PONDERING... A Tale of Two Homecomings (Revelation 7:9-17, 22:14-15)

A Tale of Two Homecomings

In Celebration of Providence's 185th Homecoming--September 11, 2016

GIST: After this life, there will be two ultimate, though opposite, homecomings--one of supreme blessing and the other of continual despair. 

SCRIPTURE: Revelation 7:9-17, 22:14-15

"9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" 14 I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes... 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."- Revelation 7:9-17, 22:14-15

A Few Opening Remarks:

     When Brother Driggs asked me to speak at homecoming this year, I was honored to accept. I know many of you have been praying for me this week, some longer, and I cannot thank you enough for this. It is a humbling experience to stand behind the pulpit on any occasion. Delivering God's Word is a solemn privilege that should not be taken lightly... I don't want to mislead or speak out of my own desires or agendas. I want it to be from and for Jesus. Period. 

     And this thought really hit me with this particular service. 185 years ago, a time only my mother-in-law has been around long enough to remember :D, Jesus established His church here. Which means, 184 better anniversary sermons have been preached in celebration of God's Providence. And I pray that until Jesus returns, this church will continue to be a testimony to that provision, and a church which honors and serves Jesus Christ. Really, just to think about how much He has done already with this local congregation is humbling.

     Nonetheless, as wonderful as this day is, it is only a tiny taste of the ultimate homecoming which awaits some of us. And that is what I want to focus on this morning in the time we have before "the great gorge".  

For, after this life, there will be two ultimate, though opposite, homecomings--one of supreme blessing and the other of continual despair. 

1. There will be a great homecoming

     We think of homecomings as a returning to a place of belonging-- a place where we feel comfort, acceptance, and general happiness. For those of us who believe in Christ, we have been told by Him that we are "not of this world"; our home is with Him. Therefore, when we leave this place, we can look forward to experiencing our home, fully, for the first time. Our text today provides us with a snapshot of this experience--a picture of Heaven. When we look at a passage like this, there are so many different images and messages to take note of, but our time is limited, so I just want to walk us briefly through the portion described in verses 15-17. John sees a great multitude from every nation praising God. Then, he is told who they are (which we'll return to in a minute), and given the "resulting" (<--that word is purposeful) description. Let's just take a few minutes to look a little closer at this picture.

...they are before the throne of God, 

      It's too easy to miss out on the significance and honor of this first description. In Heaven, we will be in the direct presence of God. ... This should kill us. All throughout Scripture we are told our sinful, human forms cannot see God in all of His glory (fully revealed) and live. Think about Isaiah, who was only given a glimpse of Him and fell to the ground saying, 'Woe is me! I am undone!' (Isaiah 6).  Yet, here we are told we will be in His full presence. How? Because Jesus came fully revealing God to the world, and endured Hell to make this impossibility our reality. Hold that, we will be coming back to this! 

...and serve him day and night in his temple;

     Two quick points to clarify this image a bit. One, there is no night and day in Heaven. We're told that in Revelation 22:5. God is the only light in Heaven, and He doesn't ever "go down". So this just means our service will never end. Two, there's not a physical temple in Heaven either. Revelation 21:22 tells us Jesus is the temple. So our continuous service is to Him.

     Now, here's a point where I think people really start to miss out on how incredible Heaven will be. Even Christians, because we carry with us the baggage of a sin nature, recoil at being told we'll be serving God in Heaven. I think that's because we have a misconception of what service is. We think of it as some sort of demeaning task. However, that comes from our arrogance. Service is meant to be an act of love. At least, that's what Jesus did when He came "not to be served, but to serve" (Matthew 20:28). Now, I cannot say we definitely won't be washing dishes in Heaven, but I know in Jesus' parable of the talents when He greets the faithful servants, He says, "‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master’" (Matthew 25:14-30). So whatever we do, and we could spend another whole sermon talking about all these possibilities, we can know for sure it will be done  with joy--out of a pure love for Him. It's going to be amazing. I can promise you that. 

...and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

     We can definitely see how these next few lines feed into each other. We will be standing before the throne of God, because of Jesus' love, the love of God. We will be enjoying life as it was meant to be; our lives, untainted by sin, being service to God, because of that same love. Now we see we are sheltered by His presence. We're taken care of...because of His love. We could camp out here all day, but let's just look at how the passage itself illustrates it-->

...They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;

     Now, this might not be fair to bring up at this point in the message since many of you are trying really hard not to think about the meal down at the School House... Yet, this is an awesome picture. First, I do think there is a spiritual aspect to this promise. For many of you, this will remind you of Jesus' words from the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."(Matthew 5:6). This blessing happens on earth, but here we see our longing for God fully satisfied.

