Give thanks for the eternal goodness and mercy of God!

Posted on November 22, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Thanksgiving

Revelation 22:1-6

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endures forever. We chant that Psalm verse every Sunday at the close of the Eucharist, the great Thanksgiving that is the Lord’s Supper. We give thanks to God multiple times in the Sunday service. And in our regular Wednesday service. And, hopefully, you’re giving thanks to God in your hearts and in your homes every day, before every meal and throughout the day, because God is the Source and Giver of every meal, every breath, every heartbeat, every thing.

So the national holiday of Thanksgiving really shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary for the Christian, except for the opportunity it gives to some people to take a break from work or school and gather with family or with loved ones. But we’re glad to take another opportunity to gather as Christians and to turn our hearts heavenward, toward our merciful and generous God, to say together: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. For His mercy endures forever.

Only Christians can give thanks to God, because only Christians truly know His goodness—the goodness of the God who has not only given life and breath to all creatures, but who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. Only Christians, the people of God, know how to reach God with our thanks and praise in a way that He will acknowledge, in a way that He will accept. Because, as Jesus said, No one comes to the Father except through Me.

And so let us give thanks to God for all His goodness and mercy to us here in this life, first and foremost, in giving His Son into death for our sins, in finding us with His Gospel, teaching us the truth about all things in His Word, and bringing us to Baptism and faith, bringing us into His family and into His covenant of the forgiveness of sins for Jesus’ sake.

Then let us give thanks to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—for His goodness and mercy in temporal blessings: family, food, clothing, shelter, human society, relative peace and freedom, for our church family (near and far), for a place to worship, for Word and Sacrament, and for opportunities to serve our neighbor and our fellow Christian; for all God’s promises and for the dependability of them; for God’s mercy and goodness in His works of providence and preservation.

All these things we’ve been given here in this life. But this evening we want to focus a little bit on the goodness and mercy that will follow us into the next life, in the New Jerusalem, where we will live after the Last Day and the final judgment have come.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

John is still describing that city of God, the New Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven from God, the city that, as we saw last week, is described as being larger than the state of Texas. In it, he sees a river. That sends us back to Psalm 46: There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. There was never a literal river flowing inside Jerusalem. This was always a picture of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, bringing life to the people of God from the Father and from the Son. On earth, the Spirit worked through Word and Sacrament, bringing God’s life to sinners, as Jesus promised the woman at the well. Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. But in the new city of God, the Holy Spirit will bring life directly to the inhabitants of the city. It’s pure and clear water, a picture of perfect cleansing, perfect truth, perfect sustenance, perfect providence, perfect joy, perfect life. It’s not a pond or a pool, which could dry up or not be enough, but a river continually flowing from the Father and from the Son, from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.

The tree of life. We haven’t heard of it in the whole Bible since back in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden. There stood the tree of life, in the middle of the garden, waiting for its fruit to preserve the life of mankind on the earth forever. But the purpose of the tree of life was never realized on earth. God barred Adam and Eve and their children from the tree of life and guarded the entrance to it after they fell into sin, because, from that time on, all men were destined to die.

But all of that will be reversed in the new City of God. The trees stand both in the middle of the street and on each side of the river, life-giving trees surrounding a life-giving river. It bears twelve fruits, with each tree bearing its fruit every month, that is, twelve times a year. Twelve, again, being the number of the Church. There is plenty of life for everyone here. God will sustain the life of His people continually, forever. And all the wounds we took in this life, whether physical, or mental, or spiritual, will be healed there. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there shall be no more curse.

No more curse. A curse was pronounced on the earth after the fall into sin. Death and decay were part of it. No longer walking with God visibly and openly, as Adam and Eve did before the fall, was another part of it. Then there were all the curses of the Law of Moses, spoken against Israel under the Old Testament. When they entered the promised land of Canaan, both blessings and curses were pronounced. Blessings dependent on their obedience to the covenant, and curses in the event of their disobedience. In the new Promised Land, the new Garden of Eden, it will be much different. There will be no more curse. No death or decay, no punishment, no disobedience, no separation from God. The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.

