Better Than Expected Pt.1 (Revelation 21 + 22) | Pastor Jake Sweetman ၏ စာသားမှတ်တမ်းအပြည့်အစုံ

level of hype that it received. 00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:15.800 I would say that was Project Hail Mary. 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:21.560 And the end of Revelation. 00:03:24.680 --> 00:03:33.719 These final two chapters do not just conclude the book of Revelation, they don't even just conclude the entire story of Scripture. 00:03:33.879 --> 00:03:42.920 These two chapters they take the core motifs of the entire biblical story and they show you how they are ultimately fulfilled. 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:50.200 And all of it is better than we or anybody ever could have imagined or expected it to be. 00:03:50.439 --> 00:03:54.040 So, what I want to do today is I want to look at uh two of those motifs. 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:57.719 We'll hit four over the course of this week and next week. 00:03:57.879 --> 00:04:00.840 And we're gonna do something fun uh over the course of the next two Sundays. 00:04:00.920 --> 00:04:03.879 We're gonna engage in a little bit of biblical theology. 00:04:04.280 --> 00:04:19.719 Biblical theology is when you trace a theme or a motif over the canon of scripture, typically, and you see how the theology of that theme develops over the long arc of the story so that you can ultimately see how God fulfills that theme. 00:04:19.959 --> 00:04:21.719 It's really uh enriching as we do that. 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:24.120 So the first one I want to look at is the theme of the bride. 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:25.319 Say the bride. 00:04:26.040 --> 00:04:38.360 The first time that we see the concept of God's people as his bride in Scripture is when Israel enters into a covenant with God at Mount Sinai after he delivered them from slavery in Egypt. 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:52.920 And the interesting thing about this marriage imagery is that it is constantly defined by Israel's likelihood of committing adultery by worshiping gods other than Yahweh, other than the one true God. 00:04:53.319 --> 00:05:03.400 Now, it does not take a theologian to know that a strong marriage is not defined by a constant concern that one of the partners is going to be unfaithful to the other. 00:05:04.439 --> 00:05:09.639 And yet that is the way that the Old Testament consistently conceives of Israel in relation to God. 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:15.079 And for good reason, because that's what Israel does early and often. 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:24.680 Moses doesn't even come down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments before they are at the base of the mountain worshiping a golden calf. 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:29.879 That is, of course, akin to Israel committing adultery on their wedding night. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:34.759 So the bride motif does not start out very romantically in Scripture. 00:05:35.319 --> 00:05:42.040 If anything, it seems to be the telling of a sad story where the faithful love of God is constantly taken for granted. 00:05:42.600 --> 00:05:48.280 It's constantly rejected in order to go after that which is not love at all. 00:05:49.000 --> 00:06:01.400 Now, one thing I learned as I was studying for this message, this is interesting, is that the Mosaic law actually forbid a man from remarrying his wife after they had been divorced and she had gone to be a partner of another man. 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:12.199 If for whatever reason they wanted to get back together with the original husband and wife, the Mosaic law actually forbid that, because to do that would uh be to bring defilement upon the nation. 00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:15.960 So that would seem to be a major problem for Israel's marriage to God. 00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:20.360 And this is exactly the point that the prophet Jeremiah makes in Jeremiah 3:1. 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:25.079 He says, if a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? 00:06:25.240 --> 00:06:27.240 Would not the land be completely defiled? 00:06:27.480 --> 00:06:32.439 But you, Israel, you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers. 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:35.319 Would you now return to me, declares the Lord? 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:38.120 This is what you call a lesser to greater argument. 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:45.879 He's comparing it to a lesser scenario and saying, yours is a whole lot worse than that, and yet you still expect me to come back to you. 00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:54.040 God is saying if that such a reunification is not allowed in the case of divorce and remarriage, how much more so in the case of repeated infidelity? 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:56.920 On paper, Israel's circumstance is hopeless. 00:06:57.160 --> 00:07:00.199 And yet God says that his mercy will triumph even in this scenario. 00:07:00.360 --> 00:07:03.079 Look just a few verses down in verse 14, Jeremiah 3. 