"The New Jerusalem"

Well, good morning, church.

It's good to see you all this morning.

I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in iHeart Day yesterday,

especially the site leaders and the committee members,

especially Spandan Seha, who led the charge for us amongst the iHeart committee.

So, yeah, let's give a round of applause to everyone who helped.

It takes a lot of work to pull off an event like that.

So thank you all for all you did to make that day of success.

Well, would you turn with me to Revelation 21?

Revelation 21.

We're picking up today in verses 9 through 27.

If you'd like to follow along in the Pew Bible, it's page 977.

Revelation 21, starting in verse 9.

Let me pray, and then I'll read.

Father, indeed, the church's one foundation, our one foundation is Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So we pray that as we settle into this passage this morning,

we would see Christ displayed in his beauty through your word,

and that by your spirit we would be drawn to him in faith

and transformed in his likeness by your spirit.

We ask this in his mighty name.

Amen.

All right, Revelation 21, verse 9 through the end of the chapter.

Revelation 21:9

Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues

and spoke to me, saying,

Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.

And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain

and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

having the glory of God,

its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal.

It had a great high wall with twelve gates,

and at the gates twelve angels,

and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed.

On the east three gates, on the north three gates,

on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations,

and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold

to measure the city and its gates and walls.

The city lies four square, its length the same as its width.

And he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia.

Its length and width and height are equal.

He also measured its wall, one hundred and forty-four cubits by human measurement,

which is also an angel's measurement.

The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.

The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.

The first was jasper, the second sapphire,

the third agate, the fourth emerald,

the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian,

the seventh chrysolite,

the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz,

the tenth chrysoprase,

the eleventh jacent,

the twelfth amethyst.

And the twelve gates were twelve pearls,

each of the gates made of a single pearl,

and the street of the city was pure gold,

like transparent glass.

And I saw no temple in the city,

for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty

and the Lamb.

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,

for the glory of God gives its light,

and its lamp is the Lamb.

By its light will the nations walk,

and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,

and its gates will never be shut by day,

and there will be no night there.

They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations,

but nothing unclean will ever enter it,

nor anyone who does what is detestable or false,

but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

So imagine that you and I are walking the streets of Rome

in the late second century.

And as we make our way past the open-air markets

and the hustle and the bustle,

we find ourselves after a while in the center of the city,

in the Palatine Hill District.

This area of the city used to be where all the wealthy lived,

and there are even some imperial palaces

kind of left over there.

And as we cut down an alley,

we come across an old boarding school

for imperial pages for attendants and messengers,

and rumor has it at one time

it used to be the house of the Emperor Caligula.

But as we pass by,

we see something scrawled on one of the walls.

It's graffiti, just like any city.

They had graffiti in the ancient world as well.

But when we get a little closer,

we see that the graffiti is actually a crudely drawn picture

of a young man

worshiping a figure hanging on a cross,

and the figure hanging on the cross

has the head of a donkey.

And below this drawing are the words,

Alex Amenos, which is a name.

Alex Amenos worships his God.

It's actually a piece of graffiti

making fun of Christians.

You see, this is what many people thought of Christians

in the early centuries.

They thought they were fools.

Who would worship a crucified Jew?

So Christians, like young Alex Amenos,

were ridiculed and mocked.

Ironically, historians think this might be

one of the earliest depictions of Jesus

that's survived.

A piece of graffiti mocking both Jesus

and those who worship him.

And you can actually still see this piece of graffiti today

in the Palatine Museum in Rome.

I think at times we can resonate with Alex Amenos, can't we?

Oftentimes being a Christian doesn't bring you

any social benefit or social standing.

Just the opposite, right?

Your neighbors or your friends find out

that you're a Christian,

and they think you're a little strange at best,

or foolish, close-minded,

even bigoted at worst.

Who would give their allegiance

to a crucified, first-century Jew?

