St. Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Easter 5 May 6 + 9, 2004 Mother’s Day Revelation 21:1-6

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

My friend Lillian died last Friday. Her obituary said she was born in Chicago—but her grand-nephew said she was in fact born in Norway! I was at Lillian’s funeral yesterday. It was held in a chapel with huge carved angels overhead. There was on the side a copy of the tomb—the grave that Jesus borrowed—made of plywood—painted like stone and vines—like a quiet garden. In the chapel there was a cardboard cut out of Jesus—bigger than life—holding out his hands to greet you. Beside the pulpit there is a statue of Jesus—almost life size—the Good Shepherd carrying a little lamb gently on his shoulders. There are pews in the chapel—but they don’t fill the chapel. The aisle is very wide—so there is room for wheelchairs—for almost easy chairs on wheels—many of them with oxygen. It is almost impossible to guess how old most of the mourners were---their hair--salt and pepper. Their legs might be painfully thin—literally skin and bones—or they might be painfully swollen. Some arms and legs were painfully twisted and misshapen—curled up and bent inward! Before you could pay your final respects to Lillian you had to stand behind a long row of wheelchairs. It would be too strong a word to call those who were there mourners—because when they came close to the cocoon that used to hold Lillian’s immortal soul—they would cheer! They would sit forward in their wheelchairs and they would cheer—they would cry out—they would clap their hands—they would call out in an inexpressible joy that their friend Lillian was free—forever free! The troubles that once plagued her could not make her life difficult—not for a moment—not ever again! You see—Lillian is safe in Heaven by Jesus now! How wonderful that must be for her. And how wonderful that will be for you and for me, too! Today as we continue to peek into heaven—through the eyes of the apostle to John—the Revelation to St. John God’s Word promises:

We Can Only Imagine The New Jerusalem

1. The old order of pain has passed away

2. Our Heavenly Father will make everything new!

Today and two more Sundays we will with Jesus’ permission have readings from Revelation. Today and next week from chapter 21—and then from the last chapter of Revelation—chapter 22. Again—we need to be mindful of the context. In the verses right before the ones we are concentrating on—before we look into heaven—we have a look at Judgment Day. John wrote, Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Bright, white, flawless, holy is the throne—the Judgment Seat of our Heavenly Father. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened…The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. Imagine unbelievers—confronted with books that were a written record of all the things they had done wrong! Imagine if every bad thing we ever did or said or even thought was written down! How horrible and shameful that would be! The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire that is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. The horrors of hell are beyond words to explain. The most horrible aspect of all would have to be this—that once you are in hell—you never ever get out! It is only by grace through faith that we can be sure and certain—we will go to heaven whenever we die—for Jesus’ sake.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. This earth is spoiled—corrupted and infected by sin. I spend lots of time driving around. All you have to do is look at the shoulder of the highway and you see the wages of sin. There are dead squirrels and dead bunnies in the streets. On the edge of town there are beautiful white tailed deer, raccoons and opossums dead beside the road. There are whole cases of beer bottles and cardboard boxes beside the road. Down in the ditch beer cans and soda cans—scraps of sheets of plastic and Styrofoam cups. In the gutter by your mailbox cigarette filters and cardboard and paper wrappers from fast food. There are pieces of glass—the pieces of a shattered windshield like so many diamonds on the pavement—along with busted plastic—red and orange from broken tail lights—rusted bolts and bent nails—pieces of tailpipes and whole mufflers. There are bunches of huge orange and dark green trash bags from a mile or two carefully picked up garbage. This earth will itself pass away. This earth—soaked and saturated with sin will be gone! The things and stuff of this world that are fatally—forever fatally flawed will all be gone. There was no longer any sea! In the context of the rest of Revelation—the sea is the place here the first beast came from. Chapter 13 says, “And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads with ten crowns on his horns, and on each had a blasphemous name…” That can’t be good! No longer any sea. Anything that was the source of anything bad—will be completely gone! Only good will remain.

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, The old Jerusalem is a wondrous place. It has streets of stone—worn smooth from thousands of years of sandals, camels and donkeys and sheep walking on them. It is a place of creamy walls with gates that camels have to kneel to crawl through. It is a place where there are walls that King David stood on—to watch for Philistines. It is a place where Solomon’s Temple used to be—but now there’s not one stone left on another. It is a place of soldiers and guns and suicide bombers that explode buses—and more blood stains the stones. It is most pitifully of all—a place where the Son of God once walked—and now is the home of mostly people who don’t believe in him! The old Jerusalem is a place of sadness, pain, fear, pride, terrorism and death. The New Jerusalem will be a place of forever peace. A place made of living stones. A place not so much a matter of streets and buildings and things and stuff as a place where the LORD is with his people in a wondrous way our sin troubled minds cannot understand!

