Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Revelation of John, the 7th chapter:
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” …
“Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Thus far the text.
Dear saints in Christ,
Today being All Saints’ Day, our tendency is to make the focus here on the saints that John sees in his Revelation, these saints that come from every corner and nook of God's creation. And maybe that's right. But, this marvelous revelation, when John is given this grand vision of the Church from the beginning of time until the end, focuses us in past the saints and onto the workings of Christ throughout the Church and His world. While Christ is not the main actor in today's reading, He is the actor around which everything happens. The Lamb who was slain, the rider of the white horse with a two-edged sword coming from His mouth, the one who is worthy to open the seals, the defeater of the demons and the devil, the one who chases the great dragon down to kill it.
Christ is the focus of John’s Revelation. Of course the saints are there, those who have gone before us into the Church Triumphant, and us now in the Church Militant. We, too, belong in this Revelation. We, right now, are those who are numbered in the people of Israel. We are the Church on earth.
Those who have gone before in the blood of Jesus, and soon, we, too, are gathered around this throne, this innumerable throng worshipping the Lamb and His Father. This is what All Saints’ Day is really about. It’s about Christ, just as is every other day of the Church Year, just as every other day of our lives. Our lives revolve around Christ and His work for us.
Now, we can certainly talk of the saints, and we should. For these saints, those who have died in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, have given us cause to rejoice and celebrate their lives because of what our Savior has done for and to them. Jesus died for their sins, just He died for yours, He died to redeem them from the hand of the devil and the will of this world, and washes them clean in His blood. This is good news and the saints know it! They love it! And they wish for you to know and worship the Lord as they do!
The saints are continually lifting the Church up in their prayers. They do indeed intercede for the saints on earth, though not in the way that the Romans tend to think. They pray for you that you would stay steadfast in the one true faith unto everlasting life, the same everlasting life that they now enjoy and will continue to enjoy even through the Resurrection of the body in Christ’s second coming. They pray for our safety, our protection, for the Lord to hasten His second coming to lessen our suffering in this world by lessening the time we must spend in this sinful place with our sinful flesh. Indeed the saints are very busy in the heavenly throne room.
You see, the saints, those who have gone before, they worship as we do. They pray as we do. They commune as we do. When we sing our hymns, so too do they. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, so too do they. When we eat and drink of the Lord’s body and blood, they are feasting on the eternal banquet provided them in heaven. And they, like you, have come into the heavenly kingdom by the washing of regeneration that we receive in our baptisms in the blood of Christ.
The saints rejoice at every good thing that is done, namely that one is brought into the arms of the Church, the very arms of the bride and body of Christ. They celebrate at every baptism, they roar in laughter at our joy, they love their families from afar until they can be joined together again in the very love and saving work of Christ.
These things are appropriate to say about the saints. But all that we say must be couched in the love of Christ. All that they do must start at the work of Christ. All that they see and pray for is found in the work of Christ. Everything we speak of with these saints must be founded from Christ's saving work on the cross for sinners. It must be known that the saints did not earn their way into heaven, it was the free gift of salvation given and offered to all men.
So, the focus this day should not be on the saints themselves, but on the one who made them saints. It should be on the one who made us His children, the one who came to this earth to take our flesh, to be incarnate, to live, die, and be resurrected for us. The focus should always and ever be on Christ.
This part of the Revelation, I believe, is so that we may know that the Church on earth is protected, for that is what has come before this reading, that we have been sealed upon our foreheads in our baptisms, and though storms rage, the earth trembles, and the seas dry up we have a Savior who will remake all these things. But I also believe that this is for us as we look to the heavens and wonder if our family members who died in the profession of faith in Christ are safe and secure. They are. The Revelation of John tells us so. Christ says so. And it gives us confidence that we, too, will soon be with those who have departed this life. You see, the Church Triumphant, those saints who have died and are with Jesus, they once were the Church Militant, the Church that continues on in us as we fight against the rulers and princes of this world. Those saints in heaven were once saints on earth, just as you are now. This very vision of John gave them the courage and the confidence that Christ will indeed fulfill His promises. And so He does.
You see, these men and women, they knew their Savior by faith here on earth and now they know Him face to face there in heaven. Christ has won for them the crown of salvation that they each now wear at the end of their earthly race of faith. The Lamb in the midst of the throne receives their prayers, their supplications, their praises, their worship, for they are in the throne room of God, continually in His presence. The Lord is served by them in these very ways. The Lord shelters them from all evil and sin. They neither hunger nor thirst anymore, for Jesus has provided for them the feast of all feasts, His body and His blood for these saints.
And Christ does this for you, too. We, who are sinners, do not deserve the honor of serving the Lord and Master of all creation. We’re not worthy. Yet, Christ, in His life, death, and resurrection has declared us worthy. Not because we are, but because He is. He is the protector and safeguard of the Church. Here, in the Lord’s Supper, He is both the host and the meal. He is the shepherd of His sheep, leading them beside living water, streams flowing clear and sterile, washing us gently and yet killing all the evil that resides in us as sin.
I tell you all of this, today to give you hope. I know many of you have lost loved ones this year. But no matter when that person died in this life, this year, or before, in Christ, they are with their Savior and we shall soon join them. I preach this Christ and His vision given to John to give you hope. Our lives are not over when we pass from this life. We are made in His image now, we shall be remade into what we cannot yet see. We shall be made perfect and incorruptible. The sun shall not scorch us, we shall not succumb to heat, we shall not fear, we shall no longer perish, or mourn, or weep, or sin as we do now. Because of the scornful effects of our own, deeply-rooted sin, we have turned this world into one of violence, and war, and death. But soon we shall be made like Christ for we bear His mark on our foreheads, that cross which He bore to Calvary to redeem our sin and its effects on this world. And the day that we shall be made incorruptible is the day of Christ's glorious return.
This day is not far, the day of Jesus’ coming. Indeed, it is coming soon. Have hope until then. Persevere in the Lord. Stand until that final day when the Lord returns or He takes you home.
For you, dear saints, you are indeed in Christ. You are His. You are washed in His baptismal waters, you eat His body, you drink His blood, you hear His forgiveness in your ears, you see His Word in your eyes. You have been marked by Him. These are the means that Christ has brought to His Church to sustain and preserve you AND all those saints that have gone on before unto everlasting life. They received the same gifts that you do today. Jesus has sustained His Church, Jesus will sustain His Church, Jesus is sustaining His Church even now. Come to His altar, you His saints. Remember you are baptized, you His saints. Hear His absolution, you His saints. Seek to rest in Him, dear saints of Christ, for all saints have this joy, the joy of heaven that trickles down to us even now today. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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