To See Thy Face

(The Long Road Home)

Home. It’s the one word that can make grown adults swallow hard and stare off into the distance like they just remembered something important.

Ask people what they want most in life and beneath all the surface answers—success, health, stability, love—you usually find a deeper hunger:

They want to belong.

They want to be known.

They want to go home.

Not necessarily to a brick house on Main Street…

but to a place where their soul breathes freely.

Every one of us has looked at life some days and thought:

“There has to be somewhere better than this. Something better than this.”

And Scripture nods and says:

“Yes. There is.”

In fact, that longing is one of the best arguments for the gospel. Why would we yearn for something that doesn’t exist? Why would eternity haunt us unless we were built for it?

The Bible opens in a home.

The Bible closes in a home.

Everything in the middle is the story of how God gets us back there.

Genesis to Revelation is not a theology textbook arc.

It is a homecoming story.

Today, we’re connecting the first five chapters of Genesis with the last five chapters of Revelation—an inverted pairing—so the narrative folds back on itself like two hands clasping. The story ends where it began… only better and unbreakable.

This sermon moves through five pairings. Feel them like stepping stones across history… across time… across your own journey.

Before we step onto the first stone, hear this quiet truth:

There is a homesickness built into every heartbeat.

We pack our dreams like luggage

and keep walking toward a place we’ve never seen

but somehow already remember.

Let’s walk toward home.

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1) GENESIS 1 ? REVELATION 22

Life from God restored forever

Genesis 1 is the very first fireworks show. God steps into nothing and speaks everything. Light explodes into the darkness like God striking a holy match. Oceans appear like blue applause. Birds and beasts populate the world like a living parade.

God doesn’t create with boredom.

He creates like an artist who can’t help Himself.

Day after day He smiles at what He made and says, “Good.”

Then He makes humans—His image-bearers—and says, “Very good.”

Humans are not accidents of the universe.

Humans are beloved daughters and sons of a Father who made us on purpose, for purpose.

Now turn to Revelation 22.

We see the river of life flowing from the throne of God. A river is not a symbol of decoration but a symbol of unstoppable life. If God sustains everything at the beginning, He sustains everything at the end without interruption.

The tree of life returns—branches stretching across both sides of the river like divine generosity that cannot be contained to one bank. Its leaves are “for the healing of the nations.” That is God saying:

“My creation isn’t limping into the Kingdom.

It is running into glory.”

In Genesis 1 the earth is brand new.

In Revelation 22 the earth is finally healed.

In the first chapter, God looks at His world and calls it good.

In the last chapter, He looks at His people and calls them His.

Creation begins with God giving life.

New creation ends with God giving life forever.

**Poetic refrain

There is a homesickness built into every heartbeat.

We pack our dreams like luggage

and keep walking toward a place we’ve never seen

but somehow already remember.

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2) GENESIS 2 ? REVELATION 21

Home with God… restored forever

Genesis 2 gives us Eden.

Not just a place to survive…

A place to flourish.

Adam and Eve wake to birdsong.

Wind through trees.

God walking in the garden.

No shadows lurking in the corners of the heart.

Humanity is fully alive because they are fully with God.

Then comes exile.

When Adam and Eve leave the garden, they aren’t just leaving a location. They’re leaving a relationship unhindered. We have felt that ache every day since.

Now look at Revelation 21.

Heaven comes down.

The new Jerusalem descends like a wedding procession. God literally moves into the neighborhood. He wipes away every tear with His own hands. Death is evicted permanently. Sorrow, pain, hospitals, funerals—gone.

Eden wasn’t the end of the story.

It was the preview.

In Genesis the home is a garden.

In Revelation the home is a garden-city.

The family grew.

The story grew.

The home grew.

God always intended to fill the world with Eden.

He finishes what He starts.

He makes all things new.

**Poetic refrain

The story of God begins in a garden

and ends in a city with a garden at its heart

because home is where love grows.

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**Transition

Let’s catch our breath here for a second. These first two pairings show:

• the life God intended