Pastor's Message Archive
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| November | January | January |
| December | February | February |
| March | March | |
| April | April | |
| May | May | |
| June | June | |
| July | July | |
| August | ||
| September | ||
| October | ||
| November | ||
| December |
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| November | January | January |
| December | February | February |
| March | March | |
| April | April | |
| May | May | |
| June | June | |
| July | July | |
| August | ||
| September | ||
| October | ||
| November | ||
| December |
We're nearing the end of another calendar year, in case you haven't noticed. (It's been more like late summer than early fall--with all the hot days we've been enduring!) The end of the year is when many people look back over the year now rapidly fading away and contemplate at least two things: 1) what they've done, and 2) what they haven't done and, hence, still have to do.
Many contemplate a third thing as well--the end of their life, drawing ever nearer, and all the things they've done which they know they shouldn't have, and all the things they haven't done which they know they should have, fearful there may not be time to undo the former or do the latter!
The fact that we're nearing the end of another calendar year, however, means we're even nearer the end of another church year. That's when the Propers for the season--and many church-year believers as well--contemplate not just the end of another calendar year or the close of another church year but the end of all things. The Bible calls this time the End Times or Last Things.
At such a time, given such contemplations, the eyes of believers naturally drift heavenward. That's where the Book of Revelation comes in. It has everything to do with End Times and Last Things and heaven. It bears looking into!
In Revelation 15, for instance, St. John looks on as seven angels of God emerge from the Tabernacle of the Testimony. This is the ancient tent named after the two tablets of the Testimony which contained the Ten Commandments and which Moses brought down from Mount Sinai following his close encounter of the third kind, namely, his meeting with God. The tabernacle was the dwelling place of God during the Israelites' desert wanderings. Hence, it accompanied them all throughout their forty year trek.
In St. John's vision, however, the Tent of Meeting (another of its names) was located in heaven. Hence, John's and our heavenward gaze! As John watched, one of the four living creatures which surround God's heavenly throne gave to seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the seven last plagues--"last, because with them God's wrath is completed" (Rev 15:1).
Then John and we see just how complete God's wrath is, as the angels are ordered to go and pour out the seven bowls on the earth. Though, if these were physical plagues, they no doubt affected God's people as well, still it's Satan's followers who are singled out for special mention.
For instance, the first angel poured out the first bowl on the land. "And ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the [devil] and worshiped his image" (16:2). Similarly, the second and third angels poured out their bowls on the sea and on the rivers and springs of water, respectively, appropriately turning them into blood. And the blood flowed freely.
And John heard the angel in charge of the waters affirm God in His judgment upon those so affected. "For they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve" (v 6).
And, behold, the punishment fits the crime. Drink deep! Blood for the blood-thirsty murderers of God's elect! Blood aplenty, blood galore, the seething blood of God's wrath! Drink the bitter cup down to the dregs!
As with the first three angels and the first three bowls of God's fury, so with the remaining four, God's enemies are duly punished. And though their suffering is great and their pain intense, they refuse to repent and glorify the name of Him who would forgive their sin and rescue them from their affliction. To the contrary, they scorn His grace and curse Him.
This is a dire vision, folks! We rightly tremble at it. Thankfully, it's not the only vision John and we see with the God-given eyes of faith. Along with it, and inasmuch as it is to be dreaded, is a reality to be welcomed and embraced in the same repentant faith. For what we here see is "what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the [devil]. . . .
"They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God" (15:2-3), through whom God delivered His Old Testament people from their Egyptian slave drivers, their mighty horsemen, chariots and charioteers, thusly, "Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea" (Ex 15:21).
I will sing to the Lord. He is highly exalted. "The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name" (v 3). But He is more than a mighty warlord fighting valiantly on the side of His people--and at their side. He is the almighty Lord of armies, the triumphant Field General who leads us, His vanquished host, vanquished by sin, Satan and death, in triumphant procession.
Therefore, we sing the song of the Lamb forsaken by God for our sake, stricken, smitten and afflicted, slain by God for our offenses, yes, and raised by Him for our right standing, by whose blood and by the Word of whose testimony we have overcome--we who otherwise are overcome.
We stand as the tabernacle of this mighty Testimony, Jesus Christ, inasmuch as, clothing us with His righteousness, He has spread His tent over us. We stand before Him, on the one hand, in abject terror of the seven angels with the seven golden bowls filled with the seven last plagues of the wrath of God, insofar as we're sinners under God's wrath.
Mixed, on the other hand, with unspeakable gratitude and unutterable joy, as that sea of glass mixed with fire before which we stand in God's holy presence, we stand, then, steadfast. And we rejoice at our great good fortune on finding ourselves numbered among the numberless host of those who have been victorious over the devil in their victorious Lord.
Holding harps given us by God, then, we sing the song of the Lamb: "Great and wonderful are thy deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are thy ways, O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify thy name, O Lord? For thou alone art holy. All nations shall come and worship thee, for thy judgments have been revealed" (15:3-4).
And with that, we're ready, come hell or high water or heaven, ready for the end of another calendar year, ready for the end of another church year, ready for a new one on both counts, ready for the end of all things and the beginning of the new, as we await the end and the new beginning, waiting for our Savior Jesus Christ. He's coming. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! Amen.
- Pastor Erickson