What Makes Jesus Unique? No one else made the claims that He did, He is alive...............
All the great religious leaders of history have one thing in common: they are dead. Only one man has risen from a grave never again to taste death. Jesus Christ died, was buried, remained in the grave for 3 days, then was raised to life again.
Jesus is unique. He is the only one proven to be the Son of God because God validated His Kingship and accepted His payment for our sins all with one incredible stroke: He raised Jesus from the dead!
Paul opens his letter to the Romans with this evidence about who Jesus is:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which He had promised before by His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:1-4
Because Jesus Christ is very much alive, five things are true right now that wouldn’t be true if He were just another dead religious leader like Confucius, Mohammed or Buddha.
Because Jesus was raised from the dead and is alive…Prayers are answered, We can talk to Jesus 24/7
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We're going to hang out here for the last part of the message. I shared this verse last week. Paul told the Corinthians each person should do as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver and God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. Now, anybody who reads that and says, this is great because I hate giving and the Bible frees me from doing so, hallelujah, is like the person who says, great, we're not under the law, so I'm not going to give anything. Both are missing the point entirely.
Paul's point is that believers should want to give and should derive joy from giving. Elders shouldn't have to worry about trying to wrestle money from their brothers and sisters by pleading with them just to cover the bills of the church or to have enough money to feed their families. Churches shouldn't have to share emotional testimonies that pull at the heartstrings just to get believers to give. We shouldn't have to talk about giving on a regular basis. It should just happen.
It should be the habit practice and custom of every believer. Churches only talk about giving and tithing on a regular basis because the overwhelming majority of believers are not cheerful givers. They're reluctant. That's the truth. And if they don't, they won't give and churches won't be able to financially survive.
Believers should be cheerful givers because they love their church, they love their brothers and sisters, they love the Lord, they love their elders, they're excited to be used by God, they're excited to store up treasure in heaven and they're excited to honor God. And if none of that makes you want to give, Paul still has good news for you. He says, God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work. That's Paul saying, the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God is able to change even your stingy and ungrateful heart so that you become a cheerful giver. That's what Paul is saying.
The Corinthian Church went through the process of allowing the Holy Spirit in God's word to change them and grow them into people who gave cheerfully in faith and sacrificially. There were some years around the middle of the first century when a terrible famine affected the church in Jerusalem. People were starving, and Paul felt an obligation to help. So he raised money from the churches that he had planted to buy food and get that food to the believers of the Jerusalem Church. This was a special offering above and beyond the regular giving of believers.
Paul believed, and so did these other churches, that every other church was indebted to the Jerusalem Church because the Jerusalem Church was the father of all other churches. It was the OG. It was the church literally founded on the apostles. In his first letter to the Corinthians, in One Corinthians 16, Paul writes to them about the collection for the saints. Do the same as I instructed the Galatian churches, on the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering so that no collections will need to be made when I come.
The amount of money that God will call you to give will be proportionate to how much money you have but be led by the Spirit. And then when I arrive to collect the special offering, just come and bring it to the church and give it to me. We're not going to have a special service, Paul says. I'm not going to show you a video of believers starving in Jerusalem set to sad music. Just ask the Lord what he wants you to give and then obey.
Just do that. No drama, no manipulation. Just be led by the Spirit. When he writes his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul is still coveting money for the believers in Jerusalem because they're still going through it. He writes to the church in Corinth, we want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace that was given to the churches of Macedonia during a severe trial brought about by affliction, their abundant joy, and their extreme poverty overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
I can testify that according to their ability, and even beyond the ability of their own accord, they begged us earnestly for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints. And not just as we had hoped. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us by God's will. So the believers in Macedonia were going through their own afflictions that had placed them in extreme poverty. So Paul wasn't even planning on asking them to give to the Jerusalem believers.
But when the believers in Macedonia heard about what was happening in Jerusalem, they approached Paul and begged for the privilege to give financially. You see, God stirred up so much grace in their hearts that they continued to meet the needs of their own church as they should have. And then above and beyond that gave with wild generosity to Paul's fund for the believers in Jerusalem. And here's what I can tell you. You better believe their heavenly Father took care of their practical needs after he called them to do that.
And then Paul writes, so we urged Titus that just as he had begun, so he should also complete among you this act of grace. This made Paul tell Titus to go and tell the Corinthian believers, guys, this is what's going on in Macedonia. They're demonstrating radical love, grace, and generosity. You guys need to step it up. And Paul writes to them now, as you excel in everything, in faith, speech, knowledge, and in all diligence and in your love for us, excel also in this act of grace.
The act of grace he's talking about is the act of giving. He says, Guys, you're doing a good job Corinthians, in faith, in speech, and growing in your knowledge of the Lord and being diligent. You've improved. You're now taking care of your elders; you're taking care of us. Now go even further.
See what the Lord wants to do through you here. And then Paul says, I'm not saying this as a command. Rather, by means of the diligence of others, I'm testing the genuineness of your love. Paul says this isn't a command, but this does tell us something about your love for God and your love for his people. And then Paul says - underline this... I didn't tell you where it was. I'm sorry. It's in 2 Corinthians 8. Paul has this incredible line. He says for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, for your sake, he became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Every Christian has benefited from the radical generosity of God, the generosity of a father who gave his only begotten Son for us, the generosity of Jesus who gave his life for us. And we're counting dollars and cents while serving that kind of God.
This is why God loves a cheerful giver because when we're not cheerful givers, he looks at us and says, do you get it? Like, do you get it how much you've benefited from my generosity? And now when I call you to be generous, your response is, I don't know if I can do that. Might be too much.
Paul says, you know the Lord, so you know what the grace of giving looks like. And then he says, and in this matter, I am giving advice because it is profitable for you, who began last year, not only to do something but also to want to do it. He says you're storing up treasure in heaven when you do this. This isn't like a write-off or just an aimless loss. It's profitable for you when you excel in the grace of giving.
And then Paul says, now also finish the task. So that just as there was an eager desire, there may also be a completion according to what you have. That's Paul saying, plan to give. Plan to give. When the Lord stirs your heart and gives you the grace to give, follow through by making a plan.
And he closes with for if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what a person has not according to what he does not have. In other words, if you're led by the Spirit, if you have a cheerful heart and a desire to give, you're giving what the Lord has called you to do. He is blessed by your giving. Period. He's blessed by your giving.
We're called to give cheerfully because we love our church, we love our brothers and sisters, we love our elders, we love to be used by the Lord, we love to honor God, and we love to store up treasure in heaven. If you're doing that, praise God. Well done. Continue in the grace of giving. If you're not doing that, ask the Lord to change your heart.
Ask Him to give you the grace that you need. And then make a plan. Make a plan. Ask the Lord what he wants you to give and then give it. Write a check the same day of the month, every two weeks, every one week, whatever it is.
Make a plan to follow through on the desire to give and understand that it's going to involve faith. It's going to involve faith. It's going to be inconvenient, it's going to be sacrificial. But when you get nervous and fearful, remember God's promise to you if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he'll make sure all your needs are met.
It's not my promise. That's God's promise. If we all give as the Lord is calling us to, the needs of our church will be met. I guarantee it. But I also believe that God loves to give resources to believers in churches who are cheerful, faithful givers.
Because I think the Lord is looking for faithful servants to trust with more. There is much that the Lord is putting on the hearts of BJ and me and other people in the church. There's a lot of stuff we believe the Lord is going to call us to do in the future. We want to build recovery houses to help people, men, and women, build a life centered on Jesus. Not just get off drugs, but build a life, a life on Jesus.
We want to plant churches one day. We want to help families foster and adopt. We'd love to have a building where we can just meet whenever we want. And those things might seem like they're a million miles away and millions of dollars away, but they're not. Because I don't even believe the biggest obstacles are financial.
He's not asking us. He's asking us to take the step that is right in front of us, all of us. And so if your next step is starting to give in a way that honors God, do it. Do it and watch what the Lord does.
Series: Acts...Speaker: BJ Chursinoff
Why are so many people uninterested in the Church today? Why do unbelievers stay away? Why do a lot of believers seem indifferent? What if part of the reason is that much of the time, the Church is boring? But what if people experienced the Church today as it is recorded for us in the Book of Acts? “Boring” would be the last word you would use to describe the Church back then! And I think that this “un-boring” expression of the Church is what everyone in our world needs. And it’s the way that the Church should be. In this message, we'll take a peek at what the Early Church looked like and wrestle with what would need to happen for us to experience that same kind of life in our churches today.
If you have your Bible with you, and I hope you do, please open it up to the Book of Acts. We're going to be in chapter five tonight looking at verses twelve through 42. It's a lot of verses to cover in one message, so you're going to want to have your Bible open so that you can follow along with me. If you don't have a Bible and you would like one, just raise your hand and David will come by and he will put one into your hands. And if you don't own a Bible, please accept this one as a gift from us to you.
The title of today's message church shouldn't be boring. And I've given it this name for two reasons. One, we're going to encounter a lot of interesting topics in today's study. We're going to touch on things like miracles, holiness, jealousy, persecution, and supernatural joy. These are all topics that could easily warrant their very own dedicated message.
And if they had their own message, it would be easy to title that message holiness or Joy or persecution. But because we're tackling all of them in one message, I had to find a way to wrap all these ideas into one big idea. And that's the first reason I titled this message the way I did. Because none of these topics are boring. All of these topics will be or should be experienced in the life of the church.
Now, the second reason I titled this message the way that I have is that I want us to think about this claim and I want us to wrestle with it because I believe that a lot of people don't think this statement is true or possible. A lot of people, most people, I would venture to say, think that the church is boring, unbelievers, definitely think the church is boring and irrelevant. That's the spiritual climate of the culture that we live in today. But why do you think they think that about the church? The answer is not that difficult.
It's because when they see the church, they see a boring church. If you think about it, what reason does our expression of the local church give them for thinking about the church any other way? If you put yourselves in the shoes of an unbeliever and you look at the Christians in our city, in our church, or any other church for that matter, what do you think they see? They would see a group of people that get together once a week for a religious gathering, and they might see us meet together another time during the week for a Bible study. Now, don't get me wrong, those are incredible parts of the Christian life, parts that I love and hold dear.
I know some of you really love the church as I do, and God is doing some amazing things in your life through and through your life right now in the life of the church. But if that's you, I think you are a part of the minority. It seems to me that most Christians are indifferent when it comes to the church. Most treat participation in the church as optional. Most don't get excited about church.
And why do you think that is? Can I suggest to you that if we take an honest assessment of the way we experience church today when we compare it to the way the early church experienced daily life following Jesus, I think we would draw the same conclusions?
Church is boring today by comparison, but it shouldn't be. And if it is boring by comparison, then we have to ask if there are things in our church experience that need to be adjusted or changed so that we can position ourselves to experience the kind of life that Jesus died for us to have. A kind of life that captures the attention of people both inside and outside the church.
