Death No More Bryan Dunagun April 26, 2020 Well, If
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Death No More Bryan Dunagun April 26, 2020 Well, if you have a Bible, would you open up to Revelation 21? This is the last book in the Bible, the second to last chapter in the Bible. I want to start off by reading this Scripture together. This is written by a guy named John, one of Jesus' disciples, who's now living in exile as a prisoner of Rome. John has given this vision of the future that we have in Jesus. We'll start in verse 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. I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away." Verse 5. "He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold I am making all things new.”, and then he said, “Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life without payment. Those who are victorious will inherit all of this and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars, they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur, this is the second death." We'll end our reading there with that rather difficult verse, which we're going to come back to in a little bit. What do you think heaven will be like? What's your picture? What do you think of when you think of heaven? Some of us have an image that's been shaped by culture, media or movies. So we think that when we get to heaven, we're going to see people like Morgan Freeman or George Burns. Maybe you think of a place like Disney World where everything sparkles and it's all just perfect, childlike joy. Although most of my Disney experiences were in youth ministry and getting kicked out of the Magic Kingdom. It's a true story for another time. But what do you think about when you think about heaven? People sometimes wonder about whether animals are going to be there. Every so often, I'll get this question from a kid in our church, "Will my pet be in heaven?" Little girl will write a letter. "Will my dog Bailey go to heaven?" I don't know. Maybe. What about cats? Will there be cats in heaven? The answer is no! That's somewhere in second Maccabees. No cats, no mosquitoes, no mayo. My kind of heaven. There were two lifelong friends and they loved baseball. And so their biggest question because they loved baseball was will there be baseball in heaven? Because they knew if there wasn't baseball in heaven, they weren't going to be happy. So they made this pact together that when one of them went first, he'd find some way to let the other one know if there was baseball in heaven. Well the day came and one of them went first and he went to heaven. Sure enough, in a time of prayer he found a way to talk to his friend. He kind of visited his friend and his friend said, "Well what's the answer? Is there baseball in heaven?" His buddy said, "Well I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is you're pitching Friday." So, last weekend we kicked off this series on heaven and I love how Charlie set the direction for this series. If you haven't watched the message, you can do that on our website or on our YouTube channel. But he asked this question that I think a lot of us may want to ask. Is it really okay? Given all the challenges in our world today with this pandemic and shelter in place and negative oil prices and the way that our world and our lives have been turned upside down, is it still okay in the midst of this present crisis to focus on the future on something like heaven? I mean, isn't that a little bit escapist or tone deaf or naive? There's a guy named Dallas Willard who taught philosophy at USC for 40 years and I have found this so helpful. Willard said that we human beings, we think about the future as naturally as we breathe. It's like we're wired to think about the future. We all want to know. We're all deeply concerned with what the future holds. Here's the thing, and Willard has written extensively about this. He says, "Our picture of the future, it shapes the way we live and act in the present." We end up living out in the present what we think the future holds. The choices we make, the relationships we pursue, what we invest, our time, heart, giftedness, money and value in. This is shaped by our picture of the future. In this last book of the Bible, we have a picture drawn of the future by the one who holds the future. This is what Christians believe and I know that there are those of you who are joining us and watching who you may not describe yourself that way. I'm so grateful that you're a part of this, whether you're curious about faith, you're exploring faith or you're skeptical. But for those of us who follow Jesus, we believe that this is not just some kind of escapist alternate reality to help numb the pain. This is a glimpse into our future reality and it can shape our lives in the here and now. So the Apostle John, he has this vision of the future and what he sees is a city. Verse 1, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. John sees a new city and a new creation. The New Jerusalem, which right off the bat is kind of striking because this is not a return as many would have thought to the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, which we had at the beginning of creation. It's a city. There are gardens in that city. Yes, but it's still a city. This is a little surprising for those who have been steeped in the story of the Bible because many of the authors of Scripture were not so impressed with cities. Cities were often seen as these places of corruption, of humanity's desire to run from God or to make a name for ourselves and to find their own glory apart from God. This goes all the way back to the first pages of the Bible to the city and the Tower of Babel. If you remember the story, the key phrase is “we can make for ourselves.” Ourselves. That's often the language of the city. It's a place of pride and sometimes of violence. When Cain kills Abel, he runs off into a city. So this picture of heaven in Revelation 21. It's not just some abstract, serene landscape of rolling hills and wide open spaces. It's not a retreat from reality at all. It's a remaking, a redeeming and a renewing of life as we know it. Notice the language there in verse e, "Coming down out of heaven." In other words, it's not our doing. It's not something we can create. It's not the result of an evolutionary process or our ever greater enlightenment, which leads us to towards some kind of utopia. Hegel was wrong. No coming down out of heaven. That means it's a gift. It's grace, we receive it. It's beyond anything we could ever achieve. So what I want us to do is to walk through this picture of heaven coming down, this new city because of our vision of the future that shapes how we live today and in the present. What we'll find as we walk through this vision that God has given John of heaven is that a number of things will come to an end. They will be no more. Every day I get an email update of all the latest closures and cancellations in the city and in our society. Things that have been canceled. Last week, it was the rest of the school year. If you live in Texas, it's been canceled. Graduations, for those of you who are seniors have been canceled. Prom, which for a lot of students would have been last night, was canceled. Haircuts, canceled. Gyms canceled, workplaces canceled, sports and leagues are all canceled. The Olympics was canceled. College football has not yet been canceled.