Steve Gentry
[0:00] Now, one of the topics that I consider talking about is what are the end times going to look like? [0:06] Okay, because I don’t know if you’ve been in church very long, but if you’ve been in church for a long period of time, [0:12] you’ve probably dealt with that issue of how do we know when Jesus is going to come back? Who’s the anti-Christ? [0:20] Are there really going to be guillotines when Jesus comes back? [0:25] Because I don’t know if you grew up in church. I grew up in a very traditional, what would be considered fundamentalist Baptist church. [0:33] And when I was about 10 years old, we started watching this series of films where Jesus had returned
[0:41] and he had taken his people out of the earth. And for the next seven years, everybody that didn’t get raptured [0:48] and go to heaven with Jesus is really bad. [0:52] The ACLU apparently got raptured because they reinstated capital punishment by guillotine [0:57] and they started chopping people’s heads off again. I don’t know why we would revert to that, [1:02] but apparently there wasn’t enough electricity for the chair and we ran out of medicine for lethal injection, [1:06] so guillotines are reinstated. Everyone’s getting tattoos on their forehead of the mark of the beast.
[1:12] And if you want to buy a loaf of bread, you’ve got to have the mark of the beast [1:15] or some people in a van are going to come and pick you up and then you’re going to go face the guillotine. [1:20] So when I grew up in the church, I gained this very horrific view of when Jesus was going to return. [1:31] It was more Freddy Krueger than Book of Revelation.
[1:36] So as I grew up, I did not want Jesus to come back. [1:42] Because when he came back, he was going to usher in a really weird world, [1:46] and I was worried I was going to be here for it. [1:49] And so when I was growing up, the Book of Revelation was not something that I read in order to grow in my relationship with Jesus. [1:58] It was somewhere that I went to see what the nation of Israel in the news meant according to the Scriptures. [2:05] And usually every year we would have a guy come to my church who would put a chart behind him,
[2:10] and he would show us where we were on the calendar according to 1948, [2:14] because that was a very pivotal year in Scripture, unbeknownst to God, because he didn’t put it in there. [2:23] And everything that we looked at through the Bible was through the year 1948, [2:27] and then a book came out called The Late Great Planet Earth, [2:30] where it pretty much said that 50 years after that, Jesus was going to return and he was going to take his people away. [2:36] And for the next seven years, everybody that got left behind was in trouble.
[2:40] So how did we start telling people about Jesus? [2:43] Look, you don’t want to be here for that. So believe in Jesus. [2:49] Every head bowed, every eye closed. [2:51] And that became our form of evangelism. [2:55] But over the last five weeks, as we’ve been unraveling the story of Scripture, [3:02] what we have seen is this creator and designer God who creates all that exists.
[3:10] He speaks it into existence, and it’s beautiful.
[3:16] And as he’s creating, the highlight of his creation is man. [3:21] And then very early on, man decides that he does not want to be connected to the Creator, [3:29] and he would rather be self-sufficient.
[3:34] And so over a series of choices, man rebels against God, and we’re disconnected from our life source. [3:44] And so for the next few thousand years, what we see is man in this constant state of disobedience against God. [3:53] But then right when man sins, God makes this promise. [3:57] He makes a promise to man that over the next pages of Scripture, [4:02] thousands of pages depending on the size of your font and whether or not it’s a study Bible, [4:08] God says, I’m going to defeat that rebellion.
[4:13] I’m going to redeem you. [4:16] And it’s not going to be by your hand, it’s going to be by my hand. [4:20] But what we see throughout the pages of Scripture is God showing this amazing redemptive power [4:27] in completing his purpose, and that he has made a promise, [4:32] and he throughout the Scriptures reveals to man his power to fulfill his purpose. [4:39] And he makes a promise over and over, and throughout the pages of Scripture,
[4:43] what we have is not 66 disconnected stories with chicken soup for the soul for when we’re having a bad day, [4:50] but what we have is a continuous story that God is writing through men to men, [4:56] so that we will see how he’s fulfilling his promise and what he’s going to do. [5:01] And then through these people that he has risen up, the nation of Israel, [5:05] through the bloodline of Abraham, what he does is he brings a Messiah that’s miraculous in his very existence, [5:12] because what we see in the person of Jesus is that Jesus is the total fulfillment of every promise that God has ever made.
