The Gospel: Session 6 -- Restoration

Weddings and Fairy Tales

What’s the best wedding you’ve ever been to? What made it great?

Was it the love and affection of the couple? The setting? The flowers and décor? The food at the reception?

Officiating weddings, my favorite part is watching the groom’s face when the bride begins her procession

Raw emotion. Joy. Anticipation. Happy tears. Beaming smile.

When the Bible talks about the end of the story, it talks about restoration, and the word used to describe the restored world is heaven.

And when the Bible talks about heaven, it uses the example of a wedding more than any other image to illustrate what it will be like. What does that tell us?

What joy and anticipation must God have in awaiting this day? How much joy and anticipation should we feel?

The climactic moment of Jesus’s death and resurrection inaugurated a new reality in the present order of things, as God’s Spirit continues to break forth in love to bring God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

One day, we will see that work completed.

The biblical story — the story of the world — ends with God’s original purpose to fill the earth with worshipers completed in a heaven-on-earth reality.

Heaven on Earth

We see a few important things in Scripture about how the story ends.

Most importantly, we see that Jesus, the great hero, will return again to make all things new.

All throughout the New Testament, the promise of Christ’s return fills the pages. And when he comes, he’s bringing Heaven with Him. He’s coming to fulfill His promise to renew and restore all of the created order.

What happens as a result? How does the story end once He comes?

First, the story ends with a restored earth.

Many of us are guilty of thinking heaven is going to be some second-rate experience of reality: bodiless souls floating in the sky, resting on clouds, singing hymns for eternity – for many this sounds horribly boring.

This is not the biblical view!

Let’s focus in on a passage in Revelation 21 for the rest of this session.

Rev. 21:1-2 | 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

The biblical view of heaven is earthy, constructed, built up, and physical —it’s a new earth (“new” Gk. = regenerated, recreated, renewed), a city,

Think about how heaven is described in Scripture: Heaven is described as...

A new city ... there are buildings and streets

There are musical instruments

Musicians can use their gifts

Extrapolating – why not engineers? Builders? Artists? Your gifts here on earth will carry into the eternal kingdom

There are animals

Things that you love - don’t you love animals?

Dogs in heaven? Not sure, but some horses def do!

FURTHER: Many of us think that when John says “the first earth had passed away” it means it completely disappears. Other passages lead us to think it’s just completely obliterated in the end and all this matter and physical stuff disappears.

WRONG!

“Passed away” – same word as transform, where we get our word “metamorphasis” – think caterpillar in a chrysalis, transformed into a butterfly – all the same stuff, only what’s dead or unneeded is left behind.

God has not forgotten His original creation — the creation he called very good.

ASK: What’s the most beautiful place in the world you’ve ever travelled? The one place where, if you could be there right now, you would go?

Whatever is in your mind is just a shadow of what heaven will be like

NTW: “Heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world.”

It’s the renewal of the world, its restoration to what it was always meant to be.

Second, the story resolves with our bodies resurrected and restored.

Paul’s longest sustained argument in all of his letters is found in 1 Corinthians 15. There he focuses on one subject: the future resurrection from the dead of all who believe in Jesus.

The story ends with us in a renewed heaven, with new glorified bodies, not disembodied souls.

We will have bodies like Jesus, not floating on harps

Example: Resurrected Jesus: Eating fish, sitting by a campfire, scars on his hands and side, but also disappearing and appearing in places instantly, walking through locked doors and walls, ascending into the heavens, etc.

Fully physical AND fully spiritual - heaven and earth combined.

No more paper cuts! No more mosquito bites!

No more pain, suffering, or death.

You will still be you in heaven – only better! Restored. Renewed. Whole.

The elders are described by having faces – the poor beggar in Jesus’s parable is recognized

Third, the story resolves with us face to face with Jesus, worshiping Him forever.

Rev 21:3 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.

ASK: If you could meet anyone in the world, or in history, and have a meal with them, who would it be? Shout them out

Harsh truth: the people you want to meet – chances are they don’t really want to meet you.

Jesus does. He wants to be with YOU forever. (dwell, live, abide)

The cross isn’t simply about you being forgiven – it’s a conduit for you to be in relationship with God.

The point of heaven isn’t that we’re in a shiny new restored earth.

The point is that we’re with God.

John 14:3 – I go to prepare a place for YOU

The point of heaven is to be with Jesus forever. He is the goal.

If you don’t enjoy spending regular time with Jesus now then you’re going to hate heaven.

Finally, the story ends with eternal peace.

Rev 21:4 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.”

The peace of heaven is not just a quantity (eternal, everlasting) but also a quality:

No more death

No more mourning

No more crying

No more pain

All the things that cause a lack of peace in our lives today will be taken away

V. 1 – “the sea will be no more”

Not a bummer – symbolically, the sea in Ancient culture was the source of all chaos

Other ancient religions had their gods coming from the sea, or battling with the sea, in order to create stability in the universe

In Genesis 1:1, the spirit of the living God hovers over the sea and brings order out of chaos

In Rev 21, the sea – the source of chaos – is completely eliminated.

The things that steal our peace and cause us stress and anxiety which battle against our experience of God’s peace will be taken away.

Financial stress, lack of needs

We will be co-heirs with Christ

Broken relationships

Adopted into and living in God’s family with God our Father, Christ our brother, and surrounded by millions of new brothers and sisters

Purposelessness, absence of God’s presence

God will be near and he will wipe away every tear from your eye

How intimate!

The story ends in Heaven, and Heaven is a real physical place, where we will be with Jesus, and where we will experience eternal peace.

Jesus to the man on the cross: “today you will be with me in Paradise”

“Paradise” – same word used for Eden

Tree of Life is in the middle of the city (Rev. 22)

Eden was not eliminated – our access was eliminated

Maybe like a central park in a large city, where life flows out

Wrap

Here’s the TRUTH: What you believe about tomorrow determines how you live today.

If this story is true, then it should change how we live today.

If you are a believer in Christ, then your beliefs about the future — how the story ends — should drastically change your life today.

Be the people today you are going to be for eternity: holy, pure, content and overjoyed simply by being in relationship with Jesus, at peace.

We are a people living between the times — between the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the final act of restoration we just discussed.

How do we live as a people in the fourth act of the story? As participants and not just observers of God’s great drama in the world?

That will be the focus of our last two sessions.

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