WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.160 Our scripture reading today comes from Revelation 21. 00:00:04.459 --> 00:00:06.700 And we have Bibles on the sides 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:08.640 and upstairs as well at the back. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:10.800 So if you'd like to have a Bible, 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:14.759 feel free to get up and pick one up at any time. 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:17.039 And we're gonna read Revelation 21 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:20.280 in just four verses, verse one to four. 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:29.920 And if you're reading from one of our Bibles, 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:32.039 that's on page 1041. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:35.020 And this is God's word. 00:00:36.800 --> 00:00:39.520 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:42.640 for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:44.600 and the sea was no more. 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:47.400 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, 00:00:47.400 --> 00:00:49.719 coming down out of heaven from God, 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:52.420 prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:55.680 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:58.880 behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:02.399 He will dwell with them and they will be his people 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:05.920 and God himself will be with them as their God. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:08.239 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:09.960 and death shall be no more. 00:01:09.960 --> 00:01:11.840 Neither shall there be mourning, 00:01:11.840 --> 00:01:14.439 nor crying, nor pain anymore 00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:17.000 for the former things have passed away. 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:18.519 This is God's holy word. 00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:24.079 So today, as you already know, 00:01:24.079 --> 00:01:26.120 is our annual family service 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:29.359 where we give thanks to God for his work 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:30.840 in the lives of our children 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:34.480 and also through our kids church teachers 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:36.359 and crush helpers and all sorts of people 00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:38.219 that have served our children 00:01:38.219 --> 00:01:41.079 alongside the parents over the past year. 00:01:41.079 --> 00:01:45.680 And we've based the service off Catechism question 26, 00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:46.920 which Derek looked at earlier. 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:48.719 Let me read that one more time. 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:50.400 Catechism 26, it says, 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:55.160 what else does Christ redeem in addition to us, our souls? 00:01:56.160 --> 00:02:00.440 And the answer is every part of fallen creation. 00:02:00.440 --> 00:02:03.360 And we just read from Revelation 21, 00:02:03.360 --> 00:02:06.480 this is probably the quintessential passage 00:02:06.480 --> 00:02:09.360 that tells us what else Christ redeems, 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:11.560 every part of fallen creation, 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:13.719 that the good news of the gospel 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:16.560 is not only good news for our souls 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:18.599 and for the problem that we face before God, 00:02:18.599 --> 00:02:20.120 the problem of our sin, 00:02:20.120 --> 00:02:24.599 but it's also good news that extends beyond just us. 00:02:24.599 --> 00:02:26.080 And that's what we see right here. 00:02:26.080 --> 00:02:29.039 And so let me give you two things 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:33.500 that Christ also redeems and then why it matters. 00:02:33.500 --> 00:02:36.400 And we'll do that in 10 minutes, okay? 00:02:37.640 --> 00:02:40.800 That will be a record, I think, for me, 10 minutes. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:44.280 First, Revelation 21, 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:47.560 Jesus Christ came to redeem earth. 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:49.640 He came to redeem earth. 00:02:49.639 --> 00:02:52.719 Now you look down at verse one and it says, 00:02:52.719 --> 00:02:57.719 I, John sees a new heaven and a new earth coming down. 00:02:59.399 --> 00:03:02.679 And that word new there is very important 00:03:02.679 --> 00:03:05.239 because what it signals to us 00:03:05.239 --> 00:03:08.159 is that the world that God is bringing 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:09.919 when Jesus comes again 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:14.319 is not an entirely different world altogether, 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:17.979 but the word that John uses is a new world. 