Revelation 6 and 7 are connected by question and answer. The question: Who can stand in this world of evil? The answer? Followers of Jesus are the only ones who can stand! How so?

The first step, we NEVER forget who we belong to. John talks about followers of Jesus having the seal of God – the mark of lamb - on their foreheads (Rev 7:3-4) A seal “designates ownership” and the idea of “protection” here. In Jewish thought, your forehead was the "seat of perception.” Where your forehead is pointed your eyes, your focus. The thing that gets our greatest attention will determine the direction of our lives. With our gaze on Jesus, the one we belong to, here are 3 BIG paths Jesus calls us to embrace to stand against evil from Revelation 7...

BE UNIFIED (Rev 7:9) – The worship scene in heaven consists of both Jew and Gentile, from every nation, tribe, tongue, etc. unified together. Do we want our world to solely consist of people made in our image, or are we open to a world where everyone is made in God's image? t's so easy to build barriers between ourselves and other people who don’t vote like us, look like us, think like us, live like us, or believe like us. Friends, if we think one day when we get to heaven, everyone worshipping will look like us, we will be sadly mistaken. At the cross, we are compelled to stop canceling others and begin to connect with others who are not like us, because everybody is somebody to Jesus.

WORSHIP BOLDLY (Rev 7:10) - The scene of heaven reveals to us a crew singing loudly to the one who is their salvation NOW and FOREVERMORE. Christians stand in the midst of evil because they a people who ROAR where their RESCUE is found.

SUFFER WELL (Rev 7:15-17) – We are told that Jesus is our shepherd leading us to springs of life-giving water and wiping every tear from our eyes. v.17) In John 10, we are told Jesus is also the gate for his sheep. There was a kind of sheep pen in the ancient near east used in the countryside, where a rough circle of rocks piled into a wall with a small open space to enter. Since there was no gate to close—just an opening—the shepherd protects the sheep from wild animals by lying across the opening. He would sleep there, in the most literal sense becoming the door, the gate, for the sheep. I wonder today if in our suffering, have we asked Jesus to stand at the gate, and protect us from the things that are or in process of killing us inside. Let him be the Good Shepherd at the gate of your life!

Who can stand in this world of evil? Followers of Jesus are the only ones who can stand. And they stand when they are unified together, worship boldly, and choose to suffer well by letting Jesus, the great shepherd protect them.