WHY IS CREATION GROANING FOR HEAVEN?
Romans 8: 18-25 (p800) January 8, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
What would you want God to do for you if He told you your life is going to be filled with suffering and trials?
I guess, first of all I’d ask---“Would you really want to know that about your life? Would you really want God to tell you….”Yes I’ve called you….yes I’ve saved you…but let me show you how much you’re going to suffer and struggle because of this calling.”
The answer to that question is complicated…I’m not sure I’d want to know about all the suffering I’d go through if it’s on a somewhat normal level (whatever that might be) but if it was going to be extraordinary…ongoing…I don’t know…maybe.
And what would I want God to do for me if he told me about this life of suffering for Him? I’d want Him to show me why it would be worth it….I’d want to see heaven!”
When Jesus appears to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus…it’s personal and powerful…”Saul, Saul why do you persecute me!” Saul asks “who are you Lord?” and the response “I am Jesus”
Jesus knows Saul…Saul now meets Jesus…up close and personal… Jesus tells Saul, “go into the city and you’ll find out what you must do”. He does…through a disciple named Ananias. Ananias has been given this instruction by God…
Acts 9: 13-19 (p 777)
Saul has encountered Jesus…Ananias has been to lead Saul in his faith…Saul surrenders to Jesus, dies to his old life and is reborn through the Holy Spirit. Saul is now “the Apostle Paul”
Acts 9: 20 says “At once he began to preach in the Synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God”
Here’s a question…what nation of people worship in Synagogue … Easy, right? The Nation of Israel, Jews…Saul; is a Jew…He had been persecuting “the church” for the Jewish leaders….He lead the opposition against Jesus…Now he goes and preaches Jesus is God’s Son…He’s alive….
What do you think will be the reaction of the Jews in the Synagogues? Acts 9:22 says “They conspired to Kill Him”
It doesn’t take very long before “the suffering in the name of Jesus begins” As we answer the question…Why is creation groaning for heaven?” It’s important we understand…
I WE LIVE IN THE PRESENT BUT LONG FOR THE FUTURE
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
I’m not sure why, but people… (saved and lost alike) have the tendency to equate comfort with blessings for riches) If I’m comfortable I’m blessed…or I’m rich…Satan loves to speak those words…If God loved you he’d heal you…If you had more faith your struggles would go away…since God wants you to be comfortable He must be punishing you. (LIAR!)
WHERE IN God’s plan or His word does we see God wanting His people to be comfortable or promising that comfort equals His blessings?” Paul’s barely dry from his baptism when he starts preaching Jesus is God’s son…and the persecution and pain rains down. It’s immediate; intense and ongoing…He’s changes sides and the consequences are uncomfortable…
Here’s a radical concept….if you are proclaiming Jesus is Lord and living it’s truth…preaching He’s alive…do not be surprised when trails and difficulties come along…Present sufferings are a better indication of God’s work in your life than comfort…(don’t get me wrong…I’m thankful for the “rest Stops of comfort”..But don’t believe Satan when he tells you this is where you should live.
If you are really headed towards heaven…and following the calling of Jesus…God will protect…but Satan will attack…and that arena becomes a great testimony, for your faith! What was Paul’s present like? Prison, Shipwrecks, hunger, stoned and left for dead…while in prison he writes to the Philippians and says “Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (Phil 1:12)
Remember when David Platt wrote in “radical” that God doesn’t call us to be the safe place, but the most dangerous…He sends us out as sheep among wolves.. Satan says, “Be safe”, seek comfort…that’s what God wants “And God says, “If anyone would follow me they must deny self, take up a cross and follow me.”…Jesus says “If you want to find your life…lose it for the sake of the gospel…lose it for my sake”.
When God’s people forget this calling we become more of a country club than a life, saving salvation…Instead of being a “going” people who make disciples we become stationary people who criticize the world for not coming to us.
Instead of living in the present and longing for the future…we live in the past longing for comfort.
Persecution…the same persecution Saul had been a part of…spread the message he was trying to stamp out!
Stephen, one of the 1st deacons in the Bible, and a man full of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom stands for Jesus…Against the same individuals who will one day attack Paul…but for now he’s part of them, supporting them…and they take Stephen’s life by stoning him….”Saul was there giving applause to his death….on that day a great persecution broke out against the church…and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria…. (remember Jesus Plan?) Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria…the entire world.
Acts 8:4 says “Those who had been scattered preached the world wherever they went…”
God wasn’t concerned about their comfort…He was concerned about His plan….Get going…NO? O.K. I’LL GET YOU GOING THEN”.
Our comfort will never be more important than God’s plan.
The Apostle Paul would never forget his calling and He lived his life in the presence longing for the future.
WHY?
II HE’D CAUGHT A GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN
Remember when I said if you were going to show me how much suffering I’m gonna go through you would need to show me it was worth it… Well…God did just that for Paul.
Reread Romans 8: 19-25 (p800)
Here’s a simple translation of what that means…Adam and Eve sinned…and from that moment on they started to die and so did all of creation….time started to run out on the world God had created…not because of anything he’d done, but because of what Adam and Eve did…this world and everything in it…including us started to decay…to wear out…sin was everywhere and in all of us like a cancer as creation and mankind died because of sin’s cancer it and all of mankind groaned to be made new again…
And God responded, starting with us…His people, His Spirit would give us new birth and a guarantee of future glory. It’s what we hope for…it’s what we are saved for…we are adopted by God’s Spirit and redeemed for His glory…It hasn’t happened yet…but it’s what we hope for…Groan for. We can’t have it yet…we live in the present longing for the future! All of creation subjected to sin…groans for the day when it will be set free and made new…beginning with us…
Paul received a glimpse of heaven in preparation for a life of suffering. At the end of his 2nd letter to the Corinthians he writes in chapter 12…
2 Cor 12: 2-6 (p822)
3rd heaven…paradise…the 1st heaven is our sky, the 2nd heaven is space where the moon and stars are….the 3rd heaven (Paradise…God’s dwelling place) 14 years earlier Paul is stoned and left for death in Lydia…did he die?
He doesn’t know and neither do we…”In the body or out of it…Jesus does not know, but God knows”.
But he sees the unimaginable and hears the inexpressible things of paradise itself…It is a powerful, unexplainable motivation for his life.
It lets him deal with the thorns of this life through God’s abundant grace…It lets him approach trials and difficulties with the understanding…I’m not home yet…this isn’t home…”these present sufferings aren’t worthy to ever be compared with the glory that will one day be revealed in us…”
That’s the ultimate explanation for why the child of God and all of creation groans for redemption….I’m longing for this revelation. One day all the thorns are removed…one day all the scars are erased…one day all the tears are dry…there will be a day that god’s external Spirit will no longer be housed in a temporary vessel…one day God’s external Spirit…will be housed in a forever body. Paul knew this truth…so he writes…
2 Cor 4: 16- 2 Cor 5: 5 (p818)
God made us for this very purpose….
We will look at the day Hades & paradise are replaced with the Lake of fire and a New Heaven and earth---in this journey of answering heavenly questions…
But as we end today talking about the hope we have for future glory…the hope we’ve been saved for…please be reminded “who hopes for what they already have?”
Those who are living most effectively for God’s purposes now long for the future and those who invest themselves in this world now, try to make it a place of comfort.
I hope you’ve been given a small glimpse of God’s purposes and plans and his redemption in heaven…”revealed in His people”.
One other man was given a glimpse into Heaven…John the beloved wrote in Revelation chapter 21
Rev. Chapter 21: 1-8 (p878)
“He who overcomes will inherit all of this and I will be his God and he will be my son”