00:03:17.979 --> 00:03:21.319 And when you look at the way this word gets used 00:03:21.319 --> 00:03:22.399 throughout the Bible, 00:03:22.399 --> 00:03:24.639 from the Old Testament to the New Testament, 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.599 you can see a couple really important things about it. 00:03:27.599 --> 00:03:30.239 It shows up this word in the Old Testament, 00:03:30.239 --> 00:03:34.359 very famously in both Isaiah 65 and Isaiah 66. 00:03:34.359 --> 00:03:36.959 And so commentators will say that John 00:03:36.959 --> 00:03:41.959 is very likely quoting here from Isaiah 65 and Isaiah 66. 00:03:42.239 --> 00:03:46.000 We read Isaiah 65 in the call to worship. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.800 And in Isaiah 66, God declares, 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:52.560 behold, I am making all things new. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:54.180 And then it shows up again here 00:03:54.180 --> 00:03:57.180 when Jesus returns at the end of history. 00:03:57.180 --> 00:04:01.199 And the Greek word here is a very particular word. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:06.120 And it means something made of a different quality. 00:04:07.159 --> 00:04:11.300 So the word new here means being renewed 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:14.560 to a different quality or standard 00:04:14.560 --> 00:04:16.160 than the former. 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:21.160 And you can ask, well, what exactly does that mean? 00:04:21.399 --> 00:04:23.319 And let me show you from the passage, 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:27.800 just two details that tells us exactly what that means. 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:31.199 What does it mean that this earth is gonna be made new? 00:04:31.199 --> 00:04:34.439 And you can see it in both of them in verse one. 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:37.519 It says that when the new earth comes, 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:39.019 the new heaven and earth, 00:04:39.019 --> 00:04:41.600 that there will be no more sea, 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:43.759 no more ocean, no more sea. 00:04:43.759 --> 00:04:47.039 Now, this is figurative language. 00:04:47.039 --> 00:04:48.319 It's not literal language. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:51.039 And the reason that John sees this vision, 00:04:51.039 --> 00:04:53.120 this figurative vision, that there's no more sea 00:04:53.120 --> 00:04:57.480 is because the sea in the Old Testament 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:02.120 is consistently taught as the place of chaos and death. 00:05:02.120 --> 00:05:04.159 The sea is the place in the Old Testament 00:05:04.159 --> 00:05:05.759 that Israel was so afraid of. 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:09.839 The Israelites were not ship-faring peoples. 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:11.240 They were afraid of the ocean. 00:05:11.240 --> 00:05:16.240 And the ocean was a place where if you go under the water 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:19.960 and you stay too long, then you can't live anymore. 00:05:19.960 --> 00:05:21.240 Did you know that? 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:22.240 You can't. 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:26.000 And that means that in the new heavens and the new earth, 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:28.780 what it means to make the earth new 00:05:28.780 --> 00:05:31.920 is to dismiss the sea from the world. 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:34.600 Now, that does not literally mean to dismiss all water. 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:38.840 Instead, what it means is the great symbol of chaos, 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:42.839 the physical symbol of chaos, the ocean, the waves, 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:44.239 is no more. 00:05:44.239 --> 00:05:46.679 And what that means is that the word new here means 00:05:46.679 --> 00:05:50.519 that Christ has come not only to redeem us, 00:05:50.519 --> 00:05:54.560 but to push away the chaos of disaster 00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:56.599 that has fallen upon the land. 00:05:56.599 --> 00:05:58.159 In other words, this is a reference 00:05:58.159 --> 00:06:02.479 to ending the curse of creation from Genesis chapter three. 00:06:02.479 --> 00:06:05.559 It's the same curse that we saw in the four images 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:10.560 that Derek put up of drought and fire and flood, et cetera. 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:12.699 This is exactly what it means. 00:06:12.699 --> 00:06:14.639 When the new heavens and earth come, 00:06:14.639 --> 00:06:16.519 that the sea will be no more. 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:18.680 There will be no more chaos. 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:21.000 The earth will be renewed. 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.399 The second thing he says is that the first earth 00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:25.720 will pass away. 00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:30.540 This language actually comes up in Peter's letters 00:06:30.540 --> 00:06:32.699 in both first Peter and second Peter, 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:35.079 that the earth will pass away. 00:06:35.079 --> 00:06:36.599 And this is how Peter explains it. 00:06:36.599 --> 00:06:38.680 What does he mean by the earth will pass away? 00:06:38.680 --> 00:06:40.879 John is using that language that we see 00:06:40.879 --> 00:06:42.719 in other places in the Bible. 