Revelation 22 The Eternal Day of Joy! Hallelujah!

Revelation 22

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There was once a very rich man who wanted to take his money with him to the afterlife. So he was buried with a huge sack of gold bars that he would take with him to Heaven. It was a massive effort, but he managed. Utterly exhausted, drenched in sweat, with blisters covering his hands, he arrived at the Pearly Gates. “Welcome,” said the angel. “But tell me, why did you bring a big bag of tar for the road with you?”

The point of the joke is this: what we experience now is nothing compared to what we are going to experience. The best in this world is a thousand times worse than the worst in the world to come. We’re not missing out on anything by choosing Jesus now! What we miss out on is Heaven’s rubbish. Gold is bits of tar (asphalt). The best in this world is cheap instant coffee - heaven is the finest beans. (Or “fruit-tea” against a cup of Ceylon tea from England)!

It will be this world version 2. Rebooted, recreated. Made new. Everything and everyone, including us. No sin! We will be where we’ve always wanted to be. Free from sin! No longer carrying the burden of sin. And so there will be no pain, nor sickness, nor sorrow nor death. Hallelujah!

Last week we saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem descended from Heaven. Spectacular, beautiful, majestic. V1-5 finishes that description, so before we get stuck in there, let me just remind us what we learned last week.

The city, descended from heaven is the Bride of Christ, the Church, the people of God. The city is vast, and covers the whole earth. And it is the Most Holy Place, the cube-shaped room in the temple that was where God lived. But now we all live there. We live with God. God lives with us. We are His people and He is our God.

The city is built on precious stones - the same precious stones that the high priest had in his priestly garments when he brought the people of God before the altar to pray God for mercy. God's mercy through God’s sacrifice on God’s altar is the foundation of the whole city. And God's sacrifice was God Himself: Jesus on the Cross. “Father, forgive them!” God’s grace and mercy flowing over us, his people, is what the City is built on.

The city is the fulfilment of all the promises of God given through his prophets. We see fulfilled prophecy from, for example Haggai 2:9 The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!

Isaiah 65 and 66, for example 65:17 Is 65:17 Look! I am creating new heavens and a new earth

Jeremiah 3:17 In that day Jerusalem will be known as ‘The Throne of the LORD.’ All nations will come there to honour the LORD. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.

And basically most of Ezekiel 40-48!

The whole Bible, the whole universe, is aimed at, rejoices over, this day, this day of joy, which lasts forever. And central to all this is the cross. For without the cross we would be outside. Everlasting rejoicing and singing and dancing – and we would be outside. But because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross - suddenly, all these promises, all these prophecies, are ours! Amen.

For

1. Jesus is the water of life

2. The water of life flows through us when we listen to and obey the Bible, Jesus’ word

3. Jesus will return - at any moment

Let's look at the final part of the description of the heavenly city.

1. Jesus is the water of life

Re 22:1–3 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 It flowed down the centre of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. 3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.

In the very centre of the city is the river filled with water of life. Every city must have a water source. Without water, the city dies. No wonder, then, that the water source of the Holy City is God Himself. The water of life… flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

This is the fulfilment of God's promises. In Zechariah 14, God wages war against the army of evil and crushes it and in v8 says On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem… 9 And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one LORD—his name alone will be worshiped.

In Joel 3:18 we read In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. Water will fill the streambeds of Judah, and a fountain will burst forth from the LORD’s Temple, watering the arid valley of acacias.
The day Joel is talking about there is Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came like a flood over his people, and still does today. The Holy Spirit is with us and in us.

And we who go to the Bible groups will recognize this as fulfilling the words of Jesus. For in John 7:37-39, Jesus says “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ ” 39 (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.)

The point is that the entire Bible meets here and finds its fulfilment here. The whole Bible flows from all different directions to Jesus, the Cross and the Resurrection, and from Jesus like a flood rushing to the Revelation and the new Heaven and new Earth. All the promises of God find their fulfilment in Christ. All. If you are Christian - if He is your Lord and your God - then you’re not missing out on anything! Everything good God has ever planned is yours – now in part, then in full. Everything is ours. In Christ, we have access to the living water of Heaven. Jesus is the water of life.

But how do we take part? How do we get this living water?

Well, did you notice the strong emphasis in this chapter on the Word? God's Word? Because that's the answer to how we take part, and it’s point number two. Jesus is the water of life and we take part in it, also now, through his word, the Bible.

2. The water of life flows through us when we listen to and obey the Bible, Jesus’ word

6 Then the angel said to me, “Everything you have heard and seen is trustworthy and true. The Lord God, who inspires his prophets, has sent his angel to tell his servants what will happen soon.” 7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.”

What God shows John is truth. Write this down, he says, for these are true words of prophecy. God’s word is trustworthy and true. And we know it’s true because everything he has spoken has actually happened. That’s why we have a book rooted in real history. We don’t have to wonder who God is: we know him through his actions and words, in his dealings with the nations and with Israel.

These words are trustworthy and true. Because those who wrote the Bible wrote what God wants. It is God who gave the prophets, including John, his Spirit. It is God who sent the angel to show them what will soon happen. The Bible is written by men, but what they wrote was exactly what God wanted them to write. They wrote what they wanted - and what they wrote was exactly what God wanted. We see this here: Revelation is written by John 8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw all these things. But what John wrote was what Jesus had shown him. 16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this message for the churches.

These are words of Jesus, written down by John, and guarded by the Spirit. These words are trustworthy and true.

Everything God says is trustworthy and true. We cannot say the same about what you and I say! Everything we say is full of mistakes and influenced by sin. Therefore, I am astonished when Christians - even whole churches - look for something other than listening to God's Word in the Bible. Particularly popular today are dreams and visions and so-called “prophetic words”. Why, when we have God's trustworthy and true words?

I grew up in a congregation with a heavy emphasis on prophecy. And I heard a “prophetic word” at least once a week. And out of probably 1,000 prophecies, do you know how many were really a word from God and not just vague drivel? One.

That's why we don’t waste time in this church with that nonsense. We need the word of God, not the word of you (or me). Because I also know that if God really has something on his heart that he wants to share with us, he’s not dependent on getting a special time in our service where he can speak (often with some music in the background and a little bit of a raised, slightly tremulous, voice). He’s God for goodness sake! He created all things with a word! A word! If He wants to tell you something, you don’t have a choice – you’ll hear it. That’s the testimony of the Bible, and that’s my experience too. Even if you want him to be quiet – you cannot shut him out...!

You know, we will not miss out on anything if we use our time to hear the voice of the Spirit here in the Bible. We most definitely will miss out on a lot, and maybe even be misled, if we spend our time instead chasing dreams and visions and so-called “prophecies” and “words from God” instead of the Bible. Jesus warned us of false prophets and false teachers. For this (the Bible) is the water of life.

(This morning got a helpful question: what is prophecy, aren’t we called to prophecy. From 1 Cor 14. Prophecy linked to gospel (only gospel has power to convict of sin and cause repentance, not “God told me to tell you to go to China”)! It is clear that much of what is called prophecy today is not what the Bible would call prophecy. If you get something you need to tell someone “From the Lord” please say “I think” not “God told me to tell you”.
Preaching is prophetic. Bible group prophetic. Because bringing Word to bear on our lives. Calling us to repentance. That’s what OT prophets did. Not future telling. And not buttering us up with lies about how important we are to God’s plans. That’s water from the toilet, from the sewer. We need living water.)

Psalm 1 says, Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night. 3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

In this, the first Psalm, as in tonight’s passage, we see the connection between the word of God “the law of the Lord” and living water. The words of Jesus root us, so that we can bear fruit at the right time. We become like living trees, reflecting those in the heavenly city that have healing in their leaves because we carry the gospel in our words and our actions. We are the children of God.

