Text: Revelation 7:9-17
Theme: “Sir, You Know”
All Saints Sunday
November 2, 2014
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Denton, Texas
Rev. Paul R. Dunklau
+In
the Name of Jesus+
9 After
this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could
count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the
throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm
branches in their hands. 10 And
they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation
belongs to our God,
who
sits on the throne,
and
to the Lamb.”
11 All
the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four
living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped
God, 12 saying:
“Amen!
Praise
and glory
and
wisdom and thanks and honor
and
power and strength
be
to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”
13 Then
one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did
they come from?”
14 I
answered, “Sir, you know.”
And
he said, “These are they who have come 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
‘Never
again will they hunger;
never
again will they thirst.
The
sun will not beat down on them,’[a]
nor
any scorching heat.
17
For
the Lamb at the center of the throne
will
be their shepherd;
‘he
will lead them to springs of living water.’[b]
‘And
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’[c]”
Well, we better not leave the book of Revelation just to sit
there at the back of the Bible. It’s a
lonely book that way; it isn’t read very often.
It isn’t read because it’s hard to understand, and we tend to shy way
from what we do not understand.
Still, good things come your way when you read it. Verse 3 of chapter 1 says: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of
this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is
written in it, because the time is near.”
Time “is near”, huh? Time,
as measurable as it is (did you set your clocks back?), is relative in this
instance. If this book, written by John
(one of the sons of Zebedee and one of our Lord’s twelve disciples), showed up
between, say, 65 AD and 96 AD, what’s so “near” about that? It was a long, long time ago. While we’re left scratching our heads on
this, we should note, then, that Revelation was written during a time when the
violent and systematic persecution of Christians began in the Roman Empire. Caesar was lord – and not Jesus. Hold on to Jesus, and you get thrown to the
hungry lions.
When the time was “near” then, it was the Romans. When the time is “near” now, it would appear
to be ISIS and/or ISIL. There are
heart-wrenching stories of the killing of Christian children now that we can
barely take in.
Persecution of believers, either then or now, is not pleasant
to think about. It is, to use the
language of Revelation, a “great tribulation.”
Today, All Saints Sunday, is the day when the holy catholic
church focuses on those who have COME OUT of the great tribulation.
A “saint”, quite simply and by way of review, is a “holy
one.” “Holy” has two meanings. First, it means “without sin”. If it’s holy, it doesn’t have any sin. Second, holy means that it “belongs to the
Lord.” If it’s holy, it’s the
Lord’s. We, here today, are saints more
fully in the second meaning. We are the
Lord’s. When we move to the church triumphant, when
our baptisms are complete at the time of our deaths, we shall be fully holy in
both meanings.
In Revelation, “those who have come out of the great
tribulation” are “holy” in both meanings.
They are saints. “For all the
saints, who, from their labor rest, who, thee, by faith before the world
confessed: Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever
blest. Hallelujah!”
In our snippet from Revelation, Jesus is referenced as the
“lamb”. The saints have “washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.”
John gets to see the whole kit and caboodle. “I looked, and there before me was a great
multitude that no one could count.” It
was a diverse group; every “tribe, nation, people, and language” was
represented. The robes, the palm
branches, the crying out, and the worshipping – these are the things this
diverse group had in common.
Poor John; he can scarce take it in. Then one of the Presbyterians asks him a
question. (Actually, it’s not
“Presbyterian”; it’s presbuteron –
which is the Greek word for “elder”. In addition, it’s the word “Presbyterian”
is based on.) So a heavenly
presbyter/elder asks him: “These in
white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
Now John, to his everlasting credit, does not sit down and
think the question over. He wasn’t
seeking brownie points in the hope that he, one day, would win a spot among the
countless, happy throng of saints. He
didn’t speculate. Speculation is one of
America’s favorite indoor and outdoor sports!
Witness the call-in talk shows, the letters to the editor, the blogs,
the posts, the opinion pieces.
“Who are these folks?” asks the Presbyterian to John. Knowing
who these folks are is not so important to John. More important is that he knows who does
know. He replies to the elder: “Sir, you know.”
Sadly, sometimes we Christians do our profiling and
picking. We claim knowledge of knowing
who is – or who is not – one of us. What
happens then is the arrival of cliques, factions, and, eventually, schism. The devil – or the dragon thrown down, as is
portrayed in Revelation – licks his chops.
John didn’t pick and profile.
Even if he knew who they were, he wasn’t about to say. More important to him was that the elder from
heaven knew. “Sir, you know (who they
are),” says John. He wasn’t
ignorant. He was being faithful: “Sir, you know.”
Allow me, as your minister today, to affirm that and beef it
up with another reference. You can’t get
much better than 2 Timothy 2:19a. Paul
writes: “Nevertheless, God’s solid
foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: ‘The Lord knows those who are his”.
This morning it is our joy to celebrate the lives of the
saints and to rejoice that the Lord, our Lord, knows who they are.
The “time is near,” says John. The saints that John saw are nearer than we
think! In the Service of the Sacrament,
moments away, this elder will cry out:
“Therefore, with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven, we
laud and magnify Thy holy name.”
What of the “company of heaven”? It is that impossible to count multitude that
John saw – all those who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Who are they?
First thing to be said is that the Lord knows – and they, in turn, by
the grace of God, knew who the Lord was and is.
As our text declares, they are “before His throne” and “serving” God
“night and day.”
So we take our communion today – not apart from but with
Helen Anang, Pat Langford, Jean Hollingsworth, Virginia Thomas, John Haynie,
and, yes, with the today’s martyrs in the middle east. We’re together with all who have gone before
us who have heard the Lord’s Gospel, believed its truth, and, by faith, lived
its way.
They are in the church triumphant. Meanwhile, we remain in the church
militant. Often, we are faced with
questions, difficult questions, even questions for which it seems there are no
answers. When life hands you those types
of questions; when the answers are not forthcoming, remember John: “Sir, you know.”
The Lord knows – and that Lamb of God is gracious and
merciful to you. He has the scars to
prove it. So, Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world, grant us Thy peace.
Amen.
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