I don't think anybody, Christian or nonchristian, would label the church as boring. If they saw a church that was functioning like the church was in the Book of Acts, boring would be the last word they would use to describe that church. And that's why I've titled this message church shouldn't be Boring. So let's jump into our text and we'll take a peek at what the early church looked like. Acts in verse twelve says this many signs and wonders were being done among the people through the hands of the Apostles.
They were all together in Solomon's colonnade. At this point in time, the church is still in the very early stages of its existence and the church is still growing every single day. At this point in the Book of Acts, there are most likely tens of thousands of Christians in Jerusalem. The church is meeting on the temple grounds in an area called Solomon's Colonnade, which was an area of the temple that was outside uncovered, and it was large enough for the growing church to gather there. Verse twelve says that the apostles are performing many signs and wonders.
Miraculous power has marked the church since its beginning back in chapter two, and we see this miraculous power continued to be put on display here, three chapters later. Now, you may already know this. What I'm going to say will serve as a reminder to some of you. But the apostles aren't superhumans. They're not mutants or Marvel superheroes like the Avengers, even though supernatural power is being put on display through them.
But you wouldn't be alone if you ever thought they were like superheroes because of the power they exercised. Some people back then saw the miracles that they did, and they concluded that the only explanation for it was that they were mythological Greek gods who came down to earth. In Acts 14, Paul healed a man who couldn't walk. Listen to how the crowds responded.
Barnabas, they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker. The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought bulls and wreaths to the gates because he intended with the crowds, to offer sacrifice. See, some people thought the apostles were like superheroes when they saw the miracles that they did. But we know the apostles are not the source of the power that is being displayed through them. They are just regular people like you and me.
They are natural people who have a supernatural God working his power through them. Keep a place here in verse twelve, look back a few verses two, acts four, verses 29 to 30, and we can see the connection between God's power and the power that was displayed through the apostles. In verse twelve of our text, it says that the signs and wonders were being done through the hands of the apostles. And if you like underlining things in your Bible, underline that phrase, through the hands of the apostles. Back in Acts four, the church gathered after Peter and John were released from being interrogated by the religious leaders for healing a layman.
And when they gathered together, the church prayed. Listen to what they prayed for. Acts four, verse 29. And now, Lord, consider their threats and grant your servants may speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand for healing. And signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
So underline those two in verse 30, your hand whose hand? The Lord's hand. The church prayed for God to move his hand among them by way of doing signs and wonders. God, your hand can make signs and wonders happen, they prayed. So please do that while we continue to preach your gospel.
They prayed for God's hand to move in Acts 4/30. And we see God's hand move here in Acts 5/12. This was a specific answer to prayer, god's hand moving through the hands of the apostles. So go ahead and write this down on your outline. It's the first filling.
God works his power through his people and through their prayers. God works his power through his people and through their prayers. I wonder what God might do through us if we prayed God-sized prayers. Let's keep praying and we're going to find out. Now, I believe that God still performs miracles today.
I believe the bible says he does. And now if that's true, then why don't we see signs and wonders being performed in the church today like they were back in the Book of Acts? Here are three quick reasons. Number one, miracles served a special function in Jesus's ministry and in the apostle's ministry. One of the main purposes of miracles was to validate the person and work of Jesus and then to authenticate the eyewitness accounts of Jesus's disciples.
Miracles gave people a very good reason to believe the words that came out of the mouth of Jesus and came out of the mouth of his apostles. Number two, we don't pray for miracles that much in the Book of James. We are taught that sometimes we don't have because we don't ask. The early church prayed for miracles and then God did miracles. And I wonder why we don't pray for miracles today.
Verse 13 continue. No one else there join them, but the people spoke well of them. There are two things at play here. The crowds of unbelievers who witnessed what God was doing among the church didn't want to come near the church. But at the same time they also had nothing bad to say about the church either.
Verse 13 says that they only had good things to say about it. So what's going on here? People were staying away from the church, but they didn't stay away from the church because they hated it. Have you ever heard an unbeliever today joke about not wanting to come to church? And the reason that they give you is I can't come to church because as soon as I enter I will just burst into flames.
I hear that one quite a bit and I like it. But that's why people wanted to keep their distance from the church in our text, not the literal flames, but you're going to see where I'm going. They didn't stay away from the church because they hated it or because they thought what the church was doing was dumb. They stayed away from the church because it was holy. God was in the midst of his people and there was a very real sense of awe and reverence connected to what God was doing in and through his church.
And God wasn't playing games with his church. People had just died in this church for lying and hypocrisy. That's what happened to Ananias and safari in the beginning of Acts Five, if you remember that from a couple of weeks ago. And when that news spread. It kept people from treating the church lightly.
Some people back then didn't want to die, and I can appreciate that they didn't want their sinfulness to be exposed in the presence of a holy God and in the midst of a holy people. I don't know about you, but I think we need God to make his church like that again today. Even though the holiness of the church kept some people away from the church back then, we need to regain a pursuit of holiness in the church today in a major way. If the word holiness freaks you out at all, let me remind you that holiness is not legalism. It is not hypocrisy, we are better than you are attitude.
Holiness is a byproduct of lives being touched by and transformed by a holy God. Our sins that at one time made us unholy have been removed, and now the holy God lives in us and amongst us. The presence of the holy living God dwells among us, and we want to live lives that honor Him. We want to live lives that are free from sin. A total and complete freedom from the presence of sin cannot be perfectly achieved in this life, but it is something that we can and should strive towards.
Holiness, says God, I want every single aspect of my life to honor you. I want my life to be free from the stains of sin. Do you know what you get if a bunch of individual Christians start to live a life like that? You get a holy church. I wish people stayed away from the church today for this reason, because we're holy.
Sadly, that's not the case, is it? People stay away from the church today because they think the church is a joke and completely unnecessary. People stay away from the church today because they can't be bothered with it. People stay away from the church today because they believe it has no power to actually do anything of any significance in their lives. One of the first reasons unbelievers give for not liking the church is that it's filled with hypocrites.
Some Christians believe it will. Some believe that if we lower the bar of what it means to trust Jesus and to actually follow the way he calls us to live our lives, maybe that will make the church more accessible to people, and then maybe more people will come. But as that worked, that approach has unsurprisingly been an abysmal failure. We have lowered the bar for following Jesus so much, and people still don't care about Him or his church. And maybe that's the problem.
Maybe people don't care about the church because we've lowered the bar so much, and now there's no sense of awe or reverence connected to the church anymore. The unbelievers in Acts five stayed away from the church because it was holy and it was awesome. And I wish that was the reason people were staying away from the church today. Verse 14. Believers were added to the Lord in increasing numbers, multitudes, both men and women.
Now, this seems to contradict what we just read in verses 13. Verse 13 says that no one dared join the church. But then in verse 14, we read that people ended up joining the church, multitudes of them. So what's going on here? Unbelievers continue to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, the message of his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection from the dead.
And some of them were getting saved. These people were becoming believers. And when they were saved, the Holy Spirit flooded their life, and the love of God filled their heart. And do you know what the love of God does? The Bible says perfect love casts out fear.
When the love of God fills a person's life, you won't be able to keep that person away from the church. Even if the church is so holy that people were dying in it because of their hypocrisy. When God comes into a life, the love of God will overcome any fear associated with dying. New believers will want as much of God and of his people as they can get. You couldn't keep Christians away from the church back then, even if you tried.
Those who didn't have God kept the church at arm's length because they were afraid. But those who received God were drawn into the fellowship of God's people. The holiness of the church doesn't push believers away. It draws them in verses 15. As a result, they would carry the sick out into the streets and lay them on COTS and nats, so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them.
This is interesting. God was displaying so much of his power in those days that people even wanted Peter's shadow to fall on them so that they would he healed. Did Peter's shadow actually heal people? Or was this a superstitious belief of the people? If you go back and read slowly through verse 15 again, you'll notice that nowhere does it say that people were actually healed by Peter's shadow.
Instantly her bleeding stopped. The piece of cloth attached to Jesus didn't have any power in it, but it was the faith of the woman in Jesus' power that led her to being healed that would he what's happening here. In verse 15, there was a recognition of the power of God on display in the church in Jerusalem, and people believed they only needed the slightest interaction with that power in order to be healed. Even if it was Peter's shadow, I don't think it mattered what it was. There was faith that God would he them.
Verse 16 in addition, a multitude came together from the town surrounding Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all healed. Now, at this point in the Book of Acts, the church hasn't made its way to the surrounding towns with the Gospel yet. Instead, the people from these towns were coming to the Church in Jerusalem. The news of the Church was spreading into further areas outside of Jerusalem, but the church hadn't physically made its way to those areas yet. This distinction between going to people versus the people coming to us is important to note because Jesus didn't say to his disciples, "If you build it, they will come."
Jesus didn't give Christians the attraction model of church. He didn't say, do everything I command you, and people will eventually come to you to check the church out. Instead, Jesus commissioned the Church to go to these towns and then to the rest of the world. Matthew 28:19 Jesus said, Go, therefore make disciples of all nations. Go, he said to the nations, and make disciples out of the people you meet when you get there.
Acts 1:8 Jesus says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. How can we be witnesses in the ends of the earth if we don't actually send Christians to the ends of the earth? At the heart of the mission Jesus gave us is the call to go, not a call to wait for people to come to us. We will eventually see the church move out into these areas in upcoming chapters in Acts. And if we are going to be a biblical church today, we must focus on doing the same thing.
We need to focus on going to people who don't have the Gospel so that we can bring it to them. We can't wait for people to come to us. We must go to them. Verse 17 then the high priest rose up. He and all who were with them who belonged to the party of the statueses were filled with jealousy.
The religious leaders were so jealous of the apostles and their ministry. These religious leaders had killed Jesus, and they thought that would have been the end of him and his teaching. It usually is when you kill someone. But then Jesus went ahead and rose from the dead, and that put a little bit of a damper on the religious leaders plans to shut him down. This Jesus movement that they had tried to snuff out unsuccessfully when they killed Jesus was now gaining momentum with each passing day.
And this growing movement wasn't centered on the religious leaders or their doctrine. It was all about Jesus. The crowds weren't excited about what the religious leaders had to say anymore. They were excited about what the apostles were saying about Jesus, and that's what made the religious leaders jealous. We should take a couple of things away from this.
If another church is experiencing a special grace from Jesus, that's causing it to grow. And the gospel is spreading throughout the city with power and people are getting saved and getting baptized and getting disciples, we cannot be jealous of that. We have to celebrate the building of Jesus's church in our city. Even if the Master chooses to use a different church in a different way than he is using us, we need to be more like John the Baptist and less like the Sadducees. John the Baptist said this of Jesus he must increase, I must decrease.
