Who Are These?

Original sermon given on All Saints Sunday, November 1, 2026 written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.

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“Who Are These?”

Revelation 7.9-17

Who Are These?

In the name of the Living God and the Risen Christ. Amen.

On this All Saints Sunday, St. John pulls back the curtain for us in Revelation 7. Our first reading shows us not just how things will be one day in heaven, but also the full reality of what the church truly is, and should be, even for us today. All Saints is about one Church, both triumphant in heaven and still struggling on earth, united together by the blood of Christ.

There’s a lot of “uns” here in Revelation 7. Not “buns” — those are for the bratwurst after church today — but “uns” — and this is how I’d like to take us through today’s first reading. We see the saints around the throne of God unnumbered, undivided, unnamed, and unburdened.

Unnumbered

In this dream-like vision inspired by the Holy Spirit, John beholds a multitudinous crowd. So many, uncountable, from every nation, tribe, people and language. This is significant — so significant — because of what he’s seen previously in chapter 7. In the verses right before this, he sees the full number of the nation of Israel who believe: 144,000. Now, this is a highly symbolic number in a highly symbolic book. It’s 12,000 for each of 12 tribes of Israel — it’s not a literal number. It’s a number of completeness — the full number, we might say.

But then he sees an unnumberable crowd from all nations — of the gentiles gathered from around the globe. And they too serve and are sheltered, praise and proclaim in the temple, indeed, in the Holy of Holies of Heaven. There’s so many, and they’re drawn so close to God because of the blood of the Lamb for them.

This unnumerable crowd is undivided. Note well, what you don’t note here. There’s no demarcation in the crowd according to strength, power, ethnicity, or political affiliation. (Hmm, amazing, St. John mentions no political parties in heaven… should tell us something, right?) There are no categories according to their backgrounds or identities, but instead all are united in that they all face and focus upon God together. They worship, literally with one great voice (it’s a singular voice!) the one who saved them, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the lamb.” (Rev. 7.10)

This is the one, true unity and the only everlasting unity — the unity which all saints share, whether on earth or in heaven. We’re united in that we recognize our salvation in Christ and fall on our faces before him in worship.

They’re unnumbered, undivided, but also unnamed — of all the saints John sees in eternity, we are told the names of not one. Even the one elder who speaks — the one elder with the one great speech at the end of Revelation 7, we don’t even know his name. There’s no cast list. He’s just “random elder guy”. He asks the great rhetorical question, “Who are these?” St. John replies with a kind of sacred “search me/ I don’t know.” But then “random elder guy,” when answering his own question about who they are, names not one of them. We don’t know what jobs they had in life, who they voted for, how much money they had, how big their families were (or even if they had families: number of children not listed), what color their skin, how popular, educated, beautiful, strong, healthy, fit, talented, or self-actualized they were. Nothing, but only this: they endured, and were washed. They kept the faith through great trials, and they were washed white in the blood.

Now, to be clear, we do know the names of those beloved to us who are with Christ — and have even listed them in the bulletin. We do enumerate them before the throne. This is meet and right so to do, because they were real people with real love and real faith… they really will be missed. And two others of “all saints” will also be named in a few moments, who will confess their faith anew and join our church — Hope and Isa. And this is also right, as Jesus tells us, “Whosoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven” (Matt 10.32). And we know that we will know each other in heaven — there will be both individual and cooperate love, joy, and thanksgiving.

But note well that in John’s vision in Revelation 7, not one of them is named. They are only known in relation to the Lamb. And maybe this can give you both comfort and a bit of perspective on the status of your life this morning. Regardless of your name, who you are, or what life has dealt you, you’re known by Jesus, who died for you and has washed your robes. Even if no one else knows you, he knows and loves you. And the new perspective: maybe we can all stop the constant comparison games we play with one another, in this world. It’s hard to compare yourself to others when your face is flat on the ground before the Holy God. They are unnamed in John’s vision because of the One Name above every name.

Unnumbered, undivided, unnamed, and finally, unburdened. “…he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence.” The word for “shelter” here is the word for tabernacle, or dwelling place. Like the Tabernacle in the Old Testament, where God himself dwelt among his people in their wilderness wanderings, here the vision is of the all-embracing power and comfort of God enveloping them. No guilt of the past, nor pain of the present, nor anxieties about the future. No questions of what should have been or could have been. No aches of the body or the soul. No inner turmoil of the mind, or outer turmoil of an unsettled world. Only the Lamb leading, pure waters flowing, and tears wiped away forever. They are unburdened, as we will be too, and all because of the Lamb in our midst.

So on this All Saints Day, we gain an eternal perspective on our temporal struggles. As it is in eternity, so should we strive for here on earth: all nations brought before the throne; all united as we face and focus upon him; all worshipping the One name, and not our own; and all sheltered by his presence.

Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.

Image Source: Eyck, Hubert van, 1366-1426; Eyck, Jan van, 1390-1440. Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/58312 [retrieved November 3, 2026]. Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghent_Altarpiece#/media/File:Retable_de_l'Agneau_mystique_(7).jpg.