Eye Has Not Seen - Sermon Sept 6

 

Eye Has Not Seen

Edited sermon of September 6, 2020

 

You can listen to my YouTube recording for the full message here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M47sBq_M5Hw&t  

 

Many times, as I’ve read Revelation chapter 5 – like this week as I prepared this message – I have tried to imagine what is will be like when I stand before the Lord’s throne on that day He calls me from this body of flesh.

 

Let’s begin with the first few verses of this text:

 

“I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it; and one of the elders *said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. . . .  And they *sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and  purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

It should be no wonder that he tells us that no one in heaven, on earth, or under the earth was found WORTHY to open the seals of judgment – no one worthy except the Crucified and Risen Son of God.

He alone – Not Abraham. Not Buddha. Not Mohammed. Not anyone in all creation was worthy.  Why? Because He alone was slain, and He alone purchased for God with His blood men and women from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. It is Jesus alone who is God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, who sacrificed Himself so you and I could live forever forgiven of our sins.

Tragically, billions on this planet do not believe a word of what I just wrote. Billions – even (believe it or not) in churches across the globe mock the very idea of the exclusivity of Christianity. They like to think in terms of the politically correct version of religion. All religions lead to heaven.

Politically correct, perhaps, but eternally and deadly wrong.

 

Please do not let so-called brilliant men and women of religion or philosophy and cultural elitists dilute this essential truth in your mind. Either Jesus is the one and only door to heaven, or He was a blasphemous liar and demon from hell. There is no other option.

 

In his classic Christian work, CS Lewis said it as well as I have ever heard it: “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”  

Jesus, God Almighty, as Paul tells us, “Emptied Himself of all His divine privileges and took upon Himself the form of a slave.” (see Philippians chapter 2). Paul again tells us in another of his epistles, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9   

Yes, Jesus alone is worthy to open the seals of judgment. But now, more to the personal point; What will Jesus find when He opens the seals of judgment as they relate to you and to me?

 

I know my name is written down in glory, where the white-robed angels sing the story, “A sinner has come home.”  I came home to Jesus in 1972 when I went to my knees and asked Him to be my savior and Lord and King and Master. I entered the waters of baptism shortly afterward.

 

Is YOUR name written down in glory? It’s dangerous to your spiritual health to think it’s good enough for God simply that you were baptized. It is insufficient for eternal life to simply be a member of a church. Anyone can get wet. Anyone can sign their names in a book on the altar.

 

What will matter on that day when the Lord Jesus opens the seals of judgment, is that He finds our obedience to the clearly revealed word of God and the historic teaching of the Church. Please note and I will say it again, according to the historic teaching of the Church, and not according to how some churches or pastors today have redefined God’s word to suit the culture.

John continues his description of the heavenly scene in verses nine and ten: “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and  priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

God tells us throughout the books of Moses that He expected of His priests to be holy in life and lifestyle. But do you realize that God has in Christ made you and me to also be a kingdom and priests to our God? The apostle Peter says something similar in his first epistle: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for  God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”  (1 Peter 2:9).

 

You and I are called to be a priesthood, a holy people to God. And God makes the same demand – not request – the same demand of us whether we are 20 or 50 or 80 or 100. As Peter once again writes: As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (1 Peter 1:14-19)

 

We could say a dozen more things about these verses in chapter five of Revelation, but for the sake of time, let’s move quickly forward. In verses 11-14 John writes:

“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Do you realize that right now every one of YOUR loved ones who died in Christ – every one of them – your parents, your husband or wife, your children, your beloved family and friends – they are ALL right now shouting and singing glory to our God and Savior?

I can’t help thinking about my mom and the others in my family and Nancy’s who died holding on to Jesus when they took their last breath. Oh, what a comforting and joyous and calming thought it is to know with  ABSOLUTELY certainty that those whom we have loved and lost to death are– right now – around God’s throne in that great company of myriads and myriads of worshippers. All of them singing: “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

But now again, let’s make application of this text to our own and very personal relationship with God through Jesus the Messiah. Many of you will remember this church hymn:

“All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all; All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.”

 

Have you, and do you still surrender all to Jesus? I ask myself that question a lot. When I sing that hymn – I Surrender All – the Holy Spirit always whispers into my heart, “Richard, is what you are singing true for you? Have you surrendered to me your sins? You time, your talents, your health, your wealth, your children, your circumstances?

Let me close this message with these final thoughts. As I prepared this message I thought of a song written by Bart Millard of the gospel group, Mercy Me. It’s titled, “I Can Only Imagine.” Here are only some of the lyrics:

I can only imagine/ what it will be like / when I walk by your side. I can only imagine/ what my eyes would see / when your face is before me. I can only imagine. . . . Surrounded by your glory, what will my heart feel? Will I dance for you Jesus, or in awe of You be still? Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall? Will I sing hallelujah? Will I be able to speak at all? I can only imagine. I can only imagine. I can only imagine.

The Holy Spirit through St. John gave us only a glimpse of what our eternal home is like. But how can you or I begin to imagine what our loved ones on the other side are already experiencing? It must be analogous to a child in the womb who can hear only muffled sounds and see only darkness – but has no clue what it will be like to be born into the world that we all now experience with all its sights and sounds and colors and fragrances and tactile sensations.

Heaven will be like that, but only more so when we are ‘birthed’ from this womb we call ‘life’ and enter that indescribable place the Bible calls heaven.

 

Please, here my last comment and then I close: Keep keeping on with Jesus. Grow deeper in love with Him through prayer, meditating on His word, and humbly obeying His commandments. Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, all the things that God has prepared for us after we leave our bodies in death and enter into His glorious presence.

 

Amen.