Emmanuel Baptist Church of Nipawin Sermons

Work. What does that word mean to you? Is that a bad word? A scary word? A good word? An exciting word?

What’s your relationship with work? Do you avoid work? Do you work out of necessity? Or do you love work? Do you love work a little bit too much? Have people ever called you a workaholic?

Students, what about you? We use the word “schoolwork.” Do you think that school is work? Do you work hard at your learning?

For all of us, when does our work end? When the work day or the school day is over? When the kids are in bed? Do you work on the weekends? Does it feel like work spending time with your family? What about Sunday? Does it feel like work coming to church? What about serving here at church on a committee or Awana. Does that feel like work?

Those are a lot of questions, aren’t they? Would it surprise you to know that we’re talking about work today? And I ask these questions to help stir your pot, help get you thinking about work and your relationship with it.

Today we’re really just getting started on this third section of our sermon series where we’re considering the difference that the big story of the Bible makes to our lives here and now. We’ve surveyed how the Bible fits together, and how Jesus is the main character, and how his death and resurrection has fulfilled the whole story and changed everything. And in the past two weeks we’ve looked at our place in the story. And so now we’re finally prepared to ask: “What difference does all this make, today?”

And today we’re talking about the difference that the storyline of the Bible makes in the way we work.

Work in Creation

So why are we starting this part of the series with work? Why is that our first topic? The reason is that when we look at people in the story of the Bible, work is one of the first things that they do. Right after creating Adam, Genesis 2:15 says that “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). 

Humans get created and we get put to work. So that’s why we’re talking about it first. But this is also our first point in the message today: God created us to work. Adam and Eve were given a job to do, there in the paradise of Eden, before any sin entered the world. 

So just think for a moment about that word “paradise.” What would be paradise for you? Does your version of “paradise” include work? I hope so, because God’s version does. Work is not a result of the fall. Work is a part of what it means to be human. 

Work After the Fall

And yet we know that the work that we experience today is a very different kind of work than what Adam and Eve experienced. Because they chose to fall into sin, and God cursed the earth in response to their sin, our experience of work has been completely changed—and not for the better

Just listen to God’s words of curse to Adam, and think about everything this passage says about work: “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17–19). 

What’s new here isn’t the idea of work. Adam had to work before the curse. What’s new here is the idea of difficulty and pain. What’s new is the fact that the ground was now going to work against Adam by growing weeds.

And what’s new is the idea that ground was eventually going to win this fight. Adam would die and his body would become a part of that ground he had struggled with his whole life.

This is what the curse means. We work hard, just barely trying to stay ahead, and then we die. Sounds kind of pointless, doesn’t it? It is. This is what’s going on when Ecclesiastes 1:2–3 says, “All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” 

This word for “vanity” in the Greek language is the same word Paul used in Romans 8:20 when he says that “the creation was subjected to futility.” That’s what God’s curse did. It subjected the creation to futility, and made all of our work ultimately futile.

Work in the New Creation

But this cursed creation isn’t going to stay that way. Romans 8:20 says that God subjected the creation to futility “in hope,” and that one day “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). 

In other words, the curse is not permanent. God has promised a New Heavens and a New Earth (Revelation 21:1). And when we read about the New Earth in the last two chapters of the Bible, what we discover is that it’s going to be like the Garden of Eden all over again, but better. There will be no more curse, no more futility. And in Christ, that’s our hope, that’s our ultimate eternal home.

So let’s ask an important question. If we worked in Eden, do you think we’ll work in that better-than-Eden New Creation?

I don’t see anything in Scripture that would tell us “no.” And in fact, when we read Revelation 21, which talks about the New Earth, we read that by the light of the New Jerusalem “will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (Revelation 21:24–26).

So, there will be nations on the New Earth, and they will be walking, which means living—doing stuff. And they’ll be producing things. And the best of the best things that they produce—the glory and the honour of the nations—will be brought by their kings as tribute to King Jesus in the New Jerusalem.

So yes, we can expect to work in the New Earth. We’ll finally get to experience work the way God intended us to. Can you just imagine the things we’ll be able to cultivate and grow and invent and build and write and produce with no sin, no conflict, no death, no pain, no futility? Can you just imagine how incredible the “glory and honour of the nations” will be? I can’t wait to see. There’s so much good work ahead of us.

Good Works Today

But guess what? We don’t have to wait until the New Creation to experience work that has been set free form futility.

