Sermon Tone Analysis

The Christian life is one of loving anticipation of Jesus’ return.

The Christian life is one of loving anticipation of Jesus’ return.

It is one reason why Paul concludes 2 Timothy - his last letter just before his death - by turning Timothy’s attention that event:

Note the reference to those who have “loved His appearing”.

Those who are joyfully looking for that day are those who are rewarded.

Those believing in and anticipating His return as the consummation of all our joy and blessedness – will be rewarded.

Those not – will not.

This last phrase of Paul's is so searching and telling.

I have to wonder, both for myself and for the greater church whether or not we are a people who truly "love His appearing."

Are we, am I, one who truly longs for His coming?

Is it part and parcel of my regular thought life?

Do I groan with John - "Come quickly Lord Jesus?"

Do I really want that end - to be with Him and to live in His glorious Kingdom?

Or do I simply want Him to make my life better now, with some vague desire for an afterlife of nondescript ease?

Does escaping Hell or just escaping my present sorrows eclipse being with Jesus and the Redeemed?

This morning, it is my sincere prayer that the Father, will send The Spirit to stir our souls up together to truly love the appearing of Jesus.

Oh Father, send your Spirit to stir my soul up to truly love the appearing of your Son.

Let it frame my every thought and action and purpose.

Let the anticipation of His return draw me out form all the other things this world constantly calls me to.

Give me that great love.

Let me love the reality of being with you, with Him, of your Kingdom fully coming and your will being done in this earth even as it is in Heaven.

Let me love His appearing so that it informs my heart in its deepest recesses.

To let it begin to frame our every thought and action and purpose.

To let the anticipation of His return draw us out from all the other things this world constantly calls us to.

To us give us that great - all-encompassing love.

Can we pray that just now?

Father!

Let us passionately love the reality of being with you, with Jesus, of your Kingdom fully coming and your will being done in this earth even as it is in Heaven.

Let us love His appearing so that it informs our hearts in their deepest recesses.

Amen - let it be so!

It is my own conviction that the Church as a whole has lost the emphasis of previous generations of being fixed on the hope of Jesus’ return, and what He has prepared for those who love Him.

And of intentionally looking toward His coming as the means to endure the trials of this present life.

It is my own conviction that the Church as a whole has lost the emphasis of previous generations of being fixed on the hope of Jesus’ return, and what He has prepared for those who love Him and His coming as the means to endure the trials of this present life.

There are lots of reasons for that:

a. Careless teaching about Jesus’ return which has over and over again miscalculated what cannot be known – precisely WHEN He will return; which has had the effect of dampening people’s anticipation through disappointment after disappointment.

Whole denominations of Believers have fallen into this trap and then eventually fallen into a distrustful malaise over the entire topic.

b.

Another thing is how easy it is – especially in the face of constant bombardment from the news - to be saturated with reports of political and racial turmoil, natural disasters globally and nationally, etc.

c.

And then there are our individual and personal concerns.

So while I will break no new ground here today, I do hope by the Spirit’s enablement, to turn your eyes once again to the promise of what is before us in the return of our Lord and Savior.

As I’ve mentioned many times throughout this series, the entire book of the Revelation was intended to buoy the hopes of God’s people in difficult times, and to refocus their hearts and minds so as to truly “love His appearing.”

Those of you who have been with us both in this series, and when I’ve visited this passage in the past will recall that I like to point out a unique feature of John’s in relating the information recorded here.

And I cannot be more pleased to be able to come back to it once more after having done so several times in the past.

John does something in these 2 chapters he has utilized a bit before - but majors on this time.

Because John is receiving a revelation of things truly unimaginable to his readers, he spends a large part of his time describing what is NOT in the New Heavens and the New Earth as opposed to what is.

This is because the wonder of what he beheld is quite simply, incomparable.

I have prefaced this portion with this illustration before, but bear with me one more time.

Years ago on a business trip to New Orleans, I was treated to some interesting street vendor fare.

My boss, a true culinary adventurer said “go ahead and get it, and if you don’t like it, I’ll eat it.”

So, idiot that I am, I ordered “gator on a stick.”

And if you were to ask me what it tasted LIKE – I would be at a total loss to compare it to any other known substance.

Animal, vegetable or mineral!

I can tell you what is WAS: Inedibly abhorrent in every sense of the word.

It was AWFUL!

And my boss did finish it.

But it did not taste LIKE anything else I had ever tasted – or ever hope to taste again.

So here, John is so overwhelmed by this vision, that he notes 13 things that aren’t in the New Heavens and the New Earth in an attempt to give us some sense of the unspeakable glory and wonder God has laid up for those who are in Christ Jesus and love His appearing.

We start right off in –

1 / 21.1 – No more SEA

Some have quipped that the reason John notes the absence of the sea, is because having been in exile on a barren island in the Mediterranean sea at the time, he could think of nothing better than to never see the sea again.

It had filled his vision for so long, he wanted relief.

But more than likely there are 2 far more interesting reasons why he notes this reality first.

a.

He is relating the fact that the New Heavens and the New Earth are so drastically different from our existence now, that there is a completely new economy even in terms of ecological life.

This is a wholly new existence.

One not dependent upon the things we presently count as necessary to life on this planet.

Potable

b.

More importantly, we have noted several times in our study that in Biblical literature, and especially in previous chapters of this book, the sea often represents that which is turbulent.

Things unknown and unstable and unsafe.

So it is in John writes:

The Beast which terrorizes God’s people and tries to conquer the earth, rises out of the sea!

But in the New Heavens and the New Earth, there will be nothing deep and dark anymore; nothing hidden; nothing threatening; nothing unstable, etc.

All is brought into the light and is full of blessedness rather than fear or mystery.

Instead of a sea – there is vss.

2-3:

No more sea.

Instead, of a sea, a City.

A city coming down out of Heaven

And note here something most amazing, incomprehensible.

He - who He? Jesus!

Jesus Himself will take upon Himself - as a personal ministry to each and every one of us - to wipe every tear from our eyes!

It is almost too wonderful to even contemplate isn’t it?

He won’t have us do it to one another, nor will He enlist an angel nor even an archangel - He personally will take away both our sorrow and its expression.

Oh what a Savior!

Then what do we read next?

2 / 21.4 – No more DEATH

No one and no thing shall ever die again.

Imagine this if you can.

In our present state, death is so much a part of our frame of life, that an existence where there is no more death whatever, is truly beyond our comprehension.

John doesn’t say how it is he knows there is no more death except it is part of what the “Loud voice from the throne” announced to him in vs. 2.

In other words, this is a revelation from God Himself to cheer and fill the hearts of His people with wonder at how the death and resurrection of Christ will at last deal with everything sin introduced into the world in the Fall.

And so, not only is there no death – but “He” God, now dwelling with mankind in His unmediated presence – will personally wipe every tear from the eyes of His beloved Children.

3 / 21.4 – No more GRIEF : Not only no more death, but not even a reason ever again to mourn over ANYTHING!

3 / 21.4 – No more MOURNING: Not only no more death, but not even a reason ever again to mourn over ANYTHING!

One wonders just how this can be, when we stop to think that certainly most, if not all of us will have loved ones who will not be there, and will in fact be tormented in an eternal Hell under the just judgment of God.

And I tell you, I do not know.

But I know what the text says was revealed to John by the voice from the throne – and that we are being assured in that announcement that there will never again be any reason to grieve or mourn.

None.

4 / 21.4 – No more CRYING: