النص الكامل لحلقة Better Than Expected Pt. 2 (Revelation 21 + 22) | Pastor Jake Sweetman

benefits of the life-giving river, and then there's the rest of the earth, which is also watered by the river, but it's not yet cultivated to be like the garden. 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:22.360 But the idea is that Adam and Eve were meant to work alongside that fourfold river and extend the boundaries of the garden before partnering with God, so that the garden that God planted and watered as a place for his presence could go out to bless the entire world. 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:29.160 Now, this threefold structure is exactly what we see later on in Israel's tabernacle, God's dwelling place in the midst of that nation. 00:06:29.240 --> 00:06:33.560 And we'll talk more about the tabernacle in a moment, but let me just highlight the structure for us really quick. 00:06:33.720 --> 00:06:37.079 Bring up that next graphic, give the same threefold thing going on here. 00:06:37.160 --> 00:06:40.120 There's an innermost room called the Holy of Holies. 00:06:40.199 --> 00:06:42.280 That's where God's life-giving presence dwelt. 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:45.879 There's a sanctuary that's adjoined to the Holy of Holies called the holy place. 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:49.639 That's where the priests did their daily work of worshiping and serving the Lord. 00:06:49.800 --> 00:06:57.240 And then there's the outer courtyard where there is an altar and a wash basin, which the Bible uh loads with the symbolism of the earth and the sea. 00:06:57.319 --> 00:06:58.600 In other words, the ends of the earth. 00:06:58.759 --> 00:07:00.199 So you have the same threefold structure. 00:07:00.280 --> 00:07:02.840 You've got Eden, garden sanctuary, and ends of the earth. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:06.120 And so coming back to Genesis 1 and 2, this is exactly what we see. 00:07:06.280 --> 00:07:10.920 It's the first temple after which all other temples in Scripture are modeled. 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:13.480 And that original garden temple was stunning. 00:07:13.639 --> 00:07:20.120 The Bible says that it had all kinds of trees that were beautiful to look at and good to eat from. 00:07:20.519 --> 00:07:27.240 The scripture says that there was gold in the ground, there was the aroma of resin in the air. 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:28.840 It was absolute paradise. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:30.439 Who wouldn't want to be there? 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:33.800 And look at our role in the garden in Genesis 2.15. 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:42.680 It says that the Lord God took the man and put him, literally in the Hebrew, rested or settled him in the garden of Eden to work it. 00:07:42.840 --> 00:07:44.680 This is the biblical concept of rest, by the way. 00:07:44.840 --> 00:07:48.680 We are rested to work and teach and to take care of the garden. 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:54.759 Genesis 1.28, God blessed them and he said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:57.480 Rule over the fish, the birds, the living creatures. 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:04.199 So

the idea is that by working and caring for the garden, Adam and Eve would fill the earth with God's glory. 00:08:04.280 --> 00:08:11.079 They would fulfill that mandate to spread out, to rule over creation and to extend God's beauty into the rest of the world. 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:12.680 And this wasn't just about gardening. 00:08:12.759 --> 00:08:14.040 This was priestly work. 00:08:14.280 --> 00:08:24.040 In fact, those words to work and to care in the Hebrew, those are the same word pair that are used later on to describe the job description of the priests in the tabernacle and the temple. 00:08:24.199 --> 00:08:32.600 Those words can just as easily be translated as serve and keep or guard, as in protect God's holy place from the entrance of impurity. 00:08:32.759 --> 00:08:35.879 Or they can be translated as worship and obey. 00:08:36.199 --> 00:08:46.439 So the garden isn't just a garden, it's a sanctuary where Adam and Eve had the priestly privilege of being near to God with a mission to share this blessed state with the rest of the world. 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:51.639 Which brings me to the most foundational feature of the garden: being near to God. 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:58.199 Before the garden was for anything else, it was a meeting place between God and humanity. 00:08:59.159 --> 00:09:08.840 That was the fundamental reason that God created mankind and planted them in a beautiful garden so we could share his life-giving, loving presence with us as a gift. 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:14.519 And so Genesis 3 says that God would go walking in the garden in the cool of the day. 00:09:14.759 --> 00:09:17.240 Like he didn't just hang out in the innermost place. 