Get Noticed

When you see a high-vis jacket, what do you see?

I mention it because it's fascinating.

Even though you may not have a lanyard,

or it might not say anything on that jacket,

it might not have a badge or any kind of ID,

the moment we see a high-vis jacket,

we tend to assume that it represents some kind of authority.

And you don't have to spend very long on the internet

to realise the number of fun, I might add,

social psychology experiments that have taken place

to see how the general public generally react to a high-vis jacket.

One particular lady decided to go onto a bridge,

and she put hidden cameras around, and she had herself filmed,

and she would go up to people randomly,

giving all sorts of bizarre instructions.

She'd give exactly the same instructions without the high-vis jacket,

and she would either get ignored, questioned, laughed at,

or called words that I won't repeat right now.

Or, when she was wearing the jacket,

people, not entirely, but on the whole,

generally did what they were asked.

So, for example, she would walk along to people

and find a group of people, and she would say,

I'm sorry, but you need to walk on single file.

It's a bridge policy.

And groups would just start walking in line.

She would walk up to a certain area and say,

sorry, but you're not allowed to stand on that particular area of pavement.

Could you just walk around it, please?

Or she would say, sorry,

you're going to have to take your backpacks off

as you're walking across the bridge.

She even went up to one person who was standing there,

looking over the bridge, enjoying the view,

and said, I'm sorry, sir,

but we have a no-standing policy on the bridge.

Could you move on, please?

And he did.

Even more outrageous examples include

the instruction given to dog walkers

that dogs had to be picked up and carried,

including one person that had an Alsatian.

Another experiment, or set of experiments,

were two guys in Australia

who decided that it would be fun to experiment

what kind of places they could gain access to, unquestioned.

just by putting on a high-vis jacket.

They got into the cinema,

they got into the zoo,

and on one occasion,

they even got into

and sat through an entire Coldplay concert.

Somebody said in a blog,

go and get yourself a high-vis jacket,

and that's all you need to know about life.

Now, I'm going to take this off

because it's boiling hot,

but I want to leave you with that question.

That question,

when you see the high-vis jacket,

what do you see?

It opens up another more serious,

more fundamental question.

What makes you sit up and pay attention?

What is it that would make you assume

that a certain voice carries with it authority?

See, I can't read about John the Baptist,

which is what we did this morning,

without asking myself the question,

what was it that would make you sit up

and pay attention to him?

He was pretty eccentric.

He was strange.

He was downright weird.

And I wonder how many of us would take him seriously

if he appeared among us today.

Clearly, a lot of people did take him very seriously indeed.

The reason why I want to suggest

that we need to ask ourselves the questions,

what things do we listen to?

What claims to authority do we listen to?

One reason why we need to listen to the things

that John had to say

and the things that he then points forward to

has to do with one particular word that stands out.

If we could just move forward to verse,

I think it's four onwards,

where it says that the prophecy of Isaiah,

that here will come a voice of one calling in the desert,

prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.

And so it continues,

every valley shall be filled in,

every mountain and hill made low,

the crooked roads shall become straight,

the rough ways made smooth.

In other words,

those are all things that can block things out,

things that can get in the way,

obstacles.

And so this message is saying

that all of those obstacles

are going to be moved to one side,

because for one time in human history,

we're going to be shown the one thing

that we need to sit up and pay attention to,

and it's in that verse that is on the screen right now.

And all mankind will see,

and there's one word here,

God's salvation.

Now when we hear that word salvation,

I want to suggest that it's a word

that people tend not to sit up and pay attention to,

a word that doesn't carry authority,

but people tend to think that if it means anything at all,

well, it's probably a word,

a bit of a dated,

culturally irrelevant word

to describe the things that

some people that call themselves religious

believe about what happens to you when you die,

about an afterlife.

That's not what it means at all.

It does partially mean that,

but if we think that's all it means,

then we're way off mark.

Salvation, it means being saved,

but it means something far bigger

than just what we're saved from.

Salvation means wholeness.

It means the very thing that we hope for,

not just beyond death,

although it is that,

and we'll come on to that in a moment,

but the way in which we are transformed

for life in the here and the now.

This is going to seem like a weird question.

Don't worry,

I'm not going to ask you to answer it out loud.

Just list some of the things

that you're worried about right now

in your mind.

Things that you would regard as challenges,

problems, worries, fears,

things that bother you.

