Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

When I was a boy of 8,9 years my brother and I went to stay with my grandparents for a week at their trailer on School Section Lake.

I didn’t know being separated from my parents, in particular, my mother, would be so hard.

I was hit with a bad case of homesickness, which is better stated as mom-sickness.

I loved my grandparents and had lots of fun fishing with my grandfather.

Some of my best memories occured during that week, or partial week I should say.

While there were times of great fun, it was poisoned by the fact that I couldn’t get over missing my mom.

All of those fun things were not as fun, because I couldn’t get passed mom not being there.

I can’t speak for my younger brother, but I was having fun miserably.

I couldn’t get passed it no matter the words of my Grandpa or Grandma.

So one day, I don’t know how many days we made it, a neighbor of theirs was returning home to Lansing and we packed up and went with him.

I can still remember the great relief that swept over me when I got home.

It was like I could breathe again.

Life was filled with what it was meant to be once again.

I would face that monster a few more times before I went into the Marines.

But there it was grow up time.

Right now Sharon is away on her retreat for several days.

I miss her already.

I am excited to get her home.

Surely you know the feeling when you have been gone on vacation it is good to get home.

Don’t you think this is what the Apostle Paul is referring when he says to the believers in the Philippian Church “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.

I am hard pressed between the two.

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

He longed for getting home to Christ.

So what we have been talking about is, and what this journey from Paradise in Eden in the book of Genesis to this time in our text here in Revelation where Paradise is regained.

God’s people are finally home has been this separation from God.

There is a homesickness, a desire to be where we belong.

We do not belong here.

And we recognize this, don’t we?

Even in a little way.

When a loved one dies we speak of their ‘homegoing.’

Or we will say that ‘went home to be with the Lord.”

When John writes in the end of the (ESV)

When John writes in the end of the (ESV)

17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”

And let the one who hears say, “Come.”

And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

and (ESV)

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”

Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus!

In both verses the call for Jesus to ‘come’ is embedded in this desire to be restored to the presence of God and dwell with Him and be absent from all that was involved in the separation.

Think of the Lord’s incarnation.

All that time separated in some fashion from the father to experience what that means in life: pain, suffering, anguish brought to a heightened crescendo on the cross when the Father separated from the Son for that time.

That is what Jesus grieved over.

not the physical pain.

I remember reading when Dr. Stephen Olford was in the hospital in Memphis Tn for cancer surgery someone reported that he said to his family, I think this was said by another pastor in Memphis as well, that he was in a ‘win win’ situation.

If he survives he has more time with his family and if he dies he is Home with the Lord.

Either way it is a good situation for them Oh to live with that mindset.

That would be freeing.

Well is that not what we have here in our text.

We have went over the course from Paradise in eden when God dwelt with Adam and Eve, through to Abraham, we skipped along to Moses and Israel, then on to Solomon, To Jesus (God with Us) in the flesh and now we have the Holy spirit in us.

Though we have the Holy Spirit and have fellowship with God, we are still not with God.

We are separated and longing to be with God.

Do you have that longing?

Is death gain to you and me?

This is what John is getting at in our text.

So lets take a gander at it.

Notice first of all

This voice is out of the throne.

Is it God?

This voice appeared earlier in 16:17 and 19:5 In the seventh bowl is poured out and the voice declares that the judgment of God is done.

At which time there was a great earthquake and the ‘great city’ Jerusalem (11:8) was split into 3 parts.

In the voice calls for Praise to the Lord because of the final judgment.

Here the voice calls attention to the new Jerusalem this wasn’t a makeover city.

A city redone, remodeled, rebuilt.

No that one was completely destroyed Now there is a new Heaven and new earth.

So there is a new Jerusalem in which God will dwell with His people forever.

In each case this phraswe is used it calls attention to some great Divine work.

So it is here.

Whether this God or an angel speaking for God, it still calls attention to the authority of God.

And this is a fulfillment of prophecy, as we saw last time.

It is a prophecy of blessing on God’s people.

And what He says is of utmost importance.

Especially, since he uses the word behold! to draw attention to his statement.

Now his statement as reference to the New Jerusalem as the dwelling of God.

As John sees the New Jerusalem descending the speaker points to the city and identifies it as the tent of God.

In other words, John hears the interpretation of what He saw when he saw the new Jerusalem.

This is the consummation of the wedding Supper of the lamb .

This is the part of the wedding where the Groom brings his bride to his home to live forever.

It is what the tabernacle and temple previewed.

Most importantly it is the dwelling place of God with His people.

This restores what was begun in the garden.

The ideal place of God dwelling with His people.

It is the return of God’s people to the place of God’s dwelling.

After General MacArthur left the Philippines during WWII he pledged to return.

And Return he did on October 20, 1944.

US General Douglas MacArthur kept the promise he had made 2.5 years earlier to the people of the Philippines: he returned to the islands with an enormous invasion force and the largest assemblage of naval vessels in the history of mankind.

God pledged to dwell with His people once again and restore what was lost when Adam and Eve rebelled and were expelled from the garden.

This is that return.

This is the focus or aim of the book to give hope to those who were left stranded in a way in this life, to suffer separation from God of which all the anguish of human separations are but a picture.

But now that is all set right.

That is the promise.

That is the hope we all look toward.

As he gazes at the New Jerusalem, the voice says, ‘BEHOLD!

The tent of God with men.”

What a sight.

Little kids ask their parents, ‘Where does God live?’