Life Grows on Trees  Rev 22

Materials for this message come from Eugene Petersen’s Reversed Thunder. Context is a urban congregation in a small city center who long for the renewal God promises in this vision.

When Israel came out of Egypt, there was a period of 40 years when they wandered in the wilderness. An entire generation grew up in a barren wasteland. What that did was to embed certain ideas into their minds, so that the people of Israel and their celebrations of God’s love came to symbolize the blessing of God in one of their festivals by having the priest carry a container of water from a pool. It was brought from outside the temple, into the temple courts, and finally the procession would come to the altar and there the water would be poured out in a grand ceremony. It symbolized for the people the love of God in giving them life through the water in the wilderness

When we live next to the Wabash River here in Lafayette, IN, we don’t necessarily think of water as being the life giving item that it is. But if we were to spend the next 40 years in a place where there was very little water, we would come to appreciate the wonder of fresh water. Water that would bring a refreshing feeling to our mouths which were parched and dry.

Just think with me about how we use water in our lives. When I got up this morning, I did like I usually do, I took a shower. Then I had some breakfast in which I had some orange juice made with water from the tap in our kitchen. Then I rinsed the dishes under the tap and set them aside to be washed later with still other water. And so life goes on. If I had to carry all that water from some distance away, I think I would be very careful about how I use the water. When I visited some people in Southern California during a water shortage, they didn’t let water just run from the tap and down the drain. They caught it all and used it in one way or another. They still had water coming out of their faucets, but what if the water we were going to use had to be carried from some miles away? Or what if the only water we had was that which we ourselves had carried from a place some three weeks ago, and we had to ration it carefully to survive? How would we do? Who would get the water? Would it be women and children first for a drink? Or would it be the adults before the children? Or the children before the adults?

I think that we here in Lafayette, IN take our water so for granted. But it really is a wonderful blessing. To have so much water available to me that I use it to water my grass so it will grow better and so I can mow it more often, that is a marvelous abundance of water. Life thrives where there is water. The people who first read these visions of John knew that it was water that made life abound for them. And they didn’t always have such good water to use either. But they knew that water was crucial to the survival of their cities and their very lives. If they were cut off from their source of water, their lives would be hopeless.

So what does John see in the New Jerusalem? That great city come down from heaven? He sees a river of the water of life. It flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. It is a river of crystal clear water. The water for the city does not come from outside into it. It is springing up within the city itself and from the source of all life, the throne of God. The water flowing from the throne is a great picture of the abundance of life as it will come when the New Jerusalem comes into being

Then John goes on to tell us something about the river of Life. It has a tree growing alongside of it. This is not just any tree either. It is the tree that has been off limits to mankind ever since we fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. It is the tree of life. In Eden, God had said that he had to banish man from the garden or else he might eat of the tree of life and live forever. God did not want us to be living forever with the stain of sin in us. And so he, in mercy to us, drove Adam and Eve out of the garden and stationed an Angel with a flaming sword to protect the tree. But now, when redemption has been accomplished, the Tree of Life is again available to all who come into the great New Jerusalem. For there flowing down the middle of the great St. of the city is the River of Life, and on both sides of the river is the Tree of Life

John tells us about this tree when he says that it bears fruit every month. 12 Different kinds of fruit are abundantly provided for the people of God who will inherit this great city. God will make abundant provision for His people, and they will have all that they need.

God is going to bring us to a place in the new heaven and earth where we will have all we need to be who we really are. Did you catch that? We will have all we need to be who we really are. For some of us, that means that we will be looking at life as being rather dull. We like to think of heaven as being a place where all our fantasies come true, where we will all be superstars and everything. But then we would all be the same. And it would become dull from the sameness of it all. I mean, just think if you were always able to bowl strikes and so was everyone else, there would be no game to it. The game would be over. Or if every time you shot the basketball it went through the hoop, there would be no game to it. Or if every time you made chili it was the best ever. But so is the chili made by someone who never tried to before. What would be the point?