That’s certainly been my own experience. The Word of God roots me. The more time I spend in His Word the more stable and rooted and simply holy I become. The Spirit makes the Bible alive when we read it and it’s food for the soul. Blessed, happy, joyful is he who delights in the word of the Lord. 7 Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.

A further warning for us not to rely on other sources for God’s word than the Bible and being careful to check everything against the Bible I v18 and 19. 18 And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the words of prophecy written in this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. 19 And if anyone removes any of the words from this book of prophecy, God will remove that person’s share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.

These verses are about the book of Revelation. But I do not think it's a coincidence that they come in the last book of the Bible. Do not add to the Bible - we do that when we make extra rules, we add obstacles for people becoming Christian. When we say things that the Bible does not say as “don’t smoke” “don’t gamble” “don’t watch this movie or that TV show” – now that may be good advice, but it's not God's law! Or to come to this church, you must be like this, or be that type of person, or be dressed like that. We try to keep things very informal here so that anyone can walk in and feel welcome. Come as you are!

But even more dangerous is the temptation to remove things from the Bible. Things we don’t like. God's sovereignty. Our sinful nature. Hell! Forgive your enemies. Sexual ethics. Just skip over it, go quiet, or deny it. But if we choose only what we like - then who is God? We’re not worshipping God when we decide what we think is right or wrong in the Bible. We’re worshipping ourselves. This is an all or nothing package! Everything else is idolatry.

Listen to the Spirit. His words, the words of Jesus, give life.

Jesus is the water of life. The water of life flows through us when we listen to and obey the Bible, Jesus’ word. And it's worth it because

3. Jesus will return - at any moment

10 Then he instructed me, “Do not seal up the prophetic words in this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm; let the one who is vile continue to be vile; let the one who is righteous continue to live righteously; let the one who is holy continue to be holy.

I had a work colleague called Paul who really wanted to be a Christian. He thought it was right and good and he believed in Jesus. But “not yet” he said. “I want to do my own thing for a few years, then I’ll settle down and accept Jesus.”
Dangerous, dangerous words. Let the one who is doing harm continue to do harm; let the one who is vile continue to be vile. He thought that Jesus' words were a bit boring, a bit dry. God’s a killjoy. And Paul wanted to sin! And, yes, of course, it was about sex. He was a good-looking guy who wanted to play the field. He wanted to play with sin. That was 18 years ago, and the last I heard he was still no nearer Christ. Not yet. Not yet.

Jesus return is so close that there’s hardly time to repent. And when he returns, it's too late. That’s why those being vile (Bible-speak for ignoring God) those being vile will continue to be vile. Time is running out! If that’s you, if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Saviour – do it now, today! Before it’s too late. Do you know the time of your death? Many have walked out the door in the morning “Bye, see you later” not knowing that they would soon be standing before the judgement seat of Almighty God

12 “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” 14 Blessed are those who wash their robes. They will be permitted to enter through the gates of the city and eat the fruit from the tree of life. 15 Outside the city are the dogs—the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idol worshipers, and all who love to live a lie.

We are judged by our deeds (our actions, what we do), and our deeds expose us as sinners. We have not lived the way we ought, none of us have lived like Jesus. The standard is so high and we do measure up. We don’t even measure up to our own standards! How often do we do things that we know are wrong and which we really don’t want to do - but do them anyway? It’s so frustrating that we’re so weak. We can’t even meet our own low standards, not to mention God's.

What a relief that Jesus says "Come!". Those who thirst come and wash your robes in the blood of the Lamb, taking part in Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and washing your sins away.
Yes! That is the offer! All that wrong you've done, all that which is dirty and rotten and shameful. Washed away. Forgiven. Borne on Jesus' shoulders on the cross. A gift! What a gift! And what a gift that continues to be for it’s not a one-time deal. No, as Christians, we now live in realm of grace. It is forgiveness upon forgiveness.

Because Christ’s blood covers not only our sinful past, but also the sin we commit now, and the sins we will commit in the future. That’s why we confess our sins every Sunday. To remind us that we are sinners, yes, but also that we are forgiven! We are blessed!

Finally, note that those who were thrown in the lake of fire in 21:8 are here in v15 “outside”. Hell with its fire and brimstone is just a picture, a picture of eternity outside. Excluded.
We don’t want God, we choose to ignore him, to have nothing to do with him - and the most frightening is now he says, alright, I will give you exactly what you want.
Hell is a place outside of God's city, an eternity excluded from all that is good. If you’re not a Christian, that’s what you’ve chosen. Tonight, make a new choice. Choose Christ. Choose life.
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let anyone who hears this say, “Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life

Jesus is the water of life. Receive him.
The water of life flows through us when we listen to and obey the Bible, Jesus’ word. Listen to him.
Jesus will return - at any moment. Be ready for him.

20 He who is the faithful witness to all these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon!” Amen! Come, Lord Jesus!

21 May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s holy people.

A prayer of repentance:

Almighty God, I am a sinner because I have lived without you. I chose to ignore you. I chose Hell.
In your mercy, Lord, forgive me. Give me streams of living water. Wash me clean. Thank you Jesus that you died on the Cross so that I can be forgiven.

I don’t want to live for me any longer. From today I want to belong to You. Be my Saviour, my Lord, and my God! Amen.

A blessing:

4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.

Now the priest's blessing from Numbers 6:24-27 is fulfilled. The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 27 So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.

Revelation 21 We keep going for the joy set before us

Revelation 21

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Have you ever waited for something you're looking forward to?

Life is full of delayed gratification: doing something we don’t want to do in order to get something we do. Whether it's a sweetie because we read a book at age 10 or the salary we get to go to work, we all know about enduring in order to get something better. We are even willing to suffer because we see the goal, the reward, in front of us. Just ask the guys in the gym. Or athletes. Or my wife when she’s excercising. The momentary suffering is nothing compared to the joy that awaits.

And that’s how we as Christians should live. In this life, we keep going, we endure, because we have our eyes fixed on what is to come. We follow Jesus and obey his words not because we get everything we want now, but because we see the prize in front of us. We are willing to suffer now because joy – pure joy - is just a moment away. In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be with him.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne.

1. God is almighty and he is good v1-5

2. God is full of mercy v6-8

3. The Holy City is made up of God's people and contains only the best of this world.

1. God is almighty and he is good v1-5

In the movie Batman v Superman, Luthor raised this familiar issue: “if God is all-powerful, He cannot be all good. And if He is all good, then He cannot be all-powerful.” Because if God is good, he would not allow what we see around us. He would not allow sin. And because he does, he is either not good or does not have the power to stop it.

This was very real to those John was writing to in year 90. For they were persecuted. In Smyrna they lost jobs, houses, business – they were poor and hungry because they were Christians. In Pergamon they were killed. In Philadelphia they were under such pressure that they nearly collapsed. In Ephesus, they forgot love, Thyatira just compromised and conformed to the society around them (State church?), Laodicea was lukewarm, and Sardes was nearly dead. So why keep on going? Why believe in Jesus? Is it worth it? Can God really fulfill his promises? Can we really believe in a God of love in the midst of suffering?

And the answer is yes. For we have already seen God's answer to Luthor's problem. On the cross we see both God's love and His might. He is good because he dies for us. And he is almighty, even over evil, because on the cross we see how evil is transformed by God to serve His good purposes. Jesus' crucifixion was at the same time the worst thing that ever happened - because we murdered God! - and the best thing that ever happened - because through His death Jesus set us free and laid the foundation for the new creation.

Because of Jesus' death on the cross, all evil will be erased, and we who are in Christ will live forever in an eternal paradise together with our God. Satan and sin and death and pain and all evil was dealt a death blow on the Cross.

3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” 5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”

God is good and he will destroy all evil. Soon. Until then evil is permitted a narrow and limited role in God's plan. Evil is forced to obey God’s will and achieve his purposes: to either lead us to salvation, or to judge those who do not repent. But soon all these things will be gone forever. Soon, Jesus will return, not as a servant, not to die, not to open the way to heaven for evil people like us through His death on the cross. No, he will return as the Holy Warrior, the White Knight who will destroy evil forever.