They shall see His face.

God said to Moses on Mt. Sinai, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” That will all change in the new city of God. Everyone there will be able to see God’s face—not that we can even imagine what that will be like. We will get to know God in a way we can’t know Him here on earth. And His name shall be on their foreheads, God will proudly claim the citizens of that city as His own, and they will gladly carry around the name of their God.

There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light.

Now, night itself isn’t evil, and darkness itself isn’t bad. It was part of God’s good creation. But night, after sin entered the world, is when people stumble because of the darkness, when people get lost because they can’t see. Night is when sinners like to use the cover of darkness to indulge in sin. Night is the time of danger, when the innocent are the most vulnerable. But not in the new City of God. There will be no night nor lack of light. No more time of danger, no more time of ignorance and being unable to see. Because God will be the light of the city, driving out all danger, all evil, all sin, and all ignorance, shining with a light that does no harm, but that only heals.

And they shall reign forever and ever, as kings and queens of the new creation.

Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.

That’s why we can give thanks for it, even though we haven’t yet entered the new city in the new creation, because these words are faithful and true. All the good things promised here are guaranteed by the word of the God who cannot lie and who never deceives. All of this is really waiting for you in the city of God just on the other side of Christ’s coming.

And so let us give thanks to God for all His goodness and mercy here, and for the goodness and mercy that He has promised in the new creation to all who remain faithful unto death, the goodness and the mercy that will accompany us forever and ever and ever. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever. Amen.

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Jesus is keeping track of how people treat His brothers

Posted on November 19, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 26

2 Peter 3:3-14  +  Matthew 25:31-46

We’ve heard a lot about the Last Day in our journey through the book of Revelation on Wednesday evenings, where God teaches us about it in several different pictures. To summarize the events of that day: it will come suddenly, when people aren’t expecting it—though Christians should always be expecting it, knowing, at least in the back of our minds, that it could come at any time. All those who have died will be raised from the dead with new, immortal bodies. Those who are alive, who haven’t died, will be changed and will be given immortal bodies. Those who believed in the Lord Jesus in this life will be gathered to Him in one place. And the rest of mankind will also be gathered together in one place. The final judgment will be pronounced. The heavens and the earth will be destroyed with fire. A new heaven and a new earth will be created. The wicked will go away to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life. That’s a summary of the Bible teaching about the Last Day. And it’s something God warns His people to be ready for, as the main future event we’re preparing for.

Jesus tells His disciples about one little piece of the Last Day in today’s Gospel, painting a picture of the judgment part of the Last Day. It doesn’t describe every detail of the judgment that will be pronounced or everything that led up to that judgment. Instead, it focuses on just one aspect of human behavior that God is keeping record of and that God will reveal on that day. Jesus is keeping track of how people treat His little brothers.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. And all nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Jesus spoke these words just days before He was crucified. In a few days’ time His disciples would see him hanging from a cross in shame and apparent defeat. But the shame would be short-lived. And on the Last Day, when He finally returns to the earth, it won’t be in shame or defeat of any kind. It will be as the glorious King of this universe. And instead of standing before a judge, as He stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin and Pontius Pilate on Good Friday, Jesus will return as the Judge of all mankind.

Now, if you have a New King James Bible with section headings, this is one of the places you have to watch out for. The heading that the editors chose to place over these verses is, “The Judgment of the Gentiles.” What, do they think there will be a separate judgment of the Jews? Nowhere does Scripture say that. No, the word “Gentiles” is the same word in the Greek as “nations.” All nations will be gathered before Jesus and immediately separated by Him into two groups. Those whom He places on His right are the favored ones, and those whom He places on His left are the disfavored ones.

