Brand New: Consummation

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RECAP

Well today we are wrapping up our series Brand New. I pray it’s been a blessing for you and I pray that if you missed some of it that you’ll go back and listen to the sermons you missed on our youtube page or on our City Light Church app.
If you’ve been with us the last 8 weeks, then you probably have already heard this at least once, but in this sermon series, we’ve been using a framework that we borrowed from a book called Explicit Gospel to show two particular narratives that Scripture displays when it is speaking about the Gospel. The first half of our sermon series was considered the Gospel on the Ground. GOD, MAN, CHRIST, RESPONSE.
God, perfect and holy, is creator of all things and at the beginning of time sets out to create this universe and everything in it. At some point, He determines to create Earth and everything in it and when He does, He creates man.
MAN, enters into this world in perfect fellowship with God and is given full dominion over God’s creation to exercise authority over it, to work it, and be creative with it, and to fill it with more of his own kind. However, out of all of the creation, God gave MAN one command. Do not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree was in many ways representative of a more simplistic command: DO NOT TRY AND TAKE MY PLACE. However, MAN was tempted in the Garden by the SERPENT to try and do just that. He and His wife ate, their eyes were opened and sin entered into the world.
Despite Man’s waywardness and sin and despite the fact that we deserve God’s Just Wrath turning our backs on Him and His law. God did not turn His back on us. Instead He sent His very own begotten Son, JESUS CHRIST to the world to live the perfect life that we were incapable of living and dying the death we unequivocally deserved so that we might be given the ETERNAL LIFE we most certainly could not EARN.
But in order to receive that life, it requires us to RESPOND! To REPENT OF OUR SINS meaning to turn from our living life in accordance to how we want to live it and instead trust JESUS CHRIST by faith as Savior and Lord and pursue Him and His way of living!
That is the Gospel on the Ground. More of the individual story of what God is doing in the world for each and every one of us, but that is not all He is doing. Which leads us to the Gospel of the Air, the 2nd half of our Sermon Series and where we currently are. CREATION, FALL, RECONCILIATION, and CONSUMMATION.
We’ve already covered the 1st three: CREATION was made by the very hand of God, and as a result, it was wholly and thoroughly good and righteous in every way. However, through MAN’S SIN, THE FALL OF CREATION took place and everything that was once good, righteous, and whole was in an instant tainted with sin. Disasters and Disease, Conflict and War, Greed and Jealously all entered the world as a result of the FALL. All brokenness in relationships. All ailments in our bodies. All destructive qualities in nature entered the world through the FALL.
However, part of the significant work of Christ is that He is RECONCILING or to say it another way, HE IS CHANGING the relationship between God and ALL THINGS!!!! God and Man…He is restoring the relationship…God and Creation…He is restoring the relationship…THROUGH CHRIST, the effects of the FALL are being reversed and we are returning back to God’s original design and intentions for His creation...
Which leads us to this morning!!!! what will that look like!
Here is what I CAN say…IT PROBABLY will not look like what you were taught as a child...
So for the remainder of our time this morning, I want to talk about two things...
What will the Consummation of All Things look like?
AND
How should we RESPOND to THAT REALITY?
First, what will it look like...
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, Consummation simply means the ultimate end.
And so the question that we are asking this morning is what will it look like when it is all said and done. What does the Christian have to look forward to?

What we learn as kids...