00:06:42.719 --> 00:06:47.339 Second Peter 313, we await a new heaven and a new earth 00:06:47.339 --> 00:06:49.240 in which righteousness dwells. 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:51.479 The first earth will pass away, 00:06:51.479 --> 00:06:53.479 and then we will have a new earth 00:06:53.479 --> 00:06:55.479 in which righteousness dwells. 00:06:55.479 --> 00:06:59.120 And so if the negative side of the earth's renewal, 00:06:59.120 --> 00:07:03.159 what it means to be new is that chaos will be pushed away, 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:06.420 Peter says the positive side is that righteousness 00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:07.920 and justice will dwell. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:10.600 And so what does it mean that Jesus Christ 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:11.720 has come to renew the earth? 00:07:11.720 --> 00:07:15.360 It simply means that there will be no disease, 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:19.000 no disaster, no death, no sin, 00:07:19.000 --> 00:07:23.280 that he will cleanse the world in the same way 00:07:23.280 --> 00:07:25.879 that the human body will be resurrected. 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:30.520 It will pass away and it will come back to life reborn 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:33.560 without any of the stain of sin, curse or death. 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:35.279 All right, so that's the first thing. 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.639 Jesus is coming to renew the earth. 00:07:38.639 --> 00:07:41.399 Secondly, and finally, the second thing, 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:45.319 Jesus Christ will redeem all things 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:46.919 so that we will see God. 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:52.959 All right, this hope, Christ's cross and resurrection 00:07:54.319 --> 00:07:58.759 is so tangible, it's the forgiveness of your sin. 00:07:58.759 --> 00:08:03.759 It is the only way to God and it is physical. 00:08:04.759 --> 00:08:06.560 It's the renewal of creation, 00:08:06.560 --> 00:08:08.439 it's the resurrection of the body, 00:08:08.439 --> 00:08:12.800 it's trees and rivers, it's relationship, it's life. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:15.120 It's everything that you long for. 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:17.879 It's Edenic nostalgia, it's the home 00:08:17.879 --> 00:08:21.159 we've always wanted to have, it's all of that. 00:08:21.159 --> 00:08:23.959 But what John teaches us here is that 00:08:23.959 --> 00:08:26.159 that is not our greatest hope. 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:29.520 Physicality is not our greatest hope. 00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:32.240 The resurrection of the body is not our greatest hope, 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:33.920 it is good. 00:08:33.920 --> 00:08:36.200 The renewal of the earth is truly great, 00:08:36.200 --> 00:08:37.639 but it is not our greatest hope. 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:40.360 And he tells us exactly what the greatest hope, 00:08:40.360 --> 00:08:42.759 the true purpose of redemption in Christ 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:44.920 really is here in this passage. 00:08:45.879 --> 00:08:48.519 And we see it in verse two, it says that John saw 00:08:48.519 --> 00:08:52.560 the holy city, heaven coming down to earth. 00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:57.559 Now this is a revolution of theology. 00:08:58.079 --> 00:09:00.279 Because for many of us perhaps, 00:09:00.279 --> 00:09:02.599 if you've been in the church any time, 00:09:02.599 --> 00:09:05.000 you've thought or you've been taught 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:08.079 or you've grown up thinking that ultimate salvation 00:09:08.079 --> 00:09:13.079 is me going up into heaven to see God, to be with God. 00:09:14.199 --> 00:09:15.639 But John comes here and says, 00:09:15.639 --> 00:09:20.639 no, heaven, true heaven is when God comes down to earth 00:09:20.719 --> 00:09:22.439 to get to you. 00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:24.440 That the ultimate hope of new creation 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:28.680 is not human ascension, but divine condescension. 00:09:28.680 --> 00:09:31.800 That God is bringing heaven down, 00:09:31.800 --> 00:09:34.560 it is not that we are going up. 00:09:34.560 --> 00:09:37.320 And what that means here is that heaven, 00:09:37.320 --> 00:09:39.440 very particularly in the Bible, 00:09:39.440 --> 00:09:42.400 isn't just some spatial place, 00:09:42.400 --> 00:09:47.160 heaven is the term to describe wherever God dwells, 00:09:47.160 --> 00:09:50.800 wherever God chooses to live, His holy temple. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:53.639 And so at the end of history, John says, 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:57.759 God is going to bring heaven down to earth. 