Jesus Sustains Us For His Glory (1 Kings 19:1-18)

The Ministry and Credentials of Evan Burns

Our guest speaker today is named Evan Burns, E .D. Burns. He is a scholar, he is an author. He is a long-term missionary in the Middle East, East Asia, Alaska, and Southeast Asia. He is married to Christy, and they have twin sons, Elijah and Isaiah.

From his international location, he directs the Master of Arts in Global Leadership at Western Seminary. He is a linguist and an ordained minister. He develops theological resources and trains indigenous pastors and missionaries to the least reached.

He directs a Bible teaching ministry to Alaska natives and teaches at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary. He's written four books. One of them is called The Missionary Theologian. I'm almost done with that.

I think I've got one chapter left in that and a couple of appendixes I've been reading at the last few weeks. It's an excellent book, and his writing style is very readable. There are some of his books, all of his books are on the table that is out in the foyer.

I would encourage you to stop and take a look at them. They're not for sale, but at least you can see what he has written out there and also sign up if you'd like to receive his email newsletter. I think Evan speaks something like 14 different languages.

You can correct me if that's wrong. Please welcome E .D. Burns.

Just 13. It was great to be here for Sunday School. And if, as I said at the beginning of Sunday School, if you want to receive our prayer updates, we send one out about every quarter or so just through email.

There's a sheet in the back next to the books. You can put your name and email and we'd love for you to be praying for us. And there's a couple of books back there I brought to give away. They're the stack of blue books.

If there's any left, you can be sure to grab one. I always have a, I always have a complication when I come speak at a new place where I don't know the people, but I do know a few things about people in general.

Humanity, Sin, and the Need for Forgiveness

I speak all over the world in different languages and different bush villages or big seminaries. And the common thing about all of us is we're all descendants of Adam. And we all are looking for forgiveness.

And we all want to be secured in covenantal, persistent, steadfast love. It's written on every human heart. And we're all broken by sin, condemned and corrupt in Adam. And I do know that there is one message that speaks to everybody anywhere.

And it's that in Christ, God loves people. And he has sent forth his son in the fullness of time as the mediator between God and man. And no matter what your view of Jesus Christ is, if he is not a mediator, he's not the Christ of the Bible.

And I do hope this morning that you would walk away with this stamped upon your soul that Jesus secures you and sustains you for a great salvation. I hope you're encouraged this morning to rest in Christ and to rest in God's love for you in Christ.

Prayer for Opened Eyes and Righteous Access to God

Let me pray and we'll look at our text. Our Father in heaven, you're great and greatly to be praised. You sit high enthroned above the earth. And we ask who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may ascend into Mount Zion?

And your answer is he who has clean hands and a pure heart. Well, Lord, our hearts are not pure and our hands are not clean. But there is one who goes before us, son of God, the son of man, the son of David.

And he has pure hands and a pure heart. And it's in him that we trust. And it's with his robes of righteousness we enter your presence. And we ask that you would open your word and show us wonderful things in your law and enlarge our hearts to run in the way of your commandments and be pleased in us this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief. And it was the epoch of incredulity. It was a season of light and the season of darkness, the spring of hope and the winter of despair.

Ahab, Jezebel, and the Dark Background of Israel's History

So read the opening lines to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It could well describe 9th century BC in the land of Israel and indeed probably our own time. In the era of 9th century BC, we see in 1st Kings 16, there are two anti-Yahweh antagonists in the story.

Ahab is king over Israel and his reign is the turning point in Israel's history, which is clear from the fact that six chapters at the end of 1st Kings are dedicated to his reign alone. And this transitional moment in Israel's history is by far the lowest point of the period since the judges.

One writer says this, it looks like the Antichrist had arrived ahead of time. But if your main concerns in life were for the economy, prosperity and overall social stability, these days didn't seem so bad.

Ahab had reigned for 22 years, no coups, no assassination attempts, no insurrections. And then there is this shrewd marriage alliance with the ambitious Phoenician princess Jezebel, which secured unlimited access to the world famous seaports in Phoenicia, which meant that business was booming.

