Home  Resources Sermons Recent All Saints’ Day
TEXT: MATTHEW 5:1-12; I JOHN 3:1-3; REV 7: 2-17
THESE ARE THE ONES COMING OUT OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION
Preached by Rev. Kenneth W. Wieting
Dear saints of God, freed from your sins by the blood of Christ, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne (that is from the Holy Spirit), and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead: In the past we have studied of the book of Revelation and that is helpful in understanding the numbers and symbols used in apocalyptic writing. Please know that the points made in this sermon treat Revelation as the Word of God interpreted literally, but not woodenly.
Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
This is the day we name our dead – who have died since last All Saints’ Day. These are the names of those whose faces we will no longer see, whose voices we will no longer hear, on this earth. These are the names of those with whom we had agreement and disagreement, happiness and sorrow. This day also calls to mind the names of our loved ones who died in other places or in earlier years. It is good to remember with thanksgiving those who died in the faith – for they are blessed. It is good to think about the Church triumphant, for we in the church militant are the minority and will soon join them.
John, exiled to the island of Patmos, is given a vision of those in heaven. This vision is a restful interlude between the horrifying scenes of the first six seals (6:1-17) and the even greater destruction to follow when the seventh seal is opened and the trumpets begin to sound. Conquest and bloodshed and disease and murder and martyrs are followed by famine and plagues and painful torment and destruction on earth and water and among the heavenly bodies. Through all the tribulation described in Revelation and throughout Scripture there is a drumbeat that permeates it all – that drumbeat is death.
Those coming out of the great tribulation had death coming to them. At least that’s what those who died in our midst said as they confessed their sin among us. Death is something that you and I have coming to us. At least that is what we confessed a few minutes ago. You see, here in this place we don’t have to pretend that death is natural. Here we can call it the curse that it is, the wages of sin, an ugly enemy. Here we can escape funeral parlor talk and societal shell games with death. It is not a friend. It is not natural. It is not a path for reincarnation.
In last week Sunday’s Milwaukee Journal the father of lies influenced an article entitled “Doing Death Better”. The cardiologist who wrote that article confessed that death is just part of the cycle of life – as one indoctrinated by the religion of macro evolution would confess. But that of course would mean Jesus is a fraud. He also said, and I quote, “Life is to be embraced. Yet death, whenever it comes to each of us, is as natural as the rising of the sun.” What deceitful, demonic drivel!
Was it as natural as the rising sun when death came to the parents of your sister in Christ - Sylvia Spructs. She was a member here – in her 80’s - when I first came. She emigrated as a girl from Estonia without her parents. She spoke with me about the Sunday afternoon early in the 20th century when they died. A car flying a red communist banner drove up the lane to their family farm. Her parents told her to hide but before doing so she peered from an upstairs window. As her parents walked out to meet the car at the gate two men got out with red arm bands around their white shirts. As her parents drew near they simply raised pistols and shot them both on the spot. Sylvia hid until night and fled with other survivors as family owned farms throughout the region were brutally collectivized away from private control under the Soviet socialist system.
Was death as natural as the rising sun for the 40 seminarians at the Lutheran Seminary in Moscow or the 300+ Lutheran pastors in Russia who disappeared under Stalin’s terror in the 1930’s, or for the 200,000 pastors of all denominations whom Stalin proudly took credit for annihilating, or for the tens of millions of Eastern Europeans (the majority of them Christian) slaughtered at his order. Is the death of children aborted in the womb or the death of toddlers or teens as natural as the rising sun? Indeed is the death of any person through any means - violence or the ravages of cancer or the H1N1 flu virus or accident or heart attack or stroke or aging as natural as the rising sun? What deceitful, demonic drivel! What pure utter, ugly nonsense earns front page honors in our city newspaper!