Do you remember what we’ve seen in the past two weeks—that because Jesus died for us and rose again, we are already New Creations in him (2 Corinthians 5:17)? And as New Creations in Christ, God has already given us new work to do that is not futile. Work that matters. Work that lasts. Work that is not pointless.

And the phrase that the New Testament uses for this new work is good work. Or, more properly, good works.

If you have a Bible app on your phone or computer, sometime you should just do a search for that phrase: good work. You might be astounded at what comes up. And what you’ll see is that good works are the things God has called his people to give themselves to at this place in the story.

Just listen to these words from Ephesians 2:10. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Do you hear that New-Creation-in-Christ language again? We were created in Christ. We are a part of this New Humanity. And we were created for good works. And he’s already prepared them for us, so that we can walk in them. Which means that we can live in them.

Or think of Titus chapter 2, which we read together already: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11–14). 

“Zealous” isn’t one of those words we use a lot, but we’ve all seen it. People who are enthusiastic. Excited. Passionate. Jesus died to make us zealous for good works. And so, as Titus 3:8 says, we should be “careful to devote” ourselves “to good works.”

1 Timothy 2:10 says that we should be adorned with good works. Good works should be as much a part of us as the clothes we wear. 1 Timothy 6:18 speaks about being rich in good works. And we could go on and on. At our place in the story, God calls His people to the work of good works.

What Are Good Works?

So if this is true, then a question we should ask is: what are good works? I mean, it’s obvious that they are works that are good, but what’s that mean?

1 Timothy 5:10 helps us put some handles on this idea. In that chapter, Paul has been talking about widows in in the church who should have a reputation for good works. And then what he does in verse 10 is list off what he means by that. Here are some examples of “good works:” “if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.” (1 Timothy 5:10). 

So notice there the first thing he mentions: “if she has brought up children.” Bringing up children and raising a family is work. It’s hard work and worthy of as much honour as any job. But it’s also fairly “normal” work. It’s not some super-spiritual work where you go off by yourself and pray on a mountaintop for days. It’s the normal, every-day work of dishes and discipline that many of you are already doing.

And this verse suggests to us that “good works” can include out “normal” work, when we do our normal work for Jesus.

And that’s really what we see in Colossians 2:23-24, which we read earlier. In this passage, Paul is speaking to bondservants or slaves. These were guys who were owned by a master. They had no choice but to work for him. They couldn’t quit their jobs to go do good works. And so Paul tells them in verse 22 to obey their masters. And then he says this to them in verse 23: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23–24).

So in other words, you can work for Jesus in your normal job. He’s your boss now.

Another place we see this connection is Titus chapter 2. In verse 9 & 10, Paul tells slaves or bondservants that they are to make Jesus look good by being honest and obeying their masters. And in the next three verses he gives the reason for why they should be that way. And those next three verses are the passage in your bulletin we just read, about the grace of our God appearing. In other words, you should be a good employee because Jesus died to make us zealous for good works.

And when you put it that way, you see another connection between our normal work and good works. And this helps us see again that our normal work—raising a family, working for our employer—is a platform for us to do good works by serving Jesus and making Him look great. And this means that none of this work is futile or pointless anymore, because Jesus is going to reward us in Eternity for these good works. All of our work can have eternal significance.

Good Works With Our Money

There’s another way that our “normal” work connects up with good works. And this specifically applies to our jobs where we earn an income.

For example, we read in Titus chapter 3:14 that one of the “good works” we should do is support missionaries. Giving money to them. In order to do that good work, we need money in the first place, which means, at least most of the time, that we need jobs.

And so our jobs connect up to good works when we earn an income and use that income to be generous instead of buying more toys for ourselves.

This is kind of a side point here, but it’s worth mentioning that there were some Christians in the Thessalonians church who misunderstood their place in the big story. They thought that because Jesus had come and was coming again soon, they didn’t need to worry about things like jobs, and they could just count on other rich Christians to provide for their needs.

And in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-8, Paul addressed this situation when he said, “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.” 

And then in verse 10, he said, “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living” (2 Thessalonians 3:10–12).

So for the most part, God expects his people to stand on their own two feet financially, so that we’re not a financial drain on others, so that we’re all more free to use our money to support missionaries and be generous with the truly needy—in other words, so that we can do good works.

So we’ve kind of wandered a little bit here, but let’s remember that this all comes from 1 Timothy 5:10 where the first “good work” Paul listed was bringing up children. And we’ve seen in in Christ, our normal work like raising a family and working at our jobs has been set free from futility and can connect up to our our mission of good works.