And if we are Christians, the only thing we have to care about is that the name of Jesus is being lifted up. There's no room for jealousy if that's happening. So we shouldn't care how big our platform is, as long as Jesus is getting all of the glory. Verse 18 so they arrested the apostles and put them in public jail. But an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail during the night, brought them out, and said, go and stand in the temple and tell the people all about this life.
I don't know if you know this about God, but he has an incredible sense of humor and is put on full display right here. Here's why this scene is funny. The group of religious leaders who are persecuting the church are made up primarily of sad juices. The sad juices don't believe in the supernatural. They don't believe in resurrection from the dead.
So that means they don't believe that Jesus rose, but they also don't believe in the supernatural beings we call angels. The Sadducees don't believe in angels. They don't believe angels exist. And so of course, God used an angel to release the apostles from the prison that the Sadgy sees had just put them in. I think that's funny beginning part of verse 21 hearing this, the call to go and preach in the temple, the apostles entered the temple at daybreak and began to teach.
I love this. Look at what the apostles do with the freedom that God just gave them. They didn't use the freedom God had just given them, so they went and hid from the religious leaders so that they couldn't be arrested again. They didn't get out of jail and then make plans immediately to move out of Jerusalem. They didn't use their newfound freedom to pursue their dreams or their personal comfort.
They used the freedom God had just given them to go straight back to obeying the call of God. They went straight back to preaching the Gospel, even though preaching the gospel is what got them put in prison in the first place. If you're here with me right now in this room, that means you're not in prison for preaching the Gospel. Praise God. Praise God.
But that doesn't mean that it is in a different kind of prison that you want to be freed from. Some of you right now are trapped in an area of your life and you long for God to open the door so that you can walk out into freedom. Some of you are trapped by physical limitations and you want God to free you from those. Some of you are trapped by difficult circumstances and you want God to free you from those. Some of you are trapped by addictions or other vices and you want God to free you from those.
You want to be free from the things that are hindering you. Can I ask you a very important question? What would you do with the freedom, that freedom, if God gave it to you? What if the door was unlocked and you were set free to walk out of your illness or disability or circumstances or addiction and you were able to walk out of that just like the apostles were able to walk out of the prison doors that day? What would you do with your new freedom?
But I can't help but wonder if he's using some of the prisons in our lives to teach us to depend on Him. And if he freed us from some of those prisons, I wonder if we would use that new freedom to honor Him or to honor ourselves. Whatever the case may be, I can confidently encourage you to do this in this next villain on your outline. Use whatever freedom God gives you to do his will in your life.
Use whatever freedom God gives you to do his will in your life. Verse 21. Halfway through verse 21, we'll pick up there. When the high priest and those who are with him arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin, the full counsel of the Israelites, and sent orders to the jail to have them brought. But when the servants got there, they did not find them in the jail.
So they returned and reported. We found the jail securely locked with the guards standing in front of the doors. But when we opened them, we found no one inside. As the captain of the temple, police, and the chief priests heard these things, they were baffled about them. Wondering what would come of this.
Someone came and reported to them look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple and teaching the people. Not much explanation is needed here for these verses. They were baffled by what God had done. The apostles were put in prison and then they were unexplainably not in prison anymore, and they were back in the temple preaching. Verse 26 then the commander went with the servants and brought them in without force because they were afraid the people might stone them.
I could imagine them going to pick up the apostles but trying to keep it hush-hush. Peter, John, can you guys do us a huge favor? A big solid here? Could you come with us? I'm going to take you somewhere.
And the apostles did quietly. They honored the request. The apostles didn't put up a fight. Understand? They could have easily started a riot right here.
They had the crowd on their side. They could have used that to their advantage, but they didn't. There are times that you will need to resist and there are times when you will need to just go with it, even though it's not right. May God grant us the wisdom to know what's required of us in each situation. Verse 27.
After they brought them in, they had them stand before the Sanhedrin. And the high priest asked, didn't we strictly order you not to teach in this name? Look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood. The religious leaders hate Jesus so much that they couldn't even bring themselves to audibly say the name of Jesus out loud. You can see that in verse 28 they say this name and this man's blood.
They hate Jesus so much. And the apostles are given a stern talking to here. The religious leaders bring up two points. Of contention with them. Issue number one according to the court, the apostles weren't supposed to be teaching the people in this name referring to Jesus.
They remind the apostles that they had already given them this warning once before. Verse 28 said, didn't we strictly order you not to teach in this name? We've already told you about this, guys. And they did. Back in Acts 4/18, when Peter and John stood before the same court, they were told not to tell people about Jesus.
Don't blame us for Jesus's death? Are you kidding me? These are the very religious leaders who had Jesus killed only weeks before this. They planned it. They orchestrated it.
No one has to make up a story in order to have the blame placed on them. They did it. They're guilty. The apostles respond appropriately to both issues. The religious leaders bring up to the issue of not speaking to people about Jesus.
They reply in verses 29, we must obey God rather than people. The apostles are like, we remember what you said to us, but do you not remember what we said in reply to you back then? Nothing's changed. We are going to continue coveting God even if that means we have to disobey you and obeying God, means that we are going to tell everyone about Jesus. And they go on to reply to the second issue this way.
In verses 30 to 32, the God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had murdered by hanging him on a tree. God exalted this man to his right hand as ruler and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him. The apostles are like, we are not trying to make innocent people take the rap for Jesus death. You guys are the ones who killed him.
Stop trying to weasel your way out of that. And as the apostles paint the religious leaders into a corner regarding their role in Jesus'death, they also share a quick but thorough presentation of the Gospel with them yet again. I put the pieces of their Gospel presentation on your outline for you. Verse 33 let's keep going. When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
Well, that escalated quickly. The religious leaders go from questioning the apostles to flying into a murderous rage against them. But then one of the religious leaders speaks up almost in defense of the apostles. Verse 34 but a pharisee named Gamalo, a teacher of the law who is respected by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be taken outside for a little while. He said to them, Men of Israel, be careful about what you're about to do to these men.
Some time ago, thudas rose up claiming to be somebody, and a group of about 400 men rallied to him. He was killed, and all of his followers were dispersed and came to nothing. After this man, Judas the Galilean, rose up in the days of the census and attracted the following he also perished, and all his followers were scattered. So in the present case, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail.
But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God. They were persuaded by him. Now, at first glance, this sounds like great wisdom. Gamaliel says to the court, if this movement is of human origin, it will fail.
If this movement is of God, it cannot fail, and you will not win, and you might be fighting against God. Sounds like solid advice, but after a little bit of thinking, I don't think this advice is that great. It's lacking in two ways. One, we know that not every manmade scheme fizzles out that quickly. Just think of Nazi Germany, for example.
You can know Jesus by having his spirit in you. You can know Him by reading his words. You can try to imagine what it was like for Him to be treated shamefully. But when you experience the same kind of persecution that he experienced, that enables you to relate to Him in a way that you wouldn't be able to otherwise. And if you already love Jesus, then that experience would only help you to love Him even more.
That would produce joy. Number two, there can be joy connected to suffering for Jesus name because it validates our faith in Him. In the Gospel of John, Jesus promised that his disciples would be treated the same way he was. Jesus said in John 15, verses 20, remember the word I spoke to you. A servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. If we live the life of Jesus, we will be treated the way Jesus was treated. I think there would he been this sense in the apostles that they were doing the things that Jesus had asked them to do, because this was the response they were receiving for doing it. They were persecuted for telling people the truth about Jesus, just like Jesus was.
I'm being like Him. I'm being treated like he was. I'm doing the things he told me to do, and I'm experiencing the things he said I would. And I think that would produce joy in a follower of Jesus. We have to ask ourselves this question what does it mean if I am a Christian and I have never experienced any hardship connected to my Christianity?
It's a difficult but necessary question to ask. Number three, there can be joy connected to suffering for Jesus's name, because I can experience the presence of Jesus in a special way only through suffering for Him. When a person is persecuted because of Jesus, they don't just get a greater understanding in their minds of what he went through. I believe the Bible teaches that there is a deeper level of experiencing the presence of Jesus in our lives when we suffer for Him. And if you love Jesus and he's the supreme treasure of your life, then having the chance to experience even more of Him in this life is worth any amount of suffering.
The Apostle Paul wrote about this connection between suffering for Jesus and experiencing him. In Philippians, chapter three, verse ten, he says, My goal is to know Him Christ and the power of his resurrection. That's where a lot of people get really excited. I want to know Christ and the power of his victory. But then you keep reading, oh, and I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings.
One of Paul's goals was to know the fellowship of Jesus's suffering. That's an interesting phrase. There's a relationship that's connected to Jesus's suffering that Paul wanted to experience. He wanted to be in that suffering with Jesus and know Jesus in the midst of it. Romans 816 to 17.
Paul goes on to say, that the Spirit Himself testifies together with our Spirit that we are God's children. And if children also heirs of God and covet with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him when we suffer for Jesus in the same way that Jesus Himself suffered, there is for us a particular kind of intimacy that we get to experience with Him. I can know Jesus on a deeper level if I am treated the way he was treated by those who hated Him. The Spirit testifies to us that we are children of God when we suffer for Him.
The Spirit is doing something in us in the midst of our suffering. I can imagine the Spirit ministering to the apostles something along the lines of, they did this to Jesus and now they're doing it to you. They are treating you like they treated Him. You are being like Him in this moment, rejoice. And then this is something they would have experienced from the inside by the Spirit, and that would have filled them with joy.
Jesus is in us by way of His Spirit being in us. And when we suffer for his name, he lets us know that he is with us in a tangible way. And there's a supernatural joy for the believer in that experience. So we love Jesus. We should want to experience as much of Him as possible, as much as we possibly can.
That doesn't mean we should seek out persecution, right? If I get to know more of Jesus in suffering for Him, maybe I should just try to get persecuted. We shouldn't walk around telling people, I'm a Christian, now punch me in the face so I can have joy. It doesn't work like that. Probably not a great evangelistic strategy either.
But we won't ever have to seek out persecution. If we are seeking to submit our lives to Jesus, that's because if we give our lives to doing whatever it is he asks us to do, then persecution will find us. Jesus promised it would. We don't have to go around looking for it. The apostles weren't looking for persecution in Acts 5.
They were just preaching the Gospel. They weren't looking for persecution, but they also didn't shrink from it when it came. And that's why they were filled with joy when it did come. They got to know Jesus in a way that they wouldn't have known Him otherwise. And this isn't natural.
This is supernatural. It's a supernatural joy. Verse 42 every day in the temple and in various houses, they continued teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah. We come full circle. We saw the Church gathered in the temple in Solomon's colony all the way back in verse twelve.
And here they are again in verse 42 back in the temple, and they are continuing to teach and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a church that is unashamed of the name of Jesus, and they are going to lift up his name no matter what it may cost them. So let me ask you this. Now that we finished reading these verses in Acts five, do you come away from ending these thinking to yourself, wow, boring, boring? Not even close, right?
