THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
Shepherd of the Hills Ev. Lutheran Church (WELS)Easter Revelations: He Is the Shepherd and Lamb
Revelation 7:9-17
9 After this I looked, and
there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every
nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the
Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their
hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our
God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.” 11 All the angels were
standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.
They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying: “Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and
power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!” 13 Then one of
the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they
come from?” 14 I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they
who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore, “they are before
the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on
the throne
will shelter them with his presence.16 ‘Never again will they
hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’
nor
any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be
their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
‘And God
will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’” (NIV)
The Scriptures don’t lack for
pictures and illustrations. God’s desire
in using such images is that his truthful teachings are not only made known to
us, but also understood and firmly believed by us. While many of the parables, pictures, or
stories depict objects or scenarios that may not be as familiar to us in
today’s culture, virtually all of them are simple enough to understand with
very little explanation. For example,
one doesn’t need to know the legal ins and outs of how an inheritance was
divided among sons to cherish the story of the Prodigal Son (Lk. 15) and what
it means for us. You don’t need to be a
licensed contractor to appreciate the difference between Jesus’ encouragement
to build a foundation on solid rock and not on unstable sand (Mt. 7).
We do, however, recognize
that when some sort of connection exists between and illustration and the
person hearing it, the point being made through the illustration is at times
more meaningful. The agricultural
parables, for example, are no doubt very appreciated by the individual who
plants his own garden or spends a lot of time cultivating plants and
trees. Jesus’ command to go out and fish
for men may hit home a little more to the avid angler who has spent long hours
patiently struggling to catch anything and then finally reeled in the big
one. So it makes sense that the more
familiar a person is with a particular image in Scripture, the more meaningful
it probably is.
Yet there is still one image
in the Bible which, even though very few, if any of us, have any personal experience
whatsoever with it, stands out among most others as a cherished picture of
calmness, comfort, and peace. It is the
picture of our loving God as a compassionate shepherd, and we as his sheep. So treasured is this image of our Savior, in
fact, that the church has designated the fourth Sunday of Easter to serve as
what is often called Good Shepherd Sunday.
Although some of us may have never even heard the bleating of a sheep or
been anywhere near an entire flock, nonetheless the picture of a shepherd
tending his sheep is one of the most beloved in all of Scripture.
It is also a very frequent
one. In the Old Testament we hear of
David not only by title of King over God’s people, but also their
shepherd. Certainly on some level
everyone here is familiar with the most famous psalm, Psalm 23, which relies on
the imagery of shepherd and sheep to ease troubled hearts and paint pictures of
serenity and peace. Jesus refers to
himself as the Shepherd and his followers his sheep, as he did in the Gospel
this morning. And also this morning, as
we see yet another Easter Revelation, it is revealed to us that the One
enthroned in heaven will always serve as our shepherd. This morning we see in John’s revelation that
our Shepherd is unique, for we see today that He Is the Shepherd and the
Lamb.
Actually, if one wants to get
technical about which title receives more attention, there’s no arguing that
Jesus is easily referred to as the Lamb many times more than he is the shepherd
in the book of Revelation. In fact, this
section of Revelation is the only one in the entire book where we come across
the designation of shepherd for our Savior.
He is called “Lamb,” however, over thirty times in the book of
Revelation.
It’s no surprise why.
Remember how John described it? “After this I looked, and there before me
was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people
and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing
white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out
in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to
the Lamb’” (v.9,10). Notice the
variety of souls standing before the Lamb.
They literally came from the ends of the earth. Different nationalities. Different physical features and appearances. Different skin colors. Different languages. And yes, I’m sure different denominations
outside of the Lutheran church. A
veritable melting pot of people stands before the throne, rejoicing because
they knew their only ticket there, their only ticket to salvation came through
the Lamb.