There’s a lot more to say about this, and I actually have a bunch of material that I’m going to post on the blog on our church website this week. So go check that out tomorrow and put in your email address for updates, because there might be more than one post this week that fleshes out more of this for us.

Other Good Works

We have a couple of other brief stops to make this morning, all coming out of 1 Timothy 5:10. Bringing up children was just the first item on the list of good works. Let’s briefly take a look at what comes after that: “has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted.”

These are all the things that the New Testament tells us Christians to do for people, and especially for each other. You open up any book in the New Testament and you’re going to read these kinds of things. We’re told in multiple places and in multiple ways that we should care for each other and do good to everyone, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ (Galatians 6:10).

And if we’re supposed to be devoted to good works, it means that these good works like hospitality and caring for our bothers and sisters in Christ and supporting missionaries and serving at Awana and teaching Sunday School and serving on committees aren’t little extras that we sort of fit in around everything else in our life. This isn’t what we do after we’ve done everything else that we want to do.

Instead, these things should be our life priorities. We should be planning and scheming about how to do good works and how to do more of them.

Isn’t that what it would look like to be “carefully devoted” to good works? Isn’t that what being “zealous” for good works would look like?

See, this is where the rubber hits the road in terms of the Bible’s storyline impacting our lives today. It’s when we realize that being a New Creation in Christ is more than a side hustle, more than membership in a club. Being in Christ means that our whole life’s mission and direction has changed. We’ve been given a whole new definition of “work.” Work is not just this thing we have to do to pay the bills and buy groceries and finance our hobbies. Instead, “Good works” is this huge category that fills up our whole life.

And so, as a result, we’ve been given a whole new definition of “normal life.” We now see ourselves as full-time Christians who are devoted to the good works we were created to do. And everything else fits into that. For example, our hobbies, instead of becoming the focus of our lives, now become things we do from time to time that help us rest and rejuvenate so that we can get back to our real focus, which is good works.

Conclusion

So where do we go with this? How do we take these big ideas and break them down to the level where we can actually start to do something about them?

I have four suggestions.

1) My first one is be encouraged. As I was working on this sermon this week, many of your faces flashed in front of my mind’s eye as I wrote different sentences. So many of you are so rich in good works. You’re using your jobs and your money for the glory of Jesus, and you’re using your time to love and serve others.

You might not realize how many of the things you are already doing are “good works.” 

And maybe you need to be encouraged and humbled by the prospect of Jesus Christ personally rewarding you for the good works you are doing in His name. So be encouraged. And maybe, if you know someone in your life who is doing this well, you should encourage them this week.

2) Second suggestion: learn more. Titus 3:14 says, “And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works.” And maybe that needs to start with just learning about work and good works. There’s lots to think about here and lots to understand. I’ve already mentioned the blog on our church website this week, where I’ll be posting some things that will help us understand this “good works” thing a little bit more.

I don’t know if you noticed in the bulletin that the featured library book this week is about work. It’s not a big book and it will help you dig a little deeper into this whole thing. It’s right up on top of the bookshelf in the library there.

I’ve already mentioned another idea, which is doing a Bible study on the phrase “good works.” Search it on your phone or computer, and spend a few days or weeks reading through the different chapters, and soak it all in.

And beyond this, one of the best ways to learn to devote yourself to good works is probably to learn from those who are doing it. Titus 2:3-4 describes the older women in the church teaching and training the younger women on these things. And in verse 7, Titus himself was told to be a model of good works. So we see that one of the best ways to learn is from each other.

So let’s be intentional about watching and spending time with and learning from those who are doing well in this regard. Go for coffee with someone and say, “You do this well. Tell me how you think. Help me figure this out.”

3) My third suggestion is to reflect. Take some time this week—maybe even today—to take stock of your life. What’s your relationship with work? What’s your involvement with “good works”? How much of a gap is there between your lifestyle and what we read about today in the pages of Scripture? What would it take for you to close that gap and begin to devote yourself to good works? Do you need to make any changes with how you approach your job, your family, your hobbies, your life priorities?

You’re not going to figure any of that stuff out by accident. Titus 3:8 says we should “be careful to devote” ourselves to good works. This all takes careful and intentional thought.

I also think of Hebrews 10:24 which says “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” It doesn’t just say “let’s stir up one another to love and good works.” It says, let us consider how to do that. We need to think about this. 

