We will continue in the final section of our One Story series, and our text is from the book of Revelation. From a vision that Jesus gives to the disciple John comes maybe the most misunderstood book in the Bible. Many people come up with different ways of trying to understand Revelation and most of these methods center on what is called the millennium, which refers to the reign of Jesus on the earth. But it’s helpful to think of Revelation more like a picture book than a puzzle book. We are going to look at the picture of the Kingdom that God shows John. When you read Revelation you see the Kingdom and although there will be battles, it is going to be just fine. To get ready, read through chapter 5 and if you missed it, listen to Jon Stallsmith’s sermon from last week–it was excellent!
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Randy Rainwater
Series: One Story: Digging Deeper
May 19, 2013
New Creation: What’s In Our Future?
Revelation 4-20
Open up your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 5. We felt like we were kind of in the Apocalypse here this morning. Did anybody get woken up about 5:45 like I did? When you’ve been reading Revelation and studying it like I have for the last two weeks and the room becomes completely illuminated and you hear thunder that sounds like it’s next to your ear, it wakes you up. That was at 5:45.
I came over to the church early. I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if we got hit by lightning or what, but our side screens are down. One of our computers crashed during the service. I was trying to tell Joseph what to do in terms of moving the Prezi forward. He’s like, “I’m doing the best I can. The computer crashed.”
Our sound system was down, and they’ve been working on that all day, so bear with us today. We may wind up me just down here hollering at you before we’re done. If that’s the case, if the lights go off, don’t worry. Just take your cell phones out, point them at me, and we’ll be fine.
Revelation 5. It’s interesting when we think about this book and all of what it is, there are so many different opinions on what this is. I’m going to try today to do three big things. The first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to give you an overview of the different viewpoints of Revelation from different traditions of our faith and the way different people look at it. I’m going to do that real fast.
I’ll put this presentation you’re going to see online on my Facebook today, and if you want to go, you can see this more in depth. I’m going to try to get all the notes. I think I have all the blanks filled in. It’s both pages of the handout. Which, by the way, the printers crashed today. I think we did these on like a mimeograph machine this morning. But we’re going to get the blanks filled in.
In addition to that, I want to talk to you about some things all of us, regardless of how we view this text, can take away from it as kingdom people. Lastly, what would be some takeaways? What do we do with this text as people of God? What do we do with that? So that’s where we’re going to go today.
As I’ve been going around the community, riding around on my bike, just out walking, out jogging, whatever, I’ve had a lot of people stop me. A lot of people stop me in the lobby. Here’s the question, “How’s Buddy?” I generally answer that by saying the most reliable information is on his Facebook page. That’s where we’re putting the latest stuff. That’s where I’m getting most of my information from.
Then the next question is always this one, “Tell me about this totally real heaven story.” Most people are really shocked when I say, “I haven’t asked Buddy about that.” Let me tell you why I haven’t asked Buddy about the totally real heaven. I’m not surprised at all Buddy saw heaven. I’m not surprised at all.
If Buddy had gone to New England and had had a life-threatening experience in New England, when he came back, if were to write on my hand, “Totally real Rhode Island,” I wouldn’t be surprised. I know there’s a Rhode Island. I’ve never been to Rhode Island. I’ve never bought anything that said, “Made in Rhode Island.” I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody from Rhode Island, but I believe it exists. I wouldn’t need to know Rhode Island is real. I didn’t need to know from Buddy that heaven is real.
Now I’m sure we’ll get to those stories. Although I did say to Scott Kindig after I heard Buddy had had these images of heaven, “Do you understand how difficult he’s going to be to say no to now?” We’ll be talking and I’ll be saying, “You know, Buddy, I just don’t know,” and he’ll look at me and he’ll go, “I’ve been to heaven. Have you been to heaven?” “Okay, we’ll do it your way.” But I haven’t been surprised. I wasn’t surprised that that happened.
Along with that, for 28 years I’ve lived south of where my parents and my brothers lived in Kentucky. On your way up there on Interstate 75, I get off about 60 miles from Wilmore and take country roads. It’s much quicker, and I like driving them because they’re really fun. You’re driving up through the country roads, and there’s an evangelist up there who puts these signs up. They’re all along the road, and this is what they say. “Jesus is coming.”
