Two Different Scenes

Revelation 7:2-17: Then I saw another angel rising up from the east, who had the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were allowed to harm the earth and the sea, ³ “Don’t harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we seal the servants of our God on their foreheads.” ⁴ And I heard the number of the sealed:
144,000 sealed from every tribe of the Israelites:
5 12,000 sealed from the tribe of Judah,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben…

⁹ After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:
Salvation belongs to our God,
who is seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!

¹¹ All the angels stood around the throne, and along with the elders and the four living creatures they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God, ¹² saying,
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honor
and power and strength
be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are these people in white robes, and where did they come from?”
¹⁴ I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
Then he told me: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
¹⁵ For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and they serve him day and night in his temple.
The one seated on the throne will shelter them:
¹⁶ They will no longer hunger;
they will no longer thirst;
the sun will no longer strike them,
nor will any scorching heat.
¹⁷ For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne
will shepherd them;
he will guide them to springs of the waters of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Even though All Saints Day falls on November 1st (which was last Monday), we are celebrating it today and for good reason. It is an important Christian holy day because it grounds us in reality, encourages us, and it is designed to bring us great comfort.

The word “saint” is used about 60 times in the New Testament. It literally means “holy one,” carrying with it the idea of being set apart and sacred and perfect (Matt. 5:48; 1 Pet. 1:15-16). If you are a saint, you are holy, set apart, and sacred.

It is also a word that means you are a Christian. If you are a true Christian, you are a saint. If you are a true saint, you are a Christian. We see this, for example, when St. Paul writes letters to congregations and calls all the members – not just some of them, but all of them – “saints” (the exception being the church at Thessalonica we he refers to them as “church,” a word that also carries with it the same sort of meaning).

There are two ways in which Christians are holy ones or saints. The first is found in Revelation 7:14 which says those standing before the Lamb of God in heaven are those who, while on earth, had “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, had washed away all their sins. He has washed away all your sins, making you holy and sacred and spotless before God. This is not something you necessarily feel here and now. Neither is it something to argue with God about. Rather, it is a reality to be believed for it is the result of Christ’s holy blood and declared to be so by God’s holy word. It has come to you by holy baptism. As Paul says: “Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless” (Eph. 5:25-27). And this holy status is received by faith, as the apostle Paul reminds us of many times when he says that righteousness is through faith and is credited to us by faith (Rom. 1, 3, 4, 9, 10). This of great comfort as we struggle with sin in this life.

The other way Christians are holy ones or saints here and now is described by St. Peter: “As the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:15-16). The Christian, the saint, is “set apart” in his conduct, in his lifestyle, in the way he lives. It is a life of service toward God and his neighbor. “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). This is the life of the Christian, though we stumble in many ways along to road.

So, you are saints, holy ones, in both these ways: forgiven, always and completely, in the blood of Christ, given to you in your baptism and through faith, and conducting yourself in a holy manner on a day-to-day basis.

This is pretty much basic Christianity. It is justification and sanctification.

Now, we go to Revelation 7. What we have here can be described in two photos I saw a while back. One was photo of a person in Nazi Germany during WWII. The man was in a concentration camp, decimated, suffering, on the verge of death. The second photo was of a man 20 years after the war. He was in England, healthy, and smiling. It was the same man in each photo, just two strikingly different scenes or settings.

That is what we find in Revelation 7: the same people, but two different settings.

In the first setting, you have this group on the earth and the earth is about to experience great harm, a great tribulation. But this group will not experience harm or tribulation unless they have first received the seal of God on their foreheads. Then and only then are the four angels allowed to bring afflictions and the great tribulation on the earth.

Take a look at your bulletin cover. This is a “photo” of this first scene or setting. On the right are the four angels prepared to bring harm and tribulation on the earth. On the left is another angel putting the seal of God on the foreheads of this group. These are the saints on earth. They are receiving this seal to protect them during – not from, but during – the afflictions and tribulation on earth. They will suffer because of afflictions, but they will not be overcome; they will not lose in the end, because they have this seal on their foreheads.

