Our Glorious Future
Notes
Transcript
1 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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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. 4 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.” 5 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.” 6 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. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 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.”
Our Present Experience
A world full of both pleasure and pain
A world that is full of experiences that come and then go
Love and Heartache, compassion and hate, and many other counter experiences.
I’m sure at present, many of you are stuck at home because of the threat of sickness and the frailty of life.
Many of us our wondering what this whole Coronavirus Epidemic will mean for our lives now.
You might be asking questions like this?
Am I going to get sick and die?
Will I lose a loved one to this virus?
Will I have enough money to survive three months from now?
Will our economy ever recover?
Will our church recover?
These are real questions people are asking right now. People are scared.
And, I in no way want to belittle your concerns regarding this whole situation...
But, in times like these, we must remind ourselves of what God has planned for us.
Because, what we see now is not eternity! This isn’t the ultimate destination of life.
With that said,
Today, I want to talk to you about the Glorious Future that awaits every Christian.
The Apostle Peter said these words to a church that was suffering because they were experiencing uncertainty and suffering. In reality, their present was much worse than ours.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Peter said: Look Forward!
Remember what awaits you when Jesus returns!
This is why I chose this section of Revelation.
The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation A New Creation (21:1–8)
John describes the new creation (21:1) not to satisfy our curiosity about the future, but to comfort us about the eventual change in the nature of this world.
Thats what we need in this uncertainty. Some Comfort.
So let’s work our way through this text with Five comforting reminders about our future...
Our first comforting Reminder...
Our Present Will Eventually Pass Away
1 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.
The old must pass to pave way for the new to come.
11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
Marks of the Old - Which is our present
Chaotic and tainted - the sea
Never meant to be permanent - it’s the first
Heaven and earth separated -
Terminal - able to pass away
There is an amazing song by Jon Foreman on his album “Sunlight” called “Terminal”
Here are the lyrics
“The doctor says I'm dying
I die a little every day
He's got no prescription
That could take my death away
The doctor says, It don't look so good
It's terminal”
The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Book of Revelation In the New Creation the Faithful Will Experience the Salvation Blessing of Intimate Communion with God, but the Unfaithful Will Be Excluded from This Blessing (21:1–8)
The “first” was impermanent and temporary, whereas the “second” is to be permanent and enduring.
This is the reality we all experience in the present. We share this experience with everything that exists in this present physical world.
Plants
Animals
And eventually all material things
Things like the Coronavirus only speed up this inevitability.
It’s best for us Christians to loosen our grip on this world. Not just because it will one day pass away, but also because of the fact that scripture testifies to the world’s chaotic and tainted state.
My encouragement to you is to loosen your grip on your
plans
pursuit of comfort now
and desires to accumulate more and more stuff
Ask yourself,
“Do I live as if this is all there is?” - “Do I act like this world is corrupted by sin” - “Do I get overly upset and angry when things don’t go the way I want them to?”
Our Present Will Eventually Pass Away
Our second Comforting Reminder...
God Is Preparing Us For A Glorious Future
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Here, John refers to God’s people as “the holy city, new Jerusalem”
In Revelation 21:9-10, John confirms that he is speaking of the church, Christ’s bride.
9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,
The important piece to notice here is that the church is coming down from heaven, from God, after God prepares her.
This is the complete culmination of salvation for God’s people.
We generally think of salvation in three aspects.
Justification - the righteous eternal standing believers attain through faith in Christ. Past
Sanctification - the process by which God conforms living saints into the holy image of His son. - This is where we are in the present!
Glorification - The final and complete transformation of believers into a glorified state of being where they are then eternally reunited with God as the New Jerusalem. This is like the culmination of a marriage. I believe, this is what John is speaking about here.
Justification and Sanctification were a part of the preparation process, but glorification is where it all becomes actualized!
Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) Behold, I Make All Things New
When God makes the bride ready for the Son, the way he does it is by giving us his glory—verse 11: “having the glory of God.” And this glory will purify us so deeply and so thoroughly that we will be like a rare jewel, clear as crystal.
This is beautiful.
But because all of this is united in our preparation, (Justification, sanctification, and glorification) it means that all our suffering, all of our faithfulness in this uncertainty, is part of God’s preparing us for something infinitely better!
God is doing all the work in our Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. We are merely participating in it through holding on to Him in faith!
If you are able to view life through this understanding it as a preparation process for glory, you can be victorious in all things.
Like:
An uncertain career - This corona virus could destroy my career, but that just means I will get to trust God through it!
A life debilitating disease - Simply put, illness in this present age will make glory in the future all the more sweeter.
Re orient your perception of trials! When you feel despair in the present, remind yourself that this is preparation for the future!
We see that this preparation is worth all the pain and sacrifice with our third comforting reminder...
Our Glorious Future Will Be With God and Without Sin
Unfiltered - complete - and pure
3 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. 4 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.”
The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation A New Creation (21:1–8)
This will be the most explicit “tabernacling” of God with humanity since the Incarnation
God’s perfection and glory are too holy and great to allow sin and all that it plagued the earth to be in His presence.
Truly, God’s presence will be our protection. We will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. We will basque in His presence. Enjoy the sweet taste of His holiness and the benefits of His holiness.
He will intimately and personally wipe the tears from our eyes.
We will no longer need to fear death because he will sustain us with His eternal life.
We will no longer need to mourn because in His presence is fullness of joy.
We will no longer need to cry because he will be a pure and complete comfort.
There will be no more pain because in His presence is infinite pleasure.
Do you realize that all of these things are the things every human being longs for!
Every person pursues these things in life now only to watch them slip away.
C.S. Lewis once said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
In the presence of God is where all these longings find their reality.
If you are not a Christian, and you are listening to this, ask yourself, “Why do I long for something that I can never find here?”
Maybe you’re listening and your thinking, “this sounds too good to be true!”
You can be confident and hopeful because our Fourth Comforting reminder is that...
Our Glorious Future Is Guaranteed
You can take it to the bank!
5 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.” 6 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.
I love how this is stated. It’s stated as a guarantee. As if it is already done.
You can’t stop what is coming! No one can!
God is going to have his way all the way down to the smallest of details.
He says these words are “trustworthy and true”
You can believe this! You can put your confidence in it!
No one can thwart God’s plan. No one. Not you, not me, not satan. No demon. No president. No king. No one!
No one has the power to stop God in completing what he has decided to do!
You can hope in His promise completely.
This has been a comfort to me lately.
Hope.
H - He
O - Over
P - Powers
E - Everything
He OverPowers Everything
God will not loose. He will succeed in making this a reality.
His success is linked to who he is - The Alpha and the Omega.
He is God, no beginning and no end. His very existence determines beginning and end.
There is one stipulation to this guarantee that we see in our fifth comforting reminder...
This Glorious Future Is Reserved for Christ’s Church
Only for those who have placed their faith in Christ and repented of their sin
6 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. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 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.”
The free gift of grace is available to all who are thirsty for it.
Jesus is the source of this eternal spring of water. He is the means of access to it.
Turning from sin (which defines your identity) and pursuing the access point of grace is how people find this guaranteed future!
Those who do not come to the access point of grace are destined for the second death.