The New Covenant Heavens & Earth, Pt. 2

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Cultish - Congressmen William D. Upshaw Pt. 3

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If you would open your Bibles to the gospel according to Matthew 24.

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Matthew 24, this is, of course, the famous Olivet Discourse, the section that describes the

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Great Tribulation. This is one of the synoptic gospels that has this discourse within it.

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You have it in Luke 21, Mark 13, and Matthew 24. So you can look at those parallel accounts and get even more help.

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In Matthew 24, we're going to start in verse 33. Matthew 24, 33.

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While you're getting there, I just noticed people love me so much, they always try to give me a bottle of water, which

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I really need up here. And there must be a lack of communication, because I have three bottles of water over and above God.

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Thank you. Matthew 24, 33.

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My cup is overflowing, guys. Just say something about how long you think

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I'm going to preach today. Is that? That's what it is.

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Actually, as you guys are getting there, you were already there. But Clem, Clementine, Pastor James' granddaughter,

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I heard something over there about, well, who's preaching today? Pastor Jeff. She's like, OK, we're going to be here a while. She's like, setting into the saddle.

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So Matthew 24, 33. Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates.

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Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

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Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together. Father, we come to you,

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Lord, thankful for your word. Thank you for this gift. We ask, God, that you'd bless us with today's message.

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Let it change us. I do want to ask, Father, Lord, I am not in myself worthy to give a message like this, and myself not worthy to hold your word.

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But Lord, we need you by your spirit to teach, to speak.

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And so I pray that you would get the teacher out of the way. As always, God, we ask that the teacher would decrease, that Christ would increase, that,

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Lord, this would be not the words of a mere man, but word from the living

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God. I do pray that what's said today, Lord, would challenge us in such a way that it changes us, transforms us, renews us, strengthens us, and causes us to be resolved.

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I do pray, Lord, for every person in this body today and for those around the world that are going to hear this message, that you would use it,

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Lord, to get us on our feet, to preach the gospel in advance into the world, into history with your gospel.

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Lord Jesus, you promised the gates of hell will never prevail against the church. And so please, Lord, use this message to knock them down, in Jesus' name, amen.

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So there's a part two, is if you didn't get last week's, I encourage you to go and watch, listen to last week's, go to all the texts, go to all the scriptures, because I know it's a jolt to some degree when you come to, say,

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Apologia Church, and we're saying something similar to, say, what Eusebius said in the early church, where he was using

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Matthew 24 in the Olivet Discourse as an apologetic to demonstrate that Jesus actually is the

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Messiah, that what he said took place. It's popular today to see the Olivet Discourse, the

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Great Tribulation, as something that may be happening in our lifetime or its future to us.

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And when you take a historic preterist or partial preterist understanding of this text, it could be a jolt, especially if you're thinking of the

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Olivet Discourse and the Great Tribulation as the stars falling from heaven, literally, and learning,

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I know it's a jolt, that, well, Jesus was actually quoting from Isaiah 13. And that was language

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God used about destroying a pagan nation. It wasn't literal. It was the dramatic prophetic hyperbole that is so familiar to the

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Old Testament language. God speaks like that a lot. The hearts of the Egyptians melting within them, God coming on a cloud in Isaiah chapter 19, verse 1.

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God didn't literally ride on a cloud, and their hearts didn't literally melt into their bellies. However, God's judgment came.

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He judged Egypt. This is common language. And so when Jesus is describing the destruction of their temple, the destruction of Jerusalem, he says all these things are going to come upon them.

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Their house is left to them desolate. These are the days of vengeance. All the blood of the righteous is going to be upon this generation.

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And then he takes that path from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives, the same path

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Yahweh took in the Old Testament before the destruction of the first temple and rested on the Mount of Olives.

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And then Jesus takes that same path Yahweh incarnate in human flesh. And then he says, do you see all these things?

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There should not be left one stone upon another. And when you contextualize that and unpack those texts and let them speak to their generation and their original audience,

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I think you have to come to the conclusion Jesus meant what he said here. And it happened just like he promised.

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There's over a year, I believe, of preaching through Matthew chapter 24. And I hope you understand why it's so important.

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Because this particular text, and this will be the final thing I say on this in terms of the importance of this, is often used, and you've heard me say this, by the atheists, the secularists, the humanists, those who would seek to deny

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Christ and his messiahship as a chestnut argument against the deity of Christ, against his being messiah.

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Oftentimes, when you whittle the atheist down to his bare bones and there's really nothing left, they'll throw out the chestnut arguments.

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I hope, what do those look like? Emotional arguments. Well, if God is who he says he is, why is there so much suffering and evil in the world?

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That's easy to answer. Why is bipedal protoplasm concerned about suffering and evil in the world?

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You don't have a basis for human suffering and evil as being meaningful. You are barring my worldview. So we can answer all those arguments.

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But you can have a similar scenario as what happened to Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens at Westminster when they debated.

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Christopher Hitchens was a formidable atheist. He's a creationist now.

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He died. He's my favorite atheist because he's so eloquent.

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And I think I really would have got along with him. I would have liked talking with him. But when Pastor Wilson whittled him down to his bare bones, he started throwing out the chestnut arguments.

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And one of those chestnut arguments was that Jesus didn't know the timing of his own coming. He got it wrong.

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He did promise to that generation. He used the near demonstrative, this generation. He was talking to those disciples in the context of the destruction of Jerusalem that he was going to return in judgment upon that generation.

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There would be wars and rumors of wars, famine, pestilence. And apparently the second coming and resurrection didn't happen.

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So ipso facto, Jesus Christ is a false prophet. Atheists use this all the time.

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I do find it interesting that in Christian history, you have Christians that have long used this particular text to show that Jesus actually said these things.

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And they did happen to that generation. It wasn't a reference to his final judgment and resurrection and the second coming.

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It was in reference to the common coming in judgment of Yahweh. God came in judgment many times in the

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Old Testament, many times. We're not referring to the judgment of the end of the world.

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But isn't it interesting that Christians have long used this particular passage to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is vindicated as Messiah, because he said these things were going to happen.

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And they happen on time and as plans. Isn't that powerful? But when we have a wrong interpretation of this text and we drive it into the future, we are just giving fodder to the atheists to use against us.

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Now, that shouldn't be the motivation, necessarily, for the interpretation of the text. But it is a consequence. Bad interpretation matters.

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It has consequences. And I think that this is glorious. When I go to Matthew 24, the

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Olivet Discourse, Luke 21, Mark 13, I use these texts to demonstrate Jesus said this was going to happen.

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And it happened on time and as planned. Isn't it powerful? Isn't it amazing that he said it and it actually was accomplished?

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But it could be a jolt, because if you're from the evangelical church in the West, the popular eschatology of today takes this particular text and it forces it into our future.