They had an economy making record strides. There is no felt need for the old school God of their forefathers. It was the age of progress, of human flourishing. And then the Bible says, and Ahab did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.

Ahab's obsession with bowel worship, serving and worshiping bowel, building an altar in a temple to Baal, building a huge idol of Baal, angered the Lord more than any other king had. And then his marriage alliance to the bowel mistress herself, Jezebel, was a major headlong leap into uninhibited rebellion to God.

Moreover, he builds Jericho, which it's not insignificant trivia at the end of 1 Kings 16. So why is it important that Ahab has built Jericho? It's a seemingly minor detail, but it's indicative of how dark this time was because after the destruction of Jericho, Joshua had declared a curse over anyone who would endeavor to rebuild the city.

And the curse forbade anybody from rebuilding the city, which Ahab certainly with the best historians and educated advisors in the land would have known and he willfully rebels against God. There is no fear of Yahweh in Ahab.

Elijah the Prophet and the Covenant Curses

And it's upon this dark backdrop, since Ahab and Jezebel are the evil antagonists, that a righteous protagonist enters the scene. So who is this pro-Yahweh protagonist? Well, the very next verse in 1 Kings 17, 1, abruptly introduces an obscure prophet of whom we have never heard before.

His name is Elijah. My God is Yahweh is what Elijah means. Unlike the scriptural introductions of other major characters, the details of his resume, his pedigree, his family of origin are withheld in order to focus on his prophetic message to Ahab.

One writer pastorally fleshes out the significance of the suddenness of Elijah's appearing in 1 Kings 17, 1. The writer says this, for to see him, that is Elijah, appear so suddenly reminds us that we need not despair when we see great movements of evil achieving spectacular success on this earth, for we may be sure that God in unexpected places has already secretly prepared his counter-movement.

God has always his ways of working underground to undermine the stability of evil. God can raise up men for his service from nowhere. Therefore, the situation is never hopeless where God is concerned.

Whenever evil flourishes, it is always a superficial flourish, for at the height of the triumph of evil, God will be there ready with his man and his movement and his plans to ensure that his own cause will never fail.

In other words, there's a man in Israel and his name is Eliyah. My God is Yah. And his message is what marks him. His message is what distinguishes him from the prophets of Baal. And what is the first mention of his message?

Well, it's in rebuke to Ahab's covenant breaking. It's a pronouncement of the covenant curses from Deuteronomy. Elijah shows himself to be a true prophet of God because his prediction of drought is based upon God's covenant curses that are threatened to come to pass for rebellion.

And Elijah surges with Yahweh passion, with Yahweh worship. So what's so special about Elijah? Well, he's recorded as a transitional figure in the history of the kings and the prophets. And one reason you know he's transitional is because like Moses before, Elijah's ministry is marked by signs and wonders.

In redemptive history, when God's purposes experience a major shift, typically they're accompanied by a series of miraculous events. So consider Moses' miracles in Exodus, Jesus' miraculous three-year ministry, the apostles' miraculous ministry in establishing the New Testament church in Acts.

And in this instance in Israel's history, the prophetic office is being inaugurated through Elijah and ramping up. As Moses represents the law to the people, Elijah represents the prophets to the people.

The law is like the covenant contract, so to speak, between God and the people. And the prophets are like the legal attorneys that are applying the law and the stipulations of the law to the context of God's people making charges, making warnings, accusations, and promises in order to turn them back to the God of the covenant, the covenant contract.

And some of those miraculous records in the life of Elijah on numerous occasions entail things like hearing the voice of God, miraculous provisions of bread, just like the manna in the wilderness under Moses, miraculous provisions of meat, just like quail in the wilderness under Moses, of water, just like the rock that split open in the wilderness.

God provides food through a widow, and then through Elijah, God provides food for the widow in the famine. God even uses Elijah to raise to life the widow's dead son. And then three years later, after the famine is ending, Elijah boldly goes to meet Ahab.

