The End - Stand Alone

Wow. Hey, uh, when I was, when I was little, I didn't, I didn't grow up thinking when I die I'm going to become an angel or float around and play harps on clouds. But I did grow up thinking when I die, I go to heaven forever. And it wasn't until I got into my twenties and, uh, I heard about what really happens, what eternity really is. And I, and I had two simultaneous reactions. I remember it so distinctly. I remember thinking a little bit angry, like, why did nobody tell me this before? And at the same time thinking, this is the best thing ever. This is so much better than, than floating around in some ethereal cloud forever. And so what we're going to do today is we're going to look at the end. We're going to fast forward all the way to the end, and we're going to look at Revelation chapter 21. And so if you would, would you please stand for the reading of God's word? This is Revelation 21, verse 1. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the springs of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. This is the Word of the Lord. Father, we thank you so much for your Word. You said in Revelation that we would be blessed by the reading and the hearing of the Word, and so Lord, would you bless the reading and the hearing of your Word? Would your Spirit come and lift these words that were written a couple thousand years ago and lift them off the page and write them on our heart and make them living and active in our life? Lord, you said

your Word would never return void, but it would do exactly what you wanted it to. You would accomplish it. So Lord, we're asking you to do that. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. You can be seated. So you may be thinking, like, why are we jumping all the way to the end of the story? Like, we just celebrated the birth of Jesus. We were all the way at the beginning of the story, and now we're going to go all the way to the end, and then next week we're going to begin almost the entire year, a study in the book of Matthew of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And so why go all the way to the end now? And the answer, there's a couple answers to that. One is, they're all connected. I mean, one is that Christians, for almost 2,000 years, when we have celebrated Christmas, Christmas we've celebrated almost, it's like a two-sided coin. One side of it is that Jesus came as a baby. The other way Christians have celebrated Christmas... is that Jesus will come again as King. And so for us to really finish celebrating Christmas, we need to talk about the coming King Jesus. The other way this is connected is that we need to see as we study the life of Jesus, we need to see where this entire thing is heading because it doesn't end where the book of Matthew ends in the account, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In fact, if you go all the way to the end in Matthew 28, 20, Jesus says his final words and he says, I am with you always to the end of the age. And so what does that end of the age look like? And then here's the thing is, when you begin to talk about end times, most people get stuck on how we're gonna get there. They talk about things like pre-tribulation and post-tribulation and pre-millennium

and post-millennium and if you don't know what those words mean, you can go look them up some other time, but here's what happens is we get stuck in how we're gonna get there. And we often never get to the best part of the discussion is what is it gonna be like when we get there? So what I want us to look at is the best part is when we get there, what will it be like? And as we step into this new year, most of us are kind of starting with right now, aren't we? Like, I don't like the weight that I have on right now or I wish, you know, whatever, my job right now. We kind of start with here, but have you ever heard the saying, start with the end in mind? What I would love for us to do is kind of cast our eyes out to the end and then reverse engineer our life back. So Revelation 21, one says this, then I saw, so a little bit of context. Jesus is giving John, the apostle John, a vision and he's on the Isle of Patmos. He's an old man, he's imprisoned on this island. So John says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Here's the thing, heaven, as we often talk about it, is it's an intermediate state. Like when, if you are a follower of Jesus, if you believe in Jesus, place your faith in Jesus,

when you die, your body goes into the ground and then your soul goes into the presence of Jesus. Today, you will be with me in paradise. That's what he told one of the men next to him when he's on the cross. But you won't spend forever in heaven. And I know that sounds like a shocker, but there's something so much better that awaits us. Here's the thing, one day, Jesus will return to earth and everything will be renewed. Like when he says in here, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first time. A new heaven and a new earth. That Greek word is kainos. It doesn't mean replaced, like I'm gonna go get a new truck, a whole different thing. What it really, it means renewed. And when Jesus says it will pass away, it doesn't mean that it's gonna be obliterated, burned up. Jesus is not surrendering his creation to sin and Satan. He's not gonna do that. He's not gonna light it on fire, torch it, and walk away and start over with a whole other thing. I love this, in George Ladd's commentary on the book of Revelation, he says this. Biblical thought always places men on a redeemed earth, not in a heavenly realm removed from earthly existence. The best way I can think about this is to think of the word resurrection. That when Jesus was resurrected,

