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NOVEMBER 18, 2007
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
Isaiah 65:17–25
Some of you know that I am an avid sports fan. I have my favorite college and professional teams. But I don’t like to watch them play on live TV. That’s because I can’t stand to see them lose. Ruins my whole day!
But I have discovered a way to deal with my problem. Last Sunday, for example, I taped the Cowboys game while I took a much needed nap. When I awoke I asked Pat who won. “The Cowboys,” she said. “Wonderful,” I replied. “I’ll watch the game tonight on tape. And I did. I watched every single play. You see, I knew that no matter how badly the Cowboys played at a given time, it was going to turn out all right and I’d be a happy camper! Now if Pat had told me they had lost, there’s no way that I’d watch the tape. I hate bad endings!
That’s one of the reasons why I love the Bible: I know that in the end I’m going to win! Yes, because of what Christ has done for me, I’m going to live happily ever after!
I know that, when all is said and done, there’s going to be a heaven on earth. Heaven on earth? I can guess that some of you are probably thinking that I’m at least a wacko and maybe even a heretic because there’s no such thing as a heaven on earth!” And it’s true: The world we live in is a broken world, a world broken by Adam’s sin and our sin. We all know the heartache of broken lives, broken hearts, and broken dreams. We also know that, when all is said and done, we’re going to die.
Ah, but for the people of God, death is not the end of the story. God promises his children the kingdom of heaven. But there’s something even better. In our text, the Lord God says, “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”1 Three other times in Scripture we find the promise of the new heavens and a new earth. There’s another passage in Isaiah.2 And St. Peter writes, “But according to his [God’s] promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”3 Moreover, in the second–last chapter of the Bible, St. John says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”4
What does all this mean and when does this occur? It all comes to pass on the last day when Christ returns. After all the dead bodies are raised and refashioned, they shall once again be united with their souls. Then comes the judgment when Christ will put all believers on his right hand and all unbelievers on his left.5 Next shall come the destruction of the existing earth and cosmos by fire and the creation of a new and perfect earth and universe. Sadly, unbelievers will dwell in the fiery abyss. But for us, we shall dwell, body and soul, on this new earth forever. According to Peter, righteousness, and only righteousness, will dwell on this new earth.
This, beloved, is what awaits us. The Paradise lost by reason of Adam’s sin shall become the Paradise restored by reason of Christ’s righteousness. Because Christ’s righteousness is ours through faith, we shall dwell eternally on the new earth. And we can truly say that there will be paradise (heaven) on the new earth. This is the end of the story. And what an end it shall be! Even the souls of the saints now in heaven look forward to the last day when they will get their bodies back and enjoy the fullness of everlasting life on the new earth. Paradise on the new earth is our God–promised destiny.
What’s it going to be like there? Our text gives us some clues. Although its images seem to move back and forth between the blessedness of the saints here on this earth and the joy of the saints there on the new earth, we can glean some remarkable insights.6 In our eternal home we discover that ...
In short, everything shall be perfect and we shall live happily ever after. Of course, the chief blessings shall be that we will live forever in total joy and will see God himself in the fullness of his glory! Beloved, we can’t even begin to comprehend what God’s love and majesty will be like. St. Paul compares what it is like for us now and what it will be like for us then. He says, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”7
What a glorious change! We will pass from darkness to light, from trying to see through hazy clouds to beholding the clear sunshine of our Savior’s face, and from having an infantile knowledge of God to knowing him fully and yet always experiencing more of his love and life–givingness. At best it is only twilight here, but there it will be a perfect, eternal day. In the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, we read, “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”8
So, I ask, how’s that for a good ending? So, you see, we already know the end of our story!
The trick, of course, is to remain in the faith until the our earthly death or until the Lord returns. And the Bible’s message has always been the same. We become and remain Christ’s disciples by baptism, pure biblical teaching, and by faithful reception of the Lord’s Supper.9
But on any given Lord’s Day about 60 percent of a congregation’s baptized membership thinks they’ve got something better to do than feed on the Word and the Sacrament. It’s been that way since 1939, the beginning of WWII.10 If we fed our bodies the way we feed our souls, many of us would be dead right now. We seem to be saying that, as long as our earthly affairs are okay, we needn’t trouble ourselves with the affairs of the soul. That, of course, is inviting spiritual disaster. And you and I know many people who used to come regularly to the Lord’s House on the Lord’s day. But now they hardly ever come. And because we believe in the “theology of nice,” we don’t want to risk offending them. My friends, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who are dying for their faith in third–world countries, and yet we’re afraid of being told to “bug off” or to “mind our own business!” Whatever happened to inviting them to church with you?
