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Series: Through the Bible in Eight Great Stories #8 Resurrection and Return of Christ "The Final Promise"
I appreciate so much Dr. Godbey filling in at the last minute a week ago. I am doing much better, and thank you for your prayers and concern. Last week, Jim helped explain why we have four gospels, all of which tell the story of Jesus from a unique viewpoint and with a unique voice. Matthew, proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God who teaches with authority. Mark that Jesus is the Son of God seen through the powerful miracles and healings of his ministry. Luke, that Jesus is the Son of God for all peoples, with particular care for the least, the last and the lost. And John, that Jesus is the Son of God sent as God’s own son and missionary into the broken, bent, and darkened world to save it from sin and death. But make no mistake—Jesus, all four tell us, is THE SON OF GOD. Jesus comes to make flesh and blood the relationship with God and human beings. The relationship that God has pursued since the beginning. The relationship God formed into a covenant with Abram and Sarai, and renewed with Isaac and Rebecca, with Jacob and Rachel, with Jacob’s sons, especially Joseph, with Moses and the people, with the Judges and the prophets, then with the restored nation of Israel, and finally with all of humanity in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. And that promise? You remember? I will be your God and you will be my people. The grand sweep of Scripture, from Genesis through the life of Christ, centered upon one very important theme: I will be your God, and you will be my people. The relationship of the Creator and the created. And the way that relationship seeks to form God’s people. Jesus’ life is a testament, a NEW Testament to that promise, that relationship. We shall know God as we know the Son. We shall have relationship with the Father as we have relationship with the Son. In the end, the relationship once again looks broken. Jesus is executed as a common criminal. Hung until dead. Buried in a borrowed tomb. And of course, all four gospel writers end their stories with the climactic news! Jesus is not dead, but risen from the dead! We are told he appears again to his closest followers, his disciples, and then, ascends into heaven. He leaves behind a small group of scaredy-cat disciples—and direction for their future--that the ministry begun will now be in their hands. You know, the healing, the proclamation that the day of God is at hand. That the way into a relationship with the Creator is through the Son. That ministry will be up to them. They will be assisted by God’s own Spirit that will come and dwell with them to give them counsel, direction and power. And they will continue in this ministry until….well, until Jesus comes again to finish the job. And so…the disciples stand in the gap. They and those who have followed after them. And those who followed those who followed after them. And the next generation. And the next. And the next. So on and so on through the centuries, through the millennia, doing the will of Christ. Teaching. Healing. Traveling from town to town, village to village, that the good news, the gospel might bring others into relationship. One by one. Until….until that day when Christ will return from the heavens and the world will be made new. Between Jesus’ ministry, resurrection and ascension, and the day when Jesus will return that all might be made new, we have this span. This time. This place where the disciples are asked to do the work of Christ. Where we are asked to do the work of Christ. Perhaps no other thing will draw us nearer to the Creator; no other thing can bring us closer to the Creator, than to participate in the redemptive work of Christ, believing that not only our salvation, but the salvation of the world is at stake. After Jesus ascends into heaven, the disciples are empowered by the Spirit of God, and become bold representatives of Christ. Peter the bold preacher converts many in Jerusalem and becomes the head of the church. Paul the mighty evangelist takes the message of Christ through the region, then to the Mediterranean and finally, Spain and Rome. The rest of the New Testament is a record of their travels, their ministry, and the letters they sent to encourage and correct the followers of Christ. The essays on living the life of a disciple. All with an eye to the future. An eye to the day when Jesus will return. We have, in the end of the Bible, a vision of what that might look like. It is perhaps the most misunderstood and misused Bible of all of Scripture. Of course, I’m talking about the Revelation of John. There are some who have tried to use Revelation as a crystal ball. Foretelling the future. There are others who have tried to use Revelation as means of frightening people into following Christ to save their own necks. There are even some who have used Revelation as the launching pad for their own creative imagination to develop and expand their own idea of what the end of time will look like, giving us best seller books and a theology of Rapture that has so very little to do with Scripture but compels some to worry incessantly about a day certain to be drawing near when the trumpet will snatch up the faithful and leave the rest to suffer the horrific end-times. But that’s another discussion we really must have sometime soon. Revelation is a vision that keeps those who wait in this gap, this time between the ascension of Jesus and Christ’s return, focused on the promise. In fact, when the vision was first recorded, it was a great encouragement to the suffering and oppressed Christian community to provide them comfort for their current situation, AND to extend the relationship between Creator and created for all of eternity. Let me say that again: First, the book of Revelation was written to provide comfort in a very difficult time of suffering for early Christians. But secondly, the book extends the relationship between God and human being well beyond this life, and into all of eternity! The people to whom John is telling about his vision have very little control over their lives—as Christians in a time when Christians were persecuted and even killed for their faith, they see only two choices. They can either give up or give in. But God provides John with a vision that offers them a third alternative. Await the day when God will fight their battle. Remain faithful until the day when Christ will return and all evil, all that threatens will be defeated. Some day, we’ll need to talk about the monsters and symbols and all of the unusual things you find in Revelation. For now, we will focus on the end. The encouragement that the way things are not what will be. Not in God’s hands. For in Jesus’ return, the evil one is defeated, the faithful are resurrected and restored, and the new Jerusalem descends upon earth in a vision of glory and beauty and great value. Not so much a literal photograph of heaven, but a completely other-worldly vision of earth made new. Revelation is the counterpoint of Genesis. The end returns us to the beginning and recalls old themes in a new light—the light of Christ that illuminates the entire world. Once again, a dwelling place prepared by God. Not a garden, but a city. A river of crystal. A new Tree of Life, this one producing fruit to nourish and offering leaves for healing. And this place, in contrast to the world filled with suffering and tears and death, this place is the place where there is no tears, no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain. And of course, this is the place where the promise will be finally, fully fulfilled. “See the home of God is among the mortals, He will dwell with them, they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them…. “See I am making all things new… “It is done. I am Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.” Do you hear it? God returns, to make new all that has struggled in decay and brokenness. God, the beginning, (Genesis) is also the end (Revelation.) Alpha and Omega. And what was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Isn’t that what the old Gloria Patria taught so many of us. Creator and created living in complete relationship. Inheritors of the promise: “I will be their God, and they will be my children.” Does it surprise you to hear the promise again, here in the end? Which is not the end but the beginning of the future—the beginning of all of eternity. The story line of the Bible—the whole Bible…summed up now in this glorious vision. A God who longs to have us return the love lavished upon us. A God who longs to have us run into the waiting arms that wait to embrace us. The God who from the beginning and into all of eternity has but one, driving, consuming desire. To be our God, that we might be God’s people.
The Bible tells us what God desires. The question that remains is this…what do you desire? I invite you during our final hymn today to re-commit your own lives to God the Father through Jesus the Son. To turn toward God in the same way that God has turned toward you. With love. With passion. With a sincere desire to know God intimately. As we stand and sing, I invite you to offer your hearts once again to the God of the promise. The God of the beginning. The God of the end. The God of all creation. That such a God may become your God. That you may be forever more, God’s people. Thanks be to God. Amen.
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