Well, good morning, church.
It's good to see you all this morning.
I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in iHeart Day yesterday,
especially the site leaders and the committee members,
especially Spandan Seha, who led the charge for us amongst the iHeart committee.
So, yeah, let's give a round of applause to everyone who helped.
It takes a lot of work to pull off an event like that.
So thank you all for all you did to make that day of success.
Well, would you turn with me to Revelation 21?
Revelation 21.
We're picking up today in verses 9 through 27.
If you'd like to follow along in the Pew Bible, it's page 977.
Revelation 21, starting in verse 9.
Let me pray, and then I'll read.
Father, indeed, the church's one foundation, our one foundation is Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So we pray that as we settle into this passage this morning,
we would see Christ displayed in his beauty through your word,
and that by your spirit we would be drawn to him in faith
and transformed in his likeness by your spirit.
We ask this in his mighty name.
Amen.
All right, Revelation 21, verse 9 through the end of the chapter.
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues
and spoke to me, saying,
Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.
And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain
and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God,
its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal.
It had a great high wall with twelve gates,
and at the gates twelve angels,
and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed.
On the east three gates, on the north three gates,
on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations,
and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold
to measure the city and its gates and walls.
The city lies four square, its length the same as its width.
And he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia.
Its length and width and height are equal.
He also measured its wall, one hundred and forty-four cubits by human measurement,
which is also an angel's measurement.
The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel.
The first was jasper, the second sapphire,
the third agate, the fourth emerald,
the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian,
the seventh chrysolite,
the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz,
the tenth chrysoprase,
the eleventh jacent,
the twelfth amethyst.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls,
each of the gates made of a single pearl,
and the street of the city was pure gold,
like transparent glass.
And I saw no temple in the city,
for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty
and the Lamb.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it,
for the glory of God gives its light,
and its lamp is the Lamb.
By its light will the nations walk,
and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,
and its gates will never be shut by day,
and there will be no night there.
They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations,
but nothing unclean will ever enter it,
nor anyone who does what is detestable or false,
but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
So imagine that you and I are walking the streets of Rome
in the late second century.
And as we make our way past the open-air markets
and the hustle and the bustle,
we find ourselves after a while in the center of the city,
in the Palatine Hill District.
This area of the city used to be where all the wealthy lived,
and there are even some imperial palaces
kind of left over there.
And as we cut down an alley,
we come across an old boarding school
for imperial pages for attendants and messengers,
and rumor has it at one time
it used to be the house of the Emperor Caligula.
But as we pass by,
we see something scrawled on one of the walls.
It's graffiti, just like any city.
They had graffiti in the ancient world as well.
But when we get a little closer,
we see that the graffiti is actually a crudely drawn picture
of a young man
worshiping a figure hanging on a cross,
and the figure hanging on the cross
has the head of a donkey.
And below this drawing are the words,
Alex Amenos, which is a name.
Alex Amenos worships his God.
It's actually a piece of graffiti
making fun of Christians.
You see, this is what many people thought of Christians
in the early centuries.
They thought they were fools.
Who would worship a crucified Jew?
So Christians, like young Alex Amenos,
were ridiculed and mocked.
Ironically, historians think this might be
one of the earliest depictions of Jesus
that's survived.
A piece of graffiti mocking both Jesus
and those who worship him.
And you can actually still see this piece of graffiti today
in the Palatine Museum in Rome.
I think at times we can resonate with Alex Amenos, can't we?
Oftentimes being a Christian doesn't bring you
any social benefit or social standing.
Just the opposite, right?
Your neighbors or your friends find out
that you're a Christian,
and they think you're a little strange at best,
or foolish, close-minded,
even bigoted at worst.
Who would give their allegiance
to a crucified, first-century Jew?
And who would shape their life
around the stories and teachings
of a 2,000-year-old book?
And oftentimes what happens
when this negative social pressure
or social shame sets in
is one of two things.
On the one hand, we as Christians
can be tempted to just sort of withdraw,
to sort of hide, to fade into the background.
We try to just disappear or go unnoticed.
You know, rather than loving our neighbors
and our enemies, we avoid them.
And then we just sort of become like them.
On the other hand,
when we face that sort of negative pressure,
we can get angry and fight back.
Rather than loving our neighbors
and our enemies, we attack them.
But you know, neither of these
is the path that the book of Revelation
has held out before us as the church.
