AtomNo More Tears
Revelation 21:1-7
We are presently in the fourth week of a six week run through the book of Revelation, the last book of the NT, the mystery book for many of us who have been uncertain of how to approach it, read it or understand it. It is the intent of Pastor Dave and myself to give you this brief run-through to bring you the big picture of Revelation, so that it might not be so overwhelming in your own reading, and even more so you might be confident in the message of hope that John offers here – a message of hope for Christians struggling through the difficulties of the first century as well as Christians struggling through the difficulties of the twenty-first century. But if you are only here today, and this is the only time you are a part of this series, or if you just need to have it plain and simple so you can muddle through the rest of what I have to say, the message of Revelation can be summarized in these words: “In the end, whenever the end comes, for you personally or for the world as we know it, Jesus is Lord and God. He wins. So be sure that you are on his side.”
That being said, let’s step back for a minute. In the first three weeks, Pastor Dave spoke of John’s intent to encourage the church through his vision. I suppose we should say, “God’s intent to encourage the church,” because John’s vision comes from God. The message is addressed to seven churches. Again, seven is the perfect number, the complete number, the God number. Seven churches means the whole church of Christ, all believers. “Be faithful. Do not give up. Do not submit. Keep following. Keep praying. Keep serving. Do not let anyone draw you into unfaithfulness, because God knows they will try.
In chapter five, Pastor Dave reminded us of the vision of the Lamb on the throne. The Lamb of course is Jesus, the one crucified for our sin, the one who carried our death upon himself to the grave, the one risen from the tomb and ascended into the very presence of God. He holds the future and orders our days. He is Alpha and the Omega, the A and the Z, the beginning and the end. This is the vision of our Lord that we carry as believers to sustain us in difficult times.
And then last week, we were in chapter seven and Pastor Dave shared the vision of the four horseman bringing plagues and famine and destruction and death upon the earth, and in the midst of that chaos God’s work of rescue, of redemption, the setting apart of the saints, the completion of the new Israel, the twelve tribes of Israel multiplied by twelve, times 1000 (another perfect number) to equal 144,000. Again the importance isn’t so much in the precise number as in the image of perfect completion. A few verses later, the number before the throne is “a number so great no one can count them.” God is at work to rescue and redeem, even when disaster threatens to overwhelm us. God is faithful – always. Your future is secure.
Which brings us to chapter 21. And if you have been following along, you are probably saying to yourselves, “Wait a minute! What happened to chapters 8 through twenty-one and those awful images of beast and dragon, of the harlot and temptress and of seven angels with seven trumpets and seven bowls of wrath and great battles between good and evil and God and God’s enemies. That is the part that really confuses me. What is that all about?”
Again, let me go back to the situation of John the apostle, writing for God in about the year 95. Life was very difficult for Christians. It was a very different time than when the Apostle Paul wrote in about 60 A.D. At that time Paul gave thanks for the order and relative safety that Roman government gave to the Mediterranean world in which he traveled and proclaimed the message of Jesus. Romans built roads. Their soldiers kept the peace and limited robbery and attacks on travelers. Their language, Greek, was the common trade language of the civilized world. So Paul could move about relatively freely with his message, and when he got in trouble with local, community authorities, he could appeal to his Roman citizenship to establish his rights to fairness. So Paul wrote:
Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. For whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment. (Romans 13:1-2)
Government was good. It led to order and stability in life. Christians moved about, organized themselves, and grew in number and in influence. But then things began to get difficult for the Roman Empire. There were enemies without and corruption within. Emperor Nero was losing his grip on the empire and on sanity. Christians did not honor him as a god…which bugged him, because, remember, emperor worship was very big in ancient Rome. Christians obeyed the authorities, but they had another allegiance, a “higher allegiance.” And so Nero pointed to Christians as the source of Rome’s problems…not unlike Adolf Hitler did in Germany when he pointed to the Jewish community as the source of Germany’s problems in the 1930’s. Government turned against the Christians. Nero instituted violent persecutions. Believers were crucified and thrown to the lions and other beasts in the arena. Emperor Domitian came to power and he continued the persecutions with a vengeance. All the world seemed to be caving in on the heads of the Christian community. And they wondered, “Where is God in all this? Where is our resurrected, victorious Lord?” It was at this juncture that John received his vision from God.
It is a vision of awful power – of forces waging war against God’s chosen and of God sending the Lord Christ and the armies of heaven in rescue. As you read the chapters this week, you read of the ugly beast rearing out of the sea and of the ten headed monster and of the dragon and the woman. There have been many interpretations through the ages and particularly in the last 150 years to try to identify who these refer to in our present age. Is the beast, the Antichrist Hitler or Saddam Hussein? Or is it any of a number of other leaders who came to power and were perceived as threats to the Church and the whole world? Much of this speculation has been an attempt to figure out and put a frame on God’s timetable for the end to the world as we know it.