And during the famine, apparently Jezebel's killed all the prophets of God that she could find, though about 100 are safely hiding away from her wrath. And Jezebel and Ahab are like the classic political crime family, the Clintons, you might say.

Okay, I'm in Idaho. I know I can say this. So not every church I can say that. So everybody just is like suiciding themselves, you know? In Old Testament foreshadow of the beast and the false prophet, knowing that his career, his life is in danger, he knows he is the most wanted man in Israel.

He is a national security threat. He is Ahab's fall guy, his patsy, his scapegoat. The nation hates Elijah's name because the word on the street is that Elijah brought about this famine. And you can hear Ahab's hatred for Elijah and Elijah's boldness in their interactions in 1 Kings 18.

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, is it you, you troubler of Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but you have, you and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and follow the balls.

Now, therefore, go and send and gather all of Israel before me at Mount Carmel and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat Jezebel's table. And then as the prophets of Baal gather at Mount Carmel, Elijah instructs them, and you call upon the name of your God and I'll call upon the name of Yahweh and the God who answers by fire, he is God.

And so this is the Old Testament version of Doc Holliday at the gunfight of O .K. Carmel, okay? So the prophets of Baal, they cry out, hours and hours, and Elijah just sits back and he mocks them and he teases them, and after most of the day has passed, Elijah takes his turn.

He pours jars of water over the altar so that it's running over and spilling with, saturated with water. And Elijah calls upon the name of the Lord to make his name known, and God sends fire from heaven, consumes the sacrifice, burning up the water, and the people who saw it fall on their faces and declare that the Lord is God, and Elijah seizes and he slaughters all the prophets.

Elijah's Collapse at Horeb and the Angel of the Lord

So what happens to Elijah? After this savage massacre, he is a force to be reckoned with. He makes David's mighty men look like junior varsity. This massive victory, however, does not turn out the way that he had hoped.

In 1 Kings 19, one to three, Ahab tells Jezebel, and she's so mad, and she swears she's gonna kill Elijah by the next day, and so what does Elijah do? Does he stand up to her? I mean, he's just slaughtered 850 priests by himself.

He takes off for the wilderness. Verse four of chapter 19, but he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a brim tree, and he asked that he might die, saying, it is enough now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my father's, and he lay down and slept under a brim tree, and behold, an angel touched him and said to him, arise and eat, and he looked, and behold, there was at his head bread baked on hot stones in a jar of water, and he ate and drank and lay down again, and the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you, and he arose and ate and drank and went in the strength of that food for 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mount of God, and there he came to a cave and lodged in it, and behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, what are you doing here, Elijah?

And he said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away, and he said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord, and behold, the Lord passed by, and a great strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire, and after the fire, the sound of a low whisper, and when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave, and behold, there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah?

He said, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away, and the Lord said to him, go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria, Jehu, the son of Nimshi, you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaffa of Abel-Nechalah, you shall anoint to be prophet in your place, and the one who escapes the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes the sword of Jehu shall Elijah put to death, yet I will leave 7 ,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.

All right, a couple questions. What is so amazing about this account? Is it amazing that this mighty man of God, this prophet of prophets, who has slaughtered all the prophets of Baal by himself, cowers in fear of Jezebel?

That Elijah runs from Jezebel is quite out of character, especially after confronting Ahab to his face, after raising a child from the dead, after predicting a famine and seeing it come to pass, after seeing God provide food for him through birds, after calling down fire out of heaven, after slaughtering the 850 priests of Baal, praying for rain, and outrunning Ahab's chariot.

So, instead of writing him off as some sort of manic depressive prophet, which, you know, of course, we're complicated people, and, you know, there's always complexities to imbalances in our bodies. That's not the point of the text.

That's not even remotely the point of the text. The text gives us clues that he is driven way more by convictions than chemistry. Something deeper is going on in Elijah. There's a theological crisis. He's wrestling with God's purposes.

