God's Big Picutre: The Perfected Kingdom

A long wait

What’s the longest you’ve had to wait for something you really wanted?

Perhaps for a loved one to return from a trip away?

Maybe for an item you bought online to turn up in your mailbox?

For a bus to come that’s running late?

Waiting can be hard can’t it?

And well, we’ve been waiting some 2000 years actually for Jesus to return. Maybe not us personally, but as part of the collective people of God.

That’s a long wait.

Thinking about the future when Jesus will return is not something we’re very good at, partly because we’ve been waiting so long.

And yet, as we’ve traced through the big story of the Bible over the last 9 weeks, we’ve seen haven’t we that God is a God who keeps his promises.

But not on our timelines!

Scholars place the time between God calling Abram until the arrival of Jesus at around 2,000 years.

God’s people should be ready and willing to wait for God to achieve his promises, and yet remain faithful while they wait.

We are waiting for God to introduce his kingdom in its perfected form.

And in the book of revelation God shows us what we’re waiting for.

God’s Kingdom: God’s People in God’s place, under God’s rule and blessing.

Talk to chart.

Revelation

Last book of the bible.

Gives us the end of our story. Wraps up God’s big picture.

Written by John. It’s his vision of the end times.

It’s apocalyptic literature. This style of literature uses symbolism to convey its message. Daniel 7-12 and Zech 1-6 similar examples of this style of writing in the Bible.

John receives a series of visions which are meant to encourage Christians to persevere in the face of suffering. They lift our eyes from the here and now to the cosmic, or spiritual reality. Jesus Christ is Lord.

He is in control. He is seated on the throne.

Revelation is a notoriously hard book to interpret well.

Preterist view - all the different symbols (the beast with the number 666, the four horsemen, etc) referred to someone in John’s day

Historicist view - all the different symbols refer to different people/events throughout history in a chronological order from the first until the second coming.

Futurist view - all the symbols from Rev 4 onwards describe only the events at the very end of the world in a short period in the lead up to Jesus’ return.

Vaughn Roberts

“Each of those positions has problems. It is better to see the book as describing what will happen in the whole of ‘the last days’ between the ascension of Christ and his second coming. Revelation is not written to give us a time chart… So for example, the four horsemen have been active, and will be active throughout the last days. They represent the imperialistic aggression, bloodshed, economic instability and death that will mark every age until Christ returns. Christians will have to hold firmly to the vision of the throne in heaven if they are to persevere through such hardships. And we… remind ourselves that they (the hardships) will not go on forever… Jesus will (return and) destroy evil and establish the perfect new creation.

A Whole New World

Out with the Old

In Rev 17-20 we see the destruction of Satan at the end of time so that he can make a new world free from evil.

In with the new

In Rev 21-22 a variety of OT images are used to describe the new world.

It’s like a world renovation.

The Block or House Rules turning a run down old house into something new room by room.

The first few days of this week they have to turn around the house are all about destruction in order to make way for the new good thing.

There is both continuity, same house, same address, same owners. And discontinuity, mould gone, kitchens and bathrooms updates, building restored.

So it is with the perfected Kingdom.

New Jerusalem - God’s people

Revelation 21:2 NIV

2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Into this new world comes a new city.

God’s goal for us in his perfected kingdom is that we are a perfect community of all ages and races worshipping God together.

New Creation - God’s place

Revelation 21:1 NIV

1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

A new creation which will be unaffected by the fall. By the sin of Adam. God is not simply saving our souls, he is saving our bodies and the environment in which we live too.

We look forward not to a disembodied existence in eternity, but a physical one, like now. Only better, without sin. Perfected.

Eden is restored.

New Temple - God’s blessing

Revelation 21:3 NIV

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Though we know God by His Spirit now, our knowledge is still limited in our experience, and all of us wish to know God more.

We shall in the perfected kingdom.

No special place where God’s presence will be concentrated. No holy building to go to. No distance between us and God, we shall know him perfectly.

In this new creation, this new Jerusalem, this new temple, God’s people will submit perfectly to God’s rule and experience His perfect blessing.

Won’t it be wonderful? Revelation finishes in the same way the OT. Looking forward to what God will do to fulfil his promises.

Jesus has the final word in Rev 22:20...

Revelation 22:20 NIV

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

We want Jesus to return so we can experience the kingdom in all its perfected glory.

If we do we better get on with the job of inviting others in to the kingdom, so they too can wait with eager expection and experience with us a perfect eternity.