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:18.600 He didn't just hang out in Eden. 00:09:19.240 --> 00:09:26.919 God didn't just stay atop the mountain, if you will, allowing humanity to experience the benefits of his goodness from a distance. 00:09:27.480 --> 00:09:28.120 No, no, no. 00:09:28.360 --> 00:09:31.879 God would come into the garden and actually be with humanity. 00:09:32.200 --> 00:09:36.360 Because enjoying God was the goal, not just serving God. 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:40.200 What an indescribable privilege for humanity. 00:09:40.360 --> 00:09:43.480 What a remarkable act of humility for God. 00:09:43.799 --> 00:09:52.279 That even in being entirely self-sufficient as the triune God, needing nothing, needing no one, yet he still chose to share his life and glory with us. 00:09:53.080 --> 00:10:00.759 And what an unspeakable loss to have been removed from that due to our prideful rebellion and sin. 00:10:02.039 --> 00:10:05.080 But even in that, God was not done with us. 00:10:05.560 --> 00:10:09.159 And that's what the story of the temple motif is ultimately about. 00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:12.919 It's the story of the fact that God wants to come close. 00:10:13.639 --> 00:10:15.720 And not just like a little close. 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:22.039 Like when somebody breaks your trust and you still

want to have a relationship with them, but you keep them at an arm's length just for the sake of your safety. 00:10:23.720 --> 00:10:25.639 It's not like that kind of reconciliation. 00:10:25.879 --> 00:10:28.680 No, God wants to come all the way near to us again. 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:36.919 And so when you fast forward the story to Israel's tabernacle, I don't have time to read all the scripture, but the design of the tabernacle clearly evokes the garden. 00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:39.399 There's flowers, there's blossoms, there's petals. 00:10:39.560 --> 00:10:52.360 In fact, I was researching this week, and what I learned is that even the smell of the incense and the oil that was used to anoint the entirety of the tent was designed to make the tabernacle itself smell like a garden. 00:10:53.799 --> 00:10:56.039 What about the direction that the tabernacle faced? 00:10:56.120 --> 00:11:00.279 God very explicitly tells them, make sure the tabernacle faces to the east. 00:11:00.680 --> 00:11:01.159 Why? 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:06.519 Because that is the direction that Adam and Eve were expelled when they were removed from the Garden of Eden. 00:11:06.600 --> 00:11:20.039 And so as the entrance to the garden faced east, so also the entrance to the tabernacle faced east, which means that every single time an Israelite walked through the gate and into the courtyard, or every time a priest walked into the sanctuary, they were walking west. 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:24.919 So even just entering the tabernacle was to walk symbolically back into the garden. 00:11:25.480 --> 00:11:27.560 And all of this was by God's design. 00:11:27.720 --> 00:11:37.000 He gave the blueprints for every detail of the tabernacle, which is to say that through the construction of that tent, God is saying, I want you back in my presence. 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:45.000 And as Israel is participating in this reality, they were experiencing the feeling of longing to get back to something. 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:52.279 Because while the tabernacle preached to them, it did not provide the ultimate fulfillment of their longing. 00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:58.279 A golden lampstand that looks like flowers is pretty, but it's still not a garden. 00:11:58.919 --> 00:12:04.440 The smell of a garden in a tent in the wilderness is not the same as being in paradise. 00:12:04.600 --> 00:12:13.399 And God's presence contained to one room where only one guy can enter in once a year is not the same as God walking in the cool of the day with humanity. 00:12:13.560 --> 00:12:18.519 So Israel gets a taste, but the taste makes them long to get back to the real thing. 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:20.200 And the story continues. 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:26.600 Fast forward another few hundred years, you have the construction of Solomon, the king of Israel, the son of David, Solomon's temple. 00:12:26.680 --> 00:12:29.879 And that temple was absolutely stunning. 00:12:30.120 --> 00:12:33.159 And what do you think informed the design cues for the temple? 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:34.759 Look at 1 Kings 6.18. 00:12:34.840 --> 00:12:38.360 The inside of the temple was cedar, carved with gourds and open flowers. 00:12:38.519 --> 00:12:40.759 Everything was cedar, no stone was to be seen. 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:48.120 629, on the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, he carved cherubim that is angels, palm trees, and open flowers. 00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:53.480 Chapter 7, the capitals on top of the pillars in the porticle were in the shape of lilies, four cubits high. 00:12:53.639 --> 00:13:00.200 On the capitals of both pillars above the bowl-shaped part next to the network were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around. 