10/30/2025
Each week Pastor Paul sends a personal email to the congregation of Redeemer Church. He calls these emails "Pastoral Cordials."
We're sharing this week's email with you.
A PASTORAL CORDIAL: THE HUMBLE WORSHIP OF HEAVEN
Dear Ones –
On the church calendar, November 1st is All Saints’ Day. The Book of Common Worship describes All Saints’ Day as “a time to rejoice in all who through the ages have faithfully served the Lord. The day reminds us that we are part of one continuing, living communion of saints.” The faithful perseverance of all believers, in all times and all places, whether living or dead, on earth or in heaven, is remembered on All Saints’ Day. It is a day to be reminded that the Christian life is not lived in isolation. Each of us is a member of the Body of Christ, a participant in the communion (fellowship) of the saints – saints both living and dead.
Sadly, in our day we are much more familiar with the day before All Saints’ Day, Hallowed (Saints’) Eve, or what has come to be known as Halloween.
While All Saints’ Day is meant to focus on the faithfulness of all saints, both living and dead, the greater emphasis has been placed on remembering those who have died, whose earthly race is finished, and who now experience fulness of joy (Psalm 16:11) in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is right that we remember them. Since God is the God of the living, and not of the dead (Luke 20:38), while those we love who have died are separated from us by physical death, they are very much alive, because “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” the voice from heaven spoke to the Apostle John (Revelation 14:13). They “rest from their labors” in the unending and untiring worship of the Lamb before his throne (Revelation 5:8-14; 7:9-17).
We – the living – know God by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), seeing Him “through a glass darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12), beholding the glory of the Lord through a dim veil (2 Corinthians 3:18), even as our loved ones who have “died in the Lord” (knowing and professing the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior) see Him “face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12; Revelation 22:4) with the veil removed, seeing him no longer by faith (as we do), but “by sight.”
And in this “face to face” reality, our loved ones in heaven are cared for by the One who prepared a place for them there (John 14:1 – 3).
What realities are they experiencing in that place which our Savior has prepared for them?
My sermon on Sunday will unpack Revelation 7:13 – 17, verses which pull back the veil which separates earth and heaven, allowing us to see the remarkable ways that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are caring for all our dear loved ones in heaven:
• God the Father has washed them from their sins and clothed them in the righteousness of the Son
• They serve (worship) God day and night (without the need for sleep) in his temple
• God dwells among them
• God has relieved them of all suffering and hardship
• The Lamb feeds them and leads them to living fountains of waters (Revelation 22:1)
• God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes
In a letter dated May 25, 1762, John Newton wrote:
“Why can we not pierce through the veil of flesh and blood, and by faith behold the humble worship of heaven? What countless multitudes have gone before us in the path that leads to that kingdom! They were, in their time, followers of an unseen Savior, as we are now; but now they see him as he is, face to face, in all His glory, and in all his love; with them are joined the innumerable hosts of angels. Angels and saints, however distinguished, are joined in one happiness, and one employment. Even now, while I write, and while you read, they are praising the Lamb that was slain, and casting their crowns at his feet.”
Until He comes, or calls us home, I remain
Cordially yours,
Paul Edwards
Founding & Teaching Pastor
Redeemer Church of Waterford
