[SPEAKER_00]: You are listening to audio from Citizens Church located in Plano, Texas for more information about this ministry or to give to this ministry Please visit citizenschurch.com Alright, I'm going to invite Scott Zeller to the stage
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys can have a seat.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scott Zeller is an elder candidate with us here at Citizen's Church.
[SPEAKER_00]: He and his wife, Angela, are members.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have four children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scott and his family were missionaries in India and then in Dubai, where he served as a pastor at a really cool church there called Redeemer Dubai.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scott is now on staff at Acts 29 and he is bringing his,
[SPEAKER_00]: passions as gifts and talents to you all as an elder candidate here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So would you welcome him now as he preaches?
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Love you brother.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks, Adam, and all of you, Citizens is a great home for me and my family, and it's a joy to be here.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're new to us, welcome, if you're coming back after a while, welcome to you as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, to Marcus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, and if you're normally in Kid City or Little City, are you here?
[SPEAKER_01]: I see a few of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why don't you stand on your chair quick?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're normally in Kid City or Little City, let's give them a round of applause.
[SPEAKER_01]: There you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey kids, you are not a distraction to this service.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not a burden on this service.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're really happy you're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for being with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you serve in kids city a little city and you're getting a break today, thank you for my family to yours, our kids love kids city.
[SPEAKER_01]: I used to be a kid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was 15 years old, I went to this thing called a Disciple Now weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe some of you have done one of those.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a youth ministry event.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was over, I think, in Garland or Raleigh, or something.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was a worship band playing song, leading us in music and...
[SPEAKER_01]: They were great and before one of the songs, they kind of paused and they said, hey, the next song we're going to play is a new song, it's actually one that we wrote and it might be on our next album and just want to play it and sing with you guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the lyrics to the song went like this and as I say them, you'll probably hear the piano intro in your mind.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can only imagine what my eyes would see when your face is before me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody know that song?
[SPEAKER_01]: Ben was mercy me, the song was I can only imagine, the song about heaven that's now become the most played song on Christian radio in the history of Christian radio.
[SPEAKER_01]: What made that song so popular over the last 25 years is it gives voice to a question that I think all of us have.
[SPEAKER_01]: At the end of the day, all of us have, what is heaven actually like?
[SPEAKER_01]: What does heaven actually like?
[SPEAKER_01]: And there was one of those moments in my upbringing that put that question in my heart where I had heard the gospel, I had heard about eternal life, I had grown up in church, in it struck me, I actually don't know what heaven will be like.
[SPEAKER_01]: What about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: When you imagine eternity, what comes to mind?
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for many of us, if we're being real honest, the answer to that might be that our impression of what heaven is is a little underwhelming.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's because we haven't gotten our understanding of heaven from the Bible, but from cartoons.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, this sounds familiar.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven is a soft, glowing place in the clouds.
[SPEAKER_01]: where we walk through these pearly gates and we get our white clothes in a heart and we kind of strum the harp for eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the problem is that's not what the Bible says.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be doing free turnity, despite what Tom and Jerry, or the Simpsons would have us think.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if that's heaven, then no wonder we don't think about it very much, because, frankly, that's really boring, to get stuck in a celestial music video for eternity on repeat.
[SPEAKER_01]: What I want to invite you to this morning, and in the time that we have, and as we look at Revelation 21 though, is to see, what does the Bible say about eternity?
[SPEAKER_01]: The eternity mean that life without end, the forever more,
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bible leaves room for imagination, but it also tells us enough to know, to excite us, and to give us hope.
[SPEAKER_01]: Many for the first time for some of you this morning.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm inviting you to that to think of it for the first time.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know, this will be a Sunday.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have plenty of visitors.
[SPEAKER_01]: Family was in town for Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: I had family in town for Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had a great time, ate a lot of good food.
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe that's you, and maybe someone brought you here, and you really have never had that thought.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would I think about heaven?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I want to hopefully encourage you as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: See us Lewis, the infinitely quotable see us Lewis, says, if I find myself with desires, which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation, is that I was made for another world.