00:07:03.319 --> 00:07:07.160 Return, faithless people, declares the Lord, for I am your husband. 00:07:07.400 --> 00:07:11.800 I will choose you, one from a town, two from a clan, and bring you to Zion. 00:07:12.360 --> 00:07:15.879 And then it gets even better in Jeremiah 31, verses 21 and 22. 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:19.319 Set up road signs, put up guideposts, take note of the highway. 00:07:19.400 --> 00:07:22.360 In other words, make it really obvious for people to come back. 00:07:22.840 --> 00:07:25.639 Return, virgin Israel. 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:27.160 Return to your towns. 00:07:27.319 --> 00:07:28.600 How long will you wander? 00:07:28.840 --> 00:07:32.360 Unfaithful daughter Israel, the Lord will create a new thing on earth. 00:07:32.519 --> 00:07:34.280 The woman will return to the man. 00:07:34.439 --> 00:07:41.079 Isn't that amazing that after her infidelity, God's mercy is so great that he calls Israel virgin? 00:07:42.040 --> 00:07:49.000 He says, the woman will return to the man, and it will it will be like they are standing at the altar for the first time. 00:07:50.600 --> 00:07:55.800 And stunningly, she won't even be haunted by the memories of her unfaithfulness. 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:00.840 Isaiah 54, the

prophet says, Don't be afraid, you will not be put to shame. 00:08:01.079 --> 00:08:06.280 Do not fear disgrace, you will not be humiliated, you will forget the shame of your youth. 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:08.120 This is for some people today. 00:08:08.280 --> 00:08:16.840 You will remember no more the reproach of your widowhood, for your maker is your husband, the Lord Almighty is his name, the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer. 00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:18.840 He is called the God of all the earth. 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:26.360 The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit, a wife who married young only to be rejected, says your God. 00:08:26.519 --> 00:08:30.360 So it's one thing to be brought back to the altar after a lifetime of unfaithfulness. 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:35.879 It is quite another thing to be promised the gift of being able to forget your shame. 00:08:36.439 --> 00:08:37.960 And yet God gives the promise. 00:08:38.120 --> 00:08:53.720 Anyway, and we could go on elsewhere in the Old Testament prophets, God's unfaithful people are promised re-betrothal, re-commitment, even renaming as they go from being called deserted and desolate to being named the Lord's delight is in her and married. 00:08:54.279 --> 00:08:58.039 These are the promises that are held out as the Old Testament concludes. 00:08:58.199 --> 00:08:59.639 And it's beautiful. 00:09:00.199 --> 00:09:05.720 But the beauty of a relationship isn't fulfilled in the stage of betrothal, engagement. 00:09:05.960 --> 00:09:09.159 The point, of course, is not to long for the wedding day. 00:09:09.799 --> 00:09:12.120 The point is to get married. 00:09:12.919 --> 00:09:15.320 And can we just acknowledge how cute those hiccups sound? 00:09:15.399 --> 00:09:15.879 That is. 00:09:16.759 --> 00:09:18.039 Is that baby Graham? 00:09:18.279 --> 00:09:20.039 Wow, God bless him. 00:09:21.480 --> 00:09:24.360 Those are the cutest sounding hiccups I've ever heard in my whole life. 00:09:27.799 --> 00:09:33.639 The point is to get married, and that's the tension as you make your way into the New Testament period. 00:09:33.720 --> 00:09:39.320 Because Jesus, the Son of God, comes into the heart of the human story to call his bride back. 00:09:40.039 --> 00:09:45.879 But rather than recognizing him and returning to him, his unfaithful bride resists him. 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:53.799 John chapter 1 and verse 11 captures the dissonance between the promise in the Old Testament and the delayed fulfillment in a single line. 00:09:53.879 --> 00:09:59.960 It says, He, Jesus, he came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:05.080 In fact, not only did they not receive him, they flat out rejected him, they crucified him. 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:11.159 They filled up the measure of their unfaithfulness to God by trying to rid themselves of him. 00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:16.360 But even that could not undermine God's love for them. 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:25.000 Because it turns out that the cross of Christ was not just the bride's rejection, it was also the groom's devotion. 00:10:25.560 --> 00:10:33.240 It was his sacrificial love, an act of cleansing to make her beautiful once again. 00:10:33.799 --> 00:10:42.120 So the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 5, husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. 00:10:42.279 --> 00:10:42.600 Why? 00:10:42.759 --> 00:10:54.120 To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 00:10:54.440 --> 00:11:00.680 So that through the cross, Jesus is making his bride more beautiful than ever before. 00:11:00.919 --> 00:11:20.279 First of all, because she is no longer comprised of just one nation, Israel, but now in Christ Jesus, Jew and Gentile have been brought into unity with one another in their union with Jesus Christ, but also because he is cleansing her from all of her sin, making her radiant and spotless, holy and blameless through the washing that comes through his word. 