And who would shape their life

around the stories and teachings

of a 2,000-year-old book?

And oftentimes what happens

when this negative social pressure

or social shame sets in

is one of two things.

On the one hand, we as Christians

can be tempted to just sort of withdraw,

to sort of hide, to fade into the background.

We try to just disappear or go unnoticed.

You know, rather than loving our neighbors

and our enemies, we avoid them.

And then we just sort of become like them.

On the other hand,

when we face that sort of negative pressure,

we can get angry and fight back.

Rather than loving our neighbors

and our enemies, we attack them.

But you know, neither of these

is the path that the book of Revelation

has held out before us as the church.

Revelation has held up a vision for us

of being a church in the midst of the world

that holds forth a robust witness,

neither avoiding nor attacking,

but testifying to the one true God

and to the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And testifying even if it means

great misunderstanding,

great exclusion,

testifying in love even if it means suffering.

But the question is,

amidst the social shame and the ridicule,

how do we stay on that path

of faithful witness

and not fall away

into either avoidance mode

or attack mode?

Well, one way we can do this,

and what we see in our passage here,

one way we can do this

is to keep the future glory

of the church in view.

What John is doing in this passage before us

is holding up a picture

of the church's true identity,

our true destiny,

our future perfected state

in the new heavens and new earth.

And he's holding up that vision

so that we might know

who we truly are

and who God sees us to be

despite the world's passing ridicule and shame.

And knowing who we truly are,

knowing what our future truly is,

that is what will help us

to persist in the loving witness

that we're called to give

to the crucified and risen Jesus

with our words and with our life,

even when the world thinks

it's ridiculous.

So this vision of the heavenly Jerusalem

of the new city of God

is a picture of the church

perfected in glory

in the new heavens and new earth.

Now, how do we know that?

Well, look at verse 9.

In verse 9, the angel says,

Come, I'll show you the bride,

the wife of the Lamb,

and then in verse 10,

John sees the holy city Jerusalem

coming down out of heaven from God.

So the city is a representation of the bride,

and the bride, as we know from chapter 17

in Revelation, is the church.

Now, this all sort of has

deep Old Testament resonances, right?

Because the city of Jerusalem

in the Old Testament

was the central place

where God's people dwelled.

It was the sort of center

of the people of God.

And so the city of Jerusalem

sort of became a metaphor

for the people themselves,

the people in communion

with their God.

Now, what does John see

as this city descends from heaven?

Well, look at verse 11.

What's the defining feature

of this city?

John says,

It comes down out of heaven

from God, what?

Having the glory of God.

Having the glory of God.

That's the big idea of our passage.

The people of God

will share the glory of God.

You might feel ridiculed,

rejected, excluded,

but if you belong to Christ,

then this is true of you.

You, the people of God,

will share the glory of God.

And the rest of this vision

unpacks this glory.

It unpacks what this glory is.

And we'll kind of walk

through it together.

We'll see that the church shares

first in the glory of God's unity,

and then John is going to show us

how the church shares

in the glory of God's holiness,

and then last,

we'll look at how the church

shares the glory of God's presence.

And each of these aspects

of God's glory gives us

not just hope for the future,

although certainly that,

but it's also a picture

of the sort of people

we should be now

as we seek to reflect

the glory of God,

even now as we look forward

to the new heavens and new earth.

Okay, so let's look at these aspects

of God's glory that we share.

First, God's people share

the glory of God's unity.

We see this in verses 12 through 14.

The city has 12 gates

and 12 foundations,

and on the gates are the names

of the 12 tribes of Israel,

and on the foundations

are the names of the 12 apostles.

Now, it's pretty clear

what this means, right?

The eternal city,

the renewed people of God,

will be a unity of both

Old Testament

and New Testament believers.

You see, in the history

of redemption,

if we take the whole Bible together,

there's only one people of God,

and this one people of God

is the union of Jew and Gentile

around the one Lord, Jesus Christ.