I think that often our dreams of heaven are so glossy that we forget how boring such a place would be. But evil is like that. It wants to draw us away from the truth of God, into our own world of fantasy, which will turn us away from God himself. We like to think of things which we think we need when an actuality we’re going to be looking for luxuries

God, however, provides the basic fruits and water. And then he does even more. He gives the leaves of the trees for the healing of the nations. All the pain and all the disease of this old world will be done away with. He tells us that no longer will there be any curse. In all of these ways, John is telling us that what God is doing is making this new city to be very much like that garden which he once planted for mankind and Eden. But now it is a cityscape we see rather than a landscape. We find John’s heaven to be a place where all the conditions that support and promote vigorous life in Christ are to be found. While we feast on the tree of life, we will feast on Christ. When we drink at the river of life, we will drink of Jesus. We will be amazed to find that life does indeed grow on trees and it’s there for us to pick and eat

It was in the Garden of Eden that the devil came to Eve and tempted her with the sight of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was there that we became enamored of the desire to be as God. And we have found death in the fruit that was a delight to the eyes

In the New Jerusalem, the Tree of Life will be the only one for us to deal with. No more will there be possibility of sin and evil. God is going to destroy those things entirely in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. And his people will be led into the great city where the tree of Life will welcome us. There we will feast with our Savior. But there will be no illusions about what it will be like. It will be the reality we have wanted ever since the day when Jesus first touched our hearts. It will be a place of glory. It will be heaven.

Listen as I read again verses 3 through 6.

³ No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. ⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

⁶ The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”

Revelation 5

Revelation 5  The Song to the Lamb

The context for this message is a congregation of faithful followers of Jesus as we studied our way through the Book of Revelation in 2005 or 2006.  The Shawshank Redemption was a movie about a prison.

What was going through your imagination as the Scripture was being read just a few moments ago? Did you have some vision of heaven itself? Did you find yourself asking what would I do if I was there and I had seen the events that were transpiring in heaven?

 What do we make of this strange scene of a lion that looks like a lamb? What do we make of the idea that the lamb looks like it has been slain? For John’s first readers in the seven churches of Asia Minor, they would have had visions of temple worship in their minds. Whether those would have been temples of the pagan gods in their cities or if they were Jewish and had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and seen the sacrificing of lambs, they would have had a vision of blood running all around the lamb and they would have had the thought in their minds that any lamb whose throat was cut for sacrifice, did not live.

Yet there the lamb stood, next to the throne of God almighty. And he is called the lion of Judah. What do you make of all this? What runs through your mind as you hear it? For those who have been to the movie event of 2004, the passion of the Christ, many of you have said, I will never read the Bible in the same way again. John would have us see, I think, the scene of the crucifixion, with all of its blood and its brutality. John would have us see the pain and the suffering of Jesus. And he would want us see him alive. At God’s right hand.

John wants us to see what is going on in heaven, now that Jesus has gone back to heaven as the victorious lamb of God, the lion of the tribe of Judah. But, wait a moment here. Maybe this was also running through your mind. A lamb?

Since when is the symbol of greatness a lamb? If a nation wants to project its greatness, it chooses an eagle, a bear, a dragon. A lamb? A lamb is something that is most often pictured as being carried around, maybe even in the mouth of the bear or in the talons of the eagle. Since when is a lamb the sign of greatness?

 Yet here is a revelation from God of a lamb, a slain lamb as the one who is worthy above all others in the universe to open the seals of the scroll that is found in God’s right hand.

I think one of the more fascinating things about the book of Revelation is that it is a book of worship, and that worship is demonstrated in singing. It’s a song book for the church of Jesus this side of the resurrection. And the lamb is the one who is worthy of the songs of the church. The lamb is the one who has triumphed for us.

John hears the voice of a mighty angel calling, who is worthy to open the scroll that is in the hand of God? It is a scroll that is written on both sides and it is sealed with seven seals. What might that scroll have on it? I think that the Bible indicates that the scroll is the plan of God for the history of the world. It is the final chapter of God’s powerful incursion into history. For the history of mankind is one chapter after another of waste, of failure, of hopelessness.

But God has been promising all throughout history that one day. One day everything is going to be made right once again. That one day everything is going to be settled. One day everything that is crooked will be made straight. Every hill will be made low. Every valley shall be exalted. And it will be for the glory of God. And on that day God will be all in all.

