The Election
Revelation 7:2-17
November 3, 2024 anno Domini
There’s only one thing to talk about this morning and that’s the election. It’s the most important election of your lifetime. There are two choices, and they stand in stark opposition. One side is for death. The other for life. One side is darkness and evil. The other is light and goodness.
I know you’re afraid, but you don’t need to be. I know the outcome of the election. I know who wins and who loses. You know some of those on the winning side. Micki Duea, Joanne Hoekstra, Karen Held, Marlene Birr, Deloris Lewellyn, Clarence Birr, James Meichsner, and Edith Carlson. They have seen the outcome of the election.
The only election that finally matters is your election by God. That’s what All Saints Day is about. God has chosen you to be among His holy people. We prayed it in the historic collect for today. O Almighty God, who hast knit together Thine elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Thy Son, Christ our Lord.
This is the heart of the Gospel and greatest comfort for any human being. You have been elected by God to be in the communion of saints, the body of Christ, the everlasting Kingdom of God. As Saint John tells us, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God.”
St. John sees a beautiful picture of how all this works out. He shows us what our election looks like now and in eternity. Now we are surrounded by harm and danger. He sees four angels having power to harm earth and sea, but a fifth angel, an angel sent from Christ, checks their power, they cannot harm you. They are held back “until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
In elections security matters. An open delivery van full of unsecured ballots doesn’t bode well for certainty in elections. How do you know you are God’s elect? Because your election has been sealed. You have been sealed on your forehead. Receive the sign of the cross both upon your forehead and upon your heart as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. How do you know God chose you? Because He sent His Son to the cross for you. He brought you to the waters of baptism. He put His mark on you – the cross. You were baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ. His death was for your sins and His resurrection means life for you. He also put His name on you – the family name, the name of the Triune God, the name Christian.
Right now, we’re just waiting for God to finish the final tally, to complete the task of saving all those whom He has elected. We cannot see them yet, that’s why John hears about them. Then I heard the number of the sealed. That John hears tells you the number isn’t literal. 144,000 is figurative. 12×12. The number of the Old Testament tribes and the New Testament apostles, that’s the church found in both testaments. 10×10 – 10 is a number of completeness, so you have the complete completeness of God’s people, all those He has chosen and called out of sin and death. That’s where we are right now, waiting for that ccompletion.
How is the church arrayed as John hears of them? They are in ranks. 12,000 in a rank. They are aligned for battle. This is where we are now. We are the church militant. God has elected you, chosen you out of sin and death into forgiveness and life. And He calls you to fight. You are now a holy person. He calls you to defend your territory against the enemy. Do not give your body over to sin. Do not let the lies of the Devil go unchallenged. Do not let fear of loss or fear of death take over where He reigns and rules with life.
When you fight that fight it will not go well for you. This is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel reading. You will be poor in spirit and humble because you know God chose you in grace. You will mourn over death while the world looks on death as the answer. You will hunger and thirst for righteousness, seeking God’s Word and Sacraments, while the world hungers after their base appetites – pleasure and perversion. In the world you will look like you’re from another planet. You will be persecuted, because the darkness cannot stand the light, because evil abhors righteousness, because the world is in rebellion against the God who calls sin sin and chooses to save by grace through faith in Christ.
After John hears of the church militant, He sees the church victorious. This is no symbol. This is reality. This is the victory of the elect. No more rank and file of military might, but 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.”
One pastor wrote a beautiful description of being part of that great multitude. Imagine that you’ve just entered that crowd. The first thing you’ll notice is everyone is looking in the same direction, gazing upon the same object. Their faces reflect astonishment and awe and love. Naturually, what are you going to do? You’re going to press forward to see what they are looking at. You pass all kinds of people, some rich, others poor, some black, some white, some struggled with this sin and some with that. But now they are united by that One Object that holds their attention. You make it through the crowd and then you see, you are before the throne of God and the Lamb. (Adapted from Will Weedon sermon)
What will you it be like when you see His face and His hands? St. John tells us, “we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is.“ You’ll see face to face what God has done for you. He didn’t just adopt you like some orphaned rebel who got kicked out of His own home. He chose you to receive the forgiveness you didn’t deserve, the righteousness you didn’t earn, the place you shouldn’t be. By the death of His perfect Son, He declared you righteous and on that day when you behold His Son, you will be like Him. Can you imagine? A glorified body. No desire to sin. No guilt. No shame. No pain. Perfect love. Perfect joy. Perfect peace. Perfect desire for God’s will. You’ll be human once again, united to all who believe in Him.
All that worried you and pestered you will be gone. No more hunger. No more thirst. No more bearing the heat of the day. No more hatred. No more evil. No more division. No more sorrow over death and sin. Every tear wiped away. You and everybody there will be looking in the same direction and you’ll all be united, not because you all voted for the same candidate, but because God elected you to be there.
Our departed brothers and sisters aren’t worried at all about the election on Tuesday, because they already know how the election turns out. They are with Jesus. They now see that the only election that matters is God’s election. He has chosen you in Christ to be forgiven of your sins, to live instead of die, to be His child and heir. That’s true no matter how the election on Tuesday turns out.
And if, as both sides are saying, this election is the end of the world, well, so what? That means you’ll being standing around the Lamb on His throne soon, pressing forward to see Him face to face. At that moment you will see, feel, know, and experience, what it means to be elected by God. In the name of Jesus. Amen.