In Jesus Holy Name November 5, 2023
Text: Revelation 19:7, 21:3-5 All Saints Day, Redeemer
“Behold a Host, Arrayed in White”
Home. There is nothing like arriving home after a long journey. After 2 flight delays, airport screening, extra things placed in plastic containers, shoes and belts off, one book, your plane finally lands. You are almost home. There is no drive way like your drive way. No door like your door. No coffee like your coffee out of your own mug. No embrace like the one from your family.
You may have noticed that you are closer to your eternal home, than ever before. Each moment is a step taken. Each breath is a page turned. When we arrive we will be greeted by all our loved ones who have been waiting for us. Jesus will speak our name. Welcome home. Well done good and faithful servant.
John’s description of our future home steals your breath away. The final battle is graphic. Good clashes with evil. (Read Revelation 19:11-16) The glorified Jesus comes for His bride, His church. The wedding banquet has been prepared. (Rev. 19:7-8) John writes “I saw a new heaven and a new earth. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.” There will be no more death, no more spades of dirt thrown on the caskets. No names chiseled on granite. No black dresses. “No crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.” Home at last.
On this All Saint’s Sunday the “church” stops to remember the cloud of witnesses, the multitudes of our brothers and sisters who have died with faith in Jesus. In our service today we remember the names of our friends and loved ones. ……….. Last Sunday our congregation celebrated “Reformation Day”. Have you ever wondered by Martin Luther chose to post his 95 Thesis on October 31st. It was not an accident that he chose October 31, 1517.
He knew that the next day November 1st All Saints Day would be one of the most attended days of worship. November 1st had become a day of “holy obligation” by Papal decree in 1484. The Papal Decree told people that when they crossed the threshold of the church door for worship on All Saints Day a soul of their loved one would be released from purgatory. Attendance sored. On that Sunday Luther preached the words of Jesus, the words of grace and forgiveness, purchased on the cross of Jesus and then given freely to all who believed. No coins needed.
We all have been touched by the death of someone we love, someone close to us. Look at the windows in our church.. You know the names. Sometimes you even choose to sit in a different place…just so you can see the window that reminds you of a loved one. A saint now privileged to stand in the presence of Jesus.
I am reminded of the words of great hymn:
O blessed saints in bright array, Now safely home in endless day.
With palms they stand, who is this band before the throne of light.
These are the saints…..they sing their songs in endless light,
Praise the Lord, who with His word sustained them… on their earthly way…
“The Christian hope of heaven, the Christian hope of a resurrected body when Jesus returns, depends entirely upon the assumption that Jesus Christ died a physical death, vacated an actual grave, and ascended into heaven where He - at this moment - reigns as head of the church. The resurrection changed everything. If we embrace this promise, it changes our own eternity. (from The Applause of Heaven)
There will come a moment when we pass from this life to the next. No more struggle with the earth. No more shame before God. No more tension between people. No more death. This is our hope for tomorrow - but it can bring strength to us today. We have a promise from the living God that our death will be swallowed up in victory! Jesus Christ rose from the dead not just to show us His power but also to reveal our path. He will lead us through the valley of death.”..to our home.
“Your soul will immediately enter into the presence of God. You will enjoy conscious fellowship with the Father and those who have gone before. Your body will join you later. We believe this to be true because Jesus said to the thief on the cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise.” In Revelation 6 John tells us what he saw. When the Lamb opened the 5th seal I saw under the altar of God the souls of those who have been slain because of they held onto the word of God.”
“The soul of the believer journeys home, while the body of the believer awaits resurrection”. Paul reminds us: Read Philippians 3:20-21
Every Sunday we speak either the Apostle’s Creed or the Nicene Creed. One
particular phrase in the creed, says, “I believe…in the resurrection of the body.” Have you ever considered how difficult it is for modern, well-educated men and women to say something like that? The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead runs against the whole tenor of contemporary thinking. It asks us to believe that bodies now resting in the grave will one day come back to life.
