officers, judges, politicians, and city leaders, who then looked the other way.

He used fear and threats to coerce cooperation, and those who refused to comply with Capone’s demands often found themselves looking down the barrel of a Thompson sub-machine gun. He used fear and threats to coerce cooperation from those who were in positions of authority.

The federal government, being fully aware of Capone’s racketeering, devised a plan to bring the gangster to justice. The Bureau of Investigation appointed Eliot Ness as the chief agent of a task force to arrest and convict Al Capone.

With so many federal and local law enforcement agents on Capone’s payroll, Ness set out to put together a list of agents who were upright and could be trusted—agents who could not be corrupted by organized crime.

Of the three hundred federal agents, Eliot Ness selected nine of them—plus himself—to accomplish the assignment. These men were above being corrupted by Capone, which earned them the title of “The Untouchables.” By 1932, they had put Al Capone behind bars and cleaned up the streets of Chicago. And in the end, good triumphed over evil!

During the Tribulation, there will be a group of people who will be “God’s Untouchables.”

The 144,000 will believe in the true Christ and will not be influenced by the satanic corruption of that day. They will faithfully bear the fearful persecution and threats of the Anti-Christ, and will endure to the end of the Tribulation.

Revelation 14:1 reads, “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.”

When we transition from Revelation Chapter 13 to Chapter 14, the scene shifts dramatically from the Antichrist, who claims to be the Messiah, to the Lamb of God, Who is the true Messiah.

It moves from evil and rebellion to a subsequent time of righteousness and peace, from the reign of terror of the Beast to the righteous reign of Christ, and from those who receive the mark of the Beast on their foreheads to the 144,000 who have the Father’s name written on their foreheads.

The content of chapter 14 is a parenthetical interlude. The scene we see does not take up the next events of the Tribulation in its chronological order, but rather it jumps ahead to the beginning of the millennial kingdom to explain something in light of chapter 13.

Things look bleak in chapter 13 after the rising of the beast to power, his assassination, his blasphemy of God and persecution of the saints, and the false prophet’s requirement for all to worship the image of the beast and to take his mark to buy and sell.

Therefore, the vision of the Lamb standing on Mount Zion is to give hope to the believing and beleaguered of that day. Because here John sees the ultimate triumph of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ, following His Second Coming.

Both Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are referred to as Zion in the Scriptures. And Zion was chosen by God to be His dwelling place on the earth.

As Psalm 132 states, “For the LORD hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (vv. 13,14).

In the middle of the Tribulation, Zion will be corrupted by the man of sin who will defile the Temple at that time, when he goes into the temple in Jerusalem and declares that he is the Messiah and God in the flesh, and also the false prophet will erect the image of the beast and place this idol in the temple.

But here in John’s vision, Christ is seen standing on Mount Zion after His Second Coming, showing that He has overcome the Anti-Christ, and triumphed over his kingdom of darkness and has begun His righteous, earthly reign on Mount Zion (Joel 2:32).

The Lamb is seen standing on Mount Zion and with Him are one hundred and forty-four thousand followers, all of whom were sealed on their foreheads.

These are mentioned because they stand in such stark contrast to the worshippers of the beast in chapter 13 who will willingly take his mark in their foreheads and sell themselves out to the idolatrous and cultic system of the beast and worshipping him as God.

But who are these 144,000? To answer that question, we must first look back to Revelation chapter 7.

Revelation 7:1-8 reads, “And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

“And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

“And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

“Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

“Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.

“Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.

“Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.”

We are currently living in an unprophesied program of God’s grace toward all nations. After the Church, the Body of Christ, is raptured and taken out of this world to heaven, God will return to His program with Israel and will fulfill all His promises to her.

In the Book of Revelation, Israel is the focus of this prophecy. You see that in identifying who the 144,000 is.

In Revelation 6, the chapter closes with a question, “For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (6:17). The answer is found in chapter 7.

And chapter 7 is a parenthesis, which gives an explanation of all those who will be saved during the coming Tribulation period, and it begins with the 144,000.

In verses 1-3, we read of four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. This is equivalent to the four points of the compass, north, south, east, and west.

These four angels are given power over the elements of nature. All the earth’s winds, from these four directions will be turned off by these angels. And an eerie and deathly stillness will then envelope the globe.

Another angel, “having the seal of the living God,” instructs the four angels not to unleash their judgments “till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”

First, we learn that this group of people will be “sealed…in their foreheads.” Second, that they will be “servants of our God.” Third, that their number will be 144,000. Fourth, that they will all be Jews “of all the tribes of the children of Israel.”

And fifth, that there will be 12,000 Jews from each of the tribes of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph, and Benjamin.

This group of 144,000 from the tribes of Israel will be converted after the Rapture of the Church very early on in the 7-year Tribulation through the ministry of the two witnesses.

The angel says that they will be “sealed…in their foreheads, and Revelation 14:1 says that the 144,000 will have the “Father’s name written in their foreheads.”