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:00.919 And that means ultimately verse three, and here it is, 00:10:00.919 --> 00:10:02.679 here's the purpose of redemption. 00:10:02.679 --> 00:10:07.120 Behold, the dwelling place of God is now with humankind. 00:10:08.479 --> 00:10:11.599 And you see the greatest hope of salvation, 00:10:11.599 --> 00:10:13.399 the very purpose of the cross, 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:16.919 the purpose of the incarnation is fully and finally this, 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:20.879 that one day you will actually see the living God. 00:10:21.879 --> 00:10:24.519 That God will come down from heaven 00:10:24.519 --> 00:10:26.360 and He will dwell in your midst 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:28.279 and you will put your eyes on Him. 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:31.319 The vision of God, that is the ultimate hope 00:10:31.319 --> 00:10:33.959 of everything that Jesus Christ came to do. 00:10:33.959 --> 00:10:36.279 Now when you look at the Old Testament, 00:10:36.279 --> 00:10:39.919 you read verses like Exodus 34 that says, 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:44.199 no one can see the living God and survive and live. 00:10:45.199 --> 00:10:46.439 And there's this great tension 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:48.360 throughout the whole Old Testament 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:51.440 that we are not fit to stand in the presence 00:10:51.440 --> 00:10:52.280 of the living God. 00:10:52.280 --> 00:10:56.160 We were made to see God from Genesis one and two forward, 00:10:56.160 --> 00:10:59.320 but nobody can stand in the presence of God and live. 00:10:59.320 --> 00:11:02.600 And then David in Psalm 27, he says, 00:11:02.600 --> 00:11:05.920 my hope Lord is that I would get to see your face 00:11:05.920 --> 00:11:07.960 in the land of the living. 00:11:07.960 --> 00:11:10.640 But David knows the impossibility of that, 00:11:10.640 --> 00:11:13.640 the sin that stands between he and God prevents him 00:11:13.640 --> 00:11:15.000 from seeing the face of God, 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:16.600 the very thing he was made of. 00:11:16.600 --> 00:11:20.320 And John who writes the book of Revelation 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.240 comes in his letter, first John 3-2, 00:11:23.240 --> 00:11:28.240 and says, Christ came, Christ came, little children, 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:32.960 so that you can see God as he is. 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:35.200 That the great tension of the entire Bible 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:37.519 is that you were made ultimately to be redeemed 00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:40.600 unto seeing God and you can't because of your sin 00:11:40.600 --> 00:11:45.600 and Jesus Christ came so that you could see the living God. 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:48.120 Christ has made him known. 00:11:48.120 --> 00:11:52.240 Now let me close with this very finally in just two minutes. 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:55.720 What of it? 00:11:57.279 --> 00:11:59.800 What does this matter for today? 00:11:59.800 --> 00:12:01.600 That's the question before us. 00:12:02.680 --> 00:12:06.040 And we've said that Jesus is coming back, 00:12:06.040 --> 00:12:08.000 he's going to renew heaven and earth, 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:10.080 he's going to save our souls and our bodies, 00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:12.080 he's going to cleanse creation, 00:12:12.080 --> 00:12:14.280 he's going to bring God to you, 00:12:14.280 --> 00:12:16.960 you will see God in the land of the living. 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.700 But what of it for today as you step back into this week? 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.560 And the reason that this matters so much today 00:12:24.560 --> 00:12:27.240 is the same exact reason that it mattered 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:29.360 when John first wrote this book. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:33.320 When John wrote this book, he was exiled in prison 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:36.160 on the Isle of Patmos, he was a prisoner 00:12:36.160 --> 00:12:38.120 under the Roman Empire. 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:42.840 And another person that was a disciple of John 00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:47.320 that wrote some letters beyond the Bible after John lived, 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:49.360 this is what he says about the time 00:12:49.360 --> 00:12:51.279 that John was writing this letter. 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:54.799 He said, this was an age where people jeer, 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:57.960 yell and mock the Christians in the streets. 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:02.279 He says, many were thrown into the arena for spectacle 00:13:02.279 --> 00:13:04.519 and they were torn apart by the beasts. 00:13:04.519 --> 00:13:09.519 John wrote this book in an age of great suffering 00:13:10.319 --> 00:13:12.840 when Christians were actually being hunted down. 