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. The old order of things is Murphy’s Law—if anything can go wrong it will. The old order of things is the little stuff. It’s the little piece of skin next to your fingernail—that you bite and it pulls and tears. And for days—every time you touch anything that finger hurts. It’s the Geraldo Raviera—holding up the unused—mint condition—ticket to Woodstock—and while holding it up for the camera—tears the stub off the ticket. It’s the dropping your car keys into a puddle. It’s the cutting yourself shaving—spilling spaghetti sauce on your brand new silk tie—dribbling tartar sauce in your lap from your McDonald’s fillet-o-fish sandwich. The old order of things is the bread landing jelly side down on the carpet. The old order of things is serial killers and mass murderers. They did an autopsy on the brain of a very famous serial killer from Chicago. They thought perhaps some part of his brain would be painfully different—chemically, physically literally twisted. It wasn’t! They found his brain to be absolutely and perfectly normal—painfully average! A doctor who spent literally thousands of hours with serial killers said—the problem was not that they suffered a terrible blow to the head when they were little. The problem was not that they were horrible abused and misused when they were little. The problem was not that something was wrong with their genes—their DNA—their genetics. The problem was in their heart—their emotions grown stone cold—as dead and lifeless as driveway gravel. The problem was their emotions—their attitude—that made their body a shell. The problem was they looked at their neighbor—not as another flesh and blood warm human being but as a thing to be used and abused and then murdered and their body thrown away. The problem with every single one of us—is that we are sinners—fatally flawed from the moment of conception. We are flawed—not in some physical way that can be repaired by medication or scalpel or genetic engineering. We are fatally flawed by sin. And only Jesus’ innocent blood—shed on the cross—can possibly fix that! When blood bought children of God are safe at home in Heaven—Jesus will wipe every tear from our eyes. And we will never ever cry again!

He who is seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” This weekend we are celebrating Mother’s Day! This is not a technically a Church Day—and so there will be lots of sermons that won’t mention Mother’s Day at all and that’s ok, I guess. But it seems to me that in our nation the family is under such attack by sin and Satan that it’s not wrong to think for a few moments about mothers and fathers. In our nation the whole concept of marriage is under attack. Jesus made it very clear when he said—in the beginning He made Adam and Eve—male and female. That marriage is one man and one woman—two made one flesh. That God blesses marriage with the gift of children—according to his love and wisdom and power. That’s important to remember too—when people are tempted to make a whole bunch of embryos—a whole bunch of little people—then puts some in mommy’s tummy and some into liquid nitrogen and some get washed down a stainless steel drain! Those are little people! God’s Word says children are to respect their mom and dad—not even giving them a dirty look—never ever talking back—never ever shouting something gross or obscene! Children—for Jesus’ sake—will never ever strike out to cause their mother physical hurt. Instead we will make each day a new day—a new start—a fresh beginning—to serve Jesus—by obeying our parents and our teachers and everyone in authority over us. Until the day comes when Jesus will make everything new!

To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. Thirsty? Have you ever watched one of those movies—where people get lost in the desert? There is sand as far as the eye can see. The sun is baking down on them. The vultures are circling above. They stumble and fall. They roll down a hill of sand—helpless to stop themselves from falling. They zoom in on their face—and their lips are swollen—peeling—little bits of skin like parchment all over their lips. It is painful for them to even try to swallow! Know what I am talking about? There are people everywhere—suffering from a painful spiritual thirst! Lately, lots of people have been reading a book called the Da Vinci Code. For 32 weeks it was on the New York Times Best-Seller List. It’s fiction. It’s make-believe. It’s pretend. It tries to say the Gospel truth that Jesus is the eternal Son of God made flesh—come into this world to wash away the sins of everyone—wasn’t invented until 325 B.C. when they wrote the Nicene Creed! This book tries to say Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and worse! This is not the place to satisfy your spiritual thirst. There is a spring of living water in God’s Word! This is the place to drink deeply and often—to satisfy the most basic thirst of all—the thirst for Jesus’ forgiving love. Drink from God’s Word all the time—until we are safe at home in Heaven. Amen!

To God alone all glory!