"The Great Rescue"
Revelation 7:9-17
As everyone knows, Monday afternoon we had another tragedy as bombs went off at the Boston Marathon.
Among those killed was a little 8 year old boy.
Other folks lost limbs, and were seriously injured.
They will have to learn to live with the results of these injuries for the rest of their lives.
As the news of the tragedy was unraveling on t-v it was nearly impossible to learn about what was happening and shield our children at the same time.
Mary Ellen, of course, did not completely understand what had happened, but she understood well enough to make a point and also ask a very good question:
"People shouldn't be allowed to do things like that," she told me as we were moving from the t-v to the dinner table.
My response was: "People aren't allowed to do those kinds of things."
She then asked, "Then why do they do them?"
These horrible kinds of attacks are so ridiculous, really...
...and a statement coming from a child makes it even more ridiculous, broken, crazy, and twisted.
"People shouldn't be allowed to do things like that; why do they do things like that?"
Remember the Unabomber--Ted Kaczynski?
Ted grew up as a very gifted young man, who had been loved dearly by his mother.
He became a math professor, but was soon disillusioned and moved to the mountains of Montana.
He would sometimes come down from the mountains to send mail bombs to people he didn't like.
After years of investigation, he was finally discovered by police and sent to prison.
Not only did Ted cause tremendous pain to strangers and others--his actions just about crushed his mother who loved him.
Several years ago, his mother was interviewed by a reporter from the Chicago Tribune.
At the time she had been writing monthly letters to her son in prison.
She shared with the reporter what she had written in her most recent letter.
She wrote: "I want you to know, Ted, that when a child is born, the parents give them the gift of unconditional love for a lifetime.
This is true for you.
No matter what happens, my love for you will be there for a lifetime.
Love, Mother."
Even after he had refused to look at her when he entered the courtroom during his trial, even after he had given testimony in court that described her as a horrible person, she still loved him enough to write those monthly letters.
She never gave up on him.
What are you going through this morning?
Is there pain in your heart that is nearly unmanageable?
Has someone hurt you deeply?
Are you suffering from an illness, a disease?
Do you have a daily battle with depression and anxiety?
Are you so disgusted by the daily shootings in the news, the continuing occurrences of hate-filled acts like the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary and the bombings in Boston that you feel there is little if any hope?
Are you weeping over the state of our world?
Are you hitting the wall right now--feeling like you can't go on, like you'll never make it?
A woman shares a story about her 7-year-old daughter, Jessica.
Jessica is a deep thinker when it comes to theological questions.
Recently, Jessica and her mother discussed why bad things happen sometimes, as they were re-reading the story of Adam and Eve and how sin came into the world.
Later that week, Jessica was sick and had to stay home from school.
Feeling miserable, she told her mom: "If only Adam and Eve hadn't eaten the fruit, I wouldn't be sick."
And before her mother could answer, Jessica added: "Of course, if they didn't eat it, we'd all be sitting here naked."
(pause)
Of course, Adam and Eve's nakedness, was a sign of their innocence and purity.
And that innocence, that purity has been lost--distorted because of sin.
We live in a broken world.
Every time we turn on the t-v or open the newspaper our hearts are torn out of our chests.
We read about children who have been abducted and sold into the human sex trade...it's just about too horrible to even imagine possible...
...how can this kind of thing even occur?
How could such evil exist?
We talk to adults who were abused as children, and many of them suffer such emotional scars that they have mental illness that, many times, leads to suicide...or at the very least, a life-time of government assistance, or homelessness, or complete insanity.
We watch as persons turn to drugs-- horrible and life ruining things such as crystal meth, or even chronic alcohol abuse.
The results are tragic.
Sin and the evidence from sin brings a darkness upon our world which is so thick--even a knife won't cut through.
And if we seek to ignore it...
...well, we aren't really doing much to change it or make things better, are we?
Victor Frankl wrote in his book: "There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is meaning in one's life."
Does your life have meaning, even though we live in a lost and fallen world?
In our Scripture Lesson for this morning from Revelation Chapter 7 we are told about a "great multitude" of people "that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne [of God] and in front of the Lamb (Who is Jesus)."
We are told that "they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
And they cried out in a loud voice:
'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'"
We are also told that the multitudes seen praising God and wearing white robes are followers of Jesus Christ.
"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."
The word for "tribulation" can also be translated as "persecution."
And although John, in this passage may be speaking about a specific period of persecution associated with the Second Coming of Christ...
...a careful study of how the term "persecution" is used in Revelation and the rest of the New Testament reveals that, as Christians, we all experience persecutions when we live as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ in the world.
"Then one of the elders asked me, 'These in white robes--who are they, and where did they come from?'
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.'"
While on this earth, there can be no doubt that pain and suffering will be a part of any Christian's life.
