A, Post-Pentecost 23 All Saints - Revelation 7:9-17 "The Eternal Goodness of Giving God His Glory"

This side of death, it’s hard to imagine what heaven is like.  We are beings in time, and being in time, we use it to focus on ourselves.  But as we go through these days as God’s people, the Holy Spirit works within to move the focus from ourselves to God.  But because we are human in our being, our desire to focus on ourselves never quite disappears regardless of how self-giving we might become.

John is taken from himself and given a revelation of heaven, recorded in the book of Revelation at the end of God’s Word.  He is given a look at the last things of human existence when Christ the King returns to fully reveal the resurrection of His saints, and to finally remove our self-centredness forever.

Notice in our reading today that John is asked by one of the elders, “Who are those clothed in white robes?”  Why is he asked the question?  He cannot answer it! He does not have the eternal knowledge to know!  So John replies and says, “Sir, you know!”

We do not know heaven! John is given insight into a privileged place before his death that is hidden from the sight of humanity.  John does not know.  These strange events need to be made known by God, and they give us a glimpse of what heaven is.  What is hidden from our eyes is only revealed and given by God and His Word.

John answers the elder rightly.  Imagine if, in his self-centredness, he answered the elder, “Well, I reckon that these in white robes are those who have found their way to God!”  But no!  John does not know and doesn’t guess.  The revelation of God was not about what he thought or reckoned; it was given to him. Heaven is a place of giving, and John is given God’s revelation of heaven, and in the revelation, those in white robes are giving glory to God, having been given the blood of the Lamb.

Because we are humans, we primarily concern ourselves with getting as we live in these times before eternal life is realised.  And there comes a time in our lives when we realise that we can never get enough to satisfy our human desires.  In fact, all our getting hopefully drains our desire to get.  As we grow in the Lord, God allows us to tire of getting goods.  We learn that our goods are not good enough for eternity, because acquiring these goods wearies us and kills us.

When John received God’s revelation of the everlasting hidden things, John presents himself as the faithful witness or seer.  John saw and reported what God allowed him to see and hear.  He tells us, “I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches…” (Revelation 1:9–11a ESV)

This book is the book of Revelation, and all that he sees and reports comes from when he was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.  He was imprisoned in a place because of God’s Word, yet paradoxically, God allowed him to see the eternal expanse of heaven unhidden.

In this part of the revelation, John saw the saints dressed in white robes bearing palm branches, branches from trees of life, date palms that give life at oases in the Middle Eastern desert.  These are the same branches with which people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  He sees Jesus Christ in all His resurrection glory, “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.” (Revelation 1:5 ESV) But he sees not just Him, but also the whole throng of heaven with Him, worshipping Him eternally and arriving with Him, led by Him, into the eternal realm of the heavenly Jerusalem!

John sees the blessed, the saints of God, with Jesus who gives blessing, “…they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence.” (Revelation 7:15 ESV)

Just as John could not answer who those were wearing the white robes, having made them white in the blood of Jesus, we have a hard time comprehending giving glory to God forever.  We think, “That’s a mighty long time,” and wonder how this eternal giving won’t get the better of us!  Such is the struggle we have comprehending the eternal glory of God and His kingdom.  This is why John could not answer the elder and why we struggle with the reality of “forever.”  As beings in time, pondering “forever” just makes us even more tired than we already are.

Yet as our getting wearies us and our tribulations drain us of life unto death, you and I yearn for rest, a sabbath from works that make us weary and break our bodies back down into the dust from which we were created. 

It might be easy for us to wallow in this reality, and many do!  But the blessing of our being broken and the breaking down of our bodies is that the Holy Spirit seeks to turn us from the death within to life from without. 

This is what Jesus was doing when He sat down to teach the Beatitudes.  Our poverty, mourning, humility, hunger, mercy, purity, peace-making, persecution, and reception of tribulation are not there for us to justify our wallowing and woes to get pity!  Rather, these occur to lead us out of ourselves and to hope for rescue and rest in God, into a holy environment of giving – giving glory to God, having been given eternal life.

As beings in time, we struggle to understand eternity.  Like John, who needed the elder to tell him what he had witnessed, we need God’s Word to see what it means to be with Him eternally.  Every human being will continue to be. It’s just a matter of faith with whom that reality will continue: with God or without Him, glorifying Him in His eternal protection, or, without Him, eternally getting grief from never getting the good we want, eternally dying without God’s protective glory.