Some of them might even keep you awake at night.

Some things might be lingering concerns,

anxieties that you've had

for as long as you can remember.

Some of them might be new.

Some of them might seem distant,

some of them might be very close,

but I just want you to think,

just right now.

Now, I've asked you to do that

in just a few moments.

Imagine that I asked you

to actually spend a whole week

writing at length and in detail

of every single last problem,

challenge, concern, worry

you could possibly think of.

Now, get this.

Salvation equals God's answer

to every single one of those things

that you could list.

And not only all the things

that would be on your list,

but would be on the list

of everyone else,

not just in this room,

but in the world.

And then some.

Salvation means that God looks

at a world that is broken,

a world that is full of angst

and fear and tragedy and pain,

comes to that world

in the form of Jesus.

Lives, dies on a cross,

is raised,

and leaves us with a promise

that he will return

and he will make things new.

And it's because we live

in the light of that promise

that we can talk of this sense

of salvation,

of being saved.

We still live in this world

with all its suffering

and its pain,

but we have this hope

that every single last concern

and worry will be addressed

and the world will be transformed

and we will live forever with him.

That is something

that seems so extreme

that to the vast majority

of the world's population

it will be written off as absurd.

But that's the one thing

that should make us sit up

and pay attention.

salvation.

So what,

what will salvation be like?

What does

the future

actually look like?

Because as I was thinking this through

I'm not sure it's something

that we talk about that often.

Certainly we don't talk about it enough.

So let's just take a snapshot

and this is going to be

really whistle-stop tour stuff.

Just a snapshot

over these next few minutes

as to what the promises of God,

of what the future looks like,

is actually like.

In the book of Revelation,

can we have the passage on the screen?

We have

the book of Revelation

right at the end of scripture,

at the end,

towards the end of

the book of Revelation,

we have this sort of summary

of what the future will look like

when Christ returns,

when the dead are raised

and when God makes his dwelling

among us

and transforms

the whole world forever.

It says this,

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.

I saw the holy city,

the 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,

See, the home of God

is among mortals.

He will dwell with them

and be their God.

They will be his peoples

and God himself

will be with them.

He will wipe every tear

from their eyes.

Death will be no more.

Mourning and crying

and pain will be no more.

For the first things

have passed away.

Let's just take a few moments

to think about

why that should

make us sit up

and pay attention to it.

What will it look like?

Well, here are just a few things

and this is just scratching the surface.

The first thing that it means

is

that there will be

no more death

and dying.

The promise is

just as Jesus

was raised from the dead

and he was the same Jesus

that was raised

but he was transformed

in that the body he had

was the same one

but it was radically transformed

to be free of pain

and death

for all eternity.

That same resurrection body

that we see

in the resurrection of Jesus

is the same thing

that we are promised.

It means that there will be

no more mourning.

We will live forever.

There will be no fear

of losing loved ones

and there will be

no anxiety

over our own life ending.

Now that itself

is enough to make us

sit up and pay attention

but it's only the beginning.

See, the second thing

that it means

is not only that there will be

no more death and dying

but there will be

no more sickness or pain.

The bodies that we have

will be transformed

as such

that we will carry

the same identity

just as the risen Jesus

carries the same identity

but our resurrection bodies

will be free of pain

and suffering.

We will have complete healing

of body, mind and spirit.

There will be no more hurting.

The image I think of

is when Jesus appeared

before Thomas

and the other disciples

and he showed him

his scars.

Now, it was the same Jesus

who had gone to the cross.

We see that by his scars.

But the scars themselves

have been healed.

There was no more any pain.

It means that the things

that we experience

that represent pain

for us in this life

won't be just swept away

under the carpet

as though they don't matter,

as though they're insignificant

and meaningless.

No.

But they will be transformed,

given a new meaning

and the pain

and the suffering

that they represent

will be a thing of the past.

Gone.

There will be no more sickness

or pain.

Zero pain.

And I doubt

there is anybody,

any of us,

who really knows

what the experience

of zero pain is like.

Because it just becomes

part of our experience.

It may be the slightest,

slightest little thing,

whether it's a back pain,

a bit of stiffness here

or whatever.

It just becomes part

of our regular experience

and it becomes absorbed

into us.

The experience of being

completely and absolutely

free of pain forever.

is something

that we can only imagine.