For a culture that is SOOOOO Christianized, it is absolutely wild to me how misinformed our understanding of the end really is.
I think that is possible for two reasons…for one what we consume in media about the end has vastly shaped what we believe the end to be. When we think of the end many of us think of an experience totally separated from our bodies, we think of an experience where we become angelic beings, we think of an experience where the only thing we do is stand around the throne and sing…all of which has been communicated to us but none of which the Bible unequivocally says...
We even hear over and over at funerals and maybe you’ve even said to yourself upon the death of someone…well heaven, just got another angel or Bobby just earned his wings…NEITHER of WHICH the Bible actually teaches...
So all of the assumptions we pick up form culture leads to all sorts of confusion and misunderstand about what to expect...
The other possible reason that we appear to be so wildly misinformed is because trying to learn about the end can feel OVERWHELMING...
I mean picking up a book like Revelations and trying to make sense of it can feel like an impossible task ESPECIALLY when folks want to make every single symbol in the story ties neatly to something happening in our day, time, and/or culture.
It becomes confusing, overwhelming and to be honest at times a little silly.
I can’t tell you how many times growing up as a kid, the antichrist label was placed on someone, and then taken off someone with no apologies…
I remember at the turn of the century there was so much work searching through Revelation for signs and symbols that many people had become THOROUGHLY convinced that Y2K (Year 2000) was going to usher in the end. I don’t recall many apologies after those claims either.
You keep digging and digging until the next thing you know Mikhail Gorbachev is the son of lawlessness and the beast coming out of the Earth is marijuana.
So people on this side of the equation of the misinformation, to avoid more confusion, just stop looking at the end all together.
I don’t think we have to fall into either of these pitfalls. I believe we can look to the Bible to give us some answers about the end while not trying to give an absolute answer on every symbol.

What the Apostle John tells us...

One thing we can do is look at what the Apostles teach us about the consummation of all things and line it up with the rest of Scripture...
John is the obvious one to start with because he dedicates an entire book on the subject. The book was written in the final days of John’s life. One of the last original followers of Jesus still standing…he’s seen persecution of all sorts…he’s been exiled to an island and with death near and eternity on His mind the Lord gives Him this unbelievable vision...
As I stated earlier, folks love to parse all of the book and sometimes in so doing they can robe it of its beauty, particularly when it paints clear pictures for what we can expect at the end.
That’s what I want to focus on this morning...
Revelation 21:1–5 ESV
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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 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. 4 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.” 5 And he who was 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.”
What does the consummation look like?
Verse 5...”Behold I am making all things new!!!!”
The ultimate end will mean the full restoration of all things...Everything is being made new!

NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH

John first speaks of the general NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH…He is not the only one to speak of this...
Peter also speaks of this NEW HEAVEN...

13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

One of the last pictures Isaiah gives us in His writings is a picture of the end...
Isaiah 65:17–19 ESV
17 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

A New Dwelling Place for God

This is also place where God is not simply near us but fully with and among us...
Revelation 21:3 ESV
3 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.
Isaiah also sees this place as a place where God will always be near and ready to respond...
Isaiah 65:24 ESV
24 Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.
John backs his statement up about God being near with these words in Revelations 21:22-26 about the new city in the new earth, the new Jerusalem...
Revelation 21:22–26 ESV
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 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. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
In this new city, a temple is no longer need and will no longer confine God’s holy presence. God dwells fully in this place. It is in no need of sunshine and in no need of moonlight because God gives it light...
In fact, in verse 16, John envisions this massive city as about 1400 miles long and 1400 miles wide, 1400 miles high…that’s what 12,000 stadia represents.
People often wrap their arms around the dimensions and they lose sight of the point John is actually making...
In the design of the most holy place that resides inside of the tabernacle of God, the dimensions were 20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits forming a perfect cube.
This is the place that God dwelled. The place that only the High Priest could enter once a year to have his sins and the sins of his people atoned for.
However, in the new heaven and new earth…the whole city is a cube: 1400 miles by 1400 miles by 1400 miles. MEANING that the whole city is the MOST HOLY PLACE set aside for God’s dwelling YEAR ROUND WITH HIS PEOPLE!!!

A New Found Peace

Because this place is a place where God’s presence dwells in fullness, we can expect a fullness of justice and a fullness of peace...
Isaiah sees this place as a place where justice and prosperity will be fully realized...
Isaiah 65:21–23 ESV
21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord, and their descendants with them.
Isaiah also sees this place as a place where peace well be fully realized. All the way down to animals...
Isaiah 65:25 ESV
25 The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.
We hear it again in Isaiah 11:6-9
Isaiah 11:6–9 ESV
6 The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. 9 They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
God’s knowledge fills the city. Everyone knows Him and everyone is increasing in their knowledge of Him. Thus Justice increases! Thus peace increases!

