Heaven: The New World | 08/23/26

We're [clears throat] continuing on in

this series about heaven.

And in some sense, this is a virtually

impossible task. Depending on how you

interpret First Corinthians chapter 2,

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

the stuff that we're trying to talk

about is such that no eye has seen, no

ear has heard, what has not entered into

the mind or the heart of human beings

that which God has prepared for us. and

we're trying to talk about that.

It's going to be very very difficult.

But God has given us clues to pay

attention to. And if we're not paying

attention to those clues, we might we

might miss out or misunderstand what it

is that God has prepared for us. And

speaking about being oblivious with

clues, when it comes with regards to the

ways of romance in the heart, I am

oblivious when it comes to clues.

So

many many years ago

before Alyssa and I were married, we

were in a band together and there was a

season in the during the band's career

where we were we would go to her

apartment to do songwriting sessions.

We'd have her guitars out and we all the

all the band members would be at her

apartment and she'd come and serve

coffee for everybody and we just go

about our day. Okay,

fast forward in the future a few years

later. I found out after we were married

that she was flirting with me, but I

didn't notice. Uh, apparently her

friends would tease her that she'd

spending a little extra time putting on

the makeup, spending a little extra time

picking out the right outfit. Uh, making

sure that the coffee I had was going to

be a really good cup of coffee.

Unfortunately, back then, uh, in my

mid20s, I hated coffee, unlike now. Uh

but all of this flirting activity wof be

I didn't notice the clues. I'm very bad

at noticing such clues. I was oblivious.

I think when it comes to thinking about

the life of the world to come, God has

given us clues, but we might just be as

equally oblivious to those clues. And so

you see even Christians have an almost

cartoon picture of what the life of the

world to come is going to be like. It

can be as overly simplistic as images

that are popular in culture, such as

people sitting on clouds playing harps.

Or I often times meet lots of Christians

who do think that the life of the world

to come is where we're going to be in

some disembodied state forever. And as

you hopefully heard two weeks ago from

Pastor Elliott when he was here, that

you have been disabused of that notion.

When we go after death to be at home

with the Lord and we are away from our

bodies, that is a way station, a

temporary stopping point. That is not

the final end. And yet, lots of

Christians I meet say, "Well, I can't

wait to get rid of my body and get away

from this world and go escape forever."

In fact, I've heard worship songs that

talk [snorts] exactly in that kind of

way. We're going to abandon this world

behind in our bodies and go live out

there. That is not the language of

scripture and the teaching of Christ.

And so hopefully we can start paying

better attention to the clues that God

has actually given to us so that we can

expect the right kind of things. And so

if we're going to stay close to biblical

language,

sometimes heaven is not the most

appropriate term. It's a perfectly good

term to use. Heaven is a great term.

It's a biblical term. One difficulty

though is that the word heaven is

ambiguous and it's used ambiguously in

the Bible too. Sometimes the word heaven

just means the skies, the stuff up

there. Sometimes the Bible uses the word

heaven to talk about the unique presence

of God where God is located. And so

heaven then becomes the language of

referring to the source of power and

presence and all goodness because that

is where God is located. So this

ambiguity of heaven makes it kind of

tricky. If we're going to stay closer to

biblical language and we want to talk

about the life of the world to come, it

would be better for us to use terms such

as resurrection

and new heaven and new earth. And last

week, Jason spent some time talking

about resurrection. that what we should

expect is when the Lord returns, these

mortal bodies will be raised

imperishable. We are meant to have these

bodies forever. This exact one, but

radically transformed, renewed, just as

Jesus's body that went into the tomb was

the one that came out of the tomb, but

radically transformed. So this body one

day after death will be raised. So

resurrection is a big theme for the life

of the world to come. but the other is

new heaven and new earth. And that's

what I'd like to talk to you about this

morning. So, if you have your Bibles,

please turn to Revelation chapter 21.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

We're going to be reading verses 1-4.