That much becomes clear later
on in John’s revelation. The Lamb is the
only explanation for the multitudes surrounding his throne. He is the reason for their rejoicing. When asked who they were and how they got
there, the response was a no-brainer, “Sir, you know,” and he said, “These are
they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (v.14). Rest assured, multitudes of souls are and
will always be in the presence of God’s throne of grace in heaven, and they
will all have been granted access in the only way possible, through the Lamb
and the blood he shed for them. This is
the same blood John wrote about in his first letter: “The blood of Jesus, his Son,
purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Yes souls from all over the world will be represented in heaven, but
they will all have the same thing in common; they all will be there because of
the Lamb’s blood.
So will we. Loved ones who have already gone before us
stand before the throne right now, because of the blood of the Lamb. When our time of grace here on earth is over,
we too will stand before the throne, because of the blood of the Lamb. It’s ironic, isn’t it, that something that
causes stains that are extremely difficult, if not impossible to get out,
should serve to whiten and brighten our robes, purifying them completely to be
worn in heaven? It’s ironic, isn’t it,
that something we’re more inclined to associate with death is the one substance
that truly offers life? It’s ironic,
isn’t it, that the blood that should have been shed by the guilty offenders –
you and me – was instead shed by the innocent Lamb, Jesus?
Without the bloodshed of the
Lamb, our hope of eternal life would be in vain. It would be misleading even to think our
chances of gaining access into heaven would be a long shot, because the reality
would be that we’d have no shot,
apart from the Lamb. To think otherwise
is either to 1) downplay the harsh reality of my sins, or 2) make light of
God’s expectation of perfection. Either
one will have the serious consequence resulting in the individual being shut
out from heaven and eternally on the outside looking in. Our sin is real, it is inexcusable, and for it
we will be held accountable. So just
like the multitudes surrounding the throne, we need the blood of the Lamb to
wash us and provide entrance into heaven. And the Resurrection proves that the
sacrifice of the Lamb was sufficient.
Easter means access to heaven is ours, because the Lamb who died is the
Lamb who was raised and lives and rules on his throne eternally.
Have you ever wondered how
we’ll be spending our time in heaven?
John tells us. We will serve the
Lamb. But even that word serving will
have lost any negative perceptions associated with it while here on earth. When our Easter Revelation depicts the saints
“serv[ing]
him day and night in his temple” (v.15), such service to God will not
be like the nagging “to-do” lists we have here on earth; serving him in heaven
will not be some laborious chore that is a necessary evil. Rather, that part of each of us that
genuinely longs to serve God faithfully, that new creation in each of us, will
finally be satisfied in heaven. The
bull-headed service we often provide here will be replaced with the service of
a holy heart in heaven. With Christ at
work in our hearts here on earth, the child of God in each of us longs to serve
him better than we can right now. We
long to love others better, to serve more willingly, to serve more frequently,
to forgive more easily, to give more generously, to pray more earnestly, to
worship and praise more faithfully. And
in heaven, before the Lamb, and because of the Lamb, we will do all of those
things.
Our eternity will be entirely
devoted to serving him perfectly, for the concerns of this world will not
distract us. John wrote, “Never
again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat
upon them, nor any scorching heat” (v.16).
Lacking nothing, we will cherish the reality of an eternity that
allows our completely sanctified hearts to gratefully serve forever.
And John’s revelation all
comes full circle now. How do we know
we’ll lack nothing? Because “the
Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to
springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes”
(v.17). The Lamb is none other
than the Good Shepherd who will forever give us the living water of salvation
to drink. He will provide us with peace
and protection from every harm and evil, which will be no more. And where there is no wickedness, where sin
is no more, neither will there be tears or sadness. All will be well. All will be perfect in the peaceful pastures
of heaven, where we will forever be guided by our loving Savior, who is both
our Shepherd and our Lamb. Amen.
“For the freer confidence is
from one’s own works, and the more exclusively it is directed toward Christ
alone, so much better is the Christian it makes.” (Luther)
