November 18, 2012
Dear friends in Christ.
For some reason it seems that it is about the third
week in November when we start to look forward to Christmas. I don’t know why it is, exactly. Perhaps it is the fact that by this time many
of the malls have at least started, if not finished decorating and putting out
their Christmas inventory. Perhaps it’s
the fact that so many advertisers have been airing commercials that make us
think more concretely about the coming Christmas holidays. Or perhaps it simply comes down to the fact
that by the third week of November, most of us have our Thanksgiving plans well
in hand and we can actually start looking ahead to Christmas time. But whatever the reason might be, our looking
forward to celebrating holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas can serve as a
lesson for us today in the way that we as Christians also look forward to the
day of the Lord’s appearing. For the
truth is, in the same way that we look forward with excitement to upcoming
holidays, we can look forward to the Lord’s appearing with confident
expectation, excitement and joy. We can
look forward to the Lord’s appearing, because we know that on that day we will
be revealed as the Lord’s triumphant saints who will live with the Lord in
heaven, forever.
This, in fact, is the very message that the Lord
conveyed to his servant Daniel, in our lesson today. Through the angel that appeared to Daniel the
Lord revealed the time of his appearing, when he said, “At that time Michael,
the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of
distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But
at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will
be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some
to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are
wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to
righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel 12:1–3, NIV84)
Now, when the Lord revealed these words to Daniel,
Daniel was a captive in Babylon. He was
serving King Nebuchadnezzar as a governor of the Babylonian Empire. He was looking forward to the end of the 70
years of captivity when the Lord would allow his people to return home to the
Promised Land, and now, because of these words, he was looking forward to the
day of the Lord’s appearing. Well, as
Christians who are looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving in just a few
days and Christmas a little more than a month later, we are also looking
forward to the day of the Lord’s appearing, because we know that we belong to
the Lord. We know that on the day we
came to faith in the Lord Jesus, he wrote our names in to his book of life. In the same way that I have books in my
office that have the names of previous owners written in above my own, so also
our names have been written into the Lord’s book of life. Whether it happened on the day that we were
baptized and called to faith in Jesus through the Water and the Word, or it
happened when we were called to faith later in life when we learned that Jesus
is our personal savior from sin; on that day, when the Holy Spirit created
faith in our hearts, Jesus took the quill of his love, dipped it in the inkwell
of his blood, and tenderly inscribed our names in his book—marking us as his
children through faith in him.
It is because our names are written in the Lamb’s
book of life, that we, like Daniel, are looking forward to the day of our
Lord’s appearing. We are looking forward
to the day when our Savior will appear in the sky in glory and judgment,
because we know on that day, our Savior will publicly proclaim us to be his
children, and he will deliver us to everlasting life, were we will live in his
heavenly home by his side, forever more.
Yes, we are looking forward to the day of our
Savior’s return with confident expectation because we know what our Savior did
to make us his own. We know how he
sacrificed himself on the altar of the cross to pay for the sins of the
world. We know how he rose again from
the dead to prove that he is our all powerful Savior. Now, through Jesus’ triumph over death and
hell we have been made heirs of eternal life through faith in him. We have no reason to be afraid of anything,
because Jesus has saved us. We do not
need to fear the day of our death, because we have been cleansed of our sins by
Jesus’ blood. We do not need to fear the
Day of Judgment or worry that we will not be worthy enough to enter heaven, or
worry that we have not done enough to gain God’s favor, because Jesus has made
us worthy. We know that Jesus himself
has already delivered us from death to life, and when he returns on the last
day, he will once again deliver us to eternal life. This is exactly what the Lord is revealing to
Daniel this morning when he says: “At that time Michael, the great prince who
protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has
not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your
people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting
life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine
like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness,
like the stars for ever and ever." (Daniel 12:1–3, NIV84)
On the last day, when our Savior returns, all who
sleep in the dust of the earth will be called forth by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our souls will be reunited with
our bodies. We will stand before the
Lord as he pronounces his judgment on all people. But we do not need to fear that day. We do not need to worry about what will
happen, for when Jesus looks at us, he will say to them, “Come, you who are
blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since
the creation of the world,” (Matthew 25:34).
