Heaven Is Not Revelation 7:9-17 by Michael G. Lilienthal He is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! But what do you mean by that? Why are we still talking about Easter? Why must it last so very long? Are we overemphasizing it? Let no one ever take away the joy of the resurrection from your soul, because as Paul says, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished, that is, they are simply gone, nonexistent, a memory only, which itself will fade with time. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (1 Cor. 15:17-19). Indeed, to be a Christian means to look ahead to something more. We have hope in a heavenly home. No doubt when I say heaven, you conjure in your mind s eye an image, perhaps one with fluffy white clouds and bright sunlight, angels that look like beautiful women with flowing white robes and dovelike wings, and golden gates; perhaps it s the picture of a beautiful garden or orchard in the middle of a city of golden buildings; perhaps it s just the picture of your loved ones all around you in happiness and love. All these images are correct, and yet none of them are totally correct. Here is what heaven is: it is the promise of eternal life offered to all people; and it is the fulfillment of salvation based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for each of us personally. Beyond this, the picture of heaven is something so divine, so far above our limited human comprehension, that we can t rely on human illustrations. That is why we have the
Revelation 7:9-17 2 descriptions given to us by the Holy Spirit in Scripture. Notice the terminology St. John was inspired to use. The common thread you ll notice in how he describes heaven in chapter 7 of his Revelation, is that he doesn t describe heaven in positive terms, but negative terms. That is, he is less emphatic in describing what heaven is, and more telling us what heaven is not. Firstly, heaven is not I. Something We Earn We think of our loved ones, the many people we ll see in heaven. There was even a book published in 2003 called The Five People You ll Meet in Heaven. John didn t meet just five people; he looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. Countless people are in heaven! All these multitudinous saved have the glorious right 1 to stand before God s throne! How do they receive this right? Hear it from their own lips. They cry out in jubilation, shouting with a loud voice about salvation. They say, Salvation belongs to and who would you expect them to mention? Us? Whoever believes and is baptized? You might expect this to be a crying out in relief and joy over the fact that they now possess salvation. But instead, they point to another: Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Put simply, Here all the saved ascribe their entire salvation to God and to the Lamb. 2 They understand it to be none of their own work, and only all the 1 Lenski 256. 2 Ibid., 258.
3 Heaven Is Not work of God and his Messiah. This very thing the angels, the elders (who represent the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles), and the four living creatures (who represent the four Gospel-writers) seal and ratify: they say Amen! or, Truly! Indeed! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! and again, Amen! There are a couple of things to notice about this. God and the Lamb are given everything. They are attributed as the enactors of salvation. Jesus, the Lamb of God, the Christ or Messiah God s Anointed is in glory, at the right hand of the Father, so that the Lord and his Anointed are one. They are there on the throne. What are left to every soul are two alternatives: they are the same alternatives presented throughout Scripture. They are described by the case of the Pharisee and the tax collector: the former said, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all I get (Luke 18:11-12). The latter only threw himself before God s mercy and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! (13). The alternatives are described by the broad and narrow ways: Jesus said, Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few (Matt. 7:13-14). The alternatives are described by Psalm 1: for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, / but the way of the wicked will perish (6). And also by Psalm 2: The kings of the earth set themselves, / and the rulers take counsel together, / against the LORD and against his Anointed, but conversely, Blessed are all who take refuge in him (2, 12).
