Do we have any movie buffs here this
morning? I have some movie lines I want
you to guess. Tell me what movie they
come from. I’ll start with an easy one
to get you warmed up.
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May the Force be with you.
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1977
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What we've got here is failure
to communicate.
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1967
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You can't handle the truth!
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1992
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If you build it, he will come.
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1989
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One morning I shot an elephant
in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.
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1930
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Ok, I have one more. The movie came out in 1939. Back when Troy was just a teenager. The main character makes the following
observation when speaking about home: "Someplace
where there isn't any trouble...do you suppose there is such a place, Toto?
There must be. It's not a place you can get to by a boat or train. It's far,
far away... behind the moon... beyond the rain." Wizard of Oz
Why does she want to go to a place “beyond the rain”? What’s wrong with rain? Rain is always symbolic for trouble and
difficulty so she is looking forward to a place without all the problems of the
world she was in. Now, (I know it’s hard
to believe but I have never seen this movie) I assume she is looking forward to
getting back to Kansas, right? She says
something about, “We’re not in Kansas
anymore.”
Well, I’ve been to Kansas and I’m
looking forward to much, much better one of these days. How about you? This is a nasty, sin-sick old world that
seems to have lost its ever-lovin’ mind here lately and I am so tired of
it. Satan is referred to as the prince
of this world in John 12:31 and he has completely brainwashed
this world into thinking that tearing down monuments will solve racism.
He makes it sound like common sense
that we should abort the little unwanted fetuses before they become “real
babies”. He has lived up to his name as
the father of lies by convincing this world that what the Bible calls abomination is just an
alternative lifestyle. Satan has this
world convinced that when marriage gets really difficult, just leave. When life gets really difficult, just end
it. When you have to suffer the
consequences for your bad behavior, it’s somebody else’s fault.
All of this has led to a world that is less happy, more stressed, more
diseased, more hateful, more busy and less fulfilled than ever before and we
can expect it to get worse until Jesus comes again. Are you bummed out yet? Well, you ought to be. Sin ought to bum you out. Sin ought to make you mad. Sin is our worst enemy and as I have said
before, it is the worst thing in this world that can happen to us.
Having sin in our lives is the root cause of all our problems; even
death. Romans 6:23 says that what we get for our sin, “the wages of sin” is death. But for a Christian, even death is better
than living in sin because sin puts a barrier between us and God. Paul said to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21)
For a Christian, death means being with Jesus where there is no more sin; no more
abortion or racism or guilt or even crying.
Did you know that?
We joke about this being “Cries Fellowship” because it happens so often
around here. Not me, of course. But for most people, it will be so nice not
to cry anymore, won’t it? Well, that
time is coming soon. I promise you. Let’s look at the passage that tells us that
in Revelation 21:1-5. We looked at it last week but there is so
much to this passage that I want to revisit it and really understand what we
can about what Heaven will be like.
This is part six in our series and we still have a couple to go. We have seen why and how we are to prepare
for Heaven by storing up our treasure there.
We have seen what happens at the Rapture and the difference in the
Rapture and the Second Coming. We have
seen how wonderful the Millennium is going to be and we talked last week about
how, with God there, all our wants, needs and desires will be fulfilled in
Heaven.
But we are so used to crying. We are
so used to pain; some more than others, but death, mourning, crying and pain
are such a way of life for us in this sin-infused world that it is hard to
imagine living without it. We come into
this world with crying and pain and we usually leave with crying and pain. I heard the joke about a man who said when it
came his time to die, he wanted to go like his father did, in peaceful
sleep…not screaming and crying like the passengers in his dad’s car.
Let’s turn to Revelation 21:1-5
and see what it says about crying and pain.
Then I saw "a new
heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had
passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City,
the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people,
and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be
with them and be their God. 4'He will wipe every tear from their
eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old
order of things has passed away." 5He who was seated on the
throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then
he said, "Write this down, for these words are
trustworthy and true."
A preacher was preaching one day and he asked the congregation if they were
ready to go to Heaven. Everybody in the
place raised their hands except one little boy.
The preacher asked, “Son, don’t
you want to go to Heaven?” The boy
said, “Sure. Some day.
But I thought you was getting up a load to go now.” That’s an old
joke.
Well, I’m ready to go now. I’m tired
of this nasty old world with its old jokes.
