Well, good morning, church.
Happy Father's Day.
Would you turn with me to the book of Revelation,
chapter 22, verses 1 through 5.
If you'd like to follow along in the Pew Bible,
it's the very last page.
It's very easy to find.
Revelation 22, we're looking at 1 through 5 today.
So for the last few weeks in our series,
we've been considering the ultimate future,
the ultimate hope of God's plan for creation.
Where is God taking his world, his people?
That's what we've been looking at.
And today we come to the final part
of that future vision in Revelation 22.
So let me pray, and then I'll read for us.
Father, as we return again to this powerful book
of Revelation, we ask for your Spirit's help
to illuminate your word.
Just as your Spirit inspired it long ago,
we pray that his work would continue now
to unfold and cause to work in us
this word that you've given.
We pray above all that we would see Christ
so that we might, as we just sung,
cling to him and become the people,
the humans, the church you've created us to be.
We ask this in his name.
Amen.
All right, let me read.
Then the angel showed me 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,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,
and his servants will worship him.
They will see his face,
and his name will be on their foreheads.
And night will be no more.
They will need no light of lamp or sun,
for the Lord God will be their light,
and they will reign forever and ever.
So, the moral philosopher Alistair MacIntyre once wrote,
I can only answer the question,
what am I to do,
if I can answer the prior question,
of what story or stories do I find myself a part?
I can only answer the question,
what am I to do,
if I can answer the prior question,
of what story am I in, right?
In other words, he's saying,
you don't know who you are,
you don't know how to really live,
until you know the story you're a part of.
You need to know what story you're in,
in order to really know who you are,
and how to live.
But that's sort of the big question, isn't it?
What is the story we're a part of?
And the Bible comes to us, you see,
just at this level.
Because the Bible's not primarily a set of rules
that we're supposed to follow,
although it has some of those.
The Bible's primarily a narrative.
It's a story.
In fact, the Bible claims to be the true story
of humanity and the world,
and most importantly, of God.
And it's in that story
that we find who we really are
and how to really live.
That story begins in a garden in Genesis 1 and 2.
And in Revelation 21 and 22,
we see how the story ends.
And of course, you need to know how the story ends, right?
You need to know where the story's going
to really make sense of the whole thing.
Now, I think that everyone has
kind of an ending in mind
when they think about the story that they're in, right?
Whether they've articulated that or not,
we all sort of have an ending in mind.
That's just kind of how meaning works.
That's sort of how we work as human beings, right?
Think of some of the broad cultural movements
that vie for our attention
and our allegiance today.
You know, the so-called conservative movement
wants to return to a golden age of the past.
That's their future, right?
Or the so-called progressive movement
wants a sort of revolutionary advance
to a utopia that can be created
through our kind of human revolution.
What's interesting is that both of those movements,
if you look at it through history,
is that both of those movements
are actually borrowing elements
from the Christian faith that precede them.
And they're both wrong.
As we see here in Revelation 22,
the story does end in a garden.
The language here is full of obvious allusions
to the Garden of Eden, isn't it?
But it's not merely a garden.
It's not just a return to the past.
Because this garden is also a city.
There's a street.
And there's gates and there's foundations.
It's the New Jerusalem.
So the Bible says the story ends in a garden city.
It's both a return and an advance.
It's neither strictly conservative or progressive.
It's something else altogether.
But here's the biggest difference.
All these other human movements say
that it all comes down to what?
To human effort to get there.
Humans are at the center
of all of our human movements, aren't they?
Whether it's conservative or progressive,
we have to get there through what we do.
But what's at the center of this vision in Scripture?
God.
The future belongs to God.
The story ends in a garden city
that's also very much a temple.
That's where God's ultimate future
is headed for his people.
God dwells in the center of this garden city,
filling it with his presence.
In fact, John says,
not just God, but the throne of God
and of the Lamb will be there.
The throne.
The sovereign rule of God.
Now that's significant.
This image of the throne being in the garden city.
If you've been following Revelation,
you'll remember all the way back
in chapter 4 and 5,
where is the throne in chapters 4 and 5?
It's in heaven, right?
And it's glorious and it's wonderful.