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you blessed ones of my Father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”

King Jesus will invite those on His right to inherit a kingdom, the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. There’s a lot here. Notice, first, He says, “Inherit!” That affects everything that follows. He doesn’t say, “the kingdom is your reward for all the good things you’ve done, which I’m about to list.” It’s an inheritance. The ones on His right did not earn a place in heaven by their good works. They simply showed themselves, by their works, to be children of God. Now, the only way in Scripture to become a child of God is through faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, who gave His life on the cross to make atonement for our sins, and who received us into His Father’s family through Baptism and faith.

Notice, too, that this kingdom was prepared for them from the foundation of the world. In other words, these are the chosen people, the ones whom God chose or “elected” in eternity, before the world began, to be adopted as His children and to inherit His kingdom. As the rest of Scripture makes clear, God knew in eternity that mankind would turn away from Him toward sin. But He planned in eternity to send His Son to redeem all mankind. He planned to have the Gospel preached, and to work through the Gospel to bring sinners to faith, to justify believers and to sanctify them in love. It’s that sanctification in love that Jesus goes on to recount to these on His right.

I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me. This comes as a surprise to those on the King’s right, because the vast majority of them lived on earth when Jesus wasn’t living on earth. Even those who were alive at the time of Jesus didn’t do all these things for Him directly. But He clears up their confusion. Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you did for me.

One of the main things Jesus commanded His disciples to do was to “love one another.” And by “one another,” He meant your fellow Christians, your brothers and sisters in Christ. That’s what Jesus and the apostles almost always meant when they used the word “brothers,” those who became brothers of Jesus through faith in Jesus. As Jesus said, For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother. And the will of God the Father is that, first and foremost, all men should repent and believe in Christ Jesus and so become His brothers in the Father’s family. After that, the will of God is the sanctification of Jesus’ brothers, and, again, our sanctification is practiced above all in loving our brothers and sisters in Christ—loving them, not just in our hearts, but in tangible ways, simple ways, like giving food to the Christian who is hungry, a drink of water to a Christian who is thirsty, and so on. And it doesn’t have to be for an “important” Christian, but for the least of Jesus’ brothers. As He said in another place, whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple (that is, because he is a believer in Jesus), truly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. Those who believed in Christ Jesus and showed mercy and love toward their fellow Christians will be recognized by Jesus on the Last Day, because He keeps track of how people treat His little brothers. He calls them the blessed ones of His Father. He calls them “the righteous,” righteous first by faith, and then righteous in how they lived in this world, especially in how they treated their fellow Christians.

Then there are those who didn’t end their life as children of God, but as unbelievers, as those whom the judge counts as unrighteous. Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Notice, first, that these on the King’s left are cursed. As St. Paul says, all who have sinned are under God’s curse. Or, I should say, all who have not been brought out from under the curse through faith in Christ. We all started out life under the curse. But, as Paul writes, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the nations in Christ Jesus. But all those in “the nations” who didn’t believe in Christ Jesus remain under the curse.

Also notice, the everlasting fire of hell wasn’t prepared originally for men, but for the devil and his angels. Because God’s purpose in eternity wasn’t to condemn sinners, but that all should come to repentance and to faith in His Son. But, since most people don’t believe in His Son, they will have to answer for their sins. They will taste that everlasting fire together with the devil, for whom it was originally prepared.

Now, the sins committed in the world are beyond measure; they can scarcely be recounted. But here Jesus doesn’t even mention any of the terrible, violent deeds done by men. He only mentions the good deeds that unbelievers failed to do for His little brothers, for His beloved Christians. I was hungry, and you did not give Me food, thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, etc…Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Jesus takes it personally when unbelievers fail to help His little brothers. Imagine how personally He takes it when they abuse, harm, ridicule, and falsely accuse His brothers! He wants us to know that He will hold all people accountable for all the mistreatment that we have suffered, as well as for all the good treatment we didn’t receive because we remained faithful to our big Brother, Jesus.