Because we have all broken the commandments God asked us not too, because we passed up opportunities to do good for His name; because Satan encourages us to be selfish, and we too often agreed; Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death. Rich or poor. Famous or forgotten, long or short lived, respected, revered, or reviled, your life’s situation makes no difference.
None of us want our loved ones to be forgotten. All Saints Sunday has been celebrated or 2000 years as the “church” remembers Christians who held to the promises of Jesus, living their lives to honor His name, in their moment of history.
Memories and treasured photos still grace the walls in our homes. I still have the wedding photos of my grandparents on my wall. I never met my grandfather. Their hair was autumn-brown, not gray. In their wedding dress and suit, their face was once free of wrinkles. There were joyous vacations and family campouts. My one grandfather traveled to every farm in the late 1800’s to gather donations of wood to help build a new church. Their faith and service was passed to children and grandchildren. We may also remember the slower steps, the fading memory, our last anniversary or our last Thanksgiving together. Would that I could make everything new again…like their wedding day. But I can’t. But God can.
And He will. He will restore the energy. He will restore the hope. He will restore us with a glorified resurrected body like His. We will be home.
It is then I will hunger and thirst to hear the words of St. Paul. (read I Thessalonians 4:13-18)
Our earthly bodies are like seeds you plant in the ground. The seed doesn’t look like the fruit it will produce but you can’t get the fruit without the seed. If you want pumpkins, you don’t plant pumpkins; you plant pumpkin seeds. The same for oak trees. If you want oak trees, you plant an acorn and an oak tree comes up. You could look at an acorn all day long and it will never look like an oak tree yet it contains a forest of oak trees within its humble shell. (The Applause of Heaven)
Paul writes and entire chapter in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 regarding the question of a resurrected body. “If Christ has not been raised, then we will not be raised, and if we are not raised, our preaching is useless, our faith is useless, and we have believed in vain and are of all men most to be pitied (verses 12-20). “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first of those who have fallen asleep” and granted a resurrection body.” His resurrection is the “down payment” that guarantees that all who follow him by faith will one day be raised as well.
“From the moment of our birth, we are created by God, created in his image, called to worship and revere Him, until He calls us home. In the act of baptism, commanded by God, the child (or adult) crosses the “threshold” into the family of God and no longer stands outside the grace, love and mercy of God.
We don’t use the word “threshold” much these days but every house has one. Heaven has one. It’s an apt illustration. If you are standing outside the house, unless you use the window which is locked, the only way into the house is to step across the threshold.
Baptism is the regular way by which we human beings in this life are incorporated into the Body of Jesus. It is the threshold into God’s grace, His spiritual family, the community of faith, the “Ekklesia”, where we are nourished in our faith on earth.
My Friends. No other religion offers such a message. All others demand the right performance, the right sacrifice, the right chant, the right ritual, the right experience. Theirs is a kingdom of barter and tradeoffs; you do this and your God will give you what you want.
When Jesus appeared the first time, He came as the Lamb. The second time He appears He shall come as the Lion from the tribe of Judah. He will judge the world and the world system that has opposed His authority. He loves this earth that He created. When He returns He will restore His creation.
When Jesus reappears, as King of kings and Lord of lords, those Christians who are still alive will be changed, transformed so their mortal bodies will become incorruptible like the glorified resurrected body of Jesus. When Jesus returns, all who have died in Christ will rise again from the dead and take on a body of immortality, just like the resurrected glorified body of Jesus. (Jesus A Theography L. Sweet p. 289)
Charles Colson in his book, The Body writes: “few of us will find ourselves in the shoes or martyrdom. But their stories apply to all believers. “What you do emerges from who you are.” Our loved wones we remember kept e faith. In the mean time, while we await His return we are called to “live a moral and compassionate life, characterized by humility towards God. Faith grows in the home. Faith grows through the daily walk with God, denying our selfishness and letting God’s love flow through us then the grace of God will be glorified and demonstrated to others.”
‘For all your saints O Lord,
who strove in you to live
who followed you, obeyed adored
on this day we offer ….our grateful hymn of praise.