[5:20] Because what happens is that God sees us, and he sees us in our perpetual rebellion, [5:27] and he says, they cannot redeem themselves, so I will then go redeem them myself. [5:32] And he comes in the person of Jesus, a man who’s 100% man and 100% God at the same time. [5:39] God himself living among us, telling people to follow him, [5:44] telling people like he does in Matthew 417 that his kingdom is at hand, that we must repent of our sins and follow him.
[5:52] But then we see something very interesting that God, when he makes this promise, [5:59] he really talks to Satan, who has just led man to rebel against him, and he tells Satan, he says, [6:04] Satan, you think that through man you can defeat my purpose, but I tell you that through man whom you have led away from me, [6:11] I will bring them back. Through sin, I will defeat sin, and through death, I will defeat death. [6:19] So what happens is that God uses the greatest sin that has ever happened on the planet Earth, [6:24] the murder of Jesus Christ, in order to defeat sin. And he defeats death through his own death on the cross.
[6:32] He takes the sin of mankind, lays the penalty for that onto his own son, and through that redeems man. [6:38] And then throughout this, we begin to see through the New Testament this story of how through Jesus Christ, [6:45] sin and death have been defeated. We have been redeemed from that. [6:49] But what that does is it now connects us in John 15 to the life source that we were previously disconnected from. [6:57] And now we have no more isolation between us and God, because God has come, and he has grabbed us, [7:02] and he has said, no, I’m not going to let you run anymore, I’m going to connect you back to myself.
[7:05] And now you can have a life that is not tainted by isolation from me. [7:11] And so now not only am I going to heal my relationship with you, I’m going to heal your relationship with each other. [7:16] Because when you experience connection from God, you begin to do some very strange things, like forgiving people for their faults. [7:24] Because that’s what God does through Jesus Christ. [7:27] And when you begin to live this life of not being isolated to Jesus, when people make offenses to you, [7:33] you look to them and you’re able to say, I forgive you and I love you, because your offense was put on Jesus.
[7:41] And so now we don’t live in isolation, and now we begin to live in this thing that is called the kingdom of God. [7:50] It’s this thing that the New Testament speaks of, in that those who believe in Jesus Christ can experience the first fruits of it [7:58] through the fruits of the Spirit, because God is bearing fruit through us leading his mission into other people’s lives. [8:05] That evangelism is not a program where we go knock on each other’s doors, but rather it’s a life that springs out of you as Jesus redeems you. [8:13] People notice a difference and you’re able to tell them why there’s a difference, because Jesus has come and he’s now your king. [8:20] And rather than following the plan of man, you follow the plan of God.
[8:26] And so through that, what begins to happen is you’re no longer living in isolation, [8:31] and now you can live a life in which the pain of this life is now leveraged with a hope for the next life.
[8:43] Where now, when we begin to become sick, which I hope my voice makes it, because I’m sick, [8:52] but we begin to use our illness and look at our illnesses through a new lens, we no longer have to say, [8:59] why God, why would you let me be sick? I’m a good person. I know why I’m sick, because Adam sinned. [9:06] That’s why, because I was born into sin. [9:10] And so now when I look at my sicknesses and my illness, now when we look at our cancer, [9:15] now when we look at all of these debilitating diseases that happen to people throughout the years,
[9:21] we see that this exists because sin exists, but we are redeemed from sin, yet we still get sick because of sin, [9:28] and we’re able to look at sickness and say, but I see a day when I won’t be sick anymore. [9:33] So I’m not going to live in denial of my sickness. I’m rather going to use my sickness to live for the gospel. [9:40] And tell people that through my sickness I have joy because I have the Spirit of Jesus Christ living inside of me.
[9:49] And so today, when we start unpacking what restoration actually looks like, [9:53] it’s going to be different than what we usually look at the book of Revelation. [9:58] Because the book of Revelation is not a book of terror. [10:02] Maybe you’ve been raised to think that. I hope I can change your mind today. [10:06] I’m not going to change some of your minds. That’s okay. [10:10] Just don’t go to those conferences with the charts.
[10:15] Those guys are just going to tell you to go buy guns. [10:18] We survived Y2K. They were wrong.
[10:23] Eat the canned goods. Those ones you were storing up.
[10:29] You think I’m kidding.