And these will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Now, if all that is true, if as Peter says in today’s Epistle, all things here, all things in this universe are destined for destruction by fire, if Jesus is really coming again to pronounce judgment on all mankind, and if He’s keeping track of how people treat His little brothers, then, as Peter writes, What sort of people ought you to be? You ought to practice holy living and godliness, awaiting and yearning for the coming of the day of God…Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, make every effort to be found spotless and blameless before him in peace. Work on this, above all things! Work on being found spotless and blameless before God when He comes to judge the earth. Work on behaving in the world like children of light and not like everyone around you who still lives in darkness. Work on treating your fellow Christians with love and respect at all times, remembering at all times that the King is keeping track of how people treat His little brothers. But as you work on those things, don’t put your faith in how well you’ve treated anyone. Put your faith only in the Lord Jesus, and eagerly wait for His coming! Amen.

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Come, I will show you the Bride of the Lamb!

Posted on November 15, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 25

Revelation 21:9-27

We’ve made it almost all the way through the Book of Revelation. These last three readings contain no more struggle, no more warfare, no more persecution, no more pain. We’ve made it through all the visions that repeated, over and over, the struggles of the Church in this New Testament era. The rest of the book describes what things will be like for the faithful after Christ returns. We’re given a picture of the eternal life that awaits.

And that’s useful for us! Because, we haven’t yet reached the end of the story. You and I and the rest of the Church Militant are still in the thick of it, in a warzone. We’re surrounded by enemies. The fight is fierce, the warfare long. The life of a Christian is a hard life. It has to be! Because it has to resemble the life of the One whom we call our Lord, a life still characterized here by the cross. Will it all be worth it? It will! Revelation gives us a glimpse of how the story ends. Tonight the angel invites us to join the Apostle John in contemplating what the Church of Christ will look like after Christ returns. Come!, he says. I will show you the Bride of the Lamb!

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.

In the picture-language of Revelation, lots of vivid imagery gets all mixed together. Christ is depicted as a Lamb, and also as a Bridegroom; the Church as his bride, and, at the same time, the Church as a city. At the end of the story, there will be the Church of Christ, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God – a holy city, a brilliant, shining, glorious city – sparkling like a diamond as it descends.

The question is, how did the Church get that way? Because it certainly didn’t start out that way. The bright, shiny Church at the end of the story is the same Church that, in the Old Testament, God called a filthy harlot. The beautiful, holy Church at the end of the story is the same New Testament Church that doesn’t look at all pretty this side of heaven—by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed. The Church on earth is made up of both true believers and hypocrites. It’s filled with sinners, every last member. But the Church at the end of the story has no sin in it whatsoever. Where did all the sin go?

It went to the Lamb, of course, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ, the holy Lamb of God, sacrificed himself on the cross for the filthy sins of his Bride-to-be, called her to repentance and faith, washed her and made her clean in the waters of Holy Baptism. As Paul says in Ephesians 5, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish..” Isn’t that just the picture John is describing here at the end of the story? A Church made up of people whose sins were all forgiven here in this life, and who have finally shed the sinful flesh entirely, so that they no longer commit any sin.

The angel goes on to describe the Bride of the Lamb, the City of God. She had a great and high wall with twelve gates (made of pearls, by the way, which is why they’re sometimes called the “pearly gates”), and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.

Twelve gates. Twelve angels. Twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve. The number that symbolizes God’s Church. People from north, south, east and west have come into it. People from every nation, tribe, language and people have been built together into a single city, a New Jerusalem for a New Israel, made up of both Jews and Gentiles who either looked forward to the coming of Jesus the Christ before He came, or who believed the word of the apostles after He came.

And so the description continues: The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. This sounds so much like what Paul said in Ephesians 2, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.” We enter this city by faith in the blood of the Lamb, and that faith comes from hearing the message, the Word of Christ, handed down to us by the apostles of the Lamb.

