Pastor's Sermon - November 2nd, 2025 - All Saints' Day (observed)
Revelation 7:2-17
John sees an angel with the seal of God sealing the servants of God upon their foreheads. A seal is a matter of ownership and protection. The Lord’s angels are sealing God’s people for His own possession and protection. And this sealing is something we have seen ourselves! Baptism is the manner of sealing the Lord has elected to bless us with. He marks us by water and His own Name upon our foreheads and upon our hearts, and in this most glorious moment, the Lord graciously lays claim upon us, His Church. You have been sealed with the Holy Spirit and marked as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified.
This may seem like a small thing. Some water. Some words. Back to your seats, but take with you this little certificate. The world sees such a humble act and thinks little of it. To the world, the Church looks weak, scattered, and even defeated. We can appear as a people clinging to an archaic and not-trending set of beliefs that hold no relevancy or power in our modern era. We’re a world of science, reason, and self-direction. We’re a world of bearing the seals of our own names , whatever identity we want to claim at any given moment, and our own fleeting values- not the seal of someone else and His eternal truths.
And the Church suffers. The saints on earth are not yet triumphant. We are not called the Church Victorious or the Church At Rest- not yet. We are currently, you and me, we’re the Church Militant. We are still in the battle. The war is waging and we have been marked as soldiers in the fight- soldiers who do not act on the power of muscle or grit- but who march by faith and the power of God’s Word. Battling against sin, death, and the Devil.
The reality of being the Church Militant is that we still experience suffering. Every war comes with pain and unpleasantries, to put it mildly. We feel this tension in our daily struggles. Our own struggle against sin seems hopeless- except we are sealed by the Lord. Our own frailness seems insurmountable- except we are sealed by the Lord. And worst of all, death seems undefeatable- except we are sealed by the Lord.
Many of us know the realities of this struggle in very potent ways. So many of us have buried loved ones. So many of us have witnessed death do its worst. So many of us feel the aging and weakening of the body and the realities of this temporal world. So many of us grieve. So many of us know sorrow too well. All Saints’ Day reminds us that the Christian life is not triumphalism, but perseverance under the cross.
If we believe that the Christian life is nothing but triumphalism, then each one of us will be discouraged. The reality of this fallen world is that we, the Church Militant, are surrounded by death and temptation; our faith is weary; our eyes see wounds and graves, not glory and triumph. Not in an earthly sense.
Indeed, if our comfort and our faith rested upon what our eyes witness only, then we are the most defeated. If the realities and hopes of our faith exist only in the temporal plane of this world then we are despaired. The glories of Jesus are not well seen on this side of life. This life now is one of Church Militancy. It is war. It is struggle. It is hope and faith. Not Triumph.
But do not let this discourage you. John saw the vision of triumph. He saw the truth of God’s power and Will. He saw the fulfillment of God’s Word. John saw countless multitudes from every nation, those sealed by the seal of God, and they were clothed in white robes, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Who are these countless people?
These are the saints. These are the saints in glory- the very Church Triumphant. The white robes are not their own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. They have been washed clean in His blood. Clothed in His perfection.
We cannot allow the suffering that our eyes witness and the graves scattered across this globe turn us from the blessed truth of Jesus Christ- His death and resurrection. His cross was an eye-wrenching spectacle of suffering and death. His grave was a punctuation on the reality of death.
But He did not remain in the grave. The promise of God shown forth fulfilled in Him. Three days after His death, Christ burst from the grave! Alive! What seemed like a defeat was a victory! Christ had been anointed for this purpose- to die and live for the sake of God’s fallen people.
And this death and resurrection, this victory over sin, death, and the Devil, is exactly what we’ve been baptized into. Paul assures us! We were sealed not as slaves or cattle are branded, not at all. We were sealed as co-victors in the army of God. We were sealed as inheritors of Christ’s eternal Kingdom. We were sealed as those who have life- not death. Does this mean we will never die? No. In this body we will die. Paul tells us that we have been baptized into Christ’s death. Just as Jesus died, so too shall we. But if we have been baptized into His death, then we also have been baptized, sealed, into His life. Just as He rose from the dead, so shall His sealed people be raised from death to life. And the life in Christ is eternal.
John’s vision sees not the saints at the focus. This most wonderful heavenly existence isn’t their to boast of. It is not their doing. The victory, triumph, and eternal life of the Church is wholly the work of Jesus Christ her Savior. All of heaven proclaims this, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” This is the Church Triumphant- those who have overcome death by Christ and now live in eternal worship of God in Heaven- at peace and in perfection.
And the comfort for us still on earth? Those of us who are soldiers in the Church Militant? The saints are the proof! The Church Militant is not fighting a losing battle. Quite the opposite! We are engaged in a war that has already been decided! The battle is waging, but the victory is already won! Will there be suffering in the battle? Is there death? Yes! And we grieve this. We grow weary of this. We cry out to the Lord of this!
“Who are these, clothed in white robes?” These are the faithful departed- the ones who “came out of the great tribulation.” These are the soldiers who suffered, like you and me, but now we see them at rest. We see the Church’s Triumph in them. They serve God day and night in His temple and they are at rest. They are beyond the warfare and they are out of Satan’s reach. Sin cannot sting them. Death has no power over them. They are the eternally living proof of Christ’s victory and our hope.
Are we grieving our loved ones? Husbands? Wives? Fathers? Mothers? Brothers? Sisters? Grandparents? Friends? Children? Are we grieving our own mortality? Are we suffering and sorrowful? This is the battle now. This is the war of the Church Militant. But look at the Church Triumphant. This is where our loved ones in Christ are. They’ve served. They’ve suffered. And now they are in Paradise. “…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.”
We do not need to worry for them. We do not need to be sorrowful for them. They have been sealed. And now the fruits of that seal are theirs. This is not sentimental comfort- this is the resurrection promise grounded in the cross, empty tomb, and the water of baptism.
And in this Divine Service, we get to be with the Church Triumphant. This is a most blessed moment when the Church Militant- the Church on Earth, and the Church Triumphant- the Church in Heaven, get to stand together. We gather before the Altar of the lord and we sing with angels and archangels and ALL THE COMPANY OF HEAVEN, and we sing as the angels do, Holy, Holy Holy!! Our loved ones in the faith are not “gone.” They are alive in Christ. They are worshiping. Just as we are. Just as we always will.
And our hope is assured. Just as the saints before us are numbered with Christ. So too shall we. The Church will not always be at war. The day is coming when this war will be ended. Christ shall descend and the fighting will be done. The suffering over. Sin, death, and the Devil put down permanently. The Lamb who washed us will one day welcome us home; we will stand with that great multitude and sing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
That is our hope. And that is the promise. And how do we know this is true for each of us? We have been sealed. Not by man’s hands. But by God’s eternal Word.
We will finally be the Church at Rest. The Church Triumphant.
“For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd… and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
In Christ’s Name, Amen.