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:07.399 It's clearly evoking a garden, and God wanted it to, because he provided the design for that building just like he provided the design for the tabernacle. 00:13:07.560 --> 00:13:09.320 He wants us near him. 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:21.399 But even with the majesty and even with the ornate beauty of this temple, Solomon still said at the completion of the work in 1 Kings 8 27, but will God really dwell on earth? 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:26.120 The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. 00:13:26.440 --> 00:13:30.519 How much less this temple that I have built. 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:33.480 That's not to say that Solomon's temple was futile. 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:36.759 God's presence did fill the Holy of Holies. 00:13:37.159 --> 00:13:41.480 But even so, it was easy for Solomon to see that this is not it. 00:13:42.039 --> 00:13:45.000 He was still longing to get back to the garden. 00:13:45.560 --> 00:13:47.799 Solomon's temple was a man-made structure. 00:13:47.960 --> 00:13:49.639 The garden was planted by God. 00:13:50.039 --> 00:13:54.680 The temple had God's presence in a room, the garden had God's presence moving freely about. 00:13:54.919 --> 00:13:58.039 The temple had a lampstand signifying the light of God's glory. 00:13:58.200 --> 00:13:59.960 The garden had the fullness of God's glory. 00:14:00.039 --> 00:14:03.639 So once again, the temple gives a taste, but it does not ultimately fulfill. 00:14:03.799 --> 00:14:07.159 Not to mention, outside the temple, there's still suffering in Israel. 00:14:07.320 --> 00:14:10.039 There's still poverty, still sickness, still brokenness. 00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:12.600 There was still the very real issue of sin. 00:14:12.759 --> 00:14:36.919 That Israel had proven again and again that they, along with the rest of humanity, were completely unworthy of returning to the garden, incapable of living in God's holy presence and undeserving of partnering with him in his mission, which leaves us with the realization that no matter what temples we build, no matter how much we long to return, it is very clear that we on our own are a far cry from getting back to that garden. 00:14:37.080 --> 00:14:38.759 And you know this feeling. 00:14:39.159

--> 00:14:44.120 You don't need to live very long before you encounter the longing to return to some place or sometime. 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:46.279 Nostalgia comes for us all. 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:48.200 Everybody has a before. 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:55.879 We long for life before the sickness, before the accident, before the divorce, before the death of that loved one. 00:14:55.960 --> 00:15:01.720 We long for life before that loss, that change, before that person left me, before that parent passed. 00:15:01.879 --> 00:15:19.240 We all think at some point, if I could just get back to the way that I felt before that heartbreak, if I could get back to the way that I saw things before that disappointment rocked me, or before that relationship wrecked me, or before that decision disrupted my entire life, if I could just go back to the time before that friend showed me pornography. 00:15:20.360 --> 00:15:29.879 If I just go back to before I said those words that I can't take back to my spouse, before my trust was so deeply eroded by that family member. 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:36.360 Every single one of us has before we all wrestle with a longing to get back to something. 00:15:36.600 --> 00:15:41.480 And at the heart of that longing is the core desire to get back to the garden. 00:15:43.159 --> 00:15:53.879 King David could relate an adulterous affair with Bathsheba, the murder of her husband, the prophet Nathan coming to him, looking him in the eye, saying, You are the man who has done this. 00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:59.480 David writes a psalm, and in the middle of the psalm he says, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, give it back. 00:15:59.720 --> 00:16:02.840 Let me have what I had before, before I threw it away. 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:08.039 Naomi could relate, she left Bethlehem with a husband and two sons, she came back with none of them. 00:16:08.360 --> 00:16:15.879 And when the women of the town called her by her name, she said, Don't call me Naomi, call me Mara, call me bitter, because I went out full and I came back empty. 00:16:16.440 --> 00:16:24.759 The exiles of Israel could relate, they came home from Babylon, they lay the foundation of the second temple, and the young men shouted for joy over its construction. 00:16:24.919 --> 00:16:31.960 But the old men, the ones who could remember Solomon's with Solomon's temple, they wept out loud because it isn't what it was. 00:16:32.519 --> 00:16:36.519 Scripture says, You could not tell the shouting from the weeping. 