I’ve often wondered what that meant. I think we have some pictures of some “Jesus is coming” signs. Jesus is coming. What does that mean? Jesus is coming. What do you think he’s trying to say when you see a sign that says, “Jesus is coming”? Is it an encouragement? Jesus is coming. “Church, it’s hard. Hang in there. Jesus is coming.” Is it a warning? “Jesus is coming. You’d better straighten up. You’d better watch out. You’d better not cry.” That’s another thing, isn’t it? Yeah. Jesus is coming.
Maybe it’s meant to make us feel better about the hardships we’re going through. Maybe it’s meant, “I know you’re walking into a hospice room this week,” as I did this week, “but as the last breath comes out, you hear the trumpet, and the teeth go white again, and the hair comes back, and the eyes are brightened, and the skin wrinkles are gone, and you look 23,” which is how old I think we are in heaven…I pray. Jesus is coming. Your loved one looks at you and smiles and winks and says, “He’s here.” Or maybe it’s just meant to give us some position of authority. Jesus is coming. What does that mean? We’re going to talk about that today.
In Revelation 5, John may have had some of those same thoughts as he’s living under this Roman dictator Domitian and the persecution that’s going on. It’s AD 95. The church is growing, but it’s under incredible persecution. John, this last of the disciples, in all likelihood the last living disciple at this point, God gives him this vision, and that vision can be scary. You may look at it, and it might cause fear in you.
When I was 8 years old, my mom and my sister-in-law Connie were talking about Revelation, and they were talking about people coming up out of the sea, and they were talking about people rising from the dead and coming out of the graves, and I got so scared I got sick at my stomach. My mom said, “Honey, did you eat something bad?” I said, “No, Mom, you scared me.”
She goes, “Why does that scare you?” I said, “Because I ride my bike through the cemetery on the way to the baseball field. That would be horrifying, people coming up out of the graves and stuff, and riders on a horse coming out of the sky.” What does all that mean? We’re going to look at that today.
1. Do you ever feel like things are too messed up to be made right? Here we go. Chapter 5:1. If you ever feel like things are too messed up to be made right, things are going to get made right.
“Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: ‘Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?’ But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it. Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it.” (Revelation 5:1-4)
The scroll represents the plan of God. I believe Revelation is a picture book, not a puzzle book. We’re going to look though at some of the ways we look at it. Here we go. I’m going to go real fast. We’re going to fill in our notes. Revelation means the disclosure or the unveiling. Sometimes you see that at the end of people’s lives. This veil between heaven and earth starts getting pulled back.
Elisha had that happen with his disciple when they were going to be attacked. He was afraid, and Elisha said, “Just pull back the veil,” and he did, and Elisha’s disciple said, “There’s nothing to be afraid of. There’s more on our side than on their side. We’re fine. Nothing to worry about.”
Maybe you’ve heard this word parousia. It’s not parasite; it’s parousia. It’s a Greek word that means arrival. Maybe you’ve heard eschatology or eschaton. Again, it’s a word that means last or end times. There are four big views of this text. This is kind of the way a lot of different Christians interpret it.
Here’s the first one. It’s a preterist view. A preterist view sees most of those events with time being separated with the birth of Christ. Now I know they’ve tried to get away from BC and AD…Before Christ and the Year of our Lord. They’ve tried to go Before Common Era and then After Common Era, but what marks the Common Era? It’s Jesus. Jesus marks time. Everything is different when Jesus comes. So the first view is this preterist view. In this first hundred years basically is when you see all of Revelation happening. That’s one view of Revelation.
Here’s another one: a futurist view. The futurists see none of it applying to today and everything applying just right before Jesus comes back. All of that happens there. The idealist view is these are not actual events; these are principles of spiritual warfare. These are just things we need to know as believers. This is how we live it out. These are not actual events.
One more view: the historicist view. This is what most believers believe. This is a timeline along the history between the death and resurrection of Jesus. That marks this real new coming age, and then that ends with Jesus coming back in the new heaven and the new earth. Those are some views.
Now along with that, there is the millennia, which just means a thousand years. You maybe have heard about this, the millennia, and you’ve heard that term and were not really sure what that meant. It just means a thousand years. There are three big views of this.
Here’s the first one. The premillennial view is that you have the death and resurrection of Jesus, but Jesus will come back, and then there’s a thousand-year reign of the church. We have basically a new heaven and a new earth. There’s a thousand-year reign of the church. Then Satan is loosed one more time for a final judgment. That’s the premillennial view. A lot of people believe that.