At this point in the story, the point in which we live, it seems like the Church could dwindle down to nothing. But skip ahead to the end of the story. Come, says the angel. I will show you the bride of the Lamb! 12,000 furlongs wide by 12,000 furlongs long, by 12,000 furlongs high. That’s about 1,380 cubic miles—miles! That’s a city bigger than the state of Texas, and reaching far into outer space, with walls that are 144 cubits thick—that’s over 200 feet thick. But the numbers are symbolic. 12,000 is 12 x 10 x 10 x 10. 144 is 12 x 12. It’s the full number of the elect. See what God’s Word will accomplish before time is done. See this immense city coming down out of heaven and know that it was God’s Holy Spirit who built that city by the simple preaching of the Word of God, by the simple administration of the Sacraments of the Lord Jesus. See how valuable our time will have been spent, gathered here around Word and Sacrament, and studying God’s Word, and speaking God’s Word in the world.

Come, says the angel. I will show you the bride of the Lamb! I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

This is the goal. This is the prize we’re striving to win, the light at the end of the tunnel, that the Almighty Father who loved you and gave His Son for you will come and make His home with you visibly and tangibly, that the Son of God, the Lamb who gave His life for you, will come and make His home with you visibly and will shine on you with everlasting light. This is why you must keep fighting. This is why you must persevere under hardship and remain faithful until death, why you must bear the blessed cross, why you must cling to the Word and the Sacraments, because this is what’s waiting for you. This is the prize, to live under Christ in his kingdom and to serve him with everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He has risen from death and lives and reigns eternally.

How will the story end? It’s no surprise ending for us Christians. The story of this world will end in glorious victory for all who trust in Christ Jesus. But after the end of the story of earth begins a new story in the City of God. Now, that’s the real surprise, the ultimate adventure. How will that story go? You’ll just have to finish the book to find out. Amen.

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Flee from idolatry in all its forms

Posted on November 12, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Third-to-last Sunday (Trinity 25)

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  +  Matthew 24:15-28

Today the lectionary begins turning our thoughts to the end times, to the state of the world and of the Church leading up to Christ’s return. It isn’t a pretty picture. But there is hope in it! Not the hope of a better world here, but the promise of God’s protection and help as we live through the dark days of the great tribulation. Alongside that promise, though, comes a warning from the Lord Jesus, an urgent warning to flee from the idolatry that will afflict the Church as we wait for Him to return.

Jesus is talking with His disciples about the signs leading up to His coming at the Last Day. He foretells a horrible event from the beginning of the New Testament period—the destruction of Jerusalem in the first century. And He uses that same event as a metaphor for the last days.

Therefore, He says, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. The Old Testament prophets often refer to idols as abominations, things that God truly hates. A desolation is something that lays waste to an area. Daniel, who lived about 600 years before Christ, prophesied that an idol would be set up in the holy place, in the innermost part of the temple in Jerusalem, right next to the place where God had promised to dwell. That prophecy was partially fulfilled some 400 years later when Antiochus Epiphanes, the commander of the Greek forces in Syria, would oppress the Jews over the course of about three years, banning their religion and literally setting up an idol in the temple. But Jesus applies Daniel’s prophecy to another event yet to come, to the idolatry of the Jews who would reject Him, who would still use the temple in Jerusalem to make sacrifices for sin, mocking the sacrifice of Christ that had already been made once for all on the cross. That idolatry was the reason why God allowed the Roman armies to come in in 70 AD to cause desolation, to besiege and finally destroy Jerusalem.

Just as Scripture often uses the literal kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament as a figure of the spiritual kingdom of Christ in the New Testament, so Jesus uses that literal idol in the literal holy place and the resulting desolation in the literal city of Jerusalem to represent a spiritual abomination, a spiritual idol (or idols) in the spiritual temple of God, which is the Holy Christian Church. As He says here when he refers to the “holy place,” let the reader understand. There’s something figurative in this saying that Jesus wants us to notice.