it was still his same body. Like it was Jesus. You could see scars. You could touch. But then there was something categorically different about Jesus when he was resurrected. Like they're on the road to Emmaus and they don't recognize him because Jesus is in this resurrected, glorified body. And 1 Corinthians 15 tells us that what happens to Jesus will happen to his followers. That he's like the first fruits of this resurrection. And so think about this. Why would Jesus be bodily resurrected? resurrected. And why would scripture promise us a bodily resurrection if we're gonna spend eternity as disembodied souls floating around in some theory? It doesn't make sense. But it makes perfect sense when you consider that Jesus was physically, perfectly, bodily resurrected. And that you and I, as followers of Jesus, will be perfectly, bodily resurrected, spending eternity in a perfectly, physically renewed earth with the resurrected, perfect, bodily Jesus. I mean, just imagine for a minute, like actual mountains, actual rivers, deserts, trees, bodies. Like eternity in the new heaven and the new earth, it will be physical, really physical. So he says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Now, in ancient history, the sea, when he says the sea was no more, he doesn't mean that there won't be any oceans anymore. Sea was like turmoil and chaos and danger and death. I remember when I was in college, I was about 19 years old, 20 years old, a group of us took, I remember it was a 26-foot center console sport fishing boat, and we took it from West Palm over to the Abacos in the Bahamas. Why my parents let a group of us do that, I have no idea. But we left out of West Palm, it was calm, it was beautiful, and we get, it's like a highway, the boats go back and

forth across this little passage. We get about a third of the way there, and all of a sudden, this massive swell starts rolling in, and it turns into about 8 to 10 feet of these facing seas. And I remember being in that boat, and you would go down in the trough, and you would come up over the sea, and I remember thinking, I have no idea what's on the other side of that. And I thought, this is where it all ends. It's been a good 19 years, I'll die on a fishing boat, it'll be great. It was terrifying. And so when he says there will be no sea, what he means is that it will be total peace. The eternity in the new heaven and the new earth will be totally, it'll be physical, and it will be totally at peace. I mean, imagine total peace forever. Imagine no stress, no anxiety, no jealousy, no fear, no doubt, no drama, no road rage, no turmoil, no arguments, no misunderstandings with anyone. No war, no terrorism, no violence, no TSA screenings. Imagine, some of you that are under 40, you live this, so just ignore this, but those of you over 40, imagine a whole night's sleep without waking up and your mind racing. There's one part, amen. You can't even fathom it, that's why you didn't clap. Like, I haven't seen a whole night's sleep in a decade. Imagine sitting on the beach, and I won't use the word that I think when this person does it. Imagine sitting on the beach, and some joker doesn't come and sit six feet away from you when the entire beach is open. And imagine they don't crank up their radio, and they don't light up a cigarette. Total peace. Imagine Christmas without the weird in-law dynamic. I'm not even talking bad, I'm just talking, you know what I'm saying, there's just that sort of hum underneath. Like, everything and everyone is in a right relationship with God. Total peace. And it's that way because, think about this, chaos and the sovereignty of Jesus in person cannot exist in the same place. That Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and wherever the Prince of Peace rules and reigns, there is nothing but peace. Like, he defeated sin and Satan, and so there are no enemies. There is no sin to cause rebellion and discord. All there is, is peace. I saw a new, I saw a holy city. Verse two, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. It's not us going up.

You have to keep that in mind. Coming down out of heaven, prepared as a bride or, or adorned. When I think of Kristen on our wedding day, it makes me lose my words. Prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. I mean, Kristen and I were talking about this the other day. Before our wedding, it was 1999, we got married. Before our wedding, I remember I was, I think leaving the hotel. Maybe she was coming in to the hotel and it was that afternoon. And I remember I was in my tuxedo pants and I think it was a t-shirt or a button. I don't know what it was. And then she comes walking out and she's in shorts and she's got this denim button down shirt and her hair and her makeup and her veil is all on. And I remember like we turned the corner and looked at each other. And I remember just thinking, there's nothing more beautiful in all of creation. Until I stood at the end of the aisle and then I watched those doors open up. And I thought, there it is, perfect. Like the thing that I love when I do weddings, I love, I'll stand there, the groom will be right here and we'll be sitting there and we'll be waiting. And what I love to do is I love to look at the groom as soon as the door opens up.

