The Nicene Creed states that Jesus will come again in
glory to judge the living and the dead. The
sure hope of Christ’s return and the promise of being with Him forever in a
world where all wrongs are made right is what helps us to persevere in the
faith. We heard about the perseverance
of the saints a couple of weeks ago. On
this Day of the Christian Martyr, we remember the saints who faithfully
persevered in the faith with the hope of glory in their hearts. Your
bulletin insert today briefly tells the story of Perpetua, who is often named
with her servant, Felicity, who went into the arena with her. We know quite a bit about Perpetua because
she kept a journal while she was in prison awaiting her turn to be
executed. In her journal, Perpetua wrote
about her excitement about what heaven would be like. She felt honored to be a martyr. No one enjoys the pain and suffering of
martyrdom, but we have stories of saints who gave words of encouragement to
others as they faced their earthly demise.
I was reading the story of a living martyr this week, an Iranian brother
who had been arrested and tortured. He
was hung by one leg by a chain and was repeatedly beaten. His captors eventually left him for dead in
the street. Some passers-by took him to
a hospital. The doctors thought he would
lose his way, but with help from the Voice of the Martyrs, he was transferred
to a European hospital. 12 years later,
he still has problems with that leg and has to keep a close eye on it for
infection. But he has returned to his
country and uses that leg to tell of the goodness of God and the power of Jesus
Christ. Scars can be a good conversation
starter. My friends in Japan who visited
us earlier this year we telling in their recent newsletter of missionary
colleagues from another nation where there is civil war and where Christians
are specifically targeted. One couple
has been staying in Japan on as refugees for 2 years so far. They are ministering to other refugees from
their country. Their son, who is in his
20s, is a medic and was committed to treating anyone, regardless of what side of
the conflict they were on. He was
captured by the current government and tortured for months before miraculously
escaping. He is in a neighboring country
on a student visa, but recently came to visit his parents in Japan. Gary and Barbara write, “We briefly saw the scar in the son’s hand
where his captors had nailed it to a desk, saying, “You’re a Christian? Here’s
what happened to Jesus.” But even as he shared stories of torture and injustice
he and his people have experienced, the joy of the Lord and his commitment to
helping the people of his country was evident.”
This family is waiting for the day they can return home and continue to
minister within their own country. The
people in all of these stories are able to face death, not because they are
stronger or better than you or I, but because their hope is in the promise of
being with Jesus face to face in a perfected world forever. They have experienced the goodness of God in
this life and know the difference Jesus has already made in their lives. They know Jesus is worth living and even
dying for.
I was taught that when you are reading various books of
the Bible, you should pay special attention to the opening and closing words of
the book. We have the closing words of
Isaiah today. These words are spoken by
Yahweh Himself. This book has contained
calls to repentance, oracles of judgement, and promises of restoration for
those who do repent. In this last
oracle, we hear the Lord’s promise of the restoration of all things, with the
very last words being a statement of the state of those who have rebelled
against the Lord. They are described as
worm-filled, fiery corpses. It is a
statement that Jesus Himself quotes in a warning when He says in Mark 9:47-48,
“And if your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out; it is b3etter for you to
enter the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes and be cast into
Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. It’s a gruesome image, and it is meant to
be. These corpses are, in the final
words of Isaiah, “an abhorrence to all flesh.”
In a way, this is one last call to repentance. This is not how you want to end up! But the main theme of the passage is the
return of the Lord. This judgement
doesn’t happen before the Lord’s return; this is when He will judge the living
and the dead. He already knows all of
our thoughts and works, but He will not gather all the nations to judge them
until He returns. It is clear that
Yahweh and Jesus are the same Being.
This time of judgement is the same language Jesus uses in Matthew 25
when He talks about separating the sheep from the goats. The
Lord has a unique plan for His people when He returns—they will share in His
glory. Our Revelation reading today ends
with the words, “and they shall reign forever and ever.” Earlier in the book of Revelation, we hear
all the angels and saints speaking of Jesus, “King of Kings and Lords of Lords”
who shall reign forever and ever, but when Christ returns, His people will join
Him in that reign.
Yahweh wants the world to see and know His glory and so
the Lord uses survivors from among the nations to go before Him to tell those
who have never heard of His fame nor seen God’s glory to declare the glory of
God to them. Gentile followers of Yahweh
will bring in their offerings to the new Jerusalem just as the Israelites
brought their offerings to the Lord.
Priests and Levites will no longer be just from the Jews. The Levites were the chosen tribe of Israel
from which the priests came. All priests
were Levites, but not all Levites were priests.
The rest of the Levites supported the priests and took care of the
sacred things, the tabernacle, and the temple.
They provided for worship, but didn’t preside over worship. Here God says He is going to choose people
from among the Gentiles to have these roles.
Leading worship will no longer be tied to heredity—not to a single
Jewish tribe and not to Jewish ethnicity at all. The Lord calls and empowers ministers and
evangelists. We read in Paul’s letters
that the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus sent gives gifts for ministry to each and
every believer and some are called to specific offices within the body as
apostles, pastors, teachers, prophets, and evangelists. The role of deacon is also similar to the
work of the Levites. Who are the
survivors? Those who have faced
persecution. It began with the apostles
who were scattered among the nations because of persecution, and it continues
to this day.
But the day is coming when God will make the new heavens
and the new earth when all people will bow before Him. It will be a world where persecution is
nonexistent, and the leaves of the tree of life will be used for the healing of
the nations. There will be no more
divisions among people. And people will
have perfect unity with God. And all the
nations shall bring their glory, glory that is shared with Jesus. The glory Yahweh has shared with us will be
given back to God.
In Colossians 1:26-27, Paul wrote, “The mystery which has
been hidden from the ages and generations, but how has been manifested to His
saints to whom God has willed to make known what is the riches of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” If we have Christ in us, we already have this
sure hope of glory. Christ is already
with us, so when He returns in glory, we will be glorified with Him and reign
with Him forever. This hope of glory is
what can enable you to endure whatever trials come your way. Until you enter the fullness of glory when
you are raised in glory incorruptible at Christ’s return.
