He is Risen! What’s next?

Yesterday we celebrated Easter.  After last year’s online service, I was incredibly grateful to celebrate in person with my church family.  Our church has a tradition of singing the Hallelujah Chorus on Easter, and anyone in the congregation who wants to sing along comes up and sings with the choir and orchestra.  With COVID (how many times in the last year have you started a sentence with, “With COVID…” I’m so done.) they did things a little differently.  We still had the orchestra, but no one came up front.  The orchestra played along with the socially distanced video they did last year. 

The first frame of the video was Revelation 11:15.

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.

What a promise.  I can’t wait!  The music was beautiful, but I was longing to hear it with the choir. And to sing along with enthusiasm, if not well.  But then I read the verse, and I longed for something else.  We are going to see the fulfillment of Handel’s lyrics.

For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

The kingdom of this world;

is become the kingdom of our Lord,

and of His Christ

And He shall reign forever and ever

King of kings forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah

and Lord of lords forever and ever hallelujah hallelujah

I am more certain of this than I am of my next breath.  And I’m going to be there to see it all unfold – the twenty four elders casting their crowns at His feet,  the temple of God opening with flashes of lightning and sounds of thunder, Jesus with His eyes as a flame of fire.

I always say when I get to heaven I’ll be looking for the “Heroes of the Faith” double decker bus tour with my souvenir map in one hand and autograph book in the other, hoping to catch a glimpse of King Josiah mowing his lawn.

So I got to thinking about what it will be like to see for myself what the Hallelujah Chorus is describing.  Will I see Jeremiah with tears streaming down His face?  Will David be playing the harp with the orchestra?  Or will He be dancing before the Lord?  I imagine Ezekiel, who has always intimidated me, will be worshipping with the same intensity he had in rebuking the people of Judea.

But then I realized I won’t be gawking at Paul, or looking to see if Zaccheus has found a tree to get a better view, or watching Handel staring open mouthed. I won’t be able to take my eyes off Jesus, just like everyone else.  Bring it on!

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”