[SPEAKER_01]: You were made for another world.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that world like?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what we're gonna talk about.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Revelation 21, we're gonna do that through looking at basically an outline that's a poem that I put together.
[SPEAKER_01]: A world that is real, this is what heaven is, a world that is real, where we are with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: A world with no pain, where nothing is wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And a world full of love, where all is made right.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what heaven is.
[SPEAKER_01]: A world that's real, where we're with God, world with no pain, where nothing's wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world full of love, we're always made right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And kids, if you memorize that by the time we're done, your parents said they would buy you ice cream.
[SPEAKER_01]: I talked to all of them, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Join me in verse one.
[SPEAKER_01]: What we're going to see is a world that's real, where we're with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse one, then I saw a new heaven and new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.
[SPEAKER_01]: I saw a holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
[SPEAKER_01]: I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will dwell with them and they will be his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And God Himself will be with them as their God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, what we're doing today, and I want to make sure that I'm clear here, when I'm talking about eternity, and when we see here with this new heaven and new earth, we've really sort of skipped to the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: OK, so if you've ever done that in a YouTube video or something, you get the intro, and then you're like, OK, I get the topic, but I just want to know how does this work out in the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or the podcast, everybody knows you have to skip the first 30 minutes to get to the good stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what we've done.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've sort of skipped all the way to the end here.
[SPEAKER_01]: The end of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the end of this age as we enter into eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: In his book, Heaven, Randy Alcorn, he's this author, theologian, fantastic book, Heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: He talks about it this way, because if you were to die today, you might ask that question, well, if I die today, what happens to me, do I do it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is this what happens in Revelation 21?
[SPEAKER_01]: And the answer would be no.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you die today, you do go to be with the Lord and Paradise.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that paradise is waiting for these new heaven's new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there's a separation that takes place.
[SPEAKER_01]: When you die today, your soul will be separated from your body.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the new heavens and new worth is a resurrection where it's all brought back together.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a Randi Alkorn talks about it like, say you were in a homeless shelter in Miami.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not from Miami, so in my imagination, that's all of what Miami is, homeless shelters.
[SPEAKER_01]: No offense if you're from Miami visiting, we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Randi Alkorn said it, I didn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: Randi Alkorn says, say you're from Miami in a homeless shelter,
[SPEAKER_01]: home in Los Angeles.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have to get from Miami to Los Angeles and the ticket you get is a plane ride that stops in the layover in Dallas, here in Dallas.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you're not going to get off the plane even, the plane's just going to land, it's some new people are going to get on, you're going to meet some friends there in Dallas and then join you on the way to Los Angeles to this inherited house.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what Randy Altman would say, and I think it reflects what the Scripture teaches, is that that's sort of like our journey to the New Heavens in New Earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are here in this world now.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are going to our inheritance, not in Los Angeles, but in the new city.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a stopover on the way, and that's what would happen now when we dive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I might be getting a little bit confusing for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's just talk about the end then.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because when we think about heaven, that is what the Revelation 21 is talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're skipping to the end and we're going to skip all of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was a normal end-time sermon.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd have all the charts and you'd know all the kind of timings of everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're not doing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about what is eternity going to look like.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, eternity is going to look like a new heaven and a new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe that's a new thought for some of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever thought that the future is going to be physical?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a city coming down out of heaven to earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, the direction in Scripture up till this point has really been more
[SPEAKER_01]: up in vertical.
[SPEAKER_01]: The garden was a place where things sprung up from the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: The plants came up from the ground, man was created up from the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: We look up to heavens, we travel up to Jerusalem.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're always going up and now it's coming down.
[SPEAKER_01]: The new city is coming down.
[SPEAKER_01]: God is coming down in the second advent.
[SPEAKER_01]: We celebrated Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is coming down to be with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first advent.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now God is coming down to stay in the second advent.
[SPEAKER_01]: And He's coming in a city.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're meant to think of that as a city, as a place where people live and work and have their being, where there's play and there's endeavors and there's interactions and there's meals.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's times together and there's worship, life of worship with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you see that the direction here is not further separation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not a direction of we're going to be separated from our bodies and stay in the clouds.