Miracles, holiness, evangelism, jealousy, persecution, supernatural, and joy, all in only 31 verses. How come we don't experience that? What would need to change for us in order for us to begin to experience the kind of life the church is meant to live? Because I'm going to assume you want to experience, like really experience the power of Jesus in a radical way in your life and in his church and in this city and beyond. I'm going to assume that.
So we can ask this question another way what's the remedy for a boring church? And the answer is simple. But simple doesn't necessarily mean easy. If the church isn't going to be boring, it needs to be inconsistent. Radical obedience to Jesus.
Obeying. Everything Jesus has commanded us to do will produce the kind of unboring church we read about in Acts. That was their secret. That was their secret sauce. They obeyed Jesus.
Not really a secret, it's just like the point of Christianity. But obedience to Jesus was what led the church to experience the grace and power of Jesus in their lives. There is nothing awesome about a church that doesn't obey Christ. But here's the catch. Radical obedience to Jesus, as we read about in Acts, will bring persecution into our lives.
That kind of church will not be holy, and nobody will be interested in becoming a part of a church like that. Doing boring church will stave off persecution for a while. It's my opinion that Satan has no interest in persecuting a church that isn't obeying Jesus. If we aren't obeying Jesus, we're already ineffectual in the war against the kingdom of darkness. A boring church is not overcoming the gates of Hades.
Satan doesn't have to fight against a dormant church. So we can be boring and comfortable. And that will keep persecution at bay for a while. Because even if we don't obey Jesus, persecution will come eventually. We will see this pattern play out soon.
In the book of Acts, the early church didn't press the issue of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. They seemed to be content hanging out in Jerusalem and growing the church there. But then persecution broke out. And when it did, it scattered Christians all over the known world. And with that scattering, the gospel finally spread to where Jesus wanted it to go all along.
So we can obey Jesus or we can disobey Jesus. One will lead to a holy church, the other will lead to a boring church. Either way, know this Jesus is going to build his church. It's going to grow. He just lets us choose what kind of church we're going to be in that building process.
How does a church become a radically obedient church? The answer doesn't involve me making you feel bad for not living a kind of life that invites persecution from a world that hates Christ. Shaming someone into doing something is never the answer. So I'm not going to do that. The answer is this we need to love Jesus more than anything else in this world.
But how can I make you do that? I can't make us love Christ. I can talk about how awesome Jesus is, how beautiful he is, how worthy he is, how good he is, or even how much he loves you. But mere words cannot make a person want to lay down their life for Jesus in each and every situation they face. For that, we need a miracle.
We need the real, tangible, powerful, beautiful presence of Jesus to flood our hearts and our minds. We need to experience the reality of the resurrected Jesus again and again and again. Because if you and I got just a taste of the heavenly glory that's found in Jesus, then and only then would everything in this world that used to grasp our affections begin to become strangely dim in comparison to the glory that's in Jesus. We need Jesus to work a miracle in our hearts. We need revival that takes place in the church.
We need this revelation of Jesus way more than we need the supernatural working of signs and wonders that we read about in verse twelve. And how did those signs and wonders come about? The church prayed for God to do those miracles. And you know what? He did them.
He did those. So that's the answer to how we live the kind of lives God is calling us to live. We pray that God glorifies Himself in us and we keep praying until he does it. And when he answers that prayer, then and only then, the church cannot be stopped. If we behold Jesus as the most amazing reality in all of his existence, then and only then will we lay down our lives in radical obedience to Him.
We will love Him more than anything. And if that happens, there will be nothing boring about the kind of life that church experiences.
Pray this with me. And as I'm praying for this, and I'm praying for me first, and I'm praying for us as a church, make this prayer your prayer. If this is what you want God to do in your life, take the words and make them your own. So let's pray. Father, we just want to pray the way that Your word models us to pray because it's a perfect way to pray.
Jesus, you told the disciples to ask the Father to hallow his name, for the Father, to set his name apart as holy and as awesome. And so Father, we're asking that you would do that in our lives right now. If we're lukewarm, if we're complacent, if we feel spiritually dead or lazy, lord, we need a fresh touch from you. We need the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened. We need to see the risen Christ with those spiritual eyes of our hearts.
We need to behold you. God. Show us Your beauty. Show us your power your mercy and your forgiveness. Show us Your wisdom.
Show us how you're holding the whole universe together by the Word of Your power. Show us how you're working all things together for good. Show us how you're building your church. Give us vision, give us excitement, Lord, but make these breath on these dead bones and make them come alive. You say in Your Word, Lord, that if we ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, you will give it to us.
So that's what we're asking, Father. Give us the Holy Spirit and cause Him to be given to us continually, over and over and over again, and keep washing over us. Be that living water Jesus that you talked about in John seven. These rivers of living water rushing from within us, flow in us and satisfy us, but flow out of us to touch a lost and broken and dying world and help us to minister to them in Your name. But Lord, that will never happen until you captivate our hearts.
So we pray, Lord, that you would captivate our hearts, hold our hearts, keep our hearts, and not let our hearts go. Don't let us wander after the things in this world that cannot and will not satisfy us. Don't let us wander off into things in this world thinking that they're going to bring us joy and they're only going to destroy and paint and tarnish our life and make us ineffectual for You, Jesus, we need a miracle. So God, would you move Your hand in our hearts and show us Your glory and pray these things, Jesus, in Your name, amen. Amen.
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Series: Revelation
Passage: Revelation 21:1-5................Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Jesus reveals to John His incredible plan to once again create an earth and heavens from nothing, as we look to the Scriptures and dream together about the wonders of Heaven and the ages to come.
Well, can you believe it? We are 21 chapters deep into the Book of Revelation and there are still those who are out there trying to claim that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand. Stand, but bunk, say we for you see the word itself. Revelation means that something has been revealed. And the first words of this amazing book tell us exactly who it is that's being revealed. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised anyone who would take the time to read and respond to it a special blessing. And we find that in Revelation chapter one, verse three, let's claim it together. It says, Blessed is he or she who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. But God knew there would still be those who would say, this book is hard to understand. So, to make it simple to understand, he included an easy-to-follow outline. We find that in the Revelation chapter in verse 19, Jesus tells John to write about three different things.
Firstly, he says, "John, write the things which you have seen." That was the resurrected and glorified Jesus in chapter one. Secondly, he says, "John, write about the things which are." That refers to the Church age which began around 32 A.D. and is documented in the Book of Acts. Chapter two, happened on the day of Pentecost, and that Church age has continued up to the present day. And in fact, it's prophesied in chronological order in Revelation chapters two and three. Then finally, Jesus says, John, I want you to write about the things which will take place after this - after the Church age comes to an end. Now, when does that happen? It happens in Revelation chapter four, where John writes this. After these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard, that was the voice of Jesus in chapter one was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And up John goes, serving as a picture of the Church who will be raptured to be with the Lord.
Jesus takes all of chapters four and five to make sure we do not miss the fact that the Church is with Him in heaven before he begins pouring out his wrath in chapter six. And as he's pouring out his wrath on the Earth, the Bible makes it clear that those on the Earth will know exactly what is happening. Revelation 616 tells us they will identify the source of their judgment as the wrath of the Lamb. And in the Scriptures, who is the Lamb? It's Jesus. So chapter one introduces the focus of Revelation. Jesus Christ, chapters two and three take us through the Church age up to the present day. The Church goes up in chapter four, verse one. We see her safe and secure with the Lord for chapters four and five before wrath comes down in chapter six. That wrath will continue for seven years. It's a period known as the Tribulation, and it's documented in chapters six through 19, after which Jesus returns to the Earth with his Saints in the event known as the Second Coming. Jesus will then rule and reign on the Earth for 10 years known as the Millennial Kingdom, a golden age when the Earth will be returned to an Eden-like state and everything wrong with the world will be undone.
Today's study finds us in chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation, the second last chapter of the book. Can you believe it? I know some of you are like, yes, I can, because I can't even remember a time before we were studying the Book of Revelation. Jeff, it's been that long. Chapters 21 and 22 are a travel brochure for heaven. These final chapters are intended to make our imaginations run wild with thoughts of the Lord and eternity in his presence. And so today we're going to meditate on and we're going to dream about heaven together. The scriptures provide only a few small snippets of information about heaven. There's a lot of mystery and a lot we simply don't know. And I can think of two reasons why that's the case. Firstly, we currently lack the capacity and ability to even fathom all that heaven is going to be. Can you imagine trying to describe a new color to someone if that color had no relationship to any color they had ever seen before. If it wasn't a lighter or darker version of anything that currently exists, it would be impossible. What frame of reference could you use?
So I think that we simply lack the capacity and ability to understand all that heaven is going to be from our current vantage point. The second reason I think the Bible might not have too much to say about heaven is because if you're a parent, then you know or will soon know the special joy of surprising your children with something wonderful. Be it a Christmas or birthday gift or something completely out of the blue, there's not much better than surprising your children with something they love their reaction. Blesses your heart as a mom or dad on a deep level. And in that moment where they are overwhelmed with joy, the cost of that gift does not compare to the joy you feel because their joy is priceless to you. We get that from being made in the image of God, because that's how he feels about you. Do you know what is greater than the suffering Jesus endured on the cross? The joy he experiences when sinners repent and are adopted into his family? God delights in blessing you. He delights in blessing you. I remember the Christmas when our family was living in South Florida, and we got our whole family annual passes to Disney World.
Well, God said yes, and we're going on vacation today. That's right. I waited till the actual day, pulled up the RV and told them, and we're going today. And then I said, not only that, but we're going on vacation for one day. Two days, three days. And I counted all the way up to eleven days, one at a time. And then I told them all the places we were going and the places we were going were just awesome. We went all the way down the West Coast as far as San Francisco almost. It was fantastic. And their eyes just got bigger and their smiles just got bigger and bigger as I revealed all the details of this amazing trip we were going to do that just blessed me as a dad on that deep, deep level. I believe that God cannot wait to surprise us with the wonders of heaven and the ages to come. He can't wait to experience our joy with us. And so I suspect he's saving the best parts for when we get there. I don't know what your expectations of heaven are. They've been a lot of funky and terrible descriptions of what heaven is going to be like.
And I can tell you this with absolute certainty. You will not be transformed into a naked harp playing baby for all eternity. I can tell you that. Here's another terrible description of heaven that I've heard before. It's going to be like a Church service that never ends. And I know some of you are thinking I've already experienced that several times in my life. Jeff, listen, I love Church services and I love our Church, but even I would not want to go to a Church service that never ends. I have never once said to someone, I'm thinking of just switching our Sunday services to 6 hours long because they're just so great. I just never want to leave. I've never said that. I've never had that thought. Even though I love our Church now, why is that? It's because even though I love our Church and I love our Church services, they are not heaven. They are not heaven. So let's find out. What is Heaven? In our previous study, we learned that at the end of the millennial Kingdom, our universe will be destroyed. Jesus told his disciples, Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.
