Sermon - Easter 5 - Rev. 21:1-7

Rev. 21:1-7

Easter 5

May 19, 2019

“All Things New”

I think most of us can appreciate when things are “new”.  A new baby is a joy like nothing else.  A brand new article of clothing.  That new car smell.  A new job.  A new home.  A new store.  Even a new friendship.  There’s an excitement when something is new. A whole new set of possibilities is opened up.  But also, in contrast to something old, there’s no baggage.  That new baby hasn’t made the mistakes of life we have.  The new car hasn’t had anyone spill coffee all over it yet.  I like the new Walmart where everything is still relatively clean and fresh.  The new friend doesn’t know all your flaws and failings, and wasn’t around all those times you did something embarrassing.

And in spiritual terms, it is much the same.  When God made the world, when everything was new and fresh – it was perfect.  Creation was without a flaw.  God even declared it “very good”.  He made everything and every creature according to its kind, and with perfect purpose.  And finally he made man, and also a helper suitable for him.  A perfect match.  There was no sin – and so there was no disease, no corruption, no chaos.  Nothing broken down and in need of repair.  Nothing worn out.  No crying, no pain, no death. 

Furthermore, their relationships were also unbroken.  They had perfect communion with God and each other.  There was no sin or shame to mar the “very goodness” of it all. 

It’s hard even to imagine such a world, what it must have been like.  “Paradise the blessed” we sing about it, but we can barely conceive of it.

Because our everyday experience is with the broken world that followed.  We know only the corrupted and chaotic world that is stained and shattered by sin.  This old thing.  Age has not been kind to this creation, now under the yoke of death.  Nothing good seems to last forever.  Things wear out.  Things break down.  So much of today’s world is disposable – we just throw things away when we’re done with them.  You drive a new car off the lot and it instantly loses much of its value.  You start a new job and you find out it’s not all you’d hoped it would be.  You marry a spouse and you start finding out they aren’t always so easy to live with.  Or you buy a new home and you find yourself longing for the place you left. 

Jesus describes this phenomoneon so poetically in the Sermon on the Mount, where we warns us not to get too attached to this world: 

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (Matthew 6:19-20)

It’s true.  This side of heaven, moth and rust destroy things.  Thieves break in and steal things.  Nothing good seems to last forever, but it fades, it falls, it breaks, it dissolves. 

And you and your coffee mug might say, “some things get better with age!”  And of course it’s true.  Wisdom comes with age, sometimes.  But so does the accumulation of a lifetime’s sin and that thing we call regret.  Experience and confidence may come with age, but so do the aches and pains of a body that is giving in toward the grave, inching ever closer to its end.  So while there are joys and blessings of old age, they are tinged with bitterness and marred by decay and imperfection.

What it comes down to for us, is that our predicament is so bad that we don’t just need a spiritual makeover.  We need a complete and total do-over.  We need a full and perfect renewal that is just as thorough as the corruption under which we labor.  

Thank God we have a Jesus who does it for us.  And by the way, the promise of Jesus in our Gospel reading - to send the Spirit who will declare the things to come - is fulfilled, at least in part, by our reading from Revelation 21, where John is blessed to see in his vision a future day when all things are made new.  And that day is the day of Christ’s return:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

Along with Christ’s second coming, the final judgment, and the resurrection of the dead – we have this other detail about the last day: This world will pass away.  Scripture speaks in various ways about it.  The world will “pass away” (our text), also Matthew 24:7, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

“The heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment” (Isaiah 51:6)

2 Peter 3 puts it this way:  “then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” 

But far less important than exactly how it happens is that this broken, fallen, corrupted world will not simply be “fixed” or made better.  It won’t be healed or patched up.  God is starting anew.  Afresh.  From scratch.  So complete will be the change, it is an entirely new re-establishment of creation – and we will live there with our resurrected and glorified bodies, in perfect communion with our Triune God forever.  The pictures of John’s vision continue:

And I saw ^athe holy city, ^bnew Jerusalem, ^ccoming down out of heaven from God, ^dprepared ^eas a bride adorned for her husband.

What John sees next is a strange but joyous thing – a mixed metaphor of sorts – it is a vision of the church as both a city and a bride.  All of this is simply a picture of the church in her glory.  The sum total of all believers in Christ, ushered into our blessed eternity.  A New Jerusalem – and just what was wrong with the old one?  It was corrupt.  But not this one – as John later sees its magnificence – pearly gates, streets paved with gold.  And adorned as a bride – the Bride of Christ, that is!  Holy, blameless, without spot or blemish.  The entire people of God united with Christ for eternity.  And if an earthly wedding is a time of great celebration, how much more the marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom that has no end?  And by the way, also, we get a foretaste of this in the Lord's Supper even today!

 ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, ^fthe dwelling place¹ of God is with man. He will ^gdwell with them, and they will be his people,² and God himself will be with them as their God.³ 

Perhaps the greatest sadness of the fallen creation is that it separated us from God.  But now all that is changed, reversed, overturned.  In the New Heaven and Earth, God dwells with man once again.  They are his people, and he is their God – without anything to get in the way of it.  Perfect unity.  Perfect communion.  A perfect relationship and the privilege of his perpetual presence.

^4 hHe will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and ⁱdeath shall be no more, ^jneither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

All the troubles that flow from sin are wiped away with the very tear from your eye.  And what a tender and intimate picture, of God wiping away your tears – like you’d dry the eyes of a little child.  All the hurts are now “former things” and they are passed away – never to bother us again.

⁵ And ^khe who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I ^lam making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for ^mthese words are trustworthy and true.” ⁶ And he said to me, ⁿ“It is done! ^oI am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. ^pTo the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. ^7 qThe one who conquers will have this heritage, and ^rI will be his God and ^she will be my son.

He reiterates these promises – he who makes all things new – that is, the Alpha and Omega, that is, the beginning and the end, that is, Jesus.  The one who declared “it is finished” at the cross, is the one who declares here, “it is done!”  For us, it’s a future promise as good as done – we rest so secure and sure in the promise of all things new – because we have heard the news of Jesus – who conquered death by death and brought life that death cannot destroy. 

And of all the things he makes new, it begins with you.  The New Creation that he has made you in baptism.  The daily renewal he works in you by repentance and faith.  The New You still wrestles with the Old You, and that’s nothing new.  But it won’t last.  A time will come when even our Old Adam is entirely destroyed, and only the New will remain.  Whether by the gate of death, or should we live to see the last day – either way – God will bring us to this fulfillment.

Far better than that new car smell is the promise of the new heaven and earth.  Far better than this old corrupt creation is the eternal home God will provide for us all.  A blessed promise from Jesus, who makes all things new.  John saw it, and we believe it.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Sermon - Easter 3 - Revelation 5:(1-7) 8-14

Revelation 5: (1-7) 8-14
Easter 3 – Early Service
May 5, 2019
“Worthy Is the Lamb”

Our appointed readings in the Easter Season bump out the regular Epistle selection for a sampling of the book of Revelation.  I’ve heard many Christians over the years express discomfort with this last book of the Bible – not knowing what exactly to make of it.  And I can understand that – it’s a different type of literature.  It’s apocalyptic.  It is, for the most part, a written version of a vision that St. John had when he was “in the Spirit”.  The voice told him, “John, write what you see!” and he did so.  And the things that John saw were, frankly, spectacular.  They are fantastic and otherworldly.  They are at times frightening.  But most of all, they are just so different from what we are used to seeing in the pages of Holy Scripture.  And that leaves you and I to ask the question, what does it all mean?

Well, I certainly can’t, in one sermon, teach an entire course on how to interpret the book of Revelation.  But I can tell you that it is not meant to scare the pants off of Christians with horrid and frightening predictions about what the judgment day will be like, or to give us an encoded roadmap of how the timeline of history will unfold.  Instead, these visions paint pictures of heavenly realities.  They show us eternal truths in symbolic and representative ways. 

For instance, it’s not that God is or will be, necessarily, literally sitting on a throne.  But to picture him this way shows us that he has absolute reign and rule over all things.  And the descriptions of the plagues and destructions described, the locusts, the famine, the war and pestilence… is a picture of all of human history in these last days before Christ’s return.  The message is this, though, that God’s people are saved through it all, sealed and delivered, and by the end of the vision, we see a glorious picture of our eternal home in the New Jerusalem.  We will live with God forever!  Thanks be to him!  That’s the great comfort of John’s Revelation!

But now specifically on to our text.  Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation are sometimes called the “Heavenly Throne Room Scene”.  It depicts our Creator and king in a show of majesty reminiscent of Siani – with lighting and thunder about him.  A jeweled throne surrounded by an emerald rainbow.  And the seven torches, that is the seven spirits, a depiction of the Holy Spirit of God.  It shows the great distance between the Creator and his creation, pictured as a great, peaceful sea.  The four living creatures representing the swiftest and strongest and fiercest and wisest of all creation in praise of God.  And the Elders, the representatives of the church in both the Old and New Testaments – throw their crowns down before the sea in honor of the Father, that is, the true king.  We sing about it in “Crown Him with Many Crowns”,  how they’re “casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea”. 

