Text:  Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30                                            W Jubilate (4^th Sunday after Easter)

“These in White Robes—Who Are They, and Where Did They Come From?”

            In the name of our Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep, dear friends in Christ:  When preparing the message for this week, I was really struck at how well the appointed Scripture readings for today fit the overall theme of Confirmation.  I assure you that this was not by my design; I hadn’t looked at the readings when we scheduled Confirmation for today, so I’m crediting the Holy Spirit for this serendipity.

            But consider how well things line up:  in the first reading from Acts, we’ve got the apostle Paul visiting a Jewish synagogue in Asia Minor during its weekly worship service.  He’s here on a mission trip and he’s looking for an opportunity to proclaim Christ.  And understand that in that day there was no such thing as daily papers or evening news reports, so one of the best ways to find out what was going on in the wider world was to ask travelers what they knew and what they had seen.  Because the gathered congregation knows that Paul has recently arrived in town on a journey from the Holy Land, it only made sense to ask him what good news he could share from there.  So they do: “…if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.”  Boy, what an opening:  Paul stands up before them all and shares the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. There is no greater message of encouragement.  But just as Paul took the opportunity to stand before them and confess Christ, these four young people to be confirmed today are here for that same reason:  to stand before this congregation and proclaim their faith in Jesus to you.  And though they are not strangers from out of town, I’m fairly certain that at the moment they feel rather uncomfortable as if they were.  And I’m far more certain that you will be encouraged by what they have to say.

            Then we’ve got today’s Gospel reading that also fits very well the theme of Confirmation.  In it we have the words of Jesus:  “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”  It is upon this very promise that our confirmands take their stand this day. They have listened to the voice of their Shepherd speaking through his Word, and they have learned to recognize it over and above the cacophony of other voices that might lead them astray. They know their Shepherd, and more importantly he knows them.  And they know that by continuing to listen to him and by following his leading, they will safely make it through all of life’s dark, dangerous passages – including the one that passes through the valley of the shadow of death, and that they will ultimately come into the glorious green pasture that is the Lord’s house where they will dwell forevermore. 

            Finally we’ve got the reading from Revelation that also dovetails quite nicely with today’s happenings.  In it we hear the account of St. John’s vision of the Lord’s vast throne room in heaven.  The Lord God and the Lamb are on the throne, and around it are gathered the holy angels and the twenty-four elders who represent the church of the Old and New Testaments.  Before the throne stands a countless multitude of people dressed in white robes and singing praises to God.  And as he’s taking in this whole wondrous scene, one of the elders leans over to John and asks, “Say, those folks in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?”  John responds, “Maybe it would be better if you told me.”  So the elders says, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”   … And I can imagine a visitor here today who maybe isn’t familiar with Confirmation leaning over and asking a similar question to someone standing nearby. “Those young people up there in the white robes, who are they, and where’d they come from?”  I’ve a hunch that if you asked one of them, they’d be happy to tell you that they’ve come out of the great tribulation – by which they would be referring to the exacting preparations leading up to this day of their Confirmation:  all the instruction, memory work, and other hoops they’ve been require to jump through to get to this point.  But such an understanding of their “terrible suffering and tribulation” might be just a trifle overstated.  I’ll admit I haven’t tried to make it easy for them; but none of them looks any worse for the wear.

            However, there is another way in which they might truly say, “We have come out of the great tribulation.”  I speak of the spiritual unrest and cloud of doom that hangs over every person born on this troubled planet.  Ever since the fall of our first parents, all their descendants labor vainly under the curse of sin that ultimately leads to death both in time and eternity.  From such frightful tribulation as that, these have been delivered.  How? Well, as the passage says, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  That is to say, they have been called to saving faith in Jesus Christ the Lord.  And trusting in him, they have been brought out of that wretched state of tribulation, clothed in Christ’s perfect righteousness, and given eternal life and the perfect peace that passes understanding.

            Our church practices the rite of confirmation as a means to allow those who have been thus delivered, those who have been given such saving faith by the working of the Holy Spirit, and who have been instructed in its fundamentals, to publicly declare the same before their fellow believers.  Confirmation is their opportunity to demonstrate to you, fellow members of the family of faith, that they understand what these white robes they wear are meant to signify and what entitles them to wear one.  In order to provide them a means of bearing witness to their Christian faith, each year I ask the confirmands to write a paper that expresses in their own words in whom they place their trust and precisely what it is they believe about him.  And what I’d like to do now is share some of their comments with you.

            First, concerning the “tribulation” from which they have been delivered, each of today’s confirmands conveyed a healthy sense of fear and loathing.  One of them wrote, “When I was born, I was already dead; not mortally, but spiritually. I was dead in sin and there was nothing I could do about it.”   Another said, “I was born sinful, and have been since the moment I was conceived.”  And this from a third:  “[Before coming to faith in Christ] I was a black-hearted sinner with no hope.”  Furthermore, they understand the unhappy consequences of the spiritual condition in which they were born, as one put it: “God’s Laws that I have broken condemned me to hell.”

