Our vision of the future shapes our present lives. 

         We learn this as children.  When we are young and we’re going on a trip, we get anxious for the ending. So, we ask, “Are we there yet?”  If we’re going to the beach or to Disneyland, the anticipation grows as we get closer to the destination.  The journey is a part of the excitement.  Of course, if the destination is a place we don’t really want to go (e.g., to get a root canal done), we feel very differently about the trip.

            Our vision of the future shapes our present.  In a study done of civil service workers, two groups were given the same jobs to do – jobs that most would consider mundane, tedious and routine.  The first group was promised that, after a year, each one would be given a significant pay raise.  The second group was promised nothing.  In the year of work, those in the first group were significantly more productive, remained on the job, and reported high job satisfaction.  Those in the second group were less productive, demonstrated higher delinquency rates, and were dissatisfied with their jobs. Our vision of the future shapes our present.

            When we place our faith in Jesus and begin to grasp God’s gospel, we still live in this imperfect world.  We experience the same kinds of things the rest of the world does.  In fact, sometimes life becomes more difficult as those around us resist or reject our faith in Christ.  But, we are to live differently.  How?  As Paul gave testimony in Philippians 4:11-13: I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength. 

             We have seen some of the reasons for that contentment in “The Story of Our Faith” so far – we have discovered forgiveness for our pasts, the gift of the Spirit to empower us, and the gift of Christian community so we are not alone. But today, we will see that this kind of contentment is possible only when we see and trust God’s vision for our futures.  Here’s how we put it in Article 9 of our SOF:

We believe in the glorious and personal return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will come in power and great glory to gather His people, to raise the dead, to judge the nations, and to bring His Kingdom to fulfillment. The coming of Christ, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy and motivates the believer to godly living, growing faith, sacrificial service, and energetic mission.

God will bring His gospel to fulfillment at the end of the age

            I certainly will not – and cannot – address fully every question we have about the future God has in view for us.  Some of the issues you may want me to talk about today are addressed briefly in the commentaries we have online.  But, my goal today, is to place before us the great hope that has sustained God’s children in the best and worst of times ever since Jesus ascended to heaven and two angelic creatures declared in Acts 1:11: Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.

#1:  Remembering the “Big God” story (as we put it in our children’s ministry)

*Life began in a garden with all relationships whole – it was shalom

            The way God’s Word opens the story is with God – before anything we know was – God already is.  And when God spoke the world into existence, everything was very good. At the end of Genesis 2, human beings lived in a beautiful garden and had the privilege of being productive.  God was in his rightful place – as God.  Our own lives were at peace, our relationships with one another were whole and our relationship with the world was positive. 

*The garden and its tree of life were lost due to sin

But, remember that in Genesis 3, everything went wrong.  The people rebelled against God and put themselves in his place – wrecking their inner being as well as their relationships with God, with one another and with the world.  Human nature – our “flesh” – is drawn to do what Adam did, i.e., put our selves in God’s place and sin against him.  Our world’s systems became marred by sin – and the evil one became the prince and power of the air. The world became a place in which sin and death ruled.

*God came – went to a garden -- and then to a tree to inaugurate a new future

            But God loves the world – so God came in Jesus Christ.  What happened is that God’s rule broke into a world in which sin and death were ruling.  Jesus, and Jesus alone, lived the life all people were made to live but have not and then died the death each of us should die.  So, in Jesus, the penalty for our sin has been atoned for.  There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). 

*God promises that when he is done, shalom will be restored in a garden city

We have already been given the Spirit of God now and the family of God now with the promise that the work God begins in us when we trust Jesus will someday be complete.  God is not finished with us yet.  God promises unflinchingly that what he has begun in us as a church and as individuals will be completed.  As Paul put it in Philippians 1:6 – I am confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

            And often, in His Word, God sets before us a vision of what we will be like and our world will be like when God completes his work in us.  Using the words of Jesus to summarize it – “I will make everything new (Rev. 21:5)!”  So, let’s see what that vision looks like in Rev. 21-22.

#2:  Catching a Glimpse of God’s completed work

Here is the point where we wish God had given us more detail and specificity than he has.  In fact, God reveals so much of his future in apocalyptic language – with symbols and imagery and ever-changing metaphors.  Jesus warns us in Mark 13:32 that only God the Father knows the day of the ending – but it seems that some have wanted to prove him wrong and figure it out. But, according to 2 Thess. 5, God tells us as his children enough that we won’t be surprised when Jesus comes and we’ll always be ready for his coming.  Still, many want to know more than the Bible tells us – though I am convinced the Bible tells us enough to guide our paths and to encourage us. Let me point out some of what we’re told.

The first point is that Jesus will come to earth again – not in lowliness but in power and glory; not to inaugurate God’s rule but to bring it to completion.  Paul described Jesus’ coming simply and clearly to a group of people who had lost loved ones to death and needed to get a glimpse of God’s hope.  He wrote about it in 1 Thessalonians 4-5.