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But what if it actually took place like Jesus said it would, in tandem with the destruction of the

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Jewish temple? You see, here's the thing. If you want to get the nuts and bolts, here it is. Are you ready? If you're like, well, this is so much and taking this in is heavy,

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I'll have to go back through all those texts and all those sermons, here's the nuts and bolts. The Olivet Discourse, the promise of the

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Great Tribulation, is covenantal. That's the context. It's covenantal.

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When Jesus comes into Jerusalem, we did this last week, from Matthew 20 all the way through 24,

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Jesus is indicting the Jewish leadership. He's condemning them. And he's promising to them judgments.

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You have the parable of the owner of the vineyard and they kill his son and the marriage feasts and all these things. And God's going to send his armies to destroy their city.

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He's going to destroy those miserable wretches and give this vineyard to others who will actually give them the fruit of it.

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Jesus is saying, you, you, you. And he has the seven woes in Matthew 23. Jesus tells them they're full of dead men's bones.

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They're whitewashed tombs. He's condemning them. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who were sent to her.

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You see, Jesus has a specific message to those covenant breakers in his generation. And here's the deal, it's covenantal.

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This text isn't about you. You gotta let that hang for a second.

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Because that rubs people, that bothers people. That's one of the most intense reactions you get when you say the

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Great Tribulation, the Olivet Discourse, has a specific covenantal context. It was promised.

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In other words, this was expected. The Messiah was coming to bring salvation and judgment.

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All in the Old Testament, we have verse after verse where when the Messiah comes, there's gonna be salvation, purification, and judgment upon the covenant breakers.

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Enter Jesus the Messiah, offering what? Salvation, and saying what? You're about to be judged, covenant people.

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You're about to be judged. This is covenantal, it's not about you. It's not about George Bush.

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I remember, I've said this before. After 9 -11, I was going to Mill Avenue to do evangelism and street preaching, and I remember being on the street one day, and I got confronted by,

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I think they were the Hebrew Israelite guys, and they were talking, because George Bush was the president at the time, and they gave me this long, like 10, 15 -minute speech about how

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George Bush was the beast of revelation, and they had evidence, and they were, you know, and it has to be about us.

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It has to be, does it lose its meaning because it was about the covenant people and God fulfilling his promises to them?

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No! God tells us in Scripture many times about specific redemptive acts he's done in history, specific judgments he's performed in history, and because they are passed in fulfillment, that doesn't mean it loses their meaning for us as the people of God.

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We have those truths that tell us about who God actually is, and how he keeps his promises, and how he's a faithful God.

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He cannot lie. So is this text about you? Well, it's for you, but it wasn't about you.

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It wasn't about me. What's the context? The covenant -breaking Jews of the first century were gonna be judged.

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As a matter of fact, if you read the book of Acts, I won't do this all right now in terms of covenantal is the nature of it, you see that one of the first accusations against the

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Christian church in the book of Acts is that they were coming into Jerusalem and saying this

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Jesus is gonna return and destroy these customs Moses gave to us. That's what they were being accused of.

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Christians were coming into Jerusalem and telling everyone, you're about to be judged, he's coming, you're about to be judged, he's gonna destroy this whole system, which is consistent with what he promised them here.

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My main point is this. The Olivet Discourse, the main thrust of the Great Tribulation is covenantal.

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This has to do with the covenantal judgment that God promised upon the

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Jewish people and it happened on time. Just think about this as something you mark in your mind about this passage.

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Jesus actually departs, goes to the Mount of Olives, he sits there and he points over there and he says, do you see all these things?

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There will not be left one stone upon another and he promises all these things upon this generation, not you, the generation he was then talking to and this freaks them out because this temple was everything.

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It was the meeting of heaven and earth. It was the place where heaven and earth met.

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God's glory and his place was in there behind that veil and that part right there was only for a specific person to go in at a specific time and there had to be all these rituals and everything else to go in there and to sprinkle blood and it was never finished.

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There wasn't a once for all sacrifice. This place visualized heaven and earth together,

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God's presence, the people of God. And now Jesus says it's gonna be destroyed, not one stone upon another and within a generation, it happened on time and as planned when the

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Romans turned on the Jews, completely sacked the city, destroyed it. It was the three and a half year war between the

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Romans and the Jews. They set fire to it and they took that temple apart, stone off of stone, just like Jesus promised.

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It happens, God is faithful. The context is covenantal. It's a covenantal.

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It has to do with what God said was gonna take place in the transfer from the old covenant order to the new covenant.

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This place was gonna be destroyed but I recognize that it's a jolt at times, especially if you have presuppositional commitments to a particular interpretation of that text, it's a jolt but I encourage you to go through one year of sermons on it.

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Now, just pointing to last week's, just to give you that overview quickly, just the bullet points, the

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Old Testament language you have to understand to understand when Jesus says the temple's gonna be destroyed and says heaven and earth will pass away, we need to interpret

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Jesus in his context with his intention, understanding the word of God, the

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Old Testament before we come to that text to interpret it. The expectation of judgment and salvation at the coming of the

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Messiah, Joel chapter two, Malachi chapter three and this is a big one, are you ready? Check back in,

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Isaiah 65. You're gonna see in a moment here when we deal with Peter because I know that's lingering as a question, in second

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Peter chapter three, you're gonna see that he mentions the expectation of a new heavens and a new earth but know this, this is important, here it is.

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That was not a New Testament revelation in terms of this is a novelty from the New Testament, that's new revelation, we're getting more.

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He was pointing to the Old Testament revelation that promised of a new heavens and a new earth.

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Isaiah 65 says there's gonna be judgment upon the covenant breakers and then God gives his people a new name and then there's a new heavens and a new earth.

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The promise was a new covenant, Jeremiah 31, 31. So the context is covenantal.

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The Old Testament had expectation, it had language for us and we need to understand what that means before we run into the

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New Testament forcing our 21st century evangelical Gentile interpretations into it.

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It could be dangerous, I've mentioned to you, if we're not careful and don't understand what the Bible is saying and doing properly, we could be looking for man hoppers, locusts with man's faces, right?

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We'll be looking for seven headed, 10 horned beasts, things crawling out of the sea, right? And wondering, where's that?

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Or who is that? Last week, we talked about heaven and earth. The context is covenantal.

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If you read in the Old Testament, you will see in Isaiah 51, 15 through 16,

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God refers to himself coming into covenant with his people. When he brought them into covenant with himself, he established the heavens and the earth.

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That's the language that he used. And it's in, by the way, Isaiah, covenantal. When he brought them to himself, he was establishing the heavens and the earth.

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Isaiah 51, 15 through 16. So the context is covenantal.

