Listen here.

Revelation 7:9-17

⁹ After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰ and crying out with a loud voice, 

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, 
and to the Lamb!” 

¹¹ And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying, 

“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving 
and honor and power and might 
be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 

¹³ Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” ¹⁴ I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, 

“These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. 
They have washed their robes 
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
¹⁵ “Therefore they are before the throne of God, 
and serve him day and night in his temple; 
and he who sits on the throne 
will shelter them with his presence. 
¹⁶ They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; 
the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 
¹⁷ For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, 
and he will guide them to springs of living water, 
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dear saints, yes, you saints.

What sets the saints apart? How do the saints become holy? Normally, when we use the word ‘saint’ we are thinking about the really good people. If the church were a classroom, we think the saints would be those who are on the ‘A’ honor roll, the summa cum laude graduates. But that is not the Scriptural way to talk about saints. Instead, that kind of thinking is close to the Roman Catholic idea of saints – those who have done enough good works to avoid purgatory.

The saints are not those who have done so many good works that they earned extra credit before God. Saints aren’t the teacher’s pets. Instead, the saints are those who are made holy by Jesus. We got a picture of the saints in this reading from Revelation 7. The saints are those who have come from every nation, tribe, people, and language who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That means, you are included in the number of the saints. You have been cleansed and made holy by Jesus and have had your sins wiped away by Christ.

Today on All Saints’ Day, we remember the saints who are not famous to the world, but they are famous to us. We knew them, took Communion with them, prayed, fellowshipped, and worshipped with them. As a congregation today, we remember with thanks to God Grace Hjelle, Carol Quern, Delores Malm, and John Griffith. We love them and we miss them, but as much as we love them, we know that they probably won’t be remembered in history books. They probably won’t be remembered by many others, but we will never forget them. In particular, we remember that while they have finished their course of faith, they are not gone from us. They have become part of the great cloud of witnesses that was mentioned in our verse of the week (Heb. 12:1-2), who surround us and are now cheering us on as we run our race of faith.

So far in our service, we have had two Biblical descriptions of all the saints that focus on how many there are. The saints are this ‘great cloud of witnesses’ from Heb. 12, and then here from Rev. 7:9 they are called a ‘great multitude’ that is so large you cannot count them. Imagine this massive throng, this sea of people, this glorious crowd so numerous that it takes your breath away. But don’t think for one minute that because there are so many of them that each individual becomes anonymous.

In v. 13, one of the four elders asks John, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” And I love John’s response. It’s like he says, “Boy, I hope you know!” But the elder tells John who they are, where they have come from, and how their robes got to be so white. Listen to the answer:

“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. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” 

These people are all known, intimately known, by God! They have white robes washed clean in the blood of the Lamb. Think about this for a minute. Remember Jesus’ parable about the wedding feast (Mt. 22:1-14). They have been called and invited. They have been greeted at the door. They have been given a wedding garment.

These people are guided by Jesus, their good Shepherd. Think of what Jesus says about this in John 10. “I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep” (Jn. 10:11). Jesus goes on to say about those who are His sheep, “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me”(Jn. 10:14-15). And the book of Revelation says that each one of these people have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 3:5, 13:8). In other words, each one of these people are known by God by name. God knows who they are, and He even knows the number of hairs on their head (Mt. 10:30).

The saints are the known ones! Known and loved by God. God be praised!

Because they are known by God, look at what these saints know by what they sing. Our text has two songs sung by two different choirs. The second one is sung by the choir of angels surrounding the throne. The angels sing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen” (v. 12). But the first song, the song of the saints, is different.

The choir of saints sing, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (v. 10). The angels didn’t sing about salvation, but the saints do. This is remarkable.

Now, there is something you need to know about this song, the original Greek does not have the word ‘belongs,’ the ESV supplies that word. The Greek doesn’t have a verb here. Greek does this at times. It leaves us to supply the verb. When Greek doesn’t supply a verb, it is because it doesn’t want to limit the action in any way, so ‘belongs’ is as good verb as any. But it is also legitimate to say, “Salvation is or belongs or is accomplished by or depends upon our God and to the Lamb.”

In other words, the eternal song of the saints is that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Now, of course, they are singing about this because it is true. They wouldn’t be singing about something false. But you don’t sing about normal, everyday things. You sing about wonderful things, amazing things, remarkable things. The saints in heaven are amazed and, we could even say, surprised that salvation belongs to God alone. Are they really surprised by that? You wouldn’t think they would be. It’s what the whole Bible teaches. It’s obvious that salvation is by grace alone.

It must be that even though they knew that salvation is by God’s grace alone, but when they got into heaven and saw this reality, they understood better than they ever did before. They are even more amazed and stunned by the salvation they have by grace now that they are in God’s presence.

This is marvelous, it should give us hope, and it should make us excited for when we are with Jesus. We also know that salvation is by grace alone. But we get so focused here about how to live our lives, how to be better people, how to have better relationships, how to improve in good works. All of that is good and right. But while the saints in heaven did those things while they lived here, when they arrive in heaven all those things fade away. The saints are eternally amazed at what God has done for them in saving them.

Dear saints, I hope that you never tire in this life about hearing that God has saved you by His infinite grace. And I hope that even though I mention in every sermon that Jesus has gone to the cross, shed His blood, and died to save you from your sin, I hope that you realize that this salvation will merit an eternal song of praise to Jesus. I want to hammer that into you with every sermon and through the liturgy we use here every week. But you will know it even better and it will be more glorious when you arrive in the presence of your Savior.

No matter how many times you hear it now, no matter how wonderful the Good News of the Gospel is in this life, it is still like looking at a picture of the Grand Canyon but never visiting it. Pictures can capture wonderful moments and remarkable beauty, but it never matches the reality.

On this side of heaven, we are always fighting the temptation to think that we offer something to God for our salvation. But know this, dear saints who are known by God, God’s mercy, grace, forgiveness, and salvation is more than enough to satisfy God’s wrath and remove it forever.

Apparently, things are clearer in heaven than they are here. May God bring us at last to that throng who is known by Him and who knows better than we do now the salvation that Christ has won for us. In that day, we will also know, and we will join in their song. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.