On the seventh day, God rested. Jesus, too, rested in the tomb on the seventh day—the Sabbath. But on the eighth day, He rose to reign and rest in eternal glory. Those whom we love have washed their robes in the blood of Jesus. May we, too, let the Holy Spirit bring us through tribulation into the rest of the resurrection, with Jesus Christ and the whole company of heaven. Having laid down our deeds in death, may we rest with them in the living waters of eternal life, with our Lamb and Shepherd, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus Christ, our Lamb and Shepherd, thank You for the life You give through Your blood. When our getting leaves us weary, turn us towards Your mercy. Holy Spirit, sustain us through tribulation and teach us to receive God’s gifts with faith and thanksgiving. Bring us into resurrection rest with the whole company of heaven, where we may give You glory forever. Amen.

 Sermon Summary

Through John’s vision in Revelation, the sermon invites you to look beyond your limited understanding of heaven and trust what God reveals in His Word. John does not guess who the white-robed multitude are; he receives the answer. Likewise, eternal life is not something we acquire by finding our own way to God. It is His gift through the blood of the Lamb.

The sermon contrasts our restless desire to get more with heaven’s life of giving glory to God. Our possessions cannot satisfy us or secure eternity. Amid weariness and tribulation, the Holy Spirit turns our attention away from ourselves and towards God’s rescue and rest. The sermon connects the Beatitudes with this movement towards dependence on Him.

The conclusion brings together God’s rest on the seventh day, Jesus’ Sabbath rest in the tomb, and His resurrection on the eighth day. Our hope is to be brought through tribulation into resurrection rest with Jesus Christ and the whole company of heaven, sharing eternal life with our Lamb and Shepherd.

Reflection

We often approach life by asking, “What can I get?” This sermon invites a different question: “What has God already given me?” The white robes point us away from our achievements and towards the Lamb. Giving glory to God begins with receiving His mercy, rather than trying to make ourselves worthy of it.

Our weariness can expose the limits of self-reliance. Yet we need not pretend that suffering is easy or hide our mourning. In our weakness, we can ask the Holy Spirit to turn us towards the life and hope God gives. The promise of resurrection rest invites us to trust our Lamb and Shepherd when we cannot see the way ahead.

As we remember those we love who rest in Christ, the sermon draws our attention to the whole company of heaven. Its final hope is not endless striving, but life with Jesus: receiving His gifts and giving Him glory.

1. Where am I seeking lasting satisfaction from things that cannot give eternal life?
2. What changes when I see giving glory to God as a response to His gifts rather than another demand?
3. What weariness or grief can I bring to Jesus, trusting Him as my Lamb and Shepherd?
4. How might the hope of resurrection rest shape the way I live today?

C, Post-Pentecost 5, Proper 10 - Amos 7:7-17 "Dread"

Amos 7:7–17 (ESV) This is what the Lord God showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, “Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos has said, “ ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.’ ” And Amaziah said to Amos, “O seer, go, flee away to the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there, but never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” Then Amos answered and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, nor a prophet’s son, but I was a herdsman and a dresser of sycamore figs. But the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’ Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. “You say, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ Therefore thus says the Lord: “ ‘Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land.’ ”

Picture yourself in Amos’s sandals.  You’re a sheep farmer and an orchardist and God calls you from your land into a different land.  Then God places before you visions and asks, “What do you see?”  You report what you see, then God calls you to proclaim his Word to others without fear or favour!

What you’re called to say, has occurred through the disobedience of the people, the priests, and the king to whom you’ve been sent.  God calls you to tell them, “God has dropped a dividing line between himself and you.  No longer will God be found in your places of worship, and your holy sanctuaries will lay in waste!”

In Amos’s time, God dropped his plumb line, saying, “Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel must go into exile away from his land.” (Amos 7:11 ESV)

It was God’s “line in the sand” set to cause dread amongst those who heard its proclamation.  Like Amos, having seen God’s vision and then told to tell others what God says, would you obediently report what you’re called to say?  It is a dreadful message to tell!  Who would you dread more; God or those to whom God calls you to proclaim the prophecy?

But it doesn’t end there.  This farmer come prophet from Judah is confronted by the priest of Bethel, Amaziah, who’s reported your prophecy to the king of Israel, and then tells him to get out of Bethel, go home, and prophecy there.  Imagine if God commissioned you to tell the priest, “Your wife shall be a prostitute in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided up with a measuring line; you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely go into exile away from its land. ” (Amos 7:17 ESV)

Would you dread telling this to the priest, or more so would you dread God, if you didn’t do what you were told to teach?

Like fear, dread has a positive and negative sense.  Today it’s mainly used negatively.  Dread and fear in a positive sense can lead a person in awe of someone to do great things. Like Amos, the prophets, our Lord Jesus Christ, his apostles and martyrs!  Or negatively, dread and fear can be quite awful, inciting panic and terror in those who refuse being rescued, by the likes of the prophets or the apostles, therefore remaining condemned guilty before God.

Two avenues of dread stand before Amos. Dread in reporting God’s Word to God’s people and how they would react to him.  Or not reporting God’s Word to his people and dreading how God would react with him, if he didn’t report what he was called to see and say!