The amillennial view is a little bit like the historicist view. Again, it’s just different ways of looking at it. The amillennial view is that the millennia begins when Christ is resurrected from the dead. The cross, the resurrection…the millennia begins. The thousand years is a figurative term, not a literal term, and it represents basically the church age. Then Jesus comes back.
The postmillennial view is you have this timeline that begins with the death and resurrection of Jesus, and everything will get better, and eventually we just kind of go into this new heaven and new earth. Jesus will come back, but basically the church will continue to grow and everything will get better.
Now along with that, there’s one other set of views. The tribulation. Maybe you’ve heard about the tribulation. It just means a time of great trouble. The tribulation is something Christians believe will happen near the end of this current age we’re in and before Jesus comes back, or in the middle of this time, or at the end there will be this time of great trouble.
So you have pretribulation people. They believe we will be taken away before things get bad. You have posttribulation people. They believe the church will go through rough times and then Jesus will come back. Then you have midtribulation. These are the people who can only stand so much. Midtribulation people believe we’ll be taken out about halfway through.
Now let me tell you what I think. I’m going to tell you that a little bit later on. Not today. Maybe in about 30 years, I’ll tell you what I think about all these things. That’s not where I want to focus today. We could talk about that. We have lots of pastors who come to church here. We have missionaries who come to church here. People who’ve gone to Bible school. People who have watched the Left Behind series. You may have different opinions. We could argue about that all day.
I think there are some things that are really, really clear in Revelation we can all agree on, and that’s what I really want us to focus in on. Revelation, we know very clearly, from chapters 4-19…Jon taught on 1-3 last week. He’s going to talk about the new heaven and new earth, chapters 20-22 next week…we see seven cycles of events happening where there is judgment, and then the return of Christ.
Now whether that’s linear or whether those are cycles, I’m not totally sure. I’ve heard some people say, “I’m a panmillennialist. I believe it’ll all pan out in the end.” But I want to focus in not so much on these cycles. It’s very interesting to read about it. What we clearly see is God is in control in this. I believe the Bible is not just written about a covenant; I believe the Bible is written as a covenant. I want to show you this diagram.
In the prologue of a covenant… A covenant, which is talking about the relationship God has with mankind, the covenant of God. In the prologue of a covenant, which is the book of Genesis, it talks about who are the big people, places, things, what’s going on as we enter into this story. The Bible’s prologue, “In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Certainly, Genesis 1-12 is just getting these big things down. Who are these people? What’s going on here?
Probably the most famous prologue of all time is this one, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was…” Thank you. Star Wars, yes. Then those rolling credits. They’re going up. They tell you who the big people are and the places and things going on. The empire and the rebels and these places and stuff. Then it gets into the story.
So in the covenant, you have the covenant law. These are the expectations of the covenant in the Old Testament, which if you grew up Jewish, the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, has this order exactly like this is written out up at the top by the way. The English Bible, the one we have, the order is a little bit different. That covenant, the law, parts of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The expectation in the New Testament, the Gospels outline. These are the expectations of the covenant. This is what the covenant expectation is.
Then you have the covenant history, what actually happened. Those books there in the Old Testament, the book of Acts in the New Testament. Then you have covenant life. Here’s what you might want to know. If you’re reading this story, here’s what you might want to know about the covenant and how to live this out. Again, those books in the Old Testament and most of the letters.
But then you get to the epilogue. Do any of you guys remember the show Dragnet? Don’t be ashamed. Raise your hand. All right, come on. You’re over 50. It’s all right. Okay, so Dragnet was this show, and it had a prologue. It kind of had what was going on, what the problem was.
Then you had the expectation, and Joe Friday would lay out the expectation. Then you’d have this story, what was going on, what should’ve happened. Then you would have the epilogue. The epilogue of Dragnet, this police TV show, was everybody wound up in San Quentin, because it was in California.
The epilogue of the Bible, I believe, is Revelation. Everything is made right. What is wrong is made right. The blessings of the covenant are there for us. We get to see all of the good things and the blessings and how amazing it’s going to be. All the wrongs are righted. The bad guys get put away forever.
The victims are no longer victims but there is restitution. They are ransomed. They are redeemed. The people who are a part of this are the heroes. That’s what I believe Revelation is telling us. I believe it’s this incredible epilogue. Here are some things all of us can take away from chapter 5:5-8.
2. Jesus is the true power and the provision of the covenant. “But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping! Look, the Lion…” If anybody just needs to say amen halfway through this, I will not rebuke you. “…of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.'” Seven being this number of completion, this number of things being made right.
“Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.” (Revelation 5:5-7)
Jesus is the Lion, verse 5. He is the power and he is the position. He is from the right tribe of Judah. He has the throne of David. He has the authority of all of heaven. He is the power and the position, but Jesus is the Lamb. He is also the provision. The reason it says it looks as if he has been slaughtered is because our God is not dead anymore; our God is alive.
3. There are many counterfeits in Revelation. Jesus is this truth of Revelation. In Revelation, this is something we see. All across Revelation, there are counterfeits in the book of Revelation. These are warnings to us about the way we live today. Can you tell I like this part more than just doing the academic stuff? Because this is what God has for us.
Here are some of the counterfeits. First of all, Satan is the counterfeit of God. Satan mocks creation. He makes false, untrue things, but God makes things that will last forever. He makes a heaven and an earth, and he will make that better in a new heaven and a new earth. Satan makes things that take away from who we are, and God makes things that add to it.
The False Prophet is the counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. The False Prophet worships the Beast. There are false signs, and there is this mark, and that’s where 666 comes from, this mark of the Beast, this seal on people. But listen, the Spirit of God doesn’t worship the Beast; the Spirit of God worships Christ.
There are signs of the Spirit that point to Christ, and the Holy Spirit seals us. Our mark is the Holy Spirit on our lives in Christ. Heresy comes through the False Prophet, and truth comes from the Spirit of God. Chapter 13 talks about that. You can go and look at that for yourselves.
Here’s another one. Babylon is the counterfeit of the church. Babylon is the prostitute, the harlot. The church is the bride. Now those are a little bit different things, aren’t they? Yeah. One of them is the harlot and one of them is the bride. Now this is what’s interesting. These are the things you see in chapters 17 and 18. These are the temptations that are thrown at the world by the harlot: Material gain, sensuality, and (listen to this one and tell me, church, if this is not on us now) cultural approval.
I had this student in my group back in Florida, and he said, “People hate me because I love God.” I said, “No, buddy, people hate you because you’re weird. You wear shirts that offend people, and you say things that offend people, and you get up on the lunch table and preach. You need to love people better.”
We have to make sure we’re the people of God, but they’re not always going to like it. Seniors, when you walk on those campuses… This happened to some of our kids last year. First day of class, one of the kids was in class, and the professor said, “Are there any Christians in the room? It’s going to be my job to tear your faith apart.” Well, he didn’t do that.
Here’s what’s amazing. This was not one of our louder, more vocal kids. His hand went up, and he started arguing with him. He said, “God just gave me the words to say,” but the Word of God tells us he’ll do that for us. Be careful about wanting this cultural approval.
The Beast is the counterfeit of Christ. Chapter 13 talks a lot about this. It’s woven all through here, but chapter 13 is the big one. The Beast has 10 crowns and he has many names. Jesus has crowns and he has many names. The Beast has power. He has a throne and authority. Christ has a power, Christ has a throne, and Christ has authority. Those mirror very greatly the temptations that go on in the wilderness right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.
The Beast has an almost fatal wound, and Christ has the cross and the resurrection. There is worship of the Beast and there is worship of Christ. Now here’s the part that gets good. The Beast utters blasphemy, but Christ utters praise. Now listen to this. This is for you. The Beast does violence against saints, but Jesus does violence against the Beast.
Jesus is there for us. He is our big Brother who comes on the scene when it looks like there’s no hope, and he says, “Hey, your fight is with me; not them.” Persecution comes through the Beast, but salvation, ransom, redemption comes through Christ.
4. The response of heaven to Christ’s work is worship. Verse 8: “And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense…” Listen to this. “…which are the prayers of God’s people.” (Revelation 5:8) God keeps our prayers. They’re like love letters of a daddy.
I’ve been away for six Father’s Days in a row. I’ve been on mission trips, but my kids put Father’s Day cards, they hide them in my luggage. You guys have to keep that coming if any of my kids are in the room, all right? I would be very disappointed if it didn’t happen. On Father’s Day, I go and I open those cards. I have all of those. I have a file in my desk in a drawer at my house, and I keep all those things from my kids.
That’s what the prayers of God’s people are. He hears those prayers. There are times it feels like we’re praying and there’s nothing there. Listen, he hears every word. He keeps those. Those matter to him. He loves those prayers.