     Nonetheless, there is a physical aspect to this promise, as well. Hunger and thirst are realities of our human weakness. Some in this room have felt the impact of really needing food. Many around the world die from this every day. From what I've seen online, approximately 21,000. That's astronomical. And that, in part, is what is being promised here. All the physical pains in this fallen world will cease. No one will go hungry. No one will feel the pain of arthritis, or asthma, or diabetes, or cancer. Life will be as God intended in the garden of Eden...only better! The next point continues this thought-->

...the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

     We already mentioned there won't be a physical sun, per se, in Heaven. However, I think this promise alludes to something else about Heaven's environment. Not only will our bodies be freed from physical maladies, but the environment itself will be perfect. This truth really struck me last year when I was reading a tiny book by C.S. Lewis called "The Great Divorce", which actually has nothing to with divorce, but is an allegory about Heaven and Hell (I highly recommend it!). Because of how most modern images and films depict Heaven--vague, bright whiteness or...clouds--I think we tend to have a very sterile picture of Heaven in our minds (which could feed the disinterest some feel). I won't dwell on this for long, but thinking of it really blows my mind. Take a few seconds to think of all the things you love about Earth: maybe a sunset, trees in the fall, a beach, a clear night sky... (you fill in the blank). This world is truly beautiful... AND, this is the tainted version! Why should we expect Heaven to be less stunning? It will be even better...and without the bad points. The sun won't burn, mosquitoes won't bite, poison ivy won't...poison. 

...For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water,

     Here, again, we are reminded that this is all because of Jesus' love. We have this great statement: the Lamb is the Shepherd. The one who is in control, died in our place, as our sacrificial Lamb. Now, He leads us by springs of living waters. This probably reminds you of Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters...." Or possibly, the story of the woman at the well, when Jesus tells her, "...If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water... whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:10,14). This water, this salvation, will never run dry.

...and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

     Oh, what comfort this is. There's nothing I can do to make this more clear. This world is hard. It is full of heart break and disappointments. We lose those we love. We experience ridicule. We cause pain to those around us. There are many causes for tears. Yet, this is not forever! Like Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18, "17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

     There will be no more need for tears. AND, if that wasn't encouraging enough, look at the verse again. He doesn't just say, "you won't cry anymore". He says, "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes". The hands that formed the universe will reach down to wipe away your tears. 

     Breath-taking. This image...is absolutely wonderful. Yet, it is not the only homecoming we see in the book of Revelation.

     

2. But not for everyone

     There is a great number from every tribe, people, and language...but it's not everyone. It is those who have 'washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb'. Now, this is actually a really paradoxical statement. However, to those of us who have grown up in the church, it seems common place. However, typically, blood doesn't make things white...or clean. But Jesus, who is completely pure, shed His blood in our place. This picture isn't about people who will be worthy. It's about Hell-deserving people who have accepted Christ's forgiveness, who have given Him their lives and been saved by His grace. It's all about Him.

     But there's another group. Those who aren't cleaned...by choice. Revelation 9:20-21 tells us, "20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts." They have a homecoming too. We see this in Revelation 20:12-15, "12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done... 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." 

     I do not need to go into the same detail about Hell as I did about Heaven. They are opposites. One is eternal life. One is eternal torment. And the people who enjoy Heaven are not somehow better than those who suffer Hell. The difference is Jesus Christ. Has the Lamb become your Shepherd, or not? " 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved... 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:9-10,13).

A Few Closing Thoughts:

     Originally, I had titled this message something lame like "Two Homecoming Messages", which would have probably just made the congregation think they were in for an extra long service. However, when I sent it to my mother-in-law for the bulletin, she suggested: A Tale of Two Homecomings. This was so much better, and the more I thought of it, so fitting. Consider these iconic opening lines in light of these truths we've been discussing (Note I'm going to modify one of the lines, not because I'm doubting your vocabulary, but because it employees some terms we don't use as often in 2016, and I don't want us to miss out on this pretty profound point..):

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the [era of belief], it was the [era of disbelief], it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present..."--Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

     It will be one or the other. Which homecoming awaits you? If Heaven, praise the Lord for your salvation and do not neglect sharing this blessing with the world. If Hell, I pray that Jesus work in your heart today. Come to Him, and be saved by Him.

Come, Lord Jesus. Come. 

SIDE NOTE: This image of Heaven is breath-taking. Sadly, I think too many of us--I--take Heaven for granted. We don't say eagerly with the apostle at the close of this book, "Come, Lord Jesus, come!" Why? Well, we don't want Hell, but we really aren't interested in what we've heard about Heaven. I think we can so easily miss out on the amazing blessing of being with Jesus as He designed!