00:16:37.080 --> 00:16:43.320 God is building something new right in front of them, and half of them could not even see it through their tear-stained eyes. 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:49.320 The apostle Peter could relate after denying that he knew Christ, after watching Christ die, what does Peter say? 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:51.320 He says, I'm going fishing. 00:16:51.560 --> 00:16:58.360 I'm going back to the boat, back to the life that I had before everything got turned upside down three years ago when I started following Jesus. 00:16:58.519 --> 00:17:10.680 The Apostle John could relate, he was an exile on an island, writing letters to churches that he used to walk into, praying for people from across a sea, instead of laying hands on them and seeing them face to face. 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:15.079 To long for before is a universal human experience. 00:17:15.399 --> 00:17:19.079 But there is one person in Scripture who never looked back. 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:22.119 Jesus Christ, though he had every single reason to. 00:17:22.279 --> 00:17:27.799 He came from glory, he left the Father's side, he left worship of myriads of angels without end. 00:17:27.960 --> 00:17:30.039 He stepped into a world that would kill him. 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:33.159 If anyone had a before worth aching for, it was Jesus. 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:37.720 But the book of Hebrews says that the joy that was set in front of him, he endured the cross. 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:40.920 For our sakes, Jesus looked forward, not behind. 00:17:41.079 --> 00:17:53.160 Because Jesus knew what we so often forget, that even if we could reach every single marker in time where things seemingly took a turn for the worse, the reality is that before, every before, is another before. 00:17:53.319 --> 00:17:57.240 Because life is made up of moments that mark us, and the list goes on and on. 00:17:57.400 --> 00:17:59.960 So Jesus did not come to take us back. 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:02.839 And this is what I felt the Lord give me for us today. 00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:10.440 The reason we can never fully get back to what we long for is because what we long for isn't actually behind us, it's ahead of us. 00:18:13.079 --> 00:18:15.960 And this is what the end of Revelation preaches to us. 00:18:16.120 --> 00:18:17.559 Revelation 22 and verse 1. 00:18:17.720 --> 00:18:25.079 The angel showed me the river of the water of life as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 00:18:25.240 --> 00:18:25.720 What is that? 00:18:25.880 --> 00:18:31.160 That evokes the life-giving water that flowed from God's presence in the garden in Genesis 2. 00:18:31.319 --> 00:18:33.799 Except now that river is clear as crystal. 00:18:34.120 --> 00:18:37.240 So you don't look at it so much as you look through it. 00:18:37.559 --> 00:18:42.839 Like everything else in the new creation, the river does not point to itself, it points to God and the Lamb. 00:18:43.079 --> 00:18:46.599 That river it flows from a single throne where God and the Lamb are seated. 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:47.480 There's one source. 00:18:47.640 --> 00:18:49.799 The river is their presence. 00:18:50.039 --> 00:18:57.319 Which is why it should sound familiar, because if you've read the Gospel of John, you know that Jesus promised living water to every single person who believes in him. 00:18:57.640 --> 00:19:00.839 And John plainly tells us Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit. 00:19:00.920 -->

00:19:14.359 And the Holy Spirit's whole work is turning us to see the glory of the Father and the Son, the glory of God constantly before us, so that what Adam and Eve Adam and Eve lost sight of in the garden, you and I will never miss in the new creation. 00:19:14.519 --> 00:19:16.839 Our eyes will behold his glory all the time. 00:19:17.079 --> 00:19:18.039 Look at verse 2. 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:26.599 On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:30.440 At the center of the garden in the beginning was a singular tree of life. 00:19:30.599 --> 00:19:37.559 But in the new creation, the tree lines the entirety of the river, and it will bear its fruit every single month. 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:41.720 In other words, life is always in season in the new creation. 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:46.440 Life will abound for all, and all may come and receive from that gift of life. 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:49.319 The prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament he saw something similar. 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:52.599 He saw this river that's lined with life-giving trees. 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:55.319 He says that the leaves of the tree will be for healing. 00:19:55.640 --> 00:19:58.839 But in John's vision in Revelation, it goes even a step further. 