Brent Kuhlman

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All Saints’ Day
1 November 2009

Revelation 7:9-17

Today a glimpse into heaven.  Your loved ones who have died in the faith are there.  They are in Christ.  Christ is in and with them.  Angels are there too.  Millions of them.  But angels are angels.  Part of God’s invisible creation.  When you die you don’t become an angel.  Please teach people that.  Our loved ones and friends who trusted Jesus for their salvation are in His presence.  He’s got them.  They only await the resurrection of the body on the last day. 

Do you see it?  No.  But John did.  And he’s written it down for you to hear.  So, if you’ve ever asked, been asked, or wondered about what heaven is like, what the saints are doing there, here’s your opportunity for a sneak peek. 

Behold!  There is an enormous multitude of people.  From all over the world.  Name the country.  Name the language.  Name family.  There are so many you can’t even begin to count them all.  Heaven’s not going to be empty.  More there than you could ever imagine.  Better get used to a heaven busting at the seams!   

“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages – standing before the Lamb – wearing white robes – palm branches in their hands.  And they shouted very loudly:  ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’”

Heaven is God’s doing.  God’s giving.  His creation.  His very, very, very good new creation.  A new heaven and a new earth that is the home of righteousness.  Sin, suffering, death, and decay are no more.  The butchery of war, famine, sickness, and the grave have been conquered by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world in His Good Friday Death.  In heaven such evil is excluded in the presence of the Lamb reigning in His heavenly kingdom.

Believers that have died are with Jesus.  To be with Jesus or in Jesus is to be in heaven.  And there is extravagant praise.  Giving God the Father and Jesus His only-begotten Son their due.  “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!”  

All Saints’ Day draws us homeward to heaven.  Today we sing:

“Oh, blest communion, fellowship divine,
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee for all are Thine.”

We feebly struggle.  We’re still in this world where the evil of the world, the devil, and our sinful nature battles and batters us constantly.  Our bodies get older and wear down.  And when the Sunday divine service is over, God sends us back out in to that battlefield – the hard realities of daily living.  Tests.  Paying bills.  Impatiently waiting on the weather to get the crops in.  Family frustrations.  Dealing with people that dislike or even hate us.  We encounter opposition for believing in Jesus.  The devil uses our sins to accuse us and threatens us with damnation.  Death snatches away people we love.  Sometimes when they’re too young.  Some of us are old and ready to die.  We’re homesick for heaven.  But the earth is where we live now.

And so All Saints’ Sunday.  The bigger picture.  Revelation 7 puts this troublesome life with all its disappointments, heartaches, and miseries into perspective.  The perspective of heaven!  The Book of Hebrews reminds us that we are like our father Abraham:  “looking forward to new city whose architect and builder is God,” (Hebrews 11:10).  In other words, the Holy Trinity has created, redeemed, and sanctified us to be fellow citizens with all the saints:  Adam, Eve, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Hannah, Samuel, King David, Isaiah, Mary, Joseph, Peter, Paul, Luther, ect.  In fact, you too are a saint because you have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.  The white robes you wear are the robes of Christ’s righteousness given to you in Holy Baptism.

Lutherans do talk about saints.  We are not shy about it.  Saints are sinners that believe their sins are forgiven in Christ’s blood.  We remember those who have gone before us in faith so that “our faith may be strengthened when we see what grace they received and how they were sustained in faith.”  In addition, “their good works are to an example for us, each of us in our own calling,”  (Augsburg Confession).  Only by God’s grace that is given to us through Jesus are any of us saints.  We are “holy ones” because Jesus has given us His holiness in His Blood sacrificed on Good Friday and that same Blood in the cup of the Sacrament.  We are saints, that is, holy ones, only because of Jesus.  By what He’s done for us and by what He gives us. 

For the saints in heaven they see with their eyes what they always had on this earth by faith in Jesus.  Done is the daily dying to sin.  Their eternal Sabbath rest is won.  No more struggling with sin.  No more temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  They live in pure victory as they sing with the angels of heaven:  “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever.  Amen.” 

Where Christ is with His gifts there are His saints who believe in Him.  In heaven and on earth!  The saints in heaven and the saints on the earth sing in the presence of the Lamb who was slain.  Today we confess His gracious presence with His Body and Blood as we sing:  “O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world.  Have mercy upon us . . . O Christ, Thou Lamb of God that takest away the sin of the world.  Grant us Thy peace.”

If only our eyes could see.  But we hear the Lamb’s voice in His Word:  “Take eat.  Take drink.”  He is here.  And He’s brought all of heaven with Him.  All the angels, the archangels and all the company of heaven.

Dr. Hermann Sasse correctly taught that, the Sacrament of the Altar is our heaven on earth.”  That’s because Jesus grants us access to Himself and to the Father who sits on the throne by His Blood. 

You don’t have to wait until you die to go to heaven.  When you’re at the Sacrament of the Altar all of heaven is there with Jesus.  Millions of angels.  All those who have died believing in Jesus too.  Yes, that’s right, the people you loved in this life are where they’ve always been:  with Christ.  At the Lord’s Supper you are given to remember them properly:  that Christ has them and they are with Him.  And in the Lord’s Supper all of heaven is right here in our midst.  It is your heaven until you enter heaven.  Happy All Saints’ Day!’

In the Name of Jesus.