Because it's the same reaction every time. They're thinking, that's beautiful, that's perfect. I don't know how I did that. And when he says bride, that's what he means. Like the people of God is the bride of Christ. And the eternity and the new heaven and the new earth will be flawlessly perfect. I mean, it's all over scripture. Isaiah 62, five says, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Matthew 25, one, Jesus says, then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamp and went out to meet the bridegroom. Ephesians five describes the church as the bride of Christ. And I love this in Revelation 19, verse seven. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. Imagine what flawless perfection for all eternity would be like. Like no temptation, no sin, no Satan, no demons, nothing ever breaks, nothing ever rusts, nothing ever wears out, nothing ever tires out. There's no sickness.

There's no bad test results and diagnosis. There's no medication. There's no doctors. Sorry, doctors. I mean, you'll be there. You just won't get to practice medicine. I don't get to preach, so we'll hang out together. I don't know what we'll do. Imagine a perfect sunrise with a perfect cup of coffee and perfect waves. Imagine the perfect meal with the perfect glass of wine. I mean, imagine the temperature perfect for everybody in the truck, no matter where they are. I know some of you are fancy and you got like the dials all over the place. Good for you. But imagine that. Like imagine every animal, every plant, every person, every molecule working as it was designed to work. Everything working perfectly. to the praise of a perfect God. I love this quote, a friend of mine gave me this quote. It's by a guy named Anthony Hokema. Now just kind of let your mind run for a second when you hear this, this is what he writes. The possibilities that now arise before us boggle the mind. Will there be better Beethovens on the new earth? Better Rembrandts, better Raphaels? Shall we read better poetry, better drama, better prose? Will scientists continue to advance

in technological achievement? Will geologists continue to dig out the treasures of the earth? And will architects continue to build imposing and attractive structures? Will there be exciting new adventures in space travel? Our culture will glorify God, our cultures will glorify God in ways that will surpass our most fantastic dreams. Do you know why perfection, flawless perfection will be the new heaven and the new earth? Because Jesus is perfect. And nothing imperfect will be in his presence. His perfection will drive out everything that isn't perfect. Verse 38, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. And he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. Does our kids get older? We have one that's graduated college, one that's in college, and as Kristen and I start to think about where will our kids end up, and Kristen has been like, I don't know where you're gonna live, Adam, I'm living wherever our kids and grandkids live. You're free to join me if you want. Look what he says, he says that the dwelling place of God is with man, with them, with God. He says to them that God will be personally present with us,

not some sense that he's present with us, no, he physically will be present with us. Like maybe you've asked, will I get to see, will I get to see God face to face? Revelation 22, four says they will see his face forever. Forever. And it's not that we'll be with God, it's that God will be with us. That the whole Bible is about God coming to be with us, not us working our way to go up to try to be with him. Think about it, when God creates humanity, he gets, it's like he's face to face with them and breathes life into them. Through the desert, he's with them, a cloud, pillar of fire. Tower of Babel comes along, here's humanity trying to build its way up into the heavens and what does God do? No, that's not what I want for you. I don't want you to try to build your way up to me because I'm coming down to you. God builds a tabernacle, he says here's a tabernacle, why? Because I want to dwell with you. Jesus is born, why? Because God is coming to us, to be with us. His name means, is Emmanuel, God with us. That wasn't a name he would once have. He always will have that. The Holy Spirit is God in us, with us. The whole trajectory of the thing is God with us.