00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:01.480 It says it will be for the healing of the nations. 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:09.880 So what Ezekiel saw for one nation, John sees for all the nations of the world, that all people may come and be healed by God from sin and sickness. 00:20:10.120 --> 00:20:19.319 Chapter 21 and verse 3 says, I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:23.079 They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:26.759 So God's presence is no longer confined to a holy of holies. 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:30.200 One man once a year no longer has soul access. 00:20:30.440 --> 00:20:41.720 Now, because of Jesus' high priestly sacrifice on the cross, all may enter back into the presence of God, and God will walk among his people for all eternity, undiluted and unfiltered. 00:20:41.960 --> 00:20:45.319 21.4 says that he will wipe every single tear from their eyes. 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:51.000 There will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, for the old order of things has passed away. 00:20:51.160 --> 00:20:53.000 Just pay attention to how personal that is. 00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:59.319 That's the picture of a father's hand on a child's face, wiping away his tears. 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:03.640 But it's also the picture of a father's ferocity against all that has hurt his child. 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:06.599 Death, mourning, crying, pain, all gone. 00:21:06.759 --> 00:21:18.440 No more before, no more sickness, no more diagnosis, no more waiting rooms, no more accidents, no more divorce, no more words you can't take back, no more gravesides, no more anniversaries of losses, no longer will there be any more curse. 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:21.000 Everything Genesis 3 unleashed is done. 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:26.680 22, 4 says they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:34.359 In the Old Testament, the high priest wore a plate on his forehead that said, Holy to the Lord, on his turban. 00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:38.920 But in the new creation, all people will bear the name of the Lord on their foreheads. 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:42.920 It symbolizes the fact that we are all high priests when we get there. 00:21:43.559 --> 00:21:54.599 We all stand before God in most intimate union, not on the basis of any sacrifice that we mustered up, but on the basis of the sacrifice that He provided for us through His Son. 00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:59.079 And we will see the face of God and the Lamb. 00:21:59.720 --> 00:22:02.599 Literally in the Greek, we will see His face. 00:22:03.720 --> 00:22:06.839 Singular pronoun God and the Lamb. 00:22:07.799 --> 00:22:14.039 Because their theological union is so indescribable that it breaks the rules of grammar. 00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:16.039 And we will see him. 00:22:16.839 --> 00:22:19.880 We will see the God who dies for sinners. 00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:23.319 We will see the God who rescues the rebellion. 00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:27.799 And we will look him in the eye, and we will be able to say thank you. 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:30.039 Moses. 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:33.960 God's backside from behind a rock. 00:22:34.759 --> 00:22:38.839 The high priest got God's formless presence behind a cloud of incense. 00:22:39.799 --> 00:22:46.359 You and I will get God's face shining upon us, transforming us fully into his image once and for all. 00:22:47.799 --> 00:22:56.920 Finally, in 21-22, it says, I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 00:22:59.400 --> 00:23:18.599 As much as the Old Testament had taught the Apostle John to expect some kind of recreation of the garden, some kind of recovery, he still could not separate that expectation from a physical temple with all of all of its various sanctuaries and structures and rooms. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:26.440 So as he has this vision, he surveys the heavenly city coming down out of heaven and he looks for a temple, but it's not there. 00:23:27.079 --> 00:23:31.799 And he's so surprised by that that he actually says, I look, I didn't see a temple in the city. 00:23:32.680 --> 00:23:39.000 Instead, what John saw is he saw a city in the shape of a cube, 1,500 miles in every direction. 00:23:39.960 --> 00:23:44.920 And that's because back in the temple, the holy of holies, the innermost room was a cube. 00:23:45.240 --> 00:23:49.240 So what John sees coming down out of heaven is a giant