This was the third vision God showed Amos, after stern prophecies were spoken against God’s people and king in Israel.  But it wasn’t to be the last vision or prophecy. 

The first two visions were firstly, locusts devouring at the end of the growing season.  And then secondly, judgement by fire which was to consume everything in the land.  But both times Amos interceded, and God relented.

Twice Amos says “O Lord God, please forgive! How can Jacob stand? He is so small!” (Amos 7:2,5 ESV) And twice, “The Lord relented concerning this: saying, ‘It shall not be’, and ‘this also shall not be.’” (Amos 7:3,6 ESV)

God’s people tested God, and Amos was sent by God to reveal God’s action against his people acting disobediently, the priests of God acting defiantly, and God’s king acting contrarily against God as a rebellious authority.

The plumb line prophecy was the third vision Amos saw, but it was the first of three in which God did not relent.  The first two were set to cause a godly dread and fear to turn God’s people in repentance back to him.  Now the third, fourth, and fifth prophecies were announced through Amos to reveal God’s opposition and cause them dread as they remembered what they defiantly didn’t do.

God showed Amos the fourth vision, and then God says, “‘Amos, what do you see?’ And Amos said, ‘A basket of summer fruit.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass by them. The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,’ declares the Lord God. ‘So many dead bodies!’ ‘They are thrown everywhere!’ ‘Silence!’” (Amos 8:2–3 ESV)

God promises to no longer forgive his people, he will not pass by or over them in judgement. No longer heeding his Word, God would withdraw from the orchard and no longer grace them with his presence.  God’s own people will be separated from him, left to themselves as dead rotten fruit.  There is unanswerable silence, in God’s deadly absence. 

God reveals continuing dread in what they’ve sought for themselves, saying, “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ declares the Lord God, ‘when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.’” (Amos 8:11 ESV)

To this the Psalmist adds, “I said, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.’ Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!” (Psalm 82:6–8 ESV)

God inherits the nations through death.  In fear and dread people return in repentance to God, through the daily death of self and its pride, or they await dreadful expectations in a death without the Word of the Lord to save them.

This is played out in the fifth vision of Amos where he sees God standing beside the altar saying, “Strike the capitals until the thresholds shake, and shatter them on the heads of all the people; and those who are left of them I will kill with the sword; not one of them shall flee away; not one of them shall escape.  All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’” (Amos 9:1,10 ESV)

God did not put the plumb line amongst his enemy.  No!  These were his own chosen people, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Amos was called by God, to leave his farm in Judah, to followed God north into Israel, to see the visions of God, and to tell them to the people of God.  Did he dread doing this?  To this Amos testifies, “For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?” (Amos 3:7–8 ESV)

God had sent a shepherd, to shepherd Israel, to warn them by sending famine in one place and not another.  Yet, over and over again, God’s people did not dread God’s judgement, causing him to declare, over and over again, “yet you did not return to me.” (Amos 4:6,8,9,10,11 ESV) “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!” (Amos 4:12 ESV)

God prophecies through Amos, pointing forward to Jesus Christ as the resurrection of David’s rule that’s fallen, saying, “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old. I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them… I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.”  (Amos 9:11,14a,15 ESV)

In our church and society today, many believe, “disaster will not overtake or meet us.”  The use of fear and dread are looked down upon as “not loving our neighbour”.  Yet God is still showing his faithful plumb line, a line in the sand in his Son Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit continues to open God’s Word to us; in the hope we receive Christ from our neighbours and share Christ with our neighbours.

When the silence of death comes, God will inherit the earth.  When we silence God’s Word of warning and believe “disaster will not overtake or meet us”, we should expect to dread, a death in the domain of darkness and the silencing of our sin.  Yet when we turn and trust in God, who will judge all things, then fear and dread leads us to the cross, to cover our sins with Jesus atoning blood for forgiveness, eternal light and life.  

Killing the prophets, re-crucifying Christ, not allowing the Holy Spirit to make us righteous in God’s Word, is still a current warning to all humanity, including you, regardless of how unpopular it is.  The writer of Hebrews reminds God’s people in Christ of his plumb line, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:26, 29 ESV)

The saints of God are still being physically and spiritually martyred for their faithfulness.  Where we are shown to be the killers of God, God’s Word and his people, may the dread of this, lead you and me to repentance from the domain of darkness.   So, having been transferred into the kingdom of God’s eternal light, we live in the assurance of God’s forgiveness of our sins. Amen.

Let us pray! Thanks be to God, who still sends out disciples and saints to share God’s Word with their neighbours.  Thank you for pastors who put aside the dread of proclaiming the truth of your Word, so we, your disciples, can be taught and encouraged to proclaim your message of life without fear or favour, without dread or distraction.  Thank you that the death of Jesus Christ saves from the greater dread and fear of eternal death. Amen.