Well, good morning, everyone.
Isn't that a lovely phrase, faultless stand before the throne?
That's a lovely phrase.
Will you pray with me as we come to God's Word?
Our Father, we thank you that you're a God who speaks hope to us.
Lord, we thank you that our hope is not wishful thinking,
but it is grounded in your Son's death and resurrection.
Thank you that we have such a solid place to stand.
Lord, I pray that for those who are burdened by their sin,
that you would speak into their hearts this morning.
And assure them that they are yours and washed.
Lord, for those of us who are just going along with the ways of the world
and not caring about you, I pray that you would convict us.
Lord, for those who are suffering and just burdened,
I pray that you would renew us with just such a bright picture of what is to come.
Lord, please speak to us.
We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, think ahead to this coming week.
What are some good things that could happen?
So I want you to start listing them in your head.
What are some good things that could happen?
Now, what would be the best thing that could happen?
Do you feel like I'm trying to trap you?
You know this sermon is about heaven.
I'm not trying to trap you.
What else is your heart going to?
What are you thinking of?
I wonder if anyone here thought about winning the Powerball.
$150 million last week.
I'm not encouraging that, by the way.
Did anyone think of a new car?
I'm looking forward to a new laptop.
My current one takes two attempts to start up.
I can't be too harsh on it because it takes me two attempts to start up in the morning.
Would the best thing this week be if you met the love of your life?
Reconciling that strange relationship.
Is it something to do with your kids or grandkids?
Getting that home loan approved.
Passing those exams that are keeping you up at night.
Being on holidays.
Maybe some thought of their anxiety or depression being lifted.
Maybe you even thought the best thing is if you died and went to be with the Lord.
Maybe you thought of your loved one.
That they would come to Christ.
And have life.
I wonder, was your first thought, the best thing that could happen this week is if Jesus turned up.
And I saw him face to face.
And his idea of heaven on earth was put into full effect.
For those of us who belong to Christ, when we stop and think about it, we genuinely do desire this, don't we?
We really do.
It is our deepest desire.
But why is the future that our Father has promised us, the future that Christ died to give us,
the future that the Holy Spirit is preparing us for,
why doesn't it flood our hearts with an all-consuming desire?
I suspect the answer is, Jesus' words, where your treasure is, there your heart is also.
Whatever else your heart cherishes more than our future with Christ,
that thing will actually make the idea of heaven unappealing.
How do we replace a lesser love with a greater love?
We do that.
Thomas Chalmers calls it the expulsive power of a new affection.
You get rid of one affection by replacing it with a greater affection.
But perhaps part of the problem is that it's just your own imaginary ideas of heaven that you find unappealing.
Whatever the case is, if you're loving something else more than Christ,
or if you've got just a wrong idea of heaven, the solution's the same.
We need to listen to what God says.
What is our future hope?
What is it?
What are we looking forward to?
What is it?
So we're finishing our series in God's words,
and it's only fitting that we listen to God's final word in the Bible in Revelation 21 and 22,
and it is a word of hope.
Isn't it great that God's final word to us is hope?
In Revelation 21 and 22, God shows the Apostle John a vision of the eternal age to come.
It is full of imagery, but it's not a photograph of what it's literally going to be like.
And it's also not a riddle that you have to solve.
Every sentence is just jam-packed with stuff from the Old Testament.
It's a picture upon picture.
It's a picture upon picture, mixing metaphors, looking at the same thing from multiple angles to give us a theological picture.
So what are we about to see?
What is the end point for all God's work of creating and sustaining the world,
speaking and revealing himself, redeeming through the blood of Christ in his resurrection,
sanctifying his church, judging the world and sin and Satan?
What is God's goal?
What's his end point that he is determined to achieve?
What's he doing?
Where are we going?
We can't cover it all, but we're going to focus on five things.
We're going to see a new heaven and a new earth.
We're going to see the church as the bride.
The bride, the bride adorned for her husband.
The best thing, we're going to see his face.
What we won't see is any curse anymore.
And because we won't see anything that can wreck it, it will be forever.
Then we'll finish by asking a few questions.
How can I be sure that this is my future?
How can we be sure that he really is coming?
And what are we called to do until he comes?
Have you been to both a Christian and a non-Christian funeral?
Is there a difference?
Did you sense a massive difference?
Hope.
As Christians, we take deep comfort in the fact that we will be with our Lord,
freed from the agony of this world.
There's enormous comfort in this.
But is that what we're meant to be looking forward to?
Is that the end point?
