May 5, 2013 sermon - Easter 6
Pastor Paul G. Eckert
Sermon text - Revelation 21:1-4, 22-27
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    Verse 22 of our text says, “I did not see a temple in the city ---.”
I’ll connect that verse with a letter I received last September from
former members of our St. Jacobi Congregation.  They wrote, “Dear
Pastor Eckert, I realize this is quite early to be writing you, but just
as soon as the new calendars for 2013 came out I was wondering if
you would reserve the Sunday of May 5th of 2013 for us.  We are
Bob and Geri (Golden) Woessner.  You joined us in marriage on
May 11th, 1963.  It would be very meaningful if you could preach
the sermon in the late service of the 5th.  Is that possible?  ---  We
will be celebrating 50 years of a joyous, Christ centered marriage.
We will be coming up to Wisconsin from Missouri to celebrate ---.”
    This was part of my response: “Hearing from you brought back
memories of the past and our old church and location.  ---  In the
past I had not thought that I now would still be around and
preaching at my age.  But I am thankful to God   --- .  Being able to
preach God’s Word is a privilege.  ---  I am scheduled for that
weekend.  ---   So, yes, God willing I will be around on May 5th and
would look forward to seeing you again  ---.”
    Now how does  that connect with verse 22 of our text?  It’s what
Bob and Geri won’t see when they come back here.  Our text said, “I
did not see a temple in the city.”  Bob and Geri won’t see our old
church where they were married either.  That’s been gone since 1977.
But they can see our present church and location, and here on 86th and
Forest Home they can hear the same message they heard on 13th and
Forest Home, God’s words, about which our text tells us that they are
WORDS THAT ARE TRUSTWORTHY AND TRUE.
I    A GLORIOUS  PROMISE.  (1-5)
    1. Something is constant. (5)
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything
new!”  Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are
trustworthy and true.”
    a) There are deceiving words, many lies in the world.
    b) But God’s words are sure, as Jesus once said, “Heaven and
earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
    2. The world will not be constant. (1b)
-- the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there
was no longer any sea. 
        a) This picture in our text takes us to the time when time will
have ended and eternity has begun, to the time of which Jesus spoke
when He said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words
will never pass away.”
        b) We can be sure this will happen, that Jesus’ words about this
will not fail.  It will take place not by global warming or freezing out,
or by an earthly nation getting reckless with a tremendous bomb.  It
will be at God’s time, when He knows the time is right.
    3. There will be a wonderful replacement. (1-3)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any
sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her
husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now
the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They
will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their
God.” 
        a) I find it easy to picture a beautiful bride coming down the aisle
to be joined with her husband and, hopefully, to live happily ever after.
        b) Now picture in your mind’s eye God’s replacement for this
sin-filled world, seeing Jerusalem the golden coming down the aisle
from heaven, coming down for us to be its truly happy-ever-after
inhabitants with God right there with us.
    4. The newness will be amazing. (4)
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more
death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things
has passed away.”
        a) The old order, what it’s like here on earth - gone!
        b) No aging with all of its problems, no diseases, no hospitals, no
funeral homes or funerals, not a single bad tear or pain or sadness ever!
    5. Our God is the guarantee for this. (5)
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything
new!”  Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are
trustworthy and true.”
        a) Think of the many promises our God made in history.
        b) None has failed, including our Savior’s birth and resurrection.
        c) So shall it be with God’s glorious promise about the end.
II    A NEEDED WARNING.  (6-8,27a)
    1. There is a negative in this picture.
        a) The positive is the glorious promise we have.
        b) The negative, the other side we need to hear, is the warning
that “whoever does not believe will be condemned.”
    2. The end of our text emphasizes this. (27a)
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what
is shameful or deceitful, ---.
        a) Our heavenly home is waiting.
        b) But not all will enter it.
    3. Our text gives more detail.  (8)
“But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the
sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and
all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
This is the second death.”
        a) We all have to face the first death, the death of our bodies.
        b) But sinners of any type, sinners who don’t believe, who have
rejected God’s salvation in Jesus His Son, will face the death of hell.
    4. May we now, in our lives, take the water of life. (6-7)
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End.  To him who is thirsty I will give to drink
without cost from the spring of the water of life.  He who
overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be
my son.”    
        a) Jesus once said, “--- 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.”
        b) Simply put, whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.
    5. Heed the warning. (8b)
“This is the second death.”
        a) Without Jesus, there is the second death, hell and not heaven.
        b) With Jesus, you don’t have to fear the first or second death.
        c) Instead there is true life, the heavenly Jerusalem our home.
III  A CONNECTION WITH HISTORY.  (9-14)
    1. First there is a marriage picture again. (9)
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven
last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the
bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 
        a) Once more we have a husband and wife scene.
        b) It makes us think of the  words from Ephesians 5 picturing
Jesus as the groom: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ
loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy.”
    2. Then there is an amazing picture. (10-11)
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and
high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out
of heaven from God.  It shone with the glory of God, and its
brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear
as crystal. 
        a) Just try to picture what is waiting for us because of Jesus.
        b) In verses 15-21 more jewels are used to describe this.
    3. Note the connection with OT history. (12-13)
It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels
at the gates.  On the gates were written the names of the twelve
tribes of Israel.  There were three gates on the east, three on the
north, three on the south and three on the west. 
        a) The 12 tribes of Old Testament Israel are mentioned.
        b) It is from this nation that the promised Savior was to come.             
    4. Note also the connection with NT history. (14)
The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the
names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
        a) Jesus’ 12 disciples from the New Testament are mentioned.
        b) Through them the Savior who came from the nation of Israel
            was to be proclaimed to all nations as the Savior of all.
    5. This connection tells us something.
        a) What we believe and proclaim is not a myth of some type.
        b) Israel and the disciples are recorded facts of history.
        c) What we believe and proclaim really happened.  Jesus is real.
IV  A BOOK OF LIFE WITH OUR NAMES. (22-27)
    1. Let this picture, like the others, impress you. (22-25)
I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are its temple.  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.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings
of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its
gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.     
        a) Don’t try to fully understand all of this with our human minds.
        b) But do let this make you eagerly anticipate what is coming.
    2. Realize that God wants this for all. (26)
The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.
        a) Remember, God so loved the world that He gave His Son.
        b) May we eagerly be a part of doing mission work with our
neighbors, with other nationalities, using also our offerings to share
our Savior with others.
    3. Again, be warned.
        a) Jesus died for all and wants all.
        b) Unbelief and sin throw away and lose what He has done.
    4. Believe in the Lamb and what He did. (27)
Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what
is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in
the Lamb’s book of life.
        a) The Lamb is Jesus who shed His blood on the cross.
        b) With that blood He wrote our names in the book of life that
has God’s guarantee that whoever believes and is baptized will be
saved, will be an inhabitant of Jerusalem the golden.
    5. Look forward to what is trustworthy and true. (5)
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything
new!”  Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are
trustworthy and true.”
        a) The old will pass away.  God says so.
        b) The new will come.  God says so.
        c) Jesus, the Lamb of God, is our Savior! 

    Praise our God that because of Jesus our names are recorded in the
book of life!
    And do remember that “these words are trustworthy and true.”