Connection: The Life We Were Made For – Revelation 7:9–17
Connection: The Life We Were Made For
Scripture: Revelation 7:9–17
Series: Connection: Practices for a Meaningful Life in a Disconnected World
Preacher: Russell Smith
Date: November 1, 2026
Church: Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio
Is the church a building, or a people?
The church is God’s people, given to one-another. We were shaped and created for genuine, person-to-person connection, and in an epidemic of loneliness we all feel that hunger. The purpose of the church is to empower people to grow in a vital connection with Christ, with a community of Christ followers, and with people in other spaces. Revelation shows us the end product: a vast multitude, centered on Christ, the Lamb who will wipe away every tear.
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Sermon Text:
Why Does God Give Us a Church?
Today we kick off a series I’m calling Connection: Practices for a Meaningful Life in a Disconnected World.
I’ll go ahead and give you truth in advertising: it’s our stewardship season, the season in which we ask those of you who are members or friends to consider your support for the church. But I wanted to do this series about connection because this is what the church is for. Why do we have a church? Why does God give us a church? It’s for connection. We are all connected. We are meant to be connected.
And this is important and poignant for us. A little while ago I saw a Cincinnati Magazine article on the importance of third spaces, spaces beyond work and home where people connect with one another. (https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/on-the-hunt-for-cincinnatis-third-places/) The article quoted former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy talking about the epidemic of loneliness that we have. He called it a public health epidemic. The article cited a poll published by the American Psychiatric Association in early 2024 said that 30% of American adults have experienced feelings of loneliness at least once a week over the past year. 10% say they feel lonely every single day. And those aged 18 to 34 were the most likely to experience such feelings. Simply put, a wave of loneliness has washed across our society.
The article talked about these third spaces, spaces where people can connect. A third space is someplace between home and work, a place of connection and meeting with folks. One of the places the article featured was a coffee shop in Dayton, Kentucky, and its founder, Elijah Knapp, who is trying to create that kind of third-space atmosphere. What Elijah said was really interesting. He said that one of his goals with his coffee shop, Elliott Coffee, was to create a human-centered experience: “We need fewer things that feel like they’re driven by money or growth or volume, and more things that are driven by depth of actual human connection.”
The hunger for connection, the hunger for genuine person-to-person human connection, is a very real hunger. We all feel it. We all yearn for it. Indeed, we were shaped and created for just this kind of connection. And that is what we are focusing on today.
The Programs Are Not the Product. The People Are.
It would be very easy to say, “Oh, well, we need to make the church into that kind of third space. We need to start working on that.” Well, the truth is, we already are that kind of third space. We have so many opportunities all throughout the week where people come and connect outside of home and work, be it Bible studies, be it Lamplight Theater, be it scouting, be it the Ukrainian Women’s Association, and so many choral events. There are so many opportunities for people to connect outside of work or home and forge meaningful relationships with one another. So for today, what I want to focus in on is not the building or the property.
The biblical picture, I suggest to you, is a picture of people who are formed to enter into all places -- home, work, or third places -- and represent Jesus there. We are called to be conveners of connection, if you will. That is what Christ is empowering us to do, and that is where we are going.
The purpose of the church isn’t to build up the institution of the church. The purpose of the church is to empower people to grow in a vital connection with Christ, with a community of Christ followers, and with people in other spaces, and then to invite those people into a deeper connection with Christ.
The purpose of a church institution is connection: helping you connect with God, helping you connect with one another, and helping you connect with people in the world out there, to invite them into deeper connection with God and the people of God. That is what we are here for, and that is what I’m leaning into.
In this stewardship season, it’s not about how you support the programs. The programs are important, but the programs are not the product. The people are the product. And that, I believe, is the picture that we get in Revelation. The picture in Revelation 7 is a picture of the end product: how does all this connection culminate?
Revelation Pulls Back the Curtain
Now, I know. Revelation is difficult. Revelation is scary. You talk about Revelation, and people start thinking judgment and fire and brimstone and end times and all of that. I’m not getting into a full-length exposition of Revelation today. But if you’re curious, my belief is that what Revelation is doing is peeling back the curtain of reality so we can see the spiritual realities undergirding the material world.