In biblical cosmology, there is a difference between heaven and the heaven leaves, also known as the heavens or the heavenly realm. Heaven is the dwelling place of God. It's where his throne resides. The heavens, the heavenly or the heavenly realm refers to the supernatural dimension that exists between Earth and heaven. It's the realm where Angels and fallen Angels currently wage war, and it's the location of the divine Council where Yahweh meets with Satan as depicted in Job chapter one. It's where he meets with the gods of the nations and the powerful Angels like the watchers mentioned in Daniel four/17, At the end of the millennial Kingdom, our physical universe, the heavenly realm, and even death in Hades will be destroyed.
It's your first fill in. Both our universe and the current heavenly realm have a history of sin. Our universe is unclean because of Earth's history of sin that traces back to Adam and Eve's rebellion in Eden. The heavenly realm is unclean because it was the location of Lucifer's rebellion, and it's where he has been accusing us before God day and night in the divine counsel. Job 1515 tells us that currently the heavens are not pure in his sight. The Lord intends to give sin and death no place in his new creation. They shall be stricken from the record in every sense of the phrase. Things will not simply be refurbished. For Isaiah tells us that the Lord declares, Behold, I create new heavens and a new Earth, and the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. The word used by Isaiah for create is the Hebrew word Bara. It's the same word used in Genesis One one. And it means to create from nothing. It's the phrase ex Nahilo in the Latin. Unlike everything that our minds can conceive of, God does not need raw materials to create. He can create from absolutely nothing.
Whatever raw materials you're thinking of, he created them. God doesn't need to refurbish the heavens and the Earth because he's not limited to working with what already exists. And so once again, he will create a new reality from absolutely nothing. Then we read also, there was no more sea. What, no beaches in the new heaven or on the new Earth? Well, not necessarily. It says no more sea, not no more water. We'll soon learn that there's a river, so we know there's water in this new creation. All this means is that whatever there is instead of the sea is better. Whatever there is doesn't leave sand in your cracks and crevices when you're done swimming in it. Whatever there is doesn't divide people from each other. Whatever there is doesn't sanitize the world's waste as part of the water cycle because there's nothing impure to sanitize in eternity. Whatever there is doesn't pose any type of danger. Whatever is in heaven is better. And hopefully by this point in our study we can all just trust the Lord with the details when it comes to things like this. And remember, those who belong to Jesus will have 10 years to enjoy the best beaches on Earth during the Millennium.
Nobody's going to be missing out on anything. What this sentence is really addressing is what the sea represented in the Hebrew mind. The Jews were not a seafaring people. They didn't spread out across the Middle East by navigating the seas. They viewed seas and oceans as representations of chaos and death, places where dark powers exercised great power. The Jewish man or woman reading the sentence would interpret it as another way of God, saying that in his new creation there will be no more chaos, no more death, no more fear. Additionally, both the Hebrew and surrounding cultures at this time viewed the sea as a place where things are buried, concealed, hidden, and where things disappear, never to be seen again. As we'll see in later verses of this chapter, one of the defining traits of God's new creation is its transparency, literally and figuratively. There will be no secrets in it because there will be no sin and therefore no shame. And shame is the only reason we keep secrets, really, in the new heaven and new Earth, there will be no reason for anyone or anything to ever be hidden. Verse Two Then I John saw the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
So make a note of that. We, the Church, will live in the New Jerusalem. We will live in the new Jerusalem, the city of God, the city of his Saints. And as John looks at this beautiful city filled with people made beautiful by the Lord, he compares what he sees to the moment a bride is revealed to the guests at a wedding. You ladies who are married are beautiful today, but you looked unbelievably beautiful on your wedding day. Many of you husbands remember, as I do, the moment when she walked in the back of the room at your ending and you thought, man, how did I pull this off? How did I trick her into marrying me. You can see that moment in your mind, the way the room gasps when the beauty of the bride is revealed is the way John describes the revealing of the New Jerusalem, full of the Saints of God. Her beauty takes his breath away. We don't know how exactly it happened, but Hebrews tells us that Abraham got a glimpse, a revelation of the New Jerusalem. This is what it says. By faith, he dwelt in the land of promise.
Gas is a foreign country, dwelling, intense with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Why did he dwell in tents? For he waited for the city, which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Abraham lived to 175 and spent most of those years as one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, men on Earth. But because of this glimpse of the New Jerusalem, he never built himself a house on the Earth. He could have built a palace. But after seeing what God had in store for him, his attitude became, what's the point? Any home I could build here would be a shack compared to what the Lord has prepared for me in heaven. Verse three, and I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men underline the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them underline he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God Himself will be with them underline that and be their God. Notice that God says twice that he will be with his people. He will dwell with them, and God Himself will be with them.
But in eternity, God will be revealed to us to such a degree that even faith will no longer be required because we will see Him and be with Him. The Tabernacle of God is with men. We will know the Lord as he knows us. I love that it says with men because here's what that means. It means even in heaven, even in eternity, we're still ourselves, but we're the fully redeemed version of ourselves. It's my personal belief that in heaven, our God given passions are still intact because they're part of who God made us to be. I don't know anybody who has fulfilled all their passions. Everybody I know deep down wishes they could have devoted more time and energy to their passions or accomplished more around their passions. Or maybe you feel like there's a song, a book, a business, something inside of you that you just can't seem to get out. For nearly all of us, the limitations of time got in the way. The fact that we have to work, we have to raise children, we have to do all the things that come along with life. You know, when you're young, the word potential is exciting.
When you're older, the word potential stings a little bit because it reminds you of all the things you could have done in your life, the things that deep down, you'd love to do that just didn't happen for good, bad, or neutral reasons. Why would God put those desires and ambitions in us if he knew we couldn't fulfill them? I believe it's because in the ages to come, we will. It's part of who we were created to be in the Millennium and the new creation that follows it. I believe all those unfulfilled God given desires are going to be loosed. Time won't be an issue. Resources won't be an issue. Distractions won't be an issue. In fully redeemed reality, God's fully redeemed people will create and design and build in an atmosphere that is somehow stimulating, an electric, yet simultaneously serene and restful. There are desires and dreams that God has built into your spirit so that they can be freed and fulfilled in his presence. In the ages to come in heaven, we will recognize our loved ones who love the Lord. After the death of his infant son, David said, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
Not only that, but it seems we will intrinsically know who everybody is. At the Transfiguration, Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make here three Tabernacles. One for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Even though Moses and Elijah weren't in their resurrected bodies yet, and even though they had never met them, Peter, James and John recognized them. This brings me great comfort because I am terrible with names and faces, and it is awful being a pastor who wants to make people feel loved and valued but cannot remember names and faces. Great to meet you.
Maybe there are some Christian brothers and sisters who come to mind when we talk about heaven because you find yourself immediately thinking, how am I going to avoid them for all eternity? It's going to be tough. Listen, they're going to be fully redeemed. Who we really are. Who we were created to be is going to be unlocked in eternity. Our full potential is going to be realized. And when you encounter those people in their fully redeemed States, you'll find yourself thinking, I love this person. They're amazing. And by the way, people will have that experience with you and me as well. You know, nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves, I wonder how I can alienate everyone who cares about me. Nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks, I wonder how I can drive everyone who interacts with me crazy with my annoying habits and communication style. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I wonder how I can make people dislike me by constantly complaining about everything. The more you get to know people, the longer you live, the more you realize that there's always a reason why we are the way we are.
I'm not saying there's always a justification. I'm saying there's always an explanation. There are negative factors that have impacted and shaped our lives. There were or are positive factors that are missing from our lives. But in eternity with Jesus, all that baggage is going to be removed. All the junk is simply going to fall away. And when those who love Jesus are freed from all that, we will become the people Jesus created us to be. We will be our true selves. For the first time in heaven, everyone will be beautiful in every sense of the word. And I promise you won't have to avoid anybody in eternity. There'll be no guilt, no shame, no awkwardness, no weirdos. Just amazing people redeemed and glorified by the Grace of God in heaven, we'll bump into those people who bugged us on Earth, and we'll say, wow, look at what the Lord has done. You're no longer a giant pain in the well, there's no cussing in heaven, but you get the idea. And again, I'm sure people will have the same experience with us. The Apostle Paul wrote about the effect the cross of Christ should have on how we view people now.
And he said, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh, meaning that those who love Jesus are not to view their Christian brothers and sisters based solely on who they are now, but rather who they are in Christ and who they are destined to become in eternity. I wish I were better at doing that, but I know the Holy Spirit is changing me bit by bit, day by day. Take a look at verse three again. Behold, the Tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. I want you to notice that the emphasis is on God being with us and us being with God. We will recognize and know our loved ones in heaven, but our focus will be on Jesus. It's okay to long for heaven so that you can be reunited with loved ones who love the Lord. It's okay. It's a great thing to hope for. But hear me on this, please. It's not okay to long for them more than you long for Jesus. The presence of those loved ones in heaven will be wonderful, but our hope and joy shouldn't be solely based on the fact that we will see them again.
But that's really not what this verse is saying. This verse is saying that because the former things have passed away, nothing will exist that can cause death, sorrow or tears or crying. Those things all died. They all ceased to exist. They all passed away with the old Earth and old heavens. Write this down. Every source of sorrow is destroyed with the old Earth and old heavens. Every source of sorrow is destroyed with the old Earth and old heavens. Someone I follow on Twitter posted this earlier this week. All the sadness believers feel when leaving dear friends, all the nostalgia for days gone by, that God blessed all the pain that rocks you when death strikes loved ones. All of it is a call from a distant land where you never part, you never mourn, and most of all, you never die. No more sadness, no more disappointment, no more bitterness, no more depression, no more anxiety, no more fear. Our eternity will be sorrow proof. I have some incredible things to share with you on that point, but I need to save them for next week, so please don't miss next Sunday. It will bless you so much.
I promise we won't remember our sins and our failures in heaven. Neither will we remember those who rejected the Lord, something that's both encouraging and sobering. Remember Isaiah 60 517. The Lord said, Behold, I create new heavens and a new Earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. There shall be no more pain for the former. Things have passed away in our earthly lives. There are seemingly endless sources of sorrow that could appear at any given moment. Issues in friendships, marriages and families, addiction, poverty, sickness, death. And on and on the list goes. This will be news to some. But the Bible does not say that everything happens for a reason. If you've been with us for our study through revelation, then you'll know that the Bible teaches that Satan is the God of this age and Jesus has not yet begun to rule the nation. That happens in the Millennium. This is the promise God gives in Scripture. All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. That verse doesn't say that everything happens for a reason, nor does it say that only good things will happen to those who love Jesus.