Revelation has held up a vision for us
of being a church in the midst of the world
that holds forth a robust witness,
neither avoiding nor attacking,
but testifying to the one true God
and to the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And testifying even if it means
great misunderstanding,
great exclusion,
testifying in love even if it means suffering.
But the question is,
amidst the social shame and the ridicule,
how do we stay on that path
of faithful witness
and not fall away
into either avoidance mode
or attack mode?
Well, one way we can do this,
and what we see in our passage here,
one way we can do this
is to keep the future glory
of the church in view.
What John is doing in this passage before us
is holding up a picture
of the church's true identity,
our true destiny,
our future perfected state
in the new heavens and new earth.
And he's holding up that vision
so that we might know
who we truly are
and who God sees us to be
despite the world's passing ridicule and shame.
And knowing who we truly are,
knowing what our future truly is,
that is what will help us
to persist in the loving witness
that we're called to give
to the crucified and risen Jesus
with our words and with our life,
even when the world thinks
it's ridiculous.
So this vision of the heavenly Jerusalem
of the new city of God
is a picture of the church
perfected in glory
in the new heavens and new earth.
Now, how do we know that?
Well, look at verse 9.
In verse 9, the angel says,
Come, I'll show you the bride,
the wife of the Lamb,
and then in verse 10,
John sees the holy city Jerusalem
coming down out of heaven from God.
So the city is a representation of the bride,
and the bride, as we know from chapter 17
in Revelation, is the church.
Now, this all sort of has
deep Old Testament resonances, right?
Because the city of Jerusalem
in the Old Testament
was the central place
where God's people dwelled.
It was the sort of center
of the people of God.
And so the city of Jerusalem
sort of became a metaphor
for the people themselves,
the people in communion
with their God.
Now, what does John see
as this city descends from heaven?
Well, look at verse 11.
What's the defining feature
of this city?
John says,
It comes down out of heaven
from God, what?
Having the glory of God.
That's the big idea of our passage.
The people of God
will share the glory of God.
You might feel ridiculed,
rejected, excluded,
but if you belong to Christ,
then this is true of you.
You, the people of God,
will share the glory of God.
And the rest of this vision
unpacks this glory.
It unpacks what this glory is.
And we'll kind of walk
through it together.
We'll see that the church shares
first in the glory of God's unity,
and then John is going to show us
how the church shares
in the glory of God's holiness,
and then last,
we'll look at how the church
shares the glory of God's presence.
And each of these aspects
of God's glory gives us
not just hope for the future,
although certainly that,
but it's also a picture
of the sort of people
we should be now
as we seek to reflect
the glory of God,
even now as we look forward
to the new heavens and new earth.
Okay, so let's look at these aspects
of God's glory that we share.
First, God's people share
the glory of God's unity.
We see this in verses 12 through 14.
The city has 12 gates
and 12 foundations,
and on the gates are the names
of the 12 tribes of Israel,
and on the foundations
are the names of the 12 apostles.
Now, it's pretty clear
what this means, right?
The eternal city,
the renewed people of God,
will be a unity of both
Old Testament
and New Testament believers.
You see, in the history
of redemption,
if we take the whole Bible together,
there's only one people of God,
and this one people of God
is the union of Jew and Gentile
around the one Lord, Jesus Christ.
We could look through passage
after passage in the Old Testament
that spoke plainly
about this reality,
starting all the way back
with Abraham,
who was promised
that through him
and his offspring,
all the nations of the earth
would be blessed.
Or we could look through
the book of Psalms
where we could often find
sung how the nations would come
and glorify the Lord
as their God.
Do you remember
some of those lines?
Let the peoples praise you,
O God.
Let all the peoples praise you,
right?
The nations would come in
to this one people of God.
Or how about,
let the nations be glad
and sing for joy.
And this Old Testament theme
finds its fulfillment
in the New Testament
when the Messiah, Jesus, comes
to fulfill the promise
to Abraham
and to fulfill all the songs
of the poets and prophets.
Listen to how the Apostle Paul
explains this in Ephesians 2,
verses 11 through 20.
He's writing to Gentiles
and he says,
therefore remember,
at one time,
you Gentiles in the flesh,
called the uncircumcision
by what is called
the circumcision,
which is made in the flesh
by hands.
He says,
remember that you were
at one time
separated from Christ,
alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers
to the covenants
and promise,
having no hope
and without God
in the world.
But now,
in Christ Jesus,
you,
who were once far off,
have been brought near
by the blood of Christ.