It's good, but is it the end point?
Did Jesus rise from the dead so that we could be with him in a spiritual,
bodiless existence in heaven?
Verse 1 is God's end point.
All these chapters.
Verse 1.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
God's goal for creation is not that we escape it,
but that his original purposes will be fully and finally realized.
Verse 5.
And he who was seated on the throne said,
Behold, look, I am making all things new.
And he said to me,
It is done.
On the seventh day of creation, it is finished.
God's purposes.
At the completion of King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem in the Promised Land,
it is finished.
As Jesus draws his last breath, dying on the cross for your sin,
before rising to new life,
it is finished.
And we're looking forward to when God says for the very last time,
when he resurrects heaven and earth,
resurrects our bodies,
it is finished.
If you're wondering what heaven will be like,
go for a walk.
Look at the stars.
Feel the breeze.
Roll in the grass.
Make angels in the grass.
That's what we're encouraged to do at college.
Smell the flowers.
Eat some freshly baked bread.
Imagine, if you can,
nothing ruining it.
It's a new heaven and a new earth.
But before we get too obsessed with the place itself,
we have to focus our attention on what God is looking forward to most of all.
And surprisingly, perhaps,
the majority of Revelation 21 and 22
is about the church.
Verse 2,
When you attend a wedding,
and the bride, in all her beauty,
shining and glimmering,
walks down the aisle,
do you take a look at the groom
to see his reaction?
Now, some men don't cry.
I cannot claim to be one of those men.
But this moment is too powerful
and overwhelms a lot of guys.
When a husband's beloved is presented
in all her glory and all for him,
all the preparation has been leading to this moment.
They are on the brink of uniting forever.
What's God's goal?
What's history moving towards?
The permanent union of Christ and his beloved, the church.
Tom Wright calls it the marriage of heaven and earth.
This picture of the bride is zoomed in on
from verse 9 onwards.
The angel says to John,
Come, I will show you the bride,
the wife of the Lamb.
And what has he shown?
A city.
So don't picture a city wearing a wedding dress.
Mixing metaphors, remember.
It's the New Jerusalem.
It's the place God has chosen to live with his people.
The place where God's name is.
We're not going to go into all the details,
but if you skim these verses or read them later on,
you see all the precious jewels in the streets are gold.
God's church will be beautiful.
Precious.
In God's sight.
No blemish whatsoever.
Holy.
You might be tempted to think that the church is ugly now.
It's just getting ready.
It's still in preparation.
It's going to sparkle.
The city is made up of all the people of God
from north, south, east and west.
All the world.
People from all the world.
The gates are always open
because there's nothing to threaten it
from the outside or from within the church.
Nothing threatening it anymore.
No Satan.
No sinful desires.
No divisions in the church.
But the church, finally holy.
United as one bride,
giving all her affection to her one husband.
Jesus Christ.
It's relational imagery, isn't it?
It's purity language.
And it's not like the church being united to Jesus
is approaching something like marriage.
It's the other way around.
Marriage is just a small taste
of what the real and the permanent thing will be like.
Perhaps the most important feature of this city
is that it's a cube.
2,000 kilometers in length and width and height.
That's a bit weird, isn't it?
A bit random.
There's only one other thing in the Bible that is a cube.
Do you remember what it is?
I didn't.
Someone had to tell me this week.
The Holy of Holies.
The innermost part of the temple
where God's presence is.
The closest you can get to God.
And so, of course, John doesn't see a temple.
There is no temple in the future
because God is immediately with us.
We don't need the picture anymore.
We've got the real thing.
The church.
God dwelling in his church.
The Holy of Holies.
That's what we're looking forward to.
The marriage of heaven and earth.
Verse 6.
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.
The greatest thing we lost at the fall of humanity
was not paradise.
It was God's presence.
At Mount Sinai,
God offered Israel to be their God
and they would be his treasured possession.
He would dwell with them in the tabernacle
and in the temple.
But what happened then?
Even while the wedding documents,
the covenant was being signed
with Moses on the mountain,
the people are down below committing adultery,
giving their affections to other gods.
But God is committed to his plan.
And unlike Moses,
who had to be hidden behind a rock
to see only the back of God
and only for a moment,
soon God will come to earth
and make his home with us forever.
The best thing about our future,
your future,
is summed up in 22 verse 4.
They will see his face.
I think we get a sense
of what this will be like
with those YouTube videos.
Not just any YouTube video,
but where there's the little girl
and her father is a soldier in the army
and he's been deployed overseas for years.