Here in the presence of Jesus, we don’t have to pretend and lie about our last enemy of death for He tasted death for us. That’s why, here in the presence of Jesus we can also say of that unnatural, final, enemy “death, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Indeed, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord”…(Rev. 14:13). It is the blessed dead whom John described in this way, These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
What is the “great tribulation”? Jesus described a great tribulation immediately before His return (Matt 24:21-30) and Revelation reveals that Satan will then be loosed for a short time (20:7). But in our text, the present participle “the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation” indicates that Christians are continually emerging from the tribulation of this valley of sorrow and adding to the crowd in heaven.
That would mean that Millie and Gordon and Marion and Clara and Mary and Marge and all Christians called from this life are in that throng. And is it not true that every Christian faces tribulation? The root word means to be pressed down or hemmed in – to be under pressure. Which of you is immune from pressure – pressures of daily duties in a sinful world – the pressure of Satan’s tempting – the pressure of the world’s politics and power grabs - the pressure of your own sinful nature to judge by externals and not by faith? Every Christian experiences testing of faith, dark periods of struggle and suffering, limitations of sickness, circumstances of loneliness and loss, and every Christian lives under the pressure of time and of death. But thanks be to God – we are coming out of these pressures – we are journeying through them to a time and a place that John describes this way: Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (I John 3:2).
You know something of how Jesus is – having flesh and bones – even after His resurrection! You know how the Word became flesh and dwelt (tented) among us full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Well, that same word is used to describe how God will dwell with us in heaven. He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence – the Greek literally states that He will spread his tent over them just as Jesus became flesh and pitched His tent among us.
Dear Christians, this is a most beautiful picture of the saints of God in heaven. It indicates the warmth and intimacy of a family dwelling! It indicates that God will dwell with us in a manner experienced also with our human senses! God’s people will live in the flesh with God in the new heaven and the new earth (Rev. 21:3). You will live bodily with God in the new heaven and the new earth. As Christ rose bodily, so our bodies will be raised immortal and glorified in the final resurrection. Our real eyes which now shed tears over our sins and that of others, and over our affections and disappointments, and over the ruin and suffering in this dying world, will have no tears as God tents with us forever. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes! Indeed - Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
John beheld the great multitude, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. They were crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” That’s the new song of heaven! No greater praise can be given to God than from sinners who attribute their salvation totally to Him and to His Christ (Rev. 5:9-14). No greater comfort can be given to us sinners than that our salvation is due totally to God’s grace. Indeed - Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who see they possess no personal claim over against God, who can only plead for his mercy, whose only hope is His forgiveness in Jesus Christ, who like beggars receive everything as a gift in Christ. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The saints in heaven get joyfully, eternally loud about this truth – crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!”
Even the listing of the Church Militant, the church yet on earth bears testimony to the Lamb. The 144,000 who are sealed are listed by tribes – in perfect order – ready to march – ready for mission. These 12 tribes of 12,000 picture the Church throughout the entire New Testament period and at any given moment in that period. You are in that throng at this time in human history.
It is important to note that the 12 tribes recorded are a redefined list. This list is not according to birth order nor is it according to the allotment of the Promised Land as are the lists in the Old Testament. Judah (the fourth born) but the tribe from which the Messiah came is listed first. The tribe of Dan and the tribe of Ephraim (both tainted by idolatry and apostasy) are missing while the tribe of Levi and the tribe of Joseph are added. The twelve tribes of the sons of Israel listed in Revelation thus bear testimony to the Lamb and His cleansing blood. They show the Church of Jesus Christ cleansed from all apostasy and idolatry.
They also show the Church sealed and ready for action in this world of turmoil and suffering. This sealing is not conversion, but the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments that keeps us in the faith and protects us in godly hope. This sealing is what the risen Christ comes to continue doing to you this morning. “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
God comfort you with His “sealing” work in every time of disappointment, darkness, despair, defeat and in the face of death. He is readying you for present suffering and for future tribulation. God comfort you also with His picture of those now with Him in heaven. While here the warfare continues, those called home in Christ receive perfect rest and peace and pleasure. Who are these in white robes - These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen. |
|
Worship with Us!
Divine Service
Sundays @ 9:00am
Mondays @ 7:00pm
Bible Study
Sundays @ 10:30am
Morning Prayer
(Matins)
Wednesdays @ 8:30am
|
