For some time, I have been working with an eclectic group of Christians from various denominations to create a new kind of ecumenical presence in Sydney.
It all came to fruition in an impressive launch event at the NSW Parliament on Friday 8 August, with NSW Labor Premier Chris Minns, Liberal Opposition Leader Mark Speakman, and leaders from more than 50 denominations and church agencies, all committing to work toward visible Christian unity in this great city.
It’s called the Christian Alliance Council of NSW, and its heart is “Bringing Christians together.” I’ve been asked to join the steering committee for the new movement. It’s different from the NSW Ecumenical Council, where I’m General Secretary, but it’s my hope that we will find ways to work together to achieve our common dream of greater Christian unity.
I mention this today because, when we were looking for a suitable Bible text to encapsulate the heart of the new movement, we considered John 17:20-21, and John 13:34-35, but we ended up settling on the first verse of today’s sermon text, which reads,
After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb (Rev 7:9a).
We want to bring that heavenly vision into the here and now, in Sydney. It’s not a bad vision for a church like North Rocks Community Church either! How could you not want to be part of such a vision?!
Notice those first words in verse 9: “After this I looked…” It all starts with 4:1, “After this I looked, and there in heaven was an open door.” “Then I saw…” (5:1, 6; 6:1, 9, 12); “After this I saw…” (7:1); “Then I saw” (7:2); “After this I looked” (7:9); “Then I saw” (8:2; 10:1). And on, and on.
There’s so much to see! A lot happens, and it’s conveyed to us in a kaleidoscope of visions and images, some of them strange and fantastic, some of them difficult to comprehend. Like biblical prophecy in general, reading and understanding apocalyptic literature requires patience and close attention. As Tom Wright points out, “Just when you think you are nearly at the top of the mountain, you crest a ridge and there … is another ridge half a mile ahead, steeper than the one you’ve just climbed.”[1]
We could profitably spend hours trying to piece together the puzzle that John presents here. Today, I simply want to reflect on v. 17: “For the Lamb who is at the centre of the throne will shepherd them; he will guide them to springs of the waters of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Here is the central message of the Book of Revelation, the “unveiling” of the Lamb: Jesus is the place where heaven and earth meet. Notice that “the Lamb” features in both verse 9 and verse 17. We first meet the Lamb in Revelation 5:5f, where John almost despairs of finding someone able to open the scroll, and then he sees “one like a slaughtered lamb standing in the midst of the throne,” and this startling and unfamiliar figure takes the scroll from the hand of the One seated on the throne.
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered,” sing the countless thousands of angels and others around the throne, “to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing!” (5:12).
From cover to cover, the Book of Revelation is all about Jesus. He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (see 1:8 and 17; and 21:5-8 and 22:13). Jesus shares God’s identity in relation to the world of time and space. He was active in the process of creating the universe, he sustains the universe, and he will bring all things to their final end.
Jesus is the place where heaven and earth meet.
But it is the Lamb’s victory on the cross that qualifies him to open the scroll in 5:6f. And the Lamb is also the Shepherd (7:17). Recall the words of Jesus in John 10:11: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (cf 1 Jn 3:16).
In 7:14-17, one of the elders who has been worshipping around the throne turns to John, and explains who all the white-robed people are. His words precisely echo the words of the Hebrew prophets, such as Isaiah 49:8-10, which speaks of “a time of favour,” a “day of salvation,” a time for freedom from prison, and light in the darkness, a place where God will feed his children as a shepherd cares for his sheep, and “they will not hunger or thirst, the scorching heat or sun will not strike them; for their compassionate one will guide them, and lead them to springs.”
Further, these white-robed saints (we are all saints in God’s kingdom) are martyrs: they have suffered for their faith in the Lamb; they have passed through the time of testing and are now with God. This is their destiny, their reward.
But John is not yet done with his startling imagery. In verse 10, the multitude standing and worshipping before the throne “cried out in a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
In verse 15, “the One seated on the throne” provides shelter (ultimate safety, security, bliss) for the redeemed multitude. And in verse 17, John observes that it is “the Lamb who is at the centre of the throne,” and this slaughtered Lamb has a special, wonderful, continuing task: “the Lamb who is at the centre of the throne will shepherd them; he will guide them to springs of the waters of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Why does the Lamb serve as a shepherd in the place of ultimate reality? Scripture consistently speaks of God as the great Shepherd of all the faithful (e.g., Ps 23:12). Scripture also speaks of God as Israel’s Shepherd (Ezk 34:13f – and this Shepherd is also the Davidic King who rules with God, Ezk 34:23f; cf Mic 5:4). In Hebrews 13:20, a verse often used as a benediction, speaks of the Lord Jesus as “the great Shepherd of the sheep.” See also 1 Peter 2:25. These are images of safety, rest, abundance, joy.
Jesus is the place where heaven and earth meet.
A renewed and transformed world is coming, a world in which God himself graciously and compassionately wipes away all our tears (cf Isa 25:8; Rev 21:4).
Now it may come as a surprise to you, but the Book of Revelation could end right here in 7:17. This is where the entire tapestry of biblical history has been moving. In chapters 8-22, John adds nothing new: he merely “goes on to recapitulate, clarify, and expand the cosmic conflict and final victory of the people of God.”[2]
If you turn to chapter 22, the last chapter in our Bibles, what do you find? Precisely the same theme. There’s a city, filled with redeemed and holy people. And at its centre is “the throne of God and of the Lamb” (22:3). There’s a “river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (22:1). Those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14b) will worship the Lamb (22:3).
And perhaps most astonishing, and most desirable of all, is this: “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads” (22:4). No more darkness, no more tears, no more death. No more feeling that God is distant, or mysterious, or silent. No more questions about ultimate reality. No more anxiety about being good enough, or doing enough, to be there among the redeemed around the throne of God.
“God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (7:17b).
Praise to the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (Jn 1:29), the Lord Jesus, the only place where heaven and earth meet. Give him your heart, your life. Worship King Jesus today.
Sermon 823 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday 24 August 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
References
[1] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone (London: SPCK, 2011), 69.
[2] Thomas R. Schreiner, Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023), 313.
Image source: healinjesus.com
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