What we get, particularly in this scene, is John receiving a revelation, the curtain pulled back so that we can see what’s happening in the heavenly dimension. What’s the spiritual reality of the redeemed people of God? That is the picture we get here. And what we see is a picture of joyful, vital connectedness, one with another. This is what we are invited into. This is what we are yearning towards. This is what Jesus is building us into.
We Are Not Lone Rangers
So with all of that prelude, let’s take a look. The first thing we see in this passage is the picture of the connected community. “After this I looked,” John says, “and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”
So we get this picture of the connectedness of every nation, every tongue, people from all over the world, people from all sorts of different backgrounds. Fullness of connection. We are not lone rangers. We are not isolated individuals. We are all drawn in, connected together. You see this immense sense of unity, of joining voices together, of worshiping together. I love the wearing of white robes: we are cleansed and made whole, and we are united together in song.
And I find that piece so interesting. “They cried out in a loud voice.” I take this as singing rather than just shouting. At the very least, it’s chanting. They are vocalizing together. So I operate under the interpretation that this is song.
Think about song, for a moment. There’s so much song all throughout the Bible. Singing together is something we do every worship service, right? We come together and join our voices together. I know some of you don’t enjoy singing, or don’t feel comfortable singing. Remember that the Scripture says, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord.” It doesn’t necessarily say make a melodious, beautiful noise to the Lord. Simply, “Make a joyful noise…” And so, when we sing, I invite you to sing with strength and gusto.
Singing bonds us together in special ways. A while ago I found an article online about the value of community choruses. (https://www.chronogram.com/arts/music/hudson-valley-choruses-group-singing-supports-physical-mental-and-social-wellness/) It says that singing your heart out is more than an expression of joy; it’s a physiological thing. And it cites studies showing that group singing will synchronize the heart rates of the singers. Isn’t that interesting? When you sing together, your hearts start to beat together. I find that so very cool. Your breathing patterns, obviously, start to sync up, because you’re trying to sing at the same time. That helps regulate your nervous system. That lowers stress. You want to lower your cortisol? Sing in a chorus.
The article cited a 2013 study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that choral singing increases heart rate variability, a measure linked with cardiovascular health. The article went on to quote Kevin Murphy, a New York City–based vocal teacher: “Singing is a full brain and body activity. We read music off a page and translate that visual information into movement, breath, expression, and sound.”
Full brain and body. And I suggest to you that the picture we get from Revelation is not only full brain and full body but also full spirit. When we join together in song, you fully bring your spirit, bringing us all together, uniting us, making us one. So I invite you: every week we have an opportunity for you to lose yourself a little bit in song, to practice and to be shaped towards that connection pictured in Revelation, that eternal connection that we have and that we are growing towards. The biblical picture shows us that spiritual component.
We Worship with a Vast Chorus and a Vast Multitude
Now, here’s the interesting thing: the biblical picture is also more than a collection of human beings. Did you notice that in the Revelation passage? The biblical picture also gives us all the angels and celestial beings. “All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying.” Again, I believe this is singing, or at the very least rhythmic chanting, which is but a step away from singing: “Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!”
Have you ever considered that when you worship, you’re not just here on your own? You are vitally connected not only with the saints of the past, but with all the spiritual, angelic beings in the cosmos. You are joining your voice and your presence with them. You are singing together with angels and archangels and spiritual creatures.
I invite you to imagine this every time you show up for worship, whether here, or in your home, or in any congregation you visit. Every time you gather for worship, I invite you to imagine that you’re not just with the people in the room. You are with the full thousands of multitudes that sing for eternity, and you are with all the angelic beings singing for eternity. Every time you gather for corporate worship, you’re worshiping with a vast chorus and a vast multitude. I encourage you to carry that mental image with you every time you attend a worship service. And ask yourself: What does that mental image do in you? How does that shape you when you realize you’re connected with something vastly bigger than you ever imagined?