[SPEAKER_01]: The direction is no, we're going to be reunited.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven and Earth together.
[SPEAKER_01]: This body that you have now, you'll have for a long time.
[SPEAKER_01]: For somebody that's not great news, but good news is, it'll be redeemed and renewed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Your best body is yet to come.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not just because of your new user resolution.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, in our world today, we're confronted never like never before with not knowing what's real.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anytime you open your screen, open up your TV, you have to think, is that AI?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that really real?
[SPEAKER_01]: And what the technologists tell us in the next generation, it's going to become impossible to discern if you're in a simulation or if you're in real life.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not the ultimate future.
[SPEAKER_01]: That might be the future that a few generations experience, who knows, but that's not the ultimate future.
[SPEAKER_01]: This disembodied self, where we're living in this vague, utterly world, no, we are going to be in an embodied, new world that God has established a new heaven's new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a retelling of the original creation story in Genesis.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think of the first verse in the entire Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kids, you would know this.
[SPEAKER_01]: First verse in the entire Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here in Revelation chapter 21, He starts off with telling you, hey, remember that old story?
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember what I did to get this whole thing going?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing it again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not doing it to get away from the old thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm actually doing it to renew the thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: The end of the story is a continuation of the original story, a new heaven and a new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: As emphasize, not just through that framing of a heaven and earth, but also through he has a place.
[SPEAKER_01]: His first place was a garden.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was where the people would be.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where he would commune with the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now he has a city.
[SPEAKER_01]: He brings that.
[SPEAKER_01]: of the place where he will be with his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: In the beginning, in Genesis, we read that God performed the first marriage, a covenant relationship between a man and a woman, and now the ultimate marriage, the marriage, and the bringing together of heaven and earth for eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, heaven is a real place.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven is a real place, but the best part about heaven, the best part about heaven is that God is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: the verse reads, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them as they are God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned already, Advent, the first Advent.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus took on human flesh to come and dwell with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: God moved towards us in Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: In physical form, fully God fully man.
[SPEAKER_01]: He died, he was risen again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Inhuman flesh, his disciples touched him and they saw his scars and he ate with them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was real and he was physical and he ascended to heaven and he will return again physically.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will be with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And just as it was in the first advant, God will come again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why does he do this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's for our good.
[SPEAKER_01]: The best thing possible for us is to be with God and it's to see him for who he is.
[SPEAKER_01]: John Piper asked the question, question for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, the critical question for our generation and for every generation is this.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you could have heaven with no sickness, with all the friends you've ever had on earth, all the food you've ever liked,
[SPEAKER_01]: And all the leisure activities you've ever enjoyed, all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, no human conflict or natural disasters, could you be satisfied in heaven if Christ was not there?
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're answered to that question, is yes, that honestly you could imagine kind of enjoying that if Christ was not there, then you're missing the whole point.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're missing the whole point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven is only good because Christ is there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the source of the happiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is the source of the joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: The no pain and no sadness.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll talk about that here in a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's only an outcome of His presence there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Adam mentioned my family and I used to live in India.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in India, there's a, there's a, they have a phenomenal way of doing weddings, maybe some of you have been to an Indian wedding.
[SPEAKER_01]: In Indian culture, or for the most part, there's no such thing as a wedding crusher.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can just show up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody is welcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: And shortly after arriving in India, we were invited by a friend of a friend of a friend of the bride to come to this wedding.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we said we can't do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't know these people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would we go to the wedding?
[SPEAKER_01]: And I said no, no, I'll just come.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be great.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we went to the wedding.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was amazing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Incredible amounts of food of all these different kinds and cooks over here, bringing more food and dancing and all kind of joy for the moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because for us all it was was a dinner party.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were just there for ourselves to have a good meal and see something interesting, have an experience.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we went home.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to this day, I couldn't tell you the name of the bride and groom.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea who they were.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope they're happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was happy that night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Contrast that with this last summer, my sister got married.