So why? Why do we take the arc of all of history, God with us, and then when we think about the end, we flip it around and somehow all of a sudden it becomes us with God. Listen, it's not us with God, it's God with us. It's not we ascend to God, it's God condescends, God descends, comes down to us. It's not that God receives man, it's that man receives God. That eternity and the new heaven and the new earth will be personal presence. I mean, imagine what total personal presence will be like forever. Like no, No separation between you and God at all. No feeling distant between you and God at all. No wondering what God is doing. Church says we see through like a glass dimly, like we can't really tell what's really going on. But imagine you don't have any of that veiled, any of that clouded. Like imagine the awe that will come from being face to face with God forever. And the great reward of the new heaven and the new earth is that you and I get Jesus. Like if you have an imagination of your eternity and it's everything you ever hoped and dreamed but you don't have Jesus, you missed it all. The reason eternity and the new heaven and the new earth is so great

is because Jesus is in the middle of it all. And the reason that it will be personal presence forever is because Jesus died for our sins and he rose victoriously. And when he died, do you remember this in the scriptures that when Jesus died, the veil is torn. And when Jesus is resurrected and when he comes again, there will be no veil between us and God. It'll be perfect access, perfect face to face forever. Verse four, I love this. He, God, will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying or pain anymore for the former things have passed away. In the last six months, I've had two really good friends die. Like really good friends die. And it's been rough. Like I'll just be sitting there sometimes, like at home and a football game will come on and then all of a sudden, one of them will come to mind. And it's just like tears start rolling down my cheeks. And in the new heaven and the new earth, there will be no more dying or death. I mean, think about this. Listen to what it says. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. That Jesus himself, I don't know how this is gonna work out. You're there, the new heaven and the new earth and you're in your new body and maybe you're there

and you've got the kind of the remnants of those tears. I don't know, just imagine for a minute. And Jesus walks over like a mom to a little child and he himself puts his thumb on your cheek and just goes, no more tears. And you never cry again. You never hurt again. There's no more mourning. There's no more pain. There's none of that, it's all gone because in eternity in the new heaven and the new earth will be complete happiness in Jesus. I mean, imagine what that'll be like. No one dies. You don't ever get that call in the middle of the night. You never go to another funeral. There are no more fresh graves. There's no sadness, no loss, no ending, no emptiness, no heartbreak. Like your work is joyful, fulfilling, meaningful. There's no cancer. There's no backaches. There's no allergies. There's no migraines. Only and always life and life to the fullest in Jesus. And God is totally glorified in our complete satisfaction in Jesus. And the reason that that can happen, that there will be no more tears and no more pain and no more crying and no more sickness and no more mourning,

none of that is because Jesus died. He paid the price for all of that. It's done, it's finished. Like the wages of sin is death. That's what scripture says. But there is. no more sin. Think about that. Jesus died and paid for all the sin. Therefore there will be no more sin, which means there will be no more death. Psalm 16, 11, I read this this morning. In your presence, this is David talking to God. In your presence, there is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. I mean, you and I, we can't even begin to conceive of what pleasures forevermore is like and yet that is the reality in the new heaven and the new earth. And he who is seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. And he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I'm the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. Listen to this, to the thirsty, I will give from the springs of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son.

That eternity in the new heaven and the new earth will be fully accomplished. Look what he says, I am making all things new. I'm the alpha, I'm the beginning of it all and I'm the omega, I'm the end of it all. And then over and over again, I will, I will, I will. He will, do you hear that? That this is a fully accomplished thing in Jesus. I mean, imagine what secure accomplishment, fully accomplished forever will be like. Like nothing is left undone, nothing is unfinished, nothing is incomplete. There's no wishing, there's no wanting, there's no hoping anymore. Why? Because it is done. When he says that, does that sound like another phrase you've heard before? It is finished. It's what Jesus says on the cross. And here when he says it's done, it's accomplished, that you can trust that everything has been fully secured for all eternity accomplished because Jesus died and rose again victorious. Now let's talk about verse eight. But for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, okay. Idolaters and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

Now that lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death, that's hell. That is eternal conscious torment away from the perfect personal presence of God forever. Listen, there's a lot, I don't know if you've seen this, there's a lot going around on the internet right now that like you don't go to hell forever. And I'm sorry, it's not true. Hell is forever, it is eternal. It's conscious and it is payment. And I know you're thinking like, gosh, isn't that a little extreme? Yes, because sin is extreme. I don't think we think enough about how serious our sin is in this thing. It's so serious that it costs the son of God his life. I know, I love you too much to, I could have ended this at verse seven, we all could have gone home, yeah. But I love you too much to not tell you the seriousness of what's going on here. It's the cow. cowardly, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars who will be in this lake of fire forever. The problem is, we're all all those things. I mean, have you ever had a chance to speak up for your faith and you step back? Coward, me too. I mean, have you ever been detestable?