Until then, we wait. And yet we are not waiting as though we do not have some idea what the last chapter is about. One of the fun things about little kids is that they love to have books read to them. They know the story well enough to repeat it word for word.

Just let grandpa try to skip a page and the child makes you go back and read it all over again and not miss that page this time! God tells us that unless we become like little children we can in no wise see the kingdom of heaven. I think that includes story telling for kids. They come to know the story so well that they want to hear it again and again. Even though they know how it is going to end.

If it is a great story, we love to hear it again and again because a great story catches us up in its storyline and we can’t wait to get to the end. Here God is saying in the world as you and I experience it, there is another kingdom that is quietly working. And one day the new kingdom is going to break out in all of its glory and splendor. And one day it is going to conquer all others and it will never end.

And what is going to happen on that great day? Well, I’ll tell you how the story ends! It ends with lots of songs! In fact, in our scripture reading this morning there are three songs. And they are songs which are enough to turn our world on its head. They are songs which give us a vision of what we can look forward to. In the movie entitled The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufrense is sentenced to two back to back life terms for crimes he did not commit. That tough world of Shawshank prison conspires to destroy humanity. Andy, however, is someone who loves music and literature so each week he writes to the state legislature requesting books for the prison library. From out of nowhere, a huge shipment of used books and records, accompanied by a check for more, gets dumped in the warden’s office. Andy puts one of the records on the prison record player. Intoxicated by the beauty of an aria, Andy locks out the warden and plays this portion of the marriage of Figaro over the prison loudspeaker. Everyone in Shawshank stands transfixed by the music, this moment of intrusive beauty in a horrible place.

 A little later Andy explains to the other inmates how he handled what the warden did to him for that. He says, “that’s the beauty of music.. so you don’t forget that there are places in the world not made out of stone, that there’s something inside that they can’t get to, that they cannot touch. It is yours.”

 The book of revelation is a book of music. And the songs in it resound through our minds and hearts. It reminds us that there is a place out there that is getting ready to break into this world of ours. And no one can take it away from us. This is God’s story that he delights in telling to his children. And we know it’s a good story and we can’t wait to get to the end. We know what is coming.

 And the great wonder of it all is that this story will change how we live our own story each day. Just listen to the songs: verse 9 and 10. verse 12 verse 13.

These are songs that shake our world. Each of them is a song about the Lamb. The lamb who was slain, but who now is alive in the presence of God and is at God’s right hand. That lamb is worthy! Worthy! The lamb is worthy to receive the book of the history of mankind. The lamb is worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise! And when the four living creatures hear the songs of every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them, all they can do is say, AMEN!!!

 You see amen is a word that means yes! In all of its positive life affirming joy and power. It means that what we have just heard is the truth and we ourselves join up in the song. It means that the four living creatures affirm all that has been said of the lamb.

Will Willimon, who for many years was the Chaplain of Duke University, tells the story of a man who had been in a prisoner of war camp during one of the great and terrible wars we seem to fight . The man told pastor Willimon of how terrible a place that had been. A place of degradation and torture. One of the men who was a prisoner with that man was a wonderfully defiant chap from Illinois, in the United States.

This man would sometimes hum songs to himself as the prisoners were being led out to the fields to work each day. Walking along in the sweltering heat, miserable, unfed, unwashed, he would hum some tune. He often hummed America the beautiful. The prison guards did not know the tune, so the song meant nothing to them. But to the prisoners, the tune evoking the amber waves of grain and the purple mountains majesty reminded them of home, filled them with hope and with courage.

 And soon the whole camp was humming the tune each day on the way to work, with the guards oblivious to the revolutionary significance of the defiant gesture.

 In a way that’s what the songs and symbols of Revelation do for us. They remind us, as we go about our daily lives, of the victory of Easter, the way God defeated death and continues to defy death to do it’s worst. In heaven there is much singing and shouting and parading and pro-cessing, according to Revelation 5.

Having a song to sing that is a victory song enables us to go on each day, even to triumph because we know the lamb who sits on the throne of the universe!

Do I hear anyone echoing the amen of the four living creatures?