WAITING: The Story of the Fulfilled Promises
Revelation 21:1-8
In his old age, Richard Baxter said that from the age of twenty-one he was “seldom an hour free from pain”. The 17th century English pastor was plagued throughout his life with illness; constant cough, migraines, frequent nosebleeds, digestive ailments, kidney stones, gallstones, and tumors. When he was bed-bound at thirty-five and believed he would soon die, he began a practice that would follow him his entire seventy-six year life. He began to spend thirty minutes each day meditating on the joys of heaven and the age to come.
In Revelation 21, John the Apostle is describing the vision he was given while imprisoned on the island Patmos. In his vision, the first heaven and earth had passed away and a far greater heaven and earth had come. The first earth, fractured and poisoned by sin, had been cleansed by Christ’s blood and a new earth, perfect and sinless, had come. Not only will man reside on this new earth, but God Himself will dwell with His people forever. In this new earth, there will be no pain, no death, and no mourning, for all those things have passed away.
This is the vision of heaven that Baxter meditated on. In Colossians 3, Paul tells us to do the same thing.
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Just as the disciples waited three days for Christ’s promised resurrection, so we wait for our promised resurrection. We need to be constantly reminded of this reality, lest we begin to believe that this life and this earth is all that we have. We must “not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” (Rom 12:1)
Not only will meditating on heaven give us hope in the midst of tragedy and suffering, but it will give us courage to sacrifice everything for Christ’s mission. If someone falls out of an airplane with no parachute and you don’t have one either, you aren’t going to jump out to save them. But, if you have a parachute, you may have the confidence to jump out after them, catch them, and pull your cord. The hope of safety in the end releases us to be radically and sacrificially loving now. Paul writes to the Christians in Colossae “We have heard of the love you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” (Col 1:4-5)
May our assurance of heaven free us up to be joyful, hopeful, and courageous Christians in a world that desperately needs it.