            That dark fate would have been the destiny of us al; but fortunately for us, that’s not where the story ends.  The heart and center of the Christian faith is God’s great deliverance of his people. The confirmands tell the good news of that deliverance this way:  “Yet God loves the world.  He promised mankind a Savior, someone who could fulfill the Law for us all.  Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, came down to earth to be that Savior.  [Though he was God] he became true man as well when the Virgin Mary gave birth to him. … He was perfect.  He followed God’s Law completely, never breaking a single command.  He fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies about himself, including his sufferings and death on the cross.  But it wasn’t just a death [in the normal sense].  Jesus took on the sins of the entire world and was punished for all of them.  He loved us so much that he became the living sacrifice for the whole world.  But that wasn’t the end.  On the third day after his death, Jesus came back to life.  He had bought us back from sin with his own blood. Now we can come back to life as well.”  Another summed it up like this:  “God sent his Son to die for my sins, and as long as I trust in that, I will receive eternal life.  … It’s because he’s a loving and caring God—that’s why he saved me from sin by sending his Son to die.”

            It should be evident by this that our confirmands understand how and why the Lord God paid the price of our redemption by sending his Son to die on the cross for us; but there’s more to the story.  His grace extends beyond the act of redemption to the personal application of it to each of us.  The message of salvation would do us no good if we didn’t believe it, and by nature sinful people always reject the truths of God.  So how does faith come into being?  One of the confirmands explains:  “I did nothing to help myself. The Holy Spirit enlightened me with the Word – which is not just a book, it is the living Son of God.”  The idea is that God’s powerful Word, which is the Eternal Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, has the power to create faith in the heart of an unbeliever.  This is accomplished by his Spirit, as another elaborates:  “The Holy Spirit works faith through the Word, so I need God’s Word (that is, Jesus) to have faith.”

            This truth is emphasized in the way our confirmands came to faith in Christ in the first place.  They understand that it wasn’t on account of their will, or wisdom, or ability to understand or choose.  Instead, they see God’s gracious provision in providing a way for even infants to come to a saving recognition of the Good Shepherd and his voice.  One writes:  “Baptism is a sacrament of spiritual rebirth involving God’s Word and water.  In it, I received the Holy Spirit, just as St. Peter teaches about Baptism.  He said, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  And this from another:   “When God’s Word was spoken [in Baptism], I, a confused and helpless sinner, became filled with the Holy Spirit.  The sinner in me drowned, and Jesus entered my heart.”

            In this way, our confirmands testify, they were brought to saving faith, and thus cleansed from sin, delivered from eternal death, and given the white robes of Christ’s righteousness and the right to stand before God’s throne in his holiness and purity forever.  That’s how they were brought out of the great tribulation … at least in one sense.  In another very real sense, they understand that they are just heading into it.  One of them writes:  “Being a Christian isn’t easy. It’s not like all of your problems just go away.”  No, quite the contrary, Jesus promised his followers that in this world they would experience many troubles and trials.  And none of these young people knows what difficulties they may have to face in the next sixty or seventy years (however many the Lord gives them). What they do know – or rather Who they know – is their source of strength who will see them through every trial.   They know that the Christian life begins, is sustained, and ends in faith in the Savior, and they know the many ways by which he continues to lead and guide them.

            One wrote:  “The Christian faith isn’t one where once I have it, I’m done.  It’s one that keeps on growing.  In order to keep it growing, I need to hear and read the Bible, and also attend church services to continue to feed my faith through Scripture.”  Another said, “In order to keep growing in [faith and Christian life] I need to hear and read the Bible and attend church.”  And concerning daily growth, one of them said this:  “Every day, when I repent of all my sins, The Old Adam inside of me dies again, and a new child of God emerges.”

            In addition to these means of sustaining and growing the faith, traditionally in our Lutheran churches, Confirmation has marked the beginning of communicant membership in the congregation.  Concerning this privilege, one of the confirmands wrote:  “I have looked forward to the day when I could partake in the Sacrament [of Holy Communion] because I know that through it I receive the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s body that was sacrificed and his blood that he shed for me on the cross.”  “I want to take the Lord’s Supper because it shows me that Jesus suffered and died on a cross in my place.”  “I also want to receive this Sacrament so [that through it] I can publicly confess my faith and gain strength for a new life in Christ.   “Whenever I receive the Sacrament, it will be like a booster shot to my faith – and when my soul is healed, my body will benefit also.”

            By these means, God’s powerful Word and Sacraments, these young saints dressed in white today have confidence that they will remain steadfast through all the tribulations they will encounter and so remain faithful until the end.  What end is that?  Well, as one of them so eloquently wrote, “The ultimate goal and end of the Christian faith is eternal life in heaven.”  And apparently the writer of that particular comment thought that it was too obvious a thing to say, and so added an editorial “Duh!” to the statement.

            At the same time, while rejoicing in their own salvation and thanking the Lord for it, they recognize that God’s grace to them is something that carries with it certain responsibilities.  For example, it is to be shared; as one writes, “God wants all people to come to heaven … but many don’t even know who he is. We who do know need to tell them.” There is also the hope and expectation that those who have been made the children of God by his gracious action will strive to show his love in their words and actions, as one of the confirmands explained, “not to earn salvation, that comes by believing; but rather because, like the Lord, I want to help those in need.”  And another said this:  “I hope that when I die, I will have carried out God’s purpose for my life well.”  And so our confirmands will fulfill God’s purpose for their lives  – and you will too – by continuing to abide with Christ in the faith confessed and promises made in Confirmation.

            And in this way, in communion with Christ and one another, we will all pass through the tribulations of life and come at last to that glorious place described by St. John, where the white robed redeemed stand before the throne of God. There, as the Scriptures declare, “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.  The sun will not beat down upon them, nor any scorching heat. For 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.”

            And I’ll add at the risk of eliciting another “Duh!” for stating the obvious: What a glorious day that will be.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!