We come to the end of our sermon series on the
book of Revelation. Satan has been defeated. Judgment day has come and gone. And for those whose names are found in the
book of life, we reach the happy ending.
There is a new heaven and a new earth. The old earth
is gone, and we assume the old heaven must be, too. The Holy City, the
new Jerusalem, comes out of heaven. And
then, we’re told, “God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will
dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with
them and be their God.”
That is about as awesome a thing as I can imagine. In
fact, I really cannot imagine it. A new
heaven and a new earth. A new creation, basically. Unspoiled by sin. Everything the way it’s supposed to be.
Everything the way God intended it to be from the beginning. And God himself lives with us. I mean,
that’s just an incredible thought.
And it goes on. We talked a couple of weeks ago about
all the people in our parish who are grieving. That won’t happen any
more. It says, “There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed
away.”
The old order of things has passed away. A lot of
times at funerals we read the passage from Ecclesiastes where it says there’s a
time for everything. Everything, including weeping and mourning and
killing and hatred and war and death.
But that’s not how it’s going to be in the new heaven and the new earth.
None of that is going to exist any more.
The old order, the order that said pain and sadness and death are an
inevitable part of life, that order has passed away. None of those things
will ever be a part of life again
God says, “I am making everything new”.
Everything. Then God says, “To the
thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life.
Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God
and they will be my children.”
Then we get more of a description of the Holy City, the new
Jerusalem. It is made of the finest jewels and metals. Gold, rubies, pearls, all kinds of things
like that. There’s not a temple in the city because there’s no need for
one. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb
are there. There’s not even a need for the sun or the moon, because God’s
glory give the city all the light it needs.
The gates will never be shut, because there’s no need to protect the
city. There’s nothing bad to keep out any more.
I just want to read a few of those verses to
you again, because I think this is so awesome:
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will
anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are
written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water
of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb
down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the
river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree
are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any
curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb
will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be
on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the
light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Maybe I should just end the
message there. I mean, this is going to be awesome. Think of how the Apostle John must have felt.
After all these terrible, horrible, awful things he’s seen, and after all
the battles between the forces of God and the forces of Satan that he’s seen,
to now see this picture of beauty, of glory, of majesty. Of just complete
and total perfection. John must have
just been awestruck.
You know, I said at the
beginning of this sermon series that when we read the Bible, we always need to
ask why the things we read are in the Bible. We need to ask what we’re
supposed to learn from them. Really, we
could ask that of the entire book of revelation. Why was John given this revelation? Why
did God choose to reveal these things to John?
Why did God want us to know these things?
I cannot know, obviously.
I cannot pretend to understand the mind of God. But here’s what I
think.
When we look around at the world,
there are a lot of things going on that seem really bad. And, in fact,
this has been the case throughout a lot of history. It was true in the time John received this
revelation and wrote it down. It’s been true a lot of times since. And it’s true today.
I think God gave John this
revelation, and told John to write it down, so that we would know some things.
God wants us to know that God is aware of the bad things that are
happening in the world. God wants us to
know that God is in control of those things, and that God is allowing them to
happen. And in fact, God wants us to know that, for God’s plans to come
to fruition, for things to go the way they’re supposed to go, these things are
necessary. These things need to happen.
We wish God would’ve told us
why, but God did not tell us that. But here’s what God did tell us. God told us that these things are not going
to last forever. Evil may look like it’s winning. Satan may look like he’s winning. Satan may even truly believe he’s winning.
But he’s not. Satan is only
succeeding to the extent God allows Satan to succeed.
And Satan’s time is running
out. We don’t know how long it will last, but it’s running out.
Satan’s days are numbered. There
is going to come a time when God no longer allows Satan to do anything.
There is going to come a time when Satan is completely and utterly
destroyed. He will have no power
whatsoever. God is going to win.
And God wants us to know that.
But that’s not all. God
wants us to know that, if we stay faithful, we’ll win, too. We will have
our names written in the book of life.
We will be able to live in the new Jerusalem. You and I and
everyone else whose name is written in the book of life will see that
incredible city that’s made of the finest jewels and metals. We’ll see
that river of life. We’ll see the light
of the glory of God. We’ll see all of
that--if you and I stay faithful. If you
and I continue to live our lives the way Jesus told us to live them.
And it’s important for us to
know that. Because, you know, staying faithful to God in this world is
not easy. It’s easy to say. It’s
easy to say that we believe in God and accept Jesus as the Savior. It’s
easy to say those things. But truly
living our lives in this world the way Jesus told us to live them is not easy.
It’s hard.
The fact is that the world does
everything it can to keep us from living the way Jesus told us to. And
because Satan is still allowed to work in this world, Satan is part of
that. If we live the way Jesus told us
to live, we’ll be told that we’re too judgmental. We’ll be told that we
think we’re better than everyone else.
We’ll be told that we’re hypocrites because we’re not perfect.
That’s not all. We’ll be
told that we’re old-fashioned, we’re out of step with the times. We’ll be
told that we’re missing out on all the fun.
We’ll be told that we’re too legalistic, that we’re too bound by rules. We’ll
be told that all we really need to do is be nice to everyone. The world will tell us all kinds of things to
keep us from living the way Jesus wants us to. And sometimes it’ll be
people who claim to be Christians who say these things.
We hear all that stuff, and
it’s really tempting to give in to it. A lot of times, giving in to it
would make us more popular. And
sometimes, doing things we should not do, living in ways we know we should not
live, does sound like it would be more fun, in the short-term. It’s
tempting to listen to those voices that say go ahead, do it. It would not hurt anybody. Besides, God wants you to enjoy your
life. Forget the rules. Just be nice and have fun. It’ll be okay.
It’s tempting to listen.
And God knows that. That’s why God
wants us to know that, if we stay faithful, if we live our lives the way Jesus
wants us to, if we resist the things the world tells us, we’ll win. We
will have our names in that book of life.
We will live in that new Jerusalem, and we will see the glory of
God. We will win.
Life in this world is not
always easy. We sometimes have to go through a lot, and we sometimes have
to put up with a lot. But God is still in control, and God is going to
win. And if we stay faithful to God, and
if we live our lives the way Jesus wants us to, you and I will win, too.
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