October 31-November 2, 2026 Pastor Timothy J. Spaude Text: Revelation 7:9-17 “PICTURE THIS!”

 SAINTS TRIUMPHANT

October 31-November 2, 2026

Pastor Timothy J. Spaude

Text: Revelation 7:9-17

 

“PICTURE THIS!”

1.     Heaven is awesome.

2.     Heaven is yours.

 

Recently when our granddaughter, Ava, calls to Facetime Grammy, she always asks to see Grammy’s pictures. In particular there is one she wants to see again and again. “Grammy, can I see your married picture?” She loves to see the picture Chris and I have of our wedding day. For some reason she thinks we look different than we do now! Pictures. They are fun to look at and show us lots of things. God knows that better than we do. Revelation is the last book of the Bible. God had it written based on pictures, visions that God allowed the Apostle John to see. John wrote down what he saw for us so we can “see” what he saw. On this Saints Triumphant weekend where we rejoice over all the brothers and sisters in Christ who have been given Christ’s victory, life eternal, the word of God before us lets us picture what John describes.

          What do you see? Picture this. “After these things I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing in front of the throne and of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰They called out with a loud voice and said: Salvation comes from our God, who sits on the throne, and from the Lamb. ¹¹All the angels stood around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures. They fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, ¹²saying:

Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever. Amen.” What do you see? I’ll tell you what I see. Heaven. And Heaven is awesome. Look what is there. Multitudes of people from every walk of life. In a time when Satan works hard to divide people based on language, heritage, culture, skin tone, economic status and politics, how awesome to see how Jesus permanently unites people. How awesome that will be to be in complete unity with everyone there. God is there. The Lamb, Jesus is there. Picture this! Whatever you have in mind of what God the Father or God the Son look like it will be better. The throne room of God. Royal. Regal. Rich. The angels are there. We can picture this but the reality will be more awesome.

          What else will heaven be like? Picture this! “They will never be hungry or thirsty ever again. The sun will never beat upon them, nor will any scorching heat,  ¹⁷for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Look closely in heaven. What’s missing. Tears! No more tears. No this is not a baby shampoo commercial. It is a picture of heaven. You know how it is here where often you find yourself longing, hungering and thirsting for something that is missing? Not in heaven! You will be fulfilled in every way. You will not long to be with someone you miss whether that is parents or grandparents, friends, spouses or your little ones you never got to know. The hurts that you carry now gone. The memories of betrayals by those you loved, erased. The angst caused by living in a society that values the wrong things too highly and you too low zapped away. No more tears! That’s awesome! Picture it!

          And picture being there! “One of the elders spoke to me and said, “These people dressed in white robes, who are they and where did they come from?”           ¹⁴And I answered him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me: These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵Because of this they are in front of the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.” Students, teachers already know the answer to the questions they ask you. You know that, right? In the vision John had he was taken to school. One of the elders served as a teacher and asked the question. “Who are those in the white robes?” Remember this is a picture. Basically he was asking, “Who is in heaven?” John realized his elder teacher could answer better than he could so turned it back. “You know.” And he did. Those in heaven are described as coming out of the great tribulation, cleaned up by the blood of Lamb and who serve the God who protects them.

 

The great tribulation. That is not one single event but a description of what life is like for believers living on earth. Not only must they deal with all the things all people go through living in the sin messed world like sickness and natural disasters, and the evil that men do, they also have extras like, “God since you love me and can do anything why are you letting this happen? Why does the young person die instead of the old? Why the person who does good in the world and not the evildoer?” That vexes our souls! Or the extra tribulation of naming your sin, sin and fighting against it instead of calling it my right and just doing it. We are starting to feel that tribulation of being labeled the mean and unloving ones just for standing up for what God says is right and wrong. In many ways living in America is nice and easy but spiritually, a tribulation.

          Cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. Picture this. You have a robe you must wear. It is all dirty. So you put it in the washing machine and fill it with blood. Of course it will come out dazzling white! You know what this pictures. Your robe is you. We have all dirtied ourselves with our own sins. Our ways to deal with it do not work. We try what is reasonable and logical. We add the bleach of, “I’ll try harder. I’ll do better!” But the stains of selfishness and potty mouths are still there. We do what makes sense and add the detergent of “I’ll make it up to you God. I’ll get better at going to church. I’ll apologize. I won’t do it again,’ but the filth of our gossip and mean spiritedness toward others remains, as does the filth of our idolatry revealed by how we prioritize our time and money. Our ways do not work. Only God’s way does. Wash it in the blood of the Lamb! That does not make sense. But picture this! (Picture of Jesus on the cross) it works. The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son has cleansed you from every sin no matter how big or how dirty. They are gone. Your robe is white. Your slate wiped clean. You are covered with Christ’s holiness. So picture this. Who is there in heaven? Who did John see! You. Me! Amazing. As we celebrate the Saints Triumphant we are celebrating ourselves. Because of Jesus in God’s mind we are already there.

          But not just us. Look again. Those in the white robes, who are they? Every believer in Jesus is there. Are there some in particular you see and long to see again? You know whom I talking about. You can let your tears fly here and that’s OK because the next time you see them every tear will be wiped from your eyes. Only joy and happiness with Jesus and each other. This past year some of our St. Jacobi family, fellow believers in Jesus, were transferred by God from our church to the Church Triumphant and so today we remember and rejoice as we think about, Dennis Banaszak,               Pamela Kafka,               Elaine Cook, Pauline Sawatske,             Jefferson Gillespie,                  Paul Ahrens, Karen Cook,                Daniel Brosseau             and also your loved ones. Picture this. Because of Jesus we will see them again. Amen.