For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,
And her people a joy.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
And joy in My people;
The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her,
Nor the voice of crying.
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.
“I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence
of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith
should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
These words that Paul wrote to the Corinthians apply just as well to any
Lutheran pastor – that is, any pastor who still teaches the doctrine of
the Lutheran Confessions. Lutherans do not gather on Sundays for the
entertainment value, and Lutheran pastors don't preach to entertain.
Lutherans don't come to church purely as a social gathering. Lutherans
come to church — believe it or not — to receive the gifts of the
Holy Spirit.
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not
the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to
nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom
which God ordained before the ages for our glory.”
Paul didn't mention the Holy Spirit here, did he? Not by name, but Paul
did mention Him by works. It is the Holy Spirit's work that we know our
Savior, Jesus. The Spirit alone imparts heaven's wisdom. He reveals
our Savior in the past, in the present and even in our future. It is
the Spirit who teaches us about the end of this age and the beginning of
the next, when Jesus will take us home. Our theme today, then, is
borrowed from a quotation in 1 Corinthians 2, which you've been hearing.
Paul borrowed this verse from Isaiah, and we will borrow it from Paul.
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the
heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love
Him.”
Look forward to these things, for you will not find them here.
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him: look forward
to these things, for you will not find them here. God said,
“For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the
former shall not be remembered or come to mind.”
I'm going to tell you something that you may already know, but every one
of us forgets it from time to time. We are not in heaven yet. We live
in the place where the ten virgins prepare for the bridegroom. We live
where they slumber and sleep while He is delayed. This is not heaven,
but the vale of tears, the valley of the shadow of death. When we begin
to think that pain, hardship, and frustrations should not be our lot,
that our lives should be better, we forget that we are not there yet.
Many of us have lived here for a while already. Does that really mean
we are entitled to have paradise now? Maybe the world says, “You
deserve a break today.” But the break that God has planned for us will
only come after the Bridegroom arrives. He's not here yet.
Meanwhile, we live on earth. We don't get along with everyone else. We
have to work hard every day just to communicate peacefully with other
people. We have been given jobs and burdens that we we would rather not
carry.
At church, many people grow tired of the message we find in the Bible
that does not change. They want excitement, humor, entertainment. Some
are looking for earthly success. So flocks and droves of people will
seek out the most entertaining church, while the churches that teach
12-step plans for renewing your life also get a lot of attention.
People yearn for heaven so much that they'd like to find it now.
Instead, we must work to learn what God wants to teach us. He tells us
something that's hard to hear: our salvation is God's work, not ours.
It's on His timing, not ours.
God said, “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy.”
Wouldn't it be nice of God's people could always be joyful, just as He
says? But we're not, are we? He was speaking about the future, about
heaven. Meanwhile, we still live on earth.
Laziness is the sin that makes us want to retire early from the hard
Christian life, before God says we're done. Greed is the sin that makes
us want to have all the goodies while we still live here. Doubt of
God's Word is the sin that makes us so timid to proclaim Christ
crucified to those who don't want Him. Selfishness is the sin we commit
when we want to be served by our neighbor, instead of serving. For
these sins and others, we deserve to miss out on the real heaven, and go
to everlasting fire instead.
We ought to have been forsaken by God, but we were not. Jesus lived as
we should have lived. Jesus suffered and died as we deserve. God's Son
became our Substitute, and now He forgives our laziness, our greed, our
doubt, our selfishness, and every other sin. He has lifted the burden
of perfection from your shoulders and carried it for you. You are now
part of His Church, His new Jerusalem, so He says, “be glad and
rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a
rejoicing, And her people a joy.” So we have already entered the
Church, even though we still live on earth. It is a great joy, but
there is another, greater joy in store.
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart
of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. So
look forward to these things, for you will not find them here.
Look forward to these things, for they are certainly coming.
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him: look forward
to these things, for they are certainly coming. The prophet wrote,
“I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice
of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying.”
Jerusalem is the Church, the great assembly of all those who have washed
their robes in the blood of the Lamb. They all belong in heaven, though
many of them live still here on earth. At the proper time, we will be
taken there, and we will live in the heavenly Jerusalem that Isaiah was
describing.
When is the proper time? It is a mystery for us, known only to God.
Some of the virgins in our Gospel lesson knew that it could take a
while, so they prepared extra oil. Yet the proper time could be today,
as far as we know. That's why I say, look forward to these things. If
we truly look forward to heaven, then we will not forget that the great
and terrible day of Judgment and Salvation is near. We heard about the
judgment last week. It must come, and then we will live forever with
Jesus in the new Creation, in the New Jerusalem.
One of the sweetest descriptions of heaven is the lack of sorrow. Here,
it may seem like some of us are doing quite well, but nothing is
perfect. Here, we can all say, “I am a man of constant sorrow.”
That's simply the nature of life on earth. But God assures us that in
Christ, the New Jerusalem will be different. “The voice of
weeping shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying.”
Jesus came to this vale of tears in order to bring us away to where
every sorrow is replaced with joy.
From the time Jesus was born, He experienced life on earth as we do.
As a baby, He was under threat of murder, and only God's intervention
allowed Him to escape from Bethlehem, though many other baby boys were
killed. Such is life on earth. Jeremiah even foretold it:
“A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted for her
children, Because they are no more.” Jesus worked in the heat and
cold, in the wet and dry. He experienced the disapproval of his
own brothers. He saw how fickle people can be when they began to turn
against Him. “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Jesus knows our plight, and said,
“In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer,
I have overcome the world.”
Through His obedience to the Father, His suffering and death, Jesus
overcame the power that holds us in constant sorrow. He died and rose
again, the first to break through death and live eternally. In the same
way, we will rise too, and live with Him in the place of everlasting
joy. Our sorrows will end, and with sins forgiven, we will enter
paradise. It's something to look forward to. These things and more God
has prepared for those who love Him. Nothing can delay it or take it
away, because Jesus has finished His work.
So keep the wisdom from God in your heart, and don't cling to the wisdom
of this world. Keep the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the
ages for our glory. Don't listen to the opinions of men, but instead
seek out Christ crucified. He is here for you in Word and Sacrament.
Cling to Him alone, and look forward to the things that God has prepared
for you. You won't find them here, but they are certainly coming.
Amen.