Revelation 7:9-17

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." ¹¹ All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" ¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-- who are they, and where did they come from?" ¹⁴ I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ 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 spread his tent over them. ¹⁶ Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. ¹⁷ For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Friends in Christ;

“I believe in the communion of saints.”  These words of the Apostles’ Creed are very meaningful to us today.  Saints are the believers in Christ.  The Apostle Paul refers to the saints in almost all of his Epistles.  They are members of the church in Rome , in Corinth and in Ephesus .  They are people with human weaknesses and shortcomings.  They may be still living in this world, or they may have been taken to heaven already.

Believers today await for the day when they shall be taken to heaven to live there with Jesus and all the saints.  All Saints Day reminds us of this and fills us with encouragement on our journey to our heavenly home.  May the Holy Spirit guide and bless us as we consider:

THE SAINTS BEFORE THE THRONE

I.  Who They Are

In the chapter before our text for today, we are told of the terrors of the great Judgment.  So to comfort us, John (the writer of this book) in our text takes us with him to see the glory of the saints in heaven.  Here we see “a great multitude that no one could count.”  Even though believers are small in number compared with the many many unbelievers, yet the total number of the saints through all ages in heaven, is great indeed.

These saints come “from every nation, tribe, people and language.”  There we see that God has kept his promise in Isaiah 55, that the Word “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”  For there will be people of all races and colors;  with different backgrounds.  Some were once poor and others wealthy;  who have completed grade school, high school, college or university, and some may never learned to read or write.  Some may have been healthy, or crippled, or blind, or deaf or have had mental deficiencies.  There they all stand together and they also have much in common.

They have all had one way to heaven.  “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  They were all sinners.  They trusted Jesus who took their sins to the cross and was punished in their place.  They know that now they will never be punished for their sins.  They know that they will be his own and live under him in his kingdom 

They are also those who “have come out of the great tribulation.”   They were living in a day when martyrdom was the thing of the day.  They were faced with some of the problems known to us today.  They had to work for a living, knowing that failure was always possible, and then there was bereavement, illness and offenses given by weak Christians.  These are the saints.

II.   The Nature of the Bliss of the Saints

         Our text says that “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  With the same tenderness with which a mother comforts a weeping child,  so God wipes away all cause for tears and fills the heart with perfect bliss.

         That heavenly joy means the absence of hunger and thirst.  Everything that here on earth caused anxiety, worry, heartache, and struggle, is gone.  Tribulations are not a part of heavenly life.  Even now here on earth we can rejoice in this that the burdens which now press so hard, will then be lifted.  This, even now, gives us courage.  Tears are temporary because joy comes when we get there.

         The saints around the throne will be clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.  “They are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.”  

         All the longing of the soul, the desire to see Jesus and to know him face to face shall be forever satisfied. 

         What does this mean to all of us now?  If there, the eternal worship of God in his temple will be our great delight, then let us seek a foretaste of that now in our church, where God is present in Word and Sacrament.  Let us begin to enjoy Holy Communion as we hear “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.  To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and thanks and honor and glory for ever and ever.”  Then let us sing from our hearts “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.  The whole earth is full of your glory.  You are my God, and I will exalt you.  I will give you thanks, for you have become my salvation.  Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.  The whole earth is full of your glory.” 

         We are in the fellowship of the saints with whom we shall spend eternity, now already.  We share the hope of the life to come and plan for the journey home.  O Jesus, bring us soon to our heavenly home!

AMEN