Longing for a Perfect World
Notes
Transcript
The World We ALL Want
The World We ALL Want
The US News and World Report analyzes cities all across America every year and release their list of the best places to live in the US.
In 2021 they gave the title to Boulder, Colorado.
There scoring of cities is based off 5 indexes that are determined either from data taken from the US Census or another agency, or from their own surveys. The 5 indexes are:
job market- the availability of good jobs
value- how comfortable residents are able to live within their means (income vs affordability basically)
quality of life- how satisfied residents are with their everyday lives. Crime, healthcare, education, traffic, and general well-being are all factors in determining this index
desirability- how many people would want to move to a particular place.
net migration- How many people actually moved to the particular city.
Obviously there are other factors we consider important in choosing a place to live, but I think what this report does reveal is that we desire to live in a place that is safe, comfortable, peaceful, free of crime and danger, free of conflict and strife, where we can enjoy life and not want for anything.
I am sure Bolder, CO is a great place and that overall people are decently happy living there, but we all know there is no place on this earth that is without some form of pain, evil, despair, sickness, conflict, injustice, and, without the reality of death.
Also it is kind of funny (in a peculiar way) that the top city in US News is often different from year to year. Perhaps that points to the reality that things are never perfect in this world.
We could move around every year to the new city that hits the top of the list and we would still live in a place that is not perfect and does not ultimately satisfy our souls.
If we are honest, it is fun to dream, but it really is a fantasy isn’t it?
Here are 2 and a half (wink) compelling reasons I believe it isn’t just a fantasy or something fun to daydream about.
It is a SHARED desire.
It is a SHARED desire.
There is a deep-seated, born-in desire in all of us to live in a perfect world.
Everyone has their ideas of what that kind of world would look like and how it would function.
And everyone has their ideas of how we might be able to attain it.
Liberals and conservatives have differing ideas.
Different religious groups have ideas.
Sociologists, economist, theologians, and philosophers have their ideas.
And though they may differ, there are 3 shared constants:
The belief that there is something BROKEN.
The belief that there is something BROKEN.
No one believes the world we live in is perfect.
The belief that there is something BETTER.
The belief that there is something BETTER.
Maybe some have a more optimistic view than others, but no one believes everything is perfect.
That’s the reason we work to fix it, through social service, government, medicine, education, engineering, economics, and all sorts of other endeavors.
The hope that we can FIX IT.
The hope that we can FIX IT.
Either fix it for ourselves and our families, or fix it for others too, depending on how ambitious we may be.
Regardless, the idea of a better world, a perfect world is a believable thing because it is shared by all.
King Solomon I think accurately describes this innate, shared human desire for a better world in Ecclesiastes 3:11
“He (God) has put eternity in our hearts.”
Solomon had just expressed how empty the pursuits of things on earth were.
He was likely the wealthiest and wisest man that ever lived, and had the opportunity to experience all the world had to offer, and had found is all to be “futile” and like “Chasing after the wind”.
Solomon is saying “there is something better, something more perfect that everyone of us longs for. Something that doesn’t exist in this world. And every one of us has a born-in desire for that thing, eternity.”
Paul, in Romans 8 also points to this shared desire:
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
“Creation waits with eager longing” “the whole of creation has been GROANING” “we ourselves GROAN inwardly...”
That feeling that the world we live in is broken and that there must be something better is well described as a GROANING and a LONGING.
Here is the second reason I believe a better world is not just a fantasy:
It is a PROMISED reality.
It is a PROMISED reality.
Until the late 1600s people didn’t really know exactly how to explain it, but when you jumped into the air, you always came back down.
Sir Issac Newton was credited with providing us a scientific explanation for what we now know to be gravity.
Newton didn’t invent gravity, he just discovered it.
As we have established, deep down in all of us is the belief that there is the possibility of a better/perfect world.
We have our theories about it, but they are just that, theories.
But God has made a promise and even painted us a picture (in words).
God MAKES a PROMISE.
God MAKES a PROMISE.
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.”
This is God’s revelation to the Apostle John (one of the closest followers of Jesus).
It was God’s intention to show John, through visions, what His plan was for the heavens and the earth, and that is what Revelation is about, especially the end of the book).
John sees a New Heaven and New Earth, a holy city and New Jerusalem coming down from heaven. This old heaven and earth was passing away.
This is God recreating this broken world we currently live in and making all things new, which is exactly what He says in vs. 5.
God describes this New Creation:
God living with His people- restoring what was broken in the garden years before.
God wiping away every tear from our eyes because there is no longer any reason to cry, or mourn or feel pain.
God fully and completely destroying death and all it’s repercussions.
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. 6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
The water of life flows from the throne of God- no one will thirst.
The tree of life with 12 kinds of fruit- no one will hunger.
The leaves of the tree for the healing of the nations- no sickness and no conflict or strife.
No more night for God’s glory will light up all- the absence of evil and darkness in the world where evil may hide.
21:5 & 22:6 makes similar statements about TWWAW
“I am making all things new…these words are trustworthy and true.”
“These words are trustworthy and true…what must soon take place.”
“No lie” “honestly” “Make sure you are hearing this”
It might sound far-fetched, hopeless, and a pipedream in a world like this, but God makes a promise and…
God SHOWS the PROMISE.
God SHOWS the PROMISE.
We are going to die much deeper into this next week, but God does’t just talk about the New Creation, this promise of repairing this broken world.
He actually gives us a glimpse of it in Jesus (this is our .5 reason)
In Mark 5:21-43, Jesus does 2 incredible miracles
It is important to understand Mark, a real man who was recording real events in the life of Jesus, is not sharing something that may happen in the future, but something that has already happened in history.
A religious leader names Jarius falls at Jesus’s feet and begs Him to come and lay hands on his daughter who is really sick.
Jesus goes with him and a large crowd follows making it hard to walk.
In the crowd is a woman who has been suffering from bleeding for 12 years.
She had tried everything to heal her ailment with no success.
She was desperate and believed Jesus could heal her.
Working her way through the crowd, she touches Jesus’s robe and is “instantly healed”
Jesus doesn’t know who He has healed, the woman finally speaks up and Jesus tells her:
34 “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.”
While this was happening, Jarius’s daughter had died.
Jesus was a healer, but the crowd and likely Jarius didn’t believe He could do anything to help now, they were out of time.
The words of Jesus to Jarius are powerful:
36 But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”
In 2 Aramaic words, Jesus restores life to the young girls body.
God tells us in Revelation that He is going to wipe away tears, wipe away death, and take away pain
In Mark we see Jesus do it.
It was only a glimpse of TWWAW,
While he was healing others were dying
Jesus provides us with a taste of TWWAW like tasting a meal from an all-star chef
It was a foretaste, a hint and a promise of the world we all want!
As we read about it, we may find ourselves thinking: “I want that world, and I want it now!”
Response
That longing in your heart for a better world and a better life, don’t ignore it.
God has put eternity in your hearts and promised us a heavenly home where the longings we have for this world will be satisfied.
Don’t look for answers here; yes let’s work toward justice, peace, and goodness, fight against evil, but know that we are fighting a battle we can’t win.
All the things that have ever deeply possessed your souls have been but hints of heaven-tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear…If I find in myself a desire which no experience this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. — C.S. Lewis, Problem of Pain