What stunning promises God gives us in Revelation 21:1-5!
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Just stop and drink that in for awhile.
In Revelation 21:8, God makes another promise: "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.”
Most of the characters on that list are the ones you'd expect to find, but cowards?
Aren't cowards lovable, bumbling, but well-meaning types like, say, the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, or Don Knotts in any of his roles (If you ask me, he always played the same character, but I digress)? What does it mean to be a coward in the biblical sense?
Romans 10:9 says, "... if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Doesn't seem too scary, right? Not for those days, anyway.
Think again.
John 9:22 says, " ...the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue."
In those days, the synagogue was the center of religious and political life, the center of power in the Jewish community. If you were out of the synagogue, you were a non-person.
That was then, right? America's a free country.
Yes, it is. But, if you're a Christian, you've already experienced the reality that your friends, colleagues, neighbors, and even your family may act more like the secret police of (your least favorite totalitarian state here). They whisper about you in the halls. They always seem to be laughing at jokes that you're never a part of. You're pointedly excluded and, finally, ostracized altogether. Everyone else's belief systems are tolerated, no matter how obnoxiously they're put across. One day, you find that you don't belong anywhere.
Scary -- even if John 15:18 and Hebrews 11 are burned into your brain. If they're not, they should be, if only to stifle any hint of the victimhood I touched on in this post.
Even so, you non-Christians who think that we have a persecution complex should observe closely how many things are done and said just to needle the Christians in the vicinity.
Confessing Jesus can be dangerous.
But, if you think confessing Jesus is dangerous, you should try crucifixion.
Jesus went through all that so that you and I could have this (Ephesians 1:5-14): "[God] predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
"In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory."
After all He went though for our benefit, Jesus deserves some friends who have His back. It's a choice, and Jesus lays it out in Matthew 10:32-33: "So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."
You can be doubtful of your abilities, doubtful of the reaction you'll get, and doubtful of the outcome, and still go forward in faith. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys sing a great bluegrass gospel tune about that very thing -- "I'll Answer the Call".
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