Sunday Morning service. 1st May 2022
Certain Hope.
John 14:1-2 In these days when all the news we hear seems to be bad, Jesus says: - 1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. – Jesus brings hope to a hopeless world and today we are going get a glimpse of what He has gone to prepare.
- Hymn. 366. Jesus is King and I will extol Him.
We have a hope that is steadfast and certain
- Reading. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:3
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so, we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage each other with these words.
1Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Hymn. 200. Great is thy faithfulness O God my Father.
Prayer.
(4) Hymn 48. Be Still and know that I am God.
220. He is Lord, He is Lord
Message.
What is hope? Hope is the feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen.
Hope makes the unbearable bearable
But hope can sometimes have an element of doubt in it. For example, “I hope to go on holiday next month but something might happen to prevent me”.
The hope we have in Jesus Christ does not have an element of doubt in it. A line in our hymn said “We have a hope that is steadfast and certain”, Jesus said “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Paul writes we are not like the rest of men, who have no hope. We will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
So, what is this hope that we are promised and what is the place like that Jesus has gone to prepare for us? God has given us glimpses of this in the last book of the bible – Revelation and that is what I want to share with you this morning.
John was a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos when He was given this vision and told to write down what God has prepared. In Revelation 1:10 He writes: On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, 11which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches. God wants us to know something of what heaven will be like and what will happen in the build up to these things coming to pass.
(5)1 Corinthians 2:9 says: - “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”10but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. – We cannot even begin to imagine what the place being prepared for us will be like.
(6) Revelation 21:1-5 John writes: - 1Then 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. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And 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. 4He 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.” 5He 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.”
Think about it - be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, because God is making everything new.
(7) 1 Corinthians 15:50: - I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. - This is God’s word, it is reliable and true
(8) Sometime ago I was looking on my computer at pictures taken by the Hubble space telescope of the constellations in space and I was amazed at the colours visible out there in space. All the colours of the rainbow are there and it is absolutely beautiful. We can get so used to seeing things that we do not appreciate how beautiful and intense colours in God’s creation can be. But if you have been deprived of seeing colour for a time, when you do next see the colours in nature, everything seems so intense and beautiful you cannot stop looking at it. It does something to your emotions.
(9) As I looked at these photos and enjoyed the intensity and contrasts of the colours, I started to think about the colours in heaven as described in the vision God gave to John and in particular the foundations of the New Jerusalem as described in Revelation 21:19-20: - 19The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone.
(10)
The first foundation was jasper, - Comes in all colours mainly from white, red, yellow, orange and even into purple and mauve.
the second sapphire– blue,
the third chalcedony, – Light blue
the fourth emerald, – Green
the fifth sardonyx– Yellowish red to reddish brown with white bands
the sixth carnelian, (or Sardius) – orange to red
the seventh chrysolite, – yellow to green (Greek – golden stone)
the eighth beryl, – pink, red, green, blue, brown.
the ninth topaz, – yellow, orange, pink to red and blue.
the tenth chrysoprase, – Apple green
the eleventh jacinth, – Red, orange, yellow
and the twelfth amethyst. – Purple
(11) When I first read these verses, it didn’t mean much to me because I did not really know what a number of these 20: - stones looked like. But these are just the foundations, when I looked them up and I realised just how fantastic heaven is going to be. But it gets even more fantastic
Revelation 21 :9-27: - 9One of the seven angels …. carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from (12) God. 11It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. 13There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. 14The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
15The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. 16The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. 17He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. 18The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. 19The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone……21The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
(13) A stadia is 185 m 202.3 yards. 12000 stadia = 1400 miles x 1400 miles. (See map of Europe)
Superimposed on a map of Europe we start to get an idea of the size of what God is preparing. But think of the colour and beauty of this city. The walls are jasper which comes in different (14) colours so imagine standing outside at a corner and looking at two sides of the city walls and seeing these beautiful walls stretching as far as the eye can see. And the walls are the width of 3 six lane motorways side by side and the city is 1,960,000 square miles all in pure gold!
Notice it’s a city of pure gold. Pure gold does not tarnish, corrode, or crumble with age, it’s impurities in it that causes that. Pure gold lasts forever. The point is God is creating something that will last forever and nothing impure will ever be able to enter.
12 gates 350 miles apart each made from a single pearl, what size must the oysters have been!
No sun or moon for the glory of God gives it the light, there will be no night so the gates will never need to be shut.
27Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
When we really start to think about the facts of what God is preparing, it is so fantastic our minds and imagination cannot take it in but it says something of how great God’s love is for us.
But the bible reveals there is so much more than this to look forward to.
(15) Isaiah 11:6-9 tells us about animals in the place that is being prepared for us: - The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.
7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,
We look at the world around us and see the evil in it and some people say “if there is a God why doesn’t He do something about it?” Well, the fact is He has! He sent His Son Jesus Christ to take the punishment our sin deserves, but He leaves us with a choice. He has given us the freedom to chose if we accept His offer of salvation by believing in Jesus Christ or rejecting Him by refusing to believe. If we believe, if we trust Him by accepting that we have sinned against Him and believing the Jesus died to take the punishment for our sin our name gets (16) recorded in the Lamb’s book of life and we will enjoy all the things we have read about and God has had recorded for us to know.
In Revelation 21:6 God said: - “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. 7He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
So, what about the rest, those whose names are not written in the book of life, those who have not believed? Verse 8: - But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.”
You may not be cowardly or a murderer, or sexually immoral etc. But do you believe? Have you asked Jesus Christ into your life, have you accepted God gift of salvation by asking Him into your life? Do you have a relationship with Him or do you just have religion?
Jesus said in Matthew 7:21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
It is not having religion or going to church or doing good works that gets us into heaven, it is having a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus said “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me”. If God is preparing all this for your future will, He not take care of you today?
(17) Hymn 295 I serve a risen Saviour
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—25to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.