[SPEAKER_01]: My younger sister.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've known her, her entire life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've prayed with her for a spouse.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've belonged with her for marriage, long for her to get married, to celebrate her wedding with her with my family.
[SPEAKER_01]: And to see the joy that she had on that day, to celebrate with her now and to see what the Lord is doing in their lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: We still talk about that day.
[SPEAKER_01]: We have photos of that day.
[SPEAKER_01]: completely different experience, because I knew the person that we were celebrating.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanted to be with that person that we were celebrating.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, remember that for the rest of our lives in a small way, in a small way.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's sort of what John Piper is getting out here.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you just want the blessings of heaven, if you just want the nice meal, you're robbing yourself of the real joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Inultimately, he won't get there.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you know who you're after, if you know the point of the celebration, if you know who is the source of the joy, you'll get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll get it in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven is a real place where we are with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven is also, I told you, a world with no pain, where nothing is wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse four and in verse eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse four says, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more.
[SPEAKER_01]: Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things that passed away.
[SPEAKER_01]: And verse 8.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral sorcerers, idolatiers, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
[SPEAKER_01]: When the Bible tells us about heaven like here in Revelation 21 and in other passages, when the Bible tells us about heaven, it both tells us what it will be like, what is there, and it also tells us what won't be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will be real, and we will be with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It will be full of love, and all will be made right, and there won't be any pain, and there won't be any wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as I read those two verses to you about what won't be there, I'm assuming that the first verse is one that everybody can sign on to.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody in the world, if they're being honest, everybody in the world is really fine with no suffering.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't want pain, they don't want to mourn, they don't want to cry.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the idea of a place like that is heartwarming, and it's inspiring, and that's what they want.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, friend, we can't move on past that too quickly without acknowledging that some of you in the room experienced even in the last week over a holiday could have experienced pain and suffering and loss in mourning.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if that's you, the hope of heaven is for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So everybody could sign on to that first verse, not too controversial.
[SPEAKER_01]: The second one, verse eight, might land a little bit more complexly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that a word?
[SPEAKER_01]: Complexly?
[SPEAKER_01]: My little bit more complexity on the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: It reminds us of the reality that not everybody is going to experience the joy of heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not everybody will be there in the new heavens and new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Bible warns us of this, all throughout the Bible and here in Revelation, that why it is the way, why it that leads to destruction.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone has repented of their sins, repented means to turn away.
[SPEAKER_01]: Someone has turned away from a lifestyle of sin and seeking their own.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they've trust in the Christ for salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: They should have confidence that they will be there in the new heavens and the new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if they haven't, they should not have that confidence.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not saying this to call out anybody specifically in the room.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody here in this room, whether you name the name of Christ or not, everybody in this room shares a sense of being found in that verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of us, go look at that and say, I've lied.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've sought after other things.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been an idolater.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, this list isn't even meant to be exhaustive.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's other passages we could look at of behaviors that offend the person of God and his holiness.
[SPEAKER_01]: And all of us, all of us, come to the cross and come to the gospel in need of his grace, because all of us could see ourselves in that verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's some of you that have not,
[SPEAKER_01]: made the switch.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have not turned to the other side.
[SPEAKER_01]: You have not realized that you need to turn away from that to Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you are someone and as I read that verse, as Adam did, and you see yourself in it today.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you would say, no, no, that's me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I seek after my own.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't need forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you've read that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Any
[SPEAKER_01]: then all this stuff that he's talking about, this joy and happiness and the face of Jesus, that's not gonna be mine, then I just want to invite you to turn yourself in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, acknowledge it, say it out loud, talk to your family, talk to people that are gonna be here right at the front.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of them, I've never trusted in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm living a life of sexual immorality, I'm living a life of addiction, I'm living a life of deceit and lack of integrity.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm living a life looking only for what this world offers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want this hope, I want Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: If that's you, come to him, there's room for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's more mercy in him than sin in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And whatever temporary joy you're getting, whatever temporary satisfaction you're getting from, the pursuit of other things won't last for eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there might be others of you that, as you read that verse or heard it read, wasn't a sense of conviction that you felt, but more a sense of insecurity.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've trusted in Christ, you've prayed, you've been baptized, and you're seeking however imperfectly to follow Him, and yet you read a verse like that, and you feel like,
[SPEAKER_01]: What if I get there and I haven't done enough?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if I get there and I haven't said the right things?
