Look to the Lord
Revelation 7: 9-17
All Saints Day
Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen. The sermon text for All Saints Day is our first reading Revelation 7. Today we celebrate All Saints Day. We remember all of those who have died in the faith and are now with the Lord. All who believe in Jesus are called saints and so on this day we remember the saints. We remember the people of God, the saints, mentioned in the Bible such as Moses, Elijah, Mary, and Paul. We remember the saints who lived throughout church history such as Augustine, Martin Luther and CFW Walther. We remember the people of God who are well known and we remember those who are known to us. We remember our family members and friends and loved ones who have died in the faith. We look at the lives of the saints and we see how God blessed them, guarded them and saved them. We look at the lives of the saints and we are given encouragement for they trusted in the Lord and they were delivered. We remember the saints and we are comforted because we know that they are now with the Lord. They are part of the church triumphant. Our reading in Revelation gives to us a glimpse of the church triumphant. “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!”
What can we say about those who have gone before us? If we were able to see the saints in heaven, we would see them all looking in one direction together. They are looking at Jesus. They now see Him as He is. So they cannot take their eyes off Him. No longer do they see through a mirror dimly, but now they see the Lord face-to-face. They are children of God who are now home with the Father. They are basking forever in the warmth of the Father’s great love for them. They stand before God, and they praise Him. They marvel at the grace of God given to them through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. They have been wiped clean by the Lamb and they are eternally blessed. The world does not remember most of them who are in heaven, but the Lord remembers them and acknowledges them forever. They are in the church triumphant.
It is wonderful to know that those who have gone before us in the faith are now at peace with the Lord. But what can we say about us on this All Saints Day. For the time being we are in the church militant. We are God’s people to be sure but we still live in the fallen world. Because we live in the sinful world we will have trial and tribulation. We experience sadness and pain. We experience physical pain and emotional pain. We experience grief over the death of loved ones. Perhaps some of us are still missing the company of a loved one who has now passed away. We experience problems, loneliness, and rejection. We experience pressure at school and at our work. We are at war with our own sinful nature. It is a continues battle that we fight with our own sin and guilt. We struggle. We get discouraged. We worry about all that is wrong in our life and all that is wrong in the world.
We will face trials and tribulations in this life but even when things are going well for us, we still experience some sorrow. Even when we are happy, we know that there is still something missing. Let me read to you a quote from an author named Henri Nouwen. “There is a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our lives. It seems that there is no such thing as a clear-cut joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence we sense a tinge of sadness. In every satisfaction, there is an awareness of limitations. In every success, there is the fear of jealousy. Behind every smile, there is a tear. In every embrace, there is loneliness. In every friendship, distance. And in all forms of light, there is the knowledge of surrounding darkness. When you touch the hand of a returning friend, you already know that he will have to leave you again. But this intimate experience in which every bit of life is touched by a bit of death can point us beyond the limits of our existence. It can do so by making us look forward in expectation to the day when our hearts will be filled with perfect joy, a joy that no one shall take away from us”.
In other words the things of this world will never satisfy. Even in good times things are not quite right. The only one who can give true joy, peace and comfort is God. And He does so through His Son, Jesus Christ. Our Lord had compassion on us. Jesus entered this world of sin, pain, suffering, trial and tribulation. He came in order to save us from it. He came to transform us into His holy people. He did so with His perfect life, His death on the cross, and His glorious resurrection. He took our sins upon himself and gave to us His righteousness. Notice that the people of God are wearing a white robe in our reading from Revelation. They are wearing the robe of Christ’s righteousness. We have been forgiven and saved. We have been declared righteous by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We have also been transformed by God. We have been transformed into God’s people.
The promises that God gave to those who have gone before us are the promises also given to us. The saints in heaven are looking at Jesus and so are we. We do not yet see Him with our own eyes for we are still here. But we do hear Him in His Word. We are washed by Him in Baptism. We feed on His body and blood. We look to Jesus through the eyes of faith, and we follow Him.
Today we are celebrating All Saints Day. We have been made saints not based upon our own works. We have been made saints by God’s grace. The saints are God’s people and as God’s people we have been blessed. Jesus speaks about these blessings in our Gospel reading for today. We are blessed with the gift of eternal life. Indeed when Jesus visibly returns we will be part of the final resurrection. The Lord will gather all His people and we will live with God and with each other for all eternity. Those souls in heaven who are experiencing perfect peace, who are part of the church triumphant, are waiting for that day. And those of us here on earth who live by faith in Jesus, who are part of the church militant are also waiting for the coming of the Lord.
The celebration of All Saints Day gives us the opportunity to look at the big picture. To stop and think about how wonderful it really is to be part of God’s family. To be in this big family picture with Moses, Paul, Mary, Luther, and all of our loved ones who died in the faith. To be in the Kingdom of God with all the saints who are well-known. To be with the saints that are only known to us. To be with the saints that we don’t know now but will know in Heaven.
Yes, we do face trial and tribulation in this life. Yes, even when things are going well we sense that things are still not right. All of this is a reminder to us to look to the one who gives true comfort, true hope, and true joy. Let us look outside of ourselves and beyond our current situations and see with the eyes of faith what is eternal. Let us look to God. For it is the Lord our God who has blessed us, made us His people, and given to us eternal life.
Today we celebrate God’s faithfulness to those who have died in the faith. There struggles are over. They are with the Lord. We too look forward to that time when the Lord will bring us to be with Him forever. Let me conclude this message with a little glimpse of the heavenly kingdom. “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in this 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”. Amen.