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And isn't it interesting, when Jesus refers to the destruction of that old covenant order, he refers to heaven and earth passing away.

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There's a Jewish context to this. We need to read it with very Jewish eyes. I mentioned that this is also a

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New Testament theme. In Galatians chapter four, you have the Apostle Paul, this is a big one, talking about a

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Jerusalem that was present in his day. He wrote Galatians when the temple was still standing.

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And he said that that Jerusalem was in bondage. He says, but we are from the heavenly

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Jerusalem, the new one that is above. She is our mother.

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This one's enslaved. We are sons of the free. The new Jerusalem versus the old

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Jerusalem. I mentioned that in Hebrews chapter 12, the writer of Hebrews is warning that first century generation before the destruction of the temple, don't go back.

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Don't go back. Jesus is a better priest. He's a better king. He's a better prophet.

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Don't go back. The warning at that time was coming to people who were hearing from their

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Jewish friends, family, and neighbors, hey, look, I understand that this Jewish Messiah, Jesus, you thought that a criminal guy that was crucified and was raised again, you thought he was the

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Messiah, but guys, come on. You know, it's been a long time now. You just need to come back. Come back to temple.

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Come back to these sacrifices. And what is the writer of Hebrews saying? Don't go back. Don't go back.

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Those things were shadows pointing to the substance, Jesus. And he refers in Hebrews 12 about God shaking the heavens and the earth, the things that can be shaking.

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We are, he says, in the first century before the destruction of that temple. He says, we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken.

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And what he's referring to there is not a literal shaking of the heavens and the earth, but the destruction of that old covenant order and economy.

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It's a powerful thing to see the consistency throughout scripture on this point. But I know, here's the deal.

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Questions start coming, popping up. Wait a minute. We're in the new covenant, heavens and earth?

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Jeff, you mentioned last week that the harlot bride was that old unfaithful Jerusalem who's killing the prophets, and she's drinking the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus.

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She's got Babylon in her head instead of Yahweh's name on her head, and she's riding Rome, and then

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Rome turns on her and destroys her. So you've got the putting away of the adulterous wife. She gets the death penalty, and now you have a new heavens and new earth, a new

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Jerusalem coming down as a bride. Who's the bride in scripture?

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The church. And this bride is offering to the world the rivers of life, water of life, and outside the city gates of this new

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Jerusalem are the dogs, the immoral. They're there. And yet in the Old Testament, Jerusalem was designed a certain way.

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The temple was designed a certain way where God's presence was over there in this cube, and the new covenant, the new

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Jerusalem, the whole city is a cube. Everywhere is God's presence with his people, and the world is being offered salvation in this new

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Jerusalem. You have the sinners on the outside of the city. The healing, the leaves that are growing are for the healing of the nations.

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If that's the eternal state itself, that's interesting. Why do nations need healed after the resurrection and final judgment?

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Strange. But then the question comes, hey, Pastor Jeff, I thought that because sin entered the world and the curse and everything else,

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God's kind of gonna toss this away into the trash heap of history, the physical creation is gonna be thrown away, and there's gonna be a new one made.

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And I know when you think through this, you think, wait, doesn't Peter talk about a burning up of the elements, the physical earth and cosmos?

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So I wanna answer that, are you guys ready? Yes? So let's go to 2 Peter, let's answer questions today. 2 Peter, 2

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Peter chapter three. 2 Peter chapter three, and I want you to consider now, was

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Peter present at the Olivet Discourse? Was he present? Yes.

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One of the apostles, he was there, he heard Jesus talk about that, and I'm sure maybe he heard him talk about things like that a number of times.

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Peter was there, and Peter is talking to first century Christians before the destruction of the

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Jerusalem. Peter was killed before the destruction of Jerusalem. And Peter actually mentions, in 2

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Peter chapter three, this coming judgment. So I'm gonna read the text in full to you, and then we're actually gonna deal with a few things.

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I can't unpack this in a four week sermon series as I'd like to, I see your eyes.

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So we're gonna just touch on some major points here we go, 2 Peter chapter three. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved, in both of them

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I'm stirring up your sincere minds by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the

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Lord and Savior through your apostles. Now stop for a moment and just consider what's being said there.

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You should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the

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Lord and Savior through your apostles. So what he's describing here is something that's specifically given through the prophets and the

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Lord Jesus from the apostles to them. Knowing this first of all that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires, they will say, where's the promise of his coming?

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For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.

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And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

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But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

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But do not overlook this fact, beloved, this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as of a thousand years and a thousand years is one day.

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The Lord is not slow to his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

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But the day of the Lord will come like a thief and the heavens will pass away with a roar and, and here's where Pastor James was talking to us at the beginning of service, most translations,

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English translations, use from the Greek word stoicheia, elements.

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The ESV says heavenly bodies. I'm gonna stick with elements and I'm gonna explain why.

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And the elements will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

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So there it is. Well, there you go. Isn't the earth just gonna be destroyed, the physical earth destroyed and burnt up so God makes an entirely new one?

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I don't believe so. As a matter of fact, I wanna make the case that scripture actually gives promises,

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I think that are much greater than that and speak more of resurrection of the cosmos and renewal of the cosmos rather than a throwing away of creation and a restart.

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We're looking forward to resurrection and renewal. Now, what I'm gonna do here is just point to something first.

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He mentions, Peter mentions that that day will come like a thief. Does that sound familiar?

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That day of the Lord will come like a thief. Where else do you hear that language associated with judgment?

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Is it anywhere else in the New Testament? It's in Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse where Jesus describes the destruction of Jerusalem and he tells them that it's gonna come like a thief to be prepared, to be ready, to be watching because that day, the day that was referred to there, the destruction of Jerusalem was gonna come like a thief.

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Peter says, remember what Jesus said. We gave it to you. This day is gonna come like a thief.

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So I think it's safe to say that Peter's in the same conversation as Jesus from the

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Olivet Discourse. But the question about this language, let's go to it and I'm gonna do it by actually going to a great man of God, one of the greatest thinkers,

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I think, in the history of the Christian church. His mind was absolutely brilliant. Dr. John Owen. If you don't have

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Owen's stuff in your library, get it. He has a great work on the Holy Spirit. And if you don't have the death of death and the death of Christ in your library, get it.

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The death of death and the death of Christ on the atonement, Dr. John Owen. Dr. John Owen makes the point that Peter here is not describing the dissolution of the physical cosmos.

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He's describing the destruction of the old covenant order. And here's his argument. I'm gonna read it to you because I think it's powerful and we'll make some comments.

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The apostle makes a distribution of the world into heaven and earth. And saith they were destroyed with water and perished.

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We know that neither the fabric nor substance of the one or other was destroyed, but only men that liveth on the earth.