Then it says, “And they sang a new song with these words: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed…'” Remember what the Beast brought and remember what Jesus brought. “‘…people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.'” (Revelation 5:9)
I don’t have time to get into this, but I’m just going to say this. I am glad that on a yearly basis Grace looks more and more like this verse. That we have people from all over the world and from all over coming here to this church. I am so thankful for that.
Verse 10: “‘And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests…'” That’s what we are. “‘…for our God. And they will reign on the earth.'” (Revelation 5:10) We are moving forward in this timeline toward this incredible event God has for us. In the meantime, we need to know this.
5. The future and the plan are wrapped up in Jesus. Revelation 4 looks a lot like Revelation 5. It’s missing one thing; it’s missing Jesus. Revelation 4 has the throne. It has the elders. It has all of these things, but it doesn’t have Jesus. The scroll can’t be broken, the plan of God can’t be unveiled, until Jesus comes, until Jesus does what he’s going to do.
Verse 11: “Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.’
And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the one sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.’ And the four living beings said, ‘Amen!’ And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.” (Revelation 5:11-14) Those are the takeaways for us that we can all agree on, that there are counterfeits in this world, but thank you very much, we’ll follow Jesus.
This guy I know was in college, and he had to do a paper on a great world figure. He said he was going to do it on Jesus, and his professor said, “You can’t do it on Jesus.” He said, “Well, listen, his name is Jesus. He’s a pretty big deal. Time is marked by him. You would do well to follow him. By the way, you tell me who has impacted the world like Jesus and I’ll write a paper on him.” The professor said, “Go ahead with your paper.”
6. Kingdom people live with… The following are some takeaways kingdom people live with.
First, kingdom mission. Matthew 28: This authority Jesus has gotten because of his power, because of being of the right tribe, the throne of David, the authority of heaven, he has given to us, and he has said we would go into all the world and we would teach the things he taught us and we would make disciples, that we have this kingdom role to do.
Matthew 24:14 tells us that when everyone hears, he’ll come back. He’s waiting. Second Peter 3 says he is patient. He is patient. He is not wanting any to perish. He is waiting on his bride to explain who the Bridegroom is to a world who desperately needs to know him. That’s our kingdom call as his people.
Secondly, there is a tension of the now and the not yet. There are miracles that happen. Drew McClure and I were on the first commercial flight into Haiti after the earthquakes. We went down into this area. We told the guy we were going to go, and he goes, “I don’t know if it’s safe.” I said, “I don’t think any place is safe here. We’re going to go down here. I just feel like we’re supposed to go down this hill.”
We go down this hill. We find this mother and her child underneath this piece of tin. We get food for them, milk for the baby. We got medical care for the baby. Doctors come back and say, “Listen, this baby is HIV positive.” We laid hands on that little baby. We prayed for that little baby.
Four-plus years later, he’s alive. He’s HIV negative. We got doctors’ reports here. This baby is fat right now. He’s this fat little boy. I probably shouldn’t say that because he’s becoming a little boy. He has all his hair back. If you email me, I’ll send you the link to the story. You can read about it online.
I’ve also had times that I’ve gone into hospital rooms and I’ve prayed and I’ve poured my heart out and I’ve watched the eyes close. There is this tension of the now and the not yet. We see God doing incredible things. If you’re here today and you’re sick, we have elders here, we have people who would love to pray for you, and I’ve seen God do incredible things. I would encourage you to come and see if God has a healing for you. But sometimes on this side of eternity that’s not the way it goes.
I’ve seen God restore families. I’ve seen people take their pride and put it under the blood of Jesus, and I’ve seen people walk away. This is a battle. We are still in a battle, and sometimes in a battle there are casualties. There is this tension of the now and the not yet. We live in that. We live in that on a daily basis. We see God doing things, but we’re not fully there yet, but we’re going to be.
The Devil fights, but he’s going to lose because he already lost at the cross. It’s a little bit like D-Day. In June of 1944, at 6:30 a.m., the biggest invasion in the history of the world, land and sea and air invasion. The Allies make this invasion. At the end of that day, the war is known. The war is decided, but the final victory didn’t come for over a year. We’re there. We’re in between. The war has been decided. There is no question who wins this one, but there are still some battles to fight.
Thirdly, we as the people of God have a basically optimistic view of the future. The Scottish Reformed theologian William Manson said, “When we turn to the New Testament, we pass from the climate of prediction to that of fulfillment. The things which God had foreshadowed by the lips of his holy prophets he has now, in part at least, brought to accomplishment.” We can have a basically optimistic view of the future.
