Intro
Color is meaningless to someone born blind. Music does not exist for the one
born deaf. To the one who has never opened his eyes to behold the beauty of a
vibrant sunset, to hear such beauty described would be but an empty wreckage of
words.
Without vision, color is a meaningless word. The sunset glow of red, the regal
hue of purple, would be as cold steel. Red and purple would only be a flat,
lifeless vibration of sounds, an empty husk, meaningless noises. Red and
purple to someone born blind is as empty of meaning as a symphony is to a man
born deaf.
Main Body
Now imagine the Prophet Isaiah as he tries to put into words the heavenly
realities that God put in his mind. What an impossible task! It exceeds the
power of our fallen language to carry out with any clarity. Yet God had given
Isaiah that task to write. So he used symbols and images, even Hebrew poetry,
to try to describe the indescribable. And when we hear Isaiah’s poetry, we are
like the blind man trying to envision what the colors red and purple are like.
What we heard in our Old Testament reading tells us of eternal life in heaven.
Isaiah was talking about what comes after, after the world as we know it has
ended. In its place, God will create a new heaven and a new earth.
But what Isaiah says, also applies, in part, to us now! As odd as it sounds,
we find out that we can experience some of heaven’s reality now! For God tells
us to rejoice now in the future He will create. By faith, we enjoy even now
the blessings of the new creation.
But it doesn’t feel much like heaven, here in Kimberling City, does it? As
panoramic as these mountains are, and as peaceful as Table Rock Lake looks,
right now life seems gray and wet, just like we are on the cusp of a winter’s
day.
So then, where is this slice of heaven on earth that we can experience? It’s
where God is and where His people are. Right now on this earth, this little
sliver of heaven comes to us where God’s Word is preached and His heavenly
gifts are handed out: gifts like baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s Supper,
the read Word, and the preached Word. But it doesn’t stop there.
This little slice of heaven also becomes real when we as Christians live out
the gifts received that God has given us. It’s when one Christian lives out
love toward another in such a pure way, that the love of Christ is unmasked, if
only for a moment. In that moment, when all sin seems to fall away, true love
is shown and received to the saints in Christ. That’s also when we experience
a small slice of heaven. Sadly, this is a much too-rare event.
In our Old Testament reading, we hear about rejoicing in Jerusalem. The
Jerusalem God is rejoicing over is His Church. For those who believe in Him,
we are the ones in whom God delights. It isn’t only the saints and angels in
heaven who rejoice, but even God Himself! He rejoices in our faith and in our
unity in Him. And He rejoices in His people, that they can--and do!--carry out
His holy deeds, and do the works that He has planned for them to do. He even
tells us that we do not labor in vain.
But God has more for us. He has a powerful word to us about prayer. “Even
before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear.”
This promise is also for us, right here and right now. God answers prayer--and
He even answers ahead of time! That’s God for you. He answers according to
His wisdom and our eternal needs, even before we ask.
But it’s hard for us to realize this foretaste of heaven that we have right
now. Although our fallen, feeble minds stumble at this, it’s still a reality
because Jesus’ death and resurrection make it so. The old world ended and a
new one began on the day Christ died. That day, Jesus forgave our sins and
fulfilled the Law of God for us. And, by faith, we believe and live in this
reality.
How you will spend eternity doesn’t come about by you doing what only God can
do: be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. That’s why God gives you
faith as a gift, and all gifts are free, or they wouldn’t be gifts.
Now, because of Jesus, God deals with us differently. Now God deals with us as
His special people, as His royal priesthood, because that’s who we are in Jesus
Christ. And as God’s royal priesthood, our lives now become living sacrifices,
doing the work God has given us to do here on earth.
But of course, then there is the greater reality: heaven in eternity. In
trying to describe the realities of the coming age, nothing that Isaiah says
does justice to the true reality of heaven. It will be a new heaven and a new
earth. And because it’s new, it won’t be like what we have right now, that is
most certainly true!
When it comes, the sorrows and the troubles of the past will be forgotten; it
will be like moving from darkness into light. How many thousands of regrets do
you have? You’ve missed opportunities, made snide comments, and did shameful,
foolish deeds--all because you are sinful. God is giving you a new reality
check: “The past events will not be remembered or come to mind.” God won’t rub
your nose in your sin, because Jesus has already taken away that humiliation
for you on the cross.
In heaven, we will be sinless. So the sin that has woven itself into our every
experience here will be gone. That’s why everything will be different, because
sin will be no more. We can’t even imagine what that is like!