Elijah's noble expectations of turning Israel back to Yahweh don't fit God's plan and God's timing. After Elijah flees to the wilderness, he comes to rest under a tree. There in the wilderness, the angel of the Lord ministers to him.

We know from the rest of the Bible that the angel of the Lord, with a definite article, is the pre-incarnate Messiah. So, isn't it interesting? Isn't it interesting that he didn't just send one of his myriads of angels to go serve Elijah?

It's a beautiful picture, it's a lovely picture of the divine angel of the Lord himself stooping down to serve Elijah by preparing for him hot bread and cool water as he sleeps under the shade of a tree.

And you know what? In redemptive history, God does some of his greatest works for his people when they're asleep. Abraham is asleep with a covenant. Elijah is asleep. Jesus' disciples are asleep in a garden as he is in his agony.

When we are at our biggest points of rest, God is in his biggest movements on our behalf. It's as if this is a picture of the angel of the Lord foreshadowing the servant of God coming to serve, not to be served, to serve his people with living bread and water as they rest under the shade of his tree.

And after the angel of the Lord, this Christophany revives Elijah's depleted health with bread and water under the shade of a tree. Where does he go? He goes to Mount Horeb. So, why is that significant?

Mount Horeb has another name. Its name is Mount Sinai, the place where the covenant was both given and broken in Exodus 32 and 33. And 40 days and 40 nights are the times of Israel's unfaithfulness in Exodus 24 and Moses' intercession in Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 9.

Moreover, what other prophet would spend 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness? And in showing his glory to Moses in Exodus 33, 19, just as Yahweh passed by Moses, he now passes by Elijah in verse 11.

It's the same exact Hebrew word on the same mountain. Elijah knows he is God's man in God's holy mountain. He has just spent 40 days and 40 nights at Sinai, which echoes the ministry of Moses. He is so passionate for the covenant law of God and Yahweh's honor that he goes back to the most holy place that he can think of, the sacred place that maybe Jezebel's whoring religion had not yet defiled.

He goes there because his passion for Yahweh dominates his soul and he is jealous for Yahweh's name to be honored in Israel. And he's afraid that if Jezebel kills him, the light of Israel will be snuffed out.

And the Lord asks him why he's at Sinai and you can hear his passion. In verses 10 and 14, he says the same thing. I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant and they've thrown down your altars and killed your prophets with a sword and I, even I, only am left.

And they seek my life to take it away. From the start, Elijah is portrayed as this great man of God in Israel. The only one who stands for Yahweh even in the literal face of death, in the literal face of the most powerful man in Israel.

He has a holy passion. The name of Yahweh, just like John Knox said, give me Scotland or I die, or even Rachel who wanted to extend the Messianic line said, give me children or I die. Elijah's mantra or his slogan would be, give me national revival or I die.

His motives are righteous, they're good, they're noble, they're pleasing. Indeed, his self-denying passion to glorify Yahweh through bringing about God-centered revival in Israel was probably, let's just be honest, far superior to most of our life's goals, many ministries' mission statements.

And though grateful for the very few people that turned to Yahweh at Mount Carmel, Elijah is despairing, he's discouraged because national revival didn't break out the way that he had hoped and prayed, that the royal family never repented.

For such an astonishing miracle, calling down fire from heaven, such a minuscule return on investment. Only a few turned to Yahweh. After this thrilling climax of his ministry, truly maybe the height of his ministry, God doesn't come through on his end of the bargain as Elijah perceives it.

So what's the point of trying, God? God, I just wanna die, I just wanna die. I'm the only one left. And instead of rebuking Elijah for being a whiny, emotional prophet who just can't get his act together, the Lord who previously provides food and water while he sleeps serving him, that same merciful Lord now shows Elijah his power in a tornado, an earthquake, in fire, and he speaks to him in a low voice.