That's not true. That's not what the Bible teaches, and it's not how your life and my life are going to play out. And when people buy into this type of false teaching, they end up disillusioned with Christianity when their life doesn't play out that way. Hear me on this Church. This is not heaven. This is not heaven. I have walked with many people through times of tragedy. And when they strike, we all naturally want to know why, why? And sometimes we do each other a great disservice by trying to come up with, with baseless explanations. A lot of the time. The explanation is simply that this is a fallen world and this is not heaven. This is not everything as it should be. This is not where wrong things happening is abnormal. This is not heaven yet. And that's why we long for heaven. The bottom will fall out of your life one day, and it'll happen more than once. When I understand the difference between this life and heaven, I won't get mad at God when tragedy strikes my life. I'll remember that Jesus told his disciples, in the world, you will have tribulation.
And guess what? We are still in the world. Write this down. This isn't heaven. Don't expect it to be. This is not heaven. Don't expect it to be. Heaven is where verses four takes place, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain. For the former things have passed away. Now. Verse five, a verses so great and glorious, I cannot find the words to expound upon it sufficiently. Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, right, for these words are true and faithful. I like that John is seemingly so overwhelmed by all that he's seeing there. He's sitting there with his mouth open. And God has to say, John right. This verse means the world to me. And I want to tell you about the moment this verse came alive most powerfully in my life. It was early in the fall years ago, and it was one of our family days that we try to take once a week where we do something together as a family.
And as I found myself alone for a minute, I was struck by this deep grief, a wave of profound sadness, because Gas Is watched Caleb playing. As I watched his anabash joy, I realized that I didn't know how to be that kind of happy anymore. There was a level of joy that he was experiencing that was beyond my grasp, because he had a measure of innocence that I no longer had. You see, living in this fallen world has weathered me like a coastal rock exposed to the endless pounding of the Ocean's waves. Life just the process of living in the world wears you down, and it steals from you. Children are still fallen beings, obviously, but they're closer to Eden because most of the time they haven't been exposed to very many storms yet. I think that's why there's something so magical about the laughter of children. It's a sound that comes from a place that we don't know how to find anymore. Because life on a fallen Earth has robbed us of the natural optimism that we once enjoyed in eternity. Jesus will declare, Behold, I make all things new. And his statement will include us.
We'll get back what was lost in Eden. We'll get back what was lost before we were even born. We will be new. We've all been shaped by our life experiences in a much deeper way than we realize. What would you be like? Who would you be if they had never made that comment? If that abuse had never taken place? If they hadn't broken your heart? If you hadn't fallen into that addiction? If you hadn't done that thing that you wish every day you could take back, take it a whole lot further? Who would you be if you never felt embarrassment ever or shame ever? If you'd never been criticized? If you'd never experienced disappointment, who would you be? How would you live? How would you laugh? How would you sing? What would you share out loud? How would you love. We will be young again. We will have knowledge and wisdom and understanding, but we will be as free as children who have only ever known. Love and joy and peace will bear no scars of any kind, mental, emotional, spiritual or physical. We'll never worry about the future. We'll never worry about having enough or being enough.
We'll never worry about screwing up because there won't even be a concept in heaven. We won't be able to be self conscious because we'll be so consumed with Jesus that there'll be no room to be consumed with ourselves. Heaven is the hope of all who hope in Christ, and our hope is not misplaced. As we've talked and dreamed about heaven, I want to remind you that Jesus said to John, These words are true and faithful. The question is, do you believe Jesus? I'm not asking if you believe in Jesus. I'm asking if you believe Jesus when he tells you about heaven, because if you do, it's going to be very evident in the way you live your life.
Whether you realize it or not, he is what you are looking for. He is what your soul is crying out for. He's what your life is missing. And today you can have Him. When we pray in just a moment, you can ask Him to come into your life and there'll be some instructions on the end of this video as to next steps that you can take to begin that relationship with God. Make sure you do that if you've never known God for yourself. In Hebrews Eleven, the famous Hall of Faith chapter, it says this regarding the Old Testament Saints. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the Earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. They desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. If you love Jesus, then he has prepared a place for you. More than that, he has prepared an eternity for you, and he has done so for the same reason he lived a perfect life on your behalf, the same reason he suffered and died on your behalf.
And the same reason he rose from the grave and glory on your behalf is because he loves you, because your joy brings Him joy. And he knows there is no greater joy that we can have than knowing Him and being known by Him. So, he has moved heaven and Earth to make it so. Jesus is wonderful. He's wonderful. What more can we say? Let's pray. Would you buy your head and close your eyes? Jesus, thank you that you have gone to prepare a place for us, and you will come again. You will receive us to yourself so that where you are, we may be also. Thank you that our future is better than we could imagine. And Jesus, what we look forward to more than anything is being with you, being with you in the place where we will see you face to face, we will fellowship with you where everything wrong will be made right around you and in you and through you. Thank you that that future is assured for us and Jesus. We ask that the way we live our lives right now reflect that we truly believe and understand what You have revealed to us in Your Word.
May we realign everything in our lives around the reality of heaven and the future You've prepared for us. Lord, help us to live for it, be motivated by it, and be comforted by it. And if there's a change we need to make Holy Spirit, show it to us that we might walk in greater obedience and live for eternity, more profitably, bringing greater joy and glory to the Lord through our earthly lives. We love you. We're so thankful for you. We bless you. It's in Your name we pray. Amen. Hey, thanks for being with us for this study. Before you go, I want to share just a few quick things with you. If you've never given your life to Jesus, then you need to go to Gospelcity. Ca gospel right now you'll find a short video where we share the best news you'll ever hear in your life. It's more important than whatever else you're doing, so go to Gospelcity Caspel right now to learn more about Jesus. If God has blessed you through this message, we'd love to hear about it. Email us at info at gospelcity. Call and let us know how God has impacted your life through His Word.
Passage: Revelation 21:6-27...............Speaker: Jeff Thompson
John is shown more details of the glorious and eternal future home of all who love the Lord, the New Jerusalem.
Well, can you believe it? There are still those who are saying that the Book of Revelation is hard to understand. But Flimflam says we and I apologize is for my language. But you see, the thing is, the word revelation itself means that something has been revealed. And the first words of this book tell us exactly who it is that's being revealed.
It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised anyone who would take the time to read and respond to it a special blessing. And we find that blessing in Revelation chapter one, verse three, let's claim it together. It says, "Blessed is he (or she) who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near."
But God knew there would still be those who would say, it's just too hard to follow. So, to make it easy to understand, he also included a simple outline. And we find that in Revelation chapter one, verses 19, Jesus gives John three things to write about. Firstly, John, I want you to write the things which you have seen that was the resurrected and glorified Jesus in chapter one. Secondly, John, I want you to write the things which are that a reference to the Church aides which began around 32 AD at the feast of Pentecost, is documented in Acts chapter two and continues up to the present day.
And then lastly, Jesus says, John, I want you to write about the things which will take place after this. After what? After the Church age. Now, when does the Church age come to an end? That happens in Revelation chapter four, verses one, let me read it to you.
John says, after these things, I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard, that was the voice of Jesus in chapter one was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And up John goes, serving as a picture of the Church who will be raptured to be with the Lord. And just to make it Crystal clear what's happening, the Lord will take all of chapters four and five to show us the Church with Him in heaven before he begins pouring out his wrath upon the Earth. And when he pours out his wrath, the incredible thing is that verse is like Revelation 6/16 tells us that those on the Earth will know that it's God doing it.
They will identify it as the wrath of the Lamb. And in the Scriptures, the Lamb is who it's Jesus. So chapter one gives us the focus of this amazing book, Jesus Christ. Chapters two and three take us through the Church age up to the present day. The Church goes up in chapter four, verses one, we see her safe and secure with the Lord in heaven for chapters four and five before wrath comes down on the Earth in chapter six.
That wrath continues for seven years across a time period known as the Tribulation, and is documented in chapter six through 19, after which Jesus returns to the Earth with His Saints in the event known as the Second Coming. Jesus will then rule and reign on the Earth for the thousand years known as the Millennial Kingdom, a golden age when the Earth will be restored to an Eden like state and everything wrong with the world will be undone. After those thousand years, our universe will be destroyed and Jesus will create new heavens and a new Earth free from every source of sorrow heaven itself. The city called the New Jerusalem will descend to the new Earth where it will serve as our home for the ages to come.
If you love Jesus, then your story is destined to end with the words and they lived happily ever after. We spend most of our previous study dreaming together about how incredible it is going to be when God declares, Behold, I make all things new as we pick things up in verse is of chapter 21, we hear God speaking from his throne. Both Jesus and the Father are on the throne together at this moment, and we can safely assume the Holy Spirit is there with them too. They speak with one voice. In verses six through nine, John writes, And He, God said to Me, It is done.
Underline that in your Bible, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. What a moment on the cross, Jesus cried out, It is finished here, God declares, it is done. The redemptive work that began with the cry of a new born baby in the little town of Bethlehem reaches its Zenith and concludes with these triumphant words, It is done. Truly.
His ways are higher than our ways, his plans unfathomably greater, his vision infinitely more glorious, and his wonders beyond comprehension. We can enjoy new spiritual life right now. But verse six is the moment when God declares that all things have been made new, physically, spiritually, biologically, all things have been made new. This is the moment Paul spoke of when he wrote this in his first letter to the Corinthians. It's on your outlines.
Then comes the end when he Jesus delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign till he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Now, when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him. That God may be all in all. The words it is done announce the end of the age of our universe and the dawn of a new age.
A new chapter in the incredible book of the story of God. What happens in that next chapter? A new story begins, and all I can tell you about it is that it will be wonderful. Have you ever been out somewhere far from the city lights, looked up and caught a glimpse of the glory of the universe and seen the Milky Way like a cloud in the night sky? If Jesus could create all the stars, planets, and the beauty of this Earth in six days, what could he prepare for us?
In 2000 years, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. Jesus said, "I go to prepare a place for you", for you personally. For me personally. I don't know if we'll have rooms or houses, but I suspect there will be some type of space for each of us that is tailored for us individually and will reflect God's intimate knowledge of who he created us to be. I do know this with certainty.
We will realize immediately that we never knew what home felt like before we arrived in heaven. It will feel like home in a way that we have never tasted in our earthly lives. Ladies, as incredible as it sounds, you won't want to change anything about your eternal home ever. You won't want to move a couch or change a paint color. It'll just be perfect.
And all the men will praise the Lord, saying, Truly, he has done great things. God continues in verse is and tells John, I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. The water of life is an idiom for the Holy Spirit that is given to every person who places their faith in Jesus. God is telling John, "All this is for anyone who wants it. It's for anyone who wants Me."
There will be no striving. There will be no dry days, spiritually or emotionally or in any way. There will just be life everywhere, all the time. Verse Seven God says he who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son. Eternal life is for those who desire it and those who overcome it.
Now, how do we overcome this? Let's remind ourselves once more of the words of our brother John that he wrote in his first epistle, who is he who overcomes the world but he who does enough good works? No, it's not what it says. Sorry. Who is he who overcomes the world but he who has a perfectly consistent devotional life doesn't say that either.