And although she has the security
of living in the house
and food and clothing,
although she's received letters from her dad
while he's been away,
messages from him,
you watch those videos.
That day when he enters their home
and the little girl sees her father's face,
the joy is overwhelming.
We will see his face.
Our father will be home with us on earth.
Our hope is not so much
that we are waiting for a place.
That'll be excellent.
That's part of it.
But the main thing we're looking forward to
is a person.
Our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
dwelling with us.
We will see his face.
Em and I were in Barabah,
a farming town past Townworth two years ago.
It was only a short time into the drought.
And we saw cows so skinny
that, you know, you can see their ribs.
And we saw them gathered around
what used to be a dam,
but it's just this puddle of dirty water.
And there's a saying that we heard up there,
which is a pretty disturbing thing,
but you've got to understand first
that farmers love their animals
way more than people in the city can understand.
They really love their animals.
But there's a saying in rural towns
that during drought,
farmers buy enough bullets
for each of their animals plus one.
It is that devastating.
While being shouted to dinner
by such a faithful Christian
cattle farming family,
it started to rain.
It was only a sprinkle,
but gee, it was exciting.
It was so exciting.
It was just a sprinkle.
They need a lot more.
At the moment,
our bodies,
our relationships,
our society,
our earth
are under God's curse
for our refusal
to let God be God.
We live in a kind
of spiritual drought,
lacking the knowledge
and presence of God.
But we see in chapter 22
the river of the water of life,
bright as crystal,
flowing from the throne of God
and of the Lamb
through the middle
of the street of the city.
Also on either side of the river,
the tree of life
with its 12 kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit each month.
The leaves of the tree
were for the healing
of the nations.
No longer will there be
anything accursed.
He will wipe
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.
Every time you are brought
to tears
by this world,
brought to tears
by your own sinfulness,
brought to tears
by broken relationships,
brought to tears
by the curse
just impacting
everything.
And you wipe away
your tears.
Remember,
remember,
use it as a
memory device.
When you wipe away
your tears,
He will wipe away
your tears
one day.
He Himself will.
every single tear.
No more doubts
about God's love
for us.
No more
sensing God's
displeasure.
Can you imagine it?
No more accusations
from Satan.
No more temptation
from the sinful world
around us.
No more temptation
from our sinful desires
inside.
No more mixed motives
for what we do.
No more burdensome
duties
that end up fruitless.
No more
division
or arguments
in the church.
No more
carrying the sufferings
of our brothers
and sisters.
No more
of our own suffering.
No more being alone.
No more fear
of dying.
Can you
imagine it?
Our world
doesn't need
a little bit
of fixing,
a bit more
evolution,
a bit more
progress.
It doesn't
need that.
It needs
the curse
lifted
to be renewed
into immortality,
to be filled
with God
Himself.
And that's
what God
promises us.
how joyful
is it
to hear
the news
that Catherine's
bowel surgery
was successful
and got rid
of the cancer.
That's such a relief
hearing that.
Such joy
hearing that,
isn't it?
praise God
for His mercy.
Do you know
what will be
even better?
That's pretty
good.
Do you know
what will be
even better?
Is if this
week Jesus
turns up
and Catherine
is raised,
her whole body
raised to be
like Christ
and together
with us
we see
His face.
If external
enemies are
gone,
if the church
is made
holy from
within,
if God's
presence fills
the earth
and His will
is done on
earth as it
is in heaven,
if death
and corruption
are dead,
then we
will reign
with Christ
on the earth
forever.
It is
permanent.
But don't
confuse
permanent
with static.
I think
sometimes
we can be
put off
by the idea
of heaven
because we
think of it
as static.
We're just
doing the
same thing
over and
over.
Like,
you know
those songs
with the
bridge that
just repeats
just a few
too many
times?
But for
eternity?
Are you
kidding me?
I think
sometimes we
think like
that in
terms of
heaven.
Have you
seen the
variety of
this world
lately?
The different
beauties?
The difference
between the
blue mountains
mountains,
to the
beauty of
Lake
Macquarie,
to the
beauty of
the sand
dunes,
it's just
so diverse.
Have you
got sick of
listening to
music lately?
You might
get sick of
a certain
song, but
have you
got sick of
listening to
music?
Have you
got tired of
spending time
with loved
ones?
have you
got tired of
discovering new
truth?
There's an
eternal depth
to knowing
who God
is, and
so it's a
good thing
we've got an
eternity to
get to know
him.
There's
nothing in
God's idea
of the future
that suggests
it's static.