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And the apostle tells us in verse seven of the heaven and earth that were then and were destroyed by water, distinct from the heavens and the earth that there were now and were to be consumed by fire.

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And yet as to the visible fabric of heaven and earth, they were the same both before the flood and in the apostle's time and continue so to this day.

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When yet it is certain that the heavens and earth whereof he spoke were to be destroyed and consumed by fire in that generation.

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We must then for the clearing of our foundation a little, consider what the apostle intends by the heavens and the earth in these two places.

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Here's his first point. Are you ready? I know the language is a little tougher, but let's get good at paying attention.

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It is certain that what the apostle intends by the world with its heaven and earth in verses five and six which was destroyed, the same or somewhat of that kind he intends by the heavens and the earth that were to be consumed and destroyed by fire.

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Otherwise, there'd be no coherence in the apostle's discourse nor any kind of argument, but a mere fallacy of words.

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What's he saying? Woo! It's tough, right? Sometimes you read John Owen and you're like,

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I don't get a word he's saying. You read it five more times, you go, that was the most brilliant argument I've ever read. What's he saying?

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The apostle Peter makes a point that we have this example in the Old Testament with the destruction of the earth, the world deluged with water and perished.

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It said that that world perished. Owen makes the point that Peter's making a parallel here.

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God destroyed the world with water before and it perished. But he makes the point, he's drawing a parallel between what he's saying is gonna happen now.

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And Owen's point is this, are you ready? When the world was deluged with water before and destroyed, was the physical fabric of the cosmos destroyed and perished?

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What world was destroyed? Their world, the ancient world, that world of sinners, their whole system, those ungodly men.

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So Owen's point is this, if Peter's making a parallel here, we're to take it as a parallel, we can't say, well, in that past event and in that example, it wasn't really the physical world that perished, but it was that world that perished.

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But in this case, no, the physical world itself, the fabric of it is gonna be destroyed. Owen's point is, that'd be a fallacy.

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Why make the comparison? Why make the comparison? Here's his next point. It is certain that by the flood, the world or the fabric of heaven and earth was not destroyed, but only the inhabitants of the world.

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And therefore the destruction intimated to succeed by fire is not the substance of the heavens and the earth, which shall not be consumed to the last day, but of person or men living in the world.

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Number three, then we must consider in what sense men living in the world are said to be the world and the heavens and earth of it.

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This is another really good point, hang on to this. I shall only insist on one instance to this purpose among many that may be produced.

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In Isaiah 51 verses 15 and 16, we did that last week. The time when the work here mentioned of planting the heavens and laying the foundation of the earth was performed by God was when he divided the sea, verse 15, and gave the law, verse 16, and said to Zion, thou art my people, that is when he took the children of Israel out of Egypt and formed them in the wilderness into a church and state.

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Then he planted the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth, that is brought forth order and government and beauty from confusion wherein before they were.

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This is the planting of the heavens and laying the foundation of the earth in the world. And since it is that when mention is made of the destruction of a state and government, it is that language which seems to set forth the end of the world.

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So in Isaiah 24, four, which is yet by the destruction of the state of Edom, the like also is mentioned to the

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Roman Empire, which the Jews constantly affirm to be intended by Edom and the prophets. And in our

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Savior's prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 24, he sets it out by expressions of the same importance.

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It is evident then that in the prophetical idiom of manner of speech by heavens and earth, the civil and religious state and combination of men in the world and the men of them were often understood.

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So were the heavens and earth that world which then was destroyed by the flood. On this foundation,

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I affirm, this is Owen making his point, that the heavens and earth here intended in this prophecy of Peter, the coming of the

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Lord, the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, mentioned in the destruction of that heaven and earth, to all of them relate, not to the last and final judgment of the world, but to that utter desolation and destruction that was to be made of the

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Judaical church and state for which I shall offer these two reasons and he makes some points.

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So here's the point that he's making. There was a physical creation of the heavens and the earth, a real event, that's in Genesis.

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And that real event, that actual history, then actually allows us to create in our own minds a vision of what it means to found the heavens and the earth and to bring order and to create.

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And in Isaiah, Isaiah specifically says that when God called Israel to himself, he established the heavens and the earth.

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So this is Owen's point. This promise here in 2 Peter chapter three is not about a physical destruction of the world itself in the sense of the fabric of the world being destroyed, but this is the promise of judgment on that generation about the soon coming destruction of their heavens and earth, that old covenant order.

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That's Owen's point. But this word here, this is an important one, the word, verse 10. But the day of the

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Lord will come like a thief. Again, Jesus said that about the destruction on Jerusalem. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be burned up and dissolved.

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Stoicheia, the word elements. It's used seven times throughout the

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New Testament. And one of them is stoicheia on. But what is it referred to every time?

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Seven times, ceremonial precepts or elements of religious training.

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Ceremonial precepts or elements of religious training. Give you some examples so you can research this on your own later.

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It's used by the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter four, verse three. In Galatians chapter four, verse nine.

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In Colossians chapter two, verse eight. In Hebrews chapter five, verse 12, and then by Peter as well.

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And what's interesting here is when the Apostle Paul uses it in Galatians, what's the context of Galatians?

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What are they telling people? Well, you gotta be circumcised. You need to come back under this religious principle, this commitment, this training.

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You need to do this in order to truly be in the covenant. In order to truly be a person who's in the people of God, you need to actually go back to this old covenant order and you need to have

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Gentiles starting to circumcise themselves. And what's Paul say to that? He confronts Peter to his face for his behavior and he tells people, if you receive circumcision, if you come under the law like that, you are now obligated to fulfill the entire thing.

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Christ has become of no benefit to you whosoever of you attempts to be justified by law.

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You've fallen from grace. What's the context? You observe all these things from that Old Testament order.

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You observe all these things and he says, all these things were only meant to point you to Jesus. And when he refers to those things, he refers to the elements, the basic principles, the elements of the world, the beggarly elements, the beggarly principles.

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So the word here for elements that are gonna be burned up fits quite nicely into the seven different usages we see in the

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New Testament. And so that starts to bring more questions. So I'll whet your appetite just a little bit.

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Go to Isaiah, sorry, Psalm 148. Psalm 148.

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Psalm 148, verse one. Praise the Lord. Praise the

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Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his hosts.

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Praise him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the heavens.

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Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created and he established them forever and ever.

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He gave a decree and it shall not pass away. Psalm 78.

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Psalm 78, 69. He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth which he has founded forever.

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Like the earth which he has founded forever. There's another reference you can go to in Ecclesiastes, chapter one, verse four.

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But here we go, now with the questions, right? It's my argument that scripture has a much more beautiful, comprehensive story than we're accustomed to.