We could look through passage

after passage in the Old Testament

that spoke plainly

about this reality,

starting all the way back

with Abraham,

who was promised

that through him

and his offspring,

all the nations of the earth

would be blessed.

Or we could look through

the book of Psalms

where we could often find

sung how the nations would come

and glorify the Lord

as their God.

Do you remember

some of those lines?

Let the peoples praise you,

O God.

Let all the peoples praise you,

right?

The nations would come in

to this one people of God.

Or how about,

let the nations be glad

and sing for joy.

And this Old Testament theme

finds its fulfillment

in the New Testament

when the Messiah, Jesus, comes

to fulfill the promise

to Abraham

and to fulfill all the songs

of the poets and prophets.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul

explains this in Ephesians 2,

Ephesians 2:11–20

verses 11 through 20.

He's writing to Gentiles

and he says,

therefore remember,

at one time,

you Gentiles in the flesh,

called the uncircumcision

by what is called

the circumcision,

which is made in the flesh

by hands.

He says,

remember that you were

at one time

separated from Christ,

alienated from the

commonwealth of Israel,

and strangers

to the covenants

and promise,

having no hope

and without God

in the world.

But now,

in Christ Jesus,

you,

who were once far off,

have been brought near

by the blood of Christ.

For he himself

is our peace,

who's made us both one

and has broken down

in his flesh

the dividing wall

of hostility.

by abolishing

the law of commandments

expressed in ordinances,

that he might create

in himself

one new man

in place of the two,

so making peace,

and might reconcile

us both to God

in one body

through the cross,

thereby killing

the hostility.

Then Paul says this,

he says,

and he came

and he preached peace

to you

who were far off

and peace

to those who were near.

For through him

we both have access

in one spirit

to the Father,

so you're no longer

strangers and aliens,

but you're fellow citizens

with the saints

and members

of the household

of God,

built on the foundation

of the apostles

and prophets,

Christ Jesus himself

being the cornerstone.

Through the cross,

the two have been made one.

Do you see the glory

in this?

What Jesus achieved

through the cross,

no other world ruler,

no other empire,

no other social program

could achieve.

Long before the world

celebrated diversity

and difference,

long before the world

celebrated valuing

our unique cultures

and backgrounds,

the church

had been for

2,000 years

building

a multicultural,

multi-ethnic people

where difference

wasn't erased,

but that difference

was brought near

into the full body

of Christ.

So we worship

the crucified one,

yes,

and we glory in him

despite the world's ridicule.

And John sees a vision

in Revelation

of the new city

of God's people

in glory

where those divisions

and those hostilities

are over once and for all

and where there's truly peace.

We're crafted

and created

into one city.

And this unity

and diversity

which we share

is,

at the end of the day,

a sharing

in God's glory.

for God himself

is a unity

amidst diversity,

isn't he?

The book of Revelation,

not to mention

the whole New Testament,

has shown us

that God

is a triune God,

right?

The one who sits

on the throne

and the Lamb

and the sevenfold spirit

that comes forth

from the throne

are one God,

Father,

Son,

and Holy Spirit.

God is one

in three

and three

in one.

In other words,

the very heart

of ultimate reality

is a diverse unity

or a unified diversity.

And God's people

reflect that glory.

We will reflect it

ultimately

in the new heavens

and new earth

when people

from every tribe

and tongue

and nation

will make up

this new city.

But we also reflect it

right now.

In our local churches,

we should be reflections

of this heavenly reality

to come.

We will do it

imperfectly,

of course,

but there should be

a foretaste

of the future

right now

in our present.

Now,

how do we do that?

How do we do this?

How do we reflect

the glory of God's unity

here and now?

Well,

we do it

by loving one another.

The unity of the Trinity,

Father, Son, and Spirit

is a unity of love.

Jesus himself said,

the world will know

my disciples

by your love.

What made the early church

attractive despite

the ridicule and shame

was its love.

