Then, who are these 144,000 people?

Now, the verse 3-5 say, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads." And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand." There are God's 144,000 bond-servants who are sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

These 144,000 bond-servants of God is one of the most difficult parts to interpret in the Book of Revelation.

Those who have faith good enough to be caught up in the air are already in the 7 Year Wedding Banquet at the moment. But the bond-servants of God are appearing here again.

And it's not a small number. 12,000 each from the 12 tribes of Israel; there are total of 144,000 bond-servants of God. It's not something that people can understand in their common sense and knowledge.

That's why there are many conjectures and wrong explanations about it.

Some say 144,000 is the number of Israelis who are saved during the 7 Year Great Tribulation. Some others say that it is the number of those saved through martyrdom during the 7 Year Great Tribulation.

But with human knowledge, it can never be understood or interpreted.

You can understand it only when God interprets it, He who allowed the bible to be written in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Then, who are these 144,000 people?

To make a long story short, they are bond-servants who are assigned a special duty to accomplish God's providence of salvation during the 7 Year Great Tribulation.

To proclaim one more chance of salvation, and to accomplish the providence of Gleaning Salvation, these are the duties of the bond-servant in the days of despair when there seem to be no more hope for salvation.

Even among the souls who fall to the 7 Year Great Tribulation, there are people who haven't accepted the Lord, not because their hearts are hardened, but because they've never heard of the Lord, or nobody has told them who the Lord is.

For instance, there might be some people who were born in an environment where they have no way to hear about Jesus Christ.

If they live in a completely isolated place in an Islamic country where it's impossible to contact outside people, chances are that they've never heard of the gospel.

Among them are some people who have good hearts; they may accept the Lord as soon as they hear the gospel.

Or, some other people don't accept the Lord because, even though they heard about the Lord, no one explained why Jesus Christ is the only Savior.

Even though the period of human cultivation that God has set is over, since God is full of mercy and He wants to give one more chance of salvation to such people, He sets up 144,000 of evangelizers.

Just as a farmer values even an ear on the ground and gleans it, God wants to save just one more soul, and searches the earth again and again.

http://www.manmin.org/foreign/02_sermon/en/content.asp?id=692&cat=21&page=3