Saints Triumphant
November 14, 2010
Blessed Eternal Sunshine
Revelation 22:1-5
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Dear friends,
Before he died and went home, St. John, writer of the Gospel and several letters in the New Testament, saw some amazing things.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. (Revelation 22:1-2)
This city, which is heaven, points all the way back to the beginning of the world. It points back to the Garden of Eden. Eden had rivers, and the new city has a river, too. One crystal river, flowing with the water of life. This special river points us back to Eden and also to Jesus' words to the Samaritan woman at the well:
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. (John 4:13-14)
Jesus' living water is the very Gospel itself. We use this picture of water because the Gospel does what water does. It washes us clean before God and we drink it and are refreshed. Thousands of believers throughout time from the beginning have been washed clean and have been refreshed with the water of life, which is the Gospel.
In addition to the water of life, there are trees of life. This, too, points back to the beginning. God made two trees in Eden. If you ate from the first one, you'd live forever. If you ate from the second one, you'd separate yourself from God and die.
Our ancient ancestors, Adam and Eve, ate from the second tree. So out of love for His rebellious creatures God driven them out of Eden so that they would not eat from the first tree, the tree of life, at the wrong time.
22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)
God did them a huge favor because they wouldn't face an eternity on a sinful planet with their sinful selves. Getting back to this tree and many variations on this theme has been a dream of many throughout the years. But the foutain of youth can't heal you; it can only make you live with yourself forever. Why would anyone want to live with themselves forever? What a horrible prospect. It sounds like hell to me.
But our Savior offers us the tree of life with our sins forgiven and ourselves healed. John spoke more of what he saw: the leaves of the tree [of life] are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 22:2).
Could you imagine the conflict between nations continuing forever? Trade wars and terrorism and low intensity conflicts and failed peace talks... year after year after year? Again, no, thank you, it sounds terrible.
And thanks to Jesus, this will not happen. Wars will cease, but even better, in heaven believers from Russia and Georgia (the one in Asia), the USA and Iran, Pakistan and India, and all the rest will live together in perfect harmony.
But the very best thing about heaven is that Jesus lives there and we will live there with Him and we won't be under a curse anymore.
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. (Revelation 22:3-4)
The curse that we live under right now is our sin that we inherit from our parents and is a daily fact of our lives. Right now the curse of sin is such reality that we learn how to filter it out, just like we filter out trains at night, jets overhead, and farm odors below. God made us to be adaptable creatures, but when this flexibility is combined with the strench of sin, it makes for a deadly combination. We become comfortable in our smelly ways and in our selfish thoughts.
Sadly it takes a death to snap us back to the truth, especially when it is an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years (Isaiah 65:20).
Death is a harsh reminder that all are sinful, even the very old and the very young, people who couldn't hurt a fly. But we are all sinful and death follows us around down here on earth.
But in heaven the curse of sin will be long gone. Death will never again haunt our steps. Isaiah put it like this: he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed (Isaiah 65:20).
That's his inspired way of saying: you're never going to die. Ever. And for eternity we will talk with Jesus face-to-face. Our eye-closed prayers here will turn into actual eye-to-eye conversations up there. All this will come true because will bear Jesus' name. As Christians here on earth we bear the name of Christ—Christians. This will not change in heaven.
But there will be one big change in the new city.
There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)
Two pastors I know just took calls to serve congregations in Wasilla and Kenai, up in Alaska. In June the sun will rise at 4:30 in the morning and it will set at 11:30 at night. But in heaven we won't have to depend on the rotation of the earth for light because the city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp (Revelation 21:23).
We will be blessed with eternal sunshine. Our dearly departed in the Lord are enjoying this paradise right now. And you will join them for Jesus' sake.
You will drink from the crystal river.
You will eat from the tree of life.
You will bask in eternal sunshine.
And best of all, He will gather us up and we gather around His heavenly throne. And you will see the face of the Lord.
I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:27)
Amen.