And our goal isn't to unpack all that

Revelation has to say. We're not going

through our normal series. Right now,

we've been going through the book of

Ecclesiastes. So, that if we were going

through the book of Revelation, there'd

be a lot more to say. But what I'm

hoping to do is just paint a picture for

you with regards to what we should

expect the new heaven and the new earth

to be like and then what that means for

us practically right now. So Revelation

21:es

1-4,

a reading from the book of Revelation.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth

had passed away, and the sea was no

more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her

husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the

throne, saying, "Behold,

the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them and they will be

his people and God himself will be with

them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their

eyes and death shall be no more. Neither

shall there be mourning nor crying nor

pain anymore.

For the former things have passed away.

the word of the Lord.

As I've been meditating on this passage

and this theme for the last month, what

I believe God has been teaching me and I

hope he teaches you this morning is that

the Lord will renew the earth and make

his home with us. God's project is a

renewal project

to restore, renovate the world and to

make his home here with us. And so I

want to ask several questions. The first

question is what should we expect the

life of the world to come to be like?

This renewed world. What should we

expect that to be like? And then I want

to ask some practical questions. What

does that tell us about the kind of

story we're in? And what does it tell us

about the point of life? Where

everything is headed to? What's the

trajectory of life? So let's first start

with the first question. What should we

expect the life of the world to come uh

to come to be like this renewed world?

So look again at verse one. He sees this

vision of new heaven and new earth

because he sees the first earth, the

first heaven and the first earth having

passed away. What's this language of

first heaven and first earth? Well,

where did you hear that kind of

language? It should make everyone go all

the way back to Genesis when God created

the heaven and the earth where the

heaven is all the stuff up there, the

skies and above and the earth is the

land down here. In some ways, you could

think of the entire Bible as the story

of creation

to new creation and everything that is

God that God is doing to get us from

creation to new creation. And when we

put our minds back to creation, what

should we think of? What are we told?

Sometimes it's easy for us to talk about

how powerful God is. All powerful, all

knowing. What's the first thing that you

learn about God if you read the Bible

from cover to cover? that he is a

creative artist. He creates the world

and he saw that it was good and

beautiful.

We are supposed to think of creation not

as some dump, some trash bin that we

want to leave behind, but God's creative

activity that is good and beautiful. But

almost as quickly as God creates and

designs something so wonderful does he

make us to have dominion to be his

representatives and ambassadors on this

world that we end up mcking and marring

the world. We stain it and defile it. It

has become tainted by what we have done

or to use the language of the fall. We

have corrupted ourselves and this world.

And what do we know about us then? We

who have corrupted spirits and bodies

that even so death comes. Death becomes

the consequence of what we've done to

ourselves and to this world. Now the

good news of Jesus Christ is that he has

take care. He has taken care of sin and

death. But you ever notice you're all

still going to die?

You're all unless Christ returns as

Jason talked about, we're all dead.

What is I thought Jesus took care of

death. Well, he did not stop death from

occurring. His defeat of death isn't to

make death go away, but to take the

sting away from death. As we read in 1

Corinthians 15, the power of death, it

has no more power over us. We can almost

mock it. We can almost turn it into a

friend. mock it the way that we might

mock friends. It has turned from enemy

to a kind of friend. But this too,

because it's been infected by sin, has

to die. Similarly too, it looks like the

world itself infected by sin has to die.

Last week, Pastor Jason read from second

2 Peter 3 · chapter mention

Peter chapter 3 and he used this image

of the heavenly bodies burning up.

And we have to pay attention to clues. I

don't think we're used to that kind of

language. In Peter's time, there would

have been various schools of thought.

