“God will dwell with us”
Revelation 21:1-16
Last week we studied Revelation 7 where the people
From
every nation, from all tribes, and peoples
And
languages waved palm branches and
Worshipped before the throne and the Lamb.
I
mentioned that this was in a sense
The
triumphal entry into
Exception
that instead of a small band
Waving
palm branches and singing
It
was the whole world.
And today we have heard the passage about a New
Jerusalem
Coming
down out of heaven adorned as a bride
And
God will wipe away every tear away and
Death
will be no more.
It is tempting to make this leap from wonderful
worship
In Rev.
7 to the New Life and New Jerusalem in Rev 21
Just
as it is tempting in Holy Week to go
Directly
from Palm Sunday celebration to
The Easter morning resurrection.
But you
know between the time Jesus road triumphally
Into
A
lot happened: he went into the temple
And
over turned money changers tables,
He
cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit,
He
was betrayed by Judas and
abandoned by all the disciples
and even Peter denied him,
He
cried out in the Garden of Gethsemane
When his own
disciples had fallen asleep:
“Take
this cup from me, but not my will
but Thy will be done”
He was tried by the Sanhedrin and the
Roman court.
He was
condemned to death,
He
was crucified,
He
cried out “My God, My God,
why hast Thou
forsaken me?”
His
side was pierced with a spear,
He
died with the words “It is finished”
He
was buried in a borrowed tomb.
He
was dead and the disciples
We
in hiding and in mourning
At the same time.
You see a lot happened between the
Triumphal entry and
The
Resurrection and all that happened is what
Makes
Jesus death matter to us,
It
is what makes his life and death like ours.
It’s
what convinces us that in Him
God
really did enter into our lives,
God
really does know what it is
To
struggle in life
And
the hope God offers in Jesus really is hope
That speaks to our struggles and our
Despair and our hurt.
So
it is with the Book of Revelation.
Between the New Life and
And
the Wonderful worship in Revelation 7 is a retelling
Of
the birth, life, struggles and death of Jesus
And
the struggle of the ancient church as they
Strove
to follow Jesus in the midst of
Persecution and turmoil.
It
is the part of Revelation that is difficult to read,
It is written in fantastic, hyperbolic
& symbolic language
With images that are more dreamlike than
narrative and yet it
makes it real, it makes it matter.
It is how we know that God dwells with
us in the good & bad.
What happens when we left the thong of worshippers
from every
nation and tribe and language and people?
Chapter 8 has the Lamb open the
seventh seal
Which in
Ancient world was symbolic of
We have a sense that we are indeed
Reading the Testament of the Lamb.
Chapter 9 and 10 are Job-like in their
presentation
Of the reality of suffering
in our lives and the
Reality check that
even in the midst of
suffering that
humankind does not
give up our
worship of idols.
That
was a hard truth for Job,
it is a hard
truth for us
and yet the
gospel is that
God doesn’t give up on us!
Chapter
11 is measuring of the
The testimony of the two witnesses of God.
A
lot of ink has been spilled trying to
Identify
who these witnesses are
They
could be Enoch and Elijah
Or
Moses and Elijah but
The
deeper truth is that they reflect the fact
That
throughout the ages God has not
Given
up on us but raised up the
Law
and Prophets as witnesses
To God’s presence
with us.
The witnesses are killed but God
raises them up
As
a reminder and God’s word and
God’s
people will live.
Chapter
12 tells of Jesus own birth and danger
in the story
of the pregnant woman,
The
child and the dragon who tries to kill
The
child and ends up making war
on the rest of
her children.
We
can’t help but think of Herod trying to kill
The
baby Jesus, slaughtering the innocents,
And the escape to Egypt
When we hear this part of Revelation.
Chapters
13 through 17 tells the story of the
Persecution
of the early church at the hands
Of the
The
church is symbolized by the 144,000
With
the name of the Lamb and the Father
Written
upon their foreheads
As
contrasted to the ones with the
mark of the beast- 666.
While
the mark of the Lamb and the Father
is baptism, the mark of the beast has been
the source of endless speculation.
The best guess is that it stands
For Nero and emperor worship.
In
the midst of this persecution John reminds the
Early
Christians and us in Chapter 14
That
God ultimately wins:
“Here is a
call for endurance of the saints
who keep the commandments of God
and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.”
“Fallen,
fallen is
Chapter 17
lifts up the great contrast between
Who
is described in Chapter 7 as:
“the women clothed with
the Sun,
with the moon under her feet
and
on her head a crown of twelve stars”
who gives birth
to the Messiah;
and
in chapter 17
The beast with seven heads is the
with Domitian and Nero
as prominent
among those heads.
Chapter
18 continues to chronicle the fall of
“Fallen, fallen is
It has
become the dwelling place of demons”
Chapter 18
is also God’s call to God’s people
To
come out of
escape the judgment on her.
Meanwhile
the kings, merchants & shipmasters
Lament
the fall of
For them the lost of income & power.
Chapter
19 is the second coming of Christ- Parousia
And
note that this time he is one a white horse
And
he is called “Faithful and true”;
“The
Word of God”;
King
of Kings, Lord of Lords”.
Chapter 20
speaks of the thousand year reign of
Christ
or millennium.
This is the only place that the New
Testament talks of a 1000 year reign.
It
is actually an idea that finds
Its
real roots in Jewish teaching
Of course
theologians argue whether this means
1000 years before the second coming or
1000
years after the second coming or
that we are
already in the midst of the
millennium as
we live out the
Kingdom God has already
promised
in Jesus Christ:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of
God is at hand; repent and believe
in the good news.” (Mark
“The scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)
And that gets us to Revelation 21:
“Then I saw a new heaven and new earth; for
the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more . And I saw a
holy city, a 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 throne
saying,
See the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them; they
will be his peoples,
And God himself
will be with them;
He will
wipe away every tear from there eyes
Death will be no
more,
Mourning
and crying will be no more,
For the first things have passed away.”
This is the punch line for all that has
gone before.
All
the lusting after money and power is gone
And
a New Jerusalem- new vision of peace
has come down from
God.
And
the dwelling place of God is with people,
As
prophecied in Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel:
“I will be their God and they shall be my
people”(Jer. 31:31)
“My dwelling place shall be
with them and I will be
their God and they shall be my people.” (Ex. 37)
“He will swallow up death in
victory; and the Lord God will
wipe away tears from all faces.” (Is. 25:8)
Revelation 21 celebrates not only that
God has come
To
dwell with us in Jesus Christ, the Alpha & Omega
But
that we have receive him into our lives,
Not
a thousand years ago or a thousand
years from now
when he comes again
but right today,
right now.
The
dwelling place of God is with people,
God
wants to come into our lives in Christ,
Let
us receive him even as we eat together
the meal he has
prepared. Amen