So let’s take an hour this week to turn off the TV and grab a pen and some paper or have a conversation with someone else, and take this as seriously as Jesus Christ tells us to.

4) My fourth suggestion is obvious. Let’s work. Let’s do good works this week. No matter who you are, no matter what stage of life you’re in, this week—this day—will present opportunities for good works. That might be on your jobs. With your families. With friends or neighbours. With your brothers and sisters in the church. Here in this building this morning or at some other point this week.

And so I just want us to end by hearing the encouragement that we read earlier from 1 Corinthians 15. Paul had just spent all of chapter 15 speaking about the resurrection from the dead and the future hope that awaits each of us who hope in Christ. And his conclusion to it all? “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). 

In the Lord, because of the hope of the New Creation, your labor is not in vain. So this day, this week, this year, this one life we get to live, let’s be always abounding in the good work that our Lord has given us to do.

Work. What does that word mean to you? Is that a bad word? A scary word? A good word? An exciting word?

What’s your relationship with work? Do you avoid work? Do you work out of necessity? Or do you love work? Do you love work a little bit too much? Have people ever called you a workaholic?

Students, what about you? We use the word “schoolwork.” Do you think that school is work? Do you work hard at your learning?

For all of us, when does our work end? When the work day or the school day is over? When the kids are in bed? Do you work on the weekends? Does it feel like work spending time with your family? What about Sunday? Does it feel like work coming to church? What about serving here at church on a committee or Awana. Does that feel like work?

Those are a lot of questions, aren’t they? Would it surprise you to know that we’re talking about work today? And I ask these questions to help stir your pot, help get you thinking about work and your relationship with it.

Today we’re really just getting started on this third section of our sermon series where we’re considering the difference that the big story of the Bible makes to our lives here and now. We’ve surveyed how the Bible fits together, and how Jesus is the main character, and how his death and resurrection has fulfilled the whole story and changed everything. And in the past two weeks we’ve looked at our place in the story. And so now we’re finally prepared to ask: “What difference does all this make, today?”

And today we’re talking about the difference that the storyline of the Bible makes in the way we work.

Work in Creation

So why are we starting this part of the series with work? Why is that our first topic? The reason is that when we look at people in the story of the Bible, work is one of the first things that they do. Right after creating Adam, Genesis 2:15 says that “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). 

Humans get created and we get put to work. So that’s why we’re talking about it first. But this is also our first point in the message today: God created us to work. Adam and Eve were given a job to do, there in the paradise of Eden, before any sin entered the world. 

So just think for a moment about that word “paradise.” What would be paradise for you? Does your version of “paradise” include work? I hope so, because God’s version does. Work is not a result of the fall. Work is a part of what it means to be human. 

Work After the Fall

And yet we know that the work that we experience today is a very different kind of work than what Adam and Eve experienced. Because they chose to fall into sin, and God cursed the earth in response to their sin, our experience of work has been completely changed—and not for the better

Just listen to God’s words of curse to Adam, and think about everything this passage says about work: “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:17–19). 

What’s new here isn’t the idea of work. Adam had to work before the curse. What’s new here is the idea of difficulty and pain. What’s new is the fact that the ground was now going to work against Adam by growing weeds.

And what’s new is the idea that ground was eventually going to win this fight. Adam would die and his body would become a part of that ground he had struggled with his whole life.

This is what the curse means. We work hard, just barely trying to stay ahead, and then we die. Sounds kind of pointless, doesn’t it? It is. This is what’s going on when Ecclesiastes 1:2–3 says, “All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” 

This word for “vanity” in the Greek language is the same word Paul used in Romans 8:20 when he says that “the creation was subjected to futility.” That’s what God’s curse did. It subjected the creation to futility, and made all of our work ultimately futile.

Work in the New Creation

But this cursed creation isn’t going to stay that way. Romans 8:20 says that God subjected the creation to futility “in hope,” and that one day “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). 

In other words, the curse is not permanent. God has promised a New Heavens and a New Earth (Revelation 21:1). And when we read about the New Earth in the last two chapters of the Bible, what we discover is that it’s going to be like the Garden of Eden all over again, but better. There will be no more curse, no more futility. And in Christ, that’s our hope, that’s our ultimate eternal home.

So let’s ask an important question. If we worked in Eden, do you think we’ll work in that better-than-Eden New Creation?