For he himself
is our peace,
who's made us both one
and has broken down
in his flesh
the dividing wall
of hostility.
by abolishing
the law of commandments
expressed in ordinances,
that he might create
in himself
one new man
in place of the two,
so making peace,
and might reconcile
us both to God
in one body
through the cross,
thereby killing
the hostility.
Then Paul says this,
he says,
and he came
and he preached peace
to you
who were far off
and peace
to those who were near.
For through him
we both have access
in one spirit
to the Father,
so you're no longer
strangers and aliens,
but you're fellow citizens
with the saints
and members
of the household
of God,
built on the foundation
of the apostles
and prophets,
Christ Jesus himself
being the cornerstone.
Through the cross,
the two have been made one.
Do you see the glory
in this?
What Jesus achieved
through the cross,
no other world ruler,
no other empire,
no other social program
could achieve.
Long before the world
celebrated diversity
and difference,
long before the world
celebrated valuing
our unique cultures
and backgrounds,
the church
had been for
2,000 years
building
a multicultural,
multi-ethnic people
where difference
wasn't erased,
but that difference
was brought near
into the full body
of Christ.
So we worship
the crucified one,
yes,
and we glory in him
despite the world's ridicule.
And John sees a vision
in Revelation
of the new city
of God's people
in glory
where those divisions
and those hostilities
are over once and for all
and where there's truly peace.
We're crafted
and created
into one city.
And this unity
and diversity
which we share
is,
at the end of the day,
a sharing
in God's glory.
for God himself
is a unity
amidst diversity,
isn't he?
The book of Revelation,
not to mention
the whole New Testament,
has shown us
that God
is a triune God,
right?
The one who sits
on the throne
and the Lamb
and the sevenfold spirit
that comes forth
from the throne
are one God,
Father,
Son,
and Holy Spirit.
God is one
in three
and three
in one.
In other words,
the very heart
of ultimate reality
is a diverse unity
or a unified diversity.
And God's people
reflect that glory.
We will reflect it
ultimately
in the new heavens
and new earth
when people
from every tribe
and tongue
and nation
will make up
this new city.
But we also reflect it
right now.
In our local churches,
we should be reflections
of this heavenly reality
to come.
We will do it
imperfectly,
of course,
but there should be
a foretaste
of the future
right now
in our present.
Now,
how do we do that?
How do we do this?
How do we reflect
the glory of God's unity
here and now?
Well,
we do it
by loving one another.
The unity of the Trinity,
Father, Son, and Spirit
is a unity of love.
Jesus himself said,
the world will know
my disciples
by your love.
What made the early church
attractive despite
the ridicule and shame
was its love.
So let me mention
five practical ways
to love one another
here and now
and to reflect God's unity.
And I'll go through
these quickly
because we've got more
to cover this morning.
But how do we love
one another practically
and reflect this unity?
First,
we do it by practicing
church membership.
Church membership says,
I love you enough
to commit to you.
And at Trinity,
we have the great privilege
to be made up
of members
from many countries
and languages
and backgrounds.
And when we commit
to each other,
we're demonstrating
the glory of God's unity.
Secondly,
we attend Sunday services.
being here
in person
matters.
It says,
I love you enough
to show up for you.
Now,
you all are here,
so maybe I'm preaching
to the choir, right?
But maybe you've not
been here for a while,
so this is for you, right?
We love each other
by showing up
for one another.
We're not here
to be consumers,
to simply watch church
on a screen
like we'd watch
any old TV show.
No,
we're here in the flesh
to love and know
each other.
We reflect the glory
of God's unity
by showing up
for each other,
by gathering together
on Sunday.
Third way,
we welcome differences.
We say,
I love you enough
to listen to you.
You might have
a different political view
than mine.
You might have
different musical preferences
than mine.
We might approach
all sorts of things
differently.
But we reflect
the glory of God's unity
by saying,
I love you enough
to listen to you,
to welcome differences
and to learn
from each other.
Fourth,
and this is quite
countercultural,
we confront sin.
We say,
I love you enough
to correct you
and to be corrected
by you.
Welcoming difference
does not mean
that we don't hold
each other
to the way of Christ
and the word of God.
We need to love
each other enough
to encourage
and correct
and bring all
of our lives
under the lordship
of Christ
and his word,
even when it seems
to be a path
at total variance
to the world
around us.
Fifth,
we mutually
serve each other.
we say,
I love you enough
to serve you
and to be served
by you.
We receive
from one another,
we give to one another
our time,
our energy,
our gifts,
our talents,
our resources.
Now a church
that's doing these things,
that's committing,
that's showing up,
that's listening,
that's correcting,
that's serving,
that will start
to be a church
that's lovingly reflecting
the glory of God's unity.
So John wants us
to have a vision
of God's people
sharing God's glory
and first we see
the glory of God's unity
in this vision
of the new Jerusalem.
Next,
what we see next
is a glory,
is that we share
in the glory
of God's holiness,
the glory of God's holiness.
Now,
this is in verses
15 through 21.
In these verses
we see the measurements
and the materials
of this great city
and the impression
we get
is that the city
is the perfection
of beauty.
The dimensions
of the city
are precise
and the adornment
of the city
is radiant.
It's the perfection
of beauty.
But what is the beauty
of the people of God?
It's not money,
right?
God's people aren't beautiful
because they're wealthy.
It's not fame
or success.
God's people
aren't beautiful
because they receive
earthly praise.
So what is it?
What is this perfection
of beauty?
Well,
it's an interesting detail
that these gemstones
that adorn
the twelve foundations,
right,
they seem to be
the centerpiece
of this adornment
of beauty.
That those gemstones
that are listed there,
as you might have guessed,
that's not the first time
those stones
have turned up
in Scripture.
Now,
on the one hand,
we see something
like this alluded to
in Isaiah 54.
In Isaiah 54,
God says,
O afflicted one,
storm-tossed
and not comforted,
behold,
I will set your stones
in antimony
and lay your foundations
with sapphires.
I will make your pinnacles
of agate
and your gates
of carbuncles
and all your walls
of precious stones.
So there,
the prophet
is sort of
envisioning a time
when the troubled
and storm-tossed
people of God
will be vindicated
and redeemed
and comforted.
You may be afflicted now,
God is saying,
but one day
you will be whole
and adorned in beauty.
But, you know,
if we go back even further
in the Scriptures,
we find that those stones
that are listed
in the foundation,
almost a similar,
very similar set
of stones show up
in the book of Exodus,
of all places.
And where in Exodus?
Well, we see
very similar stones
on the breastplate
of the high priest
in Exodus 28.
And each of the 12 stones
on the sort of panel
that the high priest
would wear,
each of those 12 stones
is engraved
with the name
of one of the tribes
of Israel.
So what God was doing
in Exodus
in the Old Testament
is that he was sort of
making the high priest
carry on his chest
a representation
of the people
whenever he ministered
before God.
He became
their representative.
What the high priest did,
he did on behalf
of the whole people.
And what was true
of the high priest
became true
of all the people.
But the Old Testament
high priest
was just a foreshadow
of an even greater
high priest to come.
Our great high priest,
the Lord Jesus.
You see,
he was our representative
in the greatest degree.
Jesus became like us
in every respect.
He didn't just sort of
carry a representation
of us on his chest, right?
He took our very flesh.
He took on
all of our weakness,
all of our trials
and temptations.
He became like us
in every respect
except for our sin.
And he lived a life
of complete obedience
before the Father.
Jesus' life
was the most beautiful
life ever lived.
It was a life of love,
mercy, compassion,
of truth,
of justice,
of generosity.
It was a life
of perfect holiness.
You see,
Jesus didn't need
the high priest's
breastplate.
He represented us
by taking on our flesh.
And he was beautiful
because of his
perfect righteousness.
So what John sees
in the vision
of the new city
is the perfected
people of God
shining with the beauty
of the high priest.
the beauty
of Jesus,
our true high priest,
covering us,
adorning us,
making us shine.
We're clothed
in his righteousness.
We're adorned
with the perfection
of his holiness.
One day,
John sees
all of our sin
being removed
and the church
shining like
the most precious
gemstones.
Now,
we have some
wonderful artists
here at Trinity
and Kim Nugas
lent me a couple
of books
about gemstones
a couple of weeks ago
as I prepared
for this sermon.
So I looked
some of them up
in these wonderful books.
And the thing
I came away with
as someone
not very knowledgeable
about jewels
or jewelry
is that
they're radiant.
Each one
unique
and brilliant
in their own way.
You know what
will be surprising,
friends,
in the new heavens
and the new earth?
I think one of the things
that will be very surprising
is how beautiful,
how ravishing
holiness is.
We tend to think
that obedience
to God
is boring,
that it will kill
our joy,
that it will stifle
our identity.
But in the new city
we will see
that exactly
the opposite
was the case.
Insofar as we
followed the path
of Jesus
in obedience,
that was when
our lives
were most
radiant
with who we were
really meant to be.
That's when
our unique identity
shone forth
like a precious stone.