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:22.519 That is the proclamation of the gospel. 00:11:22.680 --> 00:11:23.560 What is the gospel? 00:11:23.720 --> 00:11:25.720 It is his proclamation of love. 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:29.560 So as Christ proclaims his love to the church, she is cleansed. 00:11:29.639 --> 00:11:33.879 Basically, God is making his bride beautiful for her wedding day. 00:11:34.360 --> 00:11:45.080 So that the prior marriage that was marked by infidelity on day one will be a thing of the past, and the new marriage will be to a bride who is absolutely flawless. 00:11:45.320 --> 00:11:51.240 That's the promise that we're meant to hold on to in this wilderness age as we journey towards our wedding day with the Lamb. 00:11:51.399 --> 00:12:01.399 That we who are absolutely flawed, we who are absolutely still wrestling with sin, are given the promise that we will be pure and holy. 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:09.000 That's the promise that John himself receives and he's told to hold on to as the apocalypse comes to a close. 00:12:09.320 --> 00:12:25.720 You see, all throughout Revelation, there's been this major emphasis on being a faithful witness, resisting compromise, fleeing idolatry, resisting sin, proclaiming the truth of God to the world around you without hesitation. 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:31.240 And John, as a pastor, is clearly concerned for the seven churches that he originally addressed. 00:12:31.399 --> 00:12:36.440 And of course, those seven churches are representative of the whole global church. 00:12:36.680 --> 00:12:40.279 John is apart from them as an exile on an island called Patmos. 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:49.240 And yet from that distance, he knows their faults, he knows their missteps, he knows their habits, he knows their sin, and he's constantly calling them back to

faithfulness. 00:12:49.320 --> 00:12:53.159 And so John's tension is are they going to make it? 00:12:53.879 --> 00:12:56.279 Will the bride make herself ready? 00:12:56.519 --> 00:12:58.279 As it says in chapter 19. 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:02.360 Will she continue on in the righteousness that is required of her? 00:13:02.519 --> 00:13:04.200 Or will she stumble and fall? 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:06.279 Will she go back to her sin? 00:13:07.000 --> 00:13:10.440 And here at the conclusion of the book, these questions are answered. 00:13:10.680 --> 00:13:16.360 Questions that haven't just been lingering in John's mind, but also in the mind of every faithful reader of scripture before him. 00:13:16.600 --> 00:13:18.360 Can God do what he says? 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:22.200 Will the bride be ready for the day that her groom comes? 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:25.240 Or is the impurity too deeply ingrained? 00:13:25.560 --> 00:13:27.000 You ever wonder that about yourself? 00:13:27.159 --> 00:13:29.799 Is the impurity too deeply ingrained in me? 00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:35.000 And that's when the angel says to John, Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. 00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:37.320 And look where she comes from. 00:13:37.399 --> 00:13:39.000 Look at verse 2 of chapter 21. 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:47.320 I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:50.120 This is incredible for a few reasons. 00:13:50.680 --> 00:13:56.360 In the Jewish custom, the preparation process was always up to the bride's family. 00:13:57.159 --> 00:14:00.279 She got ready at her own family's house. 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:08.200 That preparation involved bathing, anointing with oil, being adorned with beautiful jewelry and a beautiful dress. 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:15.240 And only after the preparation did the groom come to escort the bride back to his family's house for the celebration. 00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:26.200 And yet, here we see that the custom is inverted as God Himself prepares, as God Himself oversees the preparation of the bride. 00:14:26.440 --> 00:14:35.320 So much so that when it comes time for her to be presented to the Son, she isn't rising up from the earth, her house, so to speak. 00:14:35.799 --> 00:14:39.560 She's coming down out of heaven, God's house. 00:14:39.879 --> 00:14:46.360 It turns out that all this time the bride wasn't even getting ready at her own house. 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:50.360 She was getting ready in the house of the Lord. 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:57.879 Imagine a bride to be who is marrying astronomically above her own socioeconomic status. 00:14:59.720 --> 00:15:05.560 She is sorely unprepared in her ability to get ready. 00:15:05.879 --> 00:15:08.440 She doesn't even have an adequate place to get ready. 00:15:08.680 --> 00:15:14.600 She doesn't have the resources to prepare herself in such a way that would be fitting for

