Revelation 21:
10, 22 – 22: 5 (NRSV)
A
pastor friend of mine said to me last week, “I don’t know if preaching about
heaven helps my congregation or not. They have lots of problems and maybe I
should be preaching one of those therapeutic ‘feel good’ sermons.”
My
response was to encourage him to read the Bible more and think less Dr. Phil.
At best our response to this world is accomplished with tending to our own
faith and personal witness as God has already told us how the world is turning
out.
I
preach of heaven and am reminded of the wonderful words of Shakespeare (in
Hamlet, Act IV), “Lord! We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” I am
convinced that knowing of the heaven to come should not just be a coping mechanism
to deal with today’s problems but personal affirmation as well.
I
read an article from a straight-laced secular psychologist well known for his
experience and research into IQ testing. His current research has led him to
conclude that human are getting dumber. In fact he says after subjecting the
data to extensive analysis that human intelligence peaked about 6,000 years
ago!
This
is not a Christian scientist trying to manipulate data supporting a “young
earth creationist view” but a well known professor committed to the
evolutionary view whose data may actually point to the fact that human
intelligence peaked in the Garden of Eden, when we were as close to perfection
as we could get.
God
created a habitat in the Garden of Eden with food from the Tree of Life He designed
to sustain our first parents. We lost access when God kicked them out.
In
our consumer based society we’ve developed numerous ways to be creative in
giving others gifts by signing up for monthly clubs that mail or ship items.
“Amazing
Clubs” has 38 subscriptions ranging from “Bacon” to the “Gift Certificate”
of the month. The “Month Clubs Store” offers 40 items with hundreds of
options ranging from BBQ to Wine. The “Best of the Month Club” is
indexed by categories ranging from Food, Drink, Health, Plants, Beauty,
Clothing, and unique Gift certificates. BUT what if I told you that God was the
original creator of the “month club” idea?
Hear
our scripture lesson for today from Revelation 21: 10, 22 – 22: 5;
And in the spirit
he carried me away to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. I saw no temple in the city, for
its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
And the city has
no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and
its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the
earth will bring their glory into it.
Its gates will
never be shut by day – and there will be no night there. People will bring into
it the glory and the honor of the nations.
But nothing
unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but
only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Then the angel
showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the
throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.
On either side
of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its
fruit each month: and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the
nations.
Nothing accursed
will be found there any more. But the
throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him;
they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
And there will
be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be
their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
God
has given us the answer to some heavenly mysteries in this passage.
We
see that God created Eden to sustain humanity for eternity and we are given the
clues to how God overcomes the mortality of humanity to introduce eternity
through what I like to call “the fruit (“karpos”) of the Month Club.”
Genesis
2: 9 – “And out of the ground made the
Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food:
the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of
good and evil.”
Revelation
2: 7 says “He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the spirit saith unto the churches: To him that overcometh will I
give to eat out of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of
God.”
Revelation
22: 2 – “On either side of the river is
the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each
month: and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”
This
passage continues to give us descriptions of what heaven will be like. There
are seven given here:
1)
There
is a pure river that flows with the very water of life.
2)
There
is a Tree of Life in the city.
3)
Heaven
will not have a curse of corruption on it as earth did.
4)
There
is the throne of God and of the Lamb in the city.
5)
God’s
name is written on the foreheads of believers.
6)
There
is eternal light in the city.
7)
There
is eternal rule by God and Christ and work and service for believers.
Membership
in “the fruit of the month club” will be limited to only those who are listed
in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.” Getting into this book, means that you have
accepted the sacrifice of the Lamb of God (Jesus Christ), in payment for your
sins.
Galatians
5: 19-21 tells us those sins include ;
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedition, heresies,
envying, murders, drunkenness, revel lings, and such like: of the which I tell
you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
When
Jesus accepts the confession of your heart and the profession of your life to
him He will place His name on your forehead and record your name in His Book. Eternal
life in heaven will be ours.
But
until then we are much like the five year old who was excited about her first day of kindergarten. Her three year old sister
watched her big sister with much interest when she talked of going to school.
On the Sunday before the first day of school, the five year old fell and
skinned her knee.
As she cried, the three year old tried to comfort her by
saying, “Don’t worry, if you die, you’ll go to heaven.” But the five year old
wailed even more. “I don’t want to go to heaven,” she said. “I want to go to
kindergarten!”
Many of us can’t wait for heaven but know we want a
vacation at Disney World first. But we need to remember that we need to qualify
for heaven first.
A Sunday school teacher wanted to explain to the
six-year-olds in his class what someone had to do to go to heaven. To find out
what kids believed about the subject, he asked a few questions. “If I sold my
house and my car, had a big garage sale, and gave all my money to the church,
would that get me to heaven?” he asked.
“No!” the children answered. The teacher was encouraged.
“If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat
and tidy, would that get me to heaven?” Again the answer was, “No!”
“If I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the
children and loved my wife, would that get me into heaven?” Again they all
shouted, “No!”
“Well then, how can I get to heaven?” A boy in the back
row stood up and shouted, “You gotta be dead!”
Being dead is one way to qualify to be screened for
Heaven BUT being in the Lamb’s Book of Life is the only way to be admitted.
Is your name written there? Accomplish that and you will need to fear neither life nor death. Amen.
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