And one of these schools would have said

at the end of the age, everything's

going to burn up and then it's going to

cycle all over again. Now, Peter does

not believe that. He doesn't believe

everything just repeats on cycle, burns

up and and starts all over again. But

he's using a familiar image of

everything burning up as a kind of

metaphor for the world's death. Because

because we use metaphors, too. I

remember when I was young, I didn't

understand the expression kick the

bucket. And I'm sure that if we use that

expression to Peter, he would have been

very mystified by what we mean by kick

the bucket. So, we have to be careful

with the clues. He's saying the world in

itself has to die in the way that our

bodies have to die because it too has

been infected by sin. But what happens

when the world dies and its infection

dies with it? Well, read this very

interesting clause in verse one. And the

sea was no more.

I first came upon that passage in

college

and I I should have been reading my

Bible at a much younger age even though

I was attending church, but I'd never

read this passage. And I remember in my

early 20s being mystified and a little

sad because I had moved to Southern

California. I was just learning how to

surf. And then I thought, "Oh no, in

heaven there are no more beaches." What

a what a terrible place. How could this

be paradise if you taken away the

beaches?

Let's pay attention to clues. That's not

what it's saying. We have to go back and

understand

how they're understanding these symbols

and images. So, clue clue finding time.

Don't be like me when it comes to

romance. Let's pay attention to the

clues. What do we know about the sea?

Well, he's contrasting it from the

heaven. Why? It's not as though God is

literally higher up there. It's not as

though if you climb Mount Everest,

you're closer to God. Or if you fly on a

plane, you're closer to God. Why would

they use the image of the skies and the

space out there as an image for God's

presence? Because when we look up in the

skies and we see all of the heavenly

bodies, what do we notice? Perfect

order. It it virtually never deviates.

Everything happens in accordance to a

perfect system.

And then in the ancient world, they look

out at the sea and what do they notice?

Chaos. The sea is a symbol of the

chaotic. It can look clear and then

within 15 minutes you could have a

devastating storm that can capsize the

ship. So the sea becomes this image of

chaos. If you pay attention also to the

Old Testament, there's another

connotation that the sea has. It is the

source of threats and enemies. If you're

an Israelite, a member of God's people,

and you see people coming from ships,

often times you have military power

coming to take over. So sea, a bad

place, political power. But if you also

read in the Old Testament and the New

Testament, the sea is also an image of

the enemies that are spiritual,

of demonic forces and threats. And if

you pay attention to the gospels,

especially in the gospel of Mark, and

when Jesus demonstrates power over the

sea, and you see what has happened

before and after in that gospel, you'll

see that their image of the sea was this

is the place where threats and enemies

arise. So, in this depiction where it

says there's no more sea, it's not

saying bye-bye ocean, bye-bye beaches.

What it's telling us is that the chaos

that seems to pervade and rule our world

will be no more. And the sources of

enemies and threats will be no more. In

fact, if you pay attention to

Revelation, the immediate chapter before

in Revelation 20, what happens to all

the great enemies, Satan and death?

They're all vanquished.

That is the image of what is passing

away. Then what does John, the author of

Revelation, see? He beholds a new heaven

and a new earth. He sees a new world

taking its place. Now, we got to be

very, very careful because I think some

Christians have also misunderstood this.

And part of the problem is that word

new.

It does not mean a distinct thing. So,

let me give you an example of what I

mean by new as a distinct thing. I have

a copy of Dante's Divine Comedy and

starting to tear because I've had it for

about 25 years. And so when I was in

North Carolina and I was in in the

airport, I bought a new copy. It's a

different copy. I can hold both copies.

One is dusty, dirty. It's it's it's

ripping apart. And the other one is

fresh and shiny, but there's two of

them. There is a word that John could

have used to mean new. In that sense, he

doesn't use that word. He uses another

word for new because he's trying to use

the understanding from Isaiah chapter 65

Isaiah 65 · chapter mention

and 66 which is where we get the

language of new heaven and new earth

about something being renewed or

restored. You you understand that

meaning of new is a very very common

thing. Uh John Wood likes to restore

cars. He's like check out the new car

and he takes some old junky car. He

radically renovates it, repairs it, and

then its quality is so much better. Or

maybe a better example, the Shribers

just remodeled their home. And what was

really cool is when they invited us over

for uh to party at the new house, they

had pictures of the old house and the

new house. Now, is it the same house?

