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I remember it vividly…. I was just a boy sitting in
a “camp meeting”… it was a big, rough ,wooden building used
specifically to gather large groups of people for special services. I
was sitting in a wooden pew, big eyes locked on the evangelist as he
gave his illustration. It went something like this…
Let’s say there was a huge, metal, ball the size of
the whole earth. A little bird would fly by the ball one time every
thousand years, and rub the ball with his wing. After millions of
fly-bys coving millions of years the bird would have begun to wear a
flat spot on the side of the huge steel ball. When 1/8th of
the ball was worn down after multiplies millions of years…. eternity
will have just begun!
I remember being glued to my seat, my whole life
flashing before my eyes.. ( It didn’t matter to me that there were
serious logistical problems with the illustration) The evangelist point
was “if you reject the Savior and miss heaven….eternity will be a very,
long time.
He finished the sermon with a flourish… When the
bird has worn the earth- sized ball down to the size of a pea…after
billions of passes over multiplied billions of years, eternity will
have just begun. (Once we as humans are born into this world,
the Bible says, we will live forever.) I remember laying awake, into
the night, thinking about the possibility of missing heaven…and as you
can see, that illustration, however faulted, has had a life-long
impression on me.
It occurred to me this week that there isn’t just a
negative side to that illustration. The “eternal reward” part
Christianity is vividly painted in the Bible. (much more, so, than the
eternal judgment part) If you live on this earth for 90 years,
you will still be living on, in eternity, 90 million years from
now…. That’s what the term, forever, means!
Even the history of the Bible, from, the creation of
the earth to the End Times we have just finished a study series on… is
a period of, just, 7000 years (so far)….(seven fly by’s of the bird and
the steel ball. The whole written history of all of mankind’s time on
this earth fits snugly into 5000 of those years. (it seems like forever
to us)
To our eternal, timeless, God who already lived,
eternally, before we came into existence, and who will live on forever
when this is all over…all of human time is just a snap of the finger.
God is not looking, way back, in history, to the ancient cave dwelling
humans, before the flood….to God that happened just ½ a finger snap
ago.
I say all that to point out something back in the
book of Revelation where we finished our End Time study last week. The
whole Bible from Genesis 1… the creation of this universe to Revelation
19… New Heaven and New Earth …the beginning of eternity…. takes place
in just 7000+ years. But the last two chapters of the Bible are “The
Rest of the story!”
31,104 verses in the Bible; only 48 verses in the
last two chapters but they take a sharp turn….
I. The Rest of the Story
If you’re worried about whether Iran will get nukes
or who will become President in 2008 or whether Britney Spears hair
will grow back…. You need to embrace the truth that many things will
come to be, as the End Time approaches, that are not going to make the
Christian’s life one of peace and contentment. You are going to have to
get your eyes fixed beyond what is happening in the immediate present
on onto what is coming in eternity.
While the events on earth are spiritually
deteriorating we, already, know how the end of the story reads… When
this age, finally goes out with a bang, (literally)
It will be Jesus Christ not the
antichrist…not satan who will be in charge of eternity.
While evil seems to have the
upper hand in this ‘finger snap’ of time… it will be the
Church/Redeemed who will triumph in the end, not the evil
one.
Truth will win out over error.
Right will prevail over wrong.
Light will conquer darkness.
Revelation 19 ends This Age with finality… We’ve
looked at other passages that describe this same ending but we have not
looked at this one.
Revelation 19:11 Then I saw heaven opened, and a
white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True,
for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. 12 His eyes were like
flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns…. 13 He wore a robe
dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. 14 The armies of
heaven… followed him on white horses. 15 From his mouth came a sharp
sword to strike down the nations…. He will release the fierce wrath of
God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. 16 On his robe
at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all
lords. (Who is this?)
19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the world
and their armies gathered together to fight against the one sitting on
the horse and his army. 20 And the beast was captured, and with him the
false prophet who did mighty miracles on behalf of the beast—miracles
that deceived all who had accepted the mark of the beast and who
worshiped his statue. Both the beast and his false prophet were thrown
alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. 21 Their entire army was
killed by the sharp sword that came from the mouth of the one riding
the white horse. And the vultures all gorged themselves on the dead
bodies. (The End)
I put “the end” there because that is the end of
what the Bible calls “this present age”. That’s where the finger snap
of God comes to completion. However long a period of time it ends up
being….. it will still be a dot on a page against all of eternity.
Chapter 21 of Revelation opens up eternity…time has
now ended…everyone can throw away their watches… The whole Bible up to
Revelation 19 happens in 7-8000 years. Through in another 1000 years
for Revelation 20: the millennial reign of Christ and the Church/ The
Great White throne Judgment.
