Sermon: All Saints’ Sunday (1st Reading)

6 November AD 2011

Sermon Theme: The Lamb in the Midst

Summary: Our commemoration of the saints triumphant is actually a celebration of the One who makes unholy people holy. Our Lord Jesus Christ, “the Lamb in the midst of the throne,” is also in the midst of His people on earth. He sends His Holy Spirit to work through Word and Sacrament to forgive our sins, to create and sustain faith in us, and to lead us to eternal joy in His kingdom.

“Salvation belongs to our God ... and to the Lamb!” cries out the white-robed throng. But salvation also belongs to them — and to us. It is God’s gift, purchased by the infinitely worthy “Lamb who was slain,” whose “blood ... ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and ... made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (see Revelation 5)”

Text: Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

   12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
   12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
   12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
   12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
   12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
   12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
   12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
   12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
   12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
   12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
   12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
   12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

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, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

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

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.

“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.” Revelation 7:2-17

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear the MP3 of The Lamb in the Midst, preached to the saints of God at Zion Lutheran Church, Corder, Missouri.

Other Readings: Psalm 149; 1 John 3:1-3; Matthew 5:1-12

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