Achieves mastery over every sin in their life doesn't say that. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The Christian life is drinking the living water of eternal life freely offered by Jesus and then offering it to naturally sorry, then allowing it to naturally affect your life. The Christian life is drinking the living water of eternal life freely offered by Jesus, and then just allowing it to naturally affect your life. There is a difference between a dehydrated person and a hydrated person.
In the same way, there is an unmistakable difference between the person who is drunk the living water of eternal life and the person who has not. How do we Overcome? We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and we express that belief by accepting his offer of eternal life, that's it Salvation is the gift of God. He did all the work so that none of us can boast that we earned even the tiniest part of our Salvation. The Lord did it all.
Our job is simply to believe it and receive it. So would you write this down? It's our belief in Jesus that makes us overcomers. Our belief in Jesus makes us overcomers. He won the victory on our behalf, and we need only believe and follow Him.
In response, there are multiple places in the New Testament where it refers to what awaits us in eternity as our inheritance. We've talked before about how unbelievably it's Jesus desire and intent to share all he has with us in the ages to come. God tells John that all the beauty he is beholding in this new creation belongs to those who belong to Him. We don't know what our tasks will be in this new age. We know it'll be amazing.
And we also know that how we live our earthly lives will impact what we are entrusted with in eternity. We're all in training. That's why James is not blowing smoke when he says, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. Are you in a trial? Rejoice.
We're destined to inherit all things. The assignment awaiting us is significant, to say the least. Therefore, it makes sense that our preparation and training would also be significant. Paul writes in Romans eight, you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba, which is Aramaic for Father, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.
And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. So make a note of this. This life is preparation for our eternal inheritance. This life is preparation for our eternal inheritance.
We need to learn how to be about our Father's business and reflect our Father's values so that we can serve Him faithfully and successfully in the ages to come. Verse seven ends with this beautiful promise. I will be his God, and he shall be my Son. What an amazing thing it is that the Almighty God of heaven and Earth has adopted you and me as his children. Out of all the relationships he could have constructed for us, the one he chose was the one where we call Him Dad for all eternity.
Jesus suffered and died so we could become his brothers and sisters through adoption. If you haven't figured it out yet, God really, really loves you. He really loves you. If you've been blessed with a good Father in your life, then you may be able to recall those few golden years when, as a child, the presence of your Father made you feel completely safe. Those years when you didn't ever worry if your dad was around because you knew that if a gang of murderers shows up to try and harm us, my dad will just single handedly beat all of them up and cart them off to jail.
There's nothing to worry about. We're going to feel safe like that. We're going to feel secure like that forever. But not out of ignorance or naivete, but because our Heavenly Father really will have created a reality free from anything that could cause sorrow. We'll never look over our shoulders again, ever.
We know and understand that God lacks nothing. He needs nothing. But that doesn't mean nothing can bless Him. In fact, God made us to be his children for eternity because as staggering as it sounds, God is blessed by his children. If you're a parent, then you know your kids have the capacity to bless you in an incredible way.
When you see them overcome a fear, overcome a challenge. When you see them win, it blesses you. We get that from being made in the image of God. Truly, we will be blessed in eternity. But incredibly, we will also bless God in eternity.
And if you love the Lord, you want to bless Him, you just do because you love Him so much. So make a note of this. Our Heavenly Father created us with the ability to bless Him as his children. He created us with the ability to bless Him as his children. After revealing to John how wonderful heaven is going to be, God takes a moment to remind the reader of the importance of taking their Salvation seriously so that they get to spend eternity in God's blissful new creation.
He doesn't want anybody to deceive themselves into thinking that all we must do is raise our hand in Church and say we want to be saved to punch our ticket to heaven. We cannot say yes to Jesus and then live the rest of our lives as our own God. Such a life proves that we never actually said yes to Jesus. We never actually drank the living water that he was offering. To underscore this point, God lists a series of behaviors that highlight the lack of Salvation in a person's life.
Please understand the issue is not whether you've fallen into any of these sins after you became a Christian. We all sin and sometimes backslide. This list is talking about people who engage in these behaviors as a lifestyle, as their regular pattern of living. It's talking about people who don't agree with God that these are sins. They're not grieved when they fall into these sins, they don't hate their sin, and they don't attempt to change.
They don't confess, ask for help, or battle their sin in any way. God says in verse eight, but the cowardly those who turn their backs on Jesus when following him become inconvenient and unbelieving. Those who don't believe in Jesus are abominable. Those who do evil and wickedness in general, murderers sexually immoral, and those who live and practice s*xual behavior outside of God's design, which is marriage between a man and woman. Sorcerers seek to interact with the spiritual realm outside of the instructions given in scripture.
The original Greek word is Pharmacos, which points to the inclusion of using mind-altering substances to pursue a spiritual experience, talking about stuff like ayahuasca and things like that. Idolaters those who live their lives for any God other than Yahweh and all liars shall have their part in the Lake which Burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. The phrase has their part is an intentional contrast to the language God uses with Israel when he refers to how each tribe will have their part in the Promised Land. God tells Israel, you'll each have an area that will be yours, and terrifyingly. God says that those who reject him will each have their area in the Lake of Fire.
If you ever find yourself engaging in any of these sins that God lists unrepentantly as a lifestyle without any hatred of your sin, you need to reflect and ask yourself questions like, Have I given my life to Jesus? Have I accepted him as the master of my life? Is that how I view my life? That's how serious this issue is. God gives this list out of love because he doesn't want anyone to miss out on heaven.
If you're caught up in any of that stuff, stop and repent. It's not a small thing. Make whatever changes you need to make and make them today. Battle your sin. Find a brother or sister and confess to them.
Precious and semi-precious stones have different names in different languages and cultures, even at different times in history as well. And that's why your Bible might have some different words for those stones. All we need to know is that there are twelve precious stones. The idea is that the glory of God shines through these stones, casting out beams of light in every color imaginable, adding to the overwhelming beauty of the New Jerusalem that John is beholding. Many Bible scholars link these stones with the twelve stones that represented the twelve tribes of Israel on the breastplate of the high priest in the Old Testament era.
That may well be the case, but we simply can't confirm that because of the issue of stones being called different names and different cultures across the centuries. Verse 21 the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Each gate was of one pearl. Each of the New Jerusalem's gates is made from a single enormous Pearl. Pearls were prized and highly valued in John's day even more than they are today.
Some commentators have highlighted something interesting about the nature of pearls and how they are formed. This could be a coincidence, or it could be intentional. I'll share it with you and then you can come to your own conclusions. Pearls are not formed from metal or stone. They are formed when an irritant, usually a grain of sand, gets into an oyster.
But the living organism of the oyster doesn't deal with the irritant by spitting it out. Instead, it coats its robes. The irritant in the material of Pearl. Layer by layer, bit by bit, this insignificant grain of sand is transformed by the oyster into a beautiful and valuable Pearl. And as we pass in and out of New Jerusalem's gates, we will be reminded of this picture that when we approach God in our sin and our wickedness, he did not spit us out.
Instead, Jesus died in our place, welcomed us, and robbed us in his righteousness, transforming us into beautified Saints and treasured children of the Father. And as we pass through these gates, we'll be reminded that we're only there in the New Jerusalem, in the new creation, because God loved us and did something for us that we could not do for ourselves, and we will gladly praise them for it yet again. It goes on and says, in the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. The main street of the New Jerusalem is made of the same gold that is also transparent, the most valuable metal on Earth. Gold is used as concrete in heaven.
The famous pearly gates also from these verses. Verses 22 John says, But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light, and the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the Kings of the Earth bring their glory and honor into it. Don't you love those verses?
There's just something about them conceptually that makes my spirit sore every time I read them. Something in me yearns to be in the New Jerusalem. Isaiah prophesied about this and wrote, The Sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you, but the Lord will be to you an everlasting light, and your God your glory. The term the nation is the Greek word Ethnos. In this context, it's a reference to the different ethnicities that will populate heaven.
We'll retain our ethnicity in heaven because it will testify to the glorious breadth of the saving power of the cross. The work of Jesus saves lives and turns orphans into children of God. Across nations, ethnicities, languages, socioeconomic classes, and every other human division, the gospel transcends it all. An eternity will attest to that fact. The phrase the Kings of the Earth bring their glory and honor into it speaks of the reality that all glory and Fame will return to God in the New Jerusalem.
As David prayed in one Chronicles 29, Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power and the glory, the victory and the majesty, for all that is in heaven and on Earth is yours. Yours is the Kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head overall. Verse 25, Its gait shall not be shut it all by day there shall be no night there, and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. The gates will never have to close, because God's people will have no enemies, and there will be nothing to fear ever a truth underscored by the next and final verse of the chapter, verse 27 but there shall by no means enter it. Anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
D.L. Moody, the great pastor, and preacher was in Chicago when the Great Chicago Fire destroyed much of the city, and it destroyed his house too. Shortly after the fire, a reporter came up to him and asked, Reverend Moody, you're a Christian man, and yet your house burned to the ground too. In fact, you've lost everything. How do you explain that? D.L. Moody responded, "You are very much mistaken. I've got much more than what was lost in the fire. The reporter said. What do you mean? D.L. Moody opened his Bible to Revelation 21, verse seven, and read aloud, he who overcomes shall inherit all things.
When Jesus was hanging with his disciples, the time came when he had to tell them that he was going to be leaving them for his time, and they were discouraged. This was not the way they expected things to go. Things were turning very dark, very fast. But Jesus didn't tell them, "Hey guys, why don't you go watch an inspiring movie to make yourself feel better?" He didn't say, "Listen, check out my Facebook feed. I'm going to be posting some encouraging musical performances there." Nor did he counsel them, "Listen, have a positive attitude. Turn that frown upside down." Instead, Jesus taught them that the antidote for discouragement is to set your mind and heart on things above, on our future with Jesus.
Your perspective will be rightly readjusted the believers who make an impact in this life are the ones who understand what comes in the next life. When you grasp the reality of heaven even a little bit, you'll be able to live free from the things the Bible calls the affairs of this life. Only good and fruitful things come from being heavenly-minded. In fact, it's the key to ending this life.
Because when you're freed from placing all your hope in this life, when you're freed from wanting everything to be perfect, now you're able to enjoy this life for what it is. You're able to enjoy others for who they are.
If you're playing Amen with the sins God listed in this chapter, if you're not convicted, grieved, repentant, or desiring to change, please reflect and make sure that you're actually saved. You cannot accept Jesus as your Savior without also accepting Him as your Lord, the pastor of your life. If you feel no conviction over your sin, ask the Lord to touch you and give you a heart that desires to please Him. Ask the Lord to be God over your life and then repent. Turn away from those sins, confess to somebody, a pastor or a wise and mature believer, and make a plan to stay in fellowship and encourage each other to walk in righteousness.