This is also one of the messages of our gospel lesson today from Matthew 5 – the Beatitudes. Saints here on earth will suffer: they will be poor in spirit, will mourn, will be humble and humbled, will hunger and thirst for righteousness, will be persecuted, but still they remained blessed, Jesus says. And they remain blessed because of what Christ gives them while they are here and ultimately because of what is coming, the other scene.

When we read Revelation, we are curious to know the meanings of the various and strange symbols we find there. We know, for example, that the number 144,000 represents all true believers, all true saints. But we do need to be careful since there is not a clear interpretation to every symbolic picture in Revelation. That has not stopped many, however, from getting carried away, coming up with multiple false interpretations of future events.

But can we make anything of this seal on the foreheads of the saints? What is that? I have been advised against equating the seal with baptism. And rightly so. At the same time, this seal is not disconnected from baptism. Here is why. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1: “In Christ you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.” (1:13; see also v. 14). Sealed in Christ with the promised Holy Spirit, when you heard the powerful word of God, the gospel of forgiveness and salvation in Christ, and you believed it. This seal is brought up again in Revelation 14: “Then I looked, and there … with [the Lamb of God] were 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads” (Rev. 14:1). When you were baptized, in whose name were you baptized? In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And when you were baptized, where was that watered poured, at least for most of you? On your forehead. That may or may not be a coincidence. Again, I want to make it clear that I am not equating the seal of Revelation 7 directly to baptism. But what I am saying about this seal on the foreheads of the saints is this: If you through the work of the Holy Spirit have heard and received the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, whether that gospel be in word or sacrament, and you believe in this gospel for the forgiveness of your sins and your salvation, you have been sealed.

This is important for your comfort, people. It means that in any and all sufferings, in any and all afflictions, in any and all tribulations, you will not be overcome; you remain among the blessed. It means that your loved ones who died having heard and received the gospel in word and sacrament, and died believing this gospel, were not overcome; they remained among the blessed. They were sealed.

So, this is the first photo, the first scene: Christians, saints, on earth, having to endure the great tribulation. But enduring.

And then there is the second photo: the same group, the same saints, but a different scene and setting. Here it is again:

After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
Salvation belongs to our God,
who is seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb!

And then we continue reading right after these verses:

Then one of the elders asked me, “Who are these people in white robes, and where did they come from?”

I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

Then he told me: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and they serve him day and night in his temple.
The one seated on the throne will shelter them:
They will no longer hunger;
they will no longer thirst;
the sun will no longer strike them,
nor will any scorching heat.
For the Lamb who is at the center of the throne
will shepherd them;
he will guide them to springs of the waters of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Revelation: (7:13-16)

We really can’t improve upon these words. But let me attempt to make it more personal. When we get there, with Jesus the Lamb at the center of the throne, we might say something like, “Laurel, is that you? You look so young and healthy!” Or, “Aren’t you the one who used to be my father” or “my mother? Nothing wrong with your soul or mind now!” Or, “I seem to recall you were daughter back then. Seeing you now as you are gives me a joy I never thought I would have again!” Or, “Oh, you were my brother or sister on earth” or “you were my fellow church member on earth. Wow! You’re not even sinning anymore!” Or, “You were that Christian I read about on earth. You were persecuted, tortured, and brutally murdered. You’d never know it now!” You might also say to yourself, “And then there’s me! It’s almost too much! I’m in this unbelievable perfect environment! I am not sick, I am not aging, I am not sinning, I am not lacking anything. All my tears have been wiped away! Why?”

Because, while you were here, you had washed your filthy sinful robes and made them white, made them holy, in the blood of the Lamb. And that Lamb will be there in heaven always to shepherd you, always to guide you to springs of the water of life, and to wipe every tear from your eyes. Z

Amen.