Transcript

Good morning, church. It's good to be back with you this morning. We had the chance to take a vacation last week and we appreciate Pastor Jonathan Minter filling in in our series last week. He did a fantastic job and just really, really pleased with the way the series continued with him. We didn't miss a beat with him last week and today I'm feeling kind of sentimental about this series.

We're finishing it up today and I've enjoyed it so much. I hope you have too. Going from the book of Genesis and now today, concluding in the book of Revelation, looking for Jesus on every page. And so it's been a great, a great journey. And before I begin, because I missed last week, I wanted to give a quick report about Easter, which was two weeks ago.

And we made a big deal about Easter because we recognize that people that might not go to church will accept an invitation to go to church on Easter Sunday. And so we did have a lot of guests. We had 583 in attendance here in Wilson. We had 240 in Rocky Mount. We had 14 baptisms between both of our campuses, people following Jesus.

We had umpteen first time guests, many of them filling out cards, many of them just dropping in. And we got to meet them and talk to them. We had three people pray to receive Christ, indicating that on their, on their cards. And so we had a big Sunday and that's what we were planning and praying for. And God was faithful.

And part of what made it possible for us to have a big Sunday like that is you're over and above giving to its time our generosity initiative, which makes it possible for us to really engage our community and strengthen our community engagement. And so we bought a lot of social media ads and reels. We're not experts on how to do that. So we have a company that's helping us with that. And really to the point where I can't even go shopping at Lowe's now because it's like, I love going shopping at Lowe's.

That's like my favorite store right now. And I can't go because people are like, hey, I've seen you somewhere before. I said, no, no, you haven't. You haven't seen me anywhere. But I'm just trying to get from aisle to aisle without.

I'm gonna have to start wearing a disguise if we keep doing this. We purchased ads, we bought those yard signs with our It's Time initiative money. And you courageously put it in your yards and invited your neighbors to church. We purchased the Guest services tent that's out front of the church right now to greet our guests so that we make a wow factor and impact our first time guests so they know where to stop and where they can find out more about our church. And all of this was made possible by your over and above giving.

And now on top of that, because of the tent and because of our setup and tear down of the tent and of our chairs and tables and the gathering place which is our venue that's meeting right now next door, we're looking at starting a new ministry team. And we're calling this ministry team the Levites. And the Levites were experts at setting up the tabernacle in the wilderness. And we need some Levites. And by the way, our church was portable the first 19 years of the church and so that's how we had church every week.

And so we're just kind of going back to our roots. So if you're interested in helping us get here early, helping us set up the tent out front, helping us set up table and chairs and helping us tear it down at the end of the service, sign up for the Levites, just put it on your connection card. I'm interested in being a Levite and you don't have to be from the tribe of Levi. We're going to graft you in and we'd love, love to have you sign up for that. So your faithfulness to its time, your faithfulness to invite people, we give God all the glory for his faithfulness to us to make it possible for us to have that big Sunday.

And we're praying that God would continue to grow our church. Amen. Well, let's get into this series, the conclusion of this series, the story. And we've gone verse by verse or chapter by chapter skipping, looking for all the threads of the story, looking for Jesus on every page. We believe that The Bible is one book.

It was written by over 40 human authors. It's organized in 66 individuals books. But yet it's one book and its hero is King Jesus. And we've gone through this Bible from creation where everything was good to the fall of man when man chose to sin and sin broke everything. We saw the flood that God sent.

We saw the covenant God gave through Abraham, the exodus that was out of Egypt, through Moses and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. We saw the first kingdom under David and but then the fall of the kingdom to exile in Babylon. We saw the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and we saw his work on the cross and last Week, we saw the giving of the Holy Spirit and the giving and birth of the Church. And that brings us to where we're at today. And we've entitled this message the Consummation.

Consummation is the act of completion or fruition, the point at which something is complete or finalized. And every good story, every great story, has a great ending. And that's where we're at today in the Book of Revelation. But today we live between promise and fulfillment. The world is still broken.

Sin still wounds. Death still steals from us. And we are left asking, will God really finish what he started? Will he really complete what he's promised? Will everything be made right?

And today in the consummation, we don't just see the end of the story. We see the fulfillment. And we see King Jesus his throne. And we are called to dwell with God forever. Every promise from Genesis to Revelation is fulfilled in the Book of Revelation, chapter 21.