If this were not the case; it would mean our hearts were so hardened to the pain of this world that it would be impossible to actually be following Christ.
Christ weeps when He sees people weeping.
God so loved the world that He came to us in Christ and has shared in our suffering!!!
And as Christ-followers, we share in the suffering of the world as well.
We are to be troubled by the fact that so many persons are living without hope, without the knowledge that they are loved.
We are to be disturbed that so many people are angry, filled with hatred, and low self-esteem.
And we are to be disturbed as well--extremely disturbed--if we are not doing something to help alleviate the problems!!!...
...if we are not part of God's 'rescue effort.'
Those standing before the throne and before the Lamb have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
They are in need of shelter.
They have known hunger and thirst and scorching heat.
They have tears in their eyes.
Suffering has always been part of the Christian story.
However, it is only part of the story and never THE END.
This passage in Revelation moves us through its important message about suffering to a vision of how victory is finally won!!!
And this victory is so different than the visions of victory offered to us by our culture; our world:
"The one with the most toys wins."
"The one with the most money and the biggest house wins."
"The one with the most power wins."
Baloney!!!
None of these definitions of victory are the truth!!!
For in reality, ultimate Christian victory comes in death.
When we die with Christ--to self, that is--we rise with Christ; this is how we become Victors!!!
We are conquerors, not because we escape persecution--Christ didn't escape it.
We are conquerors because when we rise with Christ, right here and right now--when we allow our garments to be washed with the blood of the Lamb--we become Children of God--children not born of flesh and blood, or of a parent's will--but Children born of God!!!!
The word "salvation" literally means "rescue."
And God's rescue plan is found only in the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ!!!
Have you allowed God to rescue you from slavery to sin, death and hell?
Have you washed your robe and made it white in the "blood of the Lamb"?
Will you be found praising God in ecstasy, thanksgiving and praise forever and ever?
Will you be one of the "multitudes" standing "before the throne [of God] and in front of the Lamb"?
Will you, be in heaven, in the company of all the angels, the apostles and the saints...
...will you be one of the one's who falls down on their face "before the throne" worshiping God and saying, "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!"?
Will Jesus, the Lamb of God, be your Shepherd?
Will He lead you to springs of living water?
Will God "wipe away every tear" from your eyes?
Drew Sappington shared the following story in this month's Upper Room devotional:
"I did not feel much like I had an immortal soul and did not have much confidence that I would rise to eternal life when medical tests revealed that I had cancer.
But...I found that I believed strongly in the resurrection of Jesus.
And because Jesus rose, I had reason to believe that he would rescue me from death as well.
Out of gratitude, I began to pray more regularly.
Perhaps because of my weak faith, I did not pray for a cure of my cancer; but I did take time to praise God each day for what I had.
Sometimes as chemotherapy and radiation took their toll, my prayers were little more than coherent babbling.
But with the aid of the Spirit, I kept on praying.
I endured months of treatments, underwent three major operations, and had a colostomy for a while.
My father died while I was going through all this.
At the end of that awful time, my wife said, 'That must have been the worst year of your life.'
I thought about that for a minute, and I realized that throughout those difficult days I had been comforted with a profound sense of Christ's presence.
'You know,' I told her, 'it may have been the best.'"
Sappington finishes with: "Knowing Christ is with us transforms us and our struggles."
Do you know Christ is with you?
With Jesus, even the worst of circumstances can be the best.
In the game of chess, the purpose is to "checkmate" your opponent's king in a situation where it can't avoid being captured in the next move.
In many games of chess, a point comes when one player makes a move luring the opponent in to something called "a mating net."
Usually, this kind of move is a sacrificial one; it gives your opponent the opportunity to capture one of your major pieces, or to gain what appears to be the advantageous position on the board.
If your opponent takes the bait, the "mating set" is set.
The victor will be losing pieces to the loser, and the loser will appear to still have every possibility of winning.
But this is a false perspective.
The "losses" of the winner are an integral part of the ultimate victory that has already been assured and the "victories" of the loser are, in reality, the sequence of defeats that lead to ultimate destruction.
In the Cross of Jesus God makes the sacrificial move that "sets the mating net."
God's victory is established at that point, even though history continues...
...the forces of evil still attack us and seem to thwart God's purposes.
As Christians, we still find ourselves pressed in on every side.
What the enemy, and what those who do not know Christ--do not know, however...
...is that the victory has already been won and everything will be made right when Christ's returns and there is a new heaven and a new earth.
So the big question for us now is: "Will we be part of God's rescue effort?"
Will we allow the light of Christ, and the good news of Christ to flow from us and out into a world that is so lost, so dark, so insanely broken?
There is great meaning to our lives after-all!!!
And that is because: Christ has won the victory!!!
And Jesus is with us at all times.
Knowing Christ is with us transforms us, our struggles and those with whom we come in contact.
How can we not cry out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb...
...Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!"
