All Saints’ Day November 2-3, 2024
“Part of Something Great” Revelation 7:9-17
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
Don’t you love being part of something great? Maybe it is the team you work with. Maybe it is an athletic team. Maybe it is a project that your neighborhood is doing. You become part of something greater than just you, than just your own aspirations.
Today, All Saints’ Day, is about being part of something greater. The first verse of our text says it well, “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.” (Revelation 7:9)
John is talking about heaven. He is talking about who is there and where they came from. There are so many in heaven that he wouldn’t even venture to put a number on them. Not just one color to their skin. Their language wasn’t just one voice. They came from all over the world. “Every nation, tribe, people and language.” They weren’t just Scandinavian or German Lutherans. God’s eternal kingdom is much greater than us.
Today I read the names of your loved ones and my loved ones. I read the names of your wife or husband, your son or daughter, your mom or dad. And I want you to know that they are ok!! They are part of this group, they are part of something much greater than simply themselves.
Part of something great means that they (and we) are part of Someone great. Jesus. This reading goes on, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.” (Verse 10) It says that those in heaven wear white robes. Why white? Pure. Perfect. Holy. When John sees this huge throng, all wearing white, he wants to know – “Who are they, and where did they come from?” The answer is perfect, “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.” (Verses 13-14)
You know that blood stains things, right? It is just about impossible to get blood out of a white garment. But in a complete change from what would be expected John paints this whole different picture, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.” The blood of the Lamb makes us pure. We are permanently stained – with the blood of Jesus who makes the robe we now wear pure white and perfect. Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.” St. John continues this oxymoron of blood as a cleaning agent, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (I John 1:7)
We are part of something great – being called a child of God. We are part of Someone great – Jesus. Paul writes, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27)
Those who have died before us, those we especially recognize this day – are they ok? Those who were baptized into Jesus, believed His word, trusted in His death to cover their sins, believed in His resurrection to lead them into their own resurrection – are they ok? Yes – they are part of something much greater than them. They are part of Someone much greater than them. They are connected to Jesus who says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27-28)
The Book of Revelation is full is imagery. It can be one of the most difficult books in the Bible to understand. If you have read portions of this book you probably have found yourself shaking your head saying, “What does that mean?” Ten heads? Seven stars? But the imagery, the pictures that he uses can be so clear. Suffering, struggling, sinning is all over when one becomes part of something greater in heaven. In our text it says, “He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 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 every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17)
Most of the people living in that world worked manually, with their hands, in the heat and the cold, without enough available water or food. So, the image of paradise is pictured as a place without hunger or thirst, without the blazing sun on their backs. They were part of something greater than they had ever experienced. In Revelation 21 the same thought continues, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4) Isaiah says it this way, “The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’” (Isaiah 25:8-9)
How are your loved ones, and mine? They are fine. They are ok. They are part of something great because they are part of Someone great – Jesus and His redeeming work. There is salvation in no one else. But it wasn’t easy for them to get to that point of triumph. Not just physically, going through the process of dying, but it wasn’t easy for them spiritually, emotionally or mentally.
When John asks the question about who this unnumbered throng is, all these in white robes, he is told, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation…” (Verse 14) What is that? It is probably all of us who have had to go through this endless election, with all of those painful election ads. The great tribulation could be a number of things. Jesus gives this warning, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22) The great tribulation could mean the end of the world stuff. But it can also mean the daily spiritual battle stuff. It is the struggle for everyone who calls themself a Christian. The new creation that God has made us to be in Jesus and the old man who stinks everything up are at odds with each other. The great tribulation can be that battle between the new person that we are to be, filled with holiness and goodness and good character and brilliant aspirations and the part in us that wants to live in sin and filth and weakness.
Being part of something great – part of being in the faith and living the faith – is not so easy. But let me tell you something. They, those before us, didn’t do it alone. And we’d better not try doing it alone. Being part of something greater – heaven – means being part of something great. They were not alone in this journey before going to eternal joy and you are not alone either. God’s Holy Spirit was their strength, and it is your strength. Here is a word of God for you, “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (I John 4:4) How about this word of promise? “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)
Today, All Saints’ Day, is a great day. Because of Jesus, the Lamb of God, those who were before us, those who will come after us, and all of us now living, are part of something much greater than we can even comprehend. To this we speak with full throat, “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” (Revelation 7:12)