[10:32] I knew some churches. [10:35] They bought out Martin’s. [10:37] It was Eucropt back then. [10:39] Some people think Martin’s is the mark of the beast. [10:42] I promise it’s not.
[10:45] If you’re listening by podcast, you are not going to get that joke if you’re not in Virginia.
[10:52] But what we’re going to see today is we’re going to see the beauty of the restoration of God. [10:59] If you want to understand the context of the book of Revelation, don’t look at a chart. [11:03] Look at the New Testament. [11:06] If you want to understand the context of the book of Revelation, look into the book of Revelation itself. [11:11] Stop watching those guys on TV with a lot of hairspray in their hair because they’re wrong.
[11:18] The book of Revelation is a book about the worship of Jesus Christ. [11:23] It’s a book that’s about the king taking his kingdom. [11:28] In the book of Revelation, we’re going to see a book that is filled with promises that the kingdom of God will prevail over the kingdom of rebellious sin. [11:37] The kingdom of God throughout the New Testament is mentioned 149 times in the ESV New Testament. [11:44] So we see that somewhere in those 27 books, if it’s mentioned 149 times, it’s probably a pretty important thing to pay attention to. [11:53] In the book of Revelation, what I want you to understand is that the throne of God is mentioned and viewed and worshiped in front of 45 times.
[12:05] 17 of the 22 chapters of the book of Revelation find their setting before the throne of God. [12:13] The kingship of Jesus is the centerpiece of the book of Revelation. [12:19] If you were to ask most people in some churches today who the main character in the book of Revelation is, they may say the antichrist. [12:28] He is not the main character of any book of the scriptures. [12:31] The main character of the scriptures is God. [12:33] The theme of the scriptures is only God can save.
[12:36] And the centerpiece of the book of Revelation is the king Jesus. [12:40] So if you have your scriptures today, go ahead and open to Revelation chapter 21. [12:45] But I’m going to take you a little bit through the book of Revelation in just a few minutes. [12:49] And I promise I won’t keep you too long today. [12:51] And you already know I’m probably lying. [12:54] In Revelation chapter 4, I want to take you through a few passages that are going to show the worship of Jesus in the future of humanity.
[13:01] In Revelation chapter 4, I want you to see a beautiful picture of the worship of Jesus Christ. [13:06] Those are tiny words. [13:07] The 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. [13:16] They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things. [13:25] And by your will they existed and were created. [13:29] Then in the very next chapter, in Revelation chapter 5.
[13:35] Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, [13:46] worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
[13:56] Thousands upon thousands of people gathered around the throne of God in worship of Jesus. [14:04] If you do not like singing in church, you may be uncomfortable in heaven.
[14:12] Because the scriptures unfold further to say that every person in the kingdom of God is now given an instrument to play. [14:20] Animals come and gather around the throne of God. [14:22] All of creation begins to cry out praises to the king and worship songs are written in heaven for Jesus. [14:31] Sometimes I look out in the crowd and I think we may need a class for that.
[14:37] Because our joy is in Jesus in heaven and we cannot help but praise him. [14:43] And if we won’t, grizzly bears will. [14:47] In Revelation 7, 9-12. [14:50] After this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number. [14:54] So we’ve gone from thousands of thousands to a great multitude that no one can number in chapter 7.
[15:00] From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, [15:11] Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, Jesus. [15:16] And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying, [15:25] Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
[15:35] I’m beginning to notice a trend. [15:38] Then in chapter 15 starting in verse 2. [15:41] And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. [15:56] So we’re all apparently going to be holding harps.
[15:59] And they sing the songs of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb saying, Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord, God, the Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the nations, who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name. [16:17] For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. [16:23] And then finally in Revelation 19, one and I’m just going to give you a few today. [16:30] In Revelation 19, one, he says, After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out, Hallelujah, salvation and glory and power belong to our God. [16:44] So if you’re tracking with me, there seems to be a thread through the book of Revelation of worship of God. [16:53] The context of the book of Revelation is not a context of terror, but rather it is a context of worshiping God for who he really is.
[17:02] When Jesus says in the book of John that there will come a day when people worship in spirit and in truth, I have a strange notion that the book of Revelation is what he’s talking about. [17:15] That there’s coming a day when people will truly worship God. [17:18] And I’ll tell you, the rest of the sermon, I began to write and I wrote it backwards. [17:25] Okay. So at the end of this week, I was looking at it and I had four points and I switched them. [17:31] So we’re going to preach the rest of the sermon in reverse. [17:34] I’m going to start at the end and then I’m going to go to the beginning and I’ll explain why in a few minutes.
