The Fifth Sunday of Easter
The One Who Conquers Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) Alleluia! Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Jesus is the “*Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end*”; the crucified and resurrected One; the One who has gained victory over death and hell; the One who conquers. Our Conqueror declares to all people in today’s Epistle, “*The one who conquers will have this heritage*—the one who gains the victory; the one who wins—*will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my Son*.” Conquering, winning, and victory all mean the same thing, and they all promise us an inheritance in heaven with God. Dear Christian friends: Today’s Epistle falls disappointingly short by ending at verse 7 of Revelation 21. If we had continued through verse 8, we would have heard our Lord speak a dark warning. After Jesus says in verse 7, “*The one who conquers will have this heritage,*” He makes a terrible threat in verse 8: But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. I suppose this ominous verse was not included in today’s Epistle because its Words do not describe the baptized of Christ. These may be the things in which we once lived, but those days are over. Christ Jesus our Lord was crucified and Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) Alleluia! · In His death and resurrection, Christ Jesus our Lord conquered and gained the victory over everything that once threatened us with “*the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death*.” · When we were baptized into Christ, our victorious Lord gave His victory to us, so that we will indeed receive the heritage promised to the ones who conquer. “*This is the victory*,” says the Lord, “*even our faith*” (1 John 5:4). Why is verse 8 important for us, even though it describes only those things from which we have been saved by our Lord? Verse 8 is gives us a good, clear picture of what our victory is NOT—and therefore this verse will help us toward a better picture of what our victory IS. Why will “*the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars*” receive everlasting judgment and punishment in hell? They have all traded away the victory that is now yours and mine through Christ Jesus our Lord and they claim for themselves false victories that are no victories at all. All these love only the small, momentary and fleeting sensation of conquest. To achieve the satisfactions of the moment, they have abandoned the eternal victory that was won by Christ. · What is a coward? A coward is someone so possessed by his fear of loss or defeat that he will not risk the security of this moment for any sort of future victory or gain. What is a liar? A liar is merely a coward who has learned how to speak. · Who are the faithless ones? The faithless ones are the ones for whom the promise of the resurrection means nothing. They are the ones who refuse the possibility that there is any victory better than what they might gain right here and now—and they live their lives accordingly. Who are the idolaters? The idolaters are simply faithless ones who have found something to occupy their minds. · Who are the detestable ones? They are the ones who keep filling their own bodies with every sort of pollutant imaginable, always in search of another sensation of euphoria, or the mere feeling of victory. Who are the sorcerers in this verse? The sorcerers are merely those detestable people who have figured out how to make their own chemicals. Sorcerer in this verse is just a fancy way of saying “drug dealer” or “meth cooker.” · The murderers and the sexually immoral are probably the worst of all. (They stand at the center of the chiasmus.) These are the ones who seek their momentary victories at the expense of others. Conquest for them consists of what they can tear away or destroy in other people. The murderers and the sexually immoral treat the bodies of their fellow humans as disposable objects, unworthy of afterthought or care. This is what the Lord says concerning all of these: “*their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death*.” They are very important for us because they give us a clear picture and a good understanding of what our victory is NOT. · Our victories do not consist of our own manufacture. Our victory has been given to us by “*the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end*,” the crucified Lamb who is now “*alive forevermore*” (Revelation 1:18). Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) Alleluia! · Our victories do not come by the blood or at the cost of the other people around us. Our victory has already come to us at the great cost and personal expense of God Himself, who “*gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life*” (John 3:16). · Our conquest does not root itself in the sensations of the moment, which disappear as quickly as they arrive. Our conquest does not consist of what we see and feel now; it consists of what we believe concerning the future. “*Faith is the assurance of things hoped for*,” says the Lord, “*and the conviction of things not seen*” (Hebrews 11:1). · We now overcome, not by what we do, but by standing near to the One who has already done all of the overcoming for us. This is the promise of your Resurrected Lord: “*In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart! I have overcome the world!*” (John 16:33) Again Jesus says, “*Fear not… I am the Living One. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore*” (Revelation 1:17-18). So what are we supposed to do with today’s Epistle, where Jesus our God says, “*The one who conquers will have this heritage*”? · We probably should not take these Words as an indicator of what we must do. The cowardly, the faithless, and all the others listed in verse 8 all warn us that our human efforts toward conquest and victory will lead only into judgment and “*the second death*” of eternity in hell. · We should understand the phrase “*the one who conquers*” as a reference to the gift of faith that our God has given to us: o that we would trust the One who has conquered for us by means of His death and resurrection; o that we would stand as closely as possible to our Conquering King, for He alone truly deserves the heritage promised to all God’s saints; o that we would beg God for the strength of His Holy Spirit, so that we may never abandon the faith that He has given. Such is the prayer that God loves to hear and delights to answer. It has been written concerning you and all the baptized of Christ: § “*the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one*” (1 John 2:14); and again, § “*you HAVE overcome them because He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world*” (1 John 4:4); and again, § “*This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes the Jesus is the Son of God?*” (1 John 5:4-5); and finally, § “*They have conquered by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of their testimony, for they loved their lives not—even unto death*” (Revelation 12:11).
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