the wedding day that awaits her. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:22.120 That would be an occasion for panic and fear, as she risks showing up shamefully unprepared to her own wedding. 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:27.799 Except the groom's father knows full well her lack of resources. 00:15:28.600 --> 00:15:31.799 And he does not want her to worry or fret. 00:15:32.039 --> 00:15:35.480 So what he does is he makes space for her in his own home. 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:42.039 And he provides everything that she needs so that she will be more prepared, more than prepared for her marriage to the son. 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:46.600 That's what Revelation teaches us about the preparation of the bride. 00:15:47.000 --> 00:15:52.759 On our own, we entirely lack the resources to make ourselves ready. 00:15:53.080 --> 00:16:01.639 We don't have the willpower, we don't have the innate desire for righteousness, we don't have the strength to resist temptation to sin. 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:09.960 If it were up to us alone, we would repeat the same story of unfaithfulness again and again and again as we see in the Old Testament. 00:16:10.120 --> 00:16:13.560 But what the gospel says to you and I is that it's not up to us. 00:16:13.799 --> 00:16:19.240 God says it's up to him, and he invites us to come get ready at his house. 00:16:20.680 --> 00:16:24.519 The Apostle Peter, chapter 3, 2 Peter 3, 1, he says it like this. 00:16:24.680 --> 00:16:38.759 He says, His divine power, God's divine power has given, past tense, already happened, has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him that is Jesus, who called us by his own glory and goodness. 00:16:39.000 --> 00:16:43.480 So everything we need is in our experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ. 00:16:44.919 --> 00:16:47.000 We can get ready at God's house. 00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:54.360 The New Testament makes it clear again and again that we experience Jesus most regularly as we congregate together in his place. 00:16:54.519 --> 00:16:55.560 That's his church. 00:16:55.720 --> 00:16:59.879 And in the church, we have all that we need to lead godly lives. 00:17:00.039 --> 00:17:02.360 We have been anointed with the Holy Spirit. 00:17:02.519 --> 00:17:05.399 We receive the ministry of his gifts at work in the body. 00:17:05.559 --> 00:17:13.079 We gather together at the Lord's table to receive his presence through worship, through communion, through the proclamation of the word, through the laying on of hands. 00:17:13.240 --> 00:17:18.440 We form relationships with others in the church who care for us and encourage us, admonish us and correct us. 00:17:18.519 --> 00:17:29.879 And although we appear ordinary, although we appear unqualified on earth, the reality is that God is so at work in our lives through this place that it is though we are getting ready at his heavenly home. 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:41.079 The Apostle John, as a man who was steeped in the Hebrew scriptures, was very well versed in the faithfulness of God to reunite his bride to himself. 00:17:41.799 --> 00:17:44.120 He expects to witness certain things. 00:17:44.279 --> 00:17:48.680 He hears the bride, he has a certain level of expectation about what he is going to see. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:52.120 As he beholds the fulfillment of this long-awaited promise. 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:55.400 But what he sees is even better than he expects. 00:17:56.120 --> 00:18:04.920 Any concern about whether the bride will truly make herself ready, truly throw off her sin, truly be robed in righteousness is his promise for you. 00:18:05.400 --> 00:18:08.599 Any concern about whether those things will happen is cast aside. 00:18:08.920 --> 00:18:13.799 And from his place on Patmos, it looks like the bride is wrestling and struggling. 00:18:13.960 --> 00:18:17.799 But from the perspective of the apocalypse, the fact is that God is getting her ready. 00:18:18.039 --> 00:18:19.960 God is overseeing our preparation. 00:18:20.200 --> 00:18:22.120 He himself will keep you from stumbling. 00:18:22.279 --> 00:18:32.599 He will ensure that you stand at the altar, shame forgotten, anointed with oil, flawlessly dressed, spotless and pure, and ready to enter into eternal union with the Son, Jesus Christ. 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:35.960 What should we do with this truth? 00:18:36.120 --> 00:18:38.200 Number one, first receive God's love for you. 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:43.079 Before the imagery of the bride is about anything else, it is about the fact that God loves you. 00:18:44.279 --> 00:18:54.120 And when we reflect upon the wedding of the Lamb, we are invited to recognize, wow, look at how much Jesus loves the church. 00:18:55.319 --> 00:18:57.559 Not look at how much the church loves Jesus. 00:18:58.120 --> 00:19:01.400 But first to recognize, look at how much he loves us. 00:19:01.559 --> 00:19:04.839 For him to even conceive of his people as a bride is exactly that. 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:05.720 I love you. 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:09.319 And you have to start there to believe and receive the love of Jesus. 00:19:09.480 --> 00:19:13.400 If you do not believe his love for you, you will not follow through on your love for him. 00:19:14.359 --> 00:19:18.039 This is at the heart of all disobedience in the Christian life. 00:19:18.279 --> 00:19:26.440 Our hesitancy to serve and to sacrifice and forgive and give, ultimately to walk in God's ways is not fundamentally an obedience problem. 00:19:26.599 --> 00:19:28.599 It is fundamentally a love problem. 00:19:29.559 --> 00:19:34.359 We need to trust God's love for us, and then we will walk in God's ways for us. 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:35.480 That was Israel's problem. 00:19:35.559 --> 00:19:43.319 They constantly doubted God's love and care for them, so they failed to love him in return, and they constantly went looking for other lovers to provide for them. 00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:51.079 And all the while God constantly held out his love to unrighteous people