So let me mention

five practical ways

to love one another

here and now

and to reflect God's unity.

And I'll go through

these quickly

because we've got more

to cover this morning.

But how do we love

one another practically

and reflect this unity?

First,

we do it by practicing

church membership.

Church membership says,

I love you enough

to commit to you.

And at Trinity,

we have the great privilege

to be made up

of members

from many countries

and languages

and backgrounds.

And when we commit

to each other,

we're demonstrating

the glory of God's unity.

Secondly,

we attend Sunday services.

being here

in person

matters.

It says,

I love you enough

to show up for you.

Now,

you all are here,

so maybe I'm preaching

to the choir, right?

But maybe you've not

been here for a while,

so this is for you, right?

We love each other

by showing up

for one another.

We're not here

to be consumers,

to simply watch church

on a screen

like we'd watch

any old TV show.

No,

we're here in the flesh

to love and know

each other.

We reflect the glory

of God's unity

by showing up

for each other,

by gathering together

on Sunday.

Third way,

we welcome differences.

We say,

I love you enough

to listen to you.

You might have

a different political view

than mine.

You might have

different musical preferences

than mine.

We might approach

all sorts of things

differently.

But we reflect

the glory of God's unity

by saying,

I love you enough

to listen to you,

to welcome differences

and to learn

from each other.

Fourth,

and this is quite

countercultural,

we confront sin.

We say,

I love you enough

to correct you

and to be corrected

by you.

Welcoming difference

does not mean

that we don't hold

each other

to the way of Christ

and the word of God.

We need to love

each other enough

to encourage

and correct

and bring all

of our lives

under the lordship

of Christ

and his word,

even when it seems

to be a path

at total variance

to the world

around us.

Fifth,

we mutually

serve each other.

we say,

I love you enough

to serve you

and to be served

by you.

We receive

from one another,

we give to one another

our time,

our energy,

our gifts,

our talents,

our resources.

Now a church

that's doing these things,

that's committing,

that's showing up,

that's listening,

that's correcting,

that's serving,

that will start

to be a church

that's lovingly reflecting

the glory of God's unity.

So John wants us

to have a vision

of God's people

sharing God's glory

and first we see

the glory of God's unity

in this vision

of the new Jerusalem.

Next,

what we see next

is a glory,

is that we share

in the glory

of God's holiness,

the glory of God's holiness.

Now,

this is in verses

15 through 21.

In these verses

we see the measurements

and the materials

of this great city

and the impression

we get

is that the city

is the perfection

of beauty.

The dimensions

of the city

are precise

and the adornment

of the city

is radiant.

It's the perfection

of beauty.

But what is the beauty

of the people of God?

It's not money,

right?

God's people aren't beautiful

because they're wealthy.

It's not fame

or success.

God's people

aren't beautiful

because they receive

earthly praise.

So what is it?

What is this perfection

of beauty?

Well,

it's an interesting detail

that these gemstones

that adorn

the twelve foundations,

right,

they seem to be

the centerpiece

of this adornment

of beauty.

That those gemstones

that are listed there,

as you might have guessed,

that's not the first time

those stones

have turned up

in Scripture.

Now,

on the one hand,

we see something

like this alluded to

in Isaiah 54.

In Isaiah 54,

God says,

O afflicted one,

storm-tossed

and not comforted,

behold,

I will set your stones

in antimony

and lay your foundations

with sapphires.

I will make your pinnacles

of agate

and your gates

of carbuncles

and all your walls

of precious stones.

So there,

the prophet

is sort of

envisioning a time

when the troubled

and storm-tossed

people of God

will be vindicated

and redeemed

and comforted.

You may be afflicted now,

God is saying,

but one day

you will be whole

and adorned in beauty.

But, you know,

if we go back even further

in the Scriptures,

we find that those stones

that are listed

in the foundation,

almost a similar,

very similar set

of stones show up

in the book of Exodus,

of all places.

