Revelation 21:1-4 (NIV) 1Then 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. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And 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. 4He 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."
The minister turned to the bride and asked, “Will you have this man to be your husband … in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, as long as you both shall live?” The bride simply bowed her head and said nothing. A hush fell over the congregation. Then the groom took out a piece of tissue and wiped the tears from her cheeks. As he did the bride lifted her head and said firmly and calmly, “I will,” and took the tissue from him, wiped the tears from his cheek and mingled their tears together.
In the congregation, some smiled, some breathed a sigh of relief, some found they had wiped tears from their own eyes. But beneath the reaction, there was something else. There was a message that spoke to their soul, “Yes, yes that is what life really is, tenderness and caring, tears of joy and hardship mixed together.”
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Do you get the picture? It is a picture of a time when life is perfect. You go to bed with no regrets, no anxiety, no worry. Do you get the picture? Do you have a God-given vision of the way life will one day be, and of the way you can contribute to it? Or has the dream been lost?
John’s dream is not wishful thinking because it is rooted in the reality of Jesus and the resurrection. The song in his heart is rooted in what John had seen God do in Jesus and on what he had experienced of God’s presence in the Holy Spirit. The vision is fed by seeing God free people from self-defeating thoughts, attitudes, and actions. God is bringing hope to the discouraged, vitality to the dull of spirit.
The vision is rooted in the God-given confidence that the Good News of Jesus will prove in the long run to be stronger than all human incompetence, all principalities of evil, all distress that comes our way. Do you have a dream? Is it God given? Is it rooted in what you have seen in the resurrection of Jesus and what you have experienced of the Holy Spirit? Do you get the picture?
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope May 10, 1998
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
No comments:
Post a Comment