[17:38] But if you have your Bibles open in Revelation chapter 21, I’m going to start reading in verse one. [17:43] Follow along with me. [17:46] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
[17:52] For the first heaven and first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. [17:58] And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. [18:04] Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [18:06] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. [18:11] And he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. [18:18] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more.
[18:21] Neither shall there be mourning nor crying and no more pain anymore. [18:25] For the former things I have passed away. [18:28] And he who is seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. [18:32] Also he said, Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. [18:36] And he said to me, It is done. [18:38] I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end to the thirsty.
[18:42] I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. [18:46] The one who conquers will have his this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. [18:52] But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars, [18:59] their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. [19:04] And then skip down to verse 22 for time. [19:06] And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.
[19:13] And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb. [19:20] By its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. [19:25] And its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there. [19:29] They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. [19:33] But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life. [19:43] That was a lot of verses, but what I want you to get is one big idea here in Revelation chapter 21.
[19:49] And that big idea here is that God’s kingdom will prevail.
[19:57] That when we look to the end of all things, we do not find a scene of absolute horror and terror. [20:05] But rather when we look to the end of all things, for those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, what we have unveiled to us is a scene where God redeems us completely. [20:17] And He restores us to a state where we live in perfect unity with Him. [20:22] The scripture says that He will be our God and we will be His people and we will be with Him face to face.
[20:31] That there is no need of a sun because the glory of God shines all the time. [20:36] There is no more night. There is no more pain. There is no more death. There is no more sin. [20:43] There is no need for a temple or a sanctuary. [20:48] We looked a couple of weeks ago at Jesus and how He fulfills the sacrifices of the Old Testament. [20:55] And we look at the scriptures and now we are seeing not only is the sacrificial system done away with, [21:00] but we no longer need temples built by the hands of men to find a dwelling place for God.
[21:08] Because now He dwells with His people.
[21:14] The book of Acts unfolds in chapter 24 that God’s Spirit does not dwell in buildings built by men.
[21:25] Here we have the ultimate completion of that. [21:29] And I’ll be honest with you, I struggle to imagine what that would even be like.
[21:41] And I begin here because I want us to understand that those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ [21:51] must begin to learn an understanding of scripture and of our lives where we see how believing that that is true affects us. [22:05] How do you live in light of that? [22:09] How does that change your life? Because for most of us it changes nothing. [22:14] Because we are still here. We don’t get to see this. [22:18] So what does it look like to actually live in light of the truth of this?
[22:22] The way I was originally going to preach this was I was going to show you how to live like this and then show you why. [22:28] But what I want to do instead today is I want to show you why and now I’m going to unpack how you live. [22:32] All right, so we’re going to begin with the end in mind. [22:36] The end is not this terrible place where there are half people, half horses with scorpion tails running around stinging all of us. [22:46] You laugh. That was in the movie, man. That scared me. [22:49] By part four, there were mutants and zombies walking around.
[22:56] I’ve got these movies at home. I found them and I was like, I got to have these in my collection. [23:02] And I’m not talking about stuff with Kirk Cameron in it. It’s similar. [23:06] Still has lots of bad acting. But it’s a little more grotesque. [23:11] All right, by part four, I think they just threw the book of Revelation out and they were like, let’s make a zombie movie.
[23:20] People stopped watching after part two. So now we’re just going to make a straight up day of the dead. [23:26] All right. And if you can find it, I’m not going to tell you the name, but if you can find it, that’s what it is. [23:32] All right. And man, people are on the run. I would be. [23:36] I was scared to death of Jesus when I was 10 years old. [23:39] I heard some churches sent the kids out, not my church. They wanted us scared to death. [23:44] Jesus was not nice to me. All right. He was a guy that was going to erect the dead to walk around and eat me.
[23:50] All right. [23:51] But the fact of the matter is that is not how we should view the end of the world. [23:58] If we’re a follower of Jesus Christ, we should live in light of the reality that this is not our home, but rather the kingdom of God is our home. [24:10] And that’s where we’re going for eternity.
