Isaiah 65:17-25 – “An Ice Cream Cone & Being Blessed by the LORD” by Pastor Kevin Wattles preached at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Falls Church, Virginia Saints Triumphant Sunday, November 14, 2010 This morning’s message is based on the Old Testament reading for today—Isaiah 65:17-25. You listened as Vicar Ewings read it some minutes ago. If you had to teach Isaiah 65:17-25 to children, what would you say? As the children of Grace Lutheran School have sung at our worship service this morning…there are, obviously, a number of children with us in worship! If you were in my shoes this morning, how would you communicate to them the message of our Old Testament lesson? After all, Jesus did say, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). And Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). So…if you were in my shoes this morning, what would you say? How would you communicate the message of Isaiah 65 to the children who are with us today…as well as to all the adults who are here? I’m going to take some direction from the playbook of Jesus this morning and tell a story. Jesus told a lot of stories during his ministry on earth because he found story-telling (parable-telling, we may also call it) to be an effective way to teach people what he was trying to teach them. Therefore, I’m going to tell you a story about a little boy and an ice cream cone. Let’s make this little boy about four-years-old. This four-year-old boy and his father come upon an ice cream shop. Most dads like ice cream. This dad was no different. He liked ice cream and so he had some for himself…but he also bought some and gave some to his son. This little boy had an ice cream cone. His father made that possible for him. The overall subject matter of Isaiah 65:17-25 is “heaven”…or what we sometimes call “God’s eternal kingdom”; what our lesson calls a “new heavens and a new earth.” God is speaking at the beginning of our lesson and he says that he is going to create this new heavens and earth. Elsewhere in the Bible it says that our present heavens and earth will pass away, and that God will create a new heavens and earth (Revelation 21:1). This new heavens and earth is what God will bring about at the end of the world. Our lesson from Isaiah tells us that, by God’s grace, we get to enjoy this new heavens and earth! We get to be a part of it! We’ll be in heaven when this world is no more! As to how this is possible for you and me…we’ll get to that in a few moments. But for now, what I want us to catch is that like the little boy’s father having made an ice cream cone possible for the little boy…God, our Heavenly Father, has made heaven possible for us. He’s made a special, wonderful place for believers called “heaven”! And just like the boy’s father gave him the ice cream cone, so God, our Heavenly Father, has given us heaven! Have you ever tried to eat an ice cream cone on a really hot day? My guess is that you have. What often happens when we try to eat an ice cream cone on a really hot day? It often melts faster than we can eat it, right? The same thing happened with the young boy in our story. His father had purchased and given him an ice cream cone—and he was enjoying it; but at the same time the little boy was enjoying the ice cream cone the ice cream was melting…running down the sides of the cone…getting onto his hands…dripping onto his clothes…and it was becoming quite a mess! That picture of a little boy eating an ice cream cone that has ice cream melting faster than he can eat it is a picture of what being a “saint” of God is like for you and me right now. (By the way, all of us who are believers in Jesus are “saints.” A “saint” is someone whom God has made “holy, without sin, perfect in his eyes.” That’s what the Bible says Jesus has made you and me. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that Jesus has made us “righteous” [that means “holy, blameless, without sin”] before God. As the Bible speaks, there are two kinds of “saints.” There are the saints here on earth—believers here on earth; that’s you and me. And, there are saints in heaven. Those saints are sometimes called the “saints triumphant,” from where the name of this Sunday in the Christian church year gets its name.) Right now, for us “saints on earth,” is like the little boy eating ice cream that’s melting faster than he can eat it! The ice cream is his! He’s been given it! It’s good! The ice cream tastes good! It’s enjoyable! But…everything’s not perfect. Heaven is ours! God has given us heaven, by his grace, through faith in Jesus Christ! But we’re not in heaven yet, and everything is certainly not perfect in this world in which we live and in our individual lives. Today’s lesson gives us some examples of the imperfections of life in this world. Our lesson talks about: • “an infant who lives but a few days” (20) • “an old man who does not live out his years” (20). Even if someone lives a long life, there is still sadness when that person passes on. • labor done in vain; in other words, to no avail. Someone feels as if he or she hasn’t accomplished anything. His or her work hasn’t been appreciated. Perhaps a person hasn’t been fairly compensated for the work done. Can we relate to any of these things? (21-23) • “children doomed to misfortune” (23) One could say a lot about that. We think of a child born with a severe handicap that makes living life very difficult for the child. We think of a child born to parents who abuse alcohol or some other drug and what that means for the child. We think of children born into severe poverty. All these examples that Isaiah mentions cause sadness. There is sadness all around us in this world and in our lives. Why is that? Sadness is present in our world and in our lives because of sin: the sin of others, our sin, the consequences of sin. In fact, the Bible says that the ultimate sadness caused by sin—the ultimate consequence of sin—is death. Romans 6:23 says, “The wages of sin is death.” Going back to the story of the little boy and the ice cream…sin is like the hot outside temperature that causes the ice cream to melt. Sin is there. It’s present. It’s going to have negative effects. It’s going to cause sadness…just like the little boy’s ice cream melting will cause him to be sad. Years later, after the little boy was all grown up and had a family of his own, the boy—now man—and his father still liked to enjoy ice cream cones together. Even though the son had a job and money of his own, the father still insisted on buying his son an ice cream cone when they got together in the summer. But now, instead of eating the ice cream cone outside in the heat of summer and having the ice cream melt faster than it could be eaten, they ate their ice cream cones in the cool, air conditioned ice cream shop. For the son, eating the ice cream cone in the ice cream shop with his dad was perfect! No more did the ice cream melt faster than he could eat it! No more did the melting ice cream run down the sides of the cone and onto his hands! No more did the melting ice cream drip onto his clothes! And, he got to spend precious time with his dad! Eating ice cream cones with his dad in the ice cream shop was now perfect! For us saints—those whom Jesus has made holy before our Heavenly Father—heaven will be perfect! No more will there be any sin or any of the consequences of sin to make us sad! Listen to how God has Isaiah describe the “new heavens and earth,” the New Jerusalem—heaven—in the part of God’s Word before us: 17 “See, I (remember God is speaking here) will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. 19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people (Isn’t that great! God says he will rejoice over us in heaven!) ; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more (There will be no sadness in heaven because there will be no sin or the consequences of sin in heaven!) .