This week in our Wednesday night IMAGE meeting we wrapped up our series on the End Times focusing especially on the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. In this section God shows a return to the Garden of Eden... but better, which gives us great hope for our eternal future. Here I just wanted to highlight a few things that stood out to me from our time.
1) In 21:3 we see that God will dwell with man. His presence will be manifested with us for all time. Even in the perfect garden, Gen 3:8-9 seems to indicate that God's manifest presence came and went from Adam and Eve, not that He was ever not present, but in some way less noticeably so. Our hope in the eternal home we will one day posses is that God's presence will always dwell there never to leave in any way.
2) 21:4 & 22:3 show that not only will the curse due to sin and its painful results be removed forever, but, unlike the Garden of Eden where sin happened, there will never be any chance for sin and its painful consequences to happen again since all sin will be cast out (21:8, 27).
3) In the garden, God and man's relationship was solely that of authoritative Creator and subservient creation. While this relationship does not stop we do see it joyously expanded when all is made new. In 21:9-11 we see the whole people of God who make up the New Jerusalem called, "the bride, the wife of the Lamb." What joy this gives that God will forever be, not only our Creator, but our Lover tenderly looking out for us in every way and pursuing our highest joy for all time.
4) While in some way the hurts of the past will be lessened, removed, or forgotten in light of Christ's overwhelming presence and glory (21:4), God certainly does not intend for the history of His work and plan of redemption to be forgotten. The New Jerusalem has features such as the "tree of life" (22:2) to remind us of the Garden where the whole story began for us. The 12 gates of the city have the names of the 12 tribes of Israel written on them (21:12) reminding us of God's drawing Abraham to Himself and making from him a great nation just as He promised and suffering with them and their rebellious hearts over 100's of years. The 12 foundation stones of the city have the names of the 12 apostles on them (21:14) reminding us of the Savior's coming and calling of 12 men and then empowering them with the Holy Spirit to go into all the world preaching His good news that lead to even us alive today eventually standing their looking on those stones saved and forgiven. Along with all this, throughout much of the book of Revelation, Christ is refereed to as the "Lamb" building upon His introduction in 5:6 as the "Lamb standing, as if slain," which points us back to John the Baptist's proclamation, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) & even further back to the sacrifices of the Old Testament that were pictures of Him and His saving work (Heb 9:11-14, 10:10-12). God intentionally plans and intends that for all eternity we will be made keenly aware of His redemptive work on our behalf and the story throughout history and how He accomplished it. Eden was the start of the story. The New Jerusalem is its very satisfying ending.
5) We will get to experience the fully glory of God standing in His presence in a way never experienced before. In 21:3 we see God will dwell among us. Building on this, 21:22-23 & 22:3-5 further show that we will dwell in the full and complete presence of the Shekinah glory of God (2 Chron 7:1-3) forever able to see His face in a way that not even Moses or the High Priests got to experience. This makes 21:16 very interesting as it describes the city as a cube of equal dimensions for length, width, and height. The other place we see a cube structure prescribed by God in Scripture is 1 Kings 6:20 defining the perfect shape for the Holy of Hollies where God's presence would dwell. We will get to experience a whole new and fuller extent of life in Christ. It is the full completion of Hebrews 10:19-22, "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." The New Jerusalem far exceeds Eden in every way.
What great hope and excitement we have for the future! This is not just some story. So much of the Bible is written about things behind us that have already happened and past, but this!... this is our future history still to come! We WILL get to experience this and it WILL be amazing!
Understanding all this calls us to stand in awe of our awesome God! We should be amazed and worship as we see His sovereign plan from before time began (13:8) unfold. We should be in wonder at Him saving us, who are such small parts of the great tapestry of history that He is weaving. We should seek to walk with Him and know Him more and more. This is the purpose we were made for, this is why we are currently here, and this is what we will get to do joyously forever in His presence for all eternity!
Phil Smith
Youth Minister at BCC
No comments:
Post a Comment