Sermon – Revelation 7:9-27 - Heaven

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

Sermon – Revelation 7:9-27 - Heaven

Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches

All Saints Sunday

Nov. 6, 2011

Today is the first Sunday of November and we are celebrating the Feast of All Saints. All Saints Day, November 1 each year, is the day we remember all the saints who have served our church in years past. Now that I live in the Dickinson Memorial Manse and have been noticing how ofter the name Dickinson appears at Pitts Creek church. There is a plaque in the back of the church asking us to remember William S. Dickinson who died in 1891 after serving as a “most devoted and beloved elder.” And I found an old offering plate, which we used on Reformation Sunday, that was given in memory of elder James T. Dickinson who died in 1866. These people and others who served this church so faithfully are in heaven. And so on this All Saints Day let's look at heaven from testimony in the Bible. But first let's pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Revelation 7:9 - 8:1 9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." 11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" 13 Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes-- who are they, and where did they come from?" 14 I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

One Sunday morning an elder came to me with a big smile on her face. She had visited her doctor that week and finally heard some good news. You see she had been suffering from stomach cancer and years of fear and pain as she underwent treatments. But now there was no sign of cancer, and although there was no guarantee that she was cured, at least the tests came back negative and she was feeling great. This thrilled the church because this elder was beloved. She attended everything we did with energy and enthusiasm. She usually had her camera and made sure fresh pictures were always properly arranged on the church bulletin board.

But her joy was not to last. A couple of months later I visited her in the hospital. The evening before she had experienced sharp pains in her stomach after dinner. She was rushed to the hospital where the doctors determined that the cancer had returned, this time to the lining around the stomach. This time there were no treatments. So my elder went home and with the assistance of her daughter and a hospice nurse she prepared for her death.

I visited her frequently during this time. What she wanted to talk about was heaven. She was certain that she would go to heaven. She was truly a woman of great faith. But what she really wanted to know from me was, What heaven is like? What would she find when she got there? This was a difficult question for me as a new pastor. But it did start me to begin thinking about what the Bible says heaven is like.

The church has always taught that when we die immediately the spirits of the faithful go off to be in the presence of God. We remain conscious and aware of what is happening. And we are blessed to be with God with no cares or concerns or diseases to bother us. We will find bliss and true happiness when we realize how much God loves us. We will experience the true joy of having our sins forgiven. We will be spiritually united with God, but this is not where our history will end. We still have one more phase in our existence to experience. The next place we go is to heaven.

Our scripture today tells us that we will enter heaven clothed in white robes. These are clothes we died in: the hospital gown covered in vomit, the tea shirt and jeans covered in blood after the car wreck, the wet bathing suit after the drowning. But our clothes will be clean having been washed in the blood of Jesus. So in heaven we will have bodies to wear the clothes. We will have noses that smell the incense , the animals, and the blood of the lamb. We will have ears that hear the voices of the elders, the angels singing “Holy, holy holy”, the harps, the trumpets, and the prayers in every language on earth. We will feel the shaking of the earth, the palm branches in our hands, the shade of the tent shielding us from the scorching sun, and the satisfaction of having plenty to eat. We will have tongues that taste our own tears and the cool spring living water. And we will have eyes to see the glory of heaven, God sitting on a throne, his Son to his right, the 144000 children of Israel, the 24 elders, the 7 blazing lamps, the four horses and their riders, the sun turning black, the moon turning red and the stars falling from the sky. All five of our senses will be engaged as we encounter heaven. And so in heaven we will not be disembodied spirits. Rather we will have bodies, our own bodies, resurrected from the dead and now alive, in heaven with God.

In heaven we will participate in nothing less than a new creation of God. Isaiah told us “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind”. (Isaiah 65:17). The new heaven and the new earth constitute a renewal of the Cosmos. In it God's creation is complete, and when creation is at last finish God will come to earth to live. Thus heaven is not some spiritual realm far away. Heaven is right here. Our world is restored and renewed by God. Earth becomes holy and a suitable place for God to dwell.

But notice that in heaven we are not alone. We are part of a group so large no one can count. Heaven is therefore a place of fellowship with peace, harmony, love and righteousness. We return to the Garden of Eden where we live in harmonious relations with each other and our God. And in heaven we will be constantly glorified by being in the presence of God . The Spirit will bring us into perfect conformity with Christ, sin will be abolished. We will praise God continually joining people from all over the world in worship. The Spirit will mold us into one great choir that will glorify God. And in Jesus Christ God will glorify us. And thus we participate in the glory shared by the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Today we are in worship. The bread and wine is on the table. We have sung Holy Holy Holy. The Apostle Paul says , “Now we see but a poor reflection; then we will see face to face.” (1 Cor. 13:12) So our worship today is just a poor reflection of what we will experience one day in heaven in our new glorified resurrected bodies where we will live with God in God's creation forever. But what we do in worship today prepares us for this future. It is here in worship that we learn how to pray, sing praises God, and live in conformity with Christ. Worship is the training ground for heaven. So we remember the saints we have known in years past, and we can rejoice because they are with God and will one day be reunited with us in heaven.

Holy God, Lord of life and death, you made us in your image and hold us in your care. We thank you for your saints, for the gifts they shared with our church, and for the love and mercy they received from you and gave to us. Especially we praise you for your love in Jesus Christ, who died and rose from the grave to free us from evil, and give us life eternal. Grant that when our time on earth is ended, we may be united with all the saints in the joys of your eternal home, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Adapted from The Book of Common Worship p.907)