For this world will be washed clean: all evil, suffering, pain, gone! Because God will live here with us. God's home will be with his people, with us. He will live with us, and we will be his people.

We see this illustrated in the Exodus with Moses, where God saved his people with great power from suffering and slavery in Egypt, and lived with his people. The word “home” in v3 is “tabernacle”, which was God’s tent in the desert - a physical picture that God was with them. Here I lived in my tent - and God lived in his tent. God is with us! Later King Solomon built a new permanent symbol: the Temple in Jerusalem. Here was God’s house. God lived with his people. He was their God, and they were His people.

But those were shadows of the reality. Here is the reality. Here is the fulfilment of that promise. God with his people - but without any barrier. Jesus has removed sin from us and given us white robes so that we can stand as his bride in the new creation. Our name is written in the Book of Life! And this is what we are looking forward to. The day when God himself will wipe away every tear and where death and sorrow and crying and pain are no more. Amen and Amen!

So why should we endure, keep going? Because this is our future.

Why doesn’t God do anything about evil? Well, he has already. He smashed it on the cross, and showed us his power and his love. And he will wipe evil out completely on the Last Day.

But why doesn’t he do it now? Why, for example, is Robert Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe, still alive? Justice now!
But are you really sure you want instant justice? To be struck dumb (unable to speak) because cruel and hurtful words were about to come out of your mouth? Or your hand to rot off before you could sign the shady fiannaical deal? Deaf because you listened to gossip? See we don’t think about ourselves when we cry out for justice! Just because our sins aren’t as public and don’t affect as many people doesn’t mean they’re any better.
If we really got immediate and rigorous justice, this world would be a literal hell. It would be impossible for us to live. In his mercy God has delayed judgement day, and he has limited how much of the consequences of sin we experience. Just enough for us to realize we are sinners - but not enough to crush us with hell.
But that Day will comes when everything is put right and justice will rule - but thank God it is not today, because it means that we and those around us still have the opportunity to find mercy in Jesus. And that's point number two.

God is almighty and he is good, but he delays the day of justice - judgment day - because

2. God is full of mercy v6-8

6 And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.

Everything will be renewed, re-created, transformed. That has always been the plan. We, too, will be transformed, re-created. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

We are made new – re-created - when we receive Christ. We are re-created every day as the Holy Spirit works in us and transforms us, changes us, renews from the inside out. Today, I'm far from perfect, but I'm much more like Jesus than I was when I was saved at age 19. The Holy Spirit is at work in me. I was re-created that moment I received Jesus. I died, and a new me, me in Christ, was created. The child of wrath died, and the child of God was born. I was re-created. I am being re-created. And I will be re-created when Jesus calls me from the grave and into the New Creation.
And this transformation, this growth from grace to grace, is sure because it is guaranteed by Jesus. He who is Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He says he is A to Z (or Å), the beginning and the end. He created everything in the beginning, and he will re-create everything in the end. And he says to us, “Come! Whoever is thirsty, come! He who desires, let him come and he will receive the water of life as a gift.” Amen and Amen!

God is full of mercy. Anyone who wants to can receive the water of life. Those in the Bible groups will recognize this from John 7:37 where Jesus says, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’ ” He was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.

This is a gift from Jesus. An gift bought at great price. For I do not think it's a coincidence that the words in v6 “It is finished” echo what Jesus said on the Cross in John 19:30: “It is finished”

For this was the goal of the cross. A huge multitude! A massive crowd of people from all nations, tongues, and cultures - the gift of grace! Saved by Jesus' blood on the cross.

What amazing mercy. Because when we read v8 we realise what we deserve. This is us. 8 “But cowards, unbelievers, the corrupt, murderers, the immoral, those who practice witchcraft, idol worshipers, and all liars—their fate is in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

The word “cowards” caught my eye. Is it really sinful to be a coward? But how true that is. How often do we not do what we know is right because we are afraid. We do not want to lose status, risk our reputation. We don’t want people thinking we’re weird. So we remain silent or we do what we know we should not do. Have another beer and get drunk. Be greedy and eat another piece of cake. Take that pill. Punch him. Steal that. Sign the dodgy contract. Then lie about it. Cover it up. Because we are cowards! The biggest coward in history was Pontius Pilate! So in Christ let be men of courage. Men of convction who do what is right. Men and women who stand for Christ no matter what.

Because by nature we are cowardly, unbelieving, corrupt - we don’t want to believe God’s word, we don’t want to obey Him – we want to do what WE want. And so we are murderers. We strike people down with words, and if looks could kill... of that we are all guilty. Some of us have blood on our hands because we have been misled and pressured into abortion and killed a baby person. And there are even some in Christ who have killed or tried to kill others. Perhaps in this very church. I had a murderer in my bible study a few years ago. We are murderers all of us. And we are immoral. Sexual sinners. Unfaithful in our thoughts, and for many of us, our thoughts have become actions and we have been unfaithful. We are trapped by pornography and are unfaithful to God and to those we love. We live together (samboere) and refuse to commit to being one and so turn our back on God's commandment “the two shall become one” in marriage. Or we are married but we live parallel lives as two instead of united as one - and too many of us who ignore what God says about sex in marriage - which is “be united often!”

Witchcraft? Well that doesn’t apply to us, does it? (knock on wood).... Actually, every time we look to something other than God to secure our future, we play with witchcraft, sorcery, magic. When we read horoscopes or visit a medium, talk to the dead, ask them for help, pray to our ancestors, pray to Mary or the saints instead of God. When we play with occultism, Charlie Charlie, Ouja board, and such things. Witchcraft. We seek power from things other than God – and that is idolatry. We worship the god "me" - I'll decide, I'll say what's right and what's wrong.

And if we’ve managed to dodge the previous words, the last one gets us all. Liars. We are all liars. All it takes is putting us under a little bit of pressre, and out the lies slip, as easy as breathing. Debby says she told her first lie almost as soon as she could talk. She had some porridge that she didn’t like and when her mother’s back was turned, she emptied the bowl on the floor. When she was asked, “where is the porridge, Debby?”, she answered “gone!” and pretended that she had eaten it! It is deep within us, part of our nature. We are all liars.

And that’s why here in this church there is no judgment! For here we are all sinners who stand before the throne of God. Here is no rubbish that God likes us because we are better people than the “sinners” out there. No. We are sinners, and God likes us because God likes to save sinners. Maybe because we are worse than those “out there”?
Here there are no judgments. In this church there is mercy. Amen.

Not one of us deserves a place in Heaven. But because of Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection, we can receive his salvation. All we have done has been written down and blocks us from God, from the waters of life. But Jesus took our sins and went through death and hell for us so that we could drink the water of life instead of being thrown into the lake of fire.

Do you thirst for the water of life? The water of life's that can wash you clean? The water of life that re-creates you so that the old sinful life dies and you rise again to everlasting life? If you thirst for Jesus, receive him!

And if you have received Jesus, drink deep of the water of life. Fill your mind with him so that you no longer want to be sexually immoral, or a liar, or a murderer. Live for Christ! Do not be a coward, but stand firm no matter the cost - for we know how this all ends. We have read the final chapter.

Just like Jesus, who for the joy set before him, the joy of this day, the day we are reading about, the day when everything is put right and we are joined with him – because of the joy of this day he endured the cross, disregarding its shame.

Let's follow in his footsteps, for we are children of grace. And because he is a God of grace, just look at the joy he has prepared for us:

3. The Holy City is the people of God and contains only the best of this world.

9 Then one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls containing the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come with me! I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 So he took me in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal.