Unless you think I commit the unpardonable sin and say that God can whisper to us. I know there's a good book called God Doesn't Whisper. I've heard of it, I recommend it to you. I knew if I was gonna do this passage, I had to at least say I knew about the book.

The Lord gave Elijah instructions to anoint Jehu as king, Elisha as his successor, and the Lord gives Elijah fresh courage to press on, guaranteeing that there are 7 ,000 people among the faithful, unknown remnant, who refuse to bow to the wicked culture.

Elijah really isn't alone. The Messiah secures and sustains us for a glorious salvation. Now fast forward eight and a half centuries. Knowing the deepest desires of his servant's hearts, God, let's just imagine this scenario with me.

This is just me fleshing out this scenario in my mind. God says to Elijah in heaven, hey, Elijah, I want you to meet somebody. Take Moses and go down that mountain. So Moses and Elijah, two servants passionate for Yahweh, the Old Testament representative mediator and the Old Testament representative prophet, they go down and they wait on a high mountain, and suddenly in their midst, the angel of the Lord shows up, but in a man's body with a bearded face of a Jewish rabbi.

His glory that they knew as the second person of the trinity in heaven 30 years earlier is now revealed in the gritty face of a man. He looks like one of Adam. He's an Adamic descendant. He's like one of them.

And with him, Peter, James, and John, who have only seen the human face of this Jewish rabbi, and now they see the radiance of the divine glory that he had before the foundation of the world, the glory that passed by Moses and Elijah on Mount Sinai.

For the first time, Elijah meets the better prophet who speaks a better word that turns the hearts of his people to Yahweh and who writes his law on their hearts. And Elijah's hopes and prayers are finally realized in the face of Yeshua Mashiach, Jesus Messiah, God's plan A all along, and still is today.

Hope for the Groaning Christian

And here's the application for us. The Lord knows our deepest, truest desires, those good desires, those dreams that we've always wanted for his glory. There are some of us who, you know, we observe Christians who go from one victory to another, never struggling, seemingly, never grieving where maybe you secretly battle.

Maybe that family whose children grew up loving the Lord, marrying wisely, finding good jobs, and living nearby with great-grandchildren. That friend who has just so much health and energy, has no health problems, or that missionary biography that everybody loves to read about a life that is truly surrendered to the Lord.

Or those Christians who talk about how well things are going in ministry, how great ministry is, how enjoyable it is, or that relative that just always talks about how good God is all the time. God is good, God is good all the time.

Just, God has blessed me with amazing marriage, amazing vacations, amazing health, amazing devotions, amazing kids, amazing job, amazing food. Everything is amazing all the time. And then there's you, and maybe you struggle.

Maybe you struggle with secret addictions. Maybe you wonder if your kids will ever respect you again. Maybe you wish you could have spent your life differently in the Lord's service. Maybe you think you missed something that the Lord, an opportunity the Lord had given you, and now you're paying for it the rest of your life.

You just, sometimes you just wanna give up because you feel like you've spent yourself in service to the church, and all you get is slander and backstabbing in return. There is no tangible return on investment in your service to the Lord.

Most of your efforts to serve the Lord's people have amounted to lots of years of broken relationships, departed church members, for no particular reason. You're jealous for God and his glory, but he just doesn't seem to come through on his end of the bargain in your life.

When Jesus called you to pick up your cross and follow him, you had no idea how tedious and inglorious and ordinary and discouraging that calling could be. You'd never say this anyway, but maybe you secretly wish that God would just take you home and free you of this hard and hellish life.

As Paul says in Romans 8 .22, he says, "'For we know that the whole creation "'has been groaning in the pains of childbirth until now, "'and not only the creation, but we ourselves, "'who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, "'groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons, "'the redemption of our bodies, "'for in this hope we are saved.

"'And hope that is seen is not hope, "'for who hopes for what he sees, "'but if we hope for what we do not see, "'we wait for it with patience.'". I mean, if that's you, that inner groaning for final deliverance, you're not alone.