[24:14] On an average, we’re going to spend 70 to 80 years here. [24:17] We’re going to spend an eternity with the king worshipping face to face, living out these scenes that John the Revelator is able to experience in the book of Revelation. [24:28] So how do we begin to live in light of that? [24:31] Well, the first thing that you’ve got to understand this morning is that the restoration of the kingdom of God is fully dependent on Jesus.
[24:39] That’s number one. If you don’t get this, then you will not understand the beauty of the kingdom of God. [24:45] It is 100 percent dependent on Jesus. [24:51] And what does that change? Well, it changes your chart. [24:56] OK, no longer do we look to presidents to find out who the Antichrist is, because he’s not going to usher in the kingdom. [25:05] Jesus is.
[25:07] So while you are worried about the end of the world, Jesus is ruling on his throne.
[25:16] And he is full of hope, and so should you. Here’s why. [25:19] Go back to Revelation, Chapter five for just a moment.
[25:26] I want you to see a scene that John the Revelator had revealed to him, the Apostle John in Revelation, Chapter five. [25:32] Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back sealed with seven seals. [25:41] So he sees and the person here that’s holding this seal is God the Father. [25:44] And there’s this scroll and it is completely sealed. And what is in that scroll is the revelation of God.
[25:51] And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? [25:58] And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. [26:04] And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. [26:11] And one of the elders said to me, Weep no more. Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah. [26:17] So I want you just for a second, unpack this scene. [26:20] So John is able to actually see this weird imagery from God.
[26:24] And he sees this scroll and inside of the scroll is the revelation of the kingdom of God. [26:30] And John sees it and then an angel comes and says, Who is worthy to look into this scroll?
[26:38] And no one can be found in heaven, on earth, under the earth. [26:42] I mean, they go really extreme here. They start digging and nobody can be found there either.
[26:48] And John begins to weep. And when I’m reading this, I have to ask myself, Why is John weeping? [26:53] John is weeping because there can be no justice and there can be no hope without God. [27:00] And what the scroll contains is the reality of God. [27:04] And nobody can be found. And then an angel looks, one of the elders looks to John and says, Stop weeping. [27:09] Well, we found someone. And who did they find? Jesus. [27:14] Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered.
[27:18] So that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. [27:22] And then Jesus goes and he opens the scroll and redemption is a reality because he has died on the cross for our sins. [27:30] The kingdom of God is not going to be brought about by our hands. [27:34] The kingdom of God is not something that you can tangibly make happen. [27:38] The kingdom of God is not something that can be politically maneuvered to make happen. [27:43] We cannot take away a plot of land from any nation and make the kingdom of God any more of a reality than it already is.
[27:50] Because the kingdom of God is completely wrapped up in Jesus. [27:54] To say it is wrapped up in anything else is to create a false God and to deny the power of Jesus Christ and the redemption that he has brought us. [28:05] The story of Scripture is not about God hating us. [28:09] It is about God loving us. [28:13] The story of Scripture is not this apocalyptic road warrior mentality where God plays these weird action movie games with us unfolding this apocalypse. [28:23] Where he just watches us kill each other and brings earthquakes and then comes down just to kill everybody because he is a hateful God.
[28:31] But rather what we see is the lamb who was slain and he comes and he unravels the kingdom of God for all who will believe, for all who will follow.
[28:47] Because redemption brings hope of restoration.
[28:53] Turn now to Romans chapter 8. [28:57] So we see that the kingdom comes and then we see that the kingdom is going to come through Jesus. [29:02] So what does that do to us? What it does to us is we stop living like this is it. [29:09] We stop living life based on a consumeristic mentality that we have to get everything that we can in this life. [29:17] Because in the next life who knows what is going to happen. [29:20] In Romans 8.28 we have the biggest verse of eschatology and apocalyptic reality that you will ever find in Romans 8.28 it says.
[29:30] And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good. [29:36] Interestingly enough I didn’t find those on the end times charts when I was a child.
[29:41] For those who love God, for those who are followers of Jesus, all things work to good. [29:48] We do not live for this temporal, transient, temporary kingdom. [29:56] But rather we live for a kingdom that we have not seen yet. [30:00] That is Christianity. [30:01] Christianity is not trying to see where Jesus fits in your life. [30:06] Christianity is not a religion in which you look to see if Jesus can make sense according to your plan.
