All Saints Sunday November 3, 2019 The Sunday of the Beatitudes

All Saints’ Sunday
Matthew 5:1-12
November 3, 2019

“Saints Nation”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Revelation chapter 7 gives a beautiful picture of all the saints gathered around the throne of God in heaven. All of us in white robes because we’ve been washed in the blood of the Lamb. All our sins are gone. We’re clean and pure and holy and joyful and all other good things. Then come these very familiar and comforting words:

¹⁵“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.
¹⁶They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.

God will fill all your needs and you won’t have this massive discontent going around with you everywhere. Where you never feel satisfied. You will be perfectly satisfied. So let’s try re-writing that a bit to bring it out even more in our day.

“They shall care about money no more, nor pay bills anymore.”

“They shall be busy no more, neither be tired anymore.”

“Taxes shall not strike them, nor any government harass them.”

“They shall lose their temper no more, nor get angry anymore.”

“Amazon shall not strike them, nor any scorching advertisers.”

“They shall kill their babies no more, nor deal with suicide anymore.”

“Cancer shall not strike them, nor any deadly illness.”

This is what awaits you. It’s why we have so much hope. We’re looking forward to a perfect creation. Where all the sins and sorrows of this creation are gone and where we truly understand what it is to be joyful.

Now, of course, we must wait for that. We don’t have that yet. But too often you and I then think that being a Christian is only about heaven. That’s the only point of going to Church and believing is so that one day we get into the pearly gates. Not so at all. And in the Epistle today, John makes this clear by saying heaven has “not yet” appeared, but we are God’s children right “now”.

We are God’s children right now. You don’t have to wait until you die and your soul goes to heaven, or until Jesus comes again, to be blessed with contentment, joy, satisfaction, hope, peace, and all good things. You are already God’s children right now and all the blessings of being His children are yours. You are part of this great group of holy saints, some in heaven and some of us still here on earth, who all together share the blessings of God’s family.

To help explain this I’d like to use a sports analogy. At some point in recent history, fans of sports teams started calling themselves nations. So, for instance, you have “Illini Nation” or “Redbird-Nation” or “Bears-Nation” or whatever the case may be. What’s so appealing about it is that you’re part of a big group. It gives you identity. The blessings of being part of this group are that it gives you purpose (to see your team win games and win championships), it gives you something to look forward to (be it the next game or the next season), it gives you comradery and friendship, it gives you something to complain about, etc.

When I go home to my folks in Southern IL, all the TV stations are out of St. Louis. St. Louis is the hub for all news and entertainment, etc. And my sister lives in St. Louis so we end up there quite a bit. It has always amazed me just how important the St. Louis Cardinals are to everyone in the entire area. It truly does feel like a “Cardinal-Nation”. Of course, they don’t have a basketball team or a football team anymore so baseball is king. But the Cardinals are what brings all of St. Louis together with people for miles all around St. Louis. This is their commonality. Their shared joy. Their identity. Their hope.

It’s funny to me that I just read yesterday about how our generation now doesn’t want to join anything. Anything. Apparently we are now despising all memberships in institutions of any kind. Don’t want to join a Church. Don’t want to join the Kiwanis. Don’t want to join the women’s club. Don’t want to join foundations. On and on. We’re not joiners apparently. And yet I think that should be clarified. Maybe people today don’t want to join formal institutions today. But they certainly love to join informal groups. Like these massive nations of sports fans that we have. Like these massive groups on social media. They’re certainly joining in political movements like never before. So even if we’re not joining formal institutions, there’s still just as much as ever a need to belong. A need to fit in. A need to have an identity.

Well, the Scriptures today describe for us an identity and a nation and a group and a belonging that are far greater than any other group you will find. I’m going to call it “Saints Nation”. Not like the New Orleans Saints. Saints as in those who are holy in Christ. We are the Saints Nation. And you belong to it. You’re in. You’re part of the crowd. Because we’re all baptized into Jesus Christ and we are part of His body, the Church. We’re the Communion of Saints. We’re the Saints Nation.

Jesus describes exactly the blessings that come from being part of the Saints Nation. It’s better than working together to win a Super Bowl or a World Series. It’s better than just comradery or shared misery if you’re Illini fans. The blessings are called the Beatitudes and they’re found in the Gospel today from Matthew chapter 5.

First blessing of being part of Saints Nation – for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, you belong. It’s all yours. In Bible Study I brought up the very interesting Kanye West story. It will be cool to see where that goes for sure. I truly hope he shines as a light in a dark world. But anyway, he was on a late night show and said in passing that he owns 12,500 acres in Wyoming. Instantly I was jealous. That sounds awesome. But then I will also repent of that jealousy. Because we have the whole kingdom of heaven. In truth, the whole earth belongs to us. Because we are parts of Saints Nation. We’re in with Christ. We have it all.

Second blessing of Saints Nation is comfort – for they shall be comforted. Everybody mourns in this dreadful world of sin and death and evil. But we belong to a group where there’s comfort. Not empty feel-good comfort where we all just sit around and stroke each other’s egos. No, real comfort. Like a dead Jesus rising to life on Easter morning. Like a living Jesus saying, “Peace I give to you.” Like a living Jesus saying, “I am the resurrection and the life.” Like a living Jesus giving us His body and blood and saying, “for the forgiveness of your sins.”

Next blessing of Saints Nation (I can’t do them all because of time) is v. 5 – for they shall be satisfied. This is one that should ring true and very loudly for all of us. All of this material garbage we have today is not satisfying us. You can buy fifty new phones and you’re still not satisfied. You can go out to eat at fifty fancy restaurants and you’re still not satisfied. You can start Christmas two months ahead of time and still we’re not satisfied.

But in Saints Nation, we have true Contentment. Why? Because the Lord is our Shepherd. He’s our portion. He’s our satisfaction, our joy, our peace, our light. In His presence we lack nothing.

Next blessing of Saints Nation – mercy. Verse 7 – for they shall receive mercy. This, you already know, gives our group more happiness all the pleasures of this life. We are forgiven. All of our sins have been covered with the blood of Jesus. Our robes are washed white. All of your guilt and shame, all of your greed and lust, all of your anger and jealousy—it’s all put away. As far as east is from the west. You’re in the mercy group. Saints Nation is a nation of mercy.

I have to stop but take these beatitudes with you all week and just keep pondering all the reasons you have to be happy and content and joyful because you’re part of Saints Nation. If I list them off very quickly for you here they are: You belong. You’ll be comforted. You have hope. You’re satisfied and content. You’re forgiven. You’ll see God. You’re called God’s children. You belong (again). And your reward is great in heaven. Is that enough reasons to be happy? Saints Nation!

Finally, a point to close. If being part of Saints Nation is so great, why doesn’t everybody join in? How come so many people don’t want any part of our group? How come so many people think we’re weirdos and don’t get us Christians at all? Remember the end of verse 1 in the Epistle today (1 John 3:1), “The reason why the world doesn’t know us is that it didn’t know Him.” There it is. They don’t get Jesus. So they’ll never get you.

Don’t worry. Many will still come to know Jesus. And then they’ll get you. Then they’ll get what joy it is to be part of Saints Nation. In Jesus’ name. Amen.