The beginning and the end.

Everything is broken

Introduction

Have you ever tried to fix or improve something, and in the process, you absolutely broke it. Well, when I was a kid, my brother was just like this. You see, me and my brother Carl, who is two years older than me, were the best of friends growing up, except when he tried to fix or enhance something that I had. For the most part, we lived a pretty shared life, shared schedules, activities, teams, toys, room and the list could go on. So, as you could imagine, it was pretty exciting when we would get something on our own for just the one of us. Well, there just so happened to be this helicopter that I had gotten, and let me tell you, I LOVED IT. It had all kinds of cool extra functions like a cable winch and spinning rotor blades. I played with it pretty constantly after I got it. But Carl came along and found it. With the best of intentions, he broke it. He was tinkering around with it to see if he could make it work better, and in the process he damaged it to where it could longer function fully like it was supposed to.

Everything is broken.

Tonight, we are going to be talking about the very end of the Bible, Revelation 21-22, mainly about the promise of a perfect heaven. But before we can talk about the end we have to talk about the imperfect world in which we live. The end will be glorious, but right now, we are still broken. We are kind of like bike with a flat tire, we can technically still get around, but not at all the way in which we were designed to. But how did we get here?

In the beginning, God created the world. God created the land, the sea, the birds, fish and all different kinds of animals, he created plants and trees, but his very favorite creation was something that God uniquely loved. He created man and woman. He created us, humans. And for that period of time, everything was right, everything was perfect, and everything worked like it was supposed to work.

But maybe you remember, like I do Genesis 3. Genesis 3 is where the serpent enters the story. And this passage tells us that the serpent was crafty, and so he was. He did two very disgusting things, he lied and he made others believe that lie. He asked Eve about the trees in the garden and she said that God said they could eat from all but one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the serpent tempted her to eat the fruit from this tree by doing something sneaky and predictable, he figures out and targets the human’s main core fear. Not measuring up. We really don’t like it if we know that someone else is better than us, or has something that we can’t have. We sure don’t like to hear that “we aren’t good enough.” So he tempts her by telling her that if she eats the fruit, she will be like God.

Eve took the bite, and Adam stood by and let her. He then proceeds to take a bite himself. But why did they do this? It happens to be that they didn’t trust God, or themselves. Had they trusted that God would not lie, they would have been able to say NO to the serpent. If they trusted God that he would create them to be exactly who they were, without having to add to or prove themselves, they would have been okay. If they had been secure in their identity, in the fact that God loved them, they would have been just fine, but NO. and now we live in a fundamentally broken world.

I live in a shattered world, you live in a shattered world. And if I am being honest, I am not sure I could have done much better that Adam and Eve. We sure love to point our fingers at them and say, “oh they had it all, but they gave in. If I were there, I never would have given in!” but I would wager that not me, or you could have done much better, and I have one question for you if you do not believe me.

Have you ever been ashamed or think that you were less than someone else, but maybe if you could have more friends, you would finally be happy? Maybe you think that if you are the star basketball player, or the best in show choir, or the funniest in your class. Maybe if you are the best singer, or the most popular, maybe if you could just have a little more money in your pocket, if you just had those shoes. Maybe if I just had that girl of guy. If these drugs really work, if porn could make me feel just a little better. Maybe if you had a different dad or mom or siblings, maybe if you had a different family altogether, maybe if you were just a little prettier, stronger, thinner, faster. Or maybe you have someone in mind who has it all, and if you could just live their life you would finally be happy. I wonder if Satan, who is the serpent, is tempting you, not with fruit, but with any of these.

When I was in junior high, I was pretty chubby. You see, I have always been kind of bigger than everyone my age, and in junior high, it really started to show. Now I had been aware of the fact that I was big, but it never really hit until I went to camp cyokamo in the second week of June. It was just me and my friend who I’ll call Chris who went from my church that year. Now, you gotta understand that Liam was incredibly charismatic. Wherever he went, people flocked to him. He looked good, he was good at sports, he liked to get in trouble. I was quite the opposite. I stunk at sports, I felt super fat, and I was just plain awkward. Well let me tell you, I got jealous of Chris quick. Because he had it all, or so I thought. He had friends and fun and girls that liked him, which is a huge deal at junior high camp. I spent most of my afternoons that week, laying down on my bed feeling bad for myself. I was hurt and believed that if I had what he had, that I would finally be happy.

