All things new

Chase: Scripture reading is from Revelation chapter 21, verses 1 through 5: A new heaven and a new earth. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who is seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Then he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. This is the word of God. Praise be to God. Friends, you may be seated. I am gonna enter into one more time of prayer just as we enter into this period where students are going back to school this week in our district. So let's just take a moment to just pray for the students, for the teachers, for all who allow for the school systems to run and just pray that protection and blessing over our over our community. So let's pray. Father, son, and holy spirit, we are offering up our most valuable. resources to you, our children, the gifts that you have given us, we pray for protection. And flourishing and blessing that because our students are well loved, well cared for by their teacher, by the bus drivers, by nurses and principals and aides and all the faculty, and that they have the support of the community, just knowing this is sacred, sacred place. We just pray, Lord, that this would be a year where the kingdom breaks out among our students. Whatever that looks like, Lord, would you just move in and through our Schools, and we just pray for protection and flourishing. Lord, we lift them up to you, and everyone said Amen. Alright, friends, so here we are, the end of Revelation, and kind of the end of our summer. Pastor Chase was the only one who was really excited about that. But he's a little wild, so he's looking forward to winter solstice, so he's nuts. Anyways, what happens after the world. You know, this is what the chapters that are left, chapters 21 and 22, what we'll be unpacking today answers that question. What's next? When this world is done, when all evil and destruction and all those behind it are put to rest forever and ever, never to come back again, when we are caught up with the Lord and spend eternity with him, what do we do? What are we going to do? Like, are we going to be just laying on a cloud and strumming a harp and we've got some wings? And maybe if that's what you want to do, I'm sure the Lord can arrange it. But to me, I could probably do that for about 15 minutes before I get a little antsy and I'm like, okay, what's next? What's next? So so what we want to talk about today is what is this new heaven and new earth? What are the promises that it holds for us today as we wait for everything to be made new? As we just sang, we are new and we are being made new. So it's a process that has already started and is on. Going. So the first thing we need to do is introduce this new world, this new heaven and new earth in this way. I've heard it said that the land that we will be entering into, the new heaven, new earth, is the land of no moors. The land of no moors. Before we get to that, let me describe what the land is like. They go on to describe this city with 12 layers and all of the gemstones. They say it is just this beautiful description where even the walls are covered with jasper, sapphire, marble, emerald, onyx, ruby, topaz, turquoise, jasinth, and amethyst. I think I said that one right. The gates are made of pearl, and the streets are made. Are paved with gold. Everything that is the most valuable resources here are building materials there. That's how beautiful it is. They're bricks and mortar in the kingdom to come. They're saying the most beautiful thing your eyes have ever laid eyes on in creation in the earth. doesn't even compare to what this city is gonna be like. Streets paved with gold. Just think about that reality. When so often our world is marked with scarcity. Will there be enough? Will we be able to feed our family? Will we have enough money in the bank? It's just street pavement. It's no more than asphalt in heaven. What a relief. That will be. But this land of no more, there's some no more as we expect. We have a list there. So it's the land, no more devil, no more death, no more disease, no more darkness. It's the that's what you expect. You're like, okay, yeah, yeah. If the devil is still floating around, it's not very much different than what we've got today. There's no more death, there's no more disease. No one's gonna die. The second death has already occurred, and those who are in Christ will never taste the full penalty of death and separation from God. And it says there's no more darkness. Because it's not needed. There's no sun and moon. There's nothing needed because the glory of God illuminates this world. So that's the second part. This is also the land of no more sun or moon. Again, because God's glory shines every square inch of this world. No more shut gates because there's no enemies to come in. All who are in this world are those who've been invited by the king. So there's no need for protection. No more impure things. Think about that. An impure thing in the scripture is something good that God made that's been twisted and broken and unable to be used for what it was originally intended for. No more. No more twisting. No more brokenness. If you read the scripture, it gives this beautiful imagery. Of a river that flows from the throne of God. And there are just trees and beauty and creation popping up all along the way of the river. And it says the tree of life will be there. But it does not say, like in Genesis, the tree of