The idolatry that grew in the holy place of the Holy Christian Church over the centuries was the papistic idolatry, the idolatry of the Roman Church, as the hierarchy began to set the saints and their merits next to Christ in the holy place of the Church, setting the penances and satisfactions of the Christian next to the atonement made by Christ, setting the pope and the Church’s hierarchy next to Christ and actually above Christ because the pope’s teaching contradicted the word of Christ, and yet he was to be believed instead of Christ, which is why Lutherans refer to the papacy as the Antichrist, or at least as the ultimate Antichrist. Because not all the idols that have been set up in the Church can be traced directly to the papacy.

Or maybe they can, in a way, if “popery” is considered more generally. Every time a teaching is set up in the Church that contradicts the Word of Christ and is supposed to be believed instead of Christ, you have a little pope there, don’t you? Every time a man (a pastor or a priest or a minister) insists on being obeyed in the Church when he’s teaching something other than the word of Christ, you have a little pope there. Every time a synod or a church body or diocese demands your loyalty, regardless of the Word of Christ, or every time Christians give their loyalty to a synod or a church body or a minister, regardless of the Word of Christ, you have a little pope there, a little antichrist, an idol, an abomination that will cause desolation.

So, “Flee!” Jesus says. Fleeing ahead of the Roman armies was a physical fleeing, and all those who listened to Jesus’ warning were able to escape Jerusalem before the desolation came. Fleeing from all these other idols is a spiritual kind of fleeing, although there may be some physical fleeing involved, too. Run away from that church or that church body that has set up an idol where only Christ belongs. Get out of the assembly where idolatry, even secret idolatry, is being openly practiced. Run away in your heart from every idol that you might fear, love, or trust in more than God.

Flee! And do it without delay! That’s what Jesus’ instructions boil down to. Let the one who is on the housetop not come down to get anything out of his house. And let the one who is in the field not turn back to get his clothes. But woe to the women who are with child and who are nursing in those days! Pray that your flight is not in the winter or on the Sabbath! In other words, anything that hinders your flight from where idolatry has taken hold in the Church will harm you! Getting away from it is urgent, and all the more urgent as the Last Day approaches, when the tribulation will be at its greatest.

You see, fleeing from Rome and from all the idols that are set up within the visible Church is essential to avoid the desolation it will cause—the desolation of souls! But it doesn’t get you out of the great tribulation. Jesus says, For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not happened since the beginning of the world until now, nor will there ever be. Indeed, if those days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. The Book of Revelation talks about the saints who were even then “coming out of the great tribulation.” So, in a sense, it’s been going on since the first century. But just as the first abomination of desolation was literal and the second is spiritual or figurative, so might the tribulation be. The great tribulation of the first century involved severe physical persecution and torture of the saints. The great tribulation near the end of the world may be much more of a spiritual tribulation, trouble and affliction of the spirit, the trouble of being surrounded and assaulted by false doctrine, the trouble of having a hundred different Christian church bodies, the trouble of a world that completely and thoroughly rejects God’s Word, natural law, and justice. The public schools of our country (and in most of the world) teach a sort of “gentle atheism.” They don’t come right out and say God doesn’t exist, or that all religion is evil. They just unteach everything the Bible teaches and replace it with a false history, false morality, false authority, and a false purpose for mankind. They train generations of citizens not to rely on God’s word, but on “science” and the ingenuity of the human race. Practically all the world powers deny Christ, if not by name, then by policy and by action. This is all part of the great tribulation, the work of the Antichrist, and it would be too much even for the elect to withstand, if God didn’t shorten the days for us. But Jesus promises here that those days will be shortened.

Now, sometimes He shortens the days by giving us a brief reprieve, a few moments of sanity and normalcy. But those reprieves are temporary. Sometimes He shortens the days by bringing believers out of this life, so that we finish our race in faith and win the battle by leaving the battle with our faith intact. But in the end, only the coming of Christ will truly shorten the days of the great tribulation.