Yes, it's the same house, but it's been

so restored that it's almost

unrecognizable.

That is the language of new heaven and

new earth. It's the same world, the same

heaven and earth. It's this, but its

quality has radically transformed. It

has been restored and renovated almost

to the point of being unrecognizable.

In fact, the first fruits of new

creation is Jesus's resurrected body.

And what do we notice there? It's the

same body. The same body that went into

the tomb is the same body that went out

of the tomb. But it was also so

radically transformed that some of his

friends and intimate partners had a hard

time recognizing who he was. If if if

you look at the old pictures of the

Shriber's home, almost unrecognizable to

the new one, but it's the same one.

That's the language of new heaven and

new earth. It is this place but

radically renovated and restored.

And that's really all I can say with any

confidence about what the life of the

world to come has be like. So we we

could call it quits and be done. But if

you know me, we're about to go for

another 3 hours. So um

honestly, there's not much more I can

say other than it will be this place but

radically transformed and glorified,

renovated and restored.

But we can have clues

in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

It likens creation as a pregnant woman.

Creation is groaning with birth pains

waiting for the revelation.

Do you ever There are things for the

fetus in the womb that make no sense

when you're in the womb, but make a lot

of sense when you're out of the womb.

Because that fetus has hands and feet

and eyes and a mouth. It's not using

anything. It's not using any of those in

the womb, but all of that is in

preparation for what's to come outside

of the womb. So, similarly, there are

probably things here right now that

don't make sense why we're doing them or

what they're for, but when the life of

the world to come arrives, we'll go,

"Oh, I see. That is what that was for."

And while I don't know exactly what will

remain and what those things will be, I

do know one thing, and Jason alluded to

it last week, and it's something that I

think we just hear as Christians, but is

actually insane if you think about it.

The one activity I know that we'll all

be doing is we're going to be reigning

with Christ.

Christ has appointed us to rule and

reign with him forever. Again, you've

heard that language. She like whatever

church do do you hear how crazy that is?

Scott, it's my turn to pick on Scott,

right? Uh Scott is a tremendously good

elder for our church. I entrust him with

all the important things of West Hills,

but to entrust him with everything for

our world. The whole world. Are you

crazy? Jacqueline is an amazing

administrator. Trust her with all of our

church ministry uh organizational stuff.

But to administer the whole world, like

that's insane.

Jason Trap wrote me in for president,

you know, in a ride and he actually

wrote my name in, right? So, I've

actually had somebody vote for me for

president. Do you know how badly I would

ruin our country if I were actually

president? And yet, God has destined you

and me to reign with Christ forever.

What happened when Adam was supposed to

reign? He destroyed the world. What's

the difference? This time we reign with

the new Adam, the second Adam. The

critical expression there is with

Christ.

But once you have that, you see what

intense role God is preparing for you

and for me to reign with him forever

more. And I'll come back to that. But

now I want to ask some practical

questions. What does this tell us about

the kind of story we live in? So now

read verse two.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,

coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her

husband.

If we were studying Revelation, it'd be

so fun to talk about why it's the new

Jerusalem. After all, Jerusalem is the

place where God established his monarchy

with King David. It's the place where

the temple was built and the Holy of

Holies was there and God brought his

presence. It's the place where Christ

became king in the irony of his

crucifixion and his resurrection.

There's so many cool reasons. And

because I'm a professor, I can't help

it. I I have to assign homework. If if

you read the description of the New

Jerusalem and the dimensions and then

you go and you read the description of

the dimensions of the Holy of Holies,

it's the same. I'll just leave it at

that for you to go think about for

yourself. So many cool things that we

could be spending our time talking about

why it's the new Jerusalem. Here's the

one thing I want us to walk away from as

we think about this.

that the kind of story that we're all

living in

is a comedy in the Shakespearean sense.

For Shakespeare, how do you know you're

in a tragedy? Everything ends in and

thank you, Arwin. Death. How do you know

you end in a comedy? You end in a

wedding.