My friends, since the earliest of times people have tried to answer the fundamental questions of human existence. Job asked it in the Old Testament when he said, “If a man dies, will he live again?”11 Mankind has always wanted the answers to three troublesome and persistent questions. They are also the topics that for centuries made up about 95% of all children’s literature.12 They are:
Since the time of Augustine in the 5th century to time of the Enlightenment in the 18th century, the answers to these questions were shaped by a Christian worldview.13 Life was a gift of God, but it was a life broken by sin. Death was not the end of existence but the beginning of eternity in either heaven or hell. And to embrace Christ in faith was to ensure an eternity in the kingdom of heaven. But the Enlightenment called the Christian worldview into question. Man, it was thought, could answer the fundamental questions of human existence through reason and science without being bound by the shackles of the Church. Modern man no longer had to revert to the God of an antiquated Bible.
But the Enlightenment was slow to get to America. Indeed, many Christians in Europe fled to America to escape European liberalism. Our church body was founded by German immigrants who wanted to be faithful to God’s Word. It wanted nothing to do with the liberalism of the Enlightenment. And your grandfather’s and great grandfather’s LCMS was almost unanimously shaped by one paradigm and by one word, namely, faithfulness. Faithfulness to God was to be faithful to his Word.
Sin was taken seriously and grace was to be found only in Christ. In the Great Commission, Jesus called his Church to make disciples by baptism and teaching . . . teaching the doctrines of Bible. And where did this baptism and teaching take place? In the Church where people gathered themselves around Word and Sacrament. Evangelism took place when people were invited to church and especially when Christian parents had their children baptized and took it as their personal responsibility to teach the faith to their children. And the pastor continued to teach and catechize in Divine service and in Confirmation classes. For 1900 years, faithfulness was the God–given paradigm for his Church to make disciples
But now the dominant paradigm in the LCMS is no longer faithfulness. This new paradigm is neither used nor taught in Scripture. But it now shapes how the new LCMS thinks about the mission and ministry of the church. In a word the new paradigm is effectiveness.
That is to say, the church must produce. The pastor must see faithfulness to God’s Word as being subservient to the new paradigm of effectiveness. He must now be a coach to equip his people to produce results. What kinds of results? More members!
And that requires Evangelism Boards and witness training workshops for the laity. For 1900 years the Church didn’t have them or need them. And the Church grew through baptism and teaching. But everything has changed with the new paradigm. Just as the best corporations produce the most profits, so the best congregations produce the most new members. Hence, we have the Joel Osteen phenomenon. Over 40,000 people a week are eager to have him coach them through life.
But, my friends, I will not succumb to the new paradigm. I shall continue with the old one, faithfulness. And together, we shall feed our faith through Word and Sacrament, that we may cling to the precious Gospel and, thus, reach the new earth. Yes, my friends, there is a heaven on the new earth. And, by the grace of God, we shall all be there! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Endnotes
1 See Isaiah 65:17.
2 See Isaiah 66:22, where God says, “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the LORD, “so will your name and descendants endure.”
3 See 2 Peter 3:13. The context is significant here. In 2 Peter 3:10–13, we read, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to his promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”
4 See Revelation 21:1.
5 See Matthew 25:31-46.
6 This whole text is difficult. The fluid shifting between the now and the not yet is everywhere apparent. Yet, I have tried to glean some of the clearly future “new earth” blessings as the basis for this sermon. The Lutheran Commentator Paul E. Kretzmann provides a simple, but helpful analysis in his online commentary. See http://www.kretzmannproject.org/default.htm. Navigate the options to find his comments.
7 See 1 Corinthians 13:12. In the original, the first clause might better be translated, “For now we see through a mirror in an enigma” [Greek: ainigma]. Indeed, the English word enigma comes from this Greek word. The whole point Paul wishes to make is in this text is that our present comprehension of God and his attributes is as incomprehensible as us trying to see our own reflection in a mirror clouded by steam or scratched by steel wool. The mirrors of Paul’s day were nothing more than polished metal.
8 See Revelation 22:5.
9 People seem to misunderstand the Lord Jesus’ words in the Great Commission. Clearly he tells us that disciples are made by baptism and teaching. Both baptism and teaching are properly found in the Church. For 19 centuries, the Church did evangelism by bringing people to the local congregation to by instructed and taught by the pastor. Those whom the Holy Spirit brought to faith then brought their children to the regenerating waters of Holy Baptism. Paul, in Titus 3:5, calls baptism “the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Paul further calls baptism “the washing of water with the Word” in Ephesians 5:25-26. See also Acts 22:6.
11 See Job 14:14.
12 From a lecture by the Rev. Dr. Steven Hein. See http://www.sslc-cos.org/bio_hein.htm. See also http://www.higherthings.org/tags.html?get=hein for audio links. Further resources from Dr. Hein are available from Issues, etc at http://www.issuesetc.org.
13 There has been much scholarly discourse on what constitutes a “worldview” or sometimes “world view.” Worldview is an attempt to translate the German Weltanschauung. It is a particular view of life, a comprehensive conception or view of humanity, the world, or life.
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