God
and now
imagine a church
where not just
one or two people
are beginning to shine
with the beauty
of holiness,
but a whole congregation.
Like a kaleidoscope
of brilliance.
If we could see
what God sees,
we might need
to shield our eyes.
That's how beautiful
the church is.
And what a motivation
I think this is
to pursue
this holiness
now.
As Paul says
in Romans 12,
let's not be conformed
to the pattern
of this world,
but be transformed
by the renewing
of our minds
into the image
of Christ.
But how do we
go about doing that?
How do we pursue
this holiness?
Well, it begins,
the first step,
it begins
by remembering
that our righteousness
comes from Christ.
That we are justified,
that is,
we're counted righteous
and accepted by God
through sheer grace
by faith in Jesus.
His righteousness
is imputed to us,
it's a gift.
We're made beautiful
in God's eyes
by grace,
not by works.
In other words,
when you woke up
this morning,
no matter how you felt,
no matter what sort of day
you had yesterday,
if you are in Christ,
then God looks at you
and sees beauty
like a shining sapphire,
like a radiant emerald.
He is pleased with you.
He loves you.
He's forgiven
all your sins.
He's embraced you
and welcomed you forever.
Now, how could that be?
How could God
view us this way?
Well,
it's through the cross,
you see.
You know,
that piece of graffiti
on the streets of Rome
that we sort of
imaginatively walked by,
that piece of graffiti
was more true
than the person
who scrawled it
ever imagined.
You know,
they thought they were
making fun of Christianity.
But friends,
isn't this
the beauty
of the gospel?
What is the good news?
What does the gospel say?
It says
the eternally beautiful one
became ugly.
He became a donkey
and hung on a tree
so that you and I,
no matter how ugly
our sins,
could be made beautiful.
Yes,
Alex Amenos
worships his God.
Is there any other God
worthy of worship?
Who else loved you
at such cost,
with such grace?
Who else now views you
with such regard,
with such beauty?
And when you start there,
that you're saved
by Jesus' costly grace,
then your life is different.
It starts to change.
How?
Because you want to be
more like this God
who loves you so much.
Your motivation to obey God
totally changes.
You don't obey
because you're afraid
now that God might reject you.
You don't obey
because you're hoping
to win God's favor
and keep Him on your good side.
He's already done everything
to accept you
and keep you.
Now you want to obey
simply because you love
the one who loved you.
And you know deep in your bones
that this is the path
of beauty
and how could we not
walk in it?
Of course,
the church has not always
lived up to this beauty
we've been given,
has it?
You know,
you study the history
of the church
and you'll see
how it has often strayed
from this path
of holiness
and beauty
and grace.
But you know,
as Christians today,
we don't need to shy away
from that
or to hide that.
The former commissioner
of baseball
once said,
we must never lose sight
of our history.
He's talking about
the history of racism
in the Major League Baseball.
He says,
we must never lose sight
of our history
insofar as it is ugly
never to repeat it,
insofar as it is glorious
to cherish it.
I think those are good words
for us Christians too.
We don't ignore
the ugly parts
when we've failed
to live up to this grace
and we don't ignore
the beautiful parts either
because both
are instructive for us.
And each day
we return
to our justification
in Christ
and from there
we find
the Spirit Himself
is fueling
our sanctification,
that process
of becoming
more and more
like Christ.
So the people of God
will share
the glory of God.
John's shown us
the glory of God's unity
in the church
and also the glory
of God's holiness
in the church.
Third and last,
we see the glory
of God's presence.
The glory of God's presence.
We see this
in the final paragraph
of our text,
verses 22 through 27.
In this new city
we find something
else surprising.
Unlike nearly every city
in the ancient world,
this city
has no temple.
And not just that,
there's not even
a sun or a moon.
Why?
Because neither one
are needed anymore.
There's no need
of a temple.
There's no need
of sun and moon.
Why is that?
Because God is there.
God is there
in His fullness.
Which means
the whole city
is a temple,
as it were.
You know,
that's why the measurements
of the city
in verses 15 through 16,
those measurements,
they kind of sound
a lot like the Holy of Holies
in the Old Testament
tabernacle and temple.
The Old Testament
Holy of Holies
was sort of that
special place
in the middle
of the temple
where God's presence
sort of dwelt
in its fullness.
Right?
And it was a perfect cube.
And then John looks
at the new heavens
and new earth
and the city
coming down to God
and the whole thing
is the Holy of Holies.
The whole city
has become
the dwelling place of God.