And Shakespeare's greatest tale, The

Winter's Tale, is both tragedy and

comedy, where it appears like there's

death. and what you end up is having a

resurrection and a wedding. And that is

the kind of world that we are told we

live in. And it's hard to believe

because if I just use my eyes and I open

up the news, what does it look like? The

more I read about what's happening, the

border of China and Nepal, the more I

see of the political chaos both within

and without. And when we hear story

after personal story of people suffering

in our church, if you're young enough

and you you're sheltered and protected

enough, you might have more goods than

bads. Live long enough and the bads will

outweigh the good, as everybody old

enough here can attest to.

The tragedies will seem like it

outweighs and wins out. that if you just

go with what you see and what you're

experiencing, you think we're in

a tragic play. What Revelation teaches

us is that we're in a comedy and God has

destined us for a wedding. And again,

we've heard of marriage and wedding. And

in Revelation, there's the marriage of

the lamb. I I want you to understand

just how insane that is. There are some

things I believe because I think I can

reason my way to them. And there's some

things I wouldn't believe unless a

reliable source told me. I I think I

might believe there's something like a

God through reason.

What I would not believe through my own

reason is that perfect being would want

to marry us after we did to him and to

his creation what we did.

Because what do we do after God creates

creation? He creates us and intends us

to be with him forever. We were God's

betrothed and he created for us a house

to live in. And what did we do?

We played the harlot and invited

strangers in to defile us and to defile

the house.

And if that language is harsh, it is the

language of scripture.

We played the harlot who brought in and

made us unclean.

We died about with other suitors and

made us gross and yucky. And then we

allowed them to trash the place and we

partied up and trashed the house with

it.

What God should have done

is said to hell with you

and to be done with it. The insane thing

is that God comes to the harlot and

says, "I still want to marry you. I can

make you clean."

Our world and our story is a comedy. No

matter what tragedy has befallen you,

if you think you are so gross and yucky

because of your addictions

to substances, to pornography, to

deviant sexual activities, to greed and

theft, and you think, well, I'm too far

gone. The mystery of the fact that we

live in a comedy is that God wants to

marry you, to be intimate with you, to

bring you into his household, and to

wash you. I would not believe it unless

there were a reliable source who told

me, and I thanks be to God, that God has

been that reliable source to tell us

that he wants to do that for us.

There's not that there's nobody so far

gone

that it's too late for them as long as

they have breath. God is trying to bring

you into his me into his household. And

of course, the one bride is the church.

But he's inviting us to be members of

that one church to marry us to be with

him forever. That is insane. And if we

just take that for granted because we

grew up in the church hearing it, then

we are missing out on the beauty of the

story that nobody is too far gone.

So that Christ does not do everything in

his power to be with them because he

loves them that much. He loves you that

much no matter what you've done. What

kind of story are you in? You are not in

a tragedy. Do not if the devil tries to

tell you, "Well, you're too broken and

you're too far gone. God wants nothing

to do with you." That is the lie from

the devil. What we know is that God

wants you to wash you, to clean you, and

to make you his very own.

Third,

where does this tell us everything is

headed to? What's the point of all of

this? Read now verse three.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne

saying, "Behold,

the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them and they will be

his people and God himself will be with

them as their God.

God is coming here to make this his

home.

Think about how crazy that is.

Suppose God is the homeowner who comes

to marry his betrothed, who's defiled,

who's been defiled, and says, "Ne,

nevertheless, I still want you and want

to marry you, but in this house, ew.

What you've done in this house, gross.

Let's go find a new place." That is not

what God does. God says, "I want to take

this house that I built for you,

and I will renew it. I will restore it.

I will renovate it and make it my home.

And that's what God does. And this isn't

just something that's been sneak attack

at the very end of all things. He has

been trying to break into the house that

is his own. He's not literally breaking

in. He has been creeping in and fixing

it up and showing what it can be like.