life. of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It just says the tree of life. So that means no more tree, the knowledge of good and evil, which led to the fall. No more temptation is what it's describing. No more temple. That's a curious one. Well where do I go to church? You are church. You can go into the presence of God at any second. No more temple required. Because everywhere you go is the temple. What a temple was a meeting place where the presence of God could dwell among the people. But isn't that what we just read? The entire world, new heaven and earth, is the dwelling place of God. Then it goes into. The bride dressed beautifully for her husband. Why would day one of the new heaven and new earth be a wedding? W why not just be a general party? Why make it a wedding? Well, anyone seen Disney princess movies? If it's been a while. I live not far away, they're on all the time. That's all Hannah wants to watch. But every Disney princess movie, just about every Disney princess movie, has this as the plot. There's some quest where the hero rides in, slays the enemy, slays the dragon, and marries the princess. Right? Like that's the format. Over and over, and this is considered a universal story. This is a story that gets told, different cultures, different centuries, that there is a hero who comes, slays the enemy, and marries the love of his life, marries the great love, his beloved. And this comes from the scriptures. At the end of the quest, the hero, Jesus Christ, has slain the great enemy and finally. Is wedded together with his bride, with his us, those he came to save. It's such a predictable plot the world over, but we miss the heart behind it. In fact, this line of reasoning is what J.R. Tolkien used to convert C.S. Lewis to Christianity. Both had a great love of myths and legends. And as they were walking along the path, and Lewis couldn't quite reconcile faith with. his logical side and Tolkien said, Jack, don't that was his nickname. Jack, don't you understand? In Christ we have the true myth. The true legend. We have the one that's been echoed throughout eternity. The hero has come, and the dragon has been slain, and we are being rescued in Jesus Christ. And C.S. Lewis describes it as: and the two parts of my brain were fused together fully and finally in Christ. When I knew that my hope wasn't a fool's hope, but was rooted in something tangible and logical, a true promise has come. It's the story of Jesus coming to save the world, to rescue his people and destroy all evil. Why do that? Because he is like a husband, fending off all other suitors for our hearts. The entire Old Testament talks about that. You've given your heart to another, you've gone away, and now every other suitor has been destroyed. Why a wedding? Because now we are. Have freely chosen one to love for all eternity. And the one that we have chosen as the people of God is the one who entered into our story and chose us from before the creation of the world. Why a wedding? It could not be anything else, other than saying, we are declaring for eternity, we are one in Christ. How do we understand this longing that we experience now? The hymn that comes to mind is Come Thou Fount. And there's a specific line that always makes me think of this scene. It says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above. That when we sense that restlessness now and we say, Lord, why do I wander from you? Lord, why do I doubt you? Lord, why do I get scared and wonder if you're there? Just take my heart. I long for the day when doubt is finished and worry is over, and there's no more anticipation. Well, is he, is he not? Is this good? Is it no more? No more set aside in the land of no more. The wedding of Jesus and his church is the final reunion of God and humanity. A new Eden where we can walk in paradise with our God forever, as Adam and Eve did. So, day one of the rest of your lives is a wedding. Awesome. That's the agenda for day one. Now, the only thing is we've got the rest of like eternity minus one day to go. Now, if it's helpful to you in first century, wedding feasts usually were days, even weeks at a time. So let's say at best God's doing the seven times seven thing, and we've got 49 days, seven weeks, you know. Okay, so we're looking at about 50 days with Jesus as a wedding feast. Awesome. Okay, so what do we do with the rest of eternity minus 50 days? What do we do? Has anyone ever wondered that? Anyone thought, like, yeah, I mean, heaven is better than the other place, but It kind of sounds less fun than here if all we're doing is singing and playing harps and clouds. Anybody? You're kind of like, I mean, can I just kind of keep going here and I'll just kind of deal with it? I'll take my chances. Well, that's because we don't understand the beauty of a new heaven and new earth. That the new heaven and new earth is not a consolation for this world. Every other religion, eternity, is a consolation. Hey, sorry this world's terrible, but we've got something else you can go to. The new heaven and new earth is so unique among world religions because it's all of the best of this world, subtracting all of the brokenness. So think about it. Everything you've ever loved and enjoyed in this world, subtract everything that ever took away from that moment. This is the new heaven and new earth. I had a seminary professor who who described it like this: that his wife, they were getting a little bit older, was lamenting that her