But there’s a problem.  Chapter 5, verses 1-7, right before today’s reading, describe it:

  Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne ha scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

First, what exactly is this scroll?  It is symbolic of God’s plan for the salvation of the world.  It is the most essential knowledge, the most important thing to know.  It is in his right hand, that is, it comes from his power and authority.  And we know that this plan was in place even from eternity.  But it is sealed up with 7 seals.  (Seven is the number of holiness and completion).  And because of this, no one is found in all of creation, on heaven or earth, who can open the seals, that is, no one who can know, and also accomplish God’s plan of salvation.  There is no one to complete the mission.  No sinful man.  Not even a powerful angel.  And to John, seeing and understanding all this, it causes him to weep.

And here we stop and ponder a bit.  Why so sad, John?  Is it just your morbid curiosity gotten out of hand?  You really wanted to know the answers, and God’s keeping his secrets and that’s making you emote?  No, it’s something deeper.  John’s an old man now, the only apostle not to die a martyr’s death.  He’s been around.  He’s been preaching and teaching.  He knows the problem of the human condition.  He knows the corruption of sin.  He knows the stink of death.  What John is facing, in his weeping, is the hypothetical “what if?” if there was no one worthy to accomplish salvation.  Because John’s not doing it.  You and I can’t do it for ourselves.  By ourselves, we are helpless and hopeless.  Our natural condition – our fallen state is a true cause for weeping.  If we could truly see, the clear and full picture of just how bad our predicament is, just how grievous our sins really are – we’d be weeping and wailing all the time. We need help.  We need hope.  We need a savior.

And John knows it has to be someone worthy – powerful – righteous – and who can get it done and make it count for the world.  Someone who can trample Satan down under foot and snatch fallen humanity from the jaws of death.

But then one of the Elders encourages him.  Weep no more.  For there is one who can open the scroll.  The Lion of the tribe of Judah!  That’s Jesus.  The Root of David! That’s Jesus.  The Lamb who had been slain, but is now alive – that’s Jesus! Jesus, and only Jesus can know and command and fulfill and accomplish God’s holy plan of salvation!

This picture of Jesus is an odd one:  A lamb with 7 horns and 7 eyes.  That means he has perfect and holy power – and perfect and holy knowledge.  And from him issues forth the Holy Spirit of God to the ends of the earth.  Only he can approach the throne of God.  Only he can take what is at God’s right hand (for it is also his). And only he can bring the contents of the scroll to bear for the blessing of his people.

The Lamb has been slain – of course, that’s Jesus!  Who laid down his life on the cross for the salvation of the world.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist clearly confessed.  But it’s not the Lamb who remains slain, or the Lamb who is still dead and buried.  It’s the Lamb who was slain but is now alive!  This is why we get this reading in Easter.  You see a dead Jesus is no good to us without a risen and living Jesus.  A dead Jesus doesn’t fulfill the plan inside that sealed scroll – but only the Jesus who unsealed the grave itself.

And it is in light of all THIS that we get to verses 8-14.  The new song of praise.  In chapter 4, all those gathered around the throne sang the praises of God the Father, echoing the song of the angels from Isaiah 6, that God is “Holy, Holy, Holy”.  But now, with the Lamb in view, Jesus, they sing a new song:

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”

You see, Jesus isn’t just the object of our praise and worship because he’s God, though that alone would be enough.  But even more, he is our savior.  He has accomplished salvation for us by his blood, and ransomed us, and all people.  This divine work of redemption he adds to the glory of creation.  And likewise, while the throne of God is his by right, he is exalted by the Father for the very same reason – that he considered equality with God not something to be grasped, but took on the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even death upon a cross. …

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Here, in the throne room scene of Revelation 4 and 5 we see these words of Philippians fulfilled.  It is a spiritual, and an eternal reality.

And, as the song goes on….

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!

We join our voices to that very song.  We even sing it in our liturgy, in one of the newer pieces in our tradition, “This is the Feast”.  Like so many other liturgical texts, drawn directly from Scripture, we join our words and voices with the song of the ancient believers, Simeon, Mary, Zechariah, Isaiah and the Seraphim, David, even Moses and Miriam, along with so many others.  We sing to the Lamb who once was slain but who now lives.  To the only one who is worthy to receive all these accolades – worthy in his perfectly lived life, worthy in his perfectly offered sacrifice of death.  Worthy alone, but sharing that worth and value, the holy precious blood and the innocent suffering and death, that I may be his own.

What a day it will be when we all gather together around the throne of God and join in that heavenly song.  But the warm-ups have already begun.  Every Divine Service is a preview of that eternal concert, that heavenly chorus.  Even now we begin to sing our faith – in response to all his good gifts and blessings.  Worthy is the Lamb!  Now and forevermore.  Amen.