holy of holies. 00:23:50.519 --> 00:23:51.880 The entire city. 00:23:52.120 --> 00:23:57.160 No more Eden, no more garden, no more rest of the world. 00:23:57.720 --> 00:24:00.440 There are no more grades of holiness. 00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:03.640 Just God's presence filling all in all. 00:24:03.799 --> 00:24:08.519 There's no step you can take in any direction and not still be at home in the light of God's glory. 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:15.400 Which means that what John sees here in Revelation 21 and 22 is not merely a vision of paradise regained. 00:24:15.880 --> 00:24:18.120 This is a vision of mission accomplished. 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:22.920 Where the earth ends up full of the glory of God. 00:24:23.720 --> 00:24:27.400 That where Adam failed, Christ has succeeded. 00:24:28.359 --> 00:24:34.120 And we received the gift of his success as a gift of his love. 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:43.799 And what this tells me is that though we were designed to remember the past, we were not designed to long for the past. 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:53.880 In fact, I would say this to you today: do not spend your life longing for before when God is leading you to better. 00:24:56.279 --> 00:25:06.120 I know you may want to go back to before the loss, to before the rupture, before that mistake that you made. 00:25:06.440 --> 00:25:08.440 But God isn't taking you back. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:11.000 God is taking you to better. 00:25:11.480 --> 00:25:15.559 Yes, the garden was great, but the new creation is better. 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:29.319 Every element, every aspect of beauty, every ounce of abundance, all of it multiplied many times over, received and enjoyed, not by a couple, not by a nation, but by people from every single nation the world over. 00:25:30.519 --> 00:25:40.039 Ultimately, I would sum it up to you like this: that what we lost in Adam can never compare to what we have gained in Christ. 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:49.480 See, the church was never meant to worship at the altar of nostalgia. 00:25:52.200 --> 00:25:55.240 We are supposed to be building for better. 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:01.319 We, the people of God, gathered in the name of Jesus. 00:26:01.640 --> 00:26:06.200 We are the current expression of God's temple on the earth. 00:26:06.440 --> 00:26:11.319 And we are always to be pressing forward, not longing for yesterday. 00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:14.839 What does the Apostle Paul say in Philippians 3:12? 00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:24.440 Not that I have already obtained all this or have already arrived at my goal, but I pressed on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 00:26:24.759 --> 00:26:28.519 Christ Jesus took a hold of you so that you would press on, not look back. 00:26:28.759 --> 00:26:31.720 We are a pressing forward people, not a waiting people. 00:26:31.880 --> 00:26:35.160 We are longing for what's to come, not what lays behind. 00:26:35.319 --> 00:26:38.359 And we have not been left empty-handed in our pursuit. 00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:43.319 Because when Jesus died on the cross, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. 00:26:43.400 --> 00:26:46.920 And what that signifies to us is that God's presence was relocating. 00:26:47.400 --> 00:26:57.960 So that at the day of Pentecost, the same fire that filled the tabernacle and the fire that filled Solomon's temple came down and rested on 120 ordinary people in an ordinary room. 00:26:58.440 --> 00:27:01.559 God's presence was no longer localized to one place. 00:27:01.720 --> 00:27:08.120 Which is why the Apostle Paul can write to the church in Karth and he can say, Don't you know that you are God's temple? 00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:11.480 And that God's Spirit dwells among you? 00:27:12.120 --> 00:27:14.359 That's true of us right now. 00:27:15.160 --> 00:27:24.839 See, we are the garden sanctuary that is adjoined to the Holy of Holies of God's throne room, where the Father and the Lamb are seated. 00:27:26.120 --> 00:27:29.799 And the unsaved world around us is the ends of the earth. 00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:32.759 And so what does that mean for us? 00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:39.000 It means that we have been handed the same work that Adam and Eve were given. 00:27:39.880 --> 00:27:48.680 To serve, to work, to worship, to guard, to keep, and obey. 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:52.120 To serve is to work. 00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:55.400 To work is to worship. 00:27:55.880 --> 00:27:58.120 Worship is a life that you offer. 00:27:58.359 --> 00:28:00.440 It's not just songs that we sing. 00:28:02.359 --> 00:28:06.759 Paul says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. 00:28:07.960 --> 00:28:10.599 That is your true and proper worship. 00:28:10.759 --> 00:28:13.400 That is your true and proper response to the gospel. 00:28:13.640 --> 00:28:19.640 To take your place in God's church and give your life to others. 00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:25.160 So if you came to Christ last month, you are in the army now. 00:28:27.960 --> 00:28:35.000 You are a priest standing in the presence of God, doing the work of the sanctuary as worship unto the Lord. 