But what's happened here in chapters 21 and 22?
The throne has come to earth
and it's made all things new.
It's a new heaven and a new earth.
The kingdom of God has arrived in fullness.
The reign of heaven has come to earth.
That's what John sees here.
That's how the story ends.
So you see, the Bible story isn't a picture
of humans kind of climbing up to God,
scaling a stairway to heaven.
No.
The Bible story is about God's kingdom,
his rule, his reign,
his throne coming down to us.
And what's at the heart of our passage this morning,
Revelation 22, 1 through 5,
is that it shows us what happens
when the throne arrives,
when the kingdom is consummated.
So what will it be like when this story ends,
when the throne of God arrives?
Well, according to what we see here,
the throne of God brings total healing.
When God's reign arrives in fullness,
it heals.
It heals everything.
We see here the healing of creation,
the healing of the nations,
and even the healing of our very selves.
What God has in store,
the great conclusion of this story we're in,
is the throne of God bringing total healing
materially, socially, and personally.
So let's look at each of those three things in turn
and then consider how we might live now
knowing that's how the story ends.
So first, in this ultimate future
that God has in store,
the throne of God brings healing to creation,
to the material world.
Now, to appreciate the fullness
of how this passage starts,
you have to go back to the beginning of chapter 21
where the whole section begins.
And there we read that John sees what?
He sees a new heaven and a new earth
because the first had passed away.
And then in verse 5, God says,
Behold, I'm making all things new.
Now, when we looked at these verses a couple weeks ago,
we pointed out a tension
because on the one hand,
the new heavens and the new earth
seem radically distinct from the first.
But on the other hand,
they seem intimately connected to the first,
don't they?
After all, God doesn't say,
He doesn't say,
I'm going to make all new things, right?
He says, no, I'm making all things new.
But one thing is for sure.
The ultimate future that God has in store
does not leave this material order behind.
The new heavens and new earth
will not be immaterial or ethereal.
It will be the healing of creation.
In chapter 22, verse 1, back in our passage,
John sees a river flowing from the throne
with life-giving water.
Now, this is the fulfillment of a passage
in the prophet Ezekiel.
If you were to go back and read chapter 47 of Ezekiel,
we're shown water flowing
from a totally renewed temple.
And as the water flows,
it gets deeper and deeper.
And as the water flows deeper and deeper,
it brings flourishing.
The deserts are watered,
the plants grow,
the fish jump.
And on both sides of the river,
trees grow.
Ezekiel says,
with all kinds of food that don't wither
and their fruit doesn't fail.
And he says,
their fruit will be for food
and their leaves for healing.
And all of what Ezekiel saw
so many years ago
will come to fulfillment,
Revelation 22 says,
in the new heavens and new earth.
When God's kingdom is consummated
and he makes all things new,
that's what Ezekiel was looking forward to.
This healing of creation.
Now consider then,
consider how different
the throne of God is
compared to human thrones
or human empires.
Right?
What do most human kingdoms
leave in their wake?
Sadly, not the flourishing
that we see here.
Instead of life-giving streams
healing the material world,
most human empires bring greed
and burning and destruction.
Right?
And this is our first clue
that the kingdom of God
is on a different level entirely
than human kingdoms.
Don't think that God's throne
is just some elevated version
of a human throne,
some sort of projection
of human authority
to the nth degree.
No.
God's authority,
His rule when it comes in fullness
will be totally different.
It won't mar the earth.
It'll mend it.
When God created all things
and called them good,
He meant it.
And He will not abandon
His material world in the end.
Now I wonder if this changes
how you and I approach
this material creation we inhabit.
You see, the created order
isn't a mere resource
to be consumed
for our own designs.
That's how human empires think.
No, no.
This created order
is a good gift from God.
And first and foremost,
it's a testament
to God's majesty.
Imagine walking into
an artist's studio.
Imagine walking into
an artist's studio.
Perhaps she's a sculptor, right?
Seeing a newly finished sculpture
and saying,
you know,
I could probably melt that down
and make something useful
out of it.
Right?
How absurd would that be?
Friends, it's the same
with the world around us.