[SPEAKER_01]: What if I get there and Jesus turns me away?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here are the words of Jesus from John 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Trust also in me.
[SPEAKER_01]: In my father's house are many rooms.
[SPEAKER_01]: If it were not so, I would have told you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going there to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you may also be where I am.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jesus is assuring his followers that they're welcome to God's new house, his new heavens' new earth that we're reading about here in Revelation, that it's not based on their accomplishments.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not based on how many times they pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not based on their good works.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's based on his work.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is going to repair the place.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will come back from trusting Christ and receive assurance from Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kids, I mean that especially for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you read a verse like that, and it's scary.
[SPEAKER_01]: A tarot of a young man this week.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm asked in what he thinks about heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: And his honest reply was, I don't want to go to hell.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't.
[SPEAKER_01]: But friend, child, teenager, you can have confidence that Christ is coming for you, believe in him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friend in heaven, there's not going to be any pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's gonna be no more funerals for loved ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's gonna be no more grief over what has been lost or what could have been.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's gonna be no more cancer or COVID or head colds or stepping on legos.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's gonna be no more tears, shed from pain or loneliness.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll never have Christmas alone again.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll never be more, any more sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: We won't sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll never do something that you regret.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, how amazing would that be?
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not gonna be any more isolation or loneliness.
[SPEAKER_01]: God will be with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we will be together with Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's gonna be no more fear, fear of war, fear of danger, fear of the dark.
[SPEAKER_01]: There'll be no more orphans, there'll be no more racism, there'll be no more poverty, there'll be no more corruption, there's no more broken relationships, no miscommunications, no personal offenses, no one's gonna yell at the dinner table and heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: This will be no more frustration to work.
[SPEAKER_01]: This will be no more difficulty in play.
[SPEAKER_01]: This will be no more confusion to our memories.
[SPEAKER_01]: Friends, the song we sing at Christmas,
[SPEAKER_01]: will be true then.
[SPEAKER_01]: No more lessons and sorrows grow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nor thorns infest the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: He comes to make his blessings flow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Faraz, the curse is found.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joy to the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: That will be heaven.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heaven will be a world that's real, where we're with God, a world with no pain, where there's nothing wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And lastly, it's gonna be a world full of love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where everything is right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 5, and he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I'm making all things new.
[SPEAKER_01]: And also he said, write this down, because it's trustworthy and true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said to me, it's done.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
[SPEAKER_01]: To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of water of life without payment.
[SPEAKER_01]: The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son.
[SPEAKER_01]: These verses, I'm pretty convinced.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think they contain one of the pinnacle summaries of all of Christian theology.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you get these verses, I think you're, you've pretty much understood the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is an eternal God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The aliphany of Omega, that's the first letter in the Greek alphabet in the last one.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, I'm the A to the Z. I'm everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm eternal without time.
[SPEAKER_01]: without equal, there's an eternal God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this God speaks truth right this down.
[SPEAKER_01]: These words are trustworthy and true.
[SPEAKER_01]: He speaks truth and He is truth and He communicates that truth to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has all authority and heaven and honor.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you see it on the throne,
[SPEAKER_01]: We know from Colossians 1 that that person seated on the throne is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_01]: Colossians chapter 1 says Jesus has all authority and heaven and on earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is reconciling all things into himself with his power.
[SPEAKER_01]: It goes on in these verses.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is God, this eternal God who speaks truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: He made the world and now he will make it new for his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Behold, I'm making all things new.
[SPEAKER_01]: And people, he's making a new for people that were his enemies.