What a vision! Here we, the church, all the people of God, pictured as a city, the city of God. Jerusalem was the capital of Israel from the time of King David. The king reigned from Israel, and the Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon built the temple. But now we see the heavenly Jerusalem! The earthly Jerusalem was just the shadow. Here we see the reality. And it is the bride of Christ. Yes, men, we are the sons of God, but we are also the bride of Christ! And we should be happy about that. Because a bride is one with her husband, united. And we are one with Jesus, united on the cross. And as a bride inherits all that the bridegroom has, we inherit all that Jesus has. No wonder we shine with the glory of God.

Look around now. This is the shadow. One day we will see each other - Rock Church - as we really are. And we shall shine with the glory of God.

16 When he measured it, he found it was a square, as wide as it was long. In fact, its length and width and height were each 1,400 miles (since numbers in Revelation are symbolic, converting stadia to miles was a rather silly. 1400 miles it tells you on the bottom of the page, is 12000 stadia. 12000 – 12 x 1000. 17 Then he measured the walls and found them to be 216 feet thick, look down: 144 alen that is 12x12.

The number 12 represent the people of God in Revelation, and the number 12 is found all over the city. 12 tribes and 12 apostles - all the people of God are included. Both Israel and the Church, Old and New Testament. Israel before Christ, where all those who thirsted for living water received grace from God because he held back the punishment for the sins committed and poured them out on Jesus on the cross. And we in the church, the new Israel, after Christ, our sins he bore on the cross. Like a huge funnel, the sins of all the people of God were gathered and poured out on Jesus on the cross.

The whole city is a cube - as tall as broad and wide. And there is no temple. Because in the temple there was a room, the Most Holy Place. That was where God “lived”, symbolically. And nobody could enter that room without dying. The Most Holy Place. And that room was... a perfect cube. And now the whole city is that cube. The whole city is the Most Holy Place. God’s home is with us!
When Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two. It was that curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the Temple. The message was clear: the way to God is now open. And here we see the fulfillment! We will live in the Most Hoy Place, together with our God.

It’s a return to Eden. In the garden of Eden Adam and Eve walked with God. But this is better. Not a garden, but a great city, 12,000 times 12,000 times 12,000 - all the people of God.

21 The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. John is almost at a loss for words trying to describe the beauty of the Heavenly City. Nidaros Cathedral, Notre Dame, St Pauls, St Peters are ugly 70's concrete blocks compared to the new Jerusalem!
22 I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The whole city is the Most Holy Place - we will live with God. We are His people, and He is our God, our Father!

23 And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. 25 Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. 26 And all the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city.

The new creation is a “Greatest Hits” of this life - only the very best of this world is good enough for the next. All that we love and hold most dear in this will be in the next. And never again will anything be corrupted or ruined, but it will shine with unparalleled glory and beauty, reflecting our Lord.
27 Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

An eternal paradise is what awaits those of us in Christ.

So, how does that change how we live now? Three examples to end off.

“If I give money to the gospel, I'll might not have enough for a summer holiday to “Syden””... travel in the new creation. Becuase then there’s no litter, travelling doesn’t exhaust you, and you’ll see everything as it was created to be, not as a shadow as it is today. I’m sure Greece is beautiful now - but imagine how it will look in eternity! You’re not missing out by not travelling now.

“If I obey God's word and don’t drink or don’t have illicit sex, then I'll miss out, I’ll be a square, a prude, and I'll never have that experience.” Really? When has sinning ever been a good experience? Sin only harms us, hurts us. Hold out for what’s best. Why play in the mud in the slum when the bus to paradise beach is waiting outside?

“If I make a stand as a Christian, I’ll get criticised, or teased, or I’ll lose out on that promotion, or I'll be killed!” Here we need perspective. Do we live for ourselves, or do we live for Christ? What matter this light and momentary suffering compared to eternal glory!

In all that we do, we follow in Jesus' footsteps.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne.

Why we won’t sing the Blues in Heaven!

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What if I told you you could guarantee a glorious future? What if there was a way to choose good health, immense wealth, and happiness?

What if I told you that your choice is between that: an eternal future of health, wealth and happiness – or eternal suffering?

Sounds like a no brainer doesn’t it? Tough decision!

Because that’s what Jesus tells us. That’s the clear message of the Bible. We have a decision to make: health wealth and happiness – or suffering and pain. Heaven. Or Hell.

So, what’s the catch? What’s the cost? I’ll get to that in a moment. But now let’s just get clear what is on offer. We won’t sing the Blues in Heaven because we will be perfectly happy, healthy and wealthy. Although we might jam to some blues tunes! But we won’t be singing the blues. And we won’t sing the Blues in Hell because there will be no music in Hell. There is nothing good in Hell. Hell is by definition the absence of all good things.

That’s why Jesus says these words: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. 45 If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’” Mark 9:43-48.

Jesus, the Man of Love, the Man of Forgiveness, the Man who brought Mercy to the world. Those are his words. Do whatever you can to avoid hell. Hell is not a place you want to be.

That’s the reason that Jesus came, and that’s the reason that we are here. He came to warn us about hell. And he came to open the door to heaven. He came to say don’t miss this! Don’t miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime- a glorious eternal future. Whatever objections you might have about Christianity – put them aside for the moment, and just listen to what’s on offer. And then we’ll have time for questions and objections afterwards.

Just two points tonight:

1. Heaven is glorious

2. We get to Heaven through Jesus

1. Heaven is glorious.

Now when I say “heaven” that might not thrill you. In fact, it doesn’t really thrill me. It seems rather boring. I typed “heaven” into google. Every image was of blue sky with clouds and a bit of sunshine. Sometimes a few angels sitting about strumming harps. Is that a place you want to go? Well not me! Heaven seems absolutely boring.

But the Bible’s picture of Heaven is completely different. When the Bible talks about the future it talks not about Heaven but about the New Creation – really Heaven come down to Earth, and transformed this world.

It will be this world, but better. Sitting on clouds strumming harps. God forbid. No! Unless you really like harp music, in which case I’m sure there will be a special section for you. The Bible tells us that all the best and only the best of this world will be in the next. There will be great music in Heaven, the best music! Whatever you think in this life is amazing or wonderful or incredible – the Blues – that will be in heaven. The glory of this world will not be lost. So don’t miss out! But we won’t be singing the Blues. It’ll be happy Blues, Blues as it was meant to be sung from the creation of the world, sung in praise of Almighty God!

I’m going to read from the book of Revelation, the book that we’ve been reading through as a church as we hear described the glory and wonder of the new Creation.

Re 21:10 [I saw] the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 It shone with the glory of God and sparkled like a precious stone—like jasper as clear as crystal…. 21 The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl! And the main street was pure gold, as clear as glass. 22 I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its light. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the world will enter the city in all their glory. 25 Its gates will never be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. 26 And all the nations will bring their glory and honour into the city. 27 Nothing evil will be allowed to enter, nor anyone who practices shameful idolatry and dishonesty—but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Imagine that. A huge city, perfect, filled with people from all over the world, all equal in Christ, all colours, shapes, sizes, ages, nationalities, complete diversity, all praising God. The glory and honour of all the world is brought in. And we will recognise this world as it should have been.
The best things of this world are just a shadow, a pale reflection of the reality of then new creation. This beauty we are surrounded by here in Norway is incredible – but it is just a faint echo of the true beauty we will see on the Day Jesus returns and everything is transformed in an instant. Everything that is ugly and evil and dirty and broken will be gone, and only that which is perfect will remain. And we will see it with our own eyes. Don’t you want to be there?

You know, we recognise beauty now because it is an echo of that heavenly beauty, that purity. We feel it tugging at our soul saying “this is how things should be”.

We were created in perfection. In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we read about Adam and Eve, the first two people that God created. He created them equal, he created them in his image, he created them male and female. And it was very good. They lived in perfection. And then they screwed it up. They decided to ignore what God had told them would hurt them. They decided that his word was dumb and their words were better. They would decide for themselves what is right and wrong. And everything fell apart.