This seal of God, containing God’s name in some manner on their forehead, shows that having believed in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, they belong to God and not to the beast, and that they have the guarantee of God’s protection and security in the Tribulation.

You see an example of this security when the fifth trumpet sounds, and the bottomless pit opens releasing locusts which will torment men with a scorpion-like sting for 5 months.

The locusts are commanded to hurt “only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” Those with the seal of God will be protected by God from this torment.

The 144,000 will be supernaturally protected from the torments of the Tribulation, as well as from persecution of the Anti-Christ and Satan’s attempts to destroy them.

They will endure the hardships and survive the duration of the Tribulation and will enter the thousand-year earthly reign of Christ.

The seal of God will be counterfeited by Satan in the Tribulation. The Anti-Christ will require his followers to have the mark of the beast in their foreheads or their right hands.

Those who take his mark will mean that they belong to Anti-Christ, and will be under the Anti-Christ’s supposed protection.

But Revelation makes it clear that those who take the mark of the beast and belong to him will share in the beast’s fate: “he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone…And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever” (14:11).

The 144,000 are sealed for a specific purpose: to be “servants” of God, verse 3 states. And as they serve God, they will be godly witnesses and evangelists, calling people to repentance, water baptism, and faith in Jesus Christ as the true Messiah.

They will use the Gospel records to reach people with the gospel of the kingdom. The Gospels clearly identify Jesus Christ as God’s Son and Israel’s Messiah, and people will need to trust in Christ’s name and identity to be saved during the Tribulation.

As Matthew 24:14 states, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

And with the two witnesses, these 144,000 witnesses will proclaim the gospel of the kingdom until all nations. And as a result, John observes in verse 9: “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations.” By this, we see that they will have a very powerful evangelistic ministry.

A large company of those they will lead to Christ are seen as martyred saints in heaven serving before the throne of God in the rest of chapter 7.

But the fact that the 144,000 are not seen in heaven with all these other martyrs teaches how they will be preserved, kept safe, protected from death, and then in chapter 14 you find them standing triumphantly with the Lamb on Mount Zion in the Millennium.

The focus on the number 12 reminds us again how the Tribulation is the time of Jacob’s trouble, and that Israel is the focus during the events of Revelation. Twelve is the number for the nation Israel and is found throughout her program.

There are 12 sons of Jacob, 12 apostles, 12 thrones from which the 12 apostles will judge the 12 tribes of Israel. The New Jerusalem will have 12 foundations and 12 gates.

The 144,000 will be actual Jewish men from the line of Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph, and Benjamin.

The tribes of Dan and Ephraim are not mentioned from the original 12 tribes of Israel, with Levi taking the place of Dan and Joseph taking the place of Ephraim in the list.

Their omission may be due to these tribes being heavily involved in idolatry in their past.

Also, the Anti-Christ will be a Jew, and it is possible that he will come from the tribe of Dan because of Jacob’s prophecy regarding Dan and his descendants.

Genesis 49:17 reads, “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” Likened to a serpent as the tribe of Dan, the Anti-Christ will cause many to fall backward in Israel by his deception.

And another unique feature in the list is that Judah is listed first, rather than Reuben who was the firstborn of Jacob.

This likely has to do with the fact that the true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the descendant of Judah; He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

No one becomes part of the 144,000 today under grace. We become members of the Church, the Body of Christ, when we trust the gospel of grace by faith alone, that Christ died for our sins and rose again. And we have a heavenly hope and citizenship.

The 144,000 are physical descendants of Abraham. They are Jewish saints who will be saved during the early part of the Tribulation through the ministry of the two witnesses.

They will believe in Jesus Christ as the true Messiah, and they will be sealed on their foreheads, guaranteeing that they will be preserved alive during the Tribulation and will enter Christ’s earthly Millennial reign.

Revelation 14:2-3: “And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:

“And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.”

After Christ returns at His Second Coming and establishes His kingdom, He will stand in Jerusalem with this group of believers from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

The 144,000 are the same 144,000 mentioned in chapter 7. And as a testament to God’s sovereignty and faithfulness, they are seen with Christ in His kingdom in Mount Zion.

Observing this vision on the earth, John hears a song from “a voice from heaven.” The voice is described as “voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder.” And John also hears the voice of harpers harping with their harps.

The voice heard is described in majestic terms to portray heaven’s response to what John sees here with Christ in Mount Zion with the 144,000 after the conclusion of the Tribulation.

At first glance, it might appear to be the foice of God, because God’s voice is described in Revelation and in other Scriptures as the sound of many waters and of thunder. But the song is sung “before the throne of God” verse 3 states. And “they,” plural, sing it.

We get a clue later as to who John was hearing later at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Revelation 19:6 reads, “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, AND AS THE VOICE OF MANY WATERS, AND AS THE VOICE OF MIGHTY THUNDERINGS, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

The voice of a great multitude there sounded like many waters and thunder. I believe John was hearing a great multitude from heaven here as well. This voice of this great multitude in heaven was one voice, meaning they will be one in mind and heart in their praise.