[SPEAKER_01]: But now he's in the call of them sons.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a loving God.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a welcoming God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in this new world, he's not going to stop providing for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Jerry that, in the stream of living water that he will give and with no payment.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's going to provide for them abundantly, not because they're bringing anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I pay a lot of money from my water, especially in the summer.
[SPEAKER_01]: You're not going to pay for this water at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't get to heaven and then say, hey, Jesus, I learned some new chords on my heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like can I get some more of that water?
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's going to say, no, no, you don't get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The same gospel that saves you now by grace through faith, you're saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't bring in any of your works.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't bring in your accomplishments.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't say Jesus, I did XYZ and he says, okay, you get the participation award.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just says, hey, I did it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did it all, just rest.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just enjoy my house, just enjoy my presence, giving it to you without payment.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what these verses say.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not based on what we can do, but what it based on what he is has done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that exciting to you?
[SPEAKER_01]: awake in your imagination and through you for what this place could be like.
[SPEAKER_01]: That this heaven, this eternity that we'll spend with God is not this disembodied, spiritual existence where we kind of do nothing, but it's a place of life and of joy and of happiness and of relationship and of worship in a new heaven and a new earth totally redeemed brought to right.
[SPEAKER_01]: So friends, I hope so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm intentionally light on application today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't really want to tell you what to do with this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what you need to do with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I can tell you is that looking with clarity to our future hope will change how you live today.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if it doesn't, then ask yourself the question, have I done enough to think about heaven?
[SPEAKER_01]: You know that statement, you're so heavenly minded, you're of no worthly good.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not actually true.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like it wasn't even a Christian who said it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the only way to be a earthly good is to be heavenly minded.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think much on eternity.
[SPEAKER_01]: Think much on what God has promised you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think how short your life is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And think, how does that make the everyday meaningful?
[SPEAKER_01]: It redeems every suffering.
[SPEAKER_01]: It redeems every pain.
[SPEAKER_01]: It makes every work.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every opportunity to love, worth it, because God is coming back.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll continue that here in the new heavens, in the new earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the ways that we remember this is through communion.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll take that together here in a moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we talked about in the first advent, God came to be with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then in this second advent, the new heavens and the new earth God will come again to be with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: In communion is a way of remembering as we take the bread in the cup.
[SPEAKER_01]: So remember, it's a simple reminder.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a simple reminder of ordinary things.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Jesus told us to do in remembrance of Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: To remember that in His first advent, His body was broken and His blood was shed so that we could spend eternity with Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: that we could be His people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, friend, if that's you, if you've claimed the name of Christ, if you've believed upon Him, if you're waiting with hope for that day, use this as an opportunity to rejoice.
[SPEAKER_01]: To rejoice together with these that one day, we're gonna gather again in heaven, in the new heavens and new earth, and Jesus is gonna break the bread and pour the wine for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're gonna celebrate with Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're gonna do that this morning together.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you're here and your conscience tells you, I don't know, that's not me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure what I believe about God.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure what I believe about Jesus and the future.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then invite you to take this moment just to reflect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just to reflect, let the cup and juice pass by.
[SPEAKER_01]: And ask yourself, is this the year to turn myself in?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is this the year to talk with someone?
[SPEAKER_01]: Make that person Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Come to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's pray together.
[SPEAKER_01]: if you're serving communion, if you go to the back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, in my imperfect words of try to illuminate, give voice to this vision of John, of the new heavens, and new earth, what we'd long to be there.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that those that have departed from us are now even still waiting, saying, Lord, how long until your kingdom comes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what we join with them and asking, Lord,
[SPEAKER_01]: How long?
[SPEAKER_01]: And we say, come Lord Jesus, we long to be with you, Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: We long to depart from this age of pain and of suffering.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Lord, I pray for those in this room, Lord, would you bring a spirit of confidence in rejoicing to them?
[SPEAKER_01]: Whatever they're going through, whatever they brought in this morning, that they would know that it's all worth it
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, for the one far from you, pray that today would be the day of salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pray that as they look to eternity, if what they see is murky and dark, what with the light of salvation shine on their hearts in Christ Jesus, we ask this in His name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.