The creation is something
to steward wisely.
Remembering, first of all,
that it doesn't belong to us.
And it, too,
in the story that we're a part of,
has a role to play.
It will be healed
and it will flourish
in the future
that God has in store.
But it's not just creation
that's healed.
The second thing we see
is at the end of verse 2,
what John describes
as the healing of the nations.
As the river flows
from the throne of God,
John says,
the tree of life is there.
Now, I admit,
it's a bit confusing at first
how this tree of life
is on either side
of the river.
Perhaps John is speaking
kind of collectively.
In other words,
perhaps there's a whole grove
of trees.
That would align
with Ezekiel's vision
that we mentioned earlier.
Or perhaps,
perhaps the tree's branches
are so great
that they stretch
to either side of the river.
I think if we try
to overthink it,
we're sort of missing the point
because either way,
the most important point here
is to pick up
the obvious allusion
to the opening chapters
of Genesis.
Genesis.
In the midst of the old Eden
was the tree of life.
And here,
in this new Eden,
we find the tree of life
once again.
And humans have access to it.
But as we've said,
this isn't just some return
to the beginning.
It actually surpasses.
It exceeds the first.
In this garden city
where God's rule
is consummated,
the trees line the river.
There's a whole grove.
The fruit grows every month.
And the leaves don't just
keep something alive.
They heal.
The leaves heal the nations.
Of course,
we don't need any convincing
that there needs to be
healing of the nations,
do we?
Human history has been
a long, tragic saga
of feuding and war
and ethnic strife.
But beneath the shade
of those trees,
in the new heaven
and the new earth,
in the garden city
of the fullness
of God's reign,
the enmities
and animosities,
the wrongs
and retributions,
they'll be healed.
Again,
how vastly different
is God's throne
from any human throne?
Read any account
of human history.
What happens
when a new human empire
rises?
Or when a new king
or queen takes a throne?
It's rarely ever peace.
Or what happens
when a human revolution
succeeds?
When the old system
is torn down
and a new one
takes its place?
Does the new order
abolish conflict
and enmity?
Does it bring healing?
So often it does not.
But the reign of God
is completely different.
When God's rule arrives,
it will heal the nations.
Now,
given that God
will accomplish this work
in the future
through His own
sovereign reign,
does that mean
we should not pray
and work for peace
here and now?
Well,
I think it's just
the opposite.
After all,
God says He'll redeem
a people
from every tribe
and tongue
and nation.
Every nation,
every ethnicity
is worthy of dignity
and honor
and respect.
People from every nation
will gather
under the leaves
of those trees
and be at peace.
If I knew
I was going to eat dinner
with you later today
or spend the afternoon,
you know,
we'd spend dinner
eating together,
would I spend
the afternoon
just sort of saying
terrible things about you
and harboring
all sort of gossipy
half-truths
about who you are?
Right?
I hope not.
That's going to prove
for an awkward dinner,
isn't it?
Well, friends,
you see,
the story that we're in
ends with the nations
at peace.
It ends with us
gathering under those trees
together.
The story we're in
ends with the nations
at peace.
It ends with our
relationships at peace.
And so we do our best
to forgive
and live at peace
now.
That's the story
we're in.
Of course,
it won't be perfect
in this life.
Some relationships,
tragically,
won't be reconciled
until the new heavens
and the new earth.
Some boundaries,
wisely,
will have to stay
in place
until we gather
on the banks
of the river
in the new Jerusalem.
But even so,
the words of Jesus
are still true.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Not the warmongers,
not the conquerors,
not the powerful.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
That's how the story ends.
But third,
we see not just
the total healing
of the material world
and the social world.
In verses 4 and 5,
the throne of God
brings the healing
of our very selves.
It's personal.
Our very identity
is healed.
His servants
will worship Him,
the end of verse 3 says.
They will see His face
and His name
will be on their foreheads
and night will be no more.
They will need
no light of lamp
or sun
for the Lord God
will be their light
and they will reign
forever and ever.
Who are we
as humans?
What were we created for?
What's our purpose?
Look at how the story ends.
On the one hand,
we were created
to be worshipers of God.
His servants
will worship Him.