I don’t see anything in Scripture that would tell us “no.” And in fact, when we read Revelation 21, which talks about the New Earth, we read that by the light of the New Jerusalem “will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations” (Revelation 21:24–26).

So, there will be nations on the New Earth, and they will be walking, which means living—doing stuff. And they’ll be producing things. And the best of the best things that they produce—the glory and the honour of the nations—will be brought by their kings as tribute to King Jesus in the New Jerusalem.

So yes, we can expect to work in the New Earth. We’ll finally get to experience work the way God intended us to. Can you just imagine the things we’ll be able to cultivate and grow and invent and build and write and produce with no sin, no conflict, no death, no pain, no futility? Can you just imagine how incredible the “glory and honour of the nations” will be? I can’t wait to see. There’s so much good work ahead of us.

Good Works Today

But guess what? We don’t have to wait until the New Creation to experience work that has been set free form futility.

Do you remember what we’ve seen in the past two weeks—that because Jesus died for us and rose again, we are already New Creations in him (2 Corinthians 5:17)? And as New Creations in Christ, God has already given us new work to do that is not futile. Work that matters. Work that lasts. Work that is not pointless.

And the phrase that the New Testament uses for this new work is good work. Or, more properly, good works.

If you have a Bible app on your phone or computer, sometime you should just do a search for that phrase: good work. You might be astounded at what comes up. And what you’ll see is that good works are the things God has called his people to give themselves to at this place in the story.

Just listen to these words from Ephesians 2:10. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Do you hear that New-Creation-in-Christ language again? We were created in Christ. We are a part of this New Humanity. And we were created for good works. And he’s already prepared them for us, so that we can walk in them. Which means that we can live in them.

Or think of Titus chapter 2, which we read together already: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:11–14). 

“Zealous” isn’t one of those words we use a lot, but we’ve all seen it. People who are enthusiastic. Excited. Passionate. Jesus died to make us zealous for good works. And so, as Titus 3:8 says, we should be “careful to devote” ourselves “to good works.”

1 Timothy 2:10 says that we should be adorned with good works. Good works should be as much a part of us as the clothes we wear. 1 Timothy 6:18 speaks about being rich in good works. And we could go on and on. At our place in the story, God calls His people to the work of good works.

What Are Good Works?

So if this is true, then a question we should ask is: what are good works? I mean, it’s obvious that they are works that are good, but what’s that mean?

1 Timothy 5:10 helps us put some handles on this idea. In that chapter, Paul has been talking about widows in in the church who should have a reputation for good works. And then what he does in verse 10 is list off what he means by that. Here are some examples of “good works:” “if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.” (1 Timothy 5:10). 

So notice there the first thing he mentions: “if she has brought up children.” Bringing up children and raising a family is work. It’s hard work and worthy of as much honour as any job. But it’s also fairly “normal” work. It’s not some super-spiritual work where you go off by yourself and pray on a mountaintop for days. It’s the normal, every-day work of dishes and discipline that many of you are already doing.

And this verse suggests to us that “good works” can include out “normal” work, when we do our normal work for Jesus.

And that’s really what we see in Colossians 2:23-24, which we read earlier. In this passage, Paul is speaking to bondservants or slaves. These were guys who were owned by a master. They had no choice but to work for him. They couldn’t quit their jobs to go do good works. And so Paul tells them in verse 22 to obey their masters. And then he says this to them in verse 23: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23–24).

So in other words, you can work for Jesus in your normal job. He’s your boss now.

Another place we see this connection is Titus chapter 2. In verse 9 & 10, Paul tells slaves or bondservants that they are to make Jesus look good by being honest and obeying their masters. And in the next three verses he gives the reason for why they should be that way. And those next three verses are the passage in your bulletin we just read, about the grace of our God appearing. In other words, you should be a good employee because Jesus died to make us zealous for good works.

And when you put it that way, you see another connection between our normal work and good works. And this helps us see again that our normal work—raising a family, working for our employer—is a platform for us to do good works by serving Jesus and making Him look great. And this means that none of this work is futile or pointless anymore, because Jesus is going to reward us in Eternity for these good works. All of our work can have eternal significance.

Good Works With Our Money

There’s another way that our “normal” work connects up with good works. And this specifically applies to our jobs where we earn an income.

For example, we read in Titus chapter 3:14 that one of the “good works” we should do is support missionaries. Giving money to them. In order to do that good work, we need money in the first place, which means, at least most of the time, that we need jobs.