The apostle John saw a vision. He saw a vision revealing how God would ultimately bring his redemptive story to completion. And I believe that we can see this with John today. And we can decide today to set our eyes on things above, not on earthly things, and prepare our hearts and minds for that coming day when God will bring all things to consummation. The text will give us three ways that God will ultimately bring his redemptive story to completion.

So let's dig in. We're in the second to last chapter of the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, chapter 21. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new.

Also he said, write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage.

And I will be his God. And he will Be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. This is God's word. We're looking for three ways God will bring his redemptive story to completion.

Here's the first way. By creating a new heaven and a new earth. The Bible begins with. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And now at the end, it ends as it began.

He creates a new heaven and a new earth. We see that this is one book, and now we are tying the threads together like a bow, that all that God has promised from Genesis on that that man has caused is coming to fruition. John sees a new heaven and a new earth. And he not only sees that, but he sees a new Jerusalem coming down from God in heaven. Let's look closely at verses one and two.

We see in verse one, this is John speaking. John is. He's. He's caught up in a vision. He's.

He's been exiled to the Isle of Patmos. He's the last living apostle. All the other apostles have been persecuted and executed. And he was boiled in oil, yet survived and now exiled to the Isle of Patmos, which was a place where the Romans would send those that they wanted to lock away. And he has a vision on the first day of the week of the Lord Jesus, a revelation of Jesus.

And he sees the new heavens and the new earth. He sees it says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. And then verse two says, and I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down. We get to verse three. He starts talking about what he heard, but he begins with what he saw.

I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. What is this new heaven and this new earth? Well, first of all, we have to understand the Jewish understanding of the word heaven. Paul talks about being caught up to the third heaven.

What did he mean by that? Well, the Jews saw three heavens, and they saw them this way. The first heaven is the blue sky that you see at daytime. It might be a cloudy sky, but it's the daytime sky that's the first heaven. The second heaven is the nighttime sky where you can see the moon and the stars.

The third heaven is the unseen heaven where God and the angels dwell and the saints are dwelling. So the third heaven, when he says that God has created a new heaven and a New earth that he sees. He's talking about the physical new heaven and new earth. He's not talking about the unseen heaven. God is going to cause the current physical earth and physical heavens, the universe, to pass away.

He says it's passed away and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. These bodies are not fit for this new locale, this eternal where we will be with God forever. This new Jerusalem, this new earth, this new heaven. These bodies will pass away. But you get a resurrected body like Jesus.

You want to know what kind of body you get? We'll read about what Jesus that his resurrected body was, was like. You get a body like that that's fit for heaven and the new earth and the new heaven. How could there be a new one unless the former was passed away? God's.

God's creating again. He's going to create a new heaven and a new earth. John saw it. He saw it. And the former one had passed away.

And then we see that. He goes on, he says, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared. Remember what Jesus said there In John chapter 14, when he was talking to his disciples and in his father final dissertation, as he's preparing them for his crucifixion and his resurrection and the coming of the Holy spirit. In chapter 14, he sees that they're troubled by what he's saying. He says, let not your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father's house. There are many mansions. It says in the King James. In modern translations, there are many rooms.

He says, I go there to prepare a place for you, that where I am, you shall be also. I go there to prepare a place for you. Well, here it comes. Here it comes. The new Jerusalem.

Come down. It's a prepared place. It's the place that Jesus said he was going to go prepare for us. Like a bride it comes. And then later in the same chapter, we see that it is the bride.

It's us adorned. That's interesting language. Adorned like a bride, he says, and I saw the holy city. This is a holy city. There's no sin there.

There are no sinners there. Only the righteous dwell there. This new Jerusalem. Later he tells us, this is the bride of Christ. But here he says, it's prepared as a bride.

This is the wedding that's coming here. Adorned for her husband. The word adorned is where we get the word for cosmetics, cosmeo in the Greek. It's where we get cosmetology, cosmetics. Adorned.

This is a beautiful city coming down. What began in the garden ends in a city. A garden city, if you will. It's a prepared, adorned city. It's a beautiful place.

But first the former things must pass away. The former heavens. Speaking of the physical heavens, the blue sky, the night sky, and this earth must pass away. Peter talks about it. He gives more detail about the passing away.

