Imagine That (Rev. 22: 11-16)
Written by Pastor Fausel   
 
Grace, mercy and peace be to you …

There is something in the air these days.   But we're not talking about tree pollen… or oak tree seed-pod helicopters that clog up roof drains.   And no, we're not talking about the fine particulates that come from our friendly Clean-coal, upwind power plants …

And what's in the air isn't the excitement due to the anticipation of summer vacation … or of Graduations … or upcoming weddings… or the opening of all the local swimming pools.

No… something else.   Something else is in the air.  Something else which is on our liturgical, or church, calendar. 

You see, you may have noticed, if you've been in church the last few weeks, that our Readings from the letters of the Apostles, our Epistle readings, have come from the Letter of John to the church called the Book of Revelation.

Now, if you’ve read that Book or looked at it, you know that not only is Revelation the last book in the Bible … it’s also a rather peculiar book.   It uses a style known as apocalyptic literature… That means that it uses things … to represent other things. 

Or, in other words, it is very symbolic.  In fact, it is nearly impossible to figure out what John is saying in the Book of Revelation unless you are somewhat conversant with the rest of Scripture, something that we'll see a bit of this morning.
But back to what's in the air.  It's anticipation, like the kind we have for graduation and weddings and pool openings … but this is the ultimate anticipation … the anticipation of the consummation of all things …the time when the picture that St. John is drawing for us in the Book of Revelation will become reality for us.

You see … this Sunday, the seventh of Easter, is the Last Sunday before Pentecost, marking the End of the festival portion or festival half of the church year.  This half doesn't begin on January 1 … It begins with the first Sunday in Advent, or roughly at the end of November and it runs through Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter with Ascension, right into Pentecost which comes this next Sunday.  

And so.  What is the Festival Season of the church all about?   It's all about Jesus … all about what He did for us through His Birth, His Life, His suffering, His death, Resurrection and Ascension.

And so …what the festivals are about is recognizing that what Jesus did for us changes our lives for the now … and it changes our future for our lives to come.  The Second half of the church year is where we talk a lot about how God's Holy Spirit molds our lives in the present.

But… the Book of Revelation is where we get just a glimpse, and a symbolic one at that, of what our lives will be like after the Great White Throne Judgment … after Jesus comes back in all His glory to judge the earth and welcome those who are His into their heavenly mansions. 

Who are those?  They are those of faith who are alive at that time … and those of faith who are resurrected on that day, as He was, from the dead.

Now.  The portion of the Book of Revelation we heard this morning is from the last Chapter, Chapter 22.  A lot has gone before these verses that talks about things that are happening even now for Christ's people on earth.

And so … beware that you don't fall into the Devil's trap.  Remember, Jesus Himself said, that the Last Day, His Return in Glory, would come totally unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.

And so.  If we read the Book of Revelation … and see in it that there’s this Armageddon battle … and then we look around and say … “Ha, That's not going on … that's not happened yet.”  We might conclude that since we haven't seen it happening … the final judgment must be yet a long ways off.    Well, be not deceived.

The Armageddon battle may be being waged even now, ever since Jesus left the earth, in spiritual ways that John can only allude to in physical ways.  And so, be not deceived, Jesus’ return can come at any time.    

So then, let's look at what we do have this morning … We have a picture that John Paints for us of what Heaven looks like.  But it's not a literal picture.  The first verse of the Book of Revelation makes that very clear … We hear there that the Holy Spirit is communicating to us through John in this Book... by means of signs. 

So what signs, what figures, do we see? 
We see the figure of a river … the river of the water of life …. Flowing from the throne of God… and on either side of the river is the Tree of Life.

Ah, the Tree of Life! … Where have we seen that Tree elsewhere in Scripture?  We have to go back to the Book of Genesis, the first Book of the Bible, the second chapter … And there we see another river that watered the Garden of Eden … and in the middle of the Garden was the Tree of Life.  …  a tree whose fruit gave life, without death, to those who ate it.

You may also recall, that once sin entered the world, God posted an angel with a flaming sword to guard the entrance to the Garden of Eden so that Adam and Eve in their sinful state could not re-enter the garden and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life and thus live forever in their sinful condition.

Now … where are we seeing this Tree of Life again?   In what could be called the New Eden, in heaven.  And we learn that this tree, this tree that is no longer barred to us, yields 12 kinds of fruit … monthly.

The number 12 is very important in the Book of Revelation.  It recalls the 12 tribes of Israel, representing God's Old Testament Believers … and also the 12 Apostles … representing God's New Testament believers.

If we put both of them together …  Old Testament and New Testament … they represent the sum total of God's children in heaven … all those who are God's Children by faith of all generations… from the beginning of time until its end. 

Actually...The Book of Revelation symbolically represents that Church of all time with a number …
 
It's 12 for the Old Testament …times … 12 for the New Testament … times God's number of perfection which is 10 times 10 times 10 … or 1000 … or multiply it all together and you get:  144,000 … which is how John signifies, in this Book, the total number of those in Heaven.

So what are they doing in heaven, these Children of God?

John tells us that they are fed by the Tree of Life as they drink from the river of life.   And as they do, they see God face to face … and His name will be on their foreheads.  But again, these are physical pictures or figures that have spiritual significance.   What do they mean?

Often, it is good to let Scripture interpret Scripture.  In this case, I like St. Paul's description of seeing God face-to-face where He says:  “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face … That's the Physical part …. And then Paul goes on immediately to explain what that means, what that looks like in spiritual terms as He says:

“Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

Yes, we will see God … but the thought behind those words is that experience will not be just about us “laying eyes on Him” … but we will know God… the same way that He knows us … Very intimately.

Just as having God's name on our foreheads will not be like having Coach Petino sign our foreheads like he might sign a basketball…  But God marking us as His … in such a way that His image is what people see when they see us.

Now … you may recall in the first chapter of the book of Genesis … that plants as well trees with fruit on them were growing on the earth on Day 3 of creation …
 
But we also learn there in Genesis that the Sun and the moon did not come into existence until Day 4.  Where did those plants and trees get the light they needed, then, to grow and produce fruit, if there was no sun??

Well, here in Revelation we see the appearance of that light once again, light without the need of the Sun.   The light to walk by in heaven comes from God, and as there is no darkness in Him, there will be no night.

And the people in heaven don't just live there … they reign with God.  For ever and ever.

Now, that's quite a picture of our future that God paints for us in just five verses.  The figurative speech can leave much to our imaginations, but that's how it should be …

Heaven should really be beyond our capability to describe it in language that's grounded in a physical, sinful world.

And so today IS the last Sunday in Easter.   Together we have walked the road from the anticipation of Jesus' birth … through Christmas, then Lent, The resurrection and The ascension.  
We now stand in awe as God pulls aside the curtain … just briefly … to let us get a glimpse of what He has in store for us as His Children.

What we see is Our Heavenly Father answering that Prayer which Jesus spoke in our Gospel reading.  The one He spoke in the upper room on the night He was Betrayed, as He prayed for each one of us:

“Father, I desire that they also, those whom you have given me, may be with me where I am …  “

God answers every prayer offered in faith … and Jesus' prayer for us here is no exception.  We will be were He is … to reign with Him for ever and ever.

May that personal assurance from God Himself of your eternal home be a comfort and a joy to you as we walk that road toward heaven … together.

In Him,

Amen.
 

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