They completely ignored God – and it messed up their relationship with each other. They immediately blamed each other for their problems and started arguing. It broke intimacy – before they were blissfully naked, perfectly open with each other. Now we hide from each other, and struggle to trust because we know we can be hurt.

It messed up their relationship with the world. Work became hard. The land resisted giving food. Natural disaster became normal.

And it messed up their relationship with God. No longer would he walk and talk with them in the cool of the day – now he was far and distant and sitting in judgement.

Everything was messed up.

And that’s where we are. Everything is messed up. The world is broken. People are broken. And we can’t reach God.

We long for perfect peace. We long for harmony even in our own lives. Our home. We long for someone to love us perfectly and where we don’t need to fear the ones we love hurting us and letting us down. We long to be back in the Paradise of Genesis, before we decided that God was dumb and we are oh so clever – and proceeded to mess everything up.

That’s what the Bible calls sin. Now sin isn’t naughtiness, or something like the adverts like to use it “it sinfully delicious”. Sin is more like poison. It is the poisonous self-interest at the centre of every human heart. We filter everything through “is this good for me”? We as people are utterly self-absorbed. Selfish. Egocentric. If you don’t believe me, just look at kids. The younger the better.

ILLUSTRATE: my niece - Angry with Mom for being sick in hospital! She took it personally. Irrational. But that’s how we feel. She’s a human. Kids need to be told with divorce that it’s not their fault. Always think we cause it. So egocentric. The universe revolves around us. And as adults we just hide it better, or life has let us down so much that we know that we’re not in control. But we’d still like to be. The poison is still there.

Poison needs to be rooted out.

Now the poison of sin doesn’t mean that we can’t be nice people, or be unselfish, or love! We’re not always self-absorbed narcissists going around shoving people out of our way!
But it’s like this glass of water. If I put a drop of poison in it it doesn’t mean that all the water has turned to poison. But it does mean that all the water is poisoned.
So people still do wonderful things – but even the best things we do are tainted by sin, by that poison of self-interest.

It is no surprise to Christians that the only economic system that works is capitalism, because capitalism assumes that people are selfish and will act in their own self-interest. Communism assumed that people would act for the good of the community. That it failed horribly tells us a lot about ourselves as a human race.

Everything we do, say and think is affected by sin. Not everything we do and say is poison, but all is poisoned.

And the problem is that that poison, our sin, bars us from Heaven. We’re going to miss out. Instead we will be given what we have chosen. We will experience the consequences of our choice to ignore God and do our own thing. And that is hell. Hell is not God being mean. Hell is God letting us do what we want! The problem is when you let selfish people do what they want – what they really want – that’s not very pleasant. The Blues understands that. When the powerful and the rich do what they want they oppress the workers, they oppress the poor. The Blues teaches us that sin is real! And that sin left unchecked is hell.

So, if we don’t want to experience hell – how do we get to Heaven. How do we ensure that we don’t miss out on the greatest experience ever: the New Creation!

Heaven is glorious. And

2. Jesus is the way to Heaven.

Jesus warned us, pleaded with us, to do whatever we can to get out of hell. Because the reason he came was to make it possible for us to get out of hell, and experience heaven instead.

In Mark 9:31 [Jesus] said to [his disciples], “The Son of Man (this is what Jesus called himself) is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”

The reason Jesus came was in order to die. Because dying and being reborn is the only way to get to heaven. In heaven, the new Creation, there will be nothing evil, nothing sinful, nothing imperfect. Only the best. So we can’t get there. We’re sinners, poisoned, not perfect. There’s no way back. Except by dying and being reborn… perfect.

It’s like pottery – if the clay starts going wonky – you’ve got to squash it down and start again. I watched a glass blower and a smithy at the Sølvgruvene here – and it’s the same with them. Any imperfection and it’s back into the fire, melted down and you start again, blowing, or banging it into the perfect shape.

To now miss out on heaven we need to be remade, reborn. But how can you do that? Because if we die – we just go straight to hell. No rebirth. The only way we can die and be reborn is if someone does it for us. Someone needs to step in as our representative, die in our place, and give us new life. And that is what Jesus does.

That’s why the gospel means good news for everyone. It doesn’t matter what your life is like. You past does not matter. It makes no difference where you’ve come from or what you’ve done- Because all that will die. Your life dies with Christ on the Cross. He carries it with him in his death. And you are reborn with his life.

It is a swap. We get his perfect life. We are reborn. And he takes our imperfect life.

Isn’t that fantastic news.

However, I said there was catch. And here it is: you actually have to die to your old life and be reborn. Jesus put it like this: Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. Mk 8:34–35

It costs everything, and it costs nothing. Everything because we die to our old life and now live for Christ. He is our new manager, his words are what matters. And that’s great because it’s the best way to live. A taste of heaven. He knows how life works because he made us. We are no longer slaves to sin, but now FREE! No need to sing the Blues, but we can sing joyful blues, if that’s possible!

Let me just speak for a moment to those of us who have been reborn. We belong to Jesus. Everything we do and say should be done and said to his honour. In the new creation everything we do will be perfect. What are you doing or saying now that you wouldn’t be doing or saying in the new Creation? What am I doing or saying now what Jesus would not be doing or saying. Or what am I not doing and saying that I know I should be?

What is amazing is that the rebirth we get isn’t just once off. The rebirth we get is permanent. It isn’t well here you go, good luck now I’ve given you a start. No. We get not just Jesus’ birth, but his life. So we are already seated in heaven. Let’s act like it. And when we fail, which we will, we simply ask for forgiveness. Then we repent, stop doing the wrong thing, and start doing the right thing!

But is it worth it? It’s a big ask. I know my generation is paralysed by fear of choosing something, committing to something – because what if something better comes along. Well, nothing better will. This is the best of the best. Jesus proved it by healing people, casting out demons, walking on water, quieting a storm, forgiving sins, and, oh yes, rising from the dead. He shown us good credentials. We can trust what he says. And this is what he says. I’m going to end by reading his vision of heaven given to John. Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 It flowed down the centre of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. 3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever. 6 Then the angel said to me, “Everything you have heard and seen is trustworthy and true. The Lord God, who inspires his prophets, has sent his angel to tell his servants what will happen soon.” 7 “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed are those who obey the words of prophecy written in this book.”

Be blessed. Choose Christ. Don’t miss out. We don’t need to sing the Blues in heaven, because heaven is glorious. Don’t miss out – ask Jesus for his new life, because Jesus is the way to Heaven.

I hope we are all together singing the not Blues in the new Creation. Let’s rock! Amen.

Isaiah 11 & 12: Hope and fulfilment

Isaiah 11:1-12:6

Two weeks ago we tackled some pretty rough chapters, 9&10: judgement on Israel, the terror of Assyria which will wipe them out – then the judgement on Assyria “who do you think you are – you’re just a tool, like an axe. Is the axe greater than the arm that wields it?” – and bam – you who were a great forest will be just a few sticks in an open field.
After seeing the sinfulness of man, whether in Israel or Assyria - After seeing what happens when God’s patience runs out and he moves in terrifying righteous judgement - after all that, we finally get some words of hope.
In the mess and the suffering and the confusion of a broken world, a world filled with war, with refugees fleeing for their lives, sitting in foreign countries longing to go home – into that situation God speaks. Sound familiar?

Is there hope for today? Is there hope when we see millions of people fleeing from their homes because of the sinfulness of man expressed in war? It is not just. It is not right. It is evil. It is sin.
I love this church – all of you that make up this church – I love each and every one of you. You are my family, my brothers and sisters. But it saddens me that the reason that many of you are here is because you are refugees, fleeing for your life. Because war has overtaken your homeland and ruined it.

