The Great Escape that Suceeds!
Notes
Transcript
INTRODUCTION
There is a great movie that Tanya and I watched again, yesterday afternoon. The Great Escape, with Steve McQueen. The setting was WWII, and a bunch of British and American Soldiers will transferred to a brand new POW camp. The entire three-hour film revolved around their plan to escape.
You and I may not live in a POW camp, but we are prisoners just the same. We are away from home and from some of our loved ones. Like the prisoners in the movie, our objective is to get out of here and take as many with us, as we possible can.
So, for the next few minutes we are going to talk about “The Christian’s Home!”, as described in Revelation 7, We are going to show why this “Earth is Not our Home” but then, by the Holy Spirit, show what is awaiting us in “Our Home, the New Heaven and Earth.”
The Christian’s Home!
The Christian’s Home!
In Heaven All the Children of God are Sealed
They are streaming into heaven from the great tribulation
They are wearing white robes with Palm branches in their hands. Their robes have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb (v. 14).
These sealed Christians are crying out,
Revelation 7:10
10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
The entire angelic host is standing around the throne of the Lamb, and they fall on their faces in worship saying,
Revelation 7:12
12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
Earth Is Not our Home
Earth Is Not our Home
Living in this world we are in a type of bondage, beset with all the problems this world has to offer.
Scene in the Great Escape movie, “It is the sworn duty of all officers to try and escape. If they can’t, it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.”
The problem is, however, many Christians live today as if life here is all we’ve got! Death is treated as the biggest negative of all. For the Christian, falling asleep in Christ is our great escape from this place, to the glory illustrated in our text.
We have work to do while we are here and we need to do everything possible to see to it that it’s done; this is harassing the enemy to the best of our ability. And what is it that we are to do?
1 Timothy 2:1-4
1 First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people,2 even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, 4 since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
We are to be people of prayer: praying for all people.
Praying for kings and those in authority.
Why? So that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in godliness and dignity,
Because, God want all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
This is our sworn duty as Christians. This is the work we have to do.
Like the people of Israel of old were held in bondage by the Egyptians, and God rescued through Moses and brought them to the Promised Land;
Likewise, God rescued us by the Blood of Christ, setting us free from the bondage of sin, death and the devil.
But, not all have heard the message. Many have yet to come to faith, having their robes wash in the blood of the Lamb. God has left YOU and ME here to live godly and dignified lives in every way so that the world may know that in Christ, their strife and bondage to sin, death, and the devil can finally over. You and I are Christ’s Ambassadors.
And there is a sense of urgency to all this because today’s text tells us what is going on right now in the supernatural angelic realm: Revelation 7:1-3
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
This place will be utterly destroyed. The job of some of the angels in the angelic realm is to hold back the mighty winds that will destroy this place. And we have been given a glimpse of their destructive power. Have we been paying attention this year?
Fires spreading out west.
Seven tropical storms or hurricanes down south.
Tornadoes touching down in areas where they they normally don’t affect anyone.
Straight line winds in the midwest this summer, wiping out tens of thousands of acres.
The angelic realm is holding it back for now, but for how much longer? One day, God will give the nod and they will stand back to allow the full intensity of the destructive forces to blow every living thing, every structure, everything off the face of the earth.
Just a God created the universe and everything that exists in six days, one nod of His head will wipe everything away in an instant.
But home is of another world, and devil is watching us like a hawk — just as watched Jesus — trying his best to keep us from our sworn duty as Christians. Today, the devil has used this world’s system to bring a pandemic our way, so the world leaders will try and convince us that we are safer at home. Because when we are at home, not interacting with people, it makes our sworn duty to “make disciple of all nations” incredibly challenging. So, we are being kept from bearing fruit.
Our Home is the New Heaven and Earth!
Our Home is the New Heaven and Earth!
When we get home, we will never hunger or be thirsty.
The curse of sin will be over: working in the heat of the day, working to clear thorns and thistles will be a thing of the past.
Our Good Shepherd — Jesus, the Lamb of God who meets us here at this Altar — will shepherd us, just like He walk with Adam in the Garden in the cool of the day before they fell into sin. He will lead us to fountains of living water when we will be able to drink deeply.
And, He will wipe all tear from our faces. Pain gone. Cancer gone. Diseases abolished. All Pandemic’s Cured one and for all.
CONCLUSION
In the Great Escape film they worked hard to accomplish their sworn duty to escape, and 72 prisoners did get away. Unfortunately, most of them were killed, and handful got away, and the rest were returned to their prison camp.
But our Great escape will Succeed because through faith in Christ Jesus, you have been sealed with His blood, and no one can ever pluck you from the Father hand. Our Great Escape Succeeds, because Jesus places His robe of righteousness upon you, liberating you from the suffering we are experiencing right now. Laura Hills, is now number among those who have come out of the great tribulation, as has Linda Bateman, Karen Prenzlow Schaal, and Bev Huwe. They are drinking deeply from the fountains of living water which will never be taken from them.
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.” (1 John 3:1)