And where in Exodus?

Well, we see

very similar stones

on the breastplate

of the high priest

in Exodus 28.

And each of the 12 stones

on the sort of panel

that the high priest

would wear,

each of those 12 stones

is engraved

with the name

of one of the tribes

of Israel.

So what God was doing

in Exodus

in the Old Testament

is that he was sort of

making the high priest

carry on his chest

a representation

of the people

whenever he ministered

before God.

He became

their representative.

What the high priest did,

he did on behalf

of the whole people.

And what was true

of the high priest

became true

of all the people.

But the Old Testament

high priest

was just a foreshadow

of an even greater

high priest to come.

Our great high priest,

the Lord Jesus.

You see,

he was our representative

in the greatest degree.

Jesus became like us

in every respect.

He didn't just sort of

carry a representation

of us on his chest, right?

He took our very flesh.

He took on

all of our weakness,

all of our trials

and temptations.

He became like us

in every respect

except for our sin.

And he lived a life

of complete obedience

before the Father.

Jesus' life

was the most beautiful

life ever lived.

It was a life of love,

mercy, compassion,

of truth,

of justice,

of generosity.

It was a life

of perfect holiness.

You see,

Jesus didn't need

the high priest's

breastplate.

He represented us

by taking on our flesh.

And he was beautiful

because of his

perfect righteousness.

So what John sees

in the vision

of the new city

is the perfected

people of God

shining with the beauty

of the high priest.

the beauty

of Jesus,

our true high priest,

covering us,

adorning us,

making us shine.

We're clothed

in his righteousness.

We're adorned

with the perfection

of his holiness.

One day,

John sees

all of our sin

being removed

and the church

shining like

the most precious

gemstones.

Now,

we have some

wonderful artists

here at Trinity

and Kim Nugas

lent me a couple

of books

about gemstones

a couple of weeks ago

as I prepared

for this sermon.

So I looked

some of them up

in these wonderful books.

And the thing

I came away with

as someone

not very knowledgeable

about jewels

or jewelry

is that

they're radiant.

Each one

unique

and brilliant

in their own way.

You know what

will be surprising,

friends,

in the new heavens

and the new earth?

I think one of the things

that will be very surprising

is how beautiful,

how ravishing

holiness is.

We tend to think

that obedience

to God

is boring,

that it will kill

our joy,

that it will stifle

our identity.

But in the new city

we will see

that exactly

the opposite

was the case.

Insofar as we

followed the path

of Jesus

in obedience,

that was when

our lives

were most

radiant

with who we were

really meant to be.

That's when

our unique identity

shone forth

like a precious stone.

God

and now

imagine a church

where not just

one or two people

are beginning to shine

with the beauty

of holiness,

but a whole congregation.

Like a kaleidoscope

of brilliance.

If we could see

what God sees,

we might need

to shield our eyes.

That's how beautiful

the church is.

And what a motivation

I think this is

to pursue

this holiness

now.

As Paul says

in Romans 12,

let's not be conformed

to the pattern

of this world,

but be transformed

by the renewing

of our minds

into the image

of Christ.

But how do we

go about doing that?

How do we pursue

this holiness?

Well, it begins,

the first step,

it begins

by remembering

that our righteousness

comes from Christ.

That we are justified,

that is,

we're counted righteous

and accepted by God

through sheer grace

by faith in Jesus.

His righteousness

is imputed to us,

it's a gift.

We're made beautiful

in God's eyes

by grace,

not by works.

In other words,

when you woke up

this morning,

no matter how you felt,

no matter what sort of day

you had yesterday,

if you are in Christ,

then God looks at you

and sees beauty

like a shining sapphire,

like a radiant emerald.

He is pleased with you.

He loves you.

He's forgiven

all your sins.

He's embraced you

and welcomed you forever.

Now, how could that be?

How could God

view us this way?