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:18.799 And John is saying here to Christians in any age 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:21.480 that experience any suffering, 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:26.980 there is hope and a total redemption 00:13:26.980 --> 00:13:29.600 for the suffering servants of God. 00:13:29.600 --> 00:13:33.480 And that redemption is so full and comprehensive 00:13:33.480 --> 00:13:36.240 and holistic that it's not just one thing, 00:13:36.240 --> 00:13:39.560 it's from top to bottom all the way down. 00:13:39.560 --> 00:13:43.639 And it's ultimately this that one day God himself 00:13:43.639 --> 00:13:46.560 will come to you and he will wipe away 00:13:46.560 --> 00:13:48.039 the tears from your eyes. 00:13:48.920 --> 00:13:50.920 And he will take away the pain and the suffering 00:13:50.920 --> 00:13:55.399 and the tears that you've cried so often in life. 00:13:55.399 --> 00:13:58.120 Now, some Christians today need to hear this 00:13:58.120 --> 00:14:02.200 very specifically because of suffering for Christ, 00:14:02.200 --> 00:14:04.759 but all of us live in an age of the curse 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:06.800 and all of us feel the weight of sin 00:14:06.800 --> 00:14:09.759 and all of us feel the weight of the curse in our lives 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:12.400 and the diagnoses that we face 00:14:12.400 --> 00:14:16.480 and that every year we get closer and closer to death. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:19.400 We need to hear the message that there is ultimate hope, 00:14:19.400 --> 00:14:21.620 a holistic redemption, that's exactly why John wrote. 00:14:21.620 --> 00:14:23.540 Now, let me say this lastly. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:30.120 This is also here because every single person needs this, 00:14:30.120 --> 00:14:32.320 whether you're a Christian or not. 00:14:34.720 --> 00:14:36.919 There's lots of reasons we could say 00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:39.720 while every single person needs to hear this message 00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:42.159 that Christ has come to renew all things, 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:45.440 but let me just close finally with one reason. 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:51.399 And that's that what we think of as our future 00:14:51.399 --> 00:14:55.360 determines how we actually live in the present. 00:14:55.360 --> 00:14:57.879 So what you think about that is coming for you, 00:14:57.879 --> 00:15:00.000 whether that's in the immediate future 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:01.600 or the farther future, 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:03.399 that determines most of the time 00:15:03.399 --> 00:15:05.480 how you're gonna live today. 00:15:05.480 --> 00:15:09.759 And let me ask you, let me ask you a question as we close. 00:15:09.759 --> 00:15:12.320 Which ending to world history, 00:15:13.320 --> 00:15:16.960 which ending to world history makes the most sense 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:19.440 of a life well-lived today? 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:23.519 But because Christianity actually 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:28.519 and secular humanist cultures like ours today, the West, 00:15:28.519 --> 00:15:30.519 the post-Christian culture we live in, 00:15:30.519 --> 00:15:33.840 they actually teach a lot of the same things 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:36.039 about ethics, about how to live. 00:15:36.039 --> 00:15:40.000 So secular humanism today agrees with Christianity. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:44.360 And it says that people ought to be charitable, 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:46.879 they ought to be altruistic, 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:48.439 that it's good to love your neighbor, 00:15:48.439 --> 00:15:51.319 that it's good to give and be philanthropic, 00:15:51.319 --> 00:15:53.279 that people have rights, 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:55.919 that every person has the right to life 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.039 and even to healthcare, we're told today. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:00.879 In 1948, right after World War II, 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:05.439 the UN declared on the Council of International Rights, 00:16:05.439 --> 00:16:07.279 they said this, that all human beings 00:16:07.279 --> 00:16:10.839 are born free and equal in dignity and all rights. 00:16:10.839 --> 00:16:13.159 They are endowed with reason and conscience 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:16.199 and they should act towards one another 00:16:16.199 --> 00:16:18.519 in a spirit of brotherhood. 00:16:18.519 --> 00:16:20.399 That's the ethic of the West. 00:16:20.399 --> 00:16:22.639 Everybody in the West agrees about that. 00:16:22.639 --> 00:16:27.639 Secular humanism in our culture also says this, 00:16:28.360 --> 00:16:32.199 that one day the sun is going to burn up 00:16:33.559 --> 00:16:37.319 and the earth will die either by heat death 00:16:37.319 --> 00:16:42.319 or by freezing cold and life will be unsustainable 00:16:42.559 --> 00:16:45.960 and everything in our solar system will collapse 00:16:45.960 --> 00:16:47.759 and there will be no more humans 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:51.279 and no more bugs or trees or any creature for that matter. 