A NEW CREATION

Notice that it is not just people that will know perfect peace, but even the animals which speaks to the reality that this is a fully restored creation!
Remember Romans 8 - CREATION awaits eagerly and groans for our full restoration as children of God because when we are fully restored, CREATION will be fully restored!
Not just the animals…even in Joel 3 we hear this about nature.
Joel 3:18 ESV
18 “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim.
What do we have to look for everything will be made new…the heavens and earth, the great city,
I love what Matt Chandler in His book Explicit Gospel says about the CONSUMMATION of CREATION.
QUOTE: “My wife and I have been to Southern California multiple times. We eat at a place in La Jolla (La-HOY-a) called George’s on the Cove. If you’re there at sunset, you can see the spectacular view of the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean. As breathtaking as that view is, we know, according to the Bible, that it is broken. It is not what it was meant to be, and as beautiful as it is, as a part of this broken world, it is only a pale imitation of the sunsets that once were and the sunsets that one day will be. Can you imagine how amazing the sunsets will be over a restored earth? I don’t know if we can. Such a thought is beyond us, this side of heaven.”
What else can we expect to be new? US!

A NEW PEOPLE

1 Corinthians 15:50–55 ESV
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
If you want a peek into what this new body looks like, look no further than Jesus...
Notice that when Jesus rose from the grave...
Scripture says when we see HIM
1 John 3:2 ESV
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
It doesn’t happen immediately...

A NEW EDEN

Revelation 22:1–3 ESV
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Now pay attention to what we’ve seen in this depiction of the new City...
PEACE among men and CREATION.
FLOURISHING among men and CREATION.
River flowing through the CITY
Tree of Life Flowing through the CITY
And the Presence of God moving about FREELY...
Does this remind you of any other place?
The Garden of EDEN!
This is where it all started. And how does it happen? John gives us a hint twice in the text…verse 1 and verse 3.
The throne of God AND OF THE LAMB!
Because of the work of Christ, because He came into the world and lived a perfect life and because He became the ultimate sacrifice for our sin…He who knew no sin became sin in order that we might be rescued from sin...
Because He rose from the grave with all power and authority and is now seated at the right hand side of God...
The new city will have his throne and presence resting in its center.
A NEW US
We shall be like him…for we shall see him as he is...
Some of the very final words we hear from Isaiah speak of the endless nature of this new heaven and new earth and the idea of complete and perfect worship.
Isaiah 66:22–23 ESV
22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain. 23 From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.

HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND?

How should the truth about this new heaven and new earth CHANGE US?
How should it shape the way we live our lives as we await this consummation?

1. This Truth Should NOT DESENSITIZE US WHEN IT COMES TO MATTERS OF LIFE.

Just because all things are becoming new doesn’t mean the old things don’t matter.
What I’m mean by that is we can often grow so committed to the reality of eternity that we start believing that what we experience in this life carries no meaning.
When we do that we grow cold and callous towards loss in our lives and loss in the lives of others.
If I had a nickel for every time somebody said “you don’t have to cry for them because they’re in a better place,” I would be a wealthy man.
In fact, if I had a nickel for every time I told somebody that I probably would still be a wealthy man.
We can become so captivated by the ideas of eternity and the supernatural that we lose our ability to show compassion and empathy in the NOW.
In some ways this was how the false teachers and prophets who were called Gnostics got everything wrong.
Gnostics believed that since there was an eternal and a temporal; the temporal didn’t matter all much. Since there was a natural and a supernatural; the natural didn’t matter all much. Jesus knows no such attitude.
John 11:33–35 ESV
33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept.

2. This Truth Should Preserve Through Hardship

Hear Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
3. This Truth Should Comfort Us In Grief
1 Thessalonians 4:13 ESV
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

4. This Truth Should Drive Us Towards Growing In Christ and Trusting in Christ

1 John 3:2–3 ESV
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
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