Jesus has further warnings for those who live in the great tribulation: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will perform great signs and wonders, so as to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. False prophets pointing to false christs. Isn’t that exactly what we see in the Church at large? False prophets pointing to evolutionary Jesus, who didn’t create the world in six days; pointing to LGBT Jesus, who didn’t create them male and female and institute marriage between a man and a woman; pointing to socialist Jesus who compels people to charity by force; pointing to tolerant Jesus who would never dare judge anyone for anything—except for intolerance.

That’s the false Jesus on the liberal side. But then there are plenty of false prophets on the more “conservative” side who point to American patriot Jesus; or to contemporary worship Jesus on the one hand or to strict traditionalist Jesus on the other; or to the Jesus who forbids the little children to come to Him through Holy Baptism; or to rapture Jesus who still supposedly calls on Christians to support the Israel that rejects Him as Lord. The list goes on.

Therefore, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert!’ do not go out; or, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes out of the east and is visible in the west, so also will be the coming of the Son of Man. There is only one true Jesus Christ, who has ascended into heaven and will not return until the very Last Day of this world when every eye will see Him. Until then, He has left a sure and dependable witness of His teaching: His words faithfully recorded in Holy Scripture and faithfully confessed in the ancient creeds of the Church. And He has left a ministry of the Word that carries His blessing and His authority. If you go seeking Jesus apart from His Word and the ministry of it, you will only find a false christ.

Our Gospel concludes with that rather strange saying: For where the carcass lies, there the eagles will gather. It’s actually a paraphrase from the book of Job, where God is scolding Job for thinking himself wiser than God. And God has to remind him that God is the one who gave the eagle the nature and the ability to spy out the landscape from afar, to pinpoint where the dead body is, and to gather there. So it is with God’s children. We won’t miss Jesus at His coming. We won’t miss out on the eternal life He will bring. Instead, St. Paul describes the scene of the Last Day beautifully in today’s Epistle, when both those believers who have died and those believers who are still alive on that day will all be gathered around the Lord Jesus: For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

Such is the wisdom of God, to allow His visible Church to falter and to embrace the idol, and to allow His true believers, His invisible Church, to suffer much during this great tribulation. But rather than question God’s wisdom as Job did, let us embrace it and acknowledge that God knows far better than we do what is right and necessary for this world and for His beloved Church, including each one of His dear children. Trust in Him. Watch out for idols and flee from them, wherever they are set up. Seek Him in His word and the ministry of it during this great tribulation. And eagerly expect His coming! Amen.

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Something new is coming

Posted on November 8, 2023 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 22

Revelation 21:1-8

We’ve all had that special thing we really loved—a toy, a car, a tool, a piece of equipment, a piece of clothing—that eventually broke, or got torn, or damaged somehow. We may have tried to repair it or patch it, keep it running, keep using it for a while. But eventually we knew, it was just too broken, beyond repair. We had to get rid of it. We had to replace it with something new.

That’s God’s evaluation of this earth, of this universe. He created it good. But it broke very quickly, when man fell into sin. Since then, God has been sustaining it, holding it together, keeping it running, because He had a purpose and a use for it still—to prepare the world for the coming of His Son, to give His Son into death for our sins, to build a Church through the preaching of the Gospel. But soon that purpose will be completed. And then, God won’t try to repair the earth. It’s just too broken. Instead, He will replace it with something new. That’s what John sees in his vision in Revelation 21. Something new is coming.