You look at what’s going on. You can’t allow the news to shape your view of what’s going to happen. We cannot be a people who are basically pessimistic and then walk in here and sing, “God is in control.” We have to be a people… Yeah, things are bad. This is the opportunity for the church to shine.
Listen, the darker the world gets, the brighter the light of the church shines. Live our lives the way God has called us to. Let’s be a people who love each other, care for each other, and do the things Jesus calls us to, and the world will be drawn. The lost will be drawn to that. Not everyone. Some will curse us for it. Some will curse us, but be encouraged, church.
We live in this tension of the now and the not yet, but we need to remember there is nothing that happens in the news that negates Romans 8:28. God will cause everything to work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purposes. But we’re still kind of in that place in between.
If you are, let me tell you this story. A year ago Friday we had a new intern crop coming in, and we were excited about our interns. We have great people who come and choose to be here, to learn and take the principles we teach and go back out. But on Monday of that week, my brother had called and said, “Mom’s not feeling well. She seems to have an infection. We’re going to put her in the hospital.”
“Do you need me to come?”
“No, you’re fine where you’re at. Just call her.”
I called her a couple of times and talked to her. Then Friday, my brother called me and said, “Mom is really sick. The doctors said you need to come.” Now my mom was 89 years old at the time. She had been at death’s door many, many times. My dad talked about being over her once. She was in the hospital, and standing there crying, and his doctor came up and said, “Ezra, she’s stubborn. She’ll outlive both of us.” And she did. She was a strong woman, but she was old.
I made my way up to see her. I had talked to her on the phone, but by the time I got there, they had intubated her. Her infection had moved to pneumonia. She was completely comatose. She’d maybe squeeze the hand a little or give a little nod of the head. In the course of the next two and a half weeks, I went back and forth four times. I had a wedding to do. We had Senior Sunday. We had all these different things to do. Elizabeth was going on a mission trip, and then we brought her back.
But between that time, on Tuesday of the second week, something changed. When I was growing up, my dad was a law enforcement officer, and he was big and he was strong. We slept at night with just screen doors and fans. We would turn the air on if it got really, really hot, but in Kentucky most of the time the weather is pretty nice. You could just have screens going.
We never felt afraid because dad was there. There was nobody who would mess with my dad, so there was nothing to be afraid of, so we would sleep with just the screens and the fans. But when dad died and mom’s health deteriorated, and she went from walking unassisted, to a cane, to walkers and chairlifts in the house, she began more and more to be afraid, because she couldn’t do anything to defend herself, and dad wasn’t there.
So she had this intricate locking system. It started with the doorknob you turn, a keyed door lock, the windows on the storm doors would go up, the latch on the storm door, and then there was this one last thing. She had this little turkey lifter. It’s string with a piece of yellow plastic on it. She would wrap those around the door latch, and it was attached to a little nail. She didn’t feel safe until all those things were done. Her nightly routine on all the doors in the house was to go and do all those things. It’d take her an hour with her walker.
One night we were there, and we had been out visiting with family, and mom had gone on to bed. I came in, and did all the door locks the way she wanted. I came up and said, “Mom, I love you. Good night.” She patted me on the face. That’s what she’d always do. “I love you too, honey. Randy, did you lock the doors?” I said, “Yeah, Mom.”
“Randy, did you turn the door latch?”
“Yeah, Mom, I did.”
“Did you do the key?”
“Yeah, Mom, I did the key.”
“Did you put the storm window up?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Did you latch the screen door?”
“Yeah, I did.”
“Did you put the string on?”
“I didn’t put the string on, Mom.”
I thought about lying, I’m going to be honest. Sorry if that disappoints you. But I didn’t want to go all the way back down to the basement, two flights of stairs, and go and unlock all those other doors to get to that little string. I said, “Mom, listen. Daniel and I are here tonight, and I promise you that us being here makes you safer than the turkey string. I promise you nothing will hurt you tonight, Mom. We will give our lives to protect you should someone get past all those other doors and the turkey string not be there to protect you.”
I thought about saying, “Mom, I’ll go get the turkey string, and I’ll hold it up to them and threaten them with the turkey string if they come in,” but I didn’t. I didn’t lie, because she would know, because she always did. She said, “It’s okay, honey. Come over here.” She patted me on the face. “I love you.” She kissed me good night. I went and lay down in my room next to Anita. She goes, “She’s not going to go to sleep with that turkey string not on the door.”
