O Happy Day

[The following is a manuscript of my sermon delivered on Sunday morning, the 6th of August, 2017.  Look for the video on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

I want you to think for just a moment to what was the happiest day of your life.  The answer to that might depend on how old one is.  Many of us might say our happiest moment was at the birth of our child.  Some might say when they paid off their mortgage.  For others it may be graduating school or landing a job.  But pretty much, all those answers will be from events that happened in the past, maybe even long ago.

The Apostle John tells us of a time yet to come that will be a very happy day for those who accept Jesus as Lord.  Listen and follow along to the beginning of what Jesus revealed to John, in his book of Revelation, chapter 1 verses 1 through 8, reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible…

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. 3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

4 John, to the seven churches which are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

--Revelation 1:1-8 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, You are the one true God, who is and who was and who is to come.  You sent Your own Son to wash us clean of our sins by His own blood, shed on our behalf.  Speak to us now, Father, through Your Holy Spirit directly into our hearts, that we might receive, understand, and follow Your message this morning.  In the blessed name of Jesus we pray.   Amen.


A husband and wife recently enjoyed a meal at their favorite Oriental restaurant.  After finishing their dinner, they cracked open their fortune cookies.  The wife’s fortune slip read, “Be quiet for a little while.”  The husband’s contained this sage piece of advice: “Talk while you have a chance.”


What are the odds that two fortune cookies picked basically at random from a box of many could contain such closely matching messages?  While anything is possible – with God – I not sure just how accurate a cookie’s forecasting ability might be.

But I am reminded of Psalm 46 verse 10:  “Be still, and know that I am God”.  Be quiet for a little while, and let God speak.  And God, while we’re quiet in our hearts, please speak to us there while You have a chance.


O happy day – when Jesus washed my sins away!  Our scripture reminds me of that great old song.  Jesus loves us and He washes us of our sins in His own blood!  He made us kings and priests to His God and Father!

Did you catch that?  Jesus made us priests – all of us who believe – priests to our Father God.  That means we each have a ministry to share with the world for God.

And lest we forget, Jesus is coming again.  O happy day!  Every eye will see Him, even those who pierced His flesh and those who pierce Him still today with their disbelief and disobedience.  So very many people from all over the earth will mourn because of His coming, for they have not been washed clean.

Are all of us here today washed in the blood?  King David had reason to worry if he was clean.  Nathan the prophet came to him one night and reproached him for his sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba.  David is desperate for forgiveness, as seen in the 1st 3 verses of Psalm 51…

1 Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.

--Psalm 51:1-3 (NKJV)

David admitted his sin and asked to be washed clean, begging for mercy.  He knew his sins, and saw how they stood in the way of his relationship with God.  David did not have the blood of Jesus to wash him clean, so he called upon God’s lovingkindness and tender mercies.


A man named Saul was shown his sin by being blinded while he traveled to Damascus.  Jesus Himself took mercy, showed Saul what he had done, gave him a special insight that even the original disciples marveled at, renamed him Paul, and assigned him a critical mission to carry out.  Hear how Paul describes the moment his sight was returned in the presence of a true servant of Jesus, as recorded in the Apostle Luke’s Book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 22, verses 12 through 16…

12 “Then a certain Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there, 13 came to me; and he stood and said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' And at that same hour I looked up at him. 14 Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know His will, and see the Just One, and hear the voice of His mouth. 15 For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'"

--Acts 22:12-16 (NKJV)

Paul would later characterize himself as the greatest sinner of all.  Yet he was baptized after his revelation from Jesus, and his sins, his great sins, were all washed away.  And he called on the name of the Lord Jesus everywhere he traveled.  O happy day!


I love John’s Book of Revelation.  It has a lot of scary stuff in it, especially when it speaks of the Great Tribulation.  But the reason I love it is because it also tells us what happens in the end.  When all is said and done, when all the trials and tribulations have ended, when the great battle has been fought…  we win!  Jesus returns and triumphs completely and overwhelmingly over evil, and we share in the victory!

And all the scary stuff?  Well, it has to happen.  Some of what we read of in our papers and see on the TV news is foretold in this book.  And while we worry about what the world is coming to, Jesus, through John, tells us this is the way it must be.  He tells us this will happen because it must happen.

But even through all this, people can and will still be saved!  A little further on in his Book of Revelation, in chapter 7 verses 13 and 14, John writes…

13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”

14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

--Revelation 7:13-14 (NKJV)

Even in the very worst times that will ever befall the human race, Jesus will continue to wash us clean by His blood, spilt once for all time!  Those who believe will be made white in the blood of the Lamb.  O happy day!


The greatest news we could ever receive is that we have been washed clean of our sins by the blood of Jesus – the blood He shed, the life He gave up there on that cruel cross, just so we could be saved.  David’s prayer should be our prayer – O God, have mercy upon me!  But we know that prayer will be answered if we believe in Jesus and obey His commands.  If even a sinner such as Paul could be washed clean, then we also can be cleansed by the blood of our Lord.

Someday soon the Great Tribulation will begin, yet even throughout that horrible time, many will be washed clean of their sins by the blood of the Lamb once they accept Jesus as Lord.

O happy day…
O happy day…
When Jesus washed…
When Jesus washed…
When Jesus washed…
He washed my sins away.
O happy day!

In the blessed name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.


Let us pray…  Father God, David was dear to Your heart, yet he needed to ask for Your mercy, he needed to beg You to wash him clean of his sins.  You looked down from Your throne and saw the blighted condition of the world and knew only one thing could possibly save mankind, only one thing could atone us of our great sin: a blood sacrifice.  You sent Your own Son, Your only Son, Jesus, to offer that sacrifice on our behalf.  Now, and for all time hence, we no longer have to pray as David prayed, once we accept Jesus as our Lord, our Master, believing in Him as Your Son, our Savior, our only hope.  Thank You, Father, for loving us this much.

Please hear us now, Father, as we silently speak to You straight from our hearts, thankful for Your grace and mercy, repenting of our sin, and seeking Your assurance of our pardon…

Lord Jesus, You came to earth to do our heavenly Father’s bidding.  You accepted Your role – the most critical role – in His great plan for humanity.  You gave of Yourself for us, for all mankind.  You offer to wash us clean of our sins in that blood You shed, if we only believe in You and accept You.  Thank You, Jesus, for so great a sacrifice.  Thank You for bringing the greatest news the world has ever heard.  Thank You for providing us with the happiest day of our life, the day when You washed our sins away.  O happy day!  Forgive us, Lord, when we hesitate to go out and share this Good News.  Forgive us when life bears too heavily upon us and we begin to doubt that anything good can ever come again to this world.  Help us to stay strong and faithful to You, to the very end.

This we pray in Your glorious name, Lord Jesus Christ, our Master and our Savior, the one true Son of God, in whom we place all our hope, all our trust, all our faith.  Amen.