Revelation 7:9-17

            {Prayer}

            You know those mornings where you are running behind and nothing seems to be going your way? If you have or had kids, you know exactly what I mean. You’re so busy taking care of them, getting their breakfast, checking homework, telling them for the fifth time to get their shoes on, telling them we are leaving in two minutes even though you said it twice five minutes ago. Those kinds of mornings … Jessica feels blessed when I finally walk through the church doors, before the preschool kids arrive and I have a hot cup of God’s goodness from Scooters in my hand. I feel blessed as well because you know that if she is getting that hot cup of God’s goodness, then there is one in my other hand for me.

            As we draw closer and closer to Thanksgiving, we typically try to slow down and reflect on how it is we are blessed and what it is we are thankful for. Now I realize it’s only November 2^nd, but I’ve already seen people posting on social media the thing they are thankful for today. 

            In his explanation of the beginning of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth”, Martin Luther in the Large Catechism says, “God’s goodness is so great that He gives us all we need for this life—food, drink, clothing, house, home, and all that pertains to the support and needs of the body—not only to the godly, but also to the wicked and ungrateful.”

            It might not seem fair that God would richly bless the wicked, the unbeliever, and the ungrateful … But that’s not something for us to decide. God commands us to love Him above all things and love our neighbor as ourself. Loving our neighbor means loving the wicked and ungrateful. By loving them, by sharing the goodness of God with them in word and deed, maybe God is using us to plant that seed of faith that the Holy Spirit can nurture and cause to grow.

But there’s something we need to remember … when we look at Revelation 7, we see that the blessedness of the saints isn’t defined by what they had in this life, but by Whose they were.

John writes about 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” (7:9). Before this multitude stood before the Lamb … they went through something John calls “the great tribulation.”

Normally when hear about “the great tribulation”, we often think about the end times or a global catastrophe that will wipe out everything. But that isn’t what John is talking about. While we are blessed, we also live in tribulation. We live in this tension between what God has promised to His people and what we experience. The saints who have gone before us knew this tension well. They knew what it meant to weep, to struggle, to live by faith when things looked grim.

And so do we. We struggle. We struggle not only with the world around us, but with the sin within us. We struggle because, if we’re honest, sometimes we enjoy that sin. We find pleasure in it. It gives us a false sense of control or release. We know we ought not give in to temptation, but sometimes it’s hard not to.

Paul puts it best in Romans 7. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (7:14-15). James says, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins” (4:17). We struggle, each of us, every single day. This is part of our tribulation that we are going through.

Luther says that we are both saint and sinner at the same time. We are blessed, we realize that … and yet we groan. We are redeemed by the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross, and yet we still wrestle with sin daily. We belong to Christ. We are claimed by Him in the waters of Baptism, but we are not yet home.

The promise we have this morning from Revelation 7 is that the Lamb who washed us in His blood will one day welcome us home. And when He does, He will wipe away every tear from our eyes.

The blessings we have now are but shadows of blessings. They are just small sparks of God’s goodness that Luther spoke of. But what awaits us, what the saints who have gone before us have is the fullness of blessing. Not just earthly comfort, but eternal fellowship with God Himself.

Johann Gerhard, a Lutheran theologian in the early 1600’s once said, “The saints, while they lived on earth, often drank the bitter cup of affliction; but now they drink of the river of eternal joy.” This is the picture Revelation 7 give us. The saints … they are no longer thirsty, no longer hungry, no longer scorched by the heat of suffering. They don’t have to deal with these things anymore because the Lamb Himself, Jesus, is their Shepherd and He is taking care of them.

And that’s the ultimate blessing. It’s not the things here on earth, it’s not even the good gifts we thank God for each day and at Thanksgiving. The ultimate blessing is to stand before the throne of the Lamb, clothed in white robes washed by the blood of Jesus, and to be fully and finally His.

This morning, we remember the saints who now stand in that place. We remember our parents, grandparents, spouses, children, family, and friends. We remember people who once sat beside at in worship and around our tables at home. We remember them. By their faith in Christ, we can rest secure that they are now standing before the throne. We remember as we still journey on, we are still being led by the same Shepherd through the valley of deep darkness. We too will stand before our victorious Savior and hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:23). Until that day, we walk by faith, trusting that the same Lamb who shepherded the saints before us will lead us home too. Amen.

The peace of God, that surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.