He says this in Second Peter, chapter three. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Peter went into greater detail about the passing away of the current heavens and earth.

But do not be dismayed or discouraged. Let not your hearts be troubled, because he's prepared a new heavens and a new earth and a new Jerusalem. Coming down now. This new Jerusalem is greater than the current Jerusalem. It's greater than King David's Jerusalem.

It's greater than Solomon's Jerusalem. It's greater than King Herod's Jerusalem. It's greater than the current Jerusalem. All of these are mere foreshadowings of the new Jerusalem. Come down.

The current Jerusalem and Israel today. There's only one place that you can go today and see some evidence of one of the walls that Jesus would have seen. There are streets there that have been exposed that he would have walked on, steps that he may have walked on that archeologists have exposed. But the one wall is the Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, where you'll see Jewish people rocking back and forth and praying and writing their Hebrew prayers and rolling them up and sticking them in the cracks of the Western Wall and the Western. A retaining wall that's holding the Temple Mount together.

It was built by King Herod when he supersized Zerubbabel's temple that had been rebuilt after Babylonian exile. And so that's the one place where you can put your hands on a place where Jesus may have put his hands. The Western Wall, the wall that surrounds Jerusalem today, modern Jerusalem was built a little over 500 years ago by Suleiman the Great, a ruler in the Ottoman Empire, a Muslim man who built it to protect Jerusalem because they had a different vision of what Jerusalem was to be. That's not the Jerusalem I'm talking about. The new Jerusalem is built by God.

It's made by God, it's the one that Jesus said, I'm going away to prepare for us. So let not your hearts be troubled. This is not new. It's new. The new heavens and new earth and new Jerusalem.

But the idea of it is not new. He's been talking through the prophets and others about this for millennia. Isaiah talks about it. Isaiah 65. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.

That's pretty good. Like, it's going to be so sweet and so good. You'll be like, I'm not even going to try to remember what happened down here. Like so many of us have. We think we have a list.

Like, I can't wait to get to heaven because I'm going to ask God why this had to happen. And here Isaiah says, no, you won't. It's going to be so good. You'll be like, never mind. It's just too good.

It's too wonderful. Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth. And the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. Behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy. Then he describes something here of a place that be somewhat like the Garden of Eden must have been.

Because God told Adam to go and name the animals, and he put him in charge. He made him sovereign over all things under God. And so I think there was a relationship between man and the planet and man and animal life, that they obeyed Adam. And we see a return to this here in this new heavens and new earth. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together.

The lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountains as the Lord in Genesis, humanity was expelled from Eden. The garden was lost. The cherubim guarded the way back with flaming swords. But now the gates are flung open, the city descends and paradise is regained not by human effort, but by God's grace.

The story that began in a garden ends with a garden like city. Let us enter into it for a moment as we continue in Revelation chapter 21. And we see that it has 12 gates. And over each of the 12 gates are the names of the 12 tribes of Israel. It has a foundation made of fine jewels of every kind which have become commonplace in this new city with the names of the apostles written on them, revealing one united people of God.

There's no temple here because the Lamb is on the throne and he is the one that we. We don't need an emblem of a temple. We can Be with him. And his throne is there. There's no need of a sun or a moon because there's no night before, before this time.

Because God is in his glory. The light that we will dwell within. A river FL his throne, which is the water of life. And as the river flows, we see here the tree of life that we haven't heard from since we were back in Genesis, is in this place, in this city. And we realize that Eden is restored except better.

Except better. I wonder, would they have just stayed in the garden if they hadn't sinned? I don't think so. Because he said to them, fill the earth. Multiply and fill the earth.

They were. They were. God planted the garden to give them a start. But I think he always had in mind an eternal city where he would live with man and man would dwell with him forever. But sin interrupted it.

But now God has brought it full circle back again. You were made for a better world. Maybe you're here this morning. You're going. I just don't feel like I fit in here sometimes.

I can't. I can't figure this out. What? I don't know. It's because you're made for a better place.

And the better place is coming, my friend. Set your hearts and minds, as Paul says in Colossians 3, on things above where Christ is. That's the first way that we can see God bringing all things to completion in his redemptive plan. Here's the second. By dwelling forever with his people, God will dwell forever with his people.

We are. Verse 3. And we see here he's gone from the things he saw. He saw a new heaven and a new earth. He saw a new Jerusalem.