That was the situation in Israel: the Assyrians would stomp on everyone, removing the Northern Kingdom of Israel entirely. Everyone moved. The land emptied. And most of the Southern Kingdom would be equally destroyed. Towns, villages, empty. Fields and farms deserted, abandoned. People taken into captivity or fleeing into neighbouring lands.

Israel will be nothing more than a stump. The kingdom has had bad kings who have lead them to ruin. The great promise of the King like David, David’s son who would rule well and would bring peace and prosperity – that, like a great tree, had fallen. What was left was just a stump. But God speaks. And there is hope.

1. V1-5 Our hope: Jesus, the divine Davidic King

11:1 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot— yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. (Some translations say out of the stump of Jesse – Jesse was David’s father).

A new King will arise! The promise God made to David will be fulfilled. Even in the mess, even in the chaos of war and refugees and fear – God’s promises remain. They are a never-changing fixed point that will never fail. And what a King! This King will be filled with God’s own Spirit. He will be a godly king. 2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

Isn’t this the type of leader we want? Wise. Understanding. With counsel and knowledge. But not a push-over, a weakling – someone with might (power) – able to do what is right. And he does what is right because he fears the Lord – that is, the Lord is his boss. V3 He will delight in obeying the Lord. He not only obeys the Lord, but he delights in obeying Him. It is His joy to love the Lord, to obey Him, to do His will. What a king!

And because of this His rule brings justice and peace. He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay. 4 He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited.

How much injustice is there in this world! How evil when the State abuses its power! When there is corruption or just laziness and justice is not done. When children are taken from their parents. When you’re forced to fight in the army. When the police arrest you and throw you in prison for being a Christian. When your village is bombed because you are suddenly in “rebel” territory. When you are wrongly accused and are put in prison for something you didn’t do.

But this king is not like that. He sees the truth. He looks beyond appearances. He sees into the hearts of men.

Who can this be? Who sees through the lies and into mens hearts but God alone? v4 continues The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked. 5 He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment.

A little bell should be ringing in our minds. We just read about a child that would be called God. Is this King the miracle child, the sign promised to Israel? Come back with me to chapter 9.
6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

There is a King, a King who will be born, the Prince of Peace who will rule forever, and he will be called Everlasting FATHER, MIGHTY GOD. God Himself will be born a child and will rule forever. That is the sign of the woman back in chapter 7:11 Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

This is the son, the boy Immanuel “God with us”. The Spirit will rest on Him and He will delight in obeying the Lord. He will bring justice and righteousness.

THIS IS JESUS.

Matthew 1:18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit….v20 “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Here is Isaiah 7:11 the virgin with child. Here is Isaiah 11:2 the Spirit-filled King.

John the Baptist announced his coming in Mt 3:3 The prophet Isaiah was speaking about John when he said, “He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the LORD’s coming! Clear the road for him!’ ” Who is coming? The Lord – Yahweh – Israel’s God is coming! Mt 3:13–17 Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. ..16 After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

Jesus was in the line of David, a son of Abraham. He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, to the people shouting Lk 19:38 “Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the LORD (Yahweh)! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”

Jesus said to Pilate Jn 18:36–37 “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.” 37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?” Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”

Have even just a quick read of the gospels and it’s clear that Jesus is the promised King. And because he is our king we have hope. Our future is secure. Because he is the King of the far future of the prophecy, the future yet to come for us. And he is the King of the near future of the prophecy, that for us has already happened and is happening.

Remember that prophecy works on multiple times: now, future, far future. Isaiah could not see which was which. We, because we live in between these two times: the coming of Jesus, and the Return of Jesus – we can see what belongs to what time.

2. V6-9 Jesus: King of the far future

Our future is secure. This King, this promised King, secures a perfect future. This has not happened yet – although we get some foretastes of it. But it lies in the future.

Re 21:1–4 (NLT) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Re 22:3–5 (NLT) No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.

A Day is coming, the Day of Christ’s return, when there will be no accursed thing! Everything that is evil will be dealt with, destroyed, never to rise again. Jesus says Rev 21:5 “Look, I am making everything new!”. There will be a new heavens and a new earth. A new creation. A return to Eden – but better. Instead of two people, Adam and Eve, there will be millions upon millions. Instead of a Garden, a whole City. Instead of God walking in the cool of the day, he will live among us. There will be no tree of the knowledge of good and evil – only the tree of life!

Brothers and sisters, that is what we long for! That is what we were made for! When we see natural beauty – when we look around at this country, this amazing country – it is only an echo, a faint shadow of the glory of the Real Norway, the Norway in the new creation. And when we get just a glimpse of that beauty, our heart aches.
When we see human kindness, when we see people rescuing people, when we see the joy of someone accepting Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour for the first time. These are echoes of the new Creation.

Brothers, we are made for eternity. We are not made for this fallen world. We are not made for evil. That is why we react to it, fear it. There is something wrong with the world. This is not the way things are supposed to be! And we are right. And Christ will set the world right. The lion will lie down with the lamb. The baby will play safely near the hole of a cobra. And the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord. Our future is secure.

But is this all just pie in the sky when you die? Do we just struggle through life waiting for the day Christ finally returns. No, because he is active now. He rules now, and all around us we see evidence of the work of Christ.

3. V10-16 Jesus: King of the near future (or as we would call it: Jesus: King of the now, for we live in Isaiah’s “near future”)

10 In that day the heir to David’s throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world. The nations will rally to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place.

In that day? Which day. The First day or the Final day. Well, this is both isn’t it. For on that Final Day the nations will stand before him at the final judgement. Those who know him will go in. Those who do not will be shut out forever.

But we see this in action now. From that First Day, we see his banner raised all over the world. We see the nations gathered to him each Sunday in churches all over the world. Right now, millions of brothers and sisters are gathered in Jesus’ name: in Beirut, in Paris, in Darfur, Iran, Pakistan, India, Eritrea, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, US, and on and on across the world: some in secret, some openly, but all in His Name. Our King! And this church family we have is a glorious place. It is not a perfect place, not yet! But it is glorious.
Here we are, from all across the world. We have nothing in common. Except Jesus. He is our Lord and Saviour. God is our Father, and we are brothers. Praise God!

11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to bring back the remnant of his people— those who remain in Assyria and northern Egypt; in southern Egypt, Ethiopia, and Elam; in Babylonia, Hamath, and all the distant coastlands. 12 He will raise a flag among the nations and assemble the exiles of Israel. He will gather the scattered people of Judah from the ends of the earth.

In that day, the First Day, the day of the cross, was when Jesus completed the true Exodus. Remember the Exodus, when Moses lead the people of Israel out of slavery to Egypt, and into the Promised Land. Throughout the Old Testament there have been signs and prophecies looking forward to a second Exodus, a greater Exodus: and that is what Jesus achieved on the Cross. On the Cross he rescued us from slavery to sin, and will take us safely to the Promised Land, the New Creation. This is the second Exodus, the greater Exodus. And all who put their trust in Jesus are part of it.

And this is where we find ourselves today. Christ’s banner is raised. Our Spirit-filled King calls all men to himself. He has achieved the great Exodus: the rescue of people from slavery to sin. This is the hope of the nations. This is the power that can break war, and hatred, and racism, and fear, and lies and gossip and sexual sin and cruelty and murder and bullying and neglect and laziness and cheating and stealing and… all taken by him on the Cross. Borne by him, our righteous King. And we stand united in Him, the church his glorious family, full of love and hope and righteousness and truth.

Jesus is our King now.

4. 12:1-6 Our response: Joyful obedience!

And as his people we should be like him. What does that look like? Well, not like Israel in Isaiah’s time! Actually, we should be like our Spirit-filled King. Turn with me to Gal 5 to see what that looks like.

Ga 5:22–26 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.

