The Gifts of Christmas: Part 2

Introduction

Luke 1:31-33 “31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

The kingdom of Chirst is a never ending, eternal kingdom. On that first Christmas morning when Jesus was born the innauguaration of the king had come. And for all those in Christ the calling to this kingdom has come.

Philippians 3:20 “20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”

Someday, he is coming back to judge the nations and his perfect, eternal kingdom will have domain.

You and I are citizens of a heavenly, kingdom. Last week we learned about the glorious gifts of Christmas for the believer now—on this earth. And as we close our Christmas series I want us to attempt to grasp the glories that await us in eternity. And I say attempt because here, in this broken creation, with these broken bodies we can truly only see the outlines of these glorious things. I believe you could study and mediate on the Scriptures your entire life and you would still gasp in awe at the great revealing of what is to come. Isn’t that an exciting idea?

So, this morning we will see that the future gifts of Christmas can be summarized as receiving, I. Perfected Bodies, II. In a Perfected Place, III. With Perfected Vision.

First, let’s consider our...

I. Perfected Bodies

The world we live in is full of brokeness. Every time I share the gospel with people I always start by stating that God created the world as good and man as very good, but that we don’t see that in this world. What we live in is brokeness. I have never had one person argue that point with me. We all understand brokeness in this world. Why?

Because we live in it ourselves, we experience it. Romans 5:12

12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men[a] because all sinned

Romans 8:22 (KJV 1900)

22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

We know the limitations of these bodies that have been corrupted by sin. We experience aches and pains and age creeps into our bones and we feel the toll it takes on us.

But one of the glorious future gifts of Christ’ Christmas is that you and I will have perfectly working bodies.

Look at what Revelation 21:4 says

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.”

There will be no tears, no pain, no crying—because all of the former things of this sinful world will have passed away.

What will it be like to have a body that doesn’t experience pain?

How many of you get up in the morning and it’s just a given that your going to be sore and hurting for a bit until your body gets used to being awake?

How many of you have an old injury that continues to linger and bother you?

I hurt my back years ago and I pay for it to this day. It has never healed properly.

People are born with birth defects that cause them great difficulty.

We grow old. We become limited by our bodies.

You see this in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus is praying and the disciples want to pray with him, but they keep falling asleep. Jesus says in Matthew 26:41

41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Our spirits in Christ are redeemed, but our bodies are not yet redeemed and so we struggle and suffer.

But friends there is coming a day when you will no longer struggle and suffer. There is coming a day when your spirit and your body will match in glorious harmony—one will not betray the other. What your spirit desire to do your body will be able to do.

No disease, no arthritis, no cancer,

We will have perfectly working bodies. Because we will have glorified bodies.

Philippians 3:21 says so...

21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

1 Corinthians 15:53-55 agrees...

53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

When we are in eternity we will have new perfect bodies—immortal, imperishable, beautiful, functional, but there’s more. We’ll also have bodies that are like Jesus’ as we saw in Phil. 3:21. “our lowly bodies will be made glorious like his” Our bodies will be resurrected bodies. What does that mean exactly? I don’t know but the Bible does tell us somethings.

1 Corinthians 15:42–44

42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body

1. They are imperishable—ever lasting, incorruptible.

2. They are glorious—beautiful, functional, perfectly suited.

3. They are powerful—strong, able, enduring.

4. They are spiritual—ruled by the Spirit, whole with our spirit, no contradictions between wanting to follow the Spirit and being able to.

When Jesus was on this earth after his resurrection he appeared at places by will. He walked through walls as if they were immaterial. He ascended into heaven defying the laws of gravity. Does this mean that you and I will have glorious powers like these? I can only confidently say maybe.

But I think it is likely.

And I know that whatever new things our bodies are capable of they will blow us away and as we look back at these former bodies and see just how fragile and broken and sinful they are. This will cause us to worship our God for the gift of new bodies, but also for the geat care he took of us when we were so limited by these boidies of sin.

Now before we move on from the gift of perfected bodies we have to recognize what will be the greatest aspect of these bodies. Everything we have talked about will be glorious, but by the far the best part of resurrection bodies will be that they are...

Bodies without sin

Romans 8:30 says “30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”

Those who belong to the Lord are called, justified, sanctified, and will be glorified.