By process of elimination, who is not singing is the four beasts, nor the 24 elders before the throne. And it is not the 144,000, because we are only told that they can learn the song.

The great multitude is likely the great multitude of Revelation 7. Revelation 7:9 reads, “After this I beheld, and, lo, A GREAT MULTITUDE, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, STOOD BEFORE THE THRONE, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.”

The heavenly choir singing “before the throne,” here is the martyred saints of the Tribulation, in contrast to the 144,000 who are on earth and will not suffer martyrdom.

Verse 3 states that they sang “a new song…and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.”

The song is that of victory after conflict with Satan, the beast, and the false prophet. It has never been sung before, for such a conflict had never been fought before; therefore, it will be new.

And it is a song only the 144,000 could learn and understand. They were the only ones who could truly appreciate what it expressed. Because both groups, the 144,000 and the martyred saints, will have experienced the severe trials of the Tribulation.

And both groups alone are worthy to enter into a song of redemption recounting God’s victory over their enemies in the Tribulation.

Like in chapter 7, the 144,000 on the earth are mentioned, and then the chapter takes you to heaven to the great multitude of martyrs. Likewise, here in chapter 14, the 144,000 are mentioned, and then the chapter takes you to heaven to the martyrs again.
And the martyrs sing a song “and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand.”

Only the 144,000, because of what they will have experienced throughout the Tribulation from beginning to end (having experienced God’s mighty deliverances and victory over the beast) can truly experience the reality and depth of the meaning of the song.

The 144,000 witnesses will have been stalked, harassed, betrayed, persecuted, falsely accused, and will see and experience the horrors of the Tribulation, the martyrs in heaven will have experienced the same.

And thus, only the redeemed from that period can fully understand each other and what they all went through and then sing a song of triumph about it in light of how much their hope of Christ’s kingdom of perfect peace and righteousness meant to them.

Revelation 14:4-5: “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.”

The 144,000 will all be unmarried, Jewish, virgin men. There is no reason not to take what John says here anything but literally. These ministers of the gospel of the kingdom will not have ever engaged in sexual relations with women.

The phrase “defiled with women” does not imply that sexual relations within marriage is evil, because it is not. Hebrews 13:4 teaches that “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled.”

In Matthew 19:12, our Lord taught, “For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”

What we are being taught here is that the 144,000 will choose to remain virgins so that they will be able to devote every fiber of their being to the Lamb for the kingdom of heaven’s sake.

The heavy burden and responsibility of their ministry during these 7 years will be demanding and urgent, and they will devote themselves fully to it and give everything they have to carrying out the great commission in that day.

As John says, “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” As the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7:32, “He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord.”

The whole group will be faithful to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, following Him in unquestioning obedience and single-minded devotion. They will follow the Lamb wherever He leads them throughout the Tribulation period, caring only how they may please Him. They will be unwaveringly loyal to Him, whatever the cost.

John also states of the 144,000, “These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”

The 144,000, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, will be the firstfruits of the two witnesses at the very beginning of the Tribulation.

Firstfruits refers to the first part of a crop to be gathered, implying a much larger harvest to come. And in the Tribulation, the 144,000 are instrumental in God’s plan in the harvest of souls during the tribulation, as after their conversion, many more will follow.

Firstfruits was also that which was offered to God as an expression of being totally separated and set apart to Him as an offering and a sacrifice to God. And by the 144,000 being called “firstfruits” this teaches us how they give their lives “unto God and to the Lamb” as a holy and pure offering.

Finally, the 144,000 are described in verse 5, “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” The term “guile” means deceit.

When Nathanael came to meet the Lord, John 1:47 states, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” (John 1:47). This is how the 144,000 will be as well.

These witnesses will speak the truth, accurately and precisely, in a time when deception will abound, as the Tribulation will be characterized by deceit, lies and lying wonders.

But these 144,000 will be men of truth. Their tongues belong completely to speaking God’s Word, the gospel of the kingdom and the truth of Christ and who He is.

In having no guile in their mouth, they will be like their Lord. 1 Peter 2:22 says of Christ, “neither was guile found in His mouth.”

They will be without deceit and “without fault before the throne of God.” Their lives and testimonies will be blameless and above reproach.

They will be without fault because they refused the mark of the beast, and they will not be corrupted by Satan, temptation, or the wickedness of that day.

The example of the 144,000 teach us many principles that are in line with our instructions under grace, such as being a living sacrifice, speaking the truth in love, being blameless, serving the living and true God, and holding forth the word of life.

As we live in such a way before the world today, we will be a compelling testimony for Christ and the gospel as the 144,000 will be in the future.

God’s most effective witnesses to this dark world are those who not only share the light of truth, but also “walk as children of light.”