What should our lives look like under King Jesus’ banner?
Well, these are some of the things a Christian will be, just taking a few of the fruits of the Spirit:

Love: putting Christ first, and serving others. I love Jesus so I serve my wife, even if I feel like she “owes” me. I love Jesus so I serve my kids even when they annoy me. That service can mean getting up off the sofa to deal with their disobedience. Love is seen in action! I love Jesus so I share the gospel. I love Jesus so I invite people to my home. I love Jesus so I…

Peace: Not causing fights. Looking to reconcile but in truth. Do you have hatred for someone? How can you be like Jesus and take the step to make right?

Faithful: Committed to the right things. Committed in church. Committed to your wife! And that includes sexually purity. Things like not watching pornography. Not having sex with anyone other than their wife. Having sex often with their wife! (If you are having sex with a not-wife – then repentance means stopping. If you’re not married, get married. If you’re married to someone else, you need to confess your sin.)

Gentle: Not given to outbursts of anger. Not being cruel or harsh with your kids or co-workers or wife or anyone else. Not being cutting with your words, belittling people, hurting them with your words. Even on Facebook. Even with your enemies. Even with groups of people like “the Muslims” or “the refugees” or “the Norwegians” or “NAV” or whatever. Let us speak like Christ.

Now remember this is not something that we have to ACHIEVE and then God will like me. You know, you need 20 “love points” and 15 “faithfulness” points to enter the church. This is a by-product of being a Christian. We are with our King and his Spirit starts to change us.

Because this is what we will have if we are with Jesus, and this is hard to fake: Joy! Yes, we should be bursting with joy. We are saved! Jesus is King! There is hope for the nations! Hallelujah

Praise Jesus that there is hope in this world! That his promises still stand. That he is a safe port when the storms rage about us. I think there is no better way to respond than to say the words of chapter 12 together. I have written them on the screen as well.

Let’s stand and say together: “I will praise you, O LORD! You were angry with me, but not any more. Now you comfort me.
2 See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The LORD GOD is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.”
3 With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!
4 “Thank the LORD! Praise his name! Tell the nations what he has done. Let them know how mighty he is!
5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done wonderful things. Make known his praise around the world.
6 Let all [his] people…shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.”

Let’s raise our voices with the faithful people of God across the world and throughout history from before Isaiah’s time, with Isaiah in his time, and all the way until today – millions praising God! Let’s sing “see what a morning”. What a mighty, amazing, God we serve. The God who saves us. The God who gives us hope and a secure future. Praise God.

Easter Sunday 2015

We all have a sense of the divine. Of their being something more than just what we see or hear or touch. We can feel a greater purpose, a greater meaning behind life. This life is not all there is. There is more to our lives than just what we see.

Throughout history many have come claiming a revelation from God or a revelation about the spiritual or our greater purpose. Nitsche, Russel, the unknown founders of Hinduism and Shinto, Muhammad, Bhudda Guatama, Zoroast, and so on, to the modern TV evangelist who sees in your future that you will give money to him for his new jet....

But 2000 years ago a man came on the scene who did not claim a revelation about God or a revelation from God – he claimed to BE the revelation of God. To know him was to know God. Repent and believe he said, for the Kingdom of God is here. That’s how he started his ministry! What a ridiculous claim! God’s Kingdom is here. Ha. You? The King of the Kingdom? Ha.
But there was power – this man, Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth – he had power. Power to heal, power over evil spirits. Power over even creation. Be still he says to a storm – and it was still. Have you tried that? He walked on water, he produced food out of thin air. This was no magic trick, some illusion that fooled the simple backwater peoples – no. The best brains from Jerusalem came down to find him out. Those who could sniff out a faulty argument or a false teaching – those who could spot a law breakers and a blasphemer from a mile away – keen minds, sharpened by years of religious inquisition… and they were stumped, nonplussed, amazed, confused. How can this be? They could not deny his power, but they could not agree with his claims- he saves sinners! He claims to forgive sins! He hangs out with the scum: law-.breakers and sinners, not good people like us. So they decided to kill him.

But that was expected. Jesus said so. Told his disciples that is why he came:- it was planned by the decree of God, as revealed to his prophets hundreds of years before: by his stripes we are healed.

And so he willingly went to his death – this man of power who merely spoke his name and the soldiers fell over, who had power to tall the ground to open up and swallow them – Jesus went willingly to his death. And he died

And it was all over.

The disciples, his followers, were all depressed. They thought he was the Messiah, the rescuer, but he clearly wasn’t. He was dead. Oh, he had said he’d rise again, but who believed that?

And then he rose from the dead. And that changed everything.

He had power... over death! He suddenly was not just a man, but clearly the Living God – the one from outside who had control over what happens here on earth. He had power over creation because he was the Creator. And the amazing message he came with was not that he had come to destroy us, but that he had come to forgive us. He had come to bridge the gap between us and him. He had come to make himself known so that we could KNOW God. And not only know him, but live with him as our God. The resurrection changes everything.

In 1 John 1:1 the Apostle John (apostle means a close friend and follower of Jesus), writes We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He [Jesus] is the Word of life.

But surely it was just a myth? It can’t actually be true. Can it?

Well, let’s examine some of the common objections to the resurrection.

Myth no. 1 “It was made up by Emperor Constantine in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, the first Church Council”. This is very popular – Dan Brown used it in his novels, and if you type it into Google you’ll get a massive amount of websites claiming this to be the SECRET TRUTH NOW REVEALED. The fact that they’re all wrong doesn’t stop them. It makes a great story – but doesn’t fit the facts. This theory was popularised in the early 1900’s and gained some ground because we didn’t have any documents from before the Council of Nicaea. So it could be possible, however unlikely, that Constantine managed to change the beliefs of 318 bishops plus all the Christians of the time who up until that moment had been willing to die for their beliefs (and over 800 000 had already died for their faith – the first 300 years of Christianity was martyrdom and persecution) but these people who had stood strong suddenly caved into the Emperor, claim those who like this theory. So, not very likely. Do you think Obama could call all the Christians in the US together and say “we’re changing Christianity”. How well do you think that would work?
And, anyway, in the last 100 years or so we’ve discovered nearly 100 manuscripts from before 325. And these manuscripts had exactly the same text as the manuscripts after 325, and indeed the same as our Bibles today. Oh dear.

So the theory that Constantine just made Jesus up to unite Rome is just wrong. The evidence points the other way. It is not possible for him to have made it up.

Myth no. 2 “The disciples made it up.”
Okay. Why?

There’s nothing in it for them. They gain nothing by it. All of them were persecuted, tortured, rejected for it. They gained no power, no wealth. In the gospel narratives – which they are supposed to have made up – they look like complete idiots! Would you do that? I’m going to make up a story to give me power, but in the story I will look like an absolute fool, get everything wrong and even abandon my God.
This myth “they just made it up” has no plausibility. There is no motive for the disciples, no upside, no gain.

The other problem is that in their supposedly made up story everything happens publically. Their main character Jesus: his death happens in a major city - Jerusalem – not some deserted cave. And so does his resurrection! What’s more, they claim multiple people seeing Jesus after his resurrection – around 500 at one time! All it takes is going to speak to one of these people and asking “is it true” “no it was made up” -. And the whole thing comes crashing down

“Oh the disciples made it up” sounds good, but as soon as you start to examine it just falls apart. It fails the test of plausibility – where’s their motivation? It fails the literature test – because people didn’t write historical fiction like we do today. That style of writing has developed over hundreds of years – the gospel writers doing it would be astounding – in literary terms like discovering the atom 2000 years ago.
And if they were so clever they would have made it more convincing for their audience: they had huge cultural problems, like women being the eye-witnesses of Jesus’ death and resurrection – women weren’t even considered reliable witnesses in a court of law at the time – so why would you have them as your first eye-witnesses in a story you’re making up – unless, embarrassingly so, it was the truth. I could go on – there are many such details in the gospel narratives that make it highly unlikely that the disciples made it up. They really did see Jesus die, and they really did see Jesus risen from the grave. As I read from John’s letter “We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands”.