I would come to learn that Chris’s life was falling apart. His dad was a raging alcoholic cheating on his mom. They were splitting up and the family didn’t know where they were going to go. Chris was in a hard time, wrestling with hard things. And I realized that even if I had what Chris had, I would still come up empty, and hopeless. Because we live in a broken and hurting world. Ever since we sinned, we took what was perfect, and we broke it just a little. And after a while, it just gets more and more broken. I heard a fascinating principle that pilots use called the 1-60 rule. It means that if they get 1 degree off course, just 1 degree, in sixty miles, they will be a mile from there destination. All off of 1 degree. When humans first sinned, the world came under a curse, and the way the world worked became broken. Just like the 1-60 rule, the further time goes, the more broken our world becomes. We are thousands of miles off course when it comes to how the world should work or when it comes to how we should be treating people or trusting God. We need to be brought back to where we need to be.

God is going to restore all things.

But how do we get back to where we need to be. You and I never have lived in a world that wasn’t already stricken with sin and pain, brokenness and insecurity. Well, think about it this way. Let’s say you have a beautiful 1969 Chevy Camaro, and it gets absolutely T-boned at a stop light. This car just got in a massive wreck and is all messed up, but instead of getting a brand new car, you want your car to be like new again. You want the same car, but restored back to its original glory. The first thing you have to do, is get a tow truck to take it to the shop. The broken car doesn’t have the power to get itself back to a place where it can be fixed. The car needs something stronger and better than itself to help.

Go ahead and grab your Bibles and crank them open to the last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21. This will be in the very back of your Bible. I am going to go ahead and read for us our text:

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.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

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.”

Have you ever wondered what heaven would be like. It is totally okay to imagine what wonderful things might be in heaven, but maybe the thoughts that come to your mind when I say heaven aren’t particularly wonderful. My dad puts it super well when he talks about heaven and how he felt about it as a kid, because it is kind of how I thought about it. He talks about how he would someday like to go to heaven, “just not yet.” First I would, you know, like to get married and have some kids, or travel the world and see wonderful places, or have a great job with lots of friends and fun first. That is kind of how I felt. I thought, well I am sure that heaven is better than hell, but I wasn’t sure if heaven sounded real great if we were just going to sing for eternity.

Can I tell you something? Heaven will be like the good parts of this earth, without the bad parts. When our passage says that there is a new heaven and a new earth, and God says that he is making all things new, there is a special word there. Now just stick with me for a minute as I nerd out here. The Bible was not written in English. The Bible was written in Hebrew and Greek, and then it translated into English and a bunch of other languages. This passage was written in Greek.

You see, we use the word new to mean all different kinds of things. I learned that in the English language there can be as many as 17 definitions of our word new. We can mean it to mean that something has just been freshly created, like a pie. We could use to mean something is new to me, like if I bought a car that has already been owned. Or sometimes it can mean that we feel new, like we are restored, or back to how we are supposed to be. So, for an addict to say “I’m a new person,” it doesn’t actually mean that they are a different person. That person was always there, they had to be restored to themselves.

That is what this Greek word means. The word is called kainos. Say it with me: kainos. There is another word that means brand new. But this word, kainos means restored to the way it was supposed to be. It is kind of like Gold. Gold, when they mine it, has junk in it. It has rocks and dirt and all kinds of imperfections. The way that they get that junk out, is that they melt the gold down to a liquid, and sift out all of the other stuff. When the gold hardens, it is pure, just like it was created to be.

This tells us that there will be a kainos heavens and a kainos earth. Heaven will be like all the good stuff in this life, with all the junk sifted out. It will be a big family reunion without divorced families and gramma’s who passed away. It will be like a great sports game without all the penalties. It will be like seeing the perfect sunset go down without ever having to watch it end. It will be like going to the beach and not getting a sunburn. I bet heaven will be a lot like what we already know, but just WAY BETTER. We will finally be ourselves without any shame or pain or insecurities. No more broken relationships.

