Read: Revelation 7:9-12
Heaven is going to be a wonderful place. Unfortunately it’s presented in today’s media in terms and images that are relatively boring! Of course it is! Satan wants nothing more than to turn people off going to heaven. Hell is presented as a wild party with all your mates and good food and wine and song and… heaven is a harp, a cloud and one lonely, boring old angel!
But as we read in Revelation the fulfilment of the ages and the times we see that people from every nation, tribe and tongue are gathered around the throne and the Lamb. People are singing praises and glory and honour to God. All evil, all wickedness, all lying and deceit, theft, vandalism, corruption and fraud, all sickness, all disease and death itself have been swallowed up in victory. Those who stand before the throne are standing eternal and the new creation (that new heaven and earth) is theirs for the taking.
Think back to Genesis 12, 15 and 22, those passages we spoke about this week. All that was promised to Abraham has come to fruition. The promise has been completely fulfilled as God’s elect gather around the throne and sing praise and glory to Him. People are gathered from every nation, tribe and tongue in that wonderful heavenly assembly. But right here, right now our churches, our earthly assemblies, are a fore taste of that heavenly assembly. Our churches should be mirroring to some degree the diversity of that heavenly gathering. In our churches, ethnicity, tribe or race should be no barrier to worshipping together, for we will all one day stand together around the throne and the Lamb!
What a great motivator for mission! What a great encouragement to get the Word, the Gospel, out to all nations, all tribes and all tongues. What a great encouragement for us to be proactive in preaching the gospel to all nations. Abraham was promised that through his a blessing will go to all nations. Jesus came in fulfilment of that promise. He commanded us to take the gospel to every nation on earth; and here in Revelation we see the fulfilment of that promise.
As an individual, as a cell group and as a congregation we have a joyous privilege of being a part of God’s mega plan to establish His eternal kingdom. We have the extreme joy of being able to be used by God to share the message of that kingdom with people in our local community, people in our cities, people in our nation and people in other nations. Our “Parish boundary” covers the entire globe! You can be active in that mission today by sharing the good news of the faith, by testifying to the grace of God in Christ Jesus and by inviting people into that kingdom. Hallelujah!
Prayer Points:
> Most importantly, pray that even though the next couple of weeks might be busy, that our time with God would not be sacrificed, but continued to be kept a priority.
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