In the Name of Jesus
Revelation 21,1-7 Letzter Sonntag des Kirchenjahres (Ewigkeitssonntag) 073 (27. Trinity)
Pontianus, Bishop of Rome, Martyr 235
20. November 2011
1. Stir up, we beseech You, O Lord, the wills of Your faithful people, so that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works; may of You, be plenteously rewarded (Book of Common Prayer). Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle Paul writes: 1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: „Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. 4He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.“ 5And He who was seated on the throne said: „Behold, I am making all things new.“ He also said: „Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.“ 6And He said to me: „It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7The one who conquers will have this inheritance, and I will be his God and he will be My son.“ This is our text.
3. We live in a society that is mesmerized with the sensational. Special effects, explosions and fancy costumes please our senses when we watch TV or go to the movie theater. As regards religion, Americans, in particular, are draw to apocalyptic teachers. The internet was buzzing earlier this year when Harold Camping prognosticated the end of the world in a two-stage event beginning on 21. May and consummating on 21. October 2011 with the end of the world and the return of Jesus. Those dates have arrived, passed us by, and the world continues on. The next supposed doomsday date looms on our horizon: 21. December 2012. When the Mayan long-count calendar ends next year, many fear so will the world as well.
4. „It’s exciting that even in the Church there is an apocalyptic them, which people always assume she will try to make people docile with fear and threats, however the Church proclaims the exact contrast to such worldly doomsday scenarios and fears. In the Holy Gospel, Jesus has in mind a future scenario that is not so much a final catastrophe as it is more like a giant party, a wedding ceremony, the epitome of joy and life in general. Certainly, the Bible does not record a rosy picture of our future; there are indeed reports of earthquakes, famines, wars, and cosmic events that precede the advent of the Lord. But the Bible describes all this just enough so as not to scare us, not to send a fearful shiver down our spines, but rather describes all of this so that we remain focused on the key future event par excellence: the advent of Jesus Christ in power and glory, the beginning of His new world in which only joy prevails, in which all threats to our life will be once again behind us“ (Martens § 5).
5. In John’s Apocalypse, chapter after chapter describes the pain and sorrow as the world falls sway to evil and destruction, but at the very end John’s vision becomes one of great comfort to Christians. John writes: »Then I saw a new heaven 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, 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: „Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man!“«
6 . Jesus declares that He will make a new heaven and a new earth. This present heaven and earth will be destroyed with fire. People, however, seem to become obsessed with the destruction and not the renewal. Even Christians can fret about Christ’s return like a Chicken Little. Too often the emphasis is on what is lost, rather than on what is to be gained on the last day. The destruction of heaven and earth is not an event to be feared, for Jesus will do this to remove the curse He had imposed upon fallen mankind and creation. Jesus will create a new heaven and earth in the image and likeness of the present, but all vestiges of sin, corruption and evil will be removed. This future, new earth will be a new Garden of Eden where men and women dwell in purity and in the eternal presence of the Triune God. The original Eden was such a place where Adam and Eve lived in harmony with creation, acted as faithful stewards of the same and spent the cool of the evenings resting in the refreshing presence of Yahweh.
7. The earth, as we currently experience it, is a planet of chaos and corruption. Natural disasters threaten us, famines and warfare pursue us, and we have only ourselves to blame for this vile course of events. Our sinfulness, our sins, bring man’s inhumanity to man into our experience. Until Christ returns, our world will be a history of violence, genocide and other atrocities as we lurch from one calamity to another; such horrifying events will become more and more intense as we draw closer to the last day when Christ will bring this horrible wreck of human misery to an end when He returns.
8. Christ Himself will proclaim: »It is finished!« Jesus spoke this very phrase once before. The Gospel according to John tells us: »When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said: „It is finished,“ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit« (John 19,30). Jesus spoke these words on the cross and they signified that the world’s redemption had been completed. The power and glory of these words assure you that you are forgiven and now stand in a right and just relationship before God the Father. As such, this is not a standing in fear and torment over sins, but rather it is a standing in joy and confidence that you are clothed in Christ: He is yours, and you are His; you, therefore, stand before God the Father with full assurance of your eternal salvation because by the merit of Christ your name has been written in the book of life. The Church Militant has an earthly counterpart to the heavenly book of life: each congregation records in a book the names of those who have been baptized in the Triune Name of God.
9. Jesus has grand plans for you on His new heaven and earth. He has kept most of His plans a joyous mystery, but the glimpses He has revealed to the prophets and apostles is more majestic than our current earthly existence. First, Jesus describes our eternal dwelling. New Jerusalem, the holy city of God is immense and built with the finest metals and gems. Twelve huge pearls form her open gates. Beautiful jewels, such as, jasper, sapphires and emeralds adorn the city. The streets will be paved with pure gold, transparent as glass. Gold can be beaten thin enough to become transparent so that light passing through gold appears light pink and greenish blue. Yahweh will dwell in our midst, and from His throne will flow a river. On each side of this river will grow the tree of life, with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. When Yahweh placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He intended for them to eat from the tree of life. In the new heaven and new earth, the tree of life will be before you, and you will be able, yes, encouraged by Yahweh, to eat of its invigorating, rejuvenating fruit.
10. Jesus then proclaims: „I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.“ In the beginning, Adam and Eve rebelled against Yahweh, sought to become their own gods, and ate from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Sin entered the world, and death through sin. Your fellowship with God had been rent asunder. Mankind had been been overcome by a tree. In the middle, Jesus came to His created earth. He submitted Himself to be sacrificed upon a tree -- a cross made from two planks of wood. Upon this cruciform tree Jesus died, and in His dying He overcame sin, death and the devil. By His death, Christ purchased your forgiveness. In the end, you will stand in God’s presence with the tree of life before you. The cruciform tree leads to the path where the heavenly tree of life grows. Jesus is Life Eternal, and through Him you will have access to the tree of everlasting life.
11. Such are the joys revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. Many more glorious days and activities await you in the new heaven and on the new earth. The gospel bespeaks you righteous; bright with Christ’s own holiness (LSB 578,3). Amen.
12. Let us pray. O Lord, You make known to us the path of life, keep us steadfast in attending the Divine Service each Sunday so that as we sing the Liturgy we rehearse for the time in the new heaven and on the new earth when we will worship before You in Your Divine radiance. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1549.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Martens, Gottfried. A sermon preached on 22. November 2009 (Ewigkeitssonntag) in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany on Matthew 25,1-13. Copyright © 2011 St. Mary Church in Berlin-Zehlendorf (SELK). All rights reserved. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011.
Nicolai, Phillip. „Wachet Auf, Ruft uns die Stimme“. Evangelisch-Lutherisches Kirchengesangbuch. Copyright © 2005 Lutherischen Buchhandlung. The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind, Tr. © 2011.
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