But we also know that in the last half of the passage we read, we heard about specific people that won’t make it into heaven. And that is good, and also terribly sad. This passage is saying that those who refused to submit to the Lordship of Christ will not get to spend eternity with him. All kinds of people can make it into heaven, if they repent and live with Christ as Lord, but for those who don’t, they will have punishment. Just as you would suspect that a bank robber would have to have a court ordered punishment, it is the same with eternity. God is a God of Justice and righteousness. He is right, and He has only ever done right. Yet God is also a God of deep mercy. All He requires is that you turn to Him and ask for His forgiveness and help, and He will wrap you up in the biggest hug that you have ever known, because He is your Father.

Heaven is home.

And where your Father resides, is your only true home. Now I know that some of you have wonderful earthly fathers, and some of you do not. For some of you, it may be terrible to think of God as your father, because your earthly Father has done terrible things to you, or quite possibly just left you. All I can say is that I am sorry. I am so sorry. God is not a Father like that. God is a Father who is always with you. He is on your side, cheering you on at every game you played and every show you put on. He loves to give hugs and to laugh. God is a Father of gentle-kindness, and who simply wants to look you in the eyes and say “you are mine, and I love you, I am so proud of who you are, because I see myself in you.”

And this Father wants nothing more than to bring you home. You are not yet where you were designed to be. You were created to live without sin and to live in a sinless world. We messed it up though. But God did not give up on us, he has been holding our hands the whole time. Matter of fact I heard a beautiful story-poem displaying this: One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each, I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints; other times there was only one. During the low periods of my life I could see only one set of footprints, so I said, "You promised me, Lord, that you would walk with me always. Why, when I have needed you most, have you not been there for me?" The Lord replied, "The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you."

God simply wants to carry you home. Because he knows that you are in pain, and 2 Corinthians 1 tells us that God is the Father of compassion, which literally means he feels your pain, he suffers right along side of you. When all you can do is cry, or sit in silence because of your numbness, or you are fuming with anger, he is the friend who is wise enough to sit with you quietly, until you are back under control. He cries with you. He hurts for you when your best friend betrays you, or that girl gossiped about you behind your back, or when you get left behind by a group of friends.

God wants to bring you home, to heaven, because that is where you belong. I love the lyrics to the song “where I belong.” It says: Sometimes it feels like I'm watching from the outside Sometimes it feels like I'm breathing, but am I alive? I will keep searching for answers that aren't here to find All I know is I'm not home yet This is not where I belong Take this world and give me Jesus This is not where I belong So when the walls come falling down on me And when I'm lost in the current of a raging sea I have this blessed assurance holding me All I know is I'm not home yet This is not where I belong Take this world and give me Jesus This is not where I belong.

And here is the good news. In Chapter 22:20, the second to last verse in the whole Bible, Jesus says: “yes, I am coming soon.” We, have no idea when Jesus is coming back. It could be before the end of this lesson, before next Sunday, or 30, or 300 years from now. We don’t know, Scripture tells us that nobody knows except God the Father.

Conclusion

It is okay that we don’t know when he comes back, because we know that when he comes back, he will be making everything good again. It will be like seeing an old friend. It will be like a gigantic family potluck dinner with fried chicken and sweet tea, people to laugh with and no awkward conversations. It will be wonderful, and it is okay for you to use your imagination. We must be prepared, by holding strongly to our faith in Christ, who died on a tree, so that He could undo the sin we committed by plucking fruit from a tree. And because of His sacrifice we get forgiveness if we place our faith in Him. It is by His sacrifice that we get a ticket to heaven, where Revelation 22 tells us that the tree of life stands. That tree brings healing to our wounds, to mend our broken world.

So, I have this challenge for you. Dream about heaven. Here in a few minutes we are going to have a time to write down some fun things that might be in heaven. Even in the book of Colossians in chapter 3, it says to set our hearts and minds on things above. So my challenge for you this week, is whenever you experience something good this week, just say “thanks God” and do some dreaming about what you think heaven might be like.