And so our jobs connect up to good works when we earn an income and use that income to be generous instead of buying more toys for ourselves.

This is kind of a side point here, but it’s worth mentioning that there were some Christians in the Thessalonians church who misunderstood their place in the big story. They thought that because Jesus had come and was coming again soon, they didn’t need to worry about things like jobs, and they could just count on other rich Christians to provide for their needs.

And in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-8, Paul addressed this situation when he said, “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you.” 

And then in verse 10, he said, “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living” (2 Thessalonians 3:10–12).

So for the most part, God expects his people to stand on their own two feet financially, so that we’re not a financial drain on others, so that we’re all more free to use our money to support missionaries and be generous with the truly needy—in other words, so that we can do good works.

So we’ve kind of wandered a little bit here, but let’s remember that this all comes from 1 Timothy 5:10 where the first “good work” Paul listed was bringing up children. And we’ve seen in in Christ, our normal work like raising a family and working at our jobs has been set free from futility and can connect up to our our mission of good works.

There’s a lot more to say about this, and I actually have a bunch of material that I’m going to post on the blog on our church website this week. So go check that out tomorrow and put in your email address for updates, because there might be more than one post this week that fleshes out more of this for us.

Other Good Works

We have a couple of other brief stops to make this morning, all coming out of 1 Timothy 5:10. Bringing up children was just the first item on the list of good works. Let’s briefly take a look at what comes after that: “has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted.”

These are all the things that the New Testament tells us Christians to do for people, and especially for each other. You open up any book in the New Testament and you’re going to read these kinds of things. We’re told in multiple places and in multiple ways that we should care for each other and do good to everyone, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ (Galatians 6:10).

And if we’re supposed to be devoted to good works, it means that these good works like hospitality and caring for our bothers and sisters in Christ and supporting missionaries and serving at Awana and teaching Sunday School and serving on committees aren’t little extras that we sort of fit in around everything else in our life. This isn’t what we do after we’ve done everything else that we want to do.

Instead, these things should be our life priorities. We should be planning and scheming about how to do good works and how to do more of them.

Isn’t that what it would look like to be “carefully devoted” to good works? Isn’t that what being “zealous” for good works would look like?

See, this is where the rubber hits the road in terms of the Bible’s storyline impacting our lives today. It’s when we realize that being a New Creation in Christ is more than a side hustle, more than membership in a club. Being in Christ means that our whole life’s mission and direction has changed. We’ve been given a whole new definition of “work.” Work is not just this thing we have to do to pay the bills and buy groceries and finance our hobbies. Instead, “Good works” is this huge category that fills up our whole life.

And so, as a result, we’ve been given a whole new definition of “normal life.” We now see ourselves as full-time Christians who are devoted to the good works we were created to do. And everything else fits into that. For example, our hobbies, instead of becoming the focus of our lives, now become things we do from time to time that help us rest and rejuvenate so that we can get back to our real focus, which is good works.

Conclusion

So where do we go with this? How do we take these big ideas and break them down to the level where we can actually start to do something about them?

I have four suggestions.

1) My first one is be encouraged. As I was working on this sermon this week, many of your faces flashed in front of my mind’s eye as I wrote different sentences. So many of you are so rich in good works. You’re using your jobs and your money for the glory of Jesus, and you’re using your time to love and serve others.

You might not realize how many of the things you are already doing are “good works.” 

And maybe you need to be encouraged and humbled by the prospect of Jesus Christ personally rewarding you for the good works you are doing in His name. So be encouraged. And maybe, if you know someone in your life who is doing this well, you should encourage them this week.

2) Second suggestion: learn more. Titus 3:14 says, “And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works.” And maybe that needs to start with just learning about work and good works. There’s lots to think about here and lots to understand. I’ve already mentioned the blog on our church website this week, where I’ll be posting some things that will help us understand this “good works” thing a little bit more.

I don’t know if you noticed in the bulletin that the featured library book this week is about work. It’s not a big book and it will help you dig a little deeper into this whole thing. It’s right up on top of the bookshelf in the library there.

I’ve already mentioned another idea, which is doing a Bible study on the phrase “good works.” Search it on your phone or computer, and spend a few days or weeks reading through the different chapters, and soak it all in.

And beyond this, one of the best ways to learn to devote yourself to good works is probably to learn from those who are doing it. Titus 2:3-4 describes the older women in the church teaching and training the younger women on these things. And in verse 7, Titus himself was told to be a model of good works. So we see that one of the best ways to learn is from each other.