But the last two chapters of the Bible cover the
next few million years…in fact if you had a steel ball the size of the
earth and every thousand years a bird flew by and rubbed it with it’s
wing………..
II. The Sequel to the Story
It’s almost like God ends the Bible at Revelation 20
with some closing thoughts at the end of 22… and then just gives us a
short epilogue on what is going to happen in the sequel to the Bible.
You have to look quick or you will miss it. But don’t let the shortness
of the material throw you off to its importance.
Whatever part of the coming Biblical prophecy you
live through it will, at most, cover a few decades of your existence.
Do you understand with me that, if you are a believer, you will live on
in Revelation 21 for the next 50 million years and that will be just
the introduction to eternity! (If you are not a believer….)
The point of this message is, not to scare you, if
you are not ready to meet God, but to whet your appetite for what you
are moving toward as surely as you will brush your teeth tomorrow. You
and I…,after the final shudder of this sinful world, will step with
wonder into the place we have said we were preparing, in this life, to
go. When you step through the “pearly gates”; (where Saint Peter is
standing…at least in the heaven jokes) what are you going to see?…what
are you going to feel?...will it have been worth the years of
preparation here?
You know how, when you’ve been to a beautiful place
and you try to describe it to a friend and while they mutter and grunt
as you talk you know they are not picking it up…. I’m sure Heaven will
be like that a million times over… John tries to describe what is
indescribable…
John says:
1) Heaven is not this old sinful earth!
Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. (NLT)
I know that seems almost absurdly obvious but think
with me….. What if you could take this last week and subtract from it
everything that sin has added to the earth. Think of something as small
as TV programming. If everything was removed that was sinful, or
selfish, or self promoting…. If all the bad attitudes were erased , and
everything that drew worship away from God and put the attention on
mankind as the end in himself…what would be left? At the Oscars last
night…remove all that was not self-promoting and how long would the
program have been. One person wore a pair of shoes valued a one million
dollars…while many in this world didn’t eat a single meal all day.
If we could remove all self promotion, power
grabbing, and lying from the upcoming election how long would the whole
process take?... Imagine…if just for a moment..a world where sin is no
longer present in the lives and actions of those around you…
2) In Heaven, we will leave behind the sorrow,
grief, physical pain, bad health….
Revelation 21:4 He (Jesus) will wipe every tear from
their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or
pain. All these things are gone forever.” (NLT)
I don’t have to illustrate this one…it’s too real….
We are told that this life is all about personal enjoyment…but so much
of it doesn’t turn out that way…for anybody.
3) In Heaven there will be no lack; physically,
mentally, emotionally
Revelation 21:6 And he (Jesus) also said, “It is
finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To
all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of
life. 7 All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I
will be their God, and they will be my children. (NLT)
4) In Heaven there will be no lack spiritually, we
will live in perfect worship!
Revelation 21:22 I saw no temple in the city, for
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 27 Nothing evil will
be allowed to enter… only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s
Book of Life.
5) In Heaven there will be perfect security,
illumination, refreshment…
Revelation 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or
moon, for the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its
light. 24 The nations will walk in its light, and the kings of the
world will enter the city in all their glory. 25 Its gates will never
be closed at the end of day because there is no night there. 26 And all
the nations will bring their glory and honor into the city.
Revelation 21:7 All who are victorious will inherit
all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my
children. (NLT)
III. The Source of the Story
Jesus is eternally with us, and no waiting
(21:3) I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s
home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will
be his people. There is the unbroken presence of the One who
promised to be “God with us.” (Emmanuel).
Jesus is comforting us, and no more former
conflicts (21:4) He will wipe every tear from their
eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain.
All these things are gone forever.” We read this already but I
want you to notice who does the tear wiping…
Jesus is refreshing us, and no more thirsting
(21:6) And he also said, “It is finished! I am the Alpha and the
Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give
freely from the springs of the water of life.
Jesus is captivating us, with instant and
satisfying communion (21:22) I saw no temple in the city, for
the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Worship will
be unbounded by location or proximity—it is unending and
all-present.
Jesus is keeping us, forever apart from the
effects of sin (21:25,27) 25 On no day will its gates ever be
shut…..27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who
does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are
written in the Lamb's book of life.
Jesus is leading us, and no more separation
(22:1- ) Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me a river with the
water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and
of the Lamb. 2 It flowed down the center of the main street. On
each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of
fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for
medicine to heal the nations. 3 No longer will there be a curse
upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there,
and his servants will worship him.
Jesus is lighting us, and no more darkness
(22:3-5) ….his servants will worship him. 4 And they will see his
face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. 5 And there
will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God
will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.
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