[30:12] Christianity is not how you find a God who will prosper you in this life. [30:17] Christianity is a faith that is based on promises that God has made about his kingdom and our lives becoming realigned under that reality. [30:29] Because if you go further in Romans chapter 8 the passage that we were even in last week. [30:34] And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good. [30:38] For those who are called according to his purpose. [30:40] For those whom he foreknew.
[30:42] He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. [30:50] And those whom he predestined he also called. [30:53] And those whom he called he also justified. [30:55] And those whom he justified he also glorified. [30:59] I want you to understand something. [31:00] Everything in that passage has already come about through Jesus except for the last word.
[31:07] Glorified. [31:08] To be glorified in scripture means that you are now living face to face with God in his kingdom. [31:16] The reason that is so important and that verse 28 hinges on verse 30 is because you have to understand to believe that all things will work together for good. [31:25] To believe that my cancer will work together for good. [31:28] To believe that when I had my gallbladder removed that’s going to work for good. [31:31] To believe that the isolation that you’re experiencing in your family will be turned for good.
[31:35] To believe that the death of your loved one will be turned for good is to live in a life that has this paradox where you see this temporal world. [31:44] But you believe that Jesus has forgiven you. [31:47] You believe that he has taken your sin away from you. [31:49] And you believe that the glorification where he will bring you into his kingdom is so certain it’s as if it’s in the past tense. [31:58] Because it has already happened even though you have not seen it yet.
[32:03] That is Christianity.
[32:07] It’s not about building your 401k. [32:09] It’s not about your child being the best baseball player, basketball player, football player, soccer player in the world. [32:15] It’s not about a bunch of 20 year olds throwing a ball around a field with markings on it. [32:20] It’s not about anything that pathetic. [32:22] It is about the kingdom of God and the reality that one day I will stand before him and I won’t have to back away in terror. [32:31] Because I am certain that because of Jesus I will be glorified.
[32:37] So how do I live now? I live as if I already am.
[32:42] That chapter of scripture begins and it says there is therefore no condemnation to those who are found in Christ Jesus. [32:48] And chapter 8 ends with Paul saying who can separate us from the love of Christ?
[32:55] Nothing.
[32:57] Nothing that exists in heaven. [32:59] Nothing that exists in earth. [33:00] Nothing that exists in my life. [33:03] Nothing.
[33:05] But our problem is we want to take it to heaven but we want to live in our kingdom right now.
[33:11] That’s not faith. [33:14] James chapter 2 verse 17 tells us, [33:19] So also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead. [33:23] And most of us look at that and we say okay well that means I need to love people. [33:27] Because if I don’t love people I don’t have faith. [33:29] No. This verse is a promise.
[33:33] This verse is saying you are going to live in such a way that is going to say I am not a member of this kingdom I am a member of the next. [33:38] You are going to live as if you believe Romans 8.28. [33:41] You are going to cry as if you believe Romans 8.28. [33:44] You are going to go to the doctor as if you believe Romans 8.28. [33:46] And you are going to live in a reality where all things work together for good to those who love God. [33:53] Christianity is not a negative religion it is a positive religion in the face of a negative world.
[33:59] Christianity is a religion where you stop living this life in a critical culture. [34:04] Being critical of everything and then in turn being critical of God because your life isn’t working out the way that you want it to. [34:10] And he is going to look at you and say but your life is working out the way I want it to for my kingdom. [34:14] You just need to realize it. [34:15] Because all things work together for good to those who love God. [34:18] How many times have you claimed that verse in this past week?
[34:22] Let me rephrase that. [34:22] How many times have you needed to claim that verse in this past week?
[34:26] A lot for me. [34:29] 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 19. [34:32] Paul is writing to Timothy.
[34:35] And he says thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future. [34:40] So that they may take hold of that which is truly life. [34:44] Paul is writing to a young pastor and he says tell your people that they need to stop building for themselves treasures on this earth. [34:53] And they need to begin to live in reality that God is going to restore his kingdom. [34:59] So they need to build up for themselves treasures in the next life. [35:03] Because the next life is truly life.
[35:07] Have you ever heard people look at those of you in the church and say well you don’t know what the real world is like. [35:12] My response is no you don’t know what the real world is going to be like.
[35:17] It’s going to be the kingdom of God fully restored. [35:21] And the way we need to live this life is in a hope of that future grace that God is going to bestow on us. [35:28] When he fulfills all of his promises to us. [35:30] And the way that looks is we begin to realign our lives under what faith really looks like. [35:35] And we begin to live in preparation for the kingdom of God. [35:38] And we don’t make stock piles and bunkers and get all the canned food and raise all the money for ourselves that we can.