So let’s be intentional about watching and spending time with and learning from those who are doing well in this regard. Go for coffee with someone and say, “You do this well. Tell me how you think. Help me figure this out.”

3) My third suggestion is to reflect. Take some time this week—maybe even today—to take stock of your life. What’s your relationship with work? What’s your involvement with “good works”? How much of a gap is there between your lifestyle and what we read about today in the pages of Scripture? What would it take for you to close that gap and begin to devote yourself to good works? Do you need to make any changes with how you approach your job, your family, your hobbies, your life priorities?

You’re not going to figure any of that stuff out by accident. Titus 3:8 says we should “be careful to devote” ourselves to good works. This all takes careful and intentional thought.

I also think of Hebrews 10:24 which says “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.” It doesn’t just say “let’s stir up one another to love and good works.” It says, let us consider how to do that. We need to think about this. 

So let’s take an hour this week to turn off the TV and grab a pen and some paper or have a conversation with someone else, and take this as seriously as Jesus Christ tells us to.

4) My fourth suggestion is obvious. Let’s work. Let’s do good works this week. No matter who you are, no matter what stage of life you’re in, this week—this day—will present opportunities for good works. That might be on your jobs. With your families. With friends or neighbours. With your brothers and sisters in the church. Here in this building this morning or at some other point this week.

And so I just want us to end by hearing the encouragement that we read earlier from 1 Corinthians 15. Paul had just spent all of chapter 15 speaking about the resurrection from the dead and the future hope that awaits each of us who hope in Christ. And his conclusion to it all? “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). 

In the Lord, because of the hope of the New Creation, your labor is not in vain. So this day, this week, this year, this one life we get to live, let’s be always abounding in the good work that our Lord has given us to do.

Last week we made a significant transition in our sermon series. Starting back in the fall, we’ve explored the big storyline of the Bible, and then seen how Jesus is the main character of that story. And now, we’re turning to see what our place in this story is.

We began by looking at 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. Another way of putting that is to say they are a part of the New Creation. Eternal life has already begun. That much is already true of us.

But we also saw that there’s so much that’s not yet true of us. Our bodies are still a part of this old creation, and we still struggle with sin and suffering and death.

And yet we saw that the arrival of the New Creation has changed so much for us. Even though sin and suffering and death are still around, our relationship with them has been totally changed in this time of already-but-not-yet. The arrival of the New Creation in our inner self allows us to fight sin and rejoice in suffering and even count death as gain.

And that’s really what this next leg of our series is about: what does all of this mean for you and I today? And we’re going to get specific. Next week’s series is about work. Like, our jobs and our work at home and in the church. The week after that we’re talking about money and then marriage and then singleness. That level of specificity.

But before we get into those specifics, before we’re really free to talk about our place in the story, there’s one more stop we need to make. And that’s where we are today, talking about the people of God.

Here’s where this topic comes from: as we’ve surveyed the big story of the Bible, it’s hard to miss that this big story, from Abraham onwards, has largely been about an ethnic people group. The people of Israel.

And as we try to find our place in the biggest story ever told, it’s only fitting for us to ask, before we go any further, “Do we have a place in this story? How do we fit in if we’re not a part of that ethnic people, if we’re not physically descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?”

I can speak for myself here: I’m not Jewish. Which means I’m a Gentile. And statistically, many of you are in the same spot. So how does that work? Was it ok for us this morning to sing “By faith our fathers roamed the earth”? Really? Our fathers? Are we allowed to say that? Are we sure we fit into this story?

These are important questions for us to ask before we go any further.

Always About the Nations

As we begin to try to answer these questions, I hope you’ll remember that from the beginning of the story, God was concerned for the nations. When He chose Abraham, He promised him that in his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 22:18). Reaching the Gentiles was always a part of the plan. And that was central to Israel’s calling. They were to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) and were to declare His glory among the nations (Psalm 96:3).

But by and large, they didn’t. They abandoned the Lord to serve the gods of the nations. When they were finally taken into exile, they profaned God’s name among the nations, as Ezekiel 36:21 says. And after the exile, their went way in the other direction and completely isolated themselves from the nations, so that by the time of the New Testament, most of the Jews wouldn’t even associate, visit (Acts 10:28) or eat (Galatians 2:12) with those who were not Jews. They insultingly referred to the Gentiles as “the uncircumcision” and had as little to do with them as possible. Hardly the posture of blessing.

