The Blessed Hope
Notes
Transcript
This morning’s Scripture Lesson is taken from Revelation 21:1-8
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.”
The Christmas/New Year season has been called the season of hope. A small child writes a letter to Santa and hopes he will bring that special toy on Christmas morning. A young woman hopes her boyfriend will “pop the question” and hand her a small box containing a diamond ring. Grandparents hope to see their children and grandchildren gathered in their home, and everyone makes New Year resolutions in hope that the New Year will be a better one. All of these hopes are wonderful, but none of them is guaranteed.
Through Christ, God offers us a hope that offers much more: A New Creation, A New Normal and A New Reality! If that were not enough, He also guarantees it!
The first thing He offers us is a New Creation.
A New Creation
A New Creation
Verses 1-2 of our text are designed to remind us of Genesis 1:1-2:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
I am sure you see the parallels: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and in the end, God will recreate the heaven and the earth! This is a poetic ways of saying God created everything and when Christ comes back again, He will recreate everything! This is what I mean by a new creation; but there is more here.
In both the Old and New Testaments, “heaven” refers to more than just the sky and what we call outer space today, it also refers to the spiritual realm which God created for spiritual beings and is the place where His presence now dwells.
Verse 2 of our text teaches us something very special about this new creation, something your heart has always longed for, but perhaps you have never correctly identified it. In this new creation the tension between God’s spiritual creation and His physical creation will be resolved. Heaven (that is the spiritual realm) and earth (that is the physical realm” shall be made one. All of creation feels this tension, but no creator feels it more keenly than humanity. Mankind is unique, we alone of all of God’s creatures were created as the union between the physical and spiritual. In contrast, the animal world is physical and the angelic world is spirit. The author of Ecclesiastes, who calls himself “the teacher” writes of this tension:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
The book of Ecclesiastes is a book about the futility of trying to resolve this tension apart from Christ. The Teacher, who many believe is Solomon, attempts to resolve this tension through the amassing of wealth and possessions, through obtaining power and prestige, through gaining knowledge and wisdom, and finally through sensual pleasure. He is more successful in gaining these things than any human being before or after his time, but he discovers his success in obtaining them leaves him empty. In the end, he declares all of life to be vanity.
As our nation turns more and more away from Christ, we see our fellow citizen desperately attempting to feel the void in their hearts using the same vain methods the author of Ecclesiastes did. Just this week I spoke to a man who recently moved back to Carmichaels from North Carolina. He shared with me his distress in discovering all his old friends either had died from drug abuse or were currently enslaved by drugs. Our hearts long for that which is eternal, but we attempt to satisfy that hunger with things that are not!
The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus came and who will come again to finally unite heaven and earth. In Ephesians 1, we read:
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
This is our Blessed Hope! The reason we light the Advent Candle of Hope is to remind us of this and to remind us that we are to be a light of this hope.
The second aspect of our Blessed Hope is found in verses 2-4; it is the hope of...
A New Normal
A New Normal
In recent years, there has been a lot of talk in recent years of the “new normal”. People who speak of the “new normal” like to remind us that the past 250 years in America has been an apparition, it is not “normal” for people to life so free and prosperously. Other peoples, both past and present do not enjoy what we have as a nation and we better get used to living like the rest of the world.
This is not the “new normal” that is found in Christ Jesus. I want to read Revelation 21:2-4 again so that you can hear again how blessed our hope is:
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.”
All of our hopes and dreams will be fully satisfied in the new heaven and new earth that Christ usher in! Life will not simply be getting better, it will be as good as it can get!
This brings us to our final hope: The hope of...
A New Reality
A New Reality
When I say a “new reality”, what I mean is that when Christ comes again and consummates His Kingdom, hope will no longer be necessary. Paul writes of this in Romans 8:24-25:
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
There is a Day coming when faith will become sight, when all that we hope for will become reality. I realize that this is hard to imagine and I am not suggesting that the joys of the New Heaven and New Earth are static. I believe C.S. Lewis was correct when he suggests in his book, The Final Battle, that the joys of heaven will rush upon us with such velocity that our imaginations and desires cannot keep up with them.
This is a state of affairs totally unlike anyone in heaven or on earth are currently experiencing, but this is what the final verses of our text seem to suggest.
Verse 5 says that Jesus is currently “making all things new.” Not somethings, but ALL things. Moreover, this total transformation of reality is so assured, that from the divine perspective they are as good as done!
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.
Does this the promise of this new reality make you thirsty? If so, Jesus in this verse promises to satisfy your thirst! This is such an important promise, Jesus repeats it once again before the book of Revelation comes to a close.
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
Notice that this promise is given freely; without limit and without price. Brothers and sister this is our Blessed Hope.
I have not spoken of verse 8 yet, it reads:
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.”
Why are these words found in a passage of such hope? It is not to remind us of the danger of placing our hope in the wrong place. The more blessed true hope is the more cursed false hopes are.
This is why we light the candle of hope today. It reminds us were true hope is found. It reminds us that we must have this hope shine brightly in our own life, in order that others may see it.
Let us pray.