Third thing,

there will be no more

human evil.

War will be no more.

Violence will be no more.

Crime, hatred,

cruelty, abuse,

injustice and oppression,

they'll all be overthrown

once and for all.

No more lying,

dishonesty or cheating

or theft.

Everything that is evil

will be gone.

And whilst we may shirk

at the notion

of judgment

and destruction

that are real,

live,

biblical themes,

we need to remember

that to understand them

properly,

these are the things

that will be judged

and these are the things

that will be destroyed.

But salvation means

that even though

all of that evil

will be destroyed,

we are saved

by God's grace.

There will be no more

human evil.

The next thing

is that they were told

there will be no more tears.

Now in this life

it's healthy to cry.

Sometimes we don't cry enough.

There is such a thing

as catharsis

whereby we actually find

a sense of release

through tears.

We need to be able

to cry

just as we need

to be able to laugh.

And there's lots of tears

in the Bible.

Frequently we're told

of people both

in the Old Testament

and in the New

who wept,

even Jesus did.

But God's last word

on tears

is the words

that we have

in Revelation 21

that every last tear

will be wiped away.

All mental

and emotional suffering

will end

once

and for all.

Can you imagine

looking back

at the old order

and saying

that was tears

but now

we just don't know them.

It's not part

of our experience.

The next thing

is that there will be

an infinite supply

of everything

that we need

for all eternity.

What that means

in practical terms

is that all resources

will be a never-ending supply.

Now we only know

of a life

in which things

are limited.

Time,

money,

food,

drink,

everything.

But that will not

be our experience

in that new life.

abject poverty

now

in this world

is the shadow

of a fully healed creation

then in the future.

Any sense of anxiety

of running short

in this life

is our homesickness

for our future home

in God

where there will be

everything that we need

forever.

And associated with that

the next thing

is that there will be

riches

beyond our comprehension.

That this new life

for all eternity

will be one

that is abundant.

And in the book

of Revelation

we're giving this

very graphic imagery

of the new Jerusalem

as a symbol

of what life

will be like.

That it will be

adorned with precious jewels

and with gold.

The imagery there

is to talk about

how life will not

only be everything

that we need

but it will be

gloriously gloriously

full

till it's overflowing.

There's that old joke

that's told about

a guy who was

stinking rich

and before he died

he wanted to take

everything that he had

with him

so he left instructions

in his will

that his entire estate

was to be sold off

and they were to buy

the purest gold

that they could possibly get

and to put the gold

into blocks

and tuck them

under his arms

in his coffin

and bury him

with that gold.

And the story goes

that he was buried

in this way

and eventually

resurrection day

came.

He was raised

from the dead

and as he sat up

and felt these

blocks of gold

under each arm

he looked over

and he saw

somebody else

who had just been raised

and they said

what are you doing

with the paving stones?

He said

when we have that imagery

of the new Jerusalem

paved with gold

it's a symbol to say

that think of the greatest

riches in this life

and it will just be

ordinariness in the next.

It's going to be awesome.

Seventh

there will be perfect peace

and harmony

and untold intimacy

between peoples

and between individuals.

we will be

his children

we are told

that when God

makes his dwelling

among us

that the whole

of the human race

will be completely

united.

Now that doesn't

just mean

the absence

of war

and fighting

and conflict

although it does

mean that

it means

absolute unity

it means

perfect intimacy

among all

relationships.

Jesus

they tried to

catch him out

the religious

authorities of his

days tried to

catch him out.

There were two

groups of religious

authorities

there were the

Pharisees

who did believe

that there would

be a resurrection

and there were the

Sadducees

who taught that

there was not

and it was the

Sadducees that were

trying to catch

Jesus out

because they knew

that he taught

the resurrection

and they came

to him with a

question and they

said answer us

this what happens

then if there's

a husband and a

wife and the

husband dies and

the wife remarries

and then the

second husband dies

and then she

remarries again

and this goes on

and on and there

are several

husbands.

Resurrection day

comes who will

she be married to?

Won't that be

slightly awkward?

That last bit was

not in the original

version in the

Gospels.

It was a trick

question of course

but Jesus came

back and said

you misunderstand

the nature of

life and

relationships.

I'm paraphrasing

the nature of

life and

relationships in

the new kingdom.

You see we

will not the new

order will not be

like this one

because we will

neither be married

nor unmarried.

