Revelation 14:1-13. A New Song
When anyone asks me if Iamprsquom worried about North Korea killing me in a war, I say no because the sooner I die the sooner I go to heaven. I said that years ago when my wife first asked me, so when anyone else asks me now in our time of heightened tensions, the answer is the same. And todayamprsquos reading reinforces that for me: ampldquoBlessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now onamprdquo (13).
Will I see the Lord on top of Mt. Zion and hear 144,000 people singing a new song like the ampldquoroar of rushing watersamprdquo, ampldquoa peal of thunderamprdquo and ampldquoharpists playing their harpsamprdquo (2)? I think itamprsquoll be something like that, something unexpected but hugely wonderful.
I am ready to die because I believe in Jesus, my Saviour, and like the Philadelphia church, Iamprsquom holding on and looking at the open door that no one can shut (3:8). My deeds are my sharing, my confessions, my repentance, my worship and my QT, which follow me (13).
God said heamprsquod write his new name on me (3:12) and in todayamprsquos passage he says the same. He will write ampldquohis name and his Fatheramprsquos nameamprdquo (1) on those who have been redeemed. I am redeemed by my faith in Jesusamprsquo death and resurrection.
Last night I had a conversation with a man who is dying of alcoholism but who thinks heamprsquos alive. He asked me a lot of questions about my faith and what I believed about the Trinity. He distracts himself with a hundred questions in order to avoid the main question, which I asked him: Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins so you could have eternal life?
He avoided a direct answer by sharing for the first time what he deeply wants in this life before he dies. Heamprsquos clinging to this world, trying to wring something out of it that he never had and likely never will. I understand him because I once was like that too. I thought I wanted treasures in this life before I was ready to have heavenly treasures for instance, seeing my daughter graduate, as if a ceremony and a diploma in her hand were more important than seeing her in heaven with God. I needed to die to that before God could give me more.
Dying to this world is hard for me and I struggle with it every day. But more and more I find Godamprsquos grace sufficient for that daily effort. The reward the Lord promises me for that effort is the difference between possessing a jeweled ring here on earth and standing in the jeweled heaven that God shows John in chapter 4. I suffer my hardships here so that I can see that difference.
I am ready to rest from that labor (13) and God will call me when Iamprsquom ready.
Application: Share my story with a student who needs to hear it tomorrow.
Lord, though I am ready to die in you, let me not rest before your call.