The promise is that in this newly created reality, “The sound of weeping and of
crying will be heard no more.” The anguish in our lives will be lifted from
us, and we’ll be forever freed from those miseries and heartaches. Even having
to endure watching a loved one die will be no more.
Isaiah touches the deepest sadness we know, of holding your baby who has died
only after a few days of life. That flood of suffocating panic will be no more
in eternity. In the new creation, if someone somehow were to die at 100, he
would still be as a young child, not even yet mature. That’s Isaiah’s way of
saying in poetic and picturesque language, that in God’s eternal kingdom, no
one will weep over the untimely death of a loved one. For death will have died
and can bully us no more. Jesus has already died that death that you may have
His life in eternity.
Sorrow will cease, the new Jerusalem will be for rejoicing! Nothing will make
you weep. Nothing will slice away your joy. For your every experience will be
without sin. That’s why we can’t even begin to grasp what perfect joy it will
be to live in God’s eternal presence, because sin has even ruined our ability
to grasp this.
Isaiah makes it sound as if the “new heaven and new earth” will be a place of
productive labor. And it will be. We won’t just sit around on clouds,
strumming harps. We will be working.
Our text says, “They will build houses and live [in them]; they will plant
vineyards and eat their fruit. . . . My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work
of their hands. They will not labor without success or bear children [doomed]
for disaster, for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, and their children
will be with them.” That doesn’t sound much like sitting on a cloud doing
nothing, does it?
Our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against God because they wanted to be
like God. And so sin and death entered the world, and work became painful.
But in eternity, where sin will be a forgotten memory, we will have sinless,
fulfilling lives, even doing work. Everything we do in eternity will be
praise to God, for no sin will get in the way to mess it up. Even our work in
eternity, which won’t even seem like work, will be a worship of God, expressed
through the work we will be doing!
What a fully lived reality that awaits us! We will all have direct and
intimate union with God, and so also with one another as well. There, He will
hear and answer our prayers, like here, only more readily known and sensed by
us in eternity.
Unlike here, where sin stains the fabric of our existence, in eternity, it will
different--it will be peace. Here, even nature turns on us. Storms rise up
and smash down what we build, and even rob us of life and limb. But here’s
what God says: “The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will
eat straw like the ox.” Our life experiences that now tie our guts into a knot
will be no more. For in eternity, we will experience the purest peace, where
nothing will ever threaten us again.
Even the serpent will be stripped of his fangs in heaven, for “dust will be the
serpent's food.” But we already know that, don’t we? For the serpent, Satan,
has been destroyed, disemboweled of his powers by Jesus. He will eat dust
forever and ever, and will never hiss and strike at us again. For Jesus has
won the battle. He has paid the price. He has done the undoable to make us
His people, to pour out His riches on us.
Yes, Jesus has forgiven your sins, whatever they may be. But that doesn’t mean
that it was OK to do them, or that they didn’t matter. We often live in a
world of “cheap grace,” because we know we are forgiven before we even sin.
And so we live as lazy Christians, thinking sin is no big deal or that it
doesn’t matter. But it does matter! For Jesus was punished for your sins on
the cross. That’s why it matters. If Jesus going to the cross doesn’t matter
to you, then pinch yourself to see if you’re even alive, if you even have faith
pulsing in your heart!
“Go, and sin no more!” That’s how Jesus put it to the woman caught in
adultery. And that’s the faithful response of hearing the Gospel. Because
your sins have been forgiven, you move forward. Because your sins have been
forgiven, you don’t stay mired in your sins, rationalizing them away. “Go and
sin no more.” Move forward and live a holy life.
Because of the cross, the cross that matters, God the Father has removed your
guilt and sin through Jesus. In Gospel faith, gladly receiving Jesus’
cross-won forgiveness for you, you are now His holy people.
And so God tells you what awaits you. He does this so you’ll always be moving
forward to living in His eternal presence. By faith, you are the ones whom God
calls “My people,” and those whom He says are “blessed by the Lord.”
Conclusion
These truths are for you. God repeats them that you may know that He remembers
you, even into eternity. He repeats them that you know His promises are real.
God wants you to know what He has prepared for you, that you remain stout in
heart, always looking forward to heaven.
Yes, it will be paradise to experience God’s divine love up close and in
person. That’s what awaits all the saints in Christ: being in full presence a
loving God. Amen.
--
Rich Futrell, Pastor
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Kimberling City, MO
Where we are to receive and confess the faith of the Church (in and with the
Augsburg Confession)--the faith once delivered to the saints, the faith of
Christ Jesus, His Word of the Gospel, His free and full forgiveness of sins,
His flesh and blood given and poured out for us, and His gracious gift of life
for both body and soul.
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