Verse 3.
You see, friends,
we were created
to behold God
in all of His beauty
and let our hearts
feast in delight.
It's like a kite
catching the wind
and soaring
and being awash
in the rays of the sun.
We were made
to soar higher and higher,
awash in the joy of God.
Father, Son, and Spirit.
As the psalmist said
so many years ago,
in Your presence
there is fullness of joy.
At Your right hand, God,
are pleasures forevermore.
Joy, pleasure,
the worship of God.
You see,
one of the great lies
that we've come to believe
is that happiness
can be found
by looking within.
The lie that says
if we follow our heart,
if we're true
to what we feel,
then we'll find
the authenticity
and the happiness
that we so desperately lack.
And so,
hearing this message
over and over,
we've turned
completely inward,
looking for the answer
to wholeness
to happiness
inside.
And then we're told
that in order
to be our authentic selves,
we need to not just
find it,
but create it.
Right?
The voice of our time
says,
go your own way.
Chart your own course.
And at first,
that feels pretty authentic,
doesn't it?
It feels very brave,
right?
But then you start
to realize something.
You start to say,
wait a second.
If every movie,
if every advertisement,
if every song,
if every social media post
blares at me
the same message,
go your own way,
am I not just conforming
to the crowd around me
when I go my own way?
Aren't I just following
what I'm being told to do?
I mean,
how authentic is it
to go your own way
when that's what
everyone around you
is telling you
that's what you should be doing?
Being true to yourself
and following your feelings
just might be the most
hackneyed approach
to life that there is.
But you know,
there are plenty of companies
and plenty of brands
and plenty of advertising agencies
that would love for you
and I to keep believing this.
Why?
Because our culture
of identity construction
has been totally commodified.
What do I mean by that?
In other words,
if you're going to create
your true self,
you're going to need
to buy some stuff.
Right?
You want to be
a rugged individualist?
Here's a company
ready to sell you a truck,
some $400 pair of boots,
and just the right pair of jeans,
and you will be
the rugged individualist.
So you create that identity
and you project it to the world.
And it doesn't really matter
which identity you choose.
You want to be a Baptist pastor?
Shop at J.Crew
and buy a couple shirts, right?
There you are.
It's all swept up
into the market.
And social media
is ready to create
and sell them to you.
Now look,
I know that all sounds
a bit cynical,
but it's not that far
from the truth.
And the truth is,
we're all caught in it,
whether we like it or not.
It's the air we breathe.
But friends,
look at the throne of God.
When we look not in,
but out of ourselves to God,
when we lose ourselves
in the wonder of His glory,
when His name is on our foreheads,
not the name of some brand
or some logo
or some niche,
radicalized identity,
then we'll find the wholeness
and joy that we've been looking for.
It's not by looking in the mirror
that we find our true selves.
It's certainly not by looking
to the consumer culture around us.
It's by looking into His face,
into His face.
They will see His face,
John writes in verse 4.
They will.
Of course,
in the arc of the Bible storyline,
that's an astounding statement,
isn't it?
For to behold the face
of the holy God
always meant certain death
for sinful human beings.
But in the new heavens
and new earth,
where our sin is removed
never to return,
when the throne of God is there
and creation is exactly
how God wants it,
we will behold His face
and live.
Listen again to how 1 John describes it.
We read it earlier.
Behold,
we are God's children now.
But we know that when He appears,
we shall be like Him
because we shall see Him
as He is.
And where does this beholding
of God's face take us?
Well, in the rest of our passage,
we see that it leads to what?
To reigning with God.
You see, friends,
humans weren't just created
to worship God,
but to reign with Him.
We see this again
in the opening chapters of Genesis.
God creates humanity
and tells them
to have dominion,
to rule over the earth.
God puts humanity in the garden
and tells them to work it
and to keep it,
to cultivate and create it
in such a way
that all of the material world,
in increasing measure,
gives voice to the beauty
of God who made it.
You see, the Garden of Eden
wasn't just a garden.
It was a project
for humans to work and keep
and to expand its boundaries
ever more and more
so that all of creation,
through the work of the image bearers,
would give praise to God.