It's very
dynamic, but
it is forever.
it's
permanent.
God's
final word
of hope
to us is
a new
heaven and
a new
earth.
The
bride
in holy
beauty,
seeing
his face.
You
won't have
to put up
with my
face up
here.
You'll
see him
without
any
curse
forever.
The
marriage of
heaven and
earth, is
that not
the best
thing that
could happen
this week?
Well, this
picture of
our hope, we're
left with a few
questions.
Firstly, how
can I be
sure that
this is my
future?
verse 6, God
identifies who
will receive
this future.
To the
thirsty, I
will give
from the
spring of
the water
of life
without
payment.
This is an
echo of the
gospel invitation
in Isaiah
51.
Come,
come,
come, everyone
who thirsts,
come to the
waters, and
he who has
no money, come
buy and
eat, come
buy wine and
milk without
money and
without price.
Why do you
spend your
money for that
which is not
bread, and
your labour for
that which does
not satisfy?
Listen diligently
to me, and eat
what is good, and
delight yourselves
in rich food.
food.
It is the
one who, like
the Samaritan
woman at the
well, has no
payment, no
righteousness of
her own to
offer, but who
believes and
receives the
living water.
That's who
will be there.
Are you
thirsty?
Have you come
to Christ?
another picture
of the same
answer is given
at the end of
this chapter.
Nothing unclean
will enter into
this future, but
only those who
are written in
the Lamb's
book of life.
The Lamb who
was slain for
our sins, who
drank the cup of
God's wrath so
that we get to
drink the cup of
blessing.
nothing.
If you come to
Jesus with no
currency of your
own, but if you
thirst for true
life and come to
him to receive
it, then your
name is permanently
written in the
Lamb's book of
life.
So are you
thirsty?
Are you thirsty?
Are you
dissatisfied with
what this world
has to offer?
Do you know
that you have
nothing to
offer God as
payment?
And come to
him and drink
his forgiveness.
If that's
you, you
will be
satisfied.
And second,
how can we be
sure he is
coming?
How can we
be sure he is
coming?
The basis of
our confidence
has absolutely
nothing to do
with how
hopeful you
feel on any
given day, in
any given
moment.
It's got
nothing to do
with how you
can track
it according
to the
details of
politics in
the world,
as some
people try
and do.
You can be
sure he is
coming for a
very simple
but unshakable
reason.
He says he
will.
That's the
basis of our
confidence.
He says he
will.
So the
question is,
I can break
my word,
but does God
break his
word?
God, is
he trustworthy?
Did Adam
and Eve die
like God
said they
would if
they refused
to let God
be God?
Did God
save Noah
and his
family when
the flood
came and
destroyed the
world?
God?
Did Abraham
become the
father of a
great nation?
Did God
rescue his
people from
Egypt?
Did he
destroy the
disobedient
generation in
the wilderness?
Did he bring
his people into
the promised
land?
David?
Did David
become king?
Did God's
people go
into exile?
Did God
bring them
back from
exile?
Did the
son of David
come to
earth?
Did Christ
die for our
sins and
then rise on
the third
day?
Did God
give his
spirit to
his church?
Are people
from all
over the
world being
brought into
his kingdom?
Does God
keep his
word?
Behold,
I am
coming soon.
So what
are we
called to
do while
we wait?
verses 7
and 8.
The one
who conquers
will have
this heritage
and I
will be
his God
and he
will be
my son.
But as
for the
cowardly,
the
faithless,
the detestable,
as for
murderers,
the sexually
immoral,
sorcerers,
idolaters,
and all
liars,
their portion
will be in
the lake
that burns
with fire
and sulfur,
which is the
second death.
Remember,
only those
who are
written in
the Lamb's
book of
life,
who were
slain for
the sins
of the
world,
will be
there.
But we're
also left
with a
choice
of being
conquerors
or being
cowards.
Will you
conquer
by crying
out with
the Spirit
and with
the Bride,
come Lord
Jesus,
come.
Or will
you be a
coward
and not
fight for
this future?
just drift
along with
the ways
of this
world.
What does
it mean
to conquer?
What are we
meant to
conquer?
We see
it in
chapters 2
and 3
of Revelation.
Jesus
speaks to
seven local
churches
and each
of the
churches
has something
that is
threatening
to steal
their love,
to steal
their trust
and their
obedience,
away from
Christ.
Every
single one
of them
has to
fight.
Some
were putting
up with
false
teachings,
some
were putting
up with
sexual
immorality,
some had
the appearance
of being
alive,
but they
were just
going through
the motions.