Well,

it's through the cross,

you see.

You know,

that piece of graffiti

on the streets of Rome

that we sort of

imaginatively walked by,

that piece of graffiti

was more true

than the person

who scrawled it

ever imagined.

You know,

they thought they were

making fun of Christianity.

But friends,

isn't this

the beauty

of the gospel?

What is the good news?

What does the gospel say?

It says

the eternally beautiful one

became ugly.

He became a donkey

and hung on a tree

so that you and I,

no matter how ugly

our sins,

could be made beautiful.

Yes,

Alex Amenos

worships his God.

Is there any other God

worthy of worship?

Who else loved you

at such cost,

with such grace?

Who else now views you

with such regard,

with such beauty?

And when you start there,

that you're saved

by Jesus' costly grace,

then your life is different.

It starts to change.

How?

Because you want to be

more like this God

who loves you so much.

Your motivation to obey God

totally changes.

You don't obey

because you're afraid

now that God might reject you.

You don't obey

because you're hoping

to win God's favor

and keep Him on your good side.

He's already done everything

to accept you

and keep you.

Now you want to obey

simply because you love

the one who loved you.

And you know deep in your bones

that this is the path

of beauty

and how could we not

walk in it?

Of course,

the church has not always

lived up to this beauty

we've been given,

has it?

You know,

you study the history

of the church

and you'll see

how it has often strayed

from this path

of holiness

and beauty

and grace.

But you know,

as Christians today,

we don't need to shy away

from that

or to hide that.

The former commissioner

of baseball

once said,

we must never lose sight

of our history.

He's talking about

the history of racism

in the Major League Baseball.

He says,

we must never lose sight

of our history

insofar as it is ugly

never to repeat it,

insofar as it is glorious

to cherish it.

I think those are good words

for us Christians too.

We don't ignore

the ugly parts

when we've failed

to live up to this grace

and we don't ignore

the beautiful parts either

because both

are instructive for us.

And each day

we return

to our justification

in Christ

and from there

we find

the Spirit Himself

is fueling

our sanctification,

that process

of becoming

more and more

like Christ.

So the people of God

will share

the glory of God.

John's shown us

the glory of God's unity

in the church

and also the glory

of God's holiness

in the church.

Third and last,

we see the glory

of God's presence.

The glory of God's presence.

We see this

in the final paragraph

of our text,

verses 22 through 27.

In this new city

we find something

else surprising.

Unlike nearly every city

in the ancient world,

this city

has no temple.

And not just that,

there's not even

a sun or a moon.

Why?

Because neither one

are needed anymore.

There's no need

of a temple.

There's no need

of sun and moon.

Why is that?

Because God is there.

God is there

in His fullness.

Which means

the whole city

is a temple,

as it were.

You know,

that's why the measurements

of the city

in verses 15 through 16,

those measurements,

they kind of sound

a lot like the Holy of Holies

in the Old Testament

tabernacle and temple.

The Old Testament

Holy of Holies

was sort of that

special place

in the middle

of the temple

where God's presence

sort of dwelt

in its fullness.

Right?

And it was a perfect cube.

And then John looks

at the new heavens

and new earth

and the city

coming down to God

and the whole thing

is the Holy of Holies.

The whole city

has become

the dwelling place of God.

The temple's obsolete.

And the light

that shines

over the city

is never-ending.

Not because the sun

never goes down,

but because there's

no need for the sun

at all.

Because the Lamb,

the risen Jesus Christ

is there

who is

and will ever be

the light of the world.

One day we will be

awash

in the light

of God's presence.

Can you and I

even express

the joy,

the love,

the thrill

of that day?

It's surprising

how John expresses it.

He says,

in that city

its gates

will never be shut

by day

and there will be

no night there.

Now,

why did cities

close their gates

in the ancient world?

Well,

cities closed their gates

for protection,

for safety.

Right?

When night fell,

danger came,

so they closed the gates.

