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What kind of world would you like to live in? What would it look like? What would be missing? Reading - Rev 21:1-7
1. The World We All Want
God knows what it is we want, do you notice how these words from the Bible
echo what we have just been talking about. We want a world that is different from this one and that (1) is
exactly what God promises us. What we have just read about is the end of the world as we know it and the
beginning of the new. (2)It is not a utopian society set up within the world we live in, it is not some ethereal
spiritual place where we ride on clouds with harps, but it is something real and tangible, it is something that
comes from God, it is like the world we live in now but everything is remade, recreated without any of the negatives.
And there is no longer any sea. It’s not that in the new creation there are no beaches or seaside, it is that the sea represents chaos and threat. In the new creation there is no chaos and no threat. There is no terrorism, there is no need for burglar alarms or car alarms, or safes, or policemen, or CRB checks, or concern for our children’s safety, there are no accidents.
It is a world (4) with no more death. The death rate now is 100%, it will not drop, this is not a picture of a world with cancer and aids reduced, this is a new creation without a death rate. It’s not just that there is no death but what else do you notice? no "mourning or crying or pain," why? "because the old order of things has passed away." These things belong to the world we live in now but one day God promises in the new creation they will exist no more. No-one will attend a funeral service, a child will never with tears in their eyes and shame in their hearts confess to being bullied, cancer, HIV, Ebola, MRSA, CJD will all be consigned to history with the old order of things.
That is the world we all want, and God knows, it’s as if God has put that desire in our hearts. But then you look at (3) and you realise that actually all those things are just a by-product, they are just the icing on the cake. The most amazing thing in the new creation is "God’s dwelling place is now among the people" and it is because of this that everything is good, because God rules, and finally we realise that actually enjoying God’s rule and blessing is what we all want.
2. The World We All Live In
It is a fantastic image but it isn’t reality is it? The world isn’t like that and let’s be honest there is no sign
this world is going to end up like that one is there.
What were the figures? every 20 seconds a child dies because of drinking dirty water, every 10 seconds someone dies from HIV, every 5 seconds a child dies of hunger. Those facts are a world away from the security, peace and relationship we have just read about. You could hear that and conclude that the Bible is unrealistic, it seems like a fairy story.
But the Bible explains why the world is like it is. The Bible begins with a perfect world, where everything is good, there is no death, no mourning, no hunger, no crying, no pain. Why? Because people live under God’s rule, they accept the creator knows how best to treat his creation. That’s why we rail against suffering, that’s why we ask why me? That’s why death seems wrong to us because it was not meant to be this way.
So why is it? Because we want to rule our own lives, to determine right and wrong for ourselves and the Bible shows us the consequences of rejecting God. Suddenly one brother decides its ok to murder the other so he does, and it just gets worse as people decide to do what suits them, what they think is right, and as they do you see pain, suffering, mourning and death come into the world. But you also see it in creation as God is rejected so is his rule and it affects his world. God says ok you want a world without my rule you can have it, and we get left with the world we deserve. Now there are only glimpses of good and alongside it we see what we have spoiled, we see the ugliness, evil and suffering.
It’s not just historical. This week there’s been a debate in the Times; is it wrong for a brother and sister to sleep together. Many people have written in saying as long as it feels right it’s ok, as long as they love each other its right. Or the capture of Radovan Karadzic for genocide, where he decided what was right and wrong.
The consequences of us deciding right and wrong for ourselves, of rejecting God are all around us. Every funeral service, every cancer diagnosis, every tear that is shed declares this is not how it should be, these are the consequences of rejecting God. It makes us realise something is wrong and should make us strive for answers.
3. The Way to the World we all Want
The DVD we watched posed these questions. Does God look on in anguish unable to help? Does God see our pain and turn
his back? Does the existence of suffering disprove God? Where is God in a messed up world?
Where is God in a messed up world? The Bible says he comes right into the middle of it. God becomes man in Jesus and he walks the world we all live in, as he does so he experiences pain and suffering for himself, he tells us what God is doing about suffering and pain, but he also gives us a glimpse of what the world was, and will be, like under God’s rule. He gives a glimpse of the world we all want.
Marks gospel gives an eyewitness account of Jesus life and these are just the headings of some of Mark:
Do you see what Jesus is doing? he is showing people a world where there is no more insecurity, pain, crying, mourning or death. But Jesus does more than just give us a glimpse of the World we all Want.
God sees and is not indifferent to our suffering or incapable of doing something about it, in fact he is going to come and wipe out all suffering and pain and all the causes of suffering and pain. But there is the heart of the problem - if the cause of suffering and pain is our rejection of God’s rule then for him to come and deal with them, for him to come and eradicate suffering and its causes he has to eradicate me.
Rev 21 doesn’t hide that fact (8) it makes it plain that is exactly what God is doing. Look at (27) "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful." Nothing that would taint it can be allowed into this perfect new creation, and that means I am barred from entry, it means I face God’s judgement.
But the verse doesn’t end there; "only those whose names are written in the Lambs book of life." There is a Way to the World we all Want and it is through the lamb, that is Jesus, in John’s gospel one of the key characters says this about Jesus "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world."
Jesus doesn’t just give us a glimpse of the new creation he is the only way to get there. He comes to deal with the problem that we by rebelling against God have caused the pain and suffering, he comes to die in our place, to face our exclusion, to pay for our rejection so that we can be credited with his living under God’s rule and be with him in the new creation.
‘I want to stand where you’re standing’, those are the words on a gravestone in America and underneath is the story behind those words.
During the civil war, a group of confederates were lined up to be executed when a 19 year old Yankee soldier recognised the man he was about to shoot. He marched over to his senior officer and said ‘Sir, I cannot shoot this man. I know if I shoot him I end the lives of his wife and young children too.’
That young man walked over and stood before the condemned man and said those words, ‘I want to stand where you’re standing’, he took his place and the confederate soldier left to go home to his family, and that 19 year old was executed in his place. I want to stand where you’re standing.
God is not indifferent to suffering, he is not incapable of acting, he sends his son who willingly dies in our place, who says to us I want to stand where you are standing. He pays for our rebellion and if we put our faith in him we can stand where he stands right before God with our name in the book and live in the hope that we can have a relationship with God and are going to the World we all Want to spend eternity with him.