It goes all the way back to the Old

Testament, almost as early perhaps, we

might say, as Jacob's vision when he

sees the latter and he sees heaven and

earth coming together. We see it when

God shows up as a pillar of cloud or

fire guiding his people and landing on

the tabernacle. We see it when they

create the temple and God comes to be

with his people in the Holy of Holies.

And we see it most fully in the person

of Jesus. When God and humans are united

in him, humanity and divinity in him,

heaven and earth, [snorts] the point of

contact in him. And then he finally does

what none of us could do, which by his

perfect life, his atoning sacrificial

death, and his resurrection, he can pay

what we could not pay to reconcile us

back to the father so that we need not

be cast out. God has been in this

project of renewal from the very

beginning, culminating in the person of

Jesus. And that renewal project is still

ongoing and will finish when Christ

returns. And the house will be made new.

The house that has all the mold and the

cockroaches and all the excrement and

the filth that we had done to defile the

place. God is tearing down walls

and he is building something new here so

that we can live with him forever.

And when that day comes,

notice the effects. Read verse four.

He will wipe away every tear from their

eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor

crying, nor pain anymore,

for the former things

have passed away.

What a world when the house stops having

mold and cockroaches.

Cockroaches. I'm using metaphorically. I

don't know why God has cockroaches in

his creation. But all the gross things

of the world that we have brought in to

destroy and wreck the house, God will do

away with those things and make the

house new, and all of the gross yucky

things gone.

A day will come when cancer will be no

more, when dementia will be no more. I

am gripping on tightly to the fact that

my grandmother, who has dementia, still

remembers my name, but nothing else. She

has no memories of us hanging out long

time ago. Just my name. And I am holding

on for dear life to that one thing. A

day will come when even her mind will be

restored.

A day when all of the heartache and the

brokenness that we have wrought in this

world and in ourselves will be done away

with and it will all be made new.

And then we can sing the last enemy to

be conquered is death.

No more death, no more separation. Union

with God and fellowship with each other.

I want to think now about how thinking

of the new heaven and the new earth

transforms how we should live right now.

And here's one hopefully very obvious

[sighs and gasps]

obvious implication.

We should neither disdain this world

nor overly cherish it.

I think those are the twin temptations

that new heaven and new earth can

prevent us. I think some people again

disdain this world. This world is

pathetic. I can't wait to get rid of

this body. I can't wait to get out of

this place. It's just a trash dump, a

bin for burning. Let's leave. That is

not how scripture talks about that.

While this home def very much is in

disarray, the mold

is spread through all the walls, this is

still home. And God is doing his renewal

project and he wants us here and this

will one day be his ultimate home where

we will live with him forever.

So we cannot disdain this world, but we

cannot overly cherish things of this

world either

because it will be renewed. The

renovation will happen. Maybe you're

overly attached to this wall because

it's my wall. But maybe the renovation

project requires that you knock down

that wall. And if you overly cherish

that wall, it will hurt. It is idolatry.

I don't know why marriage is not to come

in the life of the world to come. We are

not married in the life of the world to

come. And that's sad. That's very, very

sad. If you want to cling on and overly

cherish to the goods of this world, the

wall was good at the time. Now it must

be knocked down. Marriage must go.

But what will come will be even better.

God promises us that what will be what

will come will be better. It's like the

fetus in the womb who doesn't want to

leave because it was so warm and snuggly

and cozy inside of mommy. But the world

out here is so much better. You can

actually use your hands and feet. You

can actually use your mouth and your

eyes. The world to come will be so much

better. Don't overly cherish the goods

that are here for now but will go.

It's just Cheetos. My My kids love

Cheetos.

And God is saying, "But I have filet

minan waiting for you." And we lament

when God takes the Cheetos. God has

something even better in store for you.

Do not overly cherish the things of this

world. Here's the second thing that I

think we can learn in light of the new

heaven and the new earth.

The tasks you perform in this life

is helping you prepare to reign with

Christ forever.