Ummm, but maybe they hallucinated, or really, really wanted it to be true that they forced themselves to believe it. Or maybe Jesus just swooned on the cross, not actually died, and then reappeared to them….

Do any of those sound convincing? Sounds like someone desperately looking for a reason to reject Jesus other than the real reason: I want to be God in my life, and so I don’t like it when the real God makes himself known. So I block my ears and make up stories...

Mass hallucinations? Maybe once, for 11 guys in a room, maybe smoking some weed. Yeah, man, I see Jesus…. But Peter’s out fishing and Jesus calls to him. Peter’s given up, you see, as a failure – he betrayed Jesus before his death. So he thinks even if Jesus is risen from the dead, he won’t have me. He wasn’t wanting to see Jesus! So he goes fishing. And then a figure calls to him from the beach. “Peter!” And Peter rows the boat closer. It’s Jesus. And they talk, and have breakfast together. Later 500 people see Jesus. And later still they are all gathered together and Jesus rises up into the sky after telling them to make disciples. For forty days Jesus appeared to different people at different times – once on the road to Emmaus, a village a few hours walk from Jerusalem, and then immediately after that, to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem. How’d he get there so fast?

And his appearances weren’t like a man in the shadows speaking in a muffled voice saying “hey, I’m Jesus”. No, he was amongst them saying touch me, feel the scars in my hands and feet, he was with them in daylight on the beach eating breakfast, and he was with them on the mountaintop in Galilee when he rose up to heaven before their very eyes. He was not a ghost because they could touch him, touch his hands and feet. He was not a twin or some other weird trick – he really had died on the cross because here was the wound in his side where the spear had pierced him. Here were the scars from the nails driven through his hands. It was Jesus. The same Jesus who had died.

But, but maybe Jesus swooned (fainted) on the cross. Yes, and the Roman soldiers didn’t know the difference between a man who has fainted and a man who is dead? Oh, and they stabbed him in the side with a spear to make sure. And then they wrapped him in a burial shroud. So this theory means that you believe that a man beaten to a pulp, crucified, then stabbed and bleeding, regained consciousness two days later in a cold dark tomb, fought his way out of the burial cloths, rolled away the huge stone, overpowered the guards, then broken, bleeding, half dead, appeared to his disciples... and they responded “my Lord and my God”.
Then you must have great faith indeed. And if you then say oh, the disciples made it grander then the question is why? Again, they have no good motivation to tell this story unless it is the truth. The only plausible rational reasonable explanation is that this man Jesus truly was who he said he was: God Himself. Come from the outside to us to reveal God to us and to open the way so that we could know him.

In the gospel of Luke, Luke writes to his sponsor, Theophilus “Many people have set out to write accounts about the events that have been fulfilled among us. 2 They used the eyewitness reports circulating among us from the early disciples. 3 Having carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I also have decided to write a careful account for you, most honourable Theophilus, 4 so you can be certain of the truth of everything you were taught.”

Any other questions?

What’s your objection? Because you do have one. You must have one to explain it way because otherwise you are forced to consider the truth. That Jesus really is the revelation of the living God. That he made you. That you belong to him. And that the only rational, logical thing to do it to serve him.

You know when a building is demolished, there’s the moment when the demolitions guy presses the button and you hear whooom and see a bit of smoke – and then nothing happens. There’s a pause. The building’s foundation has been blown away but it’s still standing, just for a moment. And then WHOOOOOMFFF it collapses in a huge pile of rubble and dust.

Well, the cross was that explosion on the foundation of this world. Jesus’ death and resurrection blew out any ideas we might have that there is no God. And we live now in the pause, the pause before the fall – before Jesus returns, this time not as Saviour, but as Judge. We live in the pause before the fall. And in this pause, we have an opportunity to be rescued. To know God, and to serve him living a life of great meaning and purpose.

Two implications, two results of Jesus’ death and resurrection being true:

1. We can know God!

I started off by saying that we all have a sense of the divine – of there being something or someone out there. Something more to life. Well, Jesus confirms that. “Here I am” he says. “You cannot reach me – so I have reached down to you.” And through his death and his resurrection we can know God – personally. Each of us.

Because the reason we can’t know God is because we have sinned against him. Like a barrier between us and God, my rebellion, my sin, my pretending to be God and ignoring the real God, means I cannot know him. I am cut off from him. I cannot reach him. Even if I try to be really really good, the Bible says it is no use. He is perfect. I am not. He is holy, I am unholy. Religion is a waste of time. Being good is useless. We cannot know God

Praise God that he then did what we could not. He bridged the gap, broke open the barrier, so that we could know him.

Every other religion or worldview says do! You must do this or do that to achieve a higher consciousness or be a better person or please God or the gods. Christianity does not say “do” it says “done”. Christ said on the cross “It is finished” it is done – and then proved it by rising from the dead.

Because of what Christ has done, we can know God! He has wiped away our sins, covered over our filth (like the donkey on Friday, remember?), paid the penalty for our rebellion of God and our ignoring Him. It is done. We don’t have to do anything to try to win God’s favour – it is done. He did it. It is His gift to us.

We can know God. You can know God.

2. Our life has great meaning and purpose

The fact that there is a God means that our lives are not just lived out here, on this stage, and we die to be eaten by worms and eventually forgotten. Jesus reveals that our lives are lived before Almighty God: before Him. He is raised up, seated on the throne in Heaven. Everything we do reflects back on our relationship – or lack of relationship – with him. We are eternal creatures, created with a spark of the divine – we are created, made to be with God. And so what we do here matters. In the movie Gladiator the main character Maximus utters a great line just before they ride into battle “What we do in life echoes in eternity”
“What we do in life echoes in eternity”
It’s true. What is your life echoing into eternity? Are you bringing glory to God? Is every moment of your life consumed with Him, honouring him, bringing him glory, doing what you were created to do?

Or are you in rebellion against him? Ignoring him? Bringing glory to you and your petty and small ambitions?

Because everything is done. The way to know God is open. But just like getting married or having kids - or even getting a dog - changes your life, knowing God changes things completely. You now live life in a different reality. The reality of heaven and hell. Ter reality of eternity.

Be warned, dear friends. Heaven and hell are real. The resurrection shows that. Jesus went through the pain of death – to rescue us from HELL. He believed in Hell. He knows it. Where is your life leading you? What is your echo in eternity? Heaven? Or Hell? Are you trusting and obeying Christ? Or yourself?

And are we telling others this? This is real, this is urgent! People around us are dying and going to hell! Jesus came to DIE in order to rescue people from Hell and we claim to be his followers yet can’t be bothered to even tell people. Risk inviting our neighbours to church because ooo they might think I’m weird. On that Final Day when we see them condemned to Hell will we still be worried about what they think of us? I say this to myself, to increase the pressure on myself to not be so apathetic, so lazy, to get myself to do what I know I should. This is reality. God forgive us for our laziness and disobedience! Praise Jesus that he came to die for sinners like us, that even our failures are taken care of – but that should drive us to proclaim all the louder!

I heard a story recently of a woman who’d just become a Christian. Overjoyed she said “does this mean I’m forgiven. Completely forgiven?” “yes, Jesus has taken your guilt and shame”. Overjoyed she just was bursting to tell people, and so opened her phone book and starting ringing systematically, every single person in her phone book to tell the joyous news: Jesus is alive, and he has forgiven me, and he can accept you too!

This Easter, let us be gripped by the joy of the good news: Christ really DID rise from the dead, and so we can know God, and live a life filled with meaning and purpose – a life lived in the reality of eternity, a life lived with heaven and hell in mind. Friends, as we go out this door, may God grant that we see this world, see our friends, neighbours work colleagues and family through his eyes – eyes that saw people heading to hell to eternal death – and so he came Himself to die, to rise again, to rescue us. Amen.