And then he heard something. Verse 3. And I heard a loud voice. He doesn't name who it is. He says it came from somewhere around where the throne was.

Where? It came from the throne room. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, this doesn't seem to be God because it talks in the third person. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.

This must be like an angelic herald standing next to the throne. Hear ye, hear ye. Behold. And it says, he spoke with a loud voice, which is perfect. I think he's announcing what God's about to do and what God.

He's introducing what's happening now at this point, John has seen this, and now he hears a voice. He says, a loud voice. I like it in the Greek. It's phones. Megales.

Megaphone he had a megaphone voice, big old loud voice. He behold. And what's his announcements? The dwelling place of God is with man. The dwelling place.

It's the same Greek word that we find in John, chapter 1, verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt with us. It has at its root a meaning to pitch a tent or tabernacle that God tabernacled with us. And here what God always meant. And the way he started out, because we read in the book of Genesis that He would walk in the cool of the afternoon with Adam and Eve, that He.

He made us for himself, that he could be one with us and we could be one with him, so that we could actually know the author of the story that he's written us into. This story that we could know him and not just know him, but talk to him and be in relationship with Him. This is how the story began. But sin interrupts it and separates us from God. But then Jesus comes and he takes our separation on the cross and he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

And so he becomes forsaken so that we might be accepted. And so now we see the threads coming together, and he's tying it off. This is what he was always up to. He's repairing what sin broke. He wants to dwell with us and for us to dwell with Him.

Behold, a loud voice said, God will now dwell with man. Wow, that's wonderful.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God Himself will be with them as their God.

And then he begins to wipe away every vestige of our former life.

See? Five places here. Five things he will wipe away. These are things that will pass away. They will be wiped away.

He's going to wipe away every tear. You got tears?

It's going to wipe away death. Death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.

My grandkids will sometimes say to me, what's wrong, Papa? And I'll say, I was just getting out of my chair.

Why did you make that funny noise?

I don't know.

No more pain. Well, that's good news.

See, pain, pain is a residual of sin. It's a symptom. Sin brought death. It introduced death and pain and sorrow. No more crying, no more pain.

The former things. So the old earth and the old heavens and the old stuff that goes with it passed away no more. Behold, God will live with us and we will live with him and there will be no more. Who needs to hear that? Who's crying today.

Who's hurting? Who needs healing? Who's mourning over a loss? No more, he says.

This is his announcement from the throne room. All these things have passed away. Paul quotes in Second Corinthians freely. He really. He does a combination quote from Moses, from Leviticus 26, from Jeremiah and Jeremiah 32, and Ezekiel and Ezekiel 37, concerning God's intent to dwell with his people.

In other words, it's all over the Old Testament that God's going to do this someday. And here's what he says in 2nd Corinthians 6. He says, for we are the temple of the living God. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And in Eden, God walked with man in the tabernacle.

God dwelt in the tabernacle by pillar of fire and pillar of cloud in Israel, in Christ, God dwelt with us in the flesh. He came here and the Word became flesh and dwelled among us and walked among us. And then now in the church, by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, God dwells with us. But what John sees and what John hears is something radically new. That's what we've been hoping for ever since we came to Christ and became believers.

We read the Gospels and we say, I'm jealous of those disciples.

Are you jealous of them? I'm jealous of them. Not in a bad sense. I want what I know. I've got the Spirit living in me.

I got the Word that the apostles wrote down. I want to see him.

I want to embrace him. I want to see those hands. Not because I need it to believe, but just because I want to see what he did for me. Like with my eyes. I want to see him.

I want to join with John and say, I saw, I heard. That's what we're talking about. It's coming. This is the promise. This is the consummation.

You see, the entire Bible is a love story from the first marriage in Genesis 2, where God opened up the side of Adam and brought forth a bride named Eve. And then Jesus hung on the cross and purchased a bride, and his side was opened up and he gave birth to the church.

He's wrapping it all up.

Why is he doing it? Because he loves us. He made us for himself, and sin separated us. But the hero of the story, Jesus has overcome.

It's not the streets of gold that will make it so sweet, but it's Jesus that will make it so wonderful. God will dwell with man. This is the second way. And then we come to the third. The third way that this consummation comes together, the whole story tied up in a neat fulfillment.