because he knew that the antidote to sin is the revelation of his love. 00:19:55.960 --> 00:20:04.519 And so Christ comes bearing his cross to demonstrate his love for you and I. 00:20:05.480 --> 00:20:07.160 And we must receive that. 00:20:08.120 --> 00:20:13.960 Before you move forward into activity, receive. 00:20:16.039 --> 00:20:21.880 Before righteousness can ever be an expression of love for Jesus, it first has to be an experience of his love for you. 00:20:22.120 --> 00:20:26.920 That's why righteousness in Revelation doesn't start with your good works, it starts with the blood of Jesus. 00:20:27.160 --> 00:20:35.640 Those garments that we wear that have been laundered wider than snow says that they are washed because they're dipped in the blood of the Lamb. 00:20:37.160 --> 00:20:40.359 So you don't launder your own garments through your good works. 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:43.799 You don't get clean through your own activity of righteousness. 00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:46.120 You get clean through the blood of Jesus Christ. 00:20:46.279 --> 00:20:52.440 That's why we will never tire of singing the gospel as a church because it's the gospel who has made us who we are, given us what we have. 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:58.759 It is good news, not just for the lost person, it is good news for the saved person to know that how you began is how you continue. 00:20:58.920 --> 00:21:03.400 It'll always be by the power of his blood carrying us forward in our righteous lives. 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:07.319 This is an amazing contrast in Revelation that's presented to make this exact point. 00:21:07.400 --> 00:21:15.160 In chapter 17, the same angel who shows John the bride back in chapter 17 says, Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute. 00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:16.359 It's the same language. 00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:18.519 Come, I will show you the prostitute, Babylon. 00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:21.240 Come, I will show you the bride, New Jerusalem. 00:21:21.480 --> 00:21:24.120 And in between those two visions is a call. 00:21:24.359 --> 00:21:26.680 It's in chapter 18, the invitation goes out. 00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:31.960 It says, Come out of her, come out of Babylon, my people. 00:21:32.440 --> 00:21:34.359 Listen carefully carefully to that. 00:21:34.599 --> 00:21:36.759 Come out of idolatry. 00:21:37.079 --> 00:21:39.240 Come out of Babylon, my people. 00:21:40.359 --> 00:21:47.559 That even when you were devoted, even when you were complicit with Babylon's unfaithfulness, God says, You are mine. 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:50.440 Even when you were lost, you belonged to God. 00:21:50.680 --> 00:21:52.920 Even when you were dead in your sins, you belonged to God. 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:55.240 Even when you were unfaithful, you belong to God. 00:21:55.400 --> 00:21:58.920 Even when you were looking for the right things in all the wrong places, you belong to God. 00:21:59.079 --> 00:22:04.200 Listen, the bride of Christ is not made up of people

who were doing pretty good and just needed a little bit of help. 00:22:04.759 --> 00:22:10.839 The bride of Christ is made up of people who were supposed to be at the altar with Jesus, but instead were in bed with Babylon. 00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:14.279 Those are the only kinds of people that are in the kingdom of God. 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:18.680 And God has won every single one of us back to him with the power of his love. 00:22:18.839 --> 00:22:25.880 Not because he needs you, not because he can't go on without you, not because he's some hopeless romantic, but purely because he loves you. 00:22:26.519 --> 00:22:29.079 And our call is to receive his love. 00:22:30.039 --> 00:22:33.160 Which connects us to the Second point of application, just really quick. 00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:47.160 Accept that your preparation, say preparation, accept that your preparation, another word would be your sanctification, the process of you becoming more devoted to Jesus, accept that that isn't ultimately about what you can achieve with your own resources. 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:51.880 It's about receiving the invitation to get ready at God's house. 00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:55.799 None of us alone is the bride of Christ. 