A Story about Three Worlds by Troy Wong The World to Come The good news, this isn’t the final world. There’s still one to come. The Bible The World that Was describes it this way in Revelation, chapter 21, verses 3-5. I want to tell you a story about three worlds. The world that was, the world that is, and the world that will be. The world that was was perfect. We enjoyed And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of perfect love, perfect relationships, perfect minds, perfect health, pure God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God thoughts, perfect friendships. We were in harmony with our fellow humans, himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their with creation, and with God. There was no death, no greed, no deceit, no war, eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old no abuse, no disease or anything else that is bad. It was a world as God order of things has passed away." created it to be, perfect. Here life was experienced to the absolute fullest He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" because we were in relationship with God and he is the ultimate life-giver. The Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." Bible talks about this world in Genesis chapters 1-2. Think about that. All things that cause human suffering, pain and loss, God will The World that Is end. The Bible also says that God will make new all of creation. Imagine Then our first parents messed up. They rebelled against God. They wondered everything will be back in harmony again! if life would be better without God. They took a chance and we all lost. We -- you, me, us -- we all have been in rebellion against God ever since. When our Where is this third world? How does it come about? first parents rebelled, sin entered every part of life and tainted every single part of creation. Stop and think of the most perfect love you’ve experienced, Even though it’s severely broken, God loves this world so much that he sent was it still not tainted by insecurity? Think of your deepest friendship, was it his son, Jesus, to rectify the problem we created. In a way that only he could still not tainted by miscommunication or selfishness? Why is it with all our do, Jesus, completely without sin, bore our sin. And when he died on the technology and knowledge we still use it for personal, corporate, or national cross, our sin died with him. It’s amazing if you think about it. It’s so amazing gain? Why is it that our planet is capable of producing enough food for that no one would believe it. So three days after being killed, he came back, everyone, yet people still starve? It’s all because of sin. Our sin. not just in spirit or thought, but all the way back. His full bodily resurrection proved that all he said about sin, death, and life was true. In the movie , Mufasa taught us all that death is just a part of the Circle of Life. If that’s so, then why do we cry at funerals? Why is it wrong for At the cross, Jesus began that third world. Those who are Christians are parents to bury their children? Why do widows moan and wail at the casket? citizens of that world; and it is our deepest and most assured hope that we will It’s because we were never meant for death! We were created to live eternally see Jesus in that third world. But until then it is our job to introduce that third with God in that first world. Our tears are evidence that there is something in world into this broken, sin tainted second world. We don’t do this alone. We do our souls that cries out, “This is not right! Something is wrong!” Something is it with each other and we do it under the power of God’s Holy Spirit. wrong. Deeply, desperately wrong. This is the second world and we all live here. Christians are those who find joy in believing that Jesus saved them from their sins and saved them for his work in this world. My hope is that you would become Christian today.