And John's telling us here
that this original vocation
of what makes us who we are
has not been lost.
Though we have fallen so deep
into self-centeredness
and despair,
though we have refused
to worship God
and instead worshipped
created things,
though our identities
have become fractured
and wounded as a result,
becoming like the very things
that we worship,
though all of this
has become true of us
in our fallen state,
that's not how the story ends.
Our original vocation
will be restored.
Our identities will be healed.
We will be a kingdom
of priests once again.
Priests who worship
and behold God face to face
and co-regents who rule
and reign under our loving King.
Again, do you see
how utterly different
God's throne is
from human thrones?
When we give ourselves
in worship to this King,
we become kings and queens.
Our dignity is restored.
But the kingdoms of this world
tell us that we should spend
our lives worshipping ourselves.
And what's the result?
Not dignity,
but despair.
Jesus said,
if you save your life,
you'll lose it.
But if you lose your life
for me and my sake,
you'll find it.
And the vision John receives
at the end of the story
is of the ultimate
finding of life.
The people of God
reigning with God
forever and ever.
And when you think of it,
this ending,
it is an ending.
But it's not really an end,
is it?
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis,
that this life
is just the opening pages
of the real story
that will go on forever
into eternity
in the new heavens
and new earth
with every chapter
better than the one before.
So what we see here
is total healing,
materially,
socially,
personally.
But how can this be?
I mean,
it sounds nice,
right?
But it's a bit too good
to be true,
isn't it?
The new heavens
and new earth,
the consummated reign
of God
flowing forth
and total healing.
I mean,
how could that ever
come about?
Well,
John tells us
something very important
in verse 3.
Look again
at the beginning
of that verse.
And again,
in the sort of like
short phrases
of this end
of the story,
John says,
no longer
will there be
anything accursed.
No longer
will there be
any curse.
The way we know
this future plan
of God
can and will
come to be,
the reason we know
the story will end
as God says
it will end
is because,
friends,
God's already dealt
with the main problem,
the curse.
Verse 3,
after all,
is another allusion
back to the very
beginning of the story.
In Genesis 3,
after Adam and Eve
rebel against God,
they come under
a terrible curse
and all humanity
with them.
God renders
this verdict
over them
in their sin,
a curse of death
spiritually,
relationally,
personally,
materially,
and in that moment
in Genesis 3,
it seems like
the Bible story
is going to end
just after it
got started.
But it's not the end.
The rest of the story
of the Bible
is how God deals
with the curse of sin,
that gnawing
brokenness
in all of us.
And over hundreds
of years,
God reveals himself
and he calls
out a people
and through that
long history,
he shows
through many ways
and many signs
and through sacrifices
and all sorts of means,
he shows us
how costly sin is
and how the wages
of sin is death
and how the real need
is for a substitute
who can somehow
undo Adam's sin
and draw humanity
out from under the curse.
But the history shows
that a second Adam
is hard to come by.
God uses Noah
to rescue humanity
through the flood,
but Noah sins
just like Adam.
God uses Abraham
to begin a new people,
but Abraham too
is flawed and sinful.
God uses Moses
to bring his people
out of slavery,
but Moses too
is imperfect
and is even barred
from entering
the promised land.
God uses David
to establish
an earthly kingdom.
David slays Goliath.
He defeats the Philistines,
but not even David
can undo the curse of Adam,
for he too is sinful.
And by the end
of the Old Testament,
though God has been
faithful to his people,
though God has preserved them
and kept them
and given them
many means and signs
of his mercy and grace,
still the curse remains.
And none of Israel's leaders,
none of the people's leaders
have been able to undo
what Adam had done.
But then,
when the fullness
of time had come,
after years of waiting
and longing
and hoping,
God sent his son,
born of a virgin,
born under the law
and its curse
to redeem those
who were under the law.
You see,
Jesus Christ lived
the life
the first Adam
should have lived.
He listened to
and obeyed
every word
of his heavenly Father.
When the serpent
tempted him
in the wilderness,
he passed the test
where Adam had failed.
And in his perfect obedience,
he alone
was able to deal
with the curse.