I’m tired of the death, mourning, crying and pain. I want to hear some new jokes. I want to hear laughter. I want to hear singing and whistling and
humming. But in this life and in this
world it seems like what we usually hear is griping and complaining and passing
blame and making excuses. Then that all
leads to crying and pain, doesn’t it?
Look at verse 4 again. 4'He
will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning
or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." I looked up all those words – death,
mourning, crying and pain – in my commentaries just to make sure I understood
what was being said. I’m happy to report
that they mean just what you think they mean.
There will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain because there is
no reason for them.
In this life, what are some of the causes of crying and pain? You don’t have to mention what you are going
through or what you are experiencing right now but, maybe, what you have seen
other people cry about. We cry about
poor decisions we or others have made.
We cry about the guilt that comes from those decisions. We cry when we see others make the same
decisions because we love them and don’t want them to have to go through what
we have gone through. I think that’s why
our children make us cry so much.
We cry when things are hard or they don’t go our way. We cry when people disappoint us. We cry when we disappoint other people. We cry when we disappoint God. Of course, we cry when death comes to a loved
one because we will miss them when they are gone. We cry when we see death coming for us
because we fear the unknown.
All of those are perfectly good reasons to cry but do you know why we have
to go through that stuff? Do you ever
wonder why God doesn’t wave His hand and make this life easier for us; without all
this crying and pain and death? Well…it
used to be that way, at least for a little while.
Turn to Genesis chapter 3. I want you to see for yourselves why we have
to go through all of this. It’s
important. Turn to the first book of the
Bible, chapter 3 and verses 17-19 and verse 23.
"Cursed is the ground because
of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your
life. 18It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will
eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat
your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for
dust you are and to dust you will return." 23So the LORD God
banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been
taken.
This all happened as the consequence of sin and there are still
consequences of sin and the consequences rarely affect only the sinner. There will always be consequences for
disobedience, just like there are benefits of obedience but with disobedience
the consequences affect, not just us, but all those around us that we love the
most.
In Genesis 3, God says there is now a curse on the ground. This represents every aspect of their
lives. That’s all they knew. It’s how they survived. Now, everything for them and for every
generation since has been cursed by sin.
Oh, it’s easy to get all upset at Adam and Eve for messing it all up for
us, right? But we do the same thing
today and reap the same consequences, don’t we?
Sin curses everything.
I heard a woman speaking at a women’s rally one time. She said, "Where
would man be today if it were not for woman?" From the back of the
room came a voice, "We'd be in the
Garden of Eden, eating strawberries."
That may be funny to some of us but it’s not true. We all mess up and we all have to suffer the
consequences and the consequences are death, mourning, crying and pain. That’s the curse of sin.
That’s also what is going to make
Heaven so wonderful. No more sin. Now, somebody asked a great question last
Sunday night at Bible study. If you
aren’t coming on Sunday nights, you are really missing out. Anyway, the question was, since Satan was
originally an angel in Heaven and he sinned, won’t we be tempted to sin in
Heaven? That’s a great question but the
answer is “no”.
First, we know there won’t be sin in
Heaven because the Bible says so. At the
end of this chapter, in verse 27, it
says that nothing impure will ever enter into Heaven, nor will anyone who does what
is shameful or deceitful. In chapter 22, verse 3: 3” No longer will there be any curse.” No more curse means no more sin.
But we also read in Matthew 13:41
that “The Son of Man will send out his
angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and
all who do evil.” We will still have
free will but there will be nothing there that even would cause us to sin. We will have everything we could ever want,
need or desire because as we read last week, God Himself will live with
us. He will meet and exceed all desires
and for a lot of us, our biggest desire right now is for there to not be any
more death or mourning or crying or pain.
I want you to see, though, that death, mourning, crying and pain…is the old
order of things. Look at verse 4 again. 4'He
will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning
or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Then look at verse 5. 5He who was seated on the throne
said, "I am making everything new!"
Everything new! No more sin. No more curse. No more temptation or regret or guilt or
shame. No more having to ask for
forgiveness. Now, that sounds pretty
heavenly to me right there! I read about
a woman who was a well-known secular humanist, which, from what I understand is
just a smart atheist. While on her death
bed, she told a Christian friend, “What I envy
most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive
me."
The psychologist, Sigmund Freud, said that the main
source of all humanity’s woes are feelings of guilt. I heard another
psychologist say that ¾ of all mental patients would be cured if they believed
they were forgiven. No more sin. No more curse. No more need for forgiveness.