Revelation 7:9-17 4 Notice what these saints in heaven do: they do not set themselves against the Lord and his anointed; they stand before it and worship! They do not follow their own wicked ways; they were guided by God and the Lamb! They do not claim their own righteousness (no there is no mention at all of their own righteousness, of their own selves, of their own thoughts and wishes and abilities and accomplishments not one of them says, I went to church regularly; I never drank or did drugs; I served my country; I was a faithful spouse; I was never as bad as this wicked world ; for all these are things of the Pharisees); no, they are all like the tax collector and see how they were sinners, and God did have mercy on them, therefore they make only one claim: Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Therefore one of the elders tells John: They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. This was not an activity that they themselves accomplished. It was all a gift, a flood. Their sins were as scarlet. But the blood of the Lamb washed it away; by Jesus death on the cross, he shed enough of that cleansing crimson flood that it could be offered to the whole world. The Holy Spirit carries it to each of us: that blood cleanses you in the waters of Baptism; it cleans your soul by the food of the Lord s Supper; it washes you daily by the Word that you read in your devotions, that you hear in the sermon, that you sing in the hymns. If you could only realize how much this blood cleans you from sins that damn you, you would run to it at every opportunity! And you would have nothing but thanks and praise on your lips to God that he has accomplished your salvation: even the Gospel-writers, even the apostles, even the angels claim nothing for themselves, but they ascribe to God the
5 Heaven Is Not seven-fold Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might! Seven is the number of completion: God himself holds the complete work of salvation; none of it is ours. Therefore heaven becomes ours because God has worked it. II. This Troubled Life But we re not there yet. There is a difference between those saints in glory with nothing but praise and thanksgiving on their lips and us saints on earth who face unspeakable things every day. Now, you know that. You know that heaven is your home and you re not there yet. Nevertheless, it is a frequent occurrence that Christians yes, even Confessional Lutherans ignore this life in favor of the heavenly one. It s not always praise and thanksgiving on our lips, but sometimes it s complaining, it s weeping, it s pleading. And what many Christians misguidedly do is they call complaining, weeping, and pleading sinful. These are not intrinsically sinful. There is a sinful way to complain, for sure, but also there is a righteous way. Consider Psalm 10, which asks God, Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? / Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (1). Psychologically, humanly, and spiritually speaking, it is unhealthy to ignore your suffering. The multitude that no one could number is spoken about by the elder in John s vision: These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. Look where they were! the great tribulation! This is not one specific tribulation, not the destruction of Jerusalem, not some war time that will come near the end of the world. The word great causes this tribulation he speaks of to include all the tribulations mentioned in
Revelation 7:9-17 6 all the passages [of Scripture] that speak of tribulation. 3 This includes you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on [Jesus ] account (Matt. 5:11). This includes St. Paul and the thorn in his flesh. In this sin-broken world, you will experience suffering. When trials come, do not automatically conclude that God is punishing you for a sin. Certainly confess and repent of whatever sins you know. But also entrust your body and life to the One who accomplishes His purposes in the midst of suffering. See the world with Job s eyes, and behold the countenance of Jesus, your Redeemer, who bore the price of your salvation. 4 That is, in your suffering, see Christ s suffering. Don t be quick to say, It ll be okay. What cheap comfort that is to someone suffering a painful cancer! How useless are the words, These things happen, to someone whose child has just died! Right now, suffering is real. Suffering is not something that God asks you to pull through. Instead, suffering is something that God promises to lead you through. By telling someone, or yourself, that your suffering will pass, you re ignoring what God intends as a strengthening of faith. Instead of shutting that suffering down, bottling it up, express it yes, express it to your brothers and sisters in Christ, but also express it to God, as in the words of Psalm 5: Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness / because of my enemies (8). When suffering comes, we are confronted with the fact, very tangibly, that we can do nothing. We can t control this sinful world. God can. He will carry us through. He has already washed us in the blood of the Lamb, so that we are 3 Ibid., 261. 4 The Lutheran Study Bible, edited by Rev. Edward A. Engelbrecht (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2009), 837.
7 Heaven Is Not forgiven and heaven is ours. But we still live on this earth; we re not yet there. We are right now passing through tribulation: we will come out of it only when we come to glory. God allows suffering now so that we can face it squarely. Through his grace, we bring our suffering to God, and through faith, we know that he is there with us in our suffering. We don t like suffering, do we? We don t like feeling hungry or thirsty, sunburnt or scorched; we don t like to feel like we need to cry. Therefore we yearn for the end. We yearn for that comfort which is spoken of so blessedly by this elder in John s Revelation: 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 shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. You probably noticed the reference to the shepherd who will guide them to springs of living water. You re probably thinking of Psalm 23: The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. / He makes me lie down in green pastures. / He leads me beside still waters (1-2). That psalm is full of comfort for so many, and you ll notice that this comfort comes while we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (4). In heaven, where we dwell in the house of the LORD forever (6), the Lamb is our shepherd. But even on this earth, in suffering, he is also our shepherd, leading us. Yes,
Revelation 7:9-17 8 we yearn for the fulfillment of our joy. But we re not there yet. Because that joy means being before the throne of God, serv[ing] him day and night in his temple, we seek to take part in it partially even now by joining [our] fellow slaves on earth. We gather in earthly churches for worship services, so that we get a picture of this fulfillment: What the church does so imperfectly in its earthly sanctuaries shall there be done in supreme perfection. 5 Now we worship in tears, there in joy! Now we are in tribulation, there it is all behind us! Now the world laughs and the church weeps. We shall come out of this tribulation only by the blood of the Lamb into eternal joy! We look forward to that eternal joy, but what that means now is that we can express our sorrows, our pains, our afflictions, our temptations, because God will bring us out of it. We cry and weep now, because God will wipe away those tears. We suffer, just as Christ suffered but he suffered hell itself! Jesus Christ rose glorified out of his suffering, and in the same way we by faith will come through suffering, through the blood of the Lamb, into eternal glory. Amen. 5 Lenski, 263.