The Big Idea: For the Christian, what’s ahead is better than what’s behind.
- The specific context here is that things are going to be better for Israel.
- In Romans 11 (see vv. 11-12, 28-29), Paul makes it clear that God is not done with Israel.
- Those passages speak of how the church age is not a rejection of Israel, but is ultimately part of God’s plan with Israel.
-This is also true for the Christian:
- Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 2 Corinthians 5:4-8; 2 Timothy 2:10; 1 Peter 4:12-13.
- Romans 8:18 – Our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.
- 2 Corinthians 4:17 – For our light and momentary troubles are achieving a weight of glory that exceeds them all.
- As Christians, we should be the most optimistic, most hopeful people in the world.
- I’m not saying we don’t have struggles in this life. I’m not saying we don’t have difficulties to go through. I’m not saying that life isn’t hard sometimes.
- But we know how this story ends. We know what the outcome is: God wins. Not only does He win, but He’s got a great plan for what comes next.
- Quit looking in your rear-view mirror.
- Why do Christians seem to spend so much time looking backward?
- We act like the early church or the founding of America or the 1950s were a golden age that we somehow need to get back to.
- They weren’t – each had major problems.
- The Golden Age is ahead.
- Possible reasons we do that:
a. Easier to be nostalgic than to squarely face the obstacles before us.
b. Allows us to excuse our inactivity.
c. Allows us to ignore that the real issue isn’t the era, it’s the people.
- What this passage points us to are permanent things, eternal things.
- It’s worth mentioning, though, that even within this life we have the promise that the Spirit will continue to work our lives toward Christlikeness.
Some Specifics On What’s Ahead:
1. Jesus is literally the King.
- Jeremiah 3:17 – “Jerusalem.”
- [put in bulletin] Revelation 21:22-24 – “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of the God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.”
- Jesus has always been the King simply because of who He is, but He has not always ruled as King.
- The first time Jesus came to earth, He came as a Suffering Servant, as was prophesied. That was necessary and essential to the mission. But it will not always be that way.
- Jesus will rule the earth as a King.
- Twice in Revelation (17:14; 19:16) as well as once in Paul’s writing (1 Timothy 6:15) Jesus is called “King of kings.” We often throw that around as an empty phrase, but it’s one that is deeply significant. Jesus will be, literally, the King of kings. He will be rule over all the earthly kings.
- See Revelation 21:22-24.
- Give background on New Jerusalem and what eternity is really like.
- We pursue democracy today because it’s the best of the options on the table. It tempers the inevitable power abuses that come with one person having absolute power.
- The problem with democracy is obvious in the difficulties America presently finds itself in. We have willingly spent more money than we had, leaving the debt for the next generation. We have allowed Social Security to continue on the path to bankruptcy despite everyone acknowledging that something needs to change. All this can be tied to a simple truth: as fallen humans, we sometimes choose was is expedient over what is good.
- Better than democracy (both philosophically and practically) would be to be ruled by a single wise person who pursued what is good and right. Today that rarely happens because so few are able to handle the temptations of absolute power.
- Jesus can handle it, though. And He will.
- And that’s something to look forward to.
2. The make-shift plans are gone.
- Jeremiah 3:16 – “ark.”
- [put in bulletin] Revelation 21:4-5 – “. . . for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”
- Sometimes you have to do the best you can with what you’ve got. Call it a MacGyver day.
- You don’t have the best plan or all the resources you need, but you do the best you can.
- The reference to the ark speaks to that type of thing. Even within the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenant was a temporary placeholder. It was the centerpiece of the tent that was the mobile tabernacle while Israel was in the wilderness.
- Once Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, the Ark was housed there, but even at that it still pointed toward something more permanent (since that Temple was destroyed).
- We look forward to the permanent answer.
- In this case, it’s looking forward to Kingdom Come. It’s looking forward to Christ literally ruling on the earth. It’s looking forward to things finally being the way they should be.
- What will be at that point will not be a temporary thing. It’ll be the way things are and the way things will be.
3. Sin is gone.
- Jeremiah 3:17 – “evil hearts.”
- [put in bulletin] Revelation 21:27 – “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful. . .”
- Even at our best as Christians, we’re held back by the flesh. We still dwell in human bodies and are hindered by sin.
- Of course, being a Christian gives us huge advantages over our prior condition.
- We have had our core identity changed. We are new creatures in Christ. We have the spiritual resources to live victoriously. We never have to give into sin.
- Still that temptation is always there and that struggle is always with us. It’s a battle, and one that we lose too often.
- We can be thankful for what Christ has made available to us while still longing for something better.
- That something better is that Christ will finish His work in us and we will be without sin.
- That’s a mind-boggling thought. We will be without sin.
- For most of us, it’s so much a part of our experience and our lives that it’s difficult to imagine ourselves without it.
- Even worse, for those who have not been actively fighting against sin to the extent that they should be, there may not even be the desire for sin to be gone.
- We need to have a more serious view on sin. Not seeing it as a cute shortcoming or a foible or an excusable faux pas, but as a significant violation of God’s law.
- We further need to see it as death and slavery, like Paul talks about it in Romans.
- What would it be like to be without sin?
4. Abundance, not tribulation.
- Jeremiah 3:16 – “greatly increased.”
- [put in bulletin] Revelation 21:24, 26 – “. . . the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. . . . The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.”
- Again, with talking about these passages, I want to remind everybody that our eternity is not spent in heaven. Revelation 21 and 22 go into detail about a new heaven, new earth, and New Jerusalem.
- There is struggle and tribulation associated with the Christian life today.
- Part of that (although not much in America) is persecution that often comes from being a believer. There are lots of people around the world today and down through history who have suffered for their faith.
- Another part of it is the nature of the Christian faith: having to carry your cross, having to deny yourself.
- These are all necessary now as part of the process of refining and growing our souls. Someday, though, our souls will be as they should be.
- What’s ahead of us is a time of abundance and prosperity.
- Jesus will actually be in charge of everything, so that should go pretty well.
- For us personally, as we rule with Christ, we will also have the opportunity to work in jobs that are tailor-made for our gifts and abilities. It will personally be a time of great joy for us.