            What Paul said is that, when Jesus comes, he will gather God’s unexpected family together – both those still alive when he comes and those who have passed on before his return.  We will see Jesus face to face together and never be separated from his presence in the way that has been ever since Genesis 3.  Even before Paul’s letter was written, Jesus had taught that when he returns, evil will be judged and that his kingdom – his reign – will break in fully into creation.  Those people rescued through faith in Jesus will do what we were created to do in Genesis 1-2 – we will reign with him.  We will take up again the privileged role of caring for creation.

            Jesus followers have looked forward to that return ever since Jesus ascension to heaven in Acts 1 – though we surely have disagreed over the details of it.  We have wrestled with the nature of Jesus’ kingdom – how long it will be and the signs that point to its nearness, etc. You may know about an English preacher, William Partridge, who in 1695 distributed a pamphlet prophesying that the world would end in 1697. In 1698 he distributed another pamphlet, this one claiming that the world had indeed ended in 1697 but that no one cared to take notice!  Well, there’s been a lot of that sort of speculation over the years.

I’ve addressed some of this in the commentaries available to you.  But, what we’ve affirmed in Article 9 is what some have called the Christian consensus – those things that all followers of Jesus have affirmed about God’s future for us.  And the most glorious point of it is the vision of the end God has prepared for us.  It’s described in John’s prophetic vision in Rev. 21-22.

I think I must say a few words about how to read the book of Revelation.  It’s written in a form of literature, i.e., apocalyptic, that became popular among Jewish people when they were under persecution and were exiled from their homeland.  It’s full of images and symbols.  It’s almost like a collage in art – with real but very different images being placed next to one another.  Seen together, they provide a lasting impression.         When you read Revelation, the starting point I want you to grab hold of is that it was first written to seven real churches in what is now Turkey.  Those churches were among the first to experience severe persecution for their faith in Jesus.  It’s the same churches 1 Peter was written to.  Christians were already being put to death there – and things would soon get worse.  Revelation surely has a message to all of God’s people – as does the entire Bible.  But, to understand its message, we must consider what it was saying to those to whom it was first written.

And what it was saying was something like this:  Even though God’s people sometimes go through terrible difficulty – struggles that we often cannot grasp from our human perspectives – God is still in control and will bring something wonderful out of the tragedy.  In Revelation, the veil is pulled back on our limited human views of the world and we see who really is in charge of the universe i.e., God.  Repeatedly, we are told that those who remain faithful, who trust God in the midst of the pain, will discover that evil will be defeated and God’s goodness will be seen.  And the Bible ends with a glimpse of the final and beautiful work of God that is in store for us.  Appropriately, hurting people simply say, “Come quickly, Lord Jesus.”

Let me show you just one part of this final vision in Rev. 21:1-2.  As is often the case in apocalyptic literature, in just 2 verses three very different images are put side by side.  What is our future?

#1:  A new heaven and earth (21:1) – Please rid yourself of the idea of heaven found in cartoons, i.e., that we’ll be people with ethereal bodies and wings -- floating around on clouds with harps (or tambourines).  No, God made a physical world that was very good and he will remake the world.  We will have bodies like Jesus had after his resurrection – it passed through walls but it could handle eating a fish without the fish falling to the ground.  The body still had evidences of the body Jesus had before his death – and he could be touched.  We will have real physical bodies no longer susceptible to pain or death.  And we will fulfill the purposes for which we were made in Gen. 1-2 – namely to be productive and care for God’s new heaven and earth.  When sin entered the world through human beings, all creation was harmed.  Until those made in God’s image are what we should be, nature cannot be what it should be.  So, in Rom. 8 Paul says all nature groans for us to be restored to conformity with the image of Christ.  And, John sees, that this is indeed what will happen at the end.  It’s going to be a great place.

#2:  A new city (21:2a) – Notice, it will be a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to the new earth.  Heaven and earth will touch.  So, the Bible doesn’t teach that the earth is bad so that material things will be burned up and only immaterial things left.  God is in the business of what I’ve called “reclamation art” – reclamation creation. 

            And, are you surprised that the beautiful place will be a city?  You shouldn’t be.  I know we often think of cities as places of ugliness and evil – but that’s only because of the affects of sin.  But, the most beautiful part of God’s creation according to Genesis 1, is that part made in God’s image (i.e., us).  When we’ve been re-made and relationships with people reconciled, the city will be a place of open, growing, warm relationships.  Yes, it will be a city with a river running through it and with trees and mountains.  But, the better part will be the warm and lasting relationships in the city.  And from Rev. 5 & 7, we know that those reconciled and renewed relationships will be with people of every language, people group and nation.  A church like ours is to be a foretaste of that future.