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The story is actually much grander, awesome. It's the story of the

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Messiah who comes into the world to redeem and save sinners, who comes to raise the dead and to make all things new.

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Not make all new things. To make all things new. It's a story about the

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Messiah, the perfect Adam, who comes into the world, defeats death in a garden where it was brought, is then mistaken for a gardener because he's apparently working the ground.

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The command for the first Adam was to take dominion, to subdue the earth, to cultivate it. And Jesus accomplishes in victory what

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Adam failed to do in obedience. And Jesus now comes to restore all things, to renew and to resurrect.

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So the question comes, so is all prophecy fulfilled?

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Right? That's a big one, because you took all of that discourse, the great tribulation, you say that's past and fulfillment.

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By the way, I'm not saying anything new. This is throughout church history. You see this really all over the place.

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But the question is, so is all prophecy fulfilled? And my answer to that is no way.

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No way. There is so much more to this story.

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And brothers and sisters, we are right in the midst of it. What we have is actually exciting.

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You think about people too, they get sort of jolted by, wait, are you saying that two thirds of the

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Jews are not gonna be slaughtered? And that we're not gonna have fire falling from heaven? And seven headed ten horned beasts?

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I want the beast! I'm saying no, actually what's in our future is glorious promises about God establishing justice.

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About God drawing the nations. About God having his blessings flow as far as the curse is found.

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There's so much more. And I thought the best way to do this is just to give you some examples.

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This isn't exhaustive, but I thought the best way to do this is actually encourage you with this. Someone asked me last week, they said, Pastor Jeff, he said, this week's sermon, which surprised me,

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Sunday, it tied the whole thing together for me. I finally understood it. I thought, a year of preaching.

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A year of preaching, and then Sunday, one message on what I thought was gonna be probably one of the more heavy and complicated ones, that did it for you?

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And then I had two more people say the same thing to me, and I thought, okay, well, thank you for answering my prayers, but man, I gotta get better at this.

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But the question was, okay, so if that's done, is all prophecy fulfilled? And my answer was, no.

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There is so much. I'll give you some examples. Are you ready? This is just hope, so I hope you came ready to be encouraged, because this is just hopeful.

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I don't have news today talking about fire falling from heaven and those sorts of things.

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I'm giving you the promises which made this good news of a kingdom. I've said this a lot, haven't

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I? You've heard me preach it all around the world, is that evangelicals are really good at talking about the gospel, and what we mean generally is justification by faith, right?

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And that's the heart of the gospel message, and how a person is reconciled to God, justification by faith alone, and Christ alone, he accomplished it all.

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But we can't make any sense out of the fact that they were proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

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Ask the average evangelical, can you articulate what it means that the kingdom is good news?

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Why was that good news of a kingdom? And the answer is, a whole lot of scripture and expectation before the time of Christ.

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Here's some good news of a kingdom. Genesis 26 four, I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and will give to your offspring all these lands, and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

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You know, we have 2 ,000 years of Christian history behind us, and we've had a lot of believers. There's a lot of professing believers in the world today, also a lot of false professions of faith, but when you see a promise like that,

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Abraham, I'm gonna make your offspring like the stars. That's very hopeful.

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Pastor James this week, he did like 16 ,000 hours of the dividing line, which is actually really helpful.

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It was some amazing stuff, and one of the things that he said in a common argument, it's really,

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I think, a silly argument on a number of levels, against reformed theology or Calvinism or God showing grace to sinners that's undeserved and he chooses to save.

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The argument is, okay, so God just chooses to select a select few of humanity, and the rest he just throws away.

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Well, what if we're in the early church? What if there's 25 ,000 years left of human history before the final judgment and resurrection?

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What if this promise to Abraham, what if it's true? What if there's gonna be descendants as numerous as the stars?

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There's no way to count that. What if that's true? Does it change the way you think about your life?

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This is where I hope to challenge each of us, me too. Does it change the way you think about your life and your children and the future and your grandchildren and your great -grandchildren?

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Does it change the way you think about what God has called you to do in this life? That God promises

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Abraham, you're gonna have descendants like the stars. Brothers and sisters, that's hope. That's good news, that the nations are gonna be blessed by Jesus.

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You know there's nations that don't have the gospel yet. So this is a promise that's true now and what?

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True in the future. It's still going. Stop and look for a moment around the room. I feel like when

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I was saying, everyone turn to your neighbor, everyone turn to your, I hate when people do that. But seriously, I've said this a million times, look around this room.

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Every time I look out to this congregation, it blesses my life. First of all, this is a terrifying thing to be up here handling this word, first of all.

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But second of all, God gives constant encouragement. I'm looking out across a crowd right now in the middle of the desert in Phoenix, Arizona, outside of Phoenix, Arizona, at a room full of all kinds of different colors, all kinds of different people from different backgrounds with a different family history, all together in one room with a common faith and profession in the same

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Savior. We're all one in Christ Jesus. Descendants of Abraham, amen, yes?

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This is, it's not only true now, it's continuing on to be true through the proclamation of the gospel.

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Next one, Genesis 22, 16 through 18. Another one just like it. God said, by myself

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I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son. I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

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And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. I love that. Jesus uses language like that, right?

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See, where the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

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Genesis 22, 16 through 18. Is it true now? Yep, look to your left, look to your right.

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You can see it happening right now in this one local body and it's continuing on.

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Is all prophecy fulfilled? Well, this is something that is truly a now and not yet. It is now, it's happening now.

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God is fulfilling it now and it's not yet, it's not yet finished. We have a lot more sand to capture.

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There's a lot, a whole lot. Recently I was in Kauai for our church plants.

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Go stand on the beach, one beach in Kauai or any other place and look around at that sand. Stick your finger in the sand and ask yourself the question, do we have more work to do?

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We do, we do. Here's another one, Genesis 49, 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him and to him, this is about Jesus, shall be the obedience of the peoples.

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Is it true now? Yes. Is it finished? No. Another one,

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Psalm 2, 7 through 9. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

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This is the Father speaking to Jesus. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession.

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You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Is it true now? Yes. Is it finished?

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No. Psalm 22, 27, all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the

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Lord and all the families of the nation shall worship before you. Is it true now?

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Yes. Seed form, but do we have work to do? Yes. Another one,

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Psalm 72. May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

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May desert tribes bow down before him and his enemies lick the dust. May the kings of Tarshish and the coastlands render him tributes.

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May the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. May all kings fall down before him. All nations serve him,

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Psalm 72. Do we have work to do? It's the gospel of a kingdom.

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Here's one, you have this memorized. Psalm 110, one through two. The Lord says to my, come on now.

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The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

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The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

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Amen. Psalm 110, one through two. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, he's ruling now, he's reigning now, and he must reign until all of his enemies are a footstool for his feet and finally death will be defeated.

