All’s Well that Ends Well!

14th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/25/13
Isaiah 66:18-24


All’s Well that Ends Well!
I. God’s people from every nation will see his glory.
II. God’s people will live with him forever.


By no means have I read every children’s story ever published. In fact, my exposure to them is rather limited. I’ve probably even forgotten most of the ones I’ve listened to or read. I’m far from being an expert in children’s literature. But I can still say this with confidence: Every one of the children’s stories ever written ends well. Good overcomes evil, all tensions are erased, all problems are solved, all wrongs are righted and the reader is satisfied. And that’s the way it should be. Real life is tough enough without disturbing children with stories that are anything less than enjoyable.

But we don’t remain children for long. All too quickly we begin to notice that not all wrongs get righted. Bad things happen that don’t get corrected. The real world can be ugly at times.

And it isn’t long after that that we’re ready for a different genre of literature—the tragedy.

I recall studying Shakespeare’s tragedies in school. By the middle of each one, you knew that nothing good was going to happen. This was not going to turn out well for the main characters. So why keep watching or reading? To find out how the tragedy ends. It’s like watching the proverbial train wreck. We can’t help ourselves.

The Book of Isaiah isn’t a children’s story, a romance novel, or a tragedy. It’s reality. Read through it some time. There are some harsh judgments pronounced against the Jews and even against the nations around the Jews for their deliberate rejection of the Lord. But there’s gospel, too, sweet gospel. Chapter 53 which foretells the death of the Savior is one of the most-loved sections in all of the Old Testament. The final chapters—60-66—foretell the glory of the Church. And yet there’s a good dose of reality in it. Things won’t be easy for the Church on earth as it battles sin and Satan.

This morning’s text is from the final verses of the final chapter of Isaiah. These words of our God assure as that even though the Church on earth is battered and bombarded, all’s well that ends well.

As you look back at what you faced the past seven days in your life, isn’t that a comforting truth? As you wonder what you might face in the next seven days, isn’t that a powerful truth? May our God comfort and strengthen us with his word this morning!

Part I.

Isaiah wrote these words for his fellow Jews about 700 BC. If you were one of those Jews who took the time to read what he wrote, much of it would be hard to take. Isaiah foretold how the once mighty kingdom of David would be reduced to a nation in exile. First the Assyrians would threaten them and then the Babylonians, a nation not yet even fully formed, would crush them and cruelly oppress them. Imagine watching that tragedy unfold to the letter over the next 100 years or so.

But things would end well. Isaiah’s book contains promises of the Savior’s virgin birth, his ministry which included miraculous signs, and his death as the payment for the sins of the world. That Savior would come into the world through the remnant of the Jews that the Lord would preserve. And after that Savior completed his work, the Church on earth would spring into action.

Listen to Isaiah describe it. God is speaking and he says, “And I, because of their actions and their imaginations, am about to come and gather all nations and tongues, and they will come and see my glory. I will set a sign among them, and I will send some of those who survive to the nations.” He even mentions specific places, places we know today as northern Africa and the nations along the northern coast the Mediterranean Sea. Lo and behold, those are exactly the areas which became centers of Christianity in the first couple centuries after Christ. Jewish people, such as St. Paul, would bring the gospel to Gentiles in those areas and thousands were converted.

But then notice what Isaiah says next. “And they will bring all your brothers, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD.” In later centuries, Gentiles would do mission work among the Jews and bring them to faith in Jesus as their Savior. The Church has seen that happening from the Middle Ages to the present day, not in huge numbers, but it’s happening nonetheless.

Gentiles and Jews together comprising God’s Church on earth. That’s our reality today. But it was almost unimaginable to the Jews of Isaiah’s day. The Church is comprised of people from every nation on earth confessing Jesus as their Savior from sin. Isaiah views each one of them as a holy offering to the Lord. In reality, that’s what the Christian’s life is. In his letter to the Romans, Paul urged every Christian to offer their bodies as living sacrifices to God. When we live each day with faith in Jesus in our hearts and our lives are being lived according to that faith, then what we are doing, be it secular or religious, menial or earth-shattering, is a pleasant offering to the Lord. Our Lord watches with pleasure each day as his people live God-pleasing lives in spite of the difficulties they face personally and the attacks on the Church collectively.

And then they enter glory. I’m not talking about some glorious existence here on earth. That doesn’t exist in this sinful world. I’m talking about heaven. We see God’s glory partially now as we have come to know our sins and our glorious Savior from sin, Jesus Christ. But we won’t experience the fullness of that glory until we see our God as he is in all his glory. And believers from every nation will join us.

All’s well that ends well. God’s people from every nation will see his glory.

If you drive west on I 70 out of Columbus, you might have seen a Christian church on the north side of the road called “Church Triumphant.” I always smile when I see it. Either the people who chose that name for their church didn’t know or they chose to ignore the fact that here on earth the church is the church militant, not the church triumphant. We’re still in a battle here against sin and Satan.

And that’s evident to every Christian on earth today. The church is assaulted by the world and Satan on the outside and false doctrine on the inside. While the church might be gaining in a few places on earth, it’s losing numbers here.

And then there are our own battles. Social and work acquaintances who assault our beliefs. Family members who push against the church. The daily battle to keep the immoral world out of our homes and lives. There’s not much glory to be seen. Not yet. The end’s not here yet. We’re still fighting. We’re still proclaiming the gospel. Souls are being won for Jesus. And with Jesus, we win. That’s what his death and resurrection were all about. He purchased us with his blood so that we could enjoy eternal victory with him. Now that’s glory! God’s people from every nation will see it. All’s well that ends well.

Part II.

Expiration dates are part of so much of our lives. Whether we’re looking at a bottle in our refrigerator or an offer we received in the mail, we need to keep in mind that there’s an expiration date.

You have one, too. So do I. It’s just not stamped on our bodies somewhere. That’s not a very glorious thought, is it?

But our God has something far different planned for us. How appropriate that in one of the last verses of this Book of Isaiah our God promises, “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me, so will your name and descendants endure.” This world isn’t it. And our God isn’t planning some eternal, celestial, spiritual existence for his people. He has something far better in mind. A new heavens and a new earth.

We’re not sure exactly what that will be. But if God is going to raise and glorify our bodies on the Last Day, then we’re going to need a physical place to live. That’s what our glorious Lord has planned for us. He promises it to us.

And not just for an all-inclusive week or two. It’s forever, in glory and perfection. No mourning or crying or pain. No death or sickness. No stress or heartache. Just bliss, unending bliss. We live in the glorious presence of Jesus forever. We endure with our God forever. It’s so far from what we know life to be now that I can’t imagine it fully or explain it fully. And it’s all yours by faith in Jesus.

All’s well that ends well. God’s people will live with him forever.

There are Christians who falsely claim that, if you truly believe as a Christian should, then you will attain happiness and success in this life. Don’t listen to that for a moment! Jesus did not come to this earth to give you a trouble-free life. In fact, he told his followers that they would have more trouble in life because of their connection to him. He did not come to give you fame and fortune. He does not now and never did promise to give you unending joy here. He came to make you members of his eternal kingdom. You belong to it by faith in him as the one who lived and died for you. By God’s grace that’s exactly what he has accomplished in you. And now we wait to enjoy heaven with him. Live each day with that goal in mind. Live each day in the power and comfort of knowing that all’s well that ends well. It will because your God promises it! Amen.