Forget About The Mud Pies. Think Of The Holiday At The Sea

5.8.22 Revelation 7:13–17

13 One of the elders spoke to me and said, “These people dressed in white robes, who are they and where did they come from?” And I answered him, “Sir, you know.” 14 And he said to me: These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Because of this they are in front of the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. 16 They will never be hungry or thirsty ever again. The sun will never beat upon them, nor will any scorching heat, 17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Forget About the Mud Pies. Think of the Holiday at the Sea

In preparing the sermon for this Sunday, you would think that this would be the easiest and most pleasant thing to preach on. It’s a beautiful vision of heaven. No more tears. No more sun beating down on us. No more hunger or thirst.

Yet I fear that it might meet with a yawn from many of us, because it describes the blessings of heaven with things we’ve been spoiled with throughout our entire lives here on earth. Who of us has ever really felt hunger? Who of us can’t just turn on an air conditioner when we are warm? So “no more hunger and no more thirst” might not seem all that great. It’s hard to think about “no more thirst.” We get excited about the newest drink that we’ve tried and love the many different flavors we can try out. We like thirsting for it. We go to the latest restaurant and order a wide variety of dishes. We like hunger, and then we manage to complain if the food is a little bit late in coming or the meat isn’t cooked quite right. (And isn’t that a sign of sin, that we can manage to COMPLAIN about the service or the food when we’re being served and fed meals that kings wouldn’t have imagined getting years ago?) So when we hear a text like this? What’s the temptation? “That’s nice. Next?” Think about that for a minute, to yawn at such a promise. Shame on us for the way we live in such riches on EARTH and yet still find reasons to complain in the midst of such blessings. “I was expecting more from that restaurant. The potatoes were good, but the meat was a bit dry.” Oh, how spoiled we are and unthankful!

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. We thank God for pasturing us through life and feeding and taking care of us. If you look back at the landscape of Israel, it wasn’t this green wonderland like we have in America. It is full of rocky terrain. The shepherd would have to walk the sheep around throughout the area from one spot to another in order to find just a little bit of water and vegetation, and then go to the next spot. They often didn't stay in one spot.

It may not seem like it at times, but the setting of Israel is a proper reflection of the world we live in, and this is becoming more and more evident to us as time goes on. Revelation 6 describes this world as having gone through war, famine, pestilence, and persecution.

Pestilence? We witnessed a little bit of pestilence with covid in the past years, although the Black Plague was much worse. There are rumors of more diseases that may be released in the near future which might be much worse.

Famine? You’re starting to see shelves in grocery stores become more barren and prices going up, along with gas prices as well. You also hear from farmers, how with the drought and the increased price of fertilizer, more and more of them are opting out of planting crops. Could starvation be on the horizon even for us in America?

War? You see vivid pictures of war and death in Russia. WW 3 is being rumored. And we are becoming more and more at war within ourselves over social issues. Discovery Plus now has a show called “Generation Drag” with children who cross dress. Crime is on the rise. More and more people are buying guns. It’s starting to become like the wild wild west in some aspects.

Persecution? All of our missionaries had to leave from China and Russia. Preachers who condemn homosexuality have been arrested in Canada. More Christians have been reported to have been put to death in the last 100 years than in the 2000 years combined! We just don’t hear about it as we should.