By making all things new and judging all evil. By making all things new and judging all evil. We're working out verses five through eight now in our passage. Now Christ himself will speak. The herald has made the announcement.

We saw it in that third person language. He God will behold, God's going to do this. God's going to wipe away every tear. But now something new in verse five, we see a shift. And he who was seated on the throne said, who is this now?

Who is this on the throne? Behold, I. Okay, this is first person, person on the throne is now, personally speaking, behold, I am making all things new.

We really can't make anything new. All we can do is take what he made and recombine it into some innovative new version. But he can make brand new stuff.

He's going to make all things new.

Everything's going to have that new car smell. He's going to make all things new. He said, behold, I'm going to make all things new.

Then he turns to John.

He said, write this down, John. I can tell you haven't been writing for a minute. I know your eyes are wide open, like, get your pen and paper back out.

Write these down. For these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. It is done. That sounds familiar.

I looked it up. I was like, I wonder if this is the same word from when he hung on the cross and he said, it is finished. It wasn't. I thought it was. But then I learned something better.

Because the word for it is finished has more. The idea of paid in full. Like, I've bought the redemption, but it's not complete yet because he's got to go away and prepare a place for us. It is done is that word. I finished the work.

I've prepared the place for you. It's done. Wait. Do you see it? Where do you see it?

I don't know if some of you are like my mother was. She could not keep a secret. And Christmas was extremely hard on my mother. If she bought you something for Christmas and she bought it, like in November, it was killing her. She would wrap it and put it under the tree and she'd say, do you want to guess what's in there?

And I said, no, I'm good. I'm good. Because I'm that kid. I'm that aggravating firstborn kid. I'm Good, mom, you gonna love it.

Okay. Have you looked at the size of it? Have you shook it like, she's wanting to tell me so bad what's in the box. And if you told her something like that, she would be like, if I bought one of my siblings something or somebody else, she'd be like, don't you want to know what Gary put in there? Like, she would tell your secrets, too.

She didn't mean to. She's sweet. She just couldn't. She just gets so fired up about the end of the story. And I wonder if God isn't just bursting with wanting to show you because he loves you so much.

If he would send the greatest. If he would send Jesus to us and let him die on a cross for us and do all that for us. Friends, we have to join with Paul and say, mind cannot conceive nor heart contain what he's going to do. He's going to make all things new. And he says, it's done now.

This is future. It's coming. He's going to say, it's done, and he's going to show it to the saints. Oh, man. I hope you're ready.

You can't be. I hope you're anticipating this.

Making all things new now. Who is this speaking? He said to me, he says, I am the alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Now I know who it is, because he opened up the book that way. In chapter one of Revelation, he refers to the Greek Alphabet, the first letter and the last letter of the Greek Alphabet, the beginning and the end.

This is Jesus. This is King Jesus sitting on the throne. He says, hey, John, you haven't been writing for a minute. Write this down.

I'm done. I've done it all. Everything I promised I was going to prepare. I've prepared it. That's what.

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. Reminds me of the woman at the well.

Remember the Samaritan woman at the well, you know, she's drawing. He said, would you draw me something to drink? And she draws. He goes, I'll tell you what. You know, if you wanted water that never runs out, everlasting water, you could ask me.

I could give you some. You didn't even bring a bucket. He goes, no, the water I'm talking about raise you to eternal life. He shared it with her. She went back to her village and she said, come see the man who told me everything I ever did.

Could this be the Christ?

Here he is. He says, if you're thirsty. I'm going to give you the water of life without payment. Doesn't cost anything to get this water. This water flows like a river from this new city, from the throne.

Doesn't cost anything, but it does require a certain heart position. Are you thirsty? Have you, have you tried everything in the world and tried all these things and tried to get it to quench the thirst of your soul and come up empty? Good, you can finally drink from this. This well.

But if you're still trying to satisfy yourself and you think I'm good, then you'll never know this. You'll never know this water of life. Then he says something unusual. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son, the one who conquers. That's unusual language.

What could he mean by that? It's the Greek word nekao. It's where we get the word for the tennis shoes. Nike means victor, champion, overcomer, conqueror. Same word in First John, chapter 5.

He who is Neko? The world. He who overcomes the world. But he who, who is this? It's the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God.

So who are these conquerors? They're the ones who believe in the overcomer. Jesus, who has overcome the world. John talks, or excuse me, Paul talks about in Romans chapter 8. He says, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors.