What is the difference between sanctification and glorification?

Sanctification is that process that every believer experiences here on earth. When we are saved we get new hearts that are moldable and the Holy Spirit begins to work in our hearts making us to be more and more like our Lord Jesus. It’s a chiseling process and sanding process and sometimes it is a breaking and mending process.

But glorification is that moment when sanctification is complete—where we are like our Lord Jesus. We will no longer struggle against sin because we will not be tempted by sin. There will be no part of our bodies that desire sin. Heart, soul, mind, and body will all be perfected.

This is what God’s word says...

Philippians 1:6 “6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

1 Corinthians 15:52 “52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.”

If this doesn’t excite you I’m going to be worried about your salvation.

Saved people understand well the struggle against sin. In Romans 7:15 Paul says, “15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

Man we get that.

Friends, in heaven there will be no struggle. There will be no temptation to sin. Why will there be no crying, pain, death, mourning? Because our bodies will be absent from sin in their glorious state and so the consequences of sin will not be present.

Because Christ will have put to death sin once and for all at his great and glorious coming. Amen!

Not only will we have perfected bodies, but we’ll be living in a...

II. A Perfected Place

When I was a teenager and had been saved I knew I didn’t want hell. I knew that I deserved hell. I knew that Christ saved me from hell. And I knew that I wanted to be with Christ. But to be honest…the descriptions of heaven that I had heard about seemed, better than Hell, but pretty dull. My hope then was that God would just make me happy with dull. This was a poor understanding of the new heavens and new earth.

When Jesus returns to judge the world and establish his physical kingdom the old heavens and old earth will pass away and the new heavens and earth will come, the holy city Jerusalem will come to earth,

But let’s not just take my word for it. Let’s look at

2 Peter 3:10–13

10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies[a] will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.[b]

11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Revelation 21:1–5

21 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[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.[c] 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.”

Some exciting truths we learn from these passages.

1. The old Heavens and Earth, corrupted by sin, will be destroyed and replaced with a new Heavens and Earth.

In eternity you and I will live in physical bodies in a physical place. We will not just be disembodied spirits living in a spiritual world.

When Jesus ascended into heaven he ascended as, and will eternally be, the God/Man. Jesus has a physical body and so will we.

And that is really exciting. The most beautiful thing about our world is the natural creation of God. It seems to be the least effected by the Fall.

In the new heaven and new earth we will explore the beauty of God’s creation free’d from sin.

What will sunsets look like? Sunrises? What will it be like to see the mountain ranges or the ocean? How will it feel to have a fire in the snow?

All of these things which are beautiful now will be perfected and we will experience them with a perfected body.

These passages speak of the heavenly city, Jerusalem. “2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Christ has been preparing a place for us and it will be massive.

Rev. 21:16 says that the heavenly city will be 12,000 stadia long, wide, and tall. 12,000 stadia equates to 1,380 miles.

I want you to imagine with me a warehouse building. Think about the distance from your driveway to the parking lot of the church. Think about all the landmarks you pass on the way here to get a picture of how much space you covering on your way to church.

Now picture that the front left corner of this warehouse starts at your house and the front right corner ends here at the church. Can you picture it? Now that is a massive building front. Now take that massive building front and realized that the warehouse is as wide as it is long. So now you can picture the area of the bulding. Let me show you a picture of what that would look like from my house.

From my drive way to the church parking lot it is 4.1 miles. (Show picture of how massive this building is)

Now remember it is as tall as it is wide and long. (Here’s a picture of the empire state building.)

From my house to the church is 4 miles long, that’s 21,120 feet. That’s 16.89 empire state building stacked on top of each other. That is reaches higher than Mt. Mckinley in Alaska which is 20,000 feet high. That’s mind boggling.

Now let me show you a picture of how large the area of a city that is 1,380 miles squared is. (Show picture of google maps)

Now try to imagine this city is as tall as it is wide and long.

What will life look like in a city of such massive size? When all the of the nations have a place in this city. This home that God has provided gives us an idea of the size of the multitude of the saved.

We will live in a magnificent, incredible, physical Jerusalem on a new Earth.

Does that sound boring to you?

We’ll be doing this for all eternity. All of God’s people will be living in this magnificent place for all eternity.