This is the normal Christian life. Knowing that we would be tempted to give up and give in from constant stress and anxiety and pressure and discouragement in this life, Paul calls Christians to look beyond the pain to where the hope is pointing, to the dawning glory of God, to the resurrection glory of God.

He says in Romans 8 .18, "'I consider that the sufferings of this present time "'are not worth comparing with the glory "'that is to be revealed to us.'". So what does that mean? How is that possible?

Because we can often talk about our problems and our pains and our sufferings, but how can you not even compare it when it's so heavy? Well, he answers it in 2 Corinthians 4 .16. "'For we do not lose heart, "'though our outer self is wasting away, "'our inner self is being renewed day by day, "'for this light and momentary affliction "'is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory "'beyond all comparison, "'as we look not to the things that are seen, "'but the things that are unseen, "'for the things that are seen are transient, "'but the things that are unseen are eternal.'".

So by faith, we look back and trust in the things that Christ has done for us, and then by faith, we look forward to those things that God has promised and hope in his faithfulness to fulfill those promises.

And as good children of Abraham who trust in the promises, just as Abraham, he sojourned in the land of promise and he refused to build the city himself, but he looked to God who is a city builder. So we don't build the kingdom, we live in light of the coming kingdom and we testify to the king and his kingdom.

It's not our job to manufacture the promises that God has promised to give to us. It is the father's good pleasure, little flock, to give you the kingdom. And that is that forward-looking faith. That is what it means to walk as nomads in this life, as sojourners and pilgrims who look to the king and his coming kingdom, to the city and the city builder that is ours to be given by inheritance, not by earning.

We don't earn it, it has been earned for us and we just receive it through faith alone. And it's for that glorious salvation that Jesus secures you and sustains you through faith alone. And like Elijah, the reason you do not lose heart is because God loves you and wields all his might for you to save you and secure you for himself.

You are owned by God and no one can deliver out of his hand. You are saved by Christ, in Christ, for God, from God. His enduring love and kingly power to save are overflows of who he is. They are infinite, eternal, and unchanging, and immutable.

And I love this in Malachi 3 .6, for I, the Lord, do not change.

I love this.

Therefore, you are not consumed. I do not change, so you're not consumed. God never changes, he never goes back and revisits his promises. If he has covenanted himself to you through the butchering of his son, you can take it to the bank, he'll finish it and he'll take you home.

Consider the experiences of those devastating darknesses, those merciless disappointments, those nightmarish sadnesses, those unremitting pains, and maybe the burden you describe as heavy, unbearable, maybe even crushing.

The Bible validates the human experience of pain, to be sure, but it describes it as what? Light and momentary affliction. So how is that possible? It's because the glory of the resurrection is not even worth comparing to our sufferings, and it's beyond all comparison, according to 2 Corinthians 4, 17.

So what does that mean? What is this weight of glory that today, Elijah and the great cloud of witnesses who have died in faith now enjoy in part before the resurrection? Well, 1 Peter 1, 4 describes it as an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept, guarded, secured in heaven for you.

In heaven, and then in the resurrection, there will never, never, never, never be one moment of regret or remorse, discontentment, envy, jealousy, discouragement, trauma, addiction, slander, struggle, or anything else that crushes you in this life.

Indeed, the Bible teaches that we will not likely even recall to mind the things of this life. Isaiah 65, 17 says this, this is such, this is so liberating to me, I love this. Isaiah 65, 17, for behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

Isn't that good news? Isn't that good news for those of us who struggle with bad dreams, sad memories, PTSD, something from your previous life that you just wish would be erased from your memory bank?

God says elsewhere in Isaiah 54, four, fear not. Fear not, for you will not be ashamed. So be done with this fear that you're gonna stand before God and feel ashamed someday. You're justified, and you'll be welcomed into his presence.

He's not gonna air all your dirty laundry. It's been done, it's taken away. You will enter into the joy of your master. There will be no shame and no guilt on that day, nothing but celebration and joy if you're in Christ.

