1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate All Saints’ Day is taken from Revelation 7:2-17, it’s entitled, “A Bright & Glorious Future in Christ,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. There was a pastor of a Lutheran congregation with a large old red brick church founded many decades before he arrived. The church building had a large cemetery that flanked the left side of the sanctuary and wrapped around the back behind where the chancel stood. At an anniversary service of that congregation the pastor reminded the members sitting in the pews that their congregation was much larger than the people who were in church. The members immediately nodded, most of them thinking that he was referring to those inactive members. He then said something startling: if we wanted to make room for the rest of the members, we would need to knock out the side and back walls of the old brick church. He went on to explain that even though the bodies of many members were resting in the ground to the side and behind the sanctuary, these fellow saints were alive with Christ and were a vital part of the church. The Lutheran pastor reminded his congregation that their focus is to be on continuing to baptize into Christ, to teach the Christian faith, and to receive the Lord’s Supper, so that Christians are born and nurtured in the faith until they join the saints after death. He reminded his church that the true size of the congregation would only be seen on the Last Day, when Christ will raise in glory all the bodies from that cemetery and take the faithful members still living at his return to experience restored creation with the entire church of all ages for eternity (Rev 7:9). That, dear friends, is the future to which all of us can look with eagerness. Your future is bright and glorious in Christ!
3. Revelation 7:9 says, “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.” This part of the vision recorded by John in the book of Revelation helps us to see that the life of a Lutheran congregation isn’t just about living Sunday to Sunday or year to year or decade to decade or even a hundred years together. This vision helps us to see the goal of every Christian, every congregation, and the church militant across the earth: to be part of this great multitude for eternity that no one can number from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before God’s throne, standing before Christ, the Lamb slain for our sin, clothed in resurrected glory for eternity. Why do we establish congregations? Why do we seek to be faithful in reaching out to the lost in our community? Why do we call pastors, build sanctuaries, teach Sunday School, give offerings each week, and continue planning for the future? So that we and many others from this congregation, this community, this generation of sinners may be part of this great multitude before the throne of the Lamb!
4. Why did God first give this vision to John to share with the seven churches and many others in future generations? Because he knew that the faithful saints of these congregations had struggles in the past, they were going through struggles in the present, and they would encounter more in the future. Sin was alive and well in these pagan cities of ancient Rome. In the seven letters that Jesus dictates in Revelation 2–3, we hear of false apostles, false teaching, sexual immortality, the Jezebel-like priestess, spiritual lukewarmness, and much more.
5. This sounds a lot like the world today! Even much of the church is confused on what marriage is, how sexuality should be experienced, and who created this world in the first place. As we heard in the Beatitudes of our Gospel, Jesus promised his faithful church would face challenges: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Mt 5:11–12).
6. God gave this vision of the future, of the Church Triumphant after the day of resurrection, to encourage us about what our individual future is and what our future is as a congregation. This is your future: risen, living, worshiping, and singing for all eternity, “Salvation belongs to our God,” namely the one sitting on the throne, and “the Lamb. . . . Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (Rev. 7:10, 12). Knowing this is our future encourages us to be faithful and active witnesses in the present.
7. What is the reason given here for these saints being in heaven? Are they there because of the great lives they lived, the number of boards on which they served, or the church council meetings that they attended? No, there is only one reason given for their status: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb” (Rev. 7:14). Your future as a congregation, your future as the church militant on earth, and your future as the Church Triumphant in heaven is based upon the blood of the Lamb, Jesus the Christ, that was shed on Calvary’s cross to atone for your sin, for all sin! As John the Baptist proclaimed when he saw Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (Jn 1:29). You are saints, holy ones, now and forever through the holy blood of Jesus.
8. This vision in Revelation 7 is dripping with irony. The last thing you usually want on white robes would be blood; it stains permanently. But the blood that Jesus shed cleanses permanently, because it is a payment in full for sin. It is a blood that continues to cleanse you from sin today as you hear of it here and as you drink it at this altar. As the earlier hymn to the Lamb in Revelation 5 states: “For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation”(Revelation 5:9).
9. This vision is one of the most extensive descriptions in the Scriptures of what we as the Church will do after Christ’s return into eternity. Listen to your future as Christians, as a congregation, once again: “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 every tear from their eyes” (Rev. 7:15–17). None of our years on earth have been without tears of pain and struggle. There will be more tears in the years you have left in your earthly journey, of that you can be sure. You have shed some tears, no doubt, in saying a temporary goodbye to some of the saints of your extended family and church family who are now with the Lord. But nothing ever has, nor nothing ever will, separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. He refreshes us daily for our work in the world and our service to him in his Church. But one day sin will be no more—no more hunger and thirst and struggle. Our baptismal garments will be exchanged for the permanent robe of resurrected glory, and God will wipe every tear of pain and suffering from our eyes.
10. Revelation 7 helps you to see your ultimate and certain future as forgiven saints through the blood of Christ: God himself with be with you, and he will wipe every tear from your eyes. Death will be no more, neither shall there be any mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore—and you will see the face of your Savior Jesus! That is your bright and glorious future as saints through the blood of Jesus. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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