Revelation 7:9-17
11/4/07 Sermon
Well, I saw my first Christmas commercial on T.V.
the other day. Here we are two months away from that celebration
and we’re already being told to start planning for it.
It’s a good marketing strategy: the earlier you can get
people in the Christmas mood, the sooner they’ll start shopping
for it (hopefully). I remember as a kid that you didn’t
have to do much to get me in the mood for Christmas. Beginning
with Thanksgiving I started counting the weeks and then the days until
that holiday of all holidays arrived. Looking forward to that day
often gave me hope when things at work or at school got difficult and
stressful.
But today’s text from the book of Revelation
tells us of an even greater holiday to come, one that will not come and
go like Christmas, but one that we will celebrate forever in
heaven. And the Lord gives us a sneak preview of that holiday, so
that we might look forward to it in hope with eager anticipation,
especially when life here and now becomes difficult and
stressful. The Church’s lot in this life, after all, is one
of tribulation according to our Lord’s promise, “In this
world you will have tribulation.” But He also says,
“Take heart; I have overcome the world.” Jesus has
overcome the world through His tribulation, cross, and resurrection,
and it’s because of this victory that the Church has an eternal
holiday of peace and worship of God in heaven to look forward to.
And so we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the
resurrection of the body and the life everlasting,” and in the
Nicene Creed, “I look for the resurrection of the dead and the
life of the world to come.”
But though the Lord gives us these promises in His
Word along with previews of the world to come, the things of this world
often distract us from looking forward to our eternal holiday with the
Lord. Just as at Christmas the earthly gifts we receive often
overshadow the Gift of a Savior given to us by our heavenly Father, so
the earthly blessings that we enjoy in this life often draw our
attention away from the eternal blessings that we have now by faith and
will have face to face in our heavenly home. Like some who enjoy
staying home on Christmas day to open presents rather than going to
church for the real presents which God wants to give them, we are often
too engrossed with our lives here and now to be thinking about
heaven. It’s only when the Lord brings tribulation,
suffering, and the cross into our lives that He wakes us up to
the reality that the things of this life are temporary (including our
bodies) and then points us back to Christ, His Word, and the eternal
gifts we have in Him, including the resurrection of the body and the
life everlasting. Today He is doing that again for us as He tells
us about the life of the world to come from this morning’s text
in the book of Revelation.
First, He tells us who will get to enjoy this life
of the world to come and on what basis. The great multitude
that’s described here is a multitude that comes out of the great
tribulation “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
languages.” They are also described as being “clothed
in white robes with palm branches in their hands” as they stand
before the throne of God and the Lamb. So, who are they?
They are all the saints - the people of God, people who have been
cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ and clothed with Him through the
waters of Baptism. They have been declared righteous, holy, and
blameless by God through their faith in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God,
whose sacrifice on the cross for them has taken away their sins.
They come from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages, because the
Gospel is for everyone. Jesus Christ is the Light of the world,
and so His Gospel will be proclaimed throughout the world, so that many
will hear that they have a Savior and believe in Him for eternal
life. In one sense, Christianity is the most exclusive religion
in all the world, because it preaches that there is salvation in no one
else but Jesus Christ, the only Savior God has sent us. God does
not tolerate any other gods or religions; Jesus is the only Way to the
Father. On the other hand, Christianity is the most inclusive
religion in all the world, because it’s message is for
everyone. No one is excluded from hearing it. All have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely
by God’s grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
But for confessing and proclaiming such salvation in
this world the Church experiences tribulation. This is the
persecution, suffering, and affliction brought on by the devil, the
world, and our own sinful flesh because we believe, teach, and confess
Christ crucified and risen from the dead. This tribulation will
only grow increasingly stronger the closer we get to the end of the
world. That’s why the elder here tells John that this
multitude comes out of the great tribulation. The Lord never
promises that His Church will not have to go through tribulation or
that you will escape it by some kind of rapture. Rather, no
matter how great the tribulation may be that you have to suffer in this
life, your Lord will keep you safe through it and finally deliver you
from all tribulation on the Last Day.
