Sermon Tone Analysis

- There have been epoch moments – new moments – in my life that changed me forever

Being Ready For Renewal

Date: 12-05-19 832 Echuca

- There have been epoch moments – new moments – in my life that changed me forever

- The first moment was when I became a Christian

- I haven’t talked a lot about that from the pulpit, but it was life changing for me

- You see, I was a broken, insecure young man, not on the outside, but on the inside, who had come from a broken home & had many insecurities

- Life seemed empty & hollow – the unified family I had grown up with was now fragmented – life was, frankly, lifeless

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- But then I came to know Christ & the life that He infuses in a person

- I began to breath again – not literally, but metaphorically

- I began to feel life & feel alive – it’s like I was experiencing something new – it was a sense of newness, vitality

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- That moment when Christ took hold of me is something monumental; it had a newness & it was wonderful

- There was purpose, there was meaning & there was cohesion

- From the fragmentation I experienced, I now experienced a cohesion & that cohesion came as a result of Christ

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- The second “new” experience for me was when I got married

- That was something new & something special

- I recall a moment on the plane to our honeymoon destination in Hawaii & I looked at Ros (she was asleep) & it dawned on me that I was going to be with this person for the rest of my life – now that’s a change

- I was no longer single, but married, no longer on my own, but joined to another

- It was new, it was wonderful & it’s been wonderful even since

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- I think, at times, in a world that is so steady with its seasons & movements, whether any substantial change could ever happen

- We are certain the sun will come up the next day

- We know that we will have our various seasons in spite of the climate change hysteria

- The resilience of the world & life is amazing

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Q.

But can there truly be a disruption to this?

Q.

An apocalyptic event that would give us a new heaven & a new earth?

- I admit, I’m a sceptic at heart & it takes a lot to convince me to change my mind once I have examined something & come to a decision

- I listen to what John says here in the book of Revelation & I am in two minds

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- In one thought, I’m thinking, “what will it be like”?

“Will something happen to change the status quo”?

- In the other thought, I think, “this is almost too wonderful to believe”!

- We are so use to life, as we know it – we are use to disappointments, regrets, pain, loss, sadness & grief etc.

- Yes, there are many good things too for which we are very thankful for & happy about

- But in the general sphere of living, it is hard to conceive of a time, when brokenness will end; pain will end; hurt will end; death will end

- For many people, they would find it hard to perceive

- But this is the very message of Revelation

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- In my other thought, I’m incredibly heartened by what will be the combined worth of every Christmas ever experienced

- Jesus triumphs!

- He entered into a fallen, broken, corrupt world with the express task of transformation from the inside out

- When I say, “He entered into a fallen world”, I mean that He entered into His world

- I don’t want us to read about the new heavens & earth as something created for us, but rather as something created for Jesus

As Adam had a world made for him, so shall Jesus Christ, this second Adam—Adam being a type of him that was to come—have a world made for him.

This world was not good enough for him; he has a better appointed than that which old Adam had, a new heaven and a new earth, according to the promise, where the saints shall reign.

-- Thomas Goodwin ca 1650 AD

The end of God’s creating the world was to prepare a kingdom for his Son (for he is appointed heir of the world) that should remain to all eternity.

-- Jonathan Edwards ca 1745 AD

-- 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.

To Him be the glory forever.

Amen.

- The kingdom & the world to come is for Christ

- But we are in Christ – where He goes, we go; where we go, He goes

- We are destined for the new heavens & the new earth as His people & His subjects – we are the subjects of the king

1.

New Heaven & New Earth

- The new heavens & new earth was first announced by the prophet Isaiah in 8th C. BC

—17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.

- It became a constant message in the NT church

- In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer says that a person needs to be very careful to stay in the Christian faith because a new heavens & earth is coming & only those who have stayed faithful to Christ will enter

—25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking.

For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.

26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.”

27 This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

- Wow – the big question – are you part of the kingdom that cannot be shaken & removed

- What will happen is the removal of the fallen world that has been corrupted by sin & has fallen prey to evil spiritual forces

- Through sin, the earth was cursed – men were to labour more intensely as the earth would struggle to be fruitful

- Mothers would experience great increased pain in giving birth to future generations

- The marriage relationship would become a battlefield of toxicity with one spouse trying to dominate the other

- Evil spiritual forces use the weakness of Man to exploit him & turn him from God

- All these things need to be removed

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- The apostle Peter also speaks about the new heavens & earth

- In his Epistle, he is countering the people who think that the Lord’s timing of it should be subject to their timeline

- Jesus needs to come & come now, otherwise, there is no coming of Jesus

- But God’s timing is not dependent upon the whims & desire of man

- In fact, Peter goes on to explain that the reason for the delay in the return of Jesus & the renewal of creation is that God is wanting people from ALL the nations of the earth to come into the kingdom of Christ

- So he writes...

—8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.

9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.

11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

- Can you grasp that the new heavens & earth will be a world of righteousness

- Now righteousness can mean “being right with God” or in a “right relationship with God” & no doubt that is absolutely true of the new heavens & earth

- But righteousness is also doing the right thing by God

- That means right conduct, right living, according to the will of our God

- What a place that would be – no locked anything – locksmiths will be one trade that no longer exists!

2. The New Jerusalem

- The first image, we have dealt with – that of the new heavens & earth

- The second image in this passage is the image of a bride

- The church is referred to as the bride of Christ & He has made her holy with the washing of water with the word, as Paul says in

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- Ultimately, Christ’s sacrificial death & resurrection achieved the victory for His church

- As in the book of Rev., John discovers that it is the Lion of Judah who has triumphed & able to open the seals that permit God purposes in history to unfold, but when he looks, he doesn’t see a Lion, but..

—5 ...one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.” 6 And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

- What a contrast – the one who conquered was not the warrior, but the one slaughtered

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- The new Jerusalem comes out of heaven from God & this symbolic city is pure & is the abode of God’s people

- You should not try & apply an extreme literalness to these images

- They are meant to give us theological truths in image form – John is attempting to describe the almost indescribable

- In the city is measured & it is a 2,500 klm cube

- Cities are not cubes, but the Holy of Holies, in the temple, happens to be a perfect cube

3. God’s Presence

- As you know, the Holy of Holies is where God meet with man’s representative – at the time, the high priest

- So the imagery here shatters the old layout which restricted the contact between God & man – to only one person/one contact per year