That radically elevates and makes all of

your work much more significant than you

might realize.

If you're a student, don't bother with

grades. Grades are is is one of the most

foolish things ever invented in

education.

Why should you study?

Because I actually think studying

transforms you, draws you, makes you

more like God, and prepares you for what

he has in store for you by cultivating

your character into Christlikkeness.

I won't get into it now, but I am

convinced if you study physics and you

study literature and you study history,

you study logic, it is doing something

to you in preparation to reign with

Christ. So stop caring about getting the

right grade and think this is all in

preparation for what I will do with

Christ in the life of the world to come.

If you're working

to make ends meet to meet the quarterly

goals to make your employer happy so

that you acquire more promotions or get

more prestige. What a foolish task

when God is using all of those

activities, if they're good, to prepare

you to reign with him forever.

There seems to be sometimes for some

people no glory in changing diapers and

sweeping the floor. My kids hate

sweeping the floor. And yet every task

we perform

if we give it up for Christ can be in

preparation for our reigning task with

him forever more. This is why Paul says

in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Therefore,

1 Corinthians 15:58

brothers and sisters, be steadfast,

immovable, always abounding in the work

of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord

your labor is not in vain."

And I think sometimes you're like, well,

what's working the Lord? Oh, that's that

must be what pastors do. No, if you go

to Paul's language, the work of the Lord

is the act of offering and sacrifice.

sacrifice.

Now, what do we learn in the New

Testament? We don't just engage in

animal sacrifice. We don't engage in it

at all. The New Testament talked about

the sacrifice of praise.

Some of the times in the New Testament,

it talks about prayer as a kind of

sacrifice and offering. And ultimately,

we know in Romans 12, we offer our

living bodies as a sacrifice, holy and

acceptable to God. That means everything

you do can be a sacrifice, an offering

to God by which God is preparing you

for reigning with him forever more. And

I want to finish with this final

implication.

If you really believe, and I think you

have every reason to believe because

it's coming from reliable source, and

it's not me. I'm not that reliable

source. But you believe that God intends

to marry you to make you as a member of

his bride and wants to restore the home

so that you can live in there and admin

administer in there. Be the image God

bear. Be the one who has dominion with

Christ over the earth forever. If you

really believe that, then hopefully, as

I've been trying to say over and over

again, nobody is too far gone that

Christ doesn't want to come to you. The

biggest gap

relationally was God and humans and

Jesus bridged that gap.

Every other separation is a smaller gap

than that. If God can bridge the biggest

gap, every other gap can be bridged.

What do we do then as people still

living in the first heaven and first

earth awaiting the new heaven and new

earth is we are recognizing Christ's

renewal project which is also a re

reconciliation project. We are members

of the ministry of reconciliation. If

God can reconcile humanity to his very

self then we need to be doing what

Christ does and reconciling first and

foremost brothers and sisters in the

church to each other. Why are we

fighting amongst ourselves when the

world will know that we are disciples by

our love for one another?

If there is a brother and a sister in

Christ to whom we are not reconciled,

well, what do we read in Matthew 5? What

are you waiting for?

It's not as though it's going to get

reconciled right away. I don't know. I

don't know when Christ will return and

renew the world. I don't know. But as

followers of Jesus who believe in the

new heaven and new earth, we believe

reconciliation can happen and he can do

it. And so pray.

Pray. And then if there are people in

your lives that need to be reconciled to

God, do not give hope. As long as you

have breath and as long as they have

breath, we will be engaged in the task

of reconciliation to bring them back to

God. And we can't do it. Our task is not

to convert anybody. That's what the Holy

Spirit does. Our task is merely to

proclaim and demonstrate the good news

of Jesus that nobody is so far gone that

Christ would abandon them. He would

leave the 99 to save the one. And so I

hope that as you consider the life of

the world to come, we are people of

hope, believing in a God who reconciles,

a God who renews our bodies and the

world, and who plans to make his home

here with you and me. Let's pray.