Title: Community-Eternal Church (Where Are We Headed)
Place: BLCC
Date: 3/5/17
Text: Isaiah 65.17; Acts 3.21; Revelation 21.1-4
CT: The Church will continue eternally starting now.
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FAS: Say the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever.
Amen.
In their book Next Door As It Is in Heaven, authors Lance Ford and Brad Briscoe discuss the profound loneliness people are regularly experiencing in our world—and the subsequent (and sobering) sense that they have very little value at all. Sadly, many of us contribute to this loneliness and lack of self-worth as we move throughout our day, rarely even lifting our heads to offer a simple greeting. Ford and Briscoe contrast our relational aloofness with the daily practice author Peter Senge noticed among the tribes of northern Natal in South Africa:
The most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, [Screen 2]"I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, [Screen 3] "I am here." The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It's as if, when you see me, you bring me into existence.
"A deep truth resides in this cultural practice," Ford and Briscoe observe. "When we merely move throughout our days without seeing people as people, then as far as it matters to us in that moment, they really don't exist. … [But] being conscious of how we approach people we encounter through the normal routines of our day is a step toward bringing … heaven here on our patch of earth."
Lance Ford & Brad Briscoe, Next Door As It Is In Heaven (NavPress, 2016), page 76; submitted by Brian Lowery, Avon, Indiana.
LS: We as followers of Christ should see our fellow followers as being with us on this journey that will never end. When we pray on earth as it is in heaven we begin to understand what this means.
This is the final week of the sermon series [Screen 4] Community. We have looked at what God would want the church to be. We have tried to discern what Jesus would want us to do as a church.
Today I shift gears a little bit to try and look ahead to what the Bible says about where we as the church are going.
Let me say up front that the Bible does not give a precise, indisputable, clear roadmap of end times to come. Many try to tell you it does but it doesn’t. Only God knows. That is why there are so many different theories and predictions that fall through.
My goal today is to see what the future of the church, the followers of Jesus, and the Body of Christ looks like according to the Bible.
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As a preacher I get to talk with people who struggle with the day to day struggles that years of life and sickness have weighed down on them. I had one precious lady tell me just a couple of weeks ago she was ready to go home. Oh she knew she wasn’t going back to the house she once lived in. It was no longer. She was speaking of the home she longed for with her Lord.
Its ok to yearn for home isn’t it? I myself think of younger days when times seemed a bit slower and easier. When mom and dad took care of the tough stuff. Don’t know that they were that easy, but it seemed so for me as a young person. But as a follower of Jesus I can confidently have a newer and better outlook. Things were once better, and one day they will be better when we return home.
It is ok to yearn for home. The Apostle Paul did. [Screen 6]
We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5.8.
When we die we will be with God. That should bring some comfort and assurance to us as followers of Christ.
But, where will our home as the church ultimately be? God has an ultimate restoration project for our new home.
The Old Testament prophets talked about the day when God will restore, renew and recreate the heavens and the earth. [Screen 7]
See, I will create new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. Isaiah 65.7.
In the NT, Peter spoke of God’s restoration as he spoke to people in Jerusalem about Jesus. [Screen 8]
Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. Acts 3.21.
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Later Peter writes in his epistle 2 Peter 3.10-13, 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
12 That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
We often see heaven as purely an ethereal matter. We may see heaven as us floating among the clouds in a state of euphoric bliss. The truth is that comes from misunderstandings and cartoons like Casper the friendly ghost.
Scripture pictures the church existing after Christ’s return in a physical renewed heaven and earth. That is what it says.
Paul talks of how we wait for this new creation [Screen 10] Romans 8.19-21: 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
John the seer he is often called because he was given a glimpse into the future heaven describes “the new heaven and new earth in Rev.21.1. [Screen 11]
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 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.4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21.1-4
The church will exist in the renewed earth. And God will be there with us.
Hebrews tells us that God will destroy all that is shakable. He will destroy all that is not of His kingdom but all that is of God’s kingdom will not shake and will stand forever: [Screen 12]
26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12. 26-29.
What exists now as part of God’s kingdom?
The answer is the church, the community of followers of Christ. It is those whose names are written in the lamb’s book of life. Rev.21.27
All things not of the kingdom of God will pass away. All powers that oppose God will fall. As a result there will be no death or mourning where we as the church are going.
Jesus will return and the new earth will be there for Him. [Screen 13]
1 Thessalonians 4.16-18,
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.
NT Wright, a Christian theologian puts it this way to describe what will happen to the church. You don’t have to agree but I feel this is a good way to interpret what will be when Jesus returns. The people of that time would have seen the coming of Jesus as the emperor or king returning to his kingdom.
When the emperor visited a colony or province, the citizens would go to meet him at some distance from the city. It would be disrespectful to have him come into the city without the proper escort. After they met him they would return to the city and treat him as the king he was.
When Paul speaks of meeting the Lord in the air they will not stay up there with him as many see this scripture. They will return back to the new earth where he will be their Lord and king.
When Jesus returns the living in Christ will meet Him to escort Him back to dwell forever with us in the renewed heaven and earth. [Screen 14]
Rev.21.3-5, 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. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Jesus will be ruler of all. All will bow to him.
What does all this have to do with each of us? We as the church will be with our Lord in the new heaven and earth. This is our real home. Our real citizenship has always been here. [Screen 15]
Philippians 3.20-21, 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Until Jesus’ return, we will be with God if we die or…. we will be transformed to be like his glorious body at that time if we are still living in our fleshly bodies.
After that we are given a guarantee of what will come. [Screen 16]
Something that will never perish, spoil or fade. 1 Peter 1.4 [Screen 17]
It will be what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. 1 Cor. 2.9.
It is ours to receive as his people. We will be the church that worships God for eternity as the beings in heaven worship Him now. [Screen 18]
Revelation 4. 8-11, 8 Day and night they never stop saying:
“ ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’who was, and is, and is to come.”
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
What does this mean for us? We are to live as the kingdom on earth. We are to be his people holy and pure. We are to worship Him here just as they are worshipping now in heaven. We praise and give Him all the glory.
To do this would be impossible for any of us. We are flawed. We could never be good enough to be allowed to dwell in the new heaven and earth with God.
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Good people don’t go to dwell with God. We could never be good enough.
[Screen 20] FORGIVEN people go to dwell with God.
What we can do is accept the way God has prepared for the church.
We are to follow the one who makes us holy.
The one who took our sin and shame.
The one who took our place and took the death we deserved to make the way for us to be with God.
The one who brings our forgiveness.
To fulfill God’s desire to dwell with his beloved children, His church forever in the new heaven and earth.
CT: The Church will continue eternally starting now.
Let’s close by saying the Lord’s prayer again and paying close attention to the part that says on earth as it is in heaven. We are part of that kingdom if we follow Jesus Christ the Son.
Our Father who art in heaven.
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever.
Amen.
If we truly mean this we will begin to see the world around us more like the kingdom is in heaven as we become more like Jesus. We as his people should heal hearts. There should be no loneliness in the church if we are as in heaven minded. No sorrow should overwhelm if we are as earth as it is in heaven. Things will be different if we see earth as in heaven. Hope will be renewed. Fellowship will begin anew. Love will reign eternal.
Wont you accept this guarantee of earth as it is in heaven by becoming part of this community we call the church. We are a group of baptized believers who seek to have God’s will be right here on earth as it is in heaven.
God is saying, “I see you.” Wont you answer by saying [Screen 21] “I am here Lord.”
Bibliography:
Overdorf, Daniel. Rediscovering community: what the Bible says about the church. Joplin, MO: College Press, 2012. Print. Chapter Fifteen