Then he will take us to live with him forever in his heavenly kingdom.
Not because of anything we have done, but because Jesus himself has washed us
clean with his blood. This is why we are looking forward to the Lord’s
appearing, because we know that through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we will
be delivered to eternal life. Though we
are living in the last days, and we are beginning to feel the love of the world
growing colder; though we are beginning to feel indifference toward God move to
hatred of God; we do not need to fear.
Though we may be facing hardships on every side, financial burdens,
business problems, health concerns, we are able to rejoice. Though it seems that the only thing we hear
on the news is sad and depressing news, we do not need to be troubled. Though each day we deal with our own
mortality as we grow older, we have nothing to be concerned about. We have
nothing to be concerned about because Jesus has already delivered us to eternal
life. What a comfort it is to us that
Jesus himself will deliver us to eternal life.
For heaven is our true home and there we will shine like the stars just
as the Lord prophesied to Daniel: “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the
heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and
ever,” (Daniel 12:3).
What an amazing promise! When the Lord calls us home, we will go to
live with him forever and ever. We will
live with him in his heavenly kingdom and we will shine like the brightness of
the heavens! How amazing it will be on
that day when the Lord returns, as he takes us to live with him forever in our
new homes in heaven. But what will it be
like on that day when he calls us home?
Can you even begin to imagine the glory that we will see? Can you even begin to conceive of what heaven
will be like? Though none of us can even
begin to contemplate the glories of our true home, we are able to perceive a
small part of that glory now, and picture what it will be like. In fact, each and every one of us holds a
different idea in our minds of what heaven will be like, just like Miss
Kaltin’s kindergarten class. One day for
art class, Miss Kaltin asked her students to draw a picture of what they though
heaven would be like. Some of the children
drew pictures of Jesus and angels living in the clouds, others drew big walls
and golden gates, but Hannah drew a big golden castle with towers and spires
and battlements, which she covered with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires
and many other precious stones. That was
her picture of heaven, a huge fortress where she would be safe with God
forever.
So, what is your picture of heaven? What do you see when you think about it? What would you draw if I asked you to draw a
picture of it? We all have a different
idea of what heaven will be like, and nobody knows exactly what the Lord has in
store for us. But I can tell you, heaven
will not be a boring place. It won’t be
a place where we stand before St. Peter making excuses for each of our sins as
he reads them out of a great book. It
won’t be hectic and frustrating like Wal-Mart, packed with panicky shoppers two
days before Christmas. It won’t even be
a place where we are issued a pair of wings and a harp, escorted to our own
personal cloud where we are expected to remain all day long singing praises to
God every fifteen minutes. That’s nothing like heaven will be like. For when we are called home we will be
carried to our Lord’s side where he will greet us with open arms. Jesus himself will place a crown on our heads
and show us the place he has lovingly prepared for us. We will be reunited with all our loved ones
who have been called home to heaven before us, and indeed all believers. We will see the river whose streams make glad
the city of God. We will see the tree of
life, we will see the multitudes from every tribe, people, and language, and we
will live with the Lord in the city of God, where He will spread his tent over
us. Never again will we hunger, never
again will we thirst, the sun will not beat upon us nor any scorching
heat. For the Lamb at the center of the
throne will be our shepherd. He will
lead us to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from our
eyes. This is what heaven is all about,
and this is the reason we are rejoicing today, because when the Lord calls us
home, we will shine like the brightness of the heaven in our glorified bodies.
Yes, one day soon, we will see our Savior returning
in the clouds and all the angles with him.
But we do not fear that day.
Rather, we look forward to that day knowing that our names have been
written in the Lamb’s book of life. We
look forward to that day knowing that our Savior will deliver us from this life
to his side forever in heaven. We look
forward to that day knowing that when we are with the Lord we will shine like
the brightness of the sun in our Father’s heavenly kingdom. So, as you leave here today looking forward
to both Thanksgiving and Christmas, continue also to look forward to the day of
your Savior’s returning.
Amen.
Pastor
David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