00:22:56.759 --> 00:22:58.680 We are the bride of Christ. 00:22:59.640 --> 00:23:07.079 Which means you've got to genuinely be a part of the community of Christ if you are to benefit from all of God's resources. 00:23:07.400 --> 00:23:16.039 If you aren't truly connected to God's church, then you are placing yourself out of alignment with the flow of God's resources, the process of God's preparation. 00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:18.839 Our preparation is not dependent upon our own strength. 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:22.839 Our preparation is dependent on the power of God's Spirit in His church. 00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:30.599 The New Testament makes it abundantly clear that his spirit is work, is at work most prominently in his church, each member empowered to minister to the others. 00:23:30.759 --> 00:23:43.000 See, the greatest practical danger for John's original audience that they faced was disassociating themselves with their local church for the sake of being accepted by their Roman culture and prioritizing Rome's version of success. 00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:46.519 And many Christians make the same mistake today. 00:23:46.680 --> 00:23:53.000 They treat the Sunday gathering of the church casually because it conflicts with the set of priorities that have been handed to them by the world. 00:23:54.599 --> 00:24:05.319 Make more, travel more, work more, get the kids to that event, have more me time. 00:24:07.799 --> 00:24:13.720 And they aren't growing in godliness because they are neglecting the resources in God's house. 00:24:14.120 --> 00:24:15.799 Friends, this is not entertainment. 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:19.720 We are not here to do a good job for you. 00:24:21.319 --> 00:24:23.240 We are here to lead you in formation. 00:24:23.880 --> 00:24:25.079 This is discipleship. 00:24:26.039 --> 00:24:30.759 We sing the songs that we do, we come around the table the way that we do, we lay hands the way that we do. 00:24:30.920 --> 00:24:33.480 I preach the way that we do because I am not here to entertain you. 00:24:33.559 --> 00:24:35.960 I am here to help form you into the image of Jesus Christ. 00:24:36.120 --> 00:24:37.720 This is discipleship, this is formation. 00:24:37.799 --> 00:24:46.039 There are resources at work in this house that are the power of God's Spirit ministering through us as he helps us to grow into the image of Jesus Christ. 00:24:46.359 --> 00:24:52.920 It's not that we aren't meant to live ordinary lives in the world, going to work, taking our kids to practice, engaging with culture. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:53.559 Absolutely. 00:24:53.720 --> 00:25:00.359 But our primary place is to be planted in God's church, where his grace is uniquely at work to make us ready for the wedding of the Lamb. 00:25:01.240 --> 00:25:02.359 Should we do one more? 00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:04.599 Let's talk about the city. 00:25:05.720 --> 00:25:09.160 The first time that a city, we're going to run it back, do the whole thing all over again. 00:25:09.319 --> 00:25:11.079 Okay, this is biblical theology. 00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:31.240 The first time that a city is mentioned in Scripture is soon after Adam and Eve's exile from the garden, when their son Cain, who was even further exiled due to his sin, began building a city, which he named the Hebrew word there is Shem, after his son Enoch, whose name means to dedicate. 00:25:31.960 --> 00:25:38.440 So Cain builds a city, he shems it after his son Enoch, whose name means to dedicate. 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:46.680 The whole idea is that Cain is building a city that is dedicated to his own family's name, his own family's renown. 00:25:47.000 --> 00:26:00.519 And then, not coincidentally, downstream from Cain, the next mention of city building is the Tower of Babel incident, where the people built a city and a tower that would reach to the heavens in order to make a name, to make a shem for themselves. 00:26:01.079 --> 00:26:05.960 And together these two stories they form a picture of building for the sake of self-exaltation. 00:26:06.680 --> 00:26:13.480 And then immediately after that, against this backdrop of self-exaltation, God comes to a pagan man named Abram. 00:26:13.880 --> 00:26:17.160 He says, Trust and follow me, and I will make your name. 00:26:17.319 --> 00:26:19.319 I will make your shem great. 00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:25.319 It's a contrast between man's grasping and God's giving. 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:30.680 Man wants to grasp at greatness by exalting ourselves. 00:26:30.920 --> 00:26:34.359 God wants to give you true greatness by inviting you to exalt him. 00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:39.640 Now, when you reach this point in the biblical narrative, you might think, well, is God an anti-city? 00:26:39.880 --> 00:26:40.759 But that isn't the