Some
faced
external
threat
and pain,
some
thought they
were rich
and had
all the
answers,
not
realizing
they were
poor and
blind and
naked.
Some
had lost
the love
and good
works they
had at
first.
Each
church has
something
threatening
to steal
Jesus'
bride's
affection
and trust
and obedience
away from
him.
So he
calls them,
listen to
me,
conquer,
fight,
God,
you will
receive my
reward.
To
struggle,
to love
and trust
and put
our hope
for the
future in
Christ alone,
that is
normal,
that is
the church,
that is
the Christian
life.
It's a
fight of
loving and
trusting and
obeying
Christ alone.
it does
not mean
being free
from
temptation
or from
trouble in
this life.
But the
question is,
are you in
the fight?
Or are you a
coward in just
going along with
the ways of the
world?
I think we
fight by
crying out,
come.
Come,
Jesus,
come now.
Christ
says,
I am
coming soon
and my
reward is
with me.
Whatever
you do
that moves
towards
this
future,
it's
worth it.
Bring
people
into your
kingdom
now.
Bring them
in,
God.
Make your
church holy
now.
We want
more of
heaven now.
We cry,
come.
Anything you
do that
moves towards
this future
is worth
it.
Let me
show you
an outstanding
man who
lived in a
way that
just showed
everyone around
him that he
was crying
out, come
now, come
Lord Jesus.
There's a guy
called John
Patton.
He was a
missionary in
Vanuatu in
the late
1800s.
Just about
20 years
before he
left for
Vanuatu
from England,
two missionaries,
John Williams
and James
Harris, within
minutes of
arriving on
the island,
were clubbed
to death
and then
eaten
by
cannibals.
people.
So when
John said
to his
congregation
he felt
called to
go to
Vanuatu
and a
concerned
elder in
the church,
Mr.
Dixon,
came to
him and
said,
they'll
eat you.
You'll be
eaten by
cannibals.
Mr.
Dixon,
you are
advanced in
years now
and your
own prospect
is soon to
be laid in
the grave
and there
to be
eaten by
worms.
I confess
to you
that if I
can but
live and
die serving
and honouring
the Lord
Jesus Christ,
it will make
no difference
to me
whether I
am eaten
by cannibals
or by
worms.
And on
that great
day,
my
resurrection
body will
rise as
fair as
yours in
the likeness
of our
risen
Redeemer.
He got
it,
didn't he?
When
you're
broken by
sickness and
the imminence
of death,
keep fighting
the fight of
faith.
The new
heavens and
earth are
coming.
They're
coming.
When you're
weighed down
by your
own
sinfulness,
keep
fighting.
Your name
is written
in the
Lamb's
Book of
Life.
Your
resurrection
is coming.
When you
are trying
to be
important and
desirable in
the eyes of
the world,
stop being
a coward
and going
along with
the world.
That's
easy.
when you're
feeling
alone and
afflicted by
division in
the church,
keep
fighting the
fight of
faith,
which will
usually mean
stop fighting.
the bride will
be beautiful
soon enough.
When you're
weary of
doing good,
keep fighting.
Your reward
is coming.
whatever you
do that
moves towards
this future,
it's worth
it.
It's worth
it.
Is this
future going
to define
this church?
Behold,
I am
coming soon.
what's the
best thing
that could
happen this
week?
Will you
pray with
me?
Will you
pray with me?
Father in
heaven,
thank you
that you
will one
day be on
earth and
we will
see your
face.
that we
won't just
have to
pray to
you,
but we
can talk
to you
face to
face.
Father,
thank you
for promising
such a
great future.
Lord,
we don't
deserve a
drop of
it.
We
deserve the
opposite,
but by
your
mercy,
by your
blood
alone,
you've
promised
it.
Thank you.
Father,
forgive us
for forgetting
what you've
promised.
Forgive us
for wanting
something else
more than
what you've
promised.
But thank
you for
being
determined
to bring
about what
you've
promised
no matter
how
unfaithful
we are.
Thank you
that you
will make
it happen.
Lord,
I pray
that you
make us
individually
and as
families
and as
the church.
Please help
us to be
defined by
a crying
outcome.
Lord,
we want
you now.
we want
the church
holy now.
We want
to be
free of
death and
the curse
now.
Give us
more of a
taste of it
now, but
Lord, come.
Come.
Lord, give
us a heart
that wants
others to
come into
your kingdom.
Come, Lord
Jesus.
Amen.