[35:46] We begin to leverage this life for the kingdom of God. [35:50] Because we looked last week and we said that we are now those of us who are following Jesus Christ are able to experience the first fruits of the kingdom. [35:58] And I’m telling you today that the truth of the reality of the restoration of God means that the church those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ. [36:06] The church is the sign of the kingdom of God to this world. [36:12] And you need to stop living for yourself and live for the kingdom of God.
[36:19] Every verse in the New Testament is a verse about the future. [36:25] When Jesus was ascending up into heaven he told his followers. [36:28] In Matthew chapter 28 he said all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [36:38] Doesn’t seem that way sometimes. [36:41] Because it seems like Satan is in charge sometimes to us. [36:45] Because we live with a negative view of the end.
[36:49] When Jesus says the truth is, is I’ve been given power and authority.
[36:56] It’s already as if it’s real because that’s what faith looks like. [37:00] So we live in light of that and what does Jesus say the church is to do as a sign of his kingdom. [37:07] He says go make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [37:14] Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. [37:16] Behold I am with you always to the end of the age. [37:19] What age?
[37:21] This age. [37:21] This temporary age in which we are not yet living face to face with God. [37:26] But yet we gather in a community. [37:29] We come together. [37:30] We love each other. [37:31] We experience redemption.
[37:33] We remind each other of the gospel. [37:35] And then we walk hand in hand into a world that is not experiencing the kingdom of God in this life. [37:42] And we say look we are a picture of what the kingdom of God is going to look like. [37:49] That is what Romans 8.23 means when he says you are now experiencing the first fruits of the kingdom. [37:58] In other words when the world looks at the church it’s to see the kingdom of God in reality.
[38:07] We are to be a light in a dark world. [38:10] That’s what Jesus was talking about in Matthew chapter 5 when he said you are the salt of the earth. [38:16] You are a city on a hill. [38:18] You are a light for the world. [38:20] In other words this world is still in darkness because it is not living in reality. [38:25] That one day there will be no darkness.
[38:28] There will only be light.
[38:31] And Jesus says while you are on this earth you are that light.
[38:39] The church is the people that contain the glory of God. [38:45] We are not living like that.
[38:50] The church is to be the people that do not go out and yell morality, guilt, terror. [38:58] We are a people that go out and say we are going to be living in a kingdom through Jesus. [39:05] You can as well. [39:07] And we build a kingdom. [39:08] We build a community that is full of love. [39:12] It is full of hope.
[39:13] It is full of dreams. [39:14] It is full of visions. [39:16] It is full of a desire to live this mission that Jesus has given us. [39:21] And that mission is to go into the world and continue his work of redemption.
[39:29] Some of us, our faith is so weak that we don’t tell people about Jesus. [39:35] It is not because we don’t want to see people redeemed but because we barely believe it.
[39:44] If you go to the doctor this week and you find out you have a terminal illness,
[39:52] will you react with a kingdom mindset or will you react with hopelessness?
[40:00] Do you have real faith?
[40:04] Because faith according to the scriptures is a faith that leverages this life for the kingdom of God. [40:15] Because we believe it is so real and it is so true. [40:21] We are banking everything on it.
[40:24] That is why 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul says, [40:30] if the resurrection of Jesus Christ is not true, then my life is to be pitied. [40:36] He says that because he has leveraged his entire life on the fact that it is true. [40:42] In other words, every decision he makes, everything that he does is based on the promise of life in Jesus. [40:51] If that is not true, then he is wasting his time. [40:57] How many of us this morning can really look at our life and say,
[41:01] if there were no kingdom, my life would be a waste. [41:06] How many of you, if the kingdom were not true, would still have everything left over that you currently live for?
[41:17] I desperately want my life to be lived for the kingdom of God.
[41:25] I will be honest with you, sometimes, a lot of times I am not there.
[41:31] So as I preach this, I am trying to repent.
[41:38] The problem is, you are probably going to leave here today, going to get out to your car.
[41:46] You are going to go through this week and it will be as if you never heard this message.
[41:54] I beg God that that is not true.