You see there

will just be one

marriage and that

is the marriage

between God and

his people.

The bride and

the church.

Now this is so

hard for us to

get our human

mortal minds

around but I

think what Jesus

was saying there

is that because

every human

relationship will

be so completely

and utterly and

radically transformed

into perfect

intimacy the best

marriage.

The best way to

imagine that right

now is to think

of the most

perfect happy

intimate marriage

in this world.

Imagine that.

Every human

relationship in

eternity will be

even more intimate

than that.

In other words

it's not denying

that we'll see our

loved ones in

eternity.

Of course we

will.

We'll be there

together.

We'll still have

our identity.

We'll still have

those relationships

but every single

relationship will

be so completely

and utterly

transformed forever

that every single

last one will be

even greater than

the most intimate

experience that you

can possibly conceive

of in this life

now.

And while we're on

that subject of

relationships the

notion of

resurrection teaches

teaches us that

all generations

will be raised

at once.

Now have you

thought about that?

During the course

of our lives we

form different

relationships.

Firstly we have

that network of

relationships when

we're children.

As we go through

life and we get

older people die

and we make new

friendships new

relationships such

that the people

that we knew when

we were young

children are

probably going to

be almost a

completely different

set of people

that we know

and love and

interact in midlife

and then by the

time we get to

the end of our

lives the chances

are it's another

group of people

again.

God's promise of

eternal resurrection

life together brings

all of that together.

All of the

generations that

we've known from

the cradle to our

last years will be

together as one in

perfect intimacy.

And the last one

I'm going to

mention is that

we will be lost

in wonder, in

love and in

praise.

You see eternity

is not just an

image of rest

because rest

suggests that it's

just an everlasting

sleep that you just

sit back and put

your feet up.

Now sometimes I

think that sounds

quite nice.

better be serious.

The vision that we

have in scripture,

the things that

Jesus spoke of,

the abundance of

life in eternity

is so much more

than just rest.

It's about a sense

of inexhaustible

joy.

We will be

perfectly satisfied

and yet it will

only ever get

better.

Now that seems to

be a contradiction

according to our

within the constraints

of our mortal minds

but that is what

Jesus is, that is

what the promises of

Jesus, that is what

the promises of

scripture point

towards.

A life of never

ending, never

exhausted joy where

everything will be

perfect but there

will always be more

and it will always

be getting better.

Where we simply

delight in being

totally alive.

Now that's just a

surface scratch

at the theme of

salvation.

Why don't we pay

attention to it more?

Why don't we take it

more seriously?

Why don't we spend

more time thinking

about it?

Back to the high

vis jacket.

What sort of things

grab your attention?

What sort of things

make you sit up

and obey?

What sort of things

make you take them

seriously and afford

authority to them?

salvation?

That word salvation is

the greatest thing

that humanity has

ever heard.

John the Baptist

was God's high

vis jacket

pointing us towards

the most amazing

thing.

I'm going to share

one last image with

you as we come to

pray.

And it's not to do

with high vis jackets

but it is to do with

a form of identity

and it's a passport.

I've got mine here.

A passport

is not the same thing

as a ticket.

Sometimes when people

hear the language

of salvation

they think in terms

of a ticket to heaven.

A ticket is something

that you hand over

and it gets you in.

Salvation is not

about that.

Salvation is much

more about the idea

of holding a passport.

Why?

Because a passport

is something

that makes a statement

of who you are,

your identity.

It means no matter

where you are

in the world,

no matter how foreign

surroundings you may

have around you,

you can look at this

and it reminds you

where your citizenship

lies.

As we've been thinking

about that future

promised home

that is ours forever,

when God returns,

when Jesus returns

and when God makes

his dwelling among us,

when everything

is perfect,

that is where

our citizenship lies.

So,

as we journey

through Advent,

as Christmas approaches,

as we hear that story

told that we've heard

told a thousand times

before,

let's open it up

to the possibility

that there just might

be something inside

that is bigger

than what we know

on the outside.

Let's remember

where our citizenship

is.

Salvation,

the one thing

we need to pay

attention to

is that identity

that is ours,

that citizenship

that is in that

promised future

that will be here

on earth,

but on earth

transformed.

to be here

who

is

meant that

there

is

wrong

has

been

made

me

here

in that

back

and

in that

fact is

the fifth

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