Fear not, you will not be ashamed. Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood. You will remember no more. Any recollection of this life will probably be something like a fading dream.

Waking up after a dream, we go through the day, and what happens? The dream fades. That memory of that dream just kind of disappears. We have some maybe hint that we had a dream, but it doesn't dominate our consciousness.

In light of reality, our daily living, that reminiscence of that dream is just, it's kind of trivial, and it's insignificant. And so the love of God for us in Christ will dominate and exhaust and swallow up all that is momentary and transient in this life, and God lovingly leverages all that he is for us and our good in the resurrection, and that weight that feels so burdensome and so crushing in this momentary life will be translated into heavy weights of eternal, immeasurable, unchanging glory.

And in Hebrew, the word for glory is literally weight or heavy, and so Paul's translating a common Hebrew theological word into Greek, basically saying our heavy pains in this life should point us away from them to look forward to those unseen promises of heaven, the weight of glory, or the heaviness of glory, or like literally the weight of weight, so that when we get to heaven, never will we fully fathom the depths of God's wisdom and goodness and holiness and love and benevolence and power for us, and his grace every day will get better and better and better and better because you can never fully exhaust the goodness of God if he's infinite, never, never will you fully come to a full knowledge and comprehension and enjoyment of God's love for you, never.

And so if there's days in heaven at the end of every day, you'll say, that was the best day of my life. God loves even me. I can't wait for tomorrow. And for the Christian, the best is always yet to come, and in 10 billion years from now on the new earth, the best is always yet to come.

You see, heaven is the presence of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, holy and infinite and eternal love, a land of heavy, glorious love in Christ so that day after day, age after age, you will be weighed down with wave after wave of benevolence and kindness and happiness and love of the triune God so much so that if you were to experience it in this life, you would say with heaving gasps, I can't take it anymore.

Lord, stay your hand. You are beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words, too wonderful for comprehension like nothing ever seen or heard. Who can grasp your infinite wisdom? Who can fathom the depths of your love?

You are beautiful beyond description, majesty enthroned above, and in heaven and on the new earth, that is our inheritance, and all of this life is gonna be inconsequential. You know, we know what that's like in part, don't we?

Because you know what it's like to be caught up in a moment, a moment of something sublime, something that you just love so much where you lose track of time. It's the picture of timelessness in heaven when this happens.

We all know what it's like that maybe winning, watching your favorite team win the Super Bowl or the World Series, the year you fell in love, the day you got engaged, your wedding day, your honeymoon, the birth of your first child or grandchild, scoring the winning points in a championship game, performing flawlessly at your senior recital, running across a finish line, enjoying Christmas Eve and morning with your grandkids all under your roof, and those blissful moments, time ceases to exist, doesn't it?

In those sublime moments, nobody worries about what happens tomorrow. Nobody cares to recall what happened yesterday. Nobody's bored and nobody checks their watch. It's because those heavenly moments swallow us up and remind us that we were made for something and someone far better, otherworldly, pure, perfect, holy, joyful, timeless, unchanging, so that in heaven, nobody will say to C .S. Lewis or J .R .R. Tolkien, you had a better imagination than God does, not gonna happen.

Never will you be tired or bored, in pain or discouraged, irritated, but the sounds of heaven and the new earth will be sounds of laughter and singing, energy and discovery, joy and peace, and on the new earth, you'll have a reputation and a job that you love, but isn't it interesting?

Think about what a resurrected humanity is gonna look like. There's gonna be things that we just don't have to do. There's gonna be jobs that will be nonexistent. There'll be no pastors, there'll be no counselors, there'll be no pharmacists, no mechanics, no policemen, no firemen.

Moreover, the arts, the sciences, the humanities, engineering, space exploration, agriculture, and the like will abound and resound to the glory of Christ. Like Elijah, we can get up in the morning and endure another day in the thanklessness and the mundane, discouraging world in which we are assigned and live as exiles and sojourners like the children of Abraham.