But in that place,

there is no more danger.

So the gates

are always open.

The front doors

of the homes

are always unlocked.

Why?

Because we're safe.

The presence

of God

is there

and we have

nothing to fear.

Sin is gone.

Selfishness

is gone.

Hatred

and enmity

are gone.

It's just

the love of God

filling our hearts

and letting us

live in joy

and without fear.

What a glorious

thing that will be.

And we rightly

long for that day.

But even now,

even now,

we're meant to live

in light of that future.

After all,

the church now

is the temple

of the Holy Spirit.

God does dwell

in our midst.

The Holy Spirit,

God's empowering presence,

is here,

right now.

God's

love of God

abroad in our hearts,

driving out fear,

empowering our worship

of Christ,

lifting our hearts

to Him.

God is in our midst.

Christ.

And that means

there should be

something attractive

about Christians.

Our gatherings

should be attractive.

This should be a place

where fear

begins to recede.

How?

Because perfect love

casts out fear.

Now, I'm not talking

about leaving

our doors unlocked.

Right?

You should all lock

your cars

after you park

when you come to church.

Please don't leave

your car unlocked

when you park downtown,

right?

No.

I'm talking about

when the Holy Spirit

moves

and makes the love

of God

real to our hearts

through worship,

through prayer,

through hearing

His Word,

and the armor

that we wear

in our souls

begins to loosen.

And our fears

of not being smart enough

or attractive enough

or wealthy enough,

these fears

begin to recede

in the light

of the love

of the Lamb.

And then together

we become a place

where the nations

come in.

We're not afraid

to be known

and to be loved

because we are known

and we are loved

by the everlasting

love of God.

This is the glory

of His presence.

the awe

and wonder

of a church

renewed by the Holy Spirit

in love

and without fear.

Now surely,

if we're going to be

that sort of church,

we need to pray.

We need to pray

and not just ask God

to fill us

fresh with His Spirit,

but we need to pray

and enjoy

the access

that we have

to the Father

through the Son.

Remember the words

of Paul that we read earlier,

in Christ,

we both have access

in one Spirit

to the Father.

Do we enjoy

the presence of God

now?

Do we live like it?

Or are we still

concerned about

the opinions

and the approval

of the world?

You see,

the church is getting

it all wrong

if we try to live

for the world's approval.

Because one day,

the nations will stream

into the new city

and bring their honor

and glory into it.

You see,

all that's God honoring

in our various cultures

and backgrounds

will be part of the celebration

on that day.

It will be brought

into the city

and give glory to God.

God.

We need not live

for the approval

of the world.

Instead,

let's live

for the approval

of God.

Let's live

for God's praise

so that we can be

salt and light

in the world,

so that the church

might become

an embassy,

a sort of outpost

of the world to come,

where the best

of the world

is redeemed

for God's glory

right now

in the present.

How do we do that?

Well,

in a few weeks

after we finish up

our series in Revelation,

we're going to begin

a series in Jesus'

Sermon on the Mount

starting in,

I think,

sometime in July.

How do we live

God's will on earth

as it is in heaven?

How do we be

the people of God's

kingdom right now?

That's what we'll

be learning about

as we look at

the Sermon on the Mount.

But for now,

as we close,

we pray.

We pray for God

to fill our vision

with our true future

and our true identity,

that we will share

His glory,

and even now

we can reflect

this glory

in unity,

in holiness,

and in the presence

of His Spirit.

Let's pray.

Father,

we see the glory

that You have prepared

for us,

and we are humbled

and thrilled

at the same time.

And our hearts

begin to realize

the depth

and the wonder

of what Christ

has done

that could make us

into a people like this,

radiant with glory.

glory.

So even now,

Father,

fill us with Your Spirit,

renew our hope

and our courage,

and may we

even now

reflect this glory

so that the world

around us

may see

how great

and awesome

You are.

In Jesus' name

we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.