There's that word again.

Through him who loved us. So who are the conquerors? Well, they're the ones who believe in Jesus. They're the ones who have the spirit of Christ living inside them. They have the overcomer which has made us overcome so that we're able to overcome sin, death and the grave.

Because Jesus lives in us and we've believed in him. And as a result we've been adopted into his family. We've become his. His children, co heirs with Christ. And so here's King Jesus, he's saying, write this down, John.

And he gives out this, this statement towards those that are followers of him. And then he. Then he lets John know. But in this holy city, there won't be any of these. If you go back to chapter 20, you see that the Great White Throne judgment's already happened.

And those whose name is not in the Lamb's book of life, their name's not there. They're still in their sin. They've never believed in Jesus. They're among these. He's listed eight here.

He could have listed more, but he lists eight cowardly Faithless, detestable murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, all liars, their portion literally, their lot will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. In chapter 20, those that did not have their name in the Lamb's book of life, they will be cast into the lake of fire, death and Hades will be cast their devil and his angels, but also those who denied Jesus because he's the hero of the story. And every great story has a hero and has a villain. And in every great story, the hero overcomes the villain and overcomes. And that's what we have in the story.

The hero suffers in every great story. And it looks like the hero is going to lose for a season. But the hero ultimately overcomes. Every great story has a hero and a villain. And the hero wins.

And we see the hero on the throne. He is both king and judge. David wrote about this day in Psalm 37. He said, for yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. What does he mean by second death?

What's the first death? The first death is the death of the physical body. Doesn't matter if you're a believer or an unbeliever. This body is not fit for heaven. It will pass away.

But if you're a believer, you get a new body, a resurrected body that will dwell with the Lord forever.

We will not be like a Charmin commercial, like little cherubs, you know, floating on clouds. That would be so boring, like playing a little harp. No, we will be co heirs with Christ.

You'll not be substantially different than what you are now. You'll have a physical body. If you want to know more about what that body is like, read about the resurrected Jesus in the Gospels.

This is Christianity. It's unique in all the world religions in that we believe the resurrection of the dead and that Jesus is the firstborn of this resurrection from the dead. The wicked shall be no more, but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Now we see ourselves in these eight sinners. All of us have sinned.

We've all fallen short of the glory of God. But we can also see ourselves as thirsty. We can't see ourselves as good because all of us are sinners. But we can identify with thirsty, can't we? We can say, lord, there's something about this world that's broken.

It's still broken. I don't fit in here. What? What's going on. And there's something in us that desires something better, a better place.

A place. And we thirst for it. This world began with creation, a perfect world. But it was broken by sin and a fallen humanity. It was pursued.

God pursued us through covenant and promise. It was redeemed through Christ and the cross. It's been proclaimed through the church, but someday it'll be completed in the consummation. It's the story that explains everything. Why the world is broken, why your heart longs for more, why Jesus came, and how it will all end.

The only question that's left is where are you in the story? What role will you play? Will you be among those who are thirsty and find yourself quenched from the river of life? From Jesus? Will you find yourself in the list that has denied Christ?

Are you thirsty for that which the world doesn't satisfy? Do you want to meet the author of the story and live with him forever? It reminds me of a song some of you have said. It's been a while, Pastor, since you've sang to us. This happens.

I don't plan it, but it's when I'm studying. And I was studying this being thirsty and drinking from the spring and thinking of the woman at the well. Like the woman at the well, I was seeking for things that could not satisfy. And then I heard my Savior speaking. Draw from my well that never shall run dry.

Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord, come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more. Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole, Dear lord, That's our one claim. We can claim to be thirsty.

Thank you for all that you've done for this love story that you've written and invited us into. I pray for that person that's here today. And you just say that. I'm thirsty. I'm thirsty for you, Lord.

I'm a sinner, but I believe you died on the cross for my sins and that you were raised from the grave and that you live today. Come and live in me. Fill me up. Fill my cup till it overflows. I want to be a child of God.

Adopt me into your family. I want to follow you all the days of my life as my Lord and Savior. I want to see this holy city. I want to live there with you. If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing that's why I came.

Lord, help us. Help us to be a people and a church that looks for your coming. And until you do, to tell others about you with all of our hearts. In Jesus name, amen.