This multitude, then, includes you! You who
believe and are baptized are part of their number, and it is on this
basis that you will stand among them in heaven rejoicing and giving
thanks and praise before the throne of God and the Lamb. As Jesus
says, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who
does not believe will be condemned.” Some consider this
believing and being baptized as things that you must do to get yourself
into heaven, as if God did His part through Jesus, and now you must do
your part by believing and being baptized. But the Church
confesses that we can take credit neither for our believing nor for our
being baptized. Both are gifts to us from God: by His Word
He worked the faith in you to believe in Jesus, and by the hand of a
pastor He baptized you; you did not baptize yourself; you did not give
yourself new birth. You were dead in your trespasses and
sins. You were an enemy of God. But Jesus had mercy upon
you and gave you new life through the washing of water with His
Word. For this reason the Church does not sing, “Salvation
belongs to us,” or “Hallelujah! We made the right
decision!” but “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on
the throne and to the Lamb!” The Church rejoices in God as
her Savior alone and takes no credit for herself. Salvation from
beginning to end is all God’s work in Jesus Christ and none of
yours. And while you may have to endure tribulation for a time in
this life for confessing this, the holidays are coming, when there will
be no more tribulation ever again.
This leads us to what it is that we will be doing in
heaven. There’s that one description where the saints in
heaven are all sitting around on clouds playing harps. Well,
there’s no such description in the Scriptures. Here we see
that the saints are standing before the throne of God and the Lamb 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!” And further on one of the elders tells John that
they serve God day and night in His temple. Now, some have looked
at these words and come away rather disappointed, thinking that they
are going to be stuck in some temple building somewhere standing for
all eternity in front of God’s throne in an on-going worship
service. But when you consider that elsewhere in the book of
Revelation John writes that in the new heaven and the new earth God
will “tabernacle” with His people and that there will be no
temple in the new Jerusalem because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
will be its temple, then you see that the temple here is no building,
but God Himself in the tabernacle of His flesh. So, then, not
only will there be a great worship service to look forward to in
heaven, but wherever you go and whatever you do in the new creation you
will be serving God in His temple day and night. Even here and
now the Apostle Paul writes that we are to present our bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service
of worship. Not only do we come together once a week to receive
God’s gifts to us through His Word and Sacraments, serving Him
with our praise and thanks, but throughout the week in our various
vocations we are living lives of thankful service to our God for all
He’s done for us in Christ. How much more so, then, in
heaven? And while God tabernacles among us now by way of His Word
and Sacraments, there He will tabernacle among us face to face as we in
our resurrected bodies will see Him in His resurrected body.
This leads us to what He will be doing in heaven for
us as He dwells among us and as we serve Him day and night in His
temple. First, He will shelter us with His presence. Here
again, this means that God will dwell with us in the flesh, face to
face. In heaven you will see Jesus with your own eyes. This
should give you joy as you look forward to this in hope, especially
when the tribulations of this life get you down. John points us
to this hope in his first epistle when he writes, “Beloved, now
we are God’s children, and what we will be has not yet been
revealed; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him,
because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in
Him purifies himself as He is pure.” Second, in heaven
where we will dwell with God face to face there will be no more hunger
or thirst, nor will the sun nor any scorching heat strike us. In
other words, the tribulations that you experience in this life will
have come to an end. Elsewhere, John writes that “death
shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain
anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And here
he writes that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. It
was our sin that brought suffering into this world in the first
place. But sin has been dealt a death blow by the suffering and
death of Jesus on the cross. And with His resurrection from the
dead He has removed the sting of death once for all. At your
resurrection you will see the fulfillment of this work of Christ, when
both sin and its consequences will be no more in the life of the world
to come.
Finally, Jesus will be our Shepherd, guiding us to
springs of living water. In the 23rd Psalm David confesses the
Lord to be his Shepherd, who (among other things) makes him lie down in
green pastures, leads him beside still waters, and restores his
soul. Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, who lays down His
life for His sheep. He says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they
will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my
hand.” And He tells the Samaritan woman at the well that
whoever drinks of the water He gives will never thirst again.
When the elder tells John here that the Good Shepherd will lead His
sheep to springs of living water, he is telling us that Jesus will lead
His saints to the source of life, which is God Himself. By His
Spirit, God directs you to Jesus, whose very words are life. He
gives you to drink of this water right now through the words of the
Gospel, by which He works eternal life in you. And in heaven, you
will still drink from the living water of God’s Word by which He
will sustain your eternal life forever.
This vision of heaven given by the Lord to the
Apostle John to give to all the saints is meant to give them hope while
here and now they must experience tribulation. So, when the
tribulations of this world get you down, you can look forward in hope
to the eternal rest your Lord promises you in the life of the world to
come with all the saints. And when the world tries to get you to
focus on the earthly pleasures of its holidays, remember that the true
holidays are coming, and that those gifts are eternal and can never be
taken away from you. The Gift of all gifts is God Himself who has
given Himself to you in His Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior. To Him
belong blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might
forever and ever! Amen.