her knees were going bad. And she was like, you know, I'll never be able to climb the Swiss Alps. And that's always been a dream of mine since I was a little girl. And he was like, Honey, don't you remember the promise of resurrection? You will climb the Swiss Alps till your heart's content as many times as you want. And no knee pain at all. No fear of death. No fear of injury. Everything good and beautiful in this world will be magnetized to its greatest extent. The goodness of this world will be made great, and everything that took away from it will be removed. Okay, so what do we do? So you have a wedding, right? And if you were at a wedding of a young couple, and you know, they they've been planning this wedding forever, honestly, that's a lot of what this world is, is kind of planning for the wedding, preparing ourselves to be wedded to our Savior forever. So then you're preparing this wedding, you do all this work, and then you get there, the big day happens, and I I've heard this described by several couples I've married who are like, now what? You're right? Like, what do we do now? Like, we're not looking at spreadsheets and budgets for flowers and cake and making sure we're getting ours. What do we do now? Well, first off, go on the honeymoon and enjoy that and just kind of unplug because you'll want to go back there, you know, a year later when you're like, this marriage thing is kind of hard. Like, and you're like, now what? But if that couple were to go and ask a married couple, let's say a couple who'd been married 10 years, a couple who'd been married 25 years, let's say they go ask that sweet old old couple who's been married sixty years holding hands on the bench. Let's say they go ask them, What do we do now after the wedding? You live. You build a life together. And and what if that that young couple asked that 60 60 married, you know, they've just celebrated 50 years together, sitting on the bench, holding hands, sitting in silence, if they ask them, but doesn't it, isn't it terrible getting old? You know, they're not as attractive as they used to be. And don't they kind of get under your skin? What would that couple, think of someone in your mind who you know like this, would they say, I love my spouse less after 50 years or more? The love grows deeper the more you sacrifice and live out the love of God with your spouse. That's what a marriage is supposed to look like. That's what we're told in the scriptures is the greatest resemblance, but it's only a fraction of the relationship we'll have with God. So that means that after that wedding day, in fact, I've got so far as to say that wedding day is the worst day in heaven. Because every day is greater and greater and greater. Love abounds and knows no limits, because evil has been removed. We just grow deeper and deeper in love with God and deeper and deeper in love with our neighbors. So you build a life together and you build it upon that marriage. That's what the scriptures teach. And we'll be able to walk with God forevermore. Friends, marriage, even the best marriage, is the smallest appetizer to the feast that we are invited to enjoy forever with our Creator. So that means for eternity, we're building a life. Together with our God. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean like, okay, so we're we're singing all the time? Well, I don't know about y'all. I've been married a little over a decade, and Melissa and I she doesn't let me sing anymore. I I'm so off-tune and I'm I've actually been told stop clapping in church. You're distracting me from Jesus. So we're doing this kind of thing over here. But You don't spend your life singing to your spouse every day, all day. You build a life. And you enjoy it together. So, what does that mean for all of eternity? Like, what does it look like we're actually going to be doing? And the scriptures shed light on that. Turn with me if you have your Bible to Isaiah 65, starting in verse 17. So this is from the Old Testament. So this has been the promise all along. This is what Isaiah the prophet says. He's quoting what looks eerily similar to what we just read, even though Jesus hasn't even showed up on the scene yet. See. I will create new heavens and a new earth. Okay, good. Good start. The former things will not be remembered. We know that language, nor will they come to mind. The former things won't even come to mind. It won't even be a memory. But be glad and rejoice forever. In what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight in its people, a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years. The one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child. The one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them. This is the key part. They will build houses and dwell in them. They will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses that others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people. My chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune, for they will be people blessed by the Lord. They and their disciples. Descendants with them. Before they call, I will answer. How about that for a prayer life? You don't even need to say it. And God's like, I got your answer. And you're like, I didn't even get to it yet. Like, he's got you. The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. And dust will be the serpent's food. So no more. They will neither harm nor destroy on All my holy mountain. So forever there