Isaiah 65:17-25 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Saints Triumphant Sunday, November 17, 2019 “Welcome Home to an Everlasting Family”
“Nothing lasts forever.” That’s a phrase that people use both to comfort each other and to warn each other. When things are going well, we worry and anticipate that things will change. Nothing lasts forever, so the good times will have to come to an end. The fun trip, the delicious meal, the entertaining conversation or show, all will have an end point. People also use that phrase to comfort each other when things are not going so well. When someone is feeling down, when there are financial struggles, family or relationship difficulties, and all sorts of other challenges, we say, “Things will get better. Nothing lasts forever.” But how comforting is that, really? Sure, it is very likely that a particular issue will pass, but who knows what other challenge might appear? There’s really not a whole lot of comfort in a blind hope that whatever difficulty we face will eventually come to an end. Our service this morning and our sermon text from Isaiah 65 remind us that we have something that can comfort us. We have something that does last forever. When we are at home in the Christian Church, we are part of an everlasting family, an eternal family. And while you will not find those exact words in our verses from Isaiah 65, you will find that concept and that comfort. We are part of an everlasting family because God has rescued his people. To get the full sense of these verses, you have to understand that they follow on several chapters and verses of terrible news for the people of Israel, God’s chosen nation from long ago. God warned them about destruction. He warned them that their cities would be ruined and that hardly anything or anyone at all would be left. Even when the faithful believers in Israel prayed that God would bring the whole nation back to him, even when they asked for restoration, God’s answer was “no.” It was too late. For too long the people had run away from him and gone against his decrees and laws. For too long they had done evil. Specifically, God predicted through the prophet that their enemies the Babylonians would carry the people off into captivity and would destroy their homeland. And so the word of God through the prophet in the verses before us this morning shine like a ray of hope. They ring out above the noise of the threats God was making and the punishment that he intended to bring. For the little remnant of his faithful people who would remain, God had a wonderful promise. He would make a change. He would do something new. He would change the distress and damage and destruction that he threatened and would bring the people into peace and security and prosperity. He would bring out of their destruction something beneficial and wonderful. He would rescue his people, and he would be with them. He would rejoice over his people and answer them. We have seen God fulfil his promise to rescue his people. He sent his beloved Son Jesus into our world to pay the price for our rebellion and wickedness. Jesus died on the cross as he faced the punishment that our wickedness had earned. He suffered the consequences of the whole world’s sinfulness. He brought to all who believe in him the sort of peace that God promised through Isaiah, the peace that has undone all of the damage and the difficulty that sinners faced before. You may have noticed that the words of Isaiah’s prophecy seem to mix together some ideas that we often keep separate. It speaks about people living to be one hundred years old before dying, people living in their own houses where they can harvest their own crops and fruits while at the same time talking about a place with no weeping or crying, a place of nothing but joy. That latter description sounds like we are talking about eternity in heaven, but the promises about old age and crops and vineyards don’t seem to fit in the same way. Yes, Isaiah is describing heaven, but he is also describing other things. He is speaking with what Bible scholars call prophetic perspective, which means that he can see things that happen at different periods of history without necessarily distinguishing between them.
Let me explain that a little differently. Isaiah looks in this prophecy at what God accomplishes in Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins and peace with God, and he describes it in terms of the people being rescued from their captivity in Babylon. He talks about all the things that could be seen as God’s punishment over sin being undone: building houses that other people take for their own, others eating the crops that you planted, even wild animals causing destruction. He uses those pictures to tell people that through Jesus Christ, through the one who was promised in the Old Testament as the Messiah, through what he has done, we have been made a part of God’s family. We have all the joy and peace and privilege of being his own child, dearly loved. And even as he describes this good news, he also speaks about how the result of Jesus’ work will last forever. He talks about the heavenly reality that all things will be new, that no weeping or crying will be there, that heaven will be a place of rejoicing and celebrating forever. The prophet does not distinguish in these verses between the Church on earth and the Church in heaven. He doesn’t, but often we do. By the term Church we mean all people who believe in Jesus Christ as their only Savior from sin. And when we speak about the members of that Church as they live this earthly life, we sometimes use the term Church Militant. If you connect the term militant with the military, you are on the right track. The Church Militant is the church as it keeps fighting. It keeps fighting against temptation, against evil. The members of the Church in this world struggle with their stubborn sinful natures. They don’t always do the good that they want to do in service to God, but often do the evil that they so desperately wish to avoid. The members of the Church Militant know that they are not perfect in what they do or have done, but they have peace with God because of what Jesus has done for them. In this world, we still experience pain and hardship, suffering and trial. We still have to keep fighting. That truth was brought home this past week for a number of people within our congregation who learned about the tragic death of a twenty-one-year-old young lady who was a friend to many and a former member of this congregation along with her family. A vehicle accident that she did not cause took her life and the life of her boyfriend who was her passenger. We may acknowledge that nothing lasts forever, but don’t we all expect that twenty-one is not the age at which our lives come to an end? We can’t find any true comfort for friends and family in the face of a tragedy like that by saying, “Well it will get better.” “The pain won’t last forever.” No, we find true comfort in only one place: Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world. This young woman was baptized into God’s family and attended church where she heard about her Savior. God had blessed her with the gift of faith in Jesus, so now her troubles are over. She no longer fights with the rest of the Church Militant. She is a member of the Church Triumphant. She is a Saint Triumphant. Today is not a funeral service for her or for anyone else, but Saints Triumphant Sunday each year invites us to remember those people of God who have departed this life before us, not so that we mourn their passing again, but so that we rejoice in what God has already given to them and so that we look forward with renewed strength to what God has in store for us. God has rescued his people. He has made them into members of his family. And that family is an everlasting one, and eternal one. As much as we have peace and joy right now in knowing what Jesus has done for us, when the time comes that he calls us out of this life, we will experience something new. We will know that peace and joy in a complete way, in a way that cannot be tainted by sin or sorrow or pain or death. Then we will celebrate in perfect joy, and we will celebrate forever. God has made us his saints, his holy people, right now. And he will make us his triumphant saints when he welcomes us into our heavenly home. So we do thank God that in this life nothing lasts forever. We thank him that there will be an end to all trouble, all suffering, all pain and weeping. We thank him that his Church is eternal and that through faith we have an eternal and everlasting family. Welcome home to that family. Welcome home to peace and comfort. Cherish it until your Savior says to you, “Welcome home to heaven.”
The Text: Isaiah 65:17-25 (EHV) Watch this! I am about to create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered. They will not come to mind. 18 Instead, rejoice and celebrate forever, because of what I am creating. Watch this! I am about to create Jerusalem to be a source of gladness, and her people will be a source of joy. 19 I also will be glad because of Jerusalem, and I will rejoice over my people. The sound of weeping will not be heard in her again, nor will the sound of crying. 20 There
will never again be an infant there who lives for only a few days, or an elderly man who does not fill out all his days, for one who dies at a hundred will be considered a young man, and one who fails to attain the age of one hundred will be regarded as cursed. 21 Then they will build houses and live in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They will not build a house and have another person live in it. They will not plant and have another person eat the crop, for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen ones will enjoy all the work of their hands. 23 They will not labor only to receive nothing, and they will not give birth to children doomed to disaster, for they will be offspring who are blessed by the LORD, and their descendants will be with them. 24 Then even before they call, I will answer. While they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and lions will eat straw like cattle, but the serpent will eat dust as its food. They will not harm or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, says the LORD.