The pastor who mentored me and saw the call on my life before I did used to say, that eternity would be “forever and a day”

We will never run out of time to explore, to witness the God’s glory in this new world. That is for certain.

And what that will look like we can only speculate, but since it is physical and tangible we can imagine that it will be filled with better versions of what we do now.

All of life that is lived in creation (camping, hiking, surfing, skiing, hammocking, etc.)—all of life that is lived in a city (concerts, art, plays, restaurants, etc)

All of this will be done in the new heaven and new earth and more. We cannot fathom what will be possible in this new place.

Does that sound boring?

No because our God is not boring.’

Not only will this place have be perfected and physical, but it will be filled with

People who have gone before us. We will be reunited in this place with our loved ones who love Jesus.

We will experience great reunions with those we have been missing on earth.

And as amazing as that will be it will pale in comparison to the final gift of Christmas we’re going to talk about. We will have perfected bodies, in a perfected place, and we will have...

III. Perfected Sight

In eternity we will have perfect sight. But we’re not just talking about physical vision, but we will understand what we are looking at. We will understand who we are looking at all that it means to belong to him.

Last we learned that the greatest gift of Christmas is that God gives himself to us. He split the temple curtain. When Christ died it opened the throne room of God so that we could come and stand before him. And that in Christ we are God’s and He is ours. And that is true now, but now we don’t grasp the fullness of all this means.

Now we see as through a dim mirror with a poor reflection. Look at 1 Corinthians 13:8-12

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

All that we now do is done with partial vision. Preaching, knowledge, the utilization of our gifts—we do all this now with a partial knowledge of all that it means. That’s what verse 9 is saying, “we know in part and we prophesy in part”

But when the perfection of eternity comes we will no longer see as in a mirror dimly. A transition will take place.

We’ll see clearly as face to face. And the most amazing part of this passage comes at the end of verse 12.

“then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

Church, this is an amazing statement. I shall know as I have been known.

How does God know us? He knows us fully—thoroghly—there is no part of us hidden from Him or obscure. He sees all of us.

Does this mean that we will fully know and grasp all of God in his Godness?

No, I don’t think that’s what this means. Why?

God is infinite and we, his creation, are finite. He has never not existed and we exist in time. We depend on God for our existence and we are limited in all our aspects.

God depends on nothing and has no limits. There is a gap between Creator/Creature and Infinite/Finite that will never be bridged. We will not know God to the extent that He knows us. Scripture tells us this.

Psalm 145:3 “3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”

Job 26:14 “14 Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways, and how small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?”

So what is Paul talking about? How will we see clearly and fully?

1 Corinthians 13 is the great chapter of Love. Paul writes to us that love is the greatest attribute we can have. We can have all knowledge and speak in the tongues of angels. We can understand all mysteries but if we do not have love we have nothing.

Paul says Love is supreme above all things.

And our passage is nestled in this great passage of love.

What will we see clearly? Love we will fully see what the love of God accomplished on our behalf.

We will see fully the love of Christ displayed on the cross.

We will see fully the horror of human sin and in seeing the depth of our own wickedness we will see the magnitude of the love of God that overcame it.

We will not question Gods ways, or His devices. All will be seen clearly in the light of love.

Friends, heaven will be full of the praise of God. It will be full of worship. As we live in eternity all things will point us to the worship of God. Because we will see the love of God displayed in everything.

Of all the coming perfections of eternity this will be the greatest one.

With perfected bodies, in a perfected place, we will have perfect sight of the love of God and this will forever fuel our joy in and worship of God—the Mighty One—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

We will see fully God’s love on display for all eternity.

Conclusion

Throughout the past 4 weeks our goals has been to readjust the way we see Christmas. In the incarnation of Christ we saw the Great Need for a savior because of Humanity’s Great Sin. We’ve discovered the shocking humility of Christmas as Christ became one of us. We’ve seen the gifts that God gives us now. And finally we’ve glimpsed the future gifts that await us in eternity.

This Friday we will have a Christmas Eve service and my hope and prayer for you and your family this year is that as we gather to worship God and celebrate Christmas, that we will all come with fuller hearts. That we will all see and praise God over the shocking nature of Christmas. Let’s pray.

Discussion Question: Which gift of Christmas is most exciting to you? Why?