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After what? Every enemy is first placed under his feet. Are all prophecies finished?

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Done, complete? Not by a long shot. Read Isaiah two. God says he's gonna bring all the nations, the families of the earth up to the mountain of God.

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The law of God's gonna go forth from Zion. That's in process. Isaiah chapter nine.

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God, the mighty God, the father of eternity, the prince of peace.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no ends. On the throne of David to establish it with justice and righteousness forevermore.

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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. It's God that's gonna accomplish this in history.

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But that's the promise of the Messiah's kingdom. Isaiah chapter 42. I want you to go there because this is one of those things that is a now, truly now, but not yet.

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It's not finished. There's more work to be done. Isaiah chapter 42. This is one of my very favorite promises in history.

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In verse one, listen. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.

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I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations.

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He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

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He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged.

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That's a process. Till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.

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Is that good news? My goodness, that is good news. Take it in. Take it in, that is good news.

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You say like, how is that happening? Well, in many ways, Pastor James taught on this passage. You know, one example of how

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God is doing this in the world is you have this little church in the desert in Phoenix. It's not much to us.

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We just know Jesus and we love him. Preaching the gospel at abortion mills, saving lives, establishing justice, preaching to our magistrates in three states in 2021.

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We already have bills to criminalize and abolish and establish equal justice for the pre -born in the first three months of the year.

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God is in the process of saving, redeeming, transforming and establishing justice, amen?

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You know how I know abortion's gonna be ended? Isaiah 42. That's my hope.

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That is my confidence. Maybe we're just the seed, I'm okay with that. In order for a tree to grow, there has to be a seed, amen?

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Maybe we're the seed, praise God. Maybe someday, a thousand years from now, Christians are gonna look back at our generation and say, can you believe that was a thing then?

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And praise God for that body of Christ globally that fought against it with the gospel and established justice.

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Jesus is going to establish justice. I know these things will end because the Bible gives me the promise, all enemies under the feet of Jesus.

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How's that for hope? How's that for good news? But is it finished yet? Do you have work to do?

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Does that change the way you think about the future? Does that change the way you think about your life and your purpose and the seeds that you're planting?

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Does it change the way you look in the eyes of your children? Does it change the way you think about your grandchildren? It should.

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What else is to come? Isaiah 65, it's the thing that Peter refers to. He's referring to Isaiah 65 and never forget that in Peter's discourse there, that section of scripture, when he refers to this coming heavens and earth, he's referring to the

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Old Testament, Isaiah said that, but Isaiah said it was gonna take place when God judged the covenant breakers and gave his people a new name.

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That's a new covenant, guys. That's a new covenant context. That's the language. But in Isaiah 65, there's some promises there that you're like, man, that sounds exciting.

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Is it true now? Well, yes, but not yet. We have a ways to go. We have work to do.

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Daniel 7, 13 through 14 is the promise of the kingdom and the son of man and all the nations come to him.

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He has dominion over them and it never passes away. His kingdom is never destroyed.

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Here's a big one. In Habakkuk 2, 14.

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For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

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You know what freaks me out? Freaks my family out. When we fly over the ocean.

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You know, I've flown over the ocean to go to Ireland, Scotland. I've flown over the ocean to go to Hawaii for our church plant there.

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But the one trip that really will get you is when you fly from LA. We went to Australia to help the church out there establish the same ministry in the area of abortion as our church.

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So we went out there to equip them, to sort of get them started on all this. But we flew from like, was it LA, Pastor Luke?

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LA? Yeah, LA to Brisbane, right? Was it

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Brisbane we went first or Sydney? One of the two, Brisbane or Sydney. And it's a shot from LA to Brisbane.

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Have you seen a map? That's all ocean. And it's like 14 hours.

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I'm gonna say this too, this is weird. I can't sleep on planes. I tell this story every time. I cannot sleep on planes to save my life.

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And on that flight from LA, it was nighttime. We're in the plane getting ready to take off.

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And I'm like, I'm not looking forward to 14 hours of being awake and not being able to sleep and just my back hurting and my legs hurting and all that stuff.

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And so I'm just sitting there like, all right, Lord, just please help me to sleep on this plane. I wanna get there and be good for you. And then

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I turn around and I look, we haven't even taken off yet. I look and Carmen is already asleep behind me.

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And he slept, that man back there, he slept from Los Angeles until one hour before Australia.

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He missed the whole thing. He woke, I don't even know how he did it without going to the bathroom. He just, he was, he woke up.

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He's like, well, what's going on? We had like an hour left. I was like, that's disgusting. I don't know,

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I don't know how he does it. It's a gift from God and we should just rejoice that someone else gets the gift, but not me.

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But the whole way, like you're like seven, eight hours into the flight and sometimes it'll dawn on you.

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I'm like, I'm flying 40 ,000 feet in the air over nothing but ocean. You know, every once in a while you remember like, oh yeah, there's nothing beneath us but water forever.

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That's a lot of water. It's everywhere as far as the eye can see. And it's kind of freaky.

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The thing that terrifies me the most about the world is that ocean. You want to get me and like torture me, you can take me and I think break my thumbs and break my legs and I'll be like, it's cool,

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I got this, maybe, maybe. But if you said, I'm gonna throw you in the ocean in the middle of it and then just leave you,

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I will beg and plead and say, please, I'll do anything you want. Just don't leave me here with these things.

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Okay, all that to say, the knowledge of God is gonna cover the earth like the waters cover the sea.

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Brothers and sisters, that's the promise. And whatever you think of the future, you better fit that in because Jesus came proclaiming the good news of his kingdom, his salvation, his rule, his reign.

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And these are those promises. They're promises that relate to this place, the world that you and I are living in.

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How about Jesus? Quick ones, the meek shall inherit the earth. Sermon on the Mount. Who inherits the earth?

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Most people say today, well, it's those ungodly people. Then God comes back and destroys the world. I don't believe that at all.

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I don't believe scripture teaches that. I don't believe scripture tells that story. It actually tells the opposite story. Jesus says the meek shall inherit the earth.

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Did Paul believe that? Well, when he preaches the gospel in the book of Romans, he says in Romans chapter four that Abraham's descendants would inherit the world.

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Which world? This one. Abraham's descendants would inherit the world.

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The meek shall inherit the earth. In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul lays out not only the gospel, but a timeline of human history.

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And what he says is that Jesus was raised and because he was raised, we will also be raised, but it has to be in order.

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And this is what it looks like. He must reign until every enemy has made a footstool for his feet.

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And finally, death will be defeated after every enemy has been defeated.

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It sounds like those promises from the Old Testament. It sounds like total victory. And then finally, that last enemy is defeated.