Through his sacrificial death
on a tree,
Christ redeemed us
from the curse
of the law.
How?
By becoming a curse
for us.
The penalty
that Adam deserved,
Christ paid.
And three days later,
he rose from the dead
to prove that the curse
had been broken
and that the new creation
was not just a wish
or a hope,
but a reality.
Began
and ready to be unfolded
and consummated
in God's time.
But you see,
the death
and resurrection
of Jesus,
it doesn't just guarantee
that God's plan
will come to fulfillment.
The death
and resurrection
of Jesus
is the only way
for you and I
to share in it.
You see,
on the cross,
the curse of sin
was reckoned
to Jesus
so that the blessing
of his obedience
could be credited
to all those
who trust in him.
in the new heavens
and the new earth,
there's nothing
under the curse.
But the only way
for you and me
to escape the curse
is to unite ourselves
to the new
and better Adam,
Jesus Christ.
You see,
through birth,
we are all in
that first Adam.
We're all in sin.
We're all under the curse.
But through faith
in Christ,
we're credited
to the righteousness
of Jesus,
the new Adam.
And the curse
no longer holds
over us
because he's exhausted
the curse
through his own death.
And if we share
in Christ's death
through faith,
we will also share
in his resurrection life
in the new heavens
and new earth.
The invitation of this passage
then is this.
You see here
how the throne of God
brings healing.
And how could it not?
For on the throne
is the Lamb,
the Lord Jesus,
the new and better Adam,
who lived,
died,
and rose again
to abolish the curse
of sin
and usher in
the new creation.
We've seen the healing
this throne will bring
when Christ returns
and God is all in all,
when the rule of heaven
comes to earth
and makes all things new.
We'll see his face
and reign with him forever.
The throne of God
and the Lamb
will heal all things.
The question is,
the question is,
will you submit
to his throne now?
Will we entrust
our lives
to this healing king,
the one who will mend creation,
heal the nations,
and restore our humanity?
Will we bow our knees
before his throne now
and give our lives
to this king?
And if we have come
to entrust our lives
to him in saving faith,
will we go on
to obey
what he commands?
Will we live now
under his rule,
his healing
and saving rule?
Surely his commands
are for our good.
His throne
will heal the cosmos.
How could we not
trust his commands
now to be for our good?
So we will obey them.
Will we obey them?
Even if his commands
seem countercultural,
even if they seem costly,
even if they might
exclude us from
privilege and power,
even if they might
exclude you
from the cool kids table,
right?
Will we take
the radical move,
the truly radical move,
to live now
in light of this
great story that we're in,
bow to his throne,
and obey his word?
And will we not
just obey
what he commands,
but will we
trust him
in whatever
he permits?
Will we trust him
in whatever he permits
that it will be
for our ultimate good?
There's an old hymn
that says,
whatever my God
ordains is right.
His holy will
abideth.
I will be still
whatever he does
and follow
where he guideth.
He is my God,
though dark the road.
He holds me
that I shall not fall.
Wherefore,
to him
I leave it all.
The throne of God
and the Lamb
that will heal
all things
is the same throne
ruling your life
right now,
Christian.
Though the cup
may be bitter at times,
though the road
may seem dark,
he is working
all things
for your good.
You are not now
at the story's end,
but you know
the ending,
brothers and sisters.
Your road
is not one
that leads in circles
and ends in despair.
Your road
is the highway
of the king
and your journey
ends in the new creation.
Where the leaves
of the tree of life
bring healing
to the nations.
Where the water
of the river of life
brings flourishing
and joy.
So trust him now.
And when the story ends
and you stand
before his throne,
it will be worth it.
Every sorrow,
every step,
every valley,
every act of obedience,
it will all be worth it.
when we see his face
and we reign
with him forever.
Let's pray together.
Father,
we pray the words
that Jesus taught us.
Thy kingdom come.
May we look
with longing
and hope
to that great day
when you return
and your story
comes to its
mighty conclusion.
And would we live
with perseverance
and joy now,
knowing that your kingdom
is on the move
and your promises
are sure.
We pray this
in the mighty name
of Christ,
our new and better Adam,
the Lamb on the throne.
Amen.