God's Last Words

“Forks In the Road” 
 

Revelation 21: 1-8 (NRSV)
 

Yogi Berra once said, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it!” 

There is a road that leads to two paths, a “fork” in the road. Beside each path stands a man who will answer one question in order to help the traveler choose which way to go regarding the choices one has already made in their lives. One man will always tell the truth and one will always lie.  

What question will you ask to ensure you get the right answer? It’s actually quite simple. Either man should be asked the following question: "If I were to ask you if this is the way I should go, would you say yes?" While asking the question, the traveler should be pointing at either of the directions going from the fork. 

Have you ever realized that Jesus and the devil are confirming the same truth? We have the direction (Jesus called it “the way, the truth, and the Life”) in which to travel but we let other distractions confuse us. 

Each of us will find many “forks in the road” as we encounter God’s plan in our lives. 

God created the heavens, the earth, and humanity in perfection. Humanity fell in disobedience as Adam and Eve took the wrong “fork.” 

God’s plan is for the perfect restoration of His creation. The American Family Dictionary defines restoration as “a return of something to an original or unimpaired condition,” a “restitution of something taken away or lost.”  

One of the tragedies of modern life, as I mentioned before, is our disbelief in the supernatural activities of God. We may have superstitious faith in ghosts, vampires, and little green men from Mars, but we can’t see God’s hands or actions anywhere around us.  

Sadly, most of us can imagine what torment and hell will be like more than what Heaven will be like. This is why God left us a book called the Holy Bible so we could learn and know things about God, His plans, and our purpose.

Just as the Book of Genesis tells us of Creation, the Book of Revelation tells us of Restoration. God, through the Apostle John, shows what God will strip away from human life to return us to perfection. 

The Lectionary list suggests just reading verses Revelation 21: 1-6, but this passage includes verses 7-8 as well. They add information about both “forks” in the road. 

The path of Christianity is positive in outlook with a hope filled message but it has a warning about other false paths as well. We don’t become a Christian like people become eligible to take books out of a library. Becoming and being a Christian means commitment, service, humility, and submission to God’s Will. We have to consciously and earnestly choose and walk the path of faith. 

Failure to do so carries heavier penalties then overdue fines. God’s words are not to be treated as guidelines/suggestions but rather as the rules of Life.  

I think the church has ignored these 2 verses for too long. Hear John’s continuing vision: 

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. 

And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” 

And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” And he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.”Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”  

Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.  

What will eternity be like? John’s vision tells us that all the bad and negative things of this world are going to be conquered and destroyed. All the ungodliness and evil, all suffering and pain, all the corruption and death will disappear. 

John is shown that impure government, corrupt religion, bad leaders, painful suffering, and sin and temptation will be no more. The glorious message of Revelation is that evil and corruption will be soundly defeated for all time. Those who have accepted and thirsted after God will be fully restored to full fellowship with God and perfection in all things.  

Yet God has placed warnings here: Verse 8 tells us of those will be rejected, those who chose the wrong fork of the road. 

“The fearful or cowardly” are those who will not confess Christ because they fear what others might say or are afraid to give up worldly things and deny themselves. 

“The unbelieving” are those who do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Savior of the World. 

“The polluted” are those who are living for or refuse to give up their worldly lives. They are addicted to the impurity and corruption of human life. 

“The murderers” are those who kill and/or take away the lives of others. You don’t have to physically kill someone to “murder” them.  

“The fornicators or immorals” are those that engage in acts and lifestyles that God condemned or forbids. They allow themselves to be overcome by lusts of the flesh. 

“The sorcerers” are those who engage in astrology, witchcraft, devil worship, spiritualism, séances, palm readings, fortune telling, and all other types of beliefs that claim to reveal and control one’s fate, life, and destiny. Superstitious behavior and new age religions! This includes those who think that little green men will come and “settle” human affairs and turn us into loving, caring universal citizens.

 

I use to read my "horro-scope" each day for a laugh. When I got serious about Christ I got serious about stuff like that too. I don't take those even "baby-steps" to the occult anymore.

“The idolaters” are those that worship idols, whether the idols are made with one’s hands or just conceived in one’s mind. This includes those whose mind is set on the image of who and what God is without learning and knowing God from scriptures.  

“The liars” are those who deceive themselves and others in what they believe, what they hear, what they say, and what they do whether they profess belief or not in Jesus Christ.  

John is told that anyone who does not repent and turn away from these evils, does not turn to forgiveness, and forsake these things will not be a citizen or resident of the new Heaven and earth. They will be sent to a world without God. 

Each of us comes to a fork in the road in our life journey: which path we take will matter. One leads to truth, love, and grace. The other leads to death. God has given us the answers and resources we need to choose.

 

While life seldomly offers us a whole lot of choices the path to walk on is one when we discover that our life does have a fork.  Which way will you go?

Friends, hear, repent, forgive, live, and you will be restored to Heaven. Amen.