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And then it says Jesus will present the kingdom to the father as finished. That's how

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Paul related human history. But in this discussion, this is interesting. In this discussion about the earth and the physical universe and world and all these different things,

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I think it's important for us to keep in mind that Paul's had this discussion. How should we view the future? And you need to read that in Romans chapter eight, 18 through 23.

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Go read it later. There's an anchor there for you in terms of the creation itself is groaning and awaiting this revelation.

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The renewal, it's waiting for the renewal. And that's, I think, where history is going.

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And that's a glorious story. So the question that comes is another one. Here it is. So is this the eternal state?

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I mean, this is the new covenant, heavens and earth. So is this the eternal state? No. The entrance of and establishing of the new covenant, heavens and earth, and new

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Jerusalem after the old Jerusalem was judged is connected to the whole

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Bible story of kingdom and redemption. Final judgment hasn't come yet.

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The resurrection of the just and the unjust hasn't happened yet. Paul says that occurs after Messiah the

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King has put every enemy under his feet. First Corinthians chapter 15. We are waiting for the culmination of all these promises.

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We are waiting for the raising and transformation of all of creation. It's in process.

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We have work to do. So another question that comes is this. Is he going to throw all this away and start over?

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That's a big one, right? How many of us think that, have thought that? That this world is tainted with sin and evil and injustice, and so God's just gonna take this world and one fell swoop at the end, he's just gonna burn all this up, destroy the earth and the physical cosmos, and he's gonna start over again with something new.

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I'll just say this from the heart, transparently. That scares me. That scares me, and maybe not for the reason that you might think.

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It scares me because it sounds so similar to a system that was the greatest enemy of the

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Christian church early on, Gnosticism. The church has had to deal with Gnosticism and dualism throughout its history.

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But see, Gnostics believed that all this physical order, all this stuff was evil, and God wouldn't have anything to do with it, and so that's one of the reasons they would say that Jesus didn't come to take on physical flesh, because God would never sully himself with becoming a part of this physical order because it's evil.

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There's evil things that happen here. This is an evil place, and God would never sully himself by taking on human flesh.

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And it concerns me when Christians have a perspective of the world and heaven that is very close to sounding like what we really wanna do is get to this higher story, this spiritual story.

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God's not concerned with the physical so much as he is this higher story and this gassy existence out there.

01:00:02

You see, all of this is a throwaway. The ultimate goal is to really just sort of leave your humanity behind and get to heaven one day.

01:00:10

I wanna get there, out there, because God's not so concerned with this place, this world.

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This is all really a throwaway. That worries me, that scares me, because the biblical worldview doesn't speak like that.

01:00:24

When God created, what did he say? It's good. When God created, he called the world good.

01:00:32

He called his creation good. And remember, the beginning of the story, when God created and he called it good, heaven and earth were married.

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He creates his image in the garden. He tells him, be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth, cultivate it, take dominion.

01:00:49

And Adam, of course, fails, and then heaven and earth experience a divorce. And the whole story of redemption is what?

01:00:57

It's about God getting heaven back to earth. Heaven comes to earth.

01:01:03

God becomes incarnate to do what? To chase down his rebel creation, to save and to bring about resurrection, renewal.

01:01:16

It's not a throwaway. The biblical worldview has both concepts, the physical world and the goodness of creation, and of course, the spiritual.

01:01:26

Those things are supposed to be together. The whole story of redemption is ultimately the reunification of all of those glorious things.

01:01:35

So that scares me, the idea that God's not concerned with the physical world, it's evil and tainted with sin, he's gonna throw it away and just make something new.

01:01:42

I don't think you get that from the scriptures. You see, the evangelical perspective, tell me that it's not true, is just the idea, like,

01:01:50

I can't wait to go to heaven one day. I can't wait to get out of this and to go there one day. Now, there's certain elements to that that I think we have to confess.

01:01:57

That makes sense. There's times when this world is sinful and evil and it's painful, and a lot of times our hearts and souls, they long to be with Jesus, amen?

01:02:06

That's true. But the idea that God is gonna take this world, this physical universe he calls good, and throw it into the trash heap of history,

01:02:14

I think is not ultimately biblical. How does Jesus talk about it? Well, he talks about it like this.

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In Revelation 21 five, he says, and he who was seated on the throne said, behold,

01:02:28

I am making all things new. All things new.

01:02:36

Also he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.

01:02:41

That's Jesus saying, write it down. This is true. This, remember,

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I am making all things new. See, here's the deal, ready? There is a larger story in scripture.

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We have the beginning of creation. What is it? We have a garden. We have God saying, take dominion, cultivate.

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He says, subdue the earth. God is walking with them. Where? Brothers and sisters, stop for a second.

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Where? Not specifically like where in the, I don't, Pastor Jeff, I don't know where the Garden of Eden is.

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I don't know. Let's take a tour there. No, but where?

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Where is it taking place? Here, this physical world, physical bodies with digestive systems and hearts and lungs and teeth and fingernails and feet and hair, a physical world where God was walking with them.

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And what takes place? The fall takes place. Heaven and earth were married then.

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And then the fall takes place and heaven and earth were again divorced. But what takes place with Jesus in the kingdom?

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What's this redemptive story in history about? It's about the perfect Adam. God becomes a man to do what

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Adam failed to do. Jesus was raised in a garden.

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That's not an accident of the text. It's not a coincidence of the text. Jesus dies, takes the curse, takes all of our sin and shame and condemnation.

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And then he's raised from the dead in a garden, a garden tomb.

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And I do love this. You can take this and say, I think you're making a lot out of that,

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Pastor Jeff. I don't think that I am, but we can disagree on this. I think that it is amazing that in John's story in the gospel,

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John mentions that after the resurrection in the garden, the perfect Adam was mistaken as a gardener. Apparently Jesus, one of the first things he did when he was raised in the garden as the perfect Adam is he started working the ground, making all things new.

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Jesus defeated our alienation from God and will ultimately defeat our death.

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And here's the amazing thing that I love about this. All of us are inconsistent in some ways. Amen, yes.

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Yes, amen. Yes, you better say it. Don't be haughty. How many of you guys have been changed in your theology to some degree somewhere at some time?

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You thought one thing and you're like, oh, I was totally wrong. We're all fallible. We're all just creatures.

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We all make mistakes. We all have inconsistencies. Our hope is that we'd be changed by God's word, right? To ultimately believe what he says is true, not what we think is true or were taught is true.

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So we all have inconsistencies, but I love that at times there's this great intersection. No matter how many inconsistencies there are, we have essential unity over the important things.

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But I love moments where I can tell you a story like this and people go, eh, I gotta think on that.

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I'm not so sure. I love that I can say to you, hey, you've already been singing about this. Yeah, for years.