Don't play games with your Salvation. I've slowed down a bit for these final few chapters because they are so important. They invite us to fix our eyes on heaven and live for eternity. And that is the perspective all believers need to hold on to. Also, as we all know, the Rapture is going to take place as soon as we finish this series.
So, I wanted to give the Lord a few extra weeks to save some more people. Verse seven was true for Jesus. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. And because it was true for Jesus, it is true for anyone who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. The greatest joy in heaven won't be finally having all things.
It'll finally be having the one thing that truly satisfies fully, the Lord Himself. Would you buy your head and close your eyes and pray with me? Jesus, thank you, as always, for Your Word. Thank you for these precious glimpses of heaven, the New Jerusalem, the ages to come, the place that you have prepared for those who love you. And Lord, we do love you.
We are so thankful for your kindness and love for us that instead of rejecting us, you robed us in righteousness and beautified us, and secured adoption for us into your father's family. Thank you for loving us so well, so much more than we could ever even dare to ask for or dare to hope for. You're just wonderful, Lord. Father, I pray that if there's anyone watching or listening to this message who is not saved, Lord, would you show them that they're not saved? That they might turn to you and receive the living water that will lead to eternal life? We want them there with us and Jesus.
May we be so heavenly-minded that we live our lives with the right priority. Never discouraged that this is not heaven. Help us to live wisely. Help us to live. Profitably in light of the truth that we are going to spend eternity with You, We Love You we Bless You It's in Your Name we Pray Amen bye.
AMEN
Date:5/1/22
Series: Revelation
Passage: Revelation 22:1-21................Speaker: Jeff Thompson
Our study through the Book of Revelation concludes with a few more glimpses of the glorious New Jerusalem, followed by closing comments from John and Jesus.
I don't want to alarm anyone but I just noticed the word Gullible is written on the ceiling and I really hope that you didn't look wherever you're watching this because if you did, there's no telling what other fictions you might fall for. You might even believe something as ridiculous as the claim that the book of Revelation is hard to understand. So let me just tell you right here and right now that if someone ever tells you that you need to look them in the eyes and say to them... nonsense; no worries; baloney; that's preposterous; balderdash; chicanery; lies, lies, terrible lies; you can't handle the truth; poppycock; stop the madness; #FAIL; folly; subterfuge; mendacity; we call cap; hogwash; columniation; hokum; gobbledygook; fake news; twaddle; stultiloquence; absurdity; drivel; fatuity; codswallop; asininity; daftness, bunk; flimflam; and babble!
For you see the word itself, Revelation, means something has been revealed. And the first words of this book tell us exactly who it is that's being revealed. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And God wanted us to read this book so much that he promised those who take the time to read and respond to it a special blessing. And we find that in Revelation, chapter one, verse three, let's read it together for the last time in this study series. Blessed is he or she who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near. But God knew there would still be those who would try and claim that the book of Revelation is hard to understand. So to help us out, he also included a simple and easy to follow outline. And we find that in Revelation, chapter one, verse 19, Jesus gives John three things to write about. He says, John, I want you to write the things which you have seen. And up to that point, John had seen the resurrected and glorified Jesus in chapter one.
Secondly, Jesus says, John, I want you to write the things which are that's a reference to the Church age which began at the feast of Pentecost around 32 Ad in the city of Jerusalem in Israel, is documented in Acts chapter two and continues to this day. It's laid out in chapters two and three, prophetically in chronological order. It's the Church age. And then Thirdly, Jesus says, John, I want you to write about the things which will take place after this. After what? Things? After the Church age comes to an end. Now, when does the Church age end? That happens in Revelation, chapter four, verse one. Let me read it to you. John writes, after these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard, that was the voice of Jesus in chapter one was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. And up John goes, serving as a picture of the Church who will be raptured to be with the Lord. And Jesus takes all of chapters four and five to make sure we don't miss the fact that the Church is safe and secure with him in heaven before he begins pouring out his wrath on the Earth that has rejected him.
Heaven itself. The city of God called New Jerusalem, the eternal Holy of Holies, will descend to the new Earth, where it will be our home and the Lord will dwell among us for the ages to come. Though you may not understand all the details just yet, I can tell you this. If you love Jesus, then your story is destined to end with the words, and they live happily ever after. Last week we finished chapter 21. This week we are in chapter 22, the final chapter of the Book of Revelation. Can you believe it? We're going to see a little bit more about what it's like inside the New Jerusalem, and we're going to read some closing comments from John and the Lord Jesus. Let's read verse one together. It says, and he showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as Crystal. Proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, John sees this beautiful river of living water flowing from the throne of the Father and Jesus. It's literal water, but it's also the water of life, the living water that speaks of the Spirit and Salvation. It's both a real thing, but simultaneously, figurative, simultaneously a picture of something.
In this instance, it's a picture of how abundant and free flowing the life that exists only in Jesus will be in his new creation. It'll just be everywhere. As we mentioned last time, there will be no striving, no focus or effort needed to abide in Christ. The presence of God will saturate the atmosphere in the new creation. If you're sitting on the banks of a perfectly clean and flowing river and you're thirsty, you need only scoop up some water and drink because it's right in front of you. That's the idea this scene is intended to convey regarding the availability of God's presence in the new creation. Verse two in the middle of the street and on either side of the river was the tree of life. A better translation would be in the middle of its path, referring to the path the river took. Now there are obvious parallels between the new creation and Eden in the Book of Genesis, and this tree of life is the heavenly counterpart to the tree of life. The Lord placed in Eden when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
God expelled them from the garden specifically to prevent them from eating from the tree of life, because if they had, they would have lived forever in their fallen, sinful fleshly state, separated from God. The tree of life, in some mystical way that I don't really understand, had the ability to grant eternal earthly life to those who ate its fruit. The tree of life in the New Jerusalem is not what gives us eternal life. Jesus does that. Like the River, John is seeing real literal trees that also have figurative significance
When God made the Earth, he looked upon his creation and declared that it was good. Therefore, we should not be surprised to encounter many of those good elements in his new creation. The verse continues and tells us more about the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations every month of the year. The tree or trees of life produce different fruit. This again is literal and figurative, and it speaks of the infinite variety of blessings and good things that will flourish in the new creation. The mention of months causes some to wonder if there will be time in heaven. I don't see anything in the Bible that suggests we will exist outside of time. We know that the Lord exists outside of time and also in all of time simultaneously. He must exist outside of it because time, as we currently experience it, functions concerning properties of our universe, such as the speed of light and gravity. And the Lord had to be outside of our universe to create it simultaneously.
The Lord is omnipresent in all of time. He is in the past, he's in the future. That's why when he speaks to us about the future, he's not talking about what he hopes will happen. He's already seen it happen. He's already been there, as incredible as that sounds. And if I'm blowing your mind, that's okay, because God is bigger than we can imagine, and there's going to be aspects of him that our brains can't comprehend. So I don't see any reason to believe that we will exist outside of time, though the basis of time will change in the new creation. And any further discussion on this subject gets too deep into the realm of theoretical physics for me to swim. Now here's another fun question. Will we eat in heaven? We can't know for sure, but I like to think so. I am convinced that part of the curse our sin brought on the Earth is that the best-tasting food is the worst food for your health. Fried food, white bread, fatty red meat, sugar. It's all bad for you. What's good for you? Kale, spinach, broccoli. There's no question in my mind that as we eat, the food our doctors tell us is best for us, we should be weeping and lamenting over what our sin has wrought in heaven.
I believe that the best food for you will also be the best-tasting food. And there won't be recommended serving sizes. Or if there are recommended serving sizes, they'll function in reality. You know, like now if you look at a pack of Oreos, they'll say the recommended serving size, like two cookies. But in heaven you'll get a pack of Oreos, flip it over, look at the recommended serving size, and it'll finally say something good, like one sleeve is the recommended serving size. You'll get a tub of ice cream and the serving size will say, when your spoon hits the bottom of the bucket you'll be able to enjoy it with a clear conscience. I'm speculating, of course, but I am speculating in faith. We do know that our resurrected bodies will be able to eat food because when Jesus appeared to his disciples following his resurrection, he ate some fish to prove that he had a real physical body and was not a ghost. Therefore, just as my Lord ate food following his resurrection, I believe I shall too.
The word healing in the original Greek is the word therapy. From where we derive our English word therapy. A clearer translation in this context would be the term life-giving. So the verse would read, the leaves of the tree were life-giving to the nations. The verse does not imply that there are ailments in heaven that need to be remedied. Rather, it's telling us that in the new creation, there is continuous health and life in the environment itself. There's no sickness, no loss, no entropy, no decay, no deterioration, only health and blessings from everything, everywhere, for everyone, all the time. The design of God's word is amazing. It's beautiful. Humanity traces its beginning to a garden and humanity will reach its conclusion in a garden. Now, what I'm about to share is profound, and I don't want you to miss it. The ages of our Earth, the millennia that have passed the entire story of humanity were all to get us to the place where we are fully with the Lord and he is with us. Revelation 21 and 22 was the goal. Before the universe was created, God knew that the cost of bringing us into his family would be the life of Jesus.
But here's the amazing part. He knew that before our world was made. That's why Scripture calls him the Lamb slain from the foundations of the world. And yet, knowing that God created us so that with the life and blood of Jesus, he could love us and adopt us into his family as his children. It's astonishing. The new creation is a type of Eden again. But this time we will not fall into sin and sever our relationship with God because we will be remade in his image to an even greater degree than Adam and Eve were made in his image. And to create this new beginning, everything that has happened, everything that will happen in this age has to happen. It's necessary. The first Eden, the Fall, the curse, the Law, the Incarnation, the Cross, the Resurrection, the Church, the Rapture, the Tribulation, the Second Coming, the millennial Kingdom. All of it is necessary to get us to a new beginning in a new creation where we will enjoy the Lord forever. Make a note of this. This is the incredible part. Everything that happens between Eden and the New Jerusalem is about creating a new beginning where the sons and daughters of God enjoy, serve, and worship Him faithfully forever.
I'll say it again. Everything that happens between Eden and the New Jerusalem is about creating a new beginning where the sons and daughters of God enjoy, serve, and worship Him faithfully forever. All of that is to get us to the real beginning, which is in the new creation. The New Jerusalem. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, when they rebelled against God and rejected His Lordship over their lives, the result was a sinful nature. The ability to know good and evil instead of your whole being desiring what is good and desiring to honor God. You now had a dual nature, a spirit that desired to please God, but a flesh and a body that wanted to do something evil. And Adam and Eve chose to listen to that part of their nature that desired to rebel against the Lord. They listened to their fleshly body, and the result of their sin was death, physical death, and spiritual death. This is what we call the curse in Christian theology. When Jesus died on the cross in our place and rose again, he lifted the curse of spiritual death from you and me.
If we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we are delivered from the eternal Kingdom of darkness into the eternal Kingdom of light. However, we are presently still under the curse of physical death. How do I know? Because we're still dying every day.