New Year’s lesson:
Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Isn’t it amazing how quickly new things become dated and old?
We bought a live Christmas tree, as usual, this year. Jenny is not big on artificial ones. That was a few weeks ago. I took it down yesterday. All the freshness and evergreen scent was gone. That tree gave us its final days. It went from fresh and green and full of the fragrance of a forest… to dry, discolored and losing its needles by the handful with each bump and shift of its limbs. The new was gone. New doesn’t last long in this life.
News quickly becomes history, doesn’t it? As I look in the mirror, I’m seeing more and more history, or at least the evidences of history. New doesn’t last long in this life.
Earl Turner and I finished reading through the Bible yesterday. Earl texted me that he’d finished. I still had Revelation to go, so yesterday afternoon as I came to the office to write this lesson I read the whole book of Revelation. Then I texted Earl back to let him know that he had encouraged me to finish too. It’s important to encourage each other in these things and I’m thankful for all of you here who pray for me and encourage me in my faith. I need it. We all need it. If we are going to keep the faith, we have to have regular doses of new encouragement and new edification in Christ. The newness doesn’t last. We need new reminders and new words of wisdom, new acts of service, new experiences of worship, new expressions of love to God and our neighbors. Not different ones necessarily, but new ones.
New doesn’t last long in this life.
When we stop practicing our faith anew, our faith loses its freshness and scent. The light dims. The flavor dilutes. We begin to look backward and quit looking forward. We talk about what used to be with more excitement than what is coming. God always wants us to look toward Jesus Christ and to look forward to His return. That, indeed, is the final word of scripture! How do you keep your faith from becoming old? Look forward to
Christ! How can you do the same religious things over and over and yet they remain fresh and new? Look forward to Jesus’ return and share your faith with others!
God tells us in Revelation 21: 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
God is forever. He is eternal, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and end. He was and is and is to come. God is timeless and always new. Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “Jesus is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
There’s a song that says it well:
Abide with me: fast falls the eventide; the darkness deepens: Lord with me abide! When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away; change and decay in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, abide with me!
God makes everything new! Not just when we get to glory, but now! Listen to 2 Cor. 5: 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Paul tells the Galatians in chapter 5:15 that what counts is a new creation.
God makes us new now!
1 John 2:15-17 tells us: 15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
What is really old and what is truly new? The word of God tells us to take off the old man and put on the new man... we are to take off all that is wasting away and put on Jesus Christ so that we are new! New creation that remains new forever!
God offers us life that lasts and remains new. Do you want that?
2 Cor. 5: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God…
Let’s look at the context of this statement. Verse 17 begins with the word, “Therefore.” What is he talking about that leads up to this?
It all starts way back in chapter 2:14 where Paul begins talking about his ministry of sharing the gospel. He describes it as a ministry of a new covenant that brings life, (3:7) a ministry of the Spirit, (3:8) a glorious ministry that does not fade away, but lasts. (3:8-11). This is a transforming ministry, (3:17-18) where the life in Jesus works life in us even as we face trials and hardships as we work and wait for its fullness to be revealed in us.
Listen to 4:16-5:9
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
5:1 Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, 3 because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
New doesn’t last long in this life, because everything in this world that we can see is temporary, even our fleshly bodies.
Didn’t this past year go by fast?
I remember as a kid watching Red Skelton. Now that’s old! Remember Clem Kadidlehopper, or George Appleby, or Freddie the Freeloader? Anyway, one skit that still sticks in my mind was a new year’s skit. It was a silent skit, a pantomime , where Red was dressed as a very old man with a beard down to his knees and he played the old year going out. He did a bunch of funny stuff to try to stop the clock from reaching 12, midnight, on New Year’s Eve but, of course it finally does. The Clock strikes 12 and it’s over for Red. A young boy enters to take his place, representing the New Year coming in, while Red hobbles off stage to make way for him. For some reason I felt sorry for him. It made me sad to see it come to an end for him.
Is that what life is all about? You come into this world fresh and new. You mature into adulthood, finish school, find a career, start a family, grow old, retire, and that clock just keeps ticking. Those days just keep turning and years begin to fly by. Our days are numbered. Counting leap years, as of today I’ve lived 20,332 days. Sounds like a lot, but from my perspective, they’ve gone by very fast. Over 25% of them have been right here in this church.
Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”
God’s word is filled with hope for what’s ahead. We are reminded by God’s word to keep our eyes on what lasts, to look to and love the One who is forever. We are called to focus on what is truly important.
I appreciate this song by Paul Smith:
Feelings for the moment, they come and then they’re gone.
Time shows signs of frailty to the face that once was strong.
Diamonds don’t shine bright enough to satisfy your soul, and foolish are the ones who seek treasure wrapped in gold.
Ref: Why do we waste one day, in search of things that slip away, when all that really matters is you, Lord, all that really matters is you!
It’s so easy to live for unimportant things, to lose sight of heaven as we chase our man made dreams. Lord, free us to focus on what life really means and teach us to look past unimportant things.
There’s so much love to find here when we take your point of view.
So much hope to live for when our eyes are fixed on you.
You give comfort beyond reason and compassion for our pain,
Mercy that is strong enough to cleanse our guilty stain.
Ref:
We are about to enter a New Year… again. If Jesus does not return or you don’t die, this New Year will become an old one in about 12 months. But God has a new creation that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you, if you are in Christ.
God created you for the very purpose of spending eternity in glory with him. He also made us so that we can choose this, or not.
Choose new!