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Like maybe even your whole life. You've been singing about this at least once a year. You've been singing this.

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Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.

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Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the

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Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy.

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No more let sin and sorrows grow nor thorns infest the ground.

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He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

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He rules the world with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love.

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Joy to the world. You know that song is 100 Proof Post Mill. Do you know that? And I love that every year at Christmastime, everybody is a post -millennialist for like five minutes.

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I'm like, this is the greatest thing ever. This is awesome. But think about what it says. He comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found.

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That's what Jesus is doing. So you've already been singing this.

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The Bible actually speaks very little about details of the eternal state. Now here's the jolt, and I love how this,

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I hope starts opening eyes. Ready? The eternal state. Final judgment, resurrection.

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How have you thought about it? Has it been with fat babies with harps on clouds? Have you thought about it as this really gassy existence somewhere out there?

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Or have you thought about it the way the Bible tells the story that it'll be here?

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People always ask that question, right? They say like, what do you think we're gonna do in heaven one day? When it's all said and done, it's all over, what do you think we're gonna do?

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My answer is, what do you do now? Think about it.

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In the beginning, it was this good creation and heaven and earth were together. Physical world, heaven and earth together.

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God walking with them. But they were here with these bodies.

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And what does Jesus say he's gonna raise? This body, where? Here, we're gonna be here.

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Some people say, what do you do in heaven? I don't know, ride giraffes? Someone laughed,

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I'm not kidding. Right? Like, this is a good creation.

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God created this, it's a good creation. It brings him glory. And when this is all renewed and there's resurrection and you are physically raised in this world and we are in that eternal glorious state, people say, what do you think we're gonna do?

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The answer is, what do you do now? What do you do now? It'll be a whole new experience because it's a world without sin and shame and brokenness and injustice.

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It's a world where we don't have to worry about jealousy and bitterness and strife. It's perfect and holy, loving fellowship.

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No more critical race theory, praise God. No more attempts to divide the body.

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The ability to love a brother or a sister in Christ because they're your brother and sister in Christ.

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No more conflict, no more division. Now here's, okay, throw it out, right?

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The questions I have, start to speculate. This is kind of fun to do. You should do it sometimes, it's fun, right?

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People, it was a couple weeks ago, maybe months ago, there was a debate and apology at church, like threads.

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People were asking questions and here's the question, forgive me, will we use the bathroom in heaven? In the eternal state, will you use the bathroom?

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And my answer to that, like you can disagree with me, this is not dogmatic, but my answer is when

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God created Adam and Eve in the garden, they had this system and he called it good. They had intestines, they ate, they fellowshiped, he called it good and people were like, well, that's kind of icky.

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Well, God said it was what? Good. Only in the new, and when all this is redeemed and all resurrected,

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I imagine my hope is is there is feasting and there is fellowship and there is good

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Mexican food. Amen? You see,

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I'm always watching, I'm always watching. And we get to share and love and fellowship and does that mean you use the bathroom?

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I would say yes, I would argue God made this system, it's not gonna evaporate in the resurrection, like oh, look at this glorious body and there's nothing in me, right?

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It's hollow in there. Like he called the system good, but it's a redeemed system, no more belly aches, right?

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No more bad experiences, no more bad thoughts, no more bad experiences. With the Mexican food, by the way.

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So think and dream, like what? I don't know, like I have questions, I do have questions, I confess, like this is a vast universe and when this whole thing is renewed and there's a resurrection and no more death, what's it like?

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Like are we gonna get to visit other planets in the eternal state?

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I mean, we have forever with one another and with Jesus, no sin, no shame, we get to use our gifts and play music and experience one another and be artists and develop and build.

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What's it like? I don't know, like to go to Mars, do we need Elon Musk in heaven?

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I don't know. Is it a thought to get there? Do we build something to go there? I don't know,

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God doesn't answer these questions and to be honest, the Bible actually speaks very, very little about the details of the eternal state.

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But try and think about it and here's a fun part of this, right? Try and think and you aren't even close.

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You aren't even close. Jesus says, no eye has seen, it's never into the mind of man what

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God has prepared for those who love him. So try as you might to imagine perfect harmony with one another and God and a fully renewed creation and the glories of eternity.

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Try to imagine and think and dream and you aren't even close. You can't do it because your mind can't even conceive yet of what

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God has prepared. So here's the challenge, how does this change your perspective?

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If you think, no, let me change that. If you believe that Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth, if you believe

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Paul when he says that Abraham's descendants will inherit the world, how does it change

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Monday? How does it change Monday? Husbands and wives, how does it change how you now look at those small children?

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And you think about God's command to disciple them, to point them to himself, how does it change the way you think about their education?

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And when you look at evil in the world around you, you look at iniquitous decrees that are put out, you look at tyranny, you look at injustice, does it change how you actually look at that now?

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And Jesus says the gates of hell won't prevail against the church. They're defensive by the way, gates are defensive, they don't move.

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We are the offensive force of God's kingdom and history. Does it change the way you think about what you're supposed to be doing?

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Because see, I think one of the things that happens first when your mind is changed in terms of the future and Christ's victory over it, one of the first things that happens is people go, well,

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I need to start thinking about the future. Because before I was just waiting for like any day now, any moment now, we're gonna get sucked out of our shoes and we're out of here and this place is going to hell.

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I don't care, it's over, right? God's not concerned with this mess. But when you look at the promises of the kingdom and history and you say

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God does that through his bride, through the proclamation of the gospel and the work of the church, it changes everything.

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How do you think men about building businesses that bless the world, establish wealth for your family?

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How do you think about the discipleship again of your children? How do you think about your own silly and stupid sins?

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Right? In terms of like, no, God's doing something in the world and he's doing it, of course, around the nations, but he's also doing it in me.

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Like God promised to do something in his people to cause him to love his law and to obey his statutes.

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Why am I not yielding on these things in my heart? Why am I still so prideful? Why do

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I have loose lips? Why do I gossip? Why am I still lying over stupid things, silly things?

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Why do I have such a lack of commitment? Does it make you wanna repent? Does it make you wanna be changed and transformed?

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I believe that the future is glorious, that he's making all things new, and that all of this is in the process of redemption.

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And if you doubt that, I would say, first, you gotta contend with the promises of God, and second, you gotta look at your own experience.

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Look around you, he's doing it now. This whole movement started with some very confused disciples looking up to an ascended

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Messiah who was just killed as a criminal and raised. And Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. Baptizing them, he says, in the name of the

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Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit. He says, teach them to obey. What did

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Jesus come for? The world. How does he do it? Through you and through me, through our proclamation and through our faithfulness.

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Amen? Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the word that went out today for your glory. I pray that,

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Lord, you use this message to exalt Christ, to change us, and to bless the world with your truth and justice.