But creating a timetable was not likely John’s intent or God’s intent for the moment in which this vision was shared. John spoke to a community of believers wondering if Rome’s god was stronger than their own, wondering if indeed God was in control of the chaotic world in which they lived. And John says emphatically, “God is in charge here; God has not lost control; and one day, these powers that have temporary authority, that work against God’s will for the world, that are sided with the great dragon, Satan, will be undone. God’s Christ, Jesus will return with power and authority and the battle will be done once and for all.”
So the alternating images of beast and of temptress are of Roman civilization that is a beast in its persecution and a temptress in luring Christians into its pleasures and ignorance of God. I invite you to read these and to see in them a society intent on separating Christians from their God, either by fear and force, or by offering us distractions: wealth, sex, drugs, whatever would dull our worship and service. And then consider how people even today are threatened away or enticed away from faith in Jesus.
In our country, people are rarely persecuted in the way of first century Christians, but in other countries, like Somalia, believers may be shot if they are identified as Christians, or hauled away and never heard from again. We don’t have that kind of Rome hanging over our heads. We are more likely in danger from the temptress who would entice us away. Perhaps you saw as I did the article in the paper this week about a heroin ring operating among high school students in Northfield, MN – a lovely, affluent, college town just south of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The implications of the story were that the leaders of this love affair with a very addictive and dangerous drug, were white, upper-middle class young people, leaders in the school, football players and cheerleaders, honor students, who were bored with life as it is, not finding enough purpose in their life, so being a user and supporting their habit through crime has become a purpose and a status symbol.
This is the temptress, the harlot of Revelation, of any society that would draw us from our true purpose and the true worship of our God.
So, all these forces come up against God’s created order and God’s purpose in John’s vision. And God calls an end to it. Seven bowls of wrath are poured out, seven trumpets are sounded. Remember that seven is the number of God; it is the number of days to order creation; it is the perfect number. So the perfect amount of wrath, God’s is poured out on those who resist. The bowls are very reminiscent of the plagues God sent upon Egypt when Pharaoh was persecuting God’s people way back in the Old Testament – there are locusts and blood and all kinds of bad things that happen to those who oppose God and persecute God’s people. The message isn’t so much in the detail of the bowls or trumpets as in the sum of them. There are seven. It means that God is at work and God is going to bring down rod on those who are the enemies of God’s purpose. And finally God’s rider on a white stallion will ride in:
Then I saw the heaven opened, and there was a white horse! It’s rider is called Faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war…From his mouth comes sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will t read the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, “King of Kings and Lord of lords.” (19:11-16)
God will bring all this chaos to an end and Jesus will have the last word and order will be restored. Hang in there. Be sure that you are on the right side when the end comes – when your end comes – because Jesus wins! Remember? Jesus wins. And there will come a day when all the persecuted, and all those who have lost loved ones, and all those who have lost their own lives in the great conflict between death and life, will stand before the throne of the Lamb, delivered, whole and at peace – a number too great to count, as Pastor Dave reminded us. And there will be a new heavens 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 thrown saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. God will dwell with them; 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 seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” (21:1-5)
Can you imagine hearing this word of hope when you are wondering if you can survive to the next day? When you are in prison or when your loved ones have been taken away and you can only fear the worst? It’s power is not unlike the power this vision still has for us today when our life seems to be caving in…or when our loved ones are suddenly taken from us by our old enemy death.
I had at least two visits this week where I heard the power of this vision in the life of believers. Two who came and who had lost dear loved ones…one rapidly as disease quickly took over a once strong and vital body, and another suddenly as tragedy, sudden and incomprehensible struck. And both confessed to tears…tears of sorrow, tears of anger at the unfairness of it all, tears of grief because at least in this life they would see them no more. But I also saw dry eyes as each of them shared the hope of the life to come, and their confidence that their loved on would be among those gathered around the throne of Christ, living in the new creation. Not that they wouldn’t cry again in the weeks and years to come as they missed their loved one and struggled with the empty place in their life that this loss left, but they knew something of this peace that passes all human understanding, the hope of the life to come and the promise of God that there will come a day…when crying and loss will be no more. It was only a glimpse, but it was enough.
Hear again the powerful message of Revelation, friends. God is saying, “There is much chaos in the world; there are powers, violent and seductive that would take away your hope. Stand firm. Know that in the end God’s Lamb, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, wins!” Let’s pray…
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