will be no memory of past pains, insults, or heartbreaks. You won't even remember them, according to the scriptures. And your primary emotional state, honestly, if you were to say, What's the primary emotional state of most people right now? Like a low-grade anxiety, just kind of a worry of like what's next, what's next, your low grade emotion will be joy. Like you've never experienced. You're just gonna wake up like that. gosh, I'm just still joyful. Okay, great. I'm gonna keep going. No more death, no more disease. You will have a home to live in and grow fruit from vineyards. That sounds nice. That sounds incredible. We will work with our hands, our minds, our skills, and we will develop them for all eternity. Never once will labor feel like work. It'll feel like a blessing. You will be with your loved ones who are in Christ, even those of your family you never met. And if that if any part of that seems painful, like, we had a strange relationship, remember, that's the things of the former world. All will be made new. All will be reconciled together in Christ, that any grievance we have against one another will be healed forevermore. Doesn't that seem like a burden off our hearts? You will have eternity to explore creation with anyone or no one for my introverts that you like. You can do whatever you want. That means that the skills God has given us, remember friends, work. That God gave Adam and Eve was before the fall. It was before the fall. The only reason we see work as a bad thing is because of the fall. But he designed human beings to help him cultivate the world when it was perfect and good. He gave us raw materials and said, Build with me. Whatever you want, whatever comes to mind. I've designed you to do that. I didn't design you to sit around forever and ever and ever and just be, no. That's a complete misunderstanding. He said, I gave you skills even now, even in the fall, that you can still continue the work of putting the world back together again. That means that the greatest music has yet to be written. Friends, that means the greatest art has yet to be painted. That means for my foodies out there, the greatest food has yet to be tasted. And you're like, man, what are they gonna cook up next year? Forever and ever. You know what I actually thought of? like I had one of those shower thoughts earlier this week. Most people will carry their skills into eternity, right? Like, yeah, I've been practicing this, I'm good at this. Like, I'm they're gonna need architects in heaven, they're gonna need this in heaven, they're gonna need this and that in heaven. My job is the most useless job in eternity. How great is that? You're gonna be like, I don't need a priest. I don't need a pastor. I'm living in the experience of Almighty God. Here's how stupid and pointless my job would be in heaven. Okay, here's my comparison. You ready? That'd be like graders hiring me to say, okay, go sit outside those benches as people bring ice cream, and as they're eating their ice cream, you're gonna be telling them how good it is to taste ice cream. I know it's good. I'm eating it, dude. Like, you don't need to bother me. I know God is good and with me because I'm living in his presence. I'm gonna have to find something else to do. But I have all eternity to do it. In high school, I went on a mission trip to New Mexico and we built a skate park in the middle of the desert for kids so they'd have something to do on an Indian reservation. I love that. Maybe I'll build skate parks for all eternity. Or I'll do it for a thousand years, get bored and do something else. We have whatever we want to do. I'll have Tony Hawk help me design it. I don't know. Just be in Christ, Tony, and we'll be good. Friends, this is everything you've longed for. To wake up and follow the desires that are God-given desires, the passions that are God-given passions to help construct eternity forever. Does that sound boring to you? That sounds like what we've been longing for. That sounds like peace. That sounds like what people experience when they go through war. I just want to get back to the peaceful, good life. There is a desire within each of us to build that kind of world. And we will do it not with anxiety, not with scarcity, but out of joy and in community, being loved by a never-stopping, never-giving up, always and forever love of God. Now, it's quite difficult to honestly land the plane with this. Because we have been traveling through the book of Revelation all summer, and we've talked about, you know, Jesus being fully revealed in power and might and glory, his letters to the churches to say, hold fast to me, and there's a reward coming beyond your understanding. We've talked about what's going on in the throne room of God. We've talked about how, you know, the breaking of the seals, the pouring of the bowls, and the trumpet sounds, and how we're trying to understand what the world is like today, what the world is to come. How do we, how do we understand the beauty? Of what's been given to us, what's ours in Christ. Like it's almost so much to take in to think this is a uncomprehensible promise. And I was like, man, how do I, how do I describe this goodness that there is not even the hint of an emotion of pain or suffering or anxiety? Like, we can't even fathom that in our hearts. An eternity of that, of no broken relationships, an eternity of not worrying about food or provision or like people are just not gonna have