Sermon for All Saints Day

Matthew 5:1-12

November 2nd, 2025

There is a bittersweetness to All Saints Day. The bitterness is death. Death always hurts no matter how many years have passed. It’s the bitterness of loss. Of wanting to go back in time to that one day, that one moment. To see that face; hear that voice, the laugh. The pain and tears never fully go away on this side of heaven.

A part of us doesn’t want the hurt to go away. It’s because we still love them. It’s good and right to feel sadness when death takes those we love. Jesus wept at the death of His friend Lazarus. To feel sad, to mourn is to confess that death isn’t good. We love with a love that not even death can extinguish. We’ve all experienced that. We will all experience it again in our own time and in our own way.

In a moment we will read the names of our members who died this past year. The dear saints who fell asleep in Jesus. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Their bodies rest in peace while their souls are experiencing eternal bliss in the Kingdom of Heaven with Jesus.

They were poor in spirit on this earth. They couldn’t save themselves. Morally bankrupt. Not a penny, not a mite, not a drop of their own blood to offer for the debt they owed for their sin. Only beggars for eternal gifts. Sin and death did its evil deed. Took them from us. But not for long. Jesus died. Jesus lives. Jesus paid the price. The debt owed nailed to His bloody tree. Those poor in spirit, beggars at the gate of the rich man, are now in eternal joy with Abraham and all the saints.

Oh death where your victory is? Oh death where is your sting? Washed clean and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. Saints arrayed in white, they wait for us in paradise. The bitterness will fade. The sweetness of eternal life will never end.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” The dead in Jesus do not mourn. We are those who mourn for a time. We mourn in pain and suffering, in sickness and death. It is a bitter road we walk from the font to the grave. Sin’s forever companion is death. It infects us to the core. It taunts our minds and weakens our bodies. And yet sin and death are not our masters. They do not define us. Jesus does.

We mourn for a time, but not without hope. Sin and death do not have the final say. God does and He has spoken through His Son. His Word is final. The dead in Christ live and they wait for us. They will rise again at the Resurrection. The grave is only a portal to life eternal.

This world and today is for a moment. Your mourning will cease. Your tears will dry. Jesus Christ crucified and risen is Your guarantee.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” We continue this journey with eyes of faith focused outside of ourselves. We have nothing to offer God but our sin and failure. Jesus became the Meek One for us. What we couldn’t inherit with our own goodness, merit, or worthiness, Jesus gives to us through His life given into death.

In meekness and humility in the face of God’s Law we die. But Jesus has taken us into Himself. He has raised the poor from the dust and lifted the needy from the ash heap. He has seated us with Him in the heavenly places, even today.

The lost are found. The dead brought back to life and sealed with the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance of paradise to come. We will endure. We will persevere. We are filled with the Holy Spirit who gives us life and hope and peace to endure. Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then on that day, face to face, we will see Jesus.

Until that day we hunger and thirst for the heavenly gifts that give us strength, endurance, and perseverance in the face death. We’ve been given an internal hunger that longs to be with Jesus in a world where all things are as they should be. As God intended from the beginning.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Today you hunger for eternal food because you have faith. That faith reaches out for the fruit from the tree of life that held your dear Savior.

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Jesus said, Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” Believe this.

Today we feast on the fullness of Jesus in His Words spoken to you. In His flesh and blood given to you. He is the medicine of immortality. We feast on Him. We abide in Him, and we endure in Him into eternity.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Jesus is the true, eternal Blessed One for us. What we cannot accomplish, Jesus has done our place. He takes our brokenness and gives us His perfection. A glorious exchange.

Jesus is the merciful one who took on our flesh and hung in our place that we might receive mercy. He is the pure in heart that satisfies the Heavenly Father’s demands for perfection. He is the peacemaker through the blood of His cross.

He has taken our hearts of stone and in return has given us pure hearts of living flesh, filled with the Spirit of life. Forgiven and renewed. Our eyes of faith opened to see the goodness and loving kindness of our God in Christ Jesus. Through the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world we have peace with our Heavenly Father. Fear, sin, and death vanquished in Jesus. We press on in faith as God continues to lavish us with His never ending grace and mercy in the fruit of the Cross.

So today we confess with eternal confidence. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Because Jesus lives all who die in Jesus live and never die. We press forward in faith to that most blessed place where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. Only the fulfillment of the blessed life in Jesus that has no end in the new heaven and the new earth.

In that place is the river of life, bright as crystal. It flows from the throne of God and the Lamb, who is Jesus. The Tree of Life is there. Darkness and night will be gone. We will need no lamp of the sun, for the Lord God will be our light. And we will live and reign with Him and all the saints, forever and ever, Amen. Until that Day we pray, Come Lord Jesus, Come Quickly. In Jesus name. Amen.