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. This verse, and really this whole section, mirrors the prophet Isaiah’s words in the last two chapters of his book. For example, Isaiah writes: For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. There’s no use trying to save this planet, or trying to populate a new one, like Mars, as some are obsessed with doing. It’s not possible. It’s not worth it. God is about to get rid of this broken world and this broken universe. And the new heaven and earth will be so much better, in every way, that no one will even miss what we had here. As Paul wrote to the Romans, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

John continues his description of the new heaven and earth: Also there was no more sea. The problem with the sea is that it’s uninhabitable by man. In fact, most of the earth is covered with sea, making most of the earth uninhabitable. But the new earth won’t have that problem. The whole earth will be designed for God’s people to live in it and to prosper in it.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Jerusalem, in the Bible, is used in at least two different ways. It sometimes refers to the actual city that David conquered from the Jebusites and that became the capital city of Israel and the home of Solomon’s temple. It often refers to the visible Church of God, either before the coming of Christ, when the city of Jerusalem was still the literal capital of the Church, or after the coming of Christ, when the Church is no longer tied to any single geographical location but has spread throughout the whole world. But the visible Church has always been made up of both believers and hypocrites—people who are outwardly members of the Church but inwardly unbelieving and sometimes hostile toward the believing members.

But there’s a New Jerusalem coming, one that won’t be a mixture of believers and hypocrites, one in which only believers in the true God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—are found. It’s coming down out of heaven from God, or, as God says through Isaiah: For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people.

John writes, I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” God walked in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve until they sinned. Then He didn’t walk among men anymore in the same way. He had Moses build a portable tabernacle, and later a permanent temple, so that God could dwell with men on earth. But it was a limited dwelling, where men couldn’t see or interact with God. Then, for about 33 years, God tabernacled among men in the Person of His Son. John says in chapter 1 of His Gospel, The Word became flesh and dwelled or “tabernacled” among us.” But that was wasn’t meant to last forever, either, and the divinity of Christ was still veiled and hidden most of the time. Now we don’t see God. We aren’t able to ask Him questions and hear His answers. He interacts with us through the medium of His Word and Sacraments. But the time is coming when He will make His permanent, visible dwelling among His people. He won’t work in hidden, mysterious ways anymore. We won’t have to wonder what His plans are. And we won’t have to constantly be waiting for the next shoe to drop, for the next disaster to strike.

As John writes, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”

We heard very similar words in chapter 7 talking about the souls of those who are already in heaven. But here it’s applied to all God’s people in the new earth and the New Jerusalem. It’s hard for us even to imagine a world like this, a life like this, untainted by sorrow, pain, or loss, with no fear of what tragedy or bad news may be just around the corner. But God would have you try to imagine it, try to picture it, and definitely look forward to it and let it comfort you here, because the valley of the shadow of death is not the final destination of the Christian. It’s only a stop along the way to a better and permanent life.

And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

There, at the end of this world and at the beginning of the next, stands our God. He never changed. He never wavered. Everything around us will be new, but God will remain the same, the same, faithful Father who only kept this old world going long enough to bring salvation to all who would be saved; the same faithful Lord Jesus who was with God in the beginning, who became our Brother, and who will remain with us forever; the same faithful Holy Spirit who was the finger of God in creating this earth, who brought the water of life to us here in Word and Sacrament, and who will sustain us forever in the new heavens and earth.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

This is the true promise of God to Abraham, that His Seed would inherit, not just a plot of land by the Mediterranean Sea, but would inherit the earth. That Seed is Christ, and all who are joined to Him by faith. We’ve been made sons of God here through Baptism and faith in Christ Jesus, and we’ll remain His sons forever and inherit all things together with Him, if we overcome.

And so, again, that’s the lesson for us here. Look forward to the new heavens and the new earth, to the end of pain and suffering, to everything being made new and fresh and permanently good. And, be diligent to overcome, with God’s help, all the obstacles the devil will put in your way until the day when God makes all things new, so that you don’t end up in the wrong group.

But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

All those vices mentioned here are perfectly fitting for this old, broken world, and for the burning lake of fire, but not for the new habitation that God will create. If it’s the new home you have your heart set on, if it’s the New Jerusalem where you wish to live, then rehearse for life in that place, and turn away from all those things that characterize the broken sinfulness of this place. Set your heart on the new creation, and walk in the new life of the children of God until you get there. Amen.

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