#3:  A new bride (21:2b) –This is an image that fills the Bible – God’s people are to be like a beautiful bride for our Lord.  But, like we read in Hosea, God’s people have been unfaithful.  Trust has been broken.  We have loved other things more than God – we have loved ourselves more than God.  But, Jesus gave his life so that he can presented us as God’s bride without any blemish.  What the Bible is saying in Rev. 21 is that our relationship with God is going to be made right again – fully right.  Anyone who has ever had a beloved relationship broken – and then fully restored – knows there is nothing in this world more beautiful than that.  Just look at how it is summed up in 21:4: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

            Do you see it?  Everything lost when we sinned in Gen. 3 is restored – and apparently it will be even better than it was!  We will be at peace (shalom) – no more tears.  God will be with us.  Our relationships will be good and right – rejoined with those who have gone on before us.  And our relationship with nature will be good and productive again.

            I know that Bertrand Russell said that heaven as generally conceived is a place so boring, so mundane, so purposeless that no one has ever succeeded in describing a single enjoyable day there – though many have done so about a day at the beach.  Well, I tell you that all of us have experienced enough heavenly moments to have some idea about it.  Have you ever had one of those evenings when you came together with friends you love being with?  You start off with a meal – find yourself playing games or talking about things you love.  You start at 6 pm and suddenly you look at your watch and it’s 2 am.  Where did the time go?  You felt alive.  You didn’t get tired.  It’s life intensified with great relationships in place.  Take that experience and intensify in 1,000 fold and you might begin to sense what Rev. 21-22 is describing.  It’s beautiful.

            21:5:  The one seated on the throne will declare, “I am making everything new!”  When the Jesus-followers in Turkey in the first century read this, they were encouraged to be faithful and never to give up!  I’ve visited a number of those cities and have been to some of the places where our brothers and sisters in Christ were imprisoned – even where they were executed in public.  I’ve stood in the stadiums and seen where the wild beasts were let loose and stood at the places where God’s people were mauled and brutally killed simply because they would not renounce their faith in Jesus.  I know this message worked in their lives.  They knew that death was not the end.  They knew that all would be made new and they would be a part of it. Grasp this truth – and you can handle anything! 

            And we Southern Californians are fascinated with the new, aren’t we?  We sense this deep need for things to keep looking new and young.  But we see ourselves wrinkling, aging.  We want to remain new but we know we’re falling apart.  And, we know the vision this world offers makes no sense.  Live life for your career so that you can retire early.  Build a bigger home so you can be even more comfortable and never ache or suffer.  Use creams, make-up, exercise, and surgery to keep yourself young.  But we know it doesn’t last.  The vision the world offers for hurting and dying people is something that we know is temporary.  To all that, God declares, “I will make everything new!”  What you have been made for – what you long for inside – that’s what I will do.  Keep your eyes on it.  Trust me for it. 

#3:  Living now in the light of God’s future

            Our vision of the future shapes our lives now.  So, what should be different about our lives because of this promised future?  Everything.  We should be faithful to God and live for God because we soon will see him face to face – and we want to be ready.  Paul puts it this way in 1 Thess. 5:  We are children of the light and of the day.  So, we are not to be as others who are still a part of the darkness.  We must be alert and self-controlled – not drunk and asleep.  Let us put on faith and love…  Jesus died for us so that we may live together with him.”

            We should also tell others about him.  We know that people need Jesus and that they do not have forever to respond to him.  Paul put it this way in 2 Cor. 5-6: We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.  Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others… We are Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore people on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God…  We proclaim that now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.

            So, God’s vision for us should lead us to faithful and godly lives.  We even have the privilege of living in such a way that others may experience God’s love, justice and beauty in this world through us.  We are to give witness to the hope that’s available in Jesus in the face of the hopelessness people face when they live for themselves or for temporary things.  And, we are to find encouragement ourselves when we are affected by the evil in this world.  In 1 Thess. 5, Paul said, I want to tell you about Jesus’ soon return so you will not be uninformed and so that you might find comfort and encouragement even when death has come to a loved one.

            I think you know that this is very personal for me – as it is (or someday will be) for each of us.  Things will happen in this world that make no sense.  We will be confused – anxious – angry when they happen.  A child will die in infancy.  A drunk driver will kill a brother in his youth.  A mother will develop Alzheimer’s and no longer even know you.  None of it will make sense.  Your life will be just like those who lived in Turkey in the 1^st century.  This world’s powers will seem to be in control.    You’ll cry out about the injustice and senselessness of it all.

            And then you will show up at church or tune into a sermon online (who knows why?).  And the pastor will say, “The only thing that makes sense is that this world as it now is -- is not the end of things.”  God declares, “I am on the throne and I declare to you, I am at work and I will make everything right.”  The preacher might remind you of what Jesus said after Mary and Martha’s brother had died, “I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in me will live even though he be dead.”  Or, of what Jesus said to his closest friends after saying that he too would die:  “Do not be troubled.  I know where I am going and I know what I am doing.  It makes no sense to you now but I am doing it for you.  I am doing it so you can live.  I am going so that everything can be made new.”

            And he asks us as he asked them, “Do you believe me?  Will you trust me until your faith is turned into sight and everything is made new?”  I’ve made my decision.  I will trust him.  And I tell you both from my own experience – and even more from the Word of God – God is to be trusted. He is at work.  He is here.  He knows what he is doing.  And, someday, he will make everything new.