Sure enough, about two minutes later, we hear her walker. Anita said, “There’s no way you’re going to lie here and let her go do that.” I said, “No.” I got up and I said, “Mom, I’ll go lock it.” “Thank you, honey. Come over here. I love you.” I went down and put the turkey string on. I felt so dumb.
So on that Tuesday… On Monday, we had made this decision. She wasn’t getting better. The doctor said there’s nothing we could do. They said, “We’re going to take her off the ventilator. We’re going to give her pain medicine. We’re going to put her in hospice.” They moved her to a different place in the hospital. I walked in Tuesday morning, and my mom was back.
I walked in. “Hello, Randy!” She had been unconscious for two weeks. “Hello, Randy. Sarah is here, right? And Anita?”
“Yeah.”
“Elizabeth is on a mission trip.” Like she’s hearing all this stuff we’d been talking about for two weeks. “Daniel is in school.”
“Yeah.”
“How’s everything going? How’s your ministry? How are all those kids? I thought you were supposed to be in Kosovo.”
“Yeah, Mom, but something happened. I had to stay here with you.”
“Ah, thank you, honey.”
We talked all day. It was great. She told stories about meeting dad. They met at a church picnic. She threw an acorn at him and hit him to get his attention. She told us all these stories. We talked about everything. But all day long, the only thing that wasn’t right, she kept saying, “I don’t know where Daddy is.” I would say, “Well, where do you think Daddy should be?”
“Well, he should be here. That’s where he should be.”
“Well, where do you think he is?”
“I don’t know. I’m asking you!”
“Well, Mom, where do you think you are?” She would think. “I’m here! I’m right here. That’s where I am.”
“Well, where’s here?”
“Well, it’s here!”
That was the only part of it. She didn’t know quite where she was. She knew everything about us, but she didn’t know quite where she was and where Dad was. We spent the day talking. It was amazing, but I just knew in my spirit this was my last day talking to her. When the day ended, Anita and Sarah said goodbye to her and they loved her.
I walked over, and she smacked me on the face and said, “I love you.” I said, “I love you, Mom.” She said, “Where’s Daddy?” I said, “Mom, I feel like you’re going to see Daddy really soon.” She said, “Well, I want to see Daddy really soon. He should be here.”
I said, “I think he will be. Mom, when you see Dad, will you tell him I said hey?” (Although I think heaven sees what we do that glorifies God, by the way.) She said, “Well, yeah. Randy, I love you.” I said, “Mom, let’s let that be it.” She said, “Okay.” I started making my way out of the room, and she said, “Randy, make sure you put the string on the door tonight.”
That’s kind of how we’re living right now. There is the reality that we are loved by God, that we are held by God, that we are cared for by God, but the screens can’t be opened, but one day they will be. One day all that is wrong will be righted. That’s what Revelation tells us. Revelation tells us there will be no more tears. There will be no more sorrow, but for right now, we still live in that tension of the now and the not yet.
If that’s where you are today, as we worship this morning, there will be elders who will be up here to pray with you. Jesus is coming. If you receive that as a warning today, I would really love for you to come and pray with somebody and know that doesn’t have to be scary; it can be a blessing.
If I could get a Magic Marker big enough and it wouldn’t offend that very well-intentioned evangelist who puts the signs up in Kentucky, I would like to write Jesus has come. He has left us with a purpose, and he’s coming back, and it’s good. It’s good. Would you pray with me?
Lord Jesus, we’re glad you’re coming back. In the meantime, as you call us to be a people who live in the tension of the now and the not yet, a tension that is between seeing you do incredible, miraculous things, healing, your kingdom moving forward amidst the destruction of families and lives, Lord, we would pray today we would be a kingdom people, that we would look at the end of the story and we would know there will be an epilogue when all the wrongs are righted.
We don’t know exactly how that’s all going to look, but this much we know. You’re coming, and it’s good. So we pray as your people as we dedicate our seniors, our eighth graders, our kids coming back from camp today, Lord Jesus, we’re your children and we love you, and we want to worship you today like we will one day.
We want this to be more like heaven than it is earth. So we worship you and we thank you and we look forward to a day in which we can have open windows again…a new heaven and a new earth. In the meantime, we’re just going to stay real close to you, because I think you think that’s all right. In Jesus’ name, amen.