problems. We can't even, we're like, what are gonna do with all of our time? You know what I mean? It's gonna be incredible, incredible. So it's like, how do we understand this fully, this new heaven and new earth? And here's where I landed. I debated on putting it in, but I I kept it because this is a personal hope. That I cling to and I want it to be yours as well if it resonates. There is a Latin term that comes to us from ancient church history called Felix Culpa. I think we have it on the screen. Felix Culpa, which translates to blessed fall or happy accident. It's this very interesting idea that human beings were in the Garden of Eden. And we listened to the snake, and we fell, right? And it was a tragedy. We were removed out of Eden. We could not be in the presence of our Savior, our God, any longer. And just look at human history. A tragedy. Brokenness. Over and over and over. And that's just not the world level, that's personal level. Has anyone in here experienced the brokenness of this world? Okay, the deepest pain. All of it. How can you say because of the fall, even the worst pain we've gone through is a good thing? Here's where the theologians are going with it. Hang on to this, because if you can get your heart to grip onto this truth, you can get through. Anything on this side of eternity. If you can hold on to this, it will change your perspective on pain, on suffering, on questioning the goodness of God. You can hold on to this as truth in the storm. Okay, while it is a tragedy that humans fell into sin and were kicked out of the garden, here's the hope that because that happened, we needed a savior. Because that happened, we needed a redeemer. We did not before. And because we needed a savior, and because we needed a redeemer, now we understand having met him, having experienced the love of Jesus in our hearts, how many of us can say that maybe it's a better thing to be more than merely innocent, but to be broken and then redeemed? By love. That because you have been loved in your deepest, darkest, worst days, worst moments, and you have experienced the grace and the mercy and the love of God, you are better off than you were even before the darkness fell. How many of us have even experienced this on the human level, one on one, when you're in an argument with someone and it feels like the relationship's over? And then there's grace and reconciliation that happens in the tears and the weeping and the hugging. And you're stronger than you were before. My same people, marriage 101. The coming back together after the wound, after the darkness. This is friendship 101. You're better off and stronger off than you were before the break. Felix Culpa. That in the Garden of Eden, God walked alongside his creation, but now because of the fall has impacted our hearts and broken us from the inside out. Now God walks not beside us, but God walks inside of us, closer than air we breathe, closer than a thought. Closer than the brother is what scripture says. That when the bottom dropped out of your life and my life, he found us in the dirt and not just restored us back to neutral, but raised us up, the scriptures say, to heavenly places. Because we are in Christ while we were down here. Now we have been exalted to the highest level because we are in Christ. Felix Culpa, that you were here, you fell, but because you needed a redeemer, now you're greater off than you were before. So even The worst pain of this world, whether you have experienced it already or not, is nothing in comparison to the sweetness and the goodness of knowing you have been saved and redeemed and called the own, the beloved of Jesus Christ. That is the goodness of the love of our God. And this is how the story ends. This is how the book ends. And it says that this is the end. But others have said this is the end of chapter one. Chapter one, the story of the world. What does chapter two hold for us? What is chapter three, chapter four? Again, I have to go back to C.S. Lewis, who finally got this around his heart and said that when we enter into that forever story, when we know the author who is writing our story, that the story has just ended, but it was only chapter one, beginning the page of a new chapter. That will be greater and greater. Every chapter of the story for all of eternity will be better than the one before us. Never again will we be tempted to wander from our God, who has come to redeem us and now dwells with us forevermore in the land of no more, the land of no more devil, no more disease, no more darkness. This is the beginning of the greatest story not yet told. And you And I are not only a part of the story, we walk with the author forever. Let us pray. God, we thank you that you are Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And it says, Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and go through the gates into the city. That we get to enter into this story now. We get to know the author now. We get to prepare our hearts for the wedding now. We get to experience heaven on this side of life. Now. Felix Copa, God, we fell, but you have redeemed us and restored us greater to where we were before. May we hold on to this truth until we get to the land where there's no more faith and no more hope. We don't need faith in that land. We don't need hope. All that remains will be love, because we will dwell with you forevermore. Thank you, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Revelation 21:1