The Connected Community Is Centered on Christ
The next piece of this passage is the vitally important reminder that the connected community is centered on Christ. It goes on: “Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘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.’”
Now, again, that “great tribulation” term conjures up all kinds of scary end-times stuff. My take on it: the great tribulation is this life now. The “great tribulation” is what it means to live life in a sin-fallen world. I don’t necessarily think it’s some kind of future thing that is coming. I believe the great tribulation is what we all struggle against: against mortality, against entropy, against temptation, against sin, against evil, and all that is wrong in the cosmos. That’s my best take on it; you can take it or leave it as you will.
Because the key point is not about the definition of “great tribulation,” but rather what follows: “they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Everything is centered on Christ. Christ, who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Christ, the Lamb of God, who calls to you and says, “Come, follow me.” “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” “Come, follow me, and I will give you abundant life.” “Come, follow me, and I will make you whole, and I will make you clean, and I will give you meaning and purpose in life.”
This multitude, this connected community, is centered on Christ. Christ, who is the way and invites us to follow the way, who is the truth and teaches us truth, who is the life and promises to give us abundant life. So it’s very important we understand that this connectedness depicted in Revelation is not just some kind of vague, generic connectedness. It’s being invited into the community of Christ, knowing Christ, following Christ, and being centered on Christ.
A Final Promise of Peace: Shalom
From the connected community centered on Christ we move to a final promise of peace. I love the Hebrew word shalom. When we use the word peace, we usually think cessation of hostilities. That is the connotation the English word peace often has. But the Hebrew word shalom connotes so much more than cessation of hostilities. It is fullness of life. It is the abundant life that Jesus talks about. It is a sense of deep satisfaction, a sense of “I am in my rightful place. I am satisfied, joyful, and full.”
And we see this in the remaining portion of our Scripture: “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.” So first, there is the peacefulness of being sheltered, of having a home, a place where we are safe and secure. “Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.” Doesn’t that sound marvelous? Never again being subject to the cravings of hunger and thirst in the human body. The human body will be renewed, transformed, and made whole in the resurrection and the life everlasting. “The sun will not beat down on them, nor any scorching heat.” We will not suffer, because creation will be completely renewed.
But then this part: “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd.” Jesus will be our shepherd. “He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Isn’t that a comforting thought? Every pain that you carry, every grief that you bear, it’s not lost. Christ sees, Christ knows, and Christ will wipe away those tears. He will redeem and renew those struggles. We will be made whole. That is shalom. That is what is promised to us.
Conveners of Connection
Fullness of connection in Christ: that is what we are called into. And my prayer is that this rest, this abundance, this fullness will be a spiritual reality that transforms how we live now. As we see that this is what we are working towards, that Christ is growing us towards it, my prayer is that we begin to carry some of that even now, with us wherever we go, into any third space we enter: our gym, our Starbucks, our coffee shop, our neighborhood. We become bearers of that shalom.
As I said at the start, this is the kickoff to our stewardship season. Members and friends, we are asking you to consider your financial support of the institution of the church. We’ve got a building. We’ve got shared resources that we have to take care of and deploy. And all of those things do require support. I’m asking you to commit yourselves, but not just financially. I want you to commit your hearts. What is it that we’re here for? We’re here for connection. It’s not just about buildings and budgets. It’s especially about people: loving God, loving others, and inviting others into a connected relationship with the living God.
My hope and prayer is that we would all grow into conveners of connection. As we empower everyone to take their next step of faith with Jesus, that’s what it means to be a convener of connection: to draw people in to that next step of connection.
Invitation to Reflection
What has the Holy Spirit been saying to you today? I leave you with a few questions. I invite you to take them home and ponder them. Think on these things, as we abide with the Lord for a moment.
Questions for Reflection
What would change this week if I trusted more deeply that I’m a part of a vast chorus of faith?
Who is one person in this church community whom God is inviting me to befriend more deeply?
What is one place I go every week where God is inviting me to be a convener of connection, carrying a little bit of that heavenly shalom into that place?
This sermon is part of the Digital Discipleship Resources of Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. We create resources to help people take their next step of faith with Jesus.
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