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:38.440 We don't just serve, we also guard. 00:28:38.680 --> 00:28:44.039 To guard means to keep the temple free of impurity by obeying the word of God. 00:28:44.599 --> 00:28:50.440 Adam and Eve, they failed to guard the garden against the impurity of the serpent coming in. 00:28:50.680 --> 00:28:55.319 But you and I can succeed in guarding God's temple by the power of the Holy Spirit. 00:28:55.880 --> 00:28:58.519 What this means is that we guard our hearts. 00:28:59.160 --> 00:29:02.440 For out of your heart flows all the issues of your life. 00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:05.160 Your heart is your responsibility to guard. 00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:09.400 We guard our relationships against gossip, against bitterness, against unforgiveness. 00:29:09.559 --> 00:29:19.559 We guard God's church, we guard cathedral, helping one another to live holy and devoted lives

to Jesus Christ, confessing our sins to one another and praying for one another. 00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:22.680 We keep God's word. 00:29:23.240 --> 00:29:25.079 We obey his commands. 00:29:25.720 --> 00:29:31.480 Because we understand that everything that God asks of us is ultimately tied to what God wants for us. 00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:37.400 So obedience for us is not a chore, it's a delight because we know that in obedience is our blessing. 00:29:38.359 --> 00:29:41.000 And of course, we extend. 00:29:41.720 --> 00:29:45.160 The garden was never meant to be a static place. 00:29:45.880 --> 00:29:49.400 It was always meant to be a growing, expanding ecosystem. 00:29:50.920 --> 00:29:54.440 The river that flowed from Eden did not pool in the garden. 00:29:55.079 --> 00:29:57.640 It flowed out in a fourfold direction. 00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:04.599 And Adam and Eve were meant to follow that, to push the borders of the garden outward until the whole world looked like God's home. 00:30:05.480 --> 00:30:16.920 And so, in the same way, the church is always meant to be pushing outward to your family, your neighborhood, this city, and honestly, further than you and I will live to see. 00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:28.440 Remember, all throughout the book of Revelation, there's these characters, the nations and the kings of the earth, and every single mention of them tells us that they were opponents of Jesus Christ. 00:30:29.240 --> 00:30:40.519 Except in the final chapters we've been looking at these past couple of weeks, these same characters are bringing their splendor, their honor, their glory into the new creation as worship to God. 00:30:41.240 --> 00:30:42.920 And that details there on purpose. 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:46.279 It's meant to tell us that our witness is more effective than we think. 00:30:46.839 --> 00:30:54.039 That the people who are currently enemies of Jesus will be converted to become friends of Jesus through the faithful witness of the church of Jesus Christ. 00:30:54.680 --> 00:30:58.039 So we must persevere in bearing witness to Him. 00:30:58.359 --> 00:31:01.880 This, by the way, is why we're adding a third service in just a few weeks' time. 00:31:01.960 --> 00:31:06.519 This is us participating in making room for the garden to continue to grow. 00:31:07.319 --> 00:31:18.359 Now, not coincidentally, these three things that are straight from the Bible's priestly resume, they make up what we say every single week as a church. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:25.559 That we exist for the glory of Christ, the beauty of the bride, and the good of the city. 00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:34.359 Serving and worshiping Jesus Christ, discipling his saints, and reaching the world around us. 00:31:34.759 --> 00:31:38.519 So our mission statement is the oldest job description in the Bible. 00:31:39.640 --> 00:31:41.160 And that is our work. 00:31:42.519 --> 00:31:48.759 We are not here to preserve what was, we are here to extend what is. 00:32:10.519 --> 00:32:14.680 Constructed not by human hands, but built by God. 00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:18.839 And it will be stunning. 00:32:19.720 --> 00:32:23.240 More beautiful than that first work of God. 00:32:24.039 --> 00:32:27.000 Certainly more beautiful than a tent in the wilderness. 00:32:27.160 --> 00:32:29.240 More beautiful than Solomon's temple. 00:32:32.599 --> 00:32:36.599 More beautiful than this building, more beautiful than this gathering. 00:32:36.920 --> 00:32:43.640 Out of God's glory, and down from heaven will come God's finished garden temple. 00:32:43.880 --> 00:32:52.599 And we will look and we will see that every single act of service, sacrifice, generosity, faithfulness will have been worthwhile. 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:59.160 Because as we see that, we will see that what we have gained in Christ far exceeds everything we ever lost in Adam. 00:32:59.720 --> 00:33:04.279 The glory of God on display, shining on the face of his people. 00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:05.880 God be the glory.