00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:53.159 And there will be no history 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:55.120 because there will be no memory. 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:57.000 There will be no one left to remember anything 00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:00.720 or say anything about the history that you've lived. 00:17:01.839 --> 00:17:04.200 And so get out there and love your neighbor. 00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:07.879 Get out there and give your money away to the poor. 00:17:07.879 --> 00:17:10.799 Get out there and care for your brothers and sisters, 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:12.240 your fellow human beings. 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:15.039 Get out there and serve like you've never served before 00:17:15.039 --> 00:17:16.519 because today matters. 00:17:16.519 --> 00:17:21.519 And you see, there's a message in the secular West 00:17:21.799 --> 00:17:26.039 that is rational and one that is entirely irrational. 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:29.879 And Tom Holland has written a very helpful book, 00:17:29.879 --> 00:17:33.879 Dominion, that showed that this ethic in the secular West 00:17:33.879 --> 00:17:35.519 that people really do have rights 00:17:35.519 --> 00:17:37.279 and that we should love our neighbor 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:42.279 is entirely constructed on the foundations of Christian hope 00:17:42.720 --> 00:17:45.559 but has left that Christian hope behind. 00:17:45.559 --> 00:17:48.240 And so it's an ethic that no longer makes sense of life. 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:51.599 It's an ethic that can't make sense of what you're told 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:53.519 to love your neighbor, to give to the poor, 00:17:53.519 --> 00:17:55.759 to care for other people. 00:17:55.759 --> 00:17:57.119 And let me say this, 00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:02.119 Jesus Christ makes sense of all of our human hopes. 00:18:03.759 --> 00:18:07.319 Jesus Christ and the future that Christianity promises 00:18:07.319 --> 00:18:11.799 gives you a reason to live today like that, 00:18:11.799 --> 00:18:14.319 to love your neighbor and to spin yourself. 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:15.799 And the reason is this, 00:18:15.799 --> 00:18:17.319 because while you were a sinner, 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:20.559 Christ came and spent himself for you. 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:23.919 That's the reason, that's the reason we can say something 00:18:23.919 --> 00:18:25.039 like love your neighbor. 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:29.079 And so let me say that if you thirst today 00:18:29.079 --> 00:18:31.599 for a reasonable hope, 00:18:31.599 --> 00:18:35.759 one that has a future that makes sense of a present, 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:40.559 then hear this invitation from Jesus Christ, Matthew 11. 00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:44.720 He says, come to me today all you who are weary 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:49.559 of narratives out around you that say, here's meaning, 00:18:49.559 --> 00:18:52.399 here's hope, here's a purpose that are empty. 00:18:52.399 --> 00:18:54.119 Come today. 00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:56.960 And he says, I will give you rest, I will give you hope, 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.599 I will give you meaning because I promise a future 00:19:00.599 --> 00:19:03.200 where all things will truly be renewed 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:06.779 and the world will last forever and you shall see God. 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:11.259 And so let's pray now and ask that Christ would give us 00:19:11.259 --> 00:19:13.379 a hope in such a rest. 00:19:13.379 --> 00:19:17.379 Let's pray, Father, we ask now that you would give us hope 00:19:17.379 --> 00:19:19.099 in a life that makes sense. 00:19:19.099 --> 00:19:24.099 And we plead Revelation 21 and we recognize that 00:19:24.980 --> 00:19:29.899 without that future, that the ethic of love 00:19:29.899 --> 00:19:31.339 cannot work today. 00:19:31.339 --> 00:19:35.899 And so in that intellectual struggle, Father, 00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:39.380 we pray that you would come and break into our hearts 00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:43.140 and renew us and revive us and make us see 00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:46.340 that the only reason that love exists 00:19:46.340 --> 00:19:48.700 is because your love pours forth into the world 00:19:48.700 --> 00:19:51.780 and that the only reason we should live a life well today 00:19:51.780 --> 00:19:55.019 is because you've created people with rights and dignity 00:19:55.019 --> 00:19:58.240 and that you've promised a future of renewal. 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.420 So we ask, Lord, for many today 00:20:00.420 --> 00:20:02.900 that they would come either for the first time 00:20:02.900 --> 00:20:07.460 or afresh to believe in Jesus Christ. 00:20:07.460 --> 00:20:33.460 And we ask for this in Christ's name. Amen.