Posted on 11/01/2009 3:04:56 PM PST by Charles Henrickson
“Who Are These, Clothed in White Robes?” (Revelation 7:9-17)
Today is All Saints’ Day, November 1, and, as happens every few years, this year it falls on a Sunday. We always observe All Saints’ on the first Sunday in November, and this year that Sunday happens to be the day itself. On All Saints’ Day, we rejoice that we are part of that great communion of saints that is the church of Christ, both the church on earth and the church in heaven. All the saints, all those made holy by the blood of Christ. Saints, holy ones, set apart to belong to God alone. All saints, all of us who have been baptized into Christ and clothed with his righteousness.
On All Saints’ Day we commemorate the faithful departed, those saints who have fallen asleep in the Lord and joined the Church Triumphant. In particular, we remember the faithful departed from our own midst who have died in the last twelve months. This year, for example, we remember our sister Grace Carrow, who departed this life in September and who, at 97, was our congregation’s oldest member and the one who had been a member here the longest.
How fitting it is, therefore, that we should baptize Grace’s great-grandchildren, Haydyn and Tyler, here on this day! All Saints’ Day is a great day for a baptism! I mean, the altar is decked out in white, the lessons fit beautifully for a baptism--all kinds of theological themes converging here! On top of that, we’re remembering Grace, and also, the Carrow family is coming straight from the funeral of Grace’s husband, Bearl, just yesterday. Thoughts of life and death, new life and eternal life, are swirling all about.
Today, then, there is a “perfect storm” of heavenly grace coming together. Think about it: It’s Sunday, the Lord’s Day, the day our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It’s a baptism day, when two new saints are added to the roster through Holy Baptism. And it’s All Saints’ Day, when we remember the faithful departed and look forward to joining them in the resurrection at the Last Day. So today I want to draw a line connecting these three events: Christ’s resurrection on Easter Day; your baptismal day, when you were raised to newness of life; and the day of Christ’s return, when your baptism will be consummated in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting in the age to come. Easter Day, Baptism Day, and the Last Day: The common theme is resurrection, and the common thread connecting the three is seen in the liturgical color white.
For our text, let’s focus on this portion of the reading from Revelation 7: “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.’”
“Who are these, clothed in white robes?” These are the saints, baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and thus assured of their own resurrection unto the eternal life and bliss of heaven. Easter Day and the Last Day have their connecting link, for you, in the day of your baptism.
Easter Day is the foundation and basis for everything that follows. Without Easter, without Christ’s saving death and victorious resurrection, there is no salvation, no baptism, no hope of heaven, no resurrection of the body, no life everlasting. Without Easter, there are no saints, only sinners, sinners condemned to death and damnation.
Everything rests on the blood of the Lamb. The saints in white robes are saints, holy ones, precisely because “they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” The blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ Jesus is the Lamb who was slain as the perfect sacrifice for all our sins.
Your sins, your violations of God’s word and will, weighed heavily against you. You were born in sin, born with a sinful nature, inclined to walk your own way and not in the way of your Creator. Your lack of love, a lack of love for God, a lack of love for your neighbor--this is evidence of your sinful condition. Sins of thought, word, and deed--my failure to do the right thing, my tendency to do the wrong thing--this honestly is who I am. The misery and death we all experience in this sinful world--this is our common lot. All Sinners, not All Saints--this is who we are. Who will rescue us from our sin and death and the grave and the abyss beyond?
Thank God for the blood of the Lamb! For God’s own Son, Jesus Christ, came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation. He came into our fallen world and taught and walked the way of righteousness. He is pure and holy, doing the will of God as man was intended to do. And yet this holy, pure, and righteous one was rejected by men and condemned as a criminal. He suffered death, even death on a cross, shedding his blood in the process. Christ suffered this willingly, for you, in your place, taking your sins and their punishment on his sinless shoulders. The holy precious blood of the Lamb is the price he paid to win your forgiveness, so that your sins are no longer held against you.
That he was successful in this his saving mission is shown forth, most gloriously, on Easter Day. Our Lord’s victorious resurrection on Easter shows that the Father accepted the Son’s sacrifice as perfect and complete. The Lamb who was slain is now raised from the dead, and he lives forever in the glories of heaven.
Now how does Christ’s victory over sin and death by his death and resurrection get applied to you? In Holy Baptism. Your baptism day is when Easter gets delivered to your doorstep, with your name on it. The saints are saints because they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. All your sins are washed away in the waters of Holy Baptism, when the forgiving, cleansing blood of Christ gets applied to you. God is doing his work here, his saving work of turning sinners into saints. That’s why the white garment is the traditional garb for those being baptized. For in baptism we are clothed with Christ, clothed with the pure, sinless robe of Christ’s righteousness that covers all our sin. “Who are these, clothed in white robes?” They are you and me and all the saints, all the holy ones made holy by the blood of Christ. And today that number has been expanded by two, as Haydyn and Tyler are added to God’s family.
Your baptism day is your own personal Easter Day. You are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, and that is saving and wonderful and glorious! This is cause to celebrate and rejoice! The old Adam of sin and death is drowned and buried, and the new man in Christ is raised to newness of life. Every day now you live in your baptism. You have a new life to live now, a life of faith and hope and love. This dying and rising with Christ happens each new day. This is the daily life of his saints.
Your baptism into Christ not only has meaning and power for your everyday life, it also points you ahead to the Last Day and your own resurrection and the life of the world to come. That is why our funeral service begins with a Remembrance of Baptism, recalling the promise God gave you on the day you were baptized. A white funeral pall, if the church has one--a white funeral pall is placed on the casket and the pastor says: “In Holy Baptism, Grace”--let’s use Grace’s name as an example--“In Holy Baptism Grace was clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness that covered all her sin.” And then this passage from Romans 6 is read: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Do you see it? Do you see the connection between Easter and baptism and resurrection? In baptism, Christ’s righteousness becomes our righteousness. In baptism, Christ’s resurrection becomes our resurrection--a rising to new life now, and the physical resurrection of our bodies on the Last Day when Christ returns. The white color of Easter Day, the white garment of our baptismal day, and the white color of All Saints’ Day makes the connection for us most vividly.
“Who are these, clothed in white robes?” These are the saints, baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and thus assured of their own resurrection unto the eternal life and bliss of heaven. And, oh, what bliss that will be! In closing, listen once again to this most beautiful of descriptions of that bliss, which St. John was privileged to catch a glimpse of. “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 then a few verses later: “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come? . . . 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.”
Today on All Saints’ Day, remember, this is the bliss and the joy that awaits you! “Who are these, clothed in white robes?” They are you, fellow baptized saints of God!
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.”
im glad they are there to pray for me.
...Iouda...Rouben...Gad...Aser...Nephthalim...Manasse...Symeon...Levi...Issachar...Zaboulon...Ioseph...Beniamin...
What happened to the tribe of Dan? Joseph is in there along with one of his sons (Manasseh).
Thanks for this message. It’s very humbling and awesome to read these words from Revelation and to think about all those who have gone before us who are now in Heaven because of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ - and to think that one day we too will be there with them!
All praise, honor, and glory be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
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