Sermon - All Saints' Day 2023 - Matthew 5:1-12

The Ghent Altarpiece: Adoration of the Lamb, Jan van Eyck, circa 1429

Coming Out of the Great Tribulation

1. We live in the great tribulation

2. The saints who have come out of this great tribulation embolden us for the fight

3. We come out of the great tribulation through the Father’s love

1. Namely, we’re His children through baptism

2. Clothed in Christ’s righteousness

“This isn’t really what I pictured.” Have you ever said those words, or thought that way before? Things just aren’t turning out the way that you thought or hoped that they might. Others have disappointed you or not met your expectations. Something, or many things, you worked on ended up being a flop. Sometimes it’s your own failure, other times it’s the result of circumstances out of your control, oftentimes maybe it’s a mixture of the two. Our disappointments might range from work, church, family, or personal; all across the board things don’t always go the way we had hoped.

The trouble with living in a constant state of disappointment is that we usually give up when things go south. We quit our job and find a new one, we stop going to church, we move to another town, we get a divorce, we put distance between us and relatives. And if we can’t outright quit, then either we just check-out and stop caring, or become insufferably bitter and angry. 

So when you’re thinking this way, saying to yourself or others that this isn’t really what you pictured, you’re disappointed, ask yourself this: “What were you really expecting?” Did you honestly think that everything was going to go perfectly according to your particular ideas of how you think things should be? Were you expecting a world without sin and the devil? Did you think that you and others were perfect and wouldn’t make mistakes? The reality is that we live in the great tribulation and that we’re not gods, we can’t control everything and everyone around us, so this life isn’t going to be a perfect utopia.

To help prevent us from quitting, checking out, or becoming bitter, it can be especially helpful for us to look to the saints for encouragement. The saints who have come out of this great tribulation embolden us for the fight. In a way, this is why God gave the revelation to St. John. He was an old man, and unlike all the other apostles, he wasn’t martyred and put out of his misery, instead he was exiled to the island of Patmos to suffer alone. So in his lonesomeness God sent him a vision of all the saints in paradise, reminding St. John that he wasn’t alone, emboldening him to endure the great tribulation so that he might continue to walk the lonely way in faithfulness.

Hear again was St. John saw: “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 who were all of these people? “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.” 

The saints who have gone before us are those who have already endured the great tribulation which we are currently living through. Our experiences and our suffering, our loneliness and disappointments aren’t anything new, instead “no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man.” So when we see the saints who have come out of the great tribulation, we’re encouraged that we also may come out of the great tribulation. If others have gone through it, often suffering greatly for the sake of Christ, then so too might I make it through.

This is one of the reasons saints have been remembered throughout church history, because when we know their story we want to be like them, we want to be as faithful as they were. Those saints are our heroes of the faith. Not that they rescue us, but that we want to emulate them. For instance, fictional superheroes are quite popular today, and it’s common for little boys especially to pretend to be those superheroes, to imagine themselves fighting bad guys, undergoing great pains, and rescuing the pretty girl in the end. Our remembrance of the saints works the same way, but not just for little boys wanting to be Spiderman, but for all Christians to be as faithful to Christ as the saints in times gone by. 

We think of Old Testament saints like: Rahab, who hid the Israelite spies in her home; David, who went out to fight a giant; Samson, who gave his life to defeat the Philistines; Daniel, who prayed even though he’d be thrown to the lions. New Testament saints like: John the Baptist, who called all to repentance even though it cost him his life; Stephen, who preached of Jesus and prayed for his persecutors as he was being killed; Paul, who was persecuted in nearly every town he went to, and he still kept going. We think of later saints like: Perpetua, Polycarp, Patrick, Boniface, Luther, Walther, and our own ancestors. We remember these saints and their stories because they’re heroes of the faith, and we perhaps not unlike little boys, imagine ourselves to be heroic like them. Instead of growing bitter, lazy, or quitting, we become stronger and more zealous, like the saints of old, willing to risk even our own lives.

But of course the saints didn’t endure by their own inner strength, as if they were just better than the rest of us. Instead, the saints of old were faithful by the same means which we will be faithful. We come out of the great tribulation by the Father’s love. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” We are God’s children; the heavenly Father is our Father.

Through baptism God has adopted us into His family so that we may be His children. Thus, our faithfulness isn’t so much a result of our particular labors, but a result of our Father’s love. Because we’re God’s children we’re not mortals anymore; we’re immortal, and will live forever. Mortals live as if preserving this life were of utmost importance. But we who are immortal live for more than this life, so we’re able to endure tribulations here with the expectation of glory later.

What’s more, since God loves us as His own children, we learn to see our tribulations in light of God’s love. Instead of being disappointed, thinking this isn’t what I had hoped for, we rather marvel at what God is going to do with our tribulations. We would be wise to say: “I can’t wait to see what God is going to do with this.” When we’re suffering, when things are failing and nothing is going according to our plans, we should be getting excited to see how God is going to make this work in the end. Because remember what God promises for those whom He loves: “All things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.” 

This means that we have nothing to be disappointed about, not really, because God is in control and making all things work out according to His purpose. Thus, the greatest strength of the saints is the Father’s love for them, particularly God’s love for them in Christ Jesus. “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Jesus shed His blood in order to rescue us from this great tribulation. He is our one true redeemer! Sure, He looked like a disappointment to many in Israel. He looked like a normal, poor, human being, who nursed as a baby, and died as a man. What a disappointment thought the disciples on the road to Emmaus, hoping He was the one to redeem Israel, but then He died.

But isn’t it incredible that through this great tribulation that Jesus suffered, He did in fact redeem His people from their sins. His blood cleanses us of all sin and death, gaining for us the eternal kingdom, and making us immortal. If God can make Jesus’ death into our eternal redemption, if He can turn that tribulation into the greatest good, then just think, God can also use our tribulations for good! God uses the tribulations of Jesus, the tribulations of all the saints, including ours, and the ultimate end is our salvation and life in paradise. So when you’re disappointed, remember the saints, remember Jesus, and let’s see what God’s going to do with this, because you know it’s going to be good.