The Return Of Jesus Christ & The New Jerusalem

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, New York, Macmillan, 1960, p. 119.

This life is short. Anything can happen. Our bodies function for a certain number of years, and then we die. Life can seem very difficult at times. Life can seem great at times, and we’re happy. Life is a strange thing. We walk around in these mechanical bodies working jobs, driving cars, getting married, making babies, walking about hustling and bustling to do this or that on this mud covered sphere flying through the void of space at thousands of miles per hour. You’ve got the moon, the stars at night, the clouds and sun during the day. It’s quite odd.

We do many things in life. We try many things. We work, we wonder, and we dream. And we yearn for something more.

I always had a yearning within. Even when I was very young, me and my sister would do little more than play all day. But after a few years I began to ache, just slightly at the end of the day, and think to myself: Is this all life is? The best way I could describe it is that it’s like the day after Christmas. There’s been this great build up for all these gifts I’d thought I’d wanted, that I thought would fulfill me, and they’ve just let me down.

In the same way, using marijuana, or speed, or getting drunk, I’ve done those things. And eventually after a few years your just waiting for the hangover, or your waiting for the “come down.” You can hardly enjoy it anymore. Because increasingly every day there is growing sense of meaninglessness. There is a growing sense of frustration, as time and again and again and again, I set a goal for myself, I set a desire, a product, a relationship, a marriage, a trip, a season, as my ultimate, that somehow when I reach this point finally, finally finally everything is going to be ok. But that moment never comes. It’s always a let down, and I’m disappointed beyond belief. What a cruel reality, and how frustrating after 50 tries, after 100 tries, after 500 tries.

The true story is told of Deion Sanders, a hall of fame corner back who played for the Dallas Cowboys. He had just won the superbowl. He’d had a great game. He was back at the hotel with superbowl ring. And he was on the phone ordering a new Lamborghini. He set down the foot and a very, very disturbing feeling fell over him. Meaninglessness, he had just achieved every goal he had set, and there was nothing. Just emptiness. In the hotel room, Deion Sanders fell down onto his knees, and called out to Jesus Christ.

All we seek after, the fame, the glory, the relationships, the perfect marriage… it all fails to satisfy that sacred yearning.

That yearning is eternity, set up the human heart by God almighty. It is why we ache for something we’ve never had, a perfect timeless existence in full connection to God almighty. I fall into that too, thinking about the perfect romantic relationship. Maybe then my depression will go away, maybe then my tiredness will fade, maybe then I won’t feel lonely at night. But it isn’t true. Only God can satisfy that eternity, because he has placed it upon our hearts, as a desire for a new world. We have within a sacred desire for life without boundaries, for perfect justice, for perfect love, and for a perfect world. Does it make sense to you? If nothing in this world satisfies me, then I must be made for another world.

As Christians we believe that Jesus Christ the son of God came to Earth, that he died a replacement death for us, he died in our place on the cross, to redeem us in God’s eyes. Jesus then resurrected from the dead bodily. And he returned to heaven. As Christians we believe Jesus Christ will return to collect us, his people, and give us all the promises he has made.

Revelation 22:12-17 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.