The temple's obsolete.
And the light
that shines
over the city
is never-ending.
Not because the sun
never goes down,
but because there's
no need for the sun
at all.
Because the Lamb,
the risen Jesus Christ
is there
who is
and will ever be
the light of the world.
One day we will be
awash
in the light
of God's presence.
Can you and I
even express
the joy,
the love,
the thrill
of that day?
It's surprising
how John expresses it.
He says,
in that city
its gates
will never be shut
by day
and there will be
no night there.
Now,
why did cities
close their gates
in the ancient world?
Well,
cities closed their gates
for protection,
for safety.
Right?
When night fell,
danger came,
so they closed the gates.
But in that place,
there is no more danger.
So the gates
are always open.
The front doors
of the homes
are always unlocked.
Why?
Because we're safe.
The presence
of God
is there
and we have
nothing to fear.
Sin is gone.
Selfishness
is gone.
Hatred
and enmity
are gone.
It's just
the love of God
filling our hearts
and letting us
live in joy
and without fear.
What a glorious
thing that will be.
And we rightly
long for that day.
But even now,
even now,
we're meant to live
in light of that future.
After all,
the church now
is the temple
of the Holy Spirit.
God does dwell
in our midst.
The Holy Spirit,
God's empowering presence,
is here,
right now.
God's
love of God
abroad in our hearts,
driving out fear,
empowering our worship
of Christ,
lifting our hearts
to Him.
God is in our midst.
Christ.
And that means
there should be
something attractive
about Christians.
Our gatherings
should be attractive.
This should be a place
where fear
begins to recede.
How?
Because perfect love
casts out fear.
Now, I'm not talking
about leaving
our doors unlocked.
Right?
You should all lock
your cars
after you park
when you come to church.
Please don't leave
your car unlocked
when you park downtown,
right?
No.
I'm talking about
when the Holy Spirit
moves
and makes the love
of God
real to our hearts
through worship,
through prayer,
through hearing
His Word,
and the armor
that we wear
in our souls
begins to loosen.
And our fears
of not being smart enough
or attractive enough
or wealthy enough,
these fears
begin to recede
in the light
of the love
of the Lamb.
And then together
we become a place
where the nations
come in.
We're not afraid
to be known
and to be loved
because we are known
and we are loved
by the everlasting
love of God.
This is the glory
of His presence.
the awe
and wonder
of a church
renewed by the Holy Spirit
in love
and without fear.
Now surely,
if we're going to be
that sort of church,
we need to pray.
We need to pray
and not just ask God
to fill us
fresh with His Spirit,
but we need to pray
and enjoy
the access
that we have
to the Father
through the Son.
Remember the words
of Paul that we read earlier,
in Christ,
we both have access
in one Spirit
to the Father.
Do we enjoy
the presence of God
now?
Do we live like it?
Or are we still
concerned about
the opinions
and the approval
of the world?
You see,
the church is getting
it all wrong
if we try to live
for the world's approval.
Because one day,
the nations will stream
into the new city
and bring their honor
and glory into it.
You see,
all that's God honoring
in our various cultures
and backgrounds
will be part of the celebration
on that day.
It will be brought
into the city
and give glory to God.
God.
We need not live
for the approval
of the world.
Instead,
let's live
for the approval
of God.
Let's live
for God's praise
so that we can be
salt and light
in the world,
so that the church
might become
an embassy,
a sort of outpost
of the world to come,
where the best
of the world
is redeemed
for God's glory
right now
in the present.
How do we do that?
Well,
in a few weeks
after we finish up
our series in Revelation,
we're going to begin
a series in Jesus'
Sermon on the Mount
starting in,
I think,
sometime in July.
How do we live
God's will on earth
as it is in heaven?
How do we be
the people of God's
kingdom right now?
That's what we'll
be learning about
as we look at
the Sermon on the Mount.
But for now,
as we close,
we pray.
We pray for God
to fill our vision
with our true future
and our true identity,
that we will share
His glory,
and even now
we can reflect
this glory
in unity,
in holiness,
and in the presence
of His Spirit.
Let's pray.
Father,
we see the glory
that You have prepared
for us,
and we are humbled
and thrilled
at the same time.
And our hearts
begin to realize
the depth
and the wonder
of what Christ
has done
that could make us
into a people like this,
radiant with glory.
glory.
So even now,
Father,
fill us with Your Spirit,
renew our hope
and our courage,
and may we
even now
reflect this glory
so that the world
around us
may see
how great
and awesome
You are.
In Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.