Look, I am just as
fascinated as you are about what Heaven is going to be like and if all dogs go
there and what we are going to do and I can’t wait to see Aunt Bessie just like
you. But just knowing that I will never
again disappoint my Savior; never again will I have to drag myself into His
holy throne room in prayer with my head down and my tail between my legs and
cry out in pain for forgiveness – that’s what I want Heaven to be like and I
know you do too if you are a true believer.
I’m not worried about
what my mansion is going to be like or how my glorified body is going to
work. I trust Him with those
details. He said He is going to prepare
a place for me and so I trust that He knows what paint color schemes I like
best and what I like to eat and what I like to do. I’m glad God has shared some of what that
will be like, but if there is no more death, mourning, crying or pain, count me
in. That will be great but I just want
to be with and please my Savior, Jesus Christ.
I have one more passage
I want you to turn to before we close.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 20,
Jesus has been crucified and put in the tomb.
His disciples are beyond crushed.
Everything they had believed, trusted, wanted and needed was dead behind
a rock in a graveyard. They had no plan
for the future. They had no hope for
this life or the next if Jesus was dead.
They buried Him on
Friday. Saturday was the Sabbath and so
first thing Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the graveyard to pay her
respects. Can you imagine the pain that
must have felt like a lung being pulled out when she got to the tomb and saw
that His body was gone? This is just too
much!
Now she’s just
bawling. It’s an ugly cry full of
overwhelming pain. Let’s pick it up in John 20:10-18. 10Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. 11Now
Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the
tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had
been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13They asked her,
"Woman, why are you crying?" "They have taken my LORD
away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." 14At
this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize
that it was Jesus. 15He asked her, "Woman,
why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was
the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where
you have put him, and I will get him." 16Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried
out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means "Teacher"). 17Jesus
said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not
yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am
ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" 18Mary
Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the
LORD!"
She’s not crying now, is she?
Everything is okay now. “I have seen the LORD!” The presence of the Lord was enough; more
than enough. For Mary, there was no more
mourning or crying or pain because she had seen the Lord. Don’t you know that even when that day came,
whenever it was, that Mary Magdalene’s earthly body gave out and she breathed
her last that she could go in great peace, having seen, been with, worshipped
and believed Jesus?
She had seen with her own earthly eyes the power Jesus had to overcome
death and if death is overcome then so is the mourning, crying and pain of sin
for eternity. "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?"
(1 Cor. 15)
Jesus has overcome death, sin, Satan
and this world and that ought to be a great encouragement to all of us. This life is hard but it’s short and the
thought of spending eternity in Heaven with Him and without all the pain of
this world should make us burn with desire to tell somebody else what little or
much we know about it.
The thought of sin being the root
cause of all our crying and pain ought to make us hate sin and Satan even more. While there will always be something to
mourn, cry or hurt over in this life, we can have forgiveness in this life and
that brings peace. It brings peace with
God and when we have peace with God, we can have peace with men. Knowing that God is in control and that he
loves us and forgives us brings peace and joy even in the painful times.
Add to that the knowledge that we have
that at the end of this short life we will see Jesus if we are true believers
and we can have peace that passes all understanding. (Philippians 4:7) How does
that sound today? If you don’t have that
all you have to do is believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and
that nobody gets to the Father but through Him. (John 14:6) Repent of your sins
and ask God for forgiveness and He will be faithful to forgive and to cleanse
you from all unrighteousness. Don’t
wait. Do it today.
Prayer / Invitation
Adrian Rogers is one of my favorite
preachers. He went to Heaven several
years ago but in a book he wrote, he mentioned that he had a son named Phillip
who passed away. He didn’t say how, just
that it was a great tragedy. Before
that, he had regularly gone to the hospital to visit sick folks and to witness
to them and in his rounds, he said he met a very cynical old man and had tried
several times to lead him to Christ.
After his son’s death, Dr. Rogers went
back to the hospital to visit that man and somehow the man had found out about
his son. “What are you doing here?” the old man asked.
“I came to see you” Rogers replied.
“Are you still serving God after what he did
to you?”
“I’m not bitter at God” he said.
“I’m bitter at Satan. He has a greater enemy in me today than ever
before because I know that behind all the sickness, sorrow, pain, suffering and
death is sin.”
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