[41:57] I beg God that he will transform me. [42:00] I beg God that my life will be leveraged for the kingdom of God. [42:06] Not to make it so, because it is going to be so whether I am ready or not.
[42:13] But so that more people can be in it.
[42:17] That vision that we saw at the beginning from Revelation chapter 7, [42:21] where he had all tribes, all tongues, and all nations around his throne, praising God and worshiping. [42:27] That was a vision of all the people that the church has brought into the kingdom of God, [42:32] because the church is that sign of the kingdom. [42:38] We are to be light. [42:39] We are to live a mission to see others redeemed through our lives.
[42:44] If you do not desire that life, you do not desire Jesus.
[42:49] Because that is what Jesus said loving him is all about.
[42:54] As a church we desperately need to live the mission.
[43:00] So that everyone that we know will be in that kingdom.
[43:09] Who do you know that is not here this morning that needs to be here? [43:13] Who do you know that does not have hope but needs to have hope?
[43:19] How saturated is your mind with the Scriptures? [43:22] If you believe this is really the word of God to your life, why are you not reading it? [43:27] Why are you learning new things about the story of God through my sermons? [43:32] Do you not already have it?
[43:36] Do not feel bad, I learned a few new things too.
[43:40] What are you living your life for? [43:43] That is why we set environments for worship. [43:47] That is why we have environments for small groups where we can come together. [43:51] Throughout this week you can come together and talk to other believers about how you can begin to live this life [43:56] with zero judgment because there are a bunch of people that are not living right either.
[44:01] Why do you think we sing to God? [44:04] Because when I get to the kingdom I do not want to not know the words.
[44:08] Why do you think we have a vision to see other people in the city of Richmond and the village of Midlothian saved? [44:16] Because God has told us you are the ones that are going to grow my kingdom.
[44:21] Why do you think we have a vision of sending out church planters from this church [44:26] to plant other churches around the city and around the state?
[44:31] Because we desperately want to leverage our lives to grow the kingdom of God. [44:35] My request this morning is that you join us. [44:38] Some of you are desperately trying to. [44:41] Some of you have just started coming here. [44:43] I am going to ask you to join the advanced class really quick. [44:47] Right now we have a team on the ground in China serving with a missionary in China.
[44:52] We are begging God that they will take the gospel and a few Chinese people will come to Jesus.
[44:59] Why do you think we did that? [45:02] For a merit badge? [45:04] There are no merit badges in heaven. [45:06] Just Jesus.
[45:10] But we love Jesus. [45:12] So we take our vacation time to go tell others about Him.
[45:17] Father, we come before you right now.
[45:24] Jesus we beg you to light a fire in us. [45:29] To live for your kingdom.
[45:32] Lord that you would not simply allow us to feel guilt. [45:38] But allow us to feel the liberating power of the Holy Spirit. [45:42] Who transforms guilt into conviction that leads to godly living.
[45:48] Right now we are going to reflect on the gospel of Jesus Christ who saves us from our sins.
[45:55] And in Revelation chapter 21 verse 8 we saw a picture also.
[46:02] Of the fact that not all will enter into the kingdom when it comes.
[46:08] That some don’t believe. [46:11] And they have to spend an eternity under the wrath of God. [46:16] That was absorbed by Jesus. [46:18] But because they didn’t believe it still poured out on them. [46:23] And right now what we are going to do is reflect on the gospel through the practice of the Lord’s Supper. [46:29] We are going to come and take the bread and the cup.
[46:32] And we are going to eat and drink. [46:35] And through that we show that we have believed that Jesus took our sins onto Himself. [46:42] That He broke His body. [46:43] That He shed His blood. [46:45] And as we take His body and His blood into us the juice and the bread. [46:49] We are preaching that we believe that we have the life of Jesus inside of us.
[46:54] That is the life saving message so that we can enter into His kingdom.
[47:01] But some of you need to deal with God first because you haven’t been living lives of faith. [47:06] You believe in Jesus but your faith has not been real because you are living as if this is all there is.
[47:15] Some of you may not believe in Jesus.
[47:20] Today can be the day of redemption for you. [47:24] For those of you struggling with guilt of a life that is being wasted.
[47:30] Confess your sins and He is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins. [47:33] Cleanse you of all unrighteousness.
[47:37] And then go and sin no more. [47:39] And then come and preach the gospel through communion. [47:47] If you are not saved, come up and I will tell you how.