case. 00:26:40.839 --> 00:26:47.880 Eventually, God oversees the establishment of Jerusalem, the city atop Mount Zion with the temple where God eventually puts his name. 00:26:48.120 --> 00:26:54.279 And the greatness of Israel is dependent upon and unmistakably intertwined with the glory of God. 00:26:54.759 --> 00:26:58.359 If they neglect God's glory, they lose their greatness. 00:26:58.599 --> 00:27:00.039 And Israel forgets this. 00:27:00.120 --> 00:27:02.440 And in their pride, they begin to worship false gods. 00:27:02.519 --> 00:27:05.480 They become about their own name rather than God's name. 00:27:05.720 --> 00:27:12.200 So God brings down their city, he brings down their temple, he brings down the people as they fall from such great heights and go into exile. 00:27:12.359 --> 00:27:14.120 In fact, this doesn't just happen once to Israel. 00:27:14.279 --> 00:27:19.000 Jesus himself prophesied that Jerusalem would fall in dramatic fashion because of their rejection of him. 00:27:19.160 --> 00:27:24.920 And then 40 years later in AD 70, that's exactly what happened when Rome ransacked Jerusalem. 00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:28.519 The city motif in Scripture is teaching us something important. 00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:39.000 As early as Cain City, we see that such places served as the developmental hub for music, for invention, for culture making. 00:27:39.400 --> 00:27:40.680 And that's what cities can be. 00:27:40.839 --> 00:27:43.880 They can be a hub of beauty and creativity and advancement. 00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:46.920 But only when God is at their center. 00:27:47.720 --> 00:27:50.680 Which is the constant failure of humanity worldwide. 00:27:51.319 --> 00:27:55.160 As we build civilizations that are centered on self instead of centered on the Lord. 00:27:55.640 --> 00:27:57.559 And we'll always be this way throughout this age, by the way. 00:27:57.640 --> 00:27:59.079 It's not our mission to try and fix that. 00:27:59.400 --> 00:28:05.880 So the writer of Hebrews says, For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:18.920 And that promise that reaches all the way back to the Genesis narrative and says that everything that the human heart has longed for and looked for by exalting itself, God is actually preparing as a gift for those who exalt him. 00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:24.279 It is not coming to those who grasp, it is coming as a gift to those who live for the glory of God. 00:28:24.440 --> 00:28:30.519 In other words, it isn't achieved by those who make much of their name, it's received by those who make much of the name of Jesus. 00:28:30.759 --> 00:28:33.319 And so John sees the city coming down out of heaven. 00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:38.039 It's not a different thing than the bride, it's another angle on the destiny of God's people. 00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:42.359 An eternal city prepared by God as a gift, descending from heaven to earth. 00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:45.160 Notice the contrasting direction with the Tower of Babel. 00:28:45.400 --> 00:28:50.440 At Babel, man built up, pridefully trying to ascend to heaven in the new creation. 00:28:50.599 --> 00:28:53.559 God humbly comes down and brings the heavenly city with him. 00:28:53.799 --> 00:28:55.960 Look at how the city is described in verse 11. 00:28:56.120 --> 00:29:03.400 It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like Jasper, clear as crystal. 00:29:03.720 --> 00:29:11.960 Back in chapter 4, we first saw God seated upon his throne in heaven, and it said that he had the appearance of Jasper. 00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:23.960 And now the whole heavenly city shines with exactly that same appearance, which is to say that the beauty and enduring nature of the heavenly city is based upon the fact that it centers around the one true God who is seated upon the throne. 00:29:24.120 --> 00:29:28.680 Glory and beauty don't come from exalting ourselves, they come from exalting God. 00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:34.920 And I think John conveys this point not just with the visual descriptions of the city, but also with a sense of musicality. 00:29:35.480 --> 00:29:46.359 When he lists out the stones that are at the foundation of the city's walls, he could have listed out those stones in any order, but he lists them out in the most rhythmic-sounding way possible. 00:29:47.160 --> 00:29:48.039 In Greek. 00:29:55.720 --> 00:30:01.480 So that even the aspects of the heavenly city's description rolls off the tongue in a musically pleasing way. 00:30:01.720 --> 00:30:08.440 I think all to convey that when the authority of God is at the center of our lives, then beauty and order will follow suit. 00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:11.960 A truly beautiful life will reflect exactly that same pattern. 00:30:12.200 --> 00:30:13.079 Look at verse 12. 00:30:13.160 --> 00:30:16.680 It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. 00:30:16.839 --> 00:30:19.319 On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 00:30:19.480 --> 00:30:30.680 Now, maybe you remember that when Adam and Eve were exiled from Eden, angels were placed at the entrance to the garden to forbid them from re-entering and bringing their uncleanness into God's sacred garden temple. 00:30:30.920 --> 00:30:35.880 But here, the angels stand at the gates to welcome all of those whose faith is in the Lamb. 00:30:36.120 --> 00:30:39.559 So the gatekeepers in Genesis have become the doorholders in Revelation. 00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:54.039 In fact, on all four sides of the city's walls, there are three gates each, twelve entrances facing out, north, south, east, and west, meaning that all people now have equal access to the city from all four corners of the earth. 00:30:54.279 --> 00:31:01.160 Doesn't matter where you're coming from, doesn't matter what your family's last name is, doesn't matter that you come empty-handed, all are invited to