That's a word. Done some things that are detestable. Murderer, you're like, nope, never murdered anybody except for Jesus said, if you hate somebody, you murdered somebody. Whoops, there we go. Sexually immoral, you're like, I have been pure. I only slept with my wife except for Jesus said, if you look at somebody else, you committed adultery. Idolaters, you created God in your own image. You elevated a good thing to a God thing. You lied. The fact that you say you aren't doing any of this, liar. And so how do we live in the new heaven and the new earth forever? If Jesus says, those people won't be there. And listen, it can seem like only good moral people are in the new heaven and the new earth and all the bad immoral people go to hell. But if that's the case, the new heaven and the new earth are empty and nobody is there. There are no good people in the new heaven and the new earth, only forgiven people. That's who's there. And that's really good news for you and for me. Our works and our behavior and our morals don't earn us the way there. It's only by faith in Jesus who has done everything, who has been the perfect one on our behalf that we're there. We conquer not because we conquer our sin,

we conquer because Jesus conquered our sin on our behalf. He died in our place. He rose victorious. He conquers and when you place your faith in Jesus, what happens is that you are in him and what is his becomes yours. His victory becomes your victory. And so you conquer and the way you are there is by faith, faith in the son of God. And so here's how we're gonna respond. One is if you've never placed your faith in Jesus, then I would invite you to do that because I know you're gonna do that. Because I would love nothing more than to spend forever in the new heaven and the new earth with you. Listen, Jesus says, to the thirsty, I will give, that's a promise, not you will earn, I will give from the springs of the water of life without payment. He's saying, if you will place your faith in Jesus, here's what you get. You get life, eternal life without you paying for it at all because he paid for it fully on the cross. It is paid for, it is finished, it is done. And so I would invite you to receive Jesus's payment on your behalf. He says, I'm giving this to you, will you receive it? And maybe for the first time today, you would receive that gift of God

and you would step into the assurance that you will live in the new heaven and the new earth with Jesus. That you will live in the new heaven and the new earth face-to-face to the praise and glory of God. And then we're gonna worship, like we're gonna kind of step into the thin space for a minute, like then is now. I love this in Revelation 22. Here's kind of how this whole, the last words of this whole book go. Oh, verse seven, Jesus says, behold, I'm coming soon. Verse 12, behold, I'm coming soon. Verse 17, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and the bride, the church say, come, and let the one who hears say, come. And then look at verse 20. Here are the closing words of scripture. He who testifies to these things, Jesus, says, surely I'm coming soon. And then it says, amen, come, Lord Jesus. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna join in this, and we're gonna worship, and we're gonna sing, and we're gonna praise God, and we're gonna say, come, come. There's no fear, it's welcome, come, Lord Jesus. So would you bow your heads, and would you pray with me? And if for the first time, you would like to receive the gift of life eternal from Jesus without payment,

you believe that when he died on the cross, he paid for you, would you raise your hand right now? Raise it up high as if you're saying, I receive that gift, I believe in you, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior. Come on. Heavenly Father, thank you for the words that we read today. Lord, fill us with hope on this side of eternity. Fill us with assurance on this side of eternity, and fix our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and the perfecter of our faith. Thank you that you are coming. Lord, we look forward to the new heaven and the new earth. Thank you for the gift of life eternal from Jesus. Lord, we look forward to the new heaven and the new earth. So Lord, may we worship you as people who look forward to that time. Lord, may we live in this new year out of that vision of the end, that reality of the end. It's for your glory, your fame. Amen. Would you stand? Let's worship together. We're gonna sing. We're gonna bring our first and best because God gave us his first and best in Jesus. And we're gonna pray. Maybe you need to sing or pray what is around the throne of God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty

who is and was and is to come. Maybe you need to come down and fall on your face before Jesus who secured it all for you. Let's worship together.