come. 00:31:01.319 --> 00:31:05.640 The only qualification is that you come exalting the name of Jesus Christ. 00:31:05.799 --> 00:31:13.240 The city has enormous walls, not because there are any threats to keep out, but because they symbolize the perpetual safety of those within. 00:31:13.400 --> 00:31:18.120 As the text says earlier, there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain. 00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:20.120 The old order of things has passed away. 00:31:20.359 --> 00:31:30.279 So for those of you who grew up accustomed to the feeling of danger, who know what it is to live with the fear of a constant threat in the heavenly city, that fear will melt out of your body once and for all. 00:31:30.519 --> 00:31:32.920 You will never know anything other than complete safety. 00:31:33.079 --> 00:31:36.200 Your nervous system will not need a fight or flight mechanism. 00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:38.200 Your brain will not be scanning for danger. 00:31:38.359 --> 00:31:41.319 You will be safely at home in the presence of Almighty God. 00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:44.120 Verse 16 goes on. 00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:57.000 We'll talk about that next week. 00:31:57.319 --> 00:31:59.160 12,000 stadia. 00:31:59.319 --> 00:32:01.160 That's 1,500 miles. 00:32:01.480 --> 00:32:06.920 The city that John sees descending from heaven is half the size of the United States. 00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:11.480 It spans from the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi River. 00:32:11.799 --> 00:32:15.400 This is what John sees in his vision coming down out of the heaven. 00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:21.000 As much as he had been taught to look for the restoration of Zion. 00:32:22.120 --> 00:32:30.519 As much as he had been taught to look for the heavenly city whose builder is God, this vision far exceeds anything he ever could have expected. 00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:37.319 It breaks the bounds of human imagination and language because it surpasses the scale and beauty that anyone ever could have thought possible. 00:32:37.400 --> 00:32:51.319 And not only does its size speak to its cosmic scope and the fact that it has room for people from all nations, it also communicates that the heights, remember it's also 1,500 miles high, the heights that humanity longs to reach do not ultimately come from building towers for our own name. 00:32:52.759 --> 00:32:57.400 The heights that we long to reach ultimately come from bending our knees in worship before the throne of God. 00:32:57.640 --> 00:33:04.359 Greatness doesn't come from grasping, it comes from receiving God's gift to those who trust and obey Him. 00:33:04.519 --> 00:33:07.160 The Christian life is received. 00:33:08.759 --> 00:33:10.279 It is not achieved. 00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:19.000 The life that you really want, the life that you actually long for, is not found in the pursuit of all of your pleasure. 00:33:19.880 --> 00:33:27.720 It is not found in satisfying all of the demands that your desires make of you. 00:33:28.039 --> 00:33:30.120 It's not found in any of those things. 00:33:30.519 --> 00:33:31.960 It's found in serving God. 00:33:32.039 --> 00:33:37.720 You will never reach higher than when you go low and exalt God with the way that you live. 00:33:38.440 --> 00:33:47.079 Towards the end of chapter 21, it says that the people in this city they reign with Jesus because they serve Jesus. 00:33:48.920 --> 00:33:53.559 And in the economy of the kingdom, those two always go hand in hand. 00:33:54.519 --> 00:33:57.960 Which makes the application of this whole image pretty clear, doesn't it? 00:33:59.400 --> 00:34:07.319 The way that it's revealed to John is that he first sees the city from the outside, and it's laden with jewels from foundation to finish. 00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:08.759 It's stunning. 00:34:09.319 --> 00:34:12.679 But then the angel shows John the city from the inside. 00:34:13.159 --> 00:34:19.880 And the core feature there is that people are living holy, devoted lives. 00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:25.159 The kings of the earth they bring their splendor as worship to God. 00:34:25.480 --> 00:34:31.000 The nations, they bring their glory and their honor, and they lay it at God's feet in praise. 00:34:31.719 --> 00:34:39.559 And all of it communicates that the beauty on the outside is a result of the worship on the inside. 00:34:40.599 --> 00:34:49.879 These people have received genuinely blessed and bountiful lives because they did not make reaching for blessing and bounty the goal. 00:34:51.559 --> 00:34:54.519 They made worshiping God the goal. 00:34:55.159 --> 00:35:01.079 And the lesson is that's not something you wait to do once you get there. 00:35:02.039 --> 00:35:05.399 The lesson is that we do that here and now in this life.