Where We Were

And so it was that before Christ came, the Gentile peoples were in the position we read about in our passage this morning. Like verse 12 says, we were:

“Separated from Christ.” We were cut off from the Messiah. Like one commentator wrote, we had “no expectation of a Messiah to light up [our] darkness."

“Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.” We were foreigners to the people of God. Another word we could use for “commonwealth” here is “citizenship.” We had no citizenship in God’s kingdom. We didn’t belong.

“Strangers to the covenants of promise.” We were outside of these incredible covenants God made with His people. We knew nothing about them and were not being touched by them.

“Having no hope.” Without the promise of a Messiah, without the promise of the covenants, what hope is there? None.

“Without God in the world”. This is the summary of it all. We were without any knowledge or relationship with our Creator.

Brought Near

This is a pretty bleak picture, isn’t it? But against this blackness, listen to how verse 13 shines out: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

In Christ, and by His blood, the door has been opened, and you and I have been welcomed in off the street and given a seat at the table. Our state is totally opposite of what it was. From far to near.

So how did this happen? How did Christ bring us near?

Verse 14 tells us. “He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

Let’s start to untangle this by looking at that last phrase there—the “dividing wall of hostility.” This is very likely a reference to a low wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Jerusalem temple. Outside of that wall, Gentiles were permitted to come and see the temple from a ways off. But you could only pass inside and draw near to the temple itself if you were a Jew. There was actually an inscription on this wall that warned Gentiles that they would be responsible for their own death if they went inside.

How’s that for a welcome sign? Can you imagine standing there, looking in, knowing you’ll never be allowed to simply because you were born into the wrong family?

But through Christ, that dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles is broken down. Jesus broke it down in his flesh, which speaks of His death on the cross. He paid for our sins once and for all, and completely fulfilled the whole system of rituals and regulations that had kept us out.

In fact, as verse 15 says to strongly, Jesus “abolish[ed] the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.”

That is strong language, and we’re going to come back to this verse in a few weeks when we talk about the law.

But for now, I just want us to appreciate that Jesus abolished that whole system by paying for our sins once and for all and making us perfectly righteous in Him. And so there’s nothing left to keep us Gentiles outside, cut off from God’s presence. The wall is knocked down and we’re welcomed inside.

But it’s not just like we’re allowed in as tourists or onlookers. We’ve actually been made a part of the people on the inside. Verse 14: “He himself is our peace, who has made us both one.”

Verse 15 & 16 say that Jesus has created “in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and reconcile[d] us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

Do you hear what’s going on here? Paul is telling us that this whole Jew/Gentile divide is a thing of the past. There’s not these two groups of people anymore. In place of them, Jesus has created one new man.

When you hear that phrase “one new man,” does it ring a bell at all? Does it sound a little bit like the “new creation” from last week’s passage? Scholars recognize that this is the same idea. This is talking about the New Creation humanity which Jesus has created.

We saw earlier this fall how Jesus is the Last Adam, the Father of the New Humanity. Maybe you wondered what that meant. This is what it meant. The New Humanity, or this “one new man,” is simply all those who have become a New Creation in Christ.

And it includes everyone—Jew or Gentile—who has been reconciled to God through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 6:15 brings these different ideas together really well, where Paul says, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you’re a circumcised Jew or an uncircumcised Gentile. What matters is being a new creation. Being a part of this New Humanity that Jesus has created.

And now with all of this in mind, listen to how verse 19 sums the whole thing up. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”

Remember verse 12? How we were separated, alienated, strangers, and without God? And now, the opposite is true. Us Gentiles, through faith in Jesus, are in all the way. We’ve been given full citizenship in the kingdom of God. We’ve been fully adopted into the family. We are full members of the people of God.

Correcting Some Imbalances

Now what we’re going to do next this morning, as we try to really wrap our heads and our hearts around this truth, is to see how this passage and this truth can help correct some unbalanced ideas that we sometimes encounter regarding the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the people of God, in the New Covenant.

So, let’s talk about one of those imbalanced ideas which you may have heard about. It’s called “replacement theology.” Now I’ve never actually met anyone who has held to this, but from what I gather, the idea that God is totally finished with the Jewish people. And on the day of Pentecost, God created the church as a replacement for Israel. That’s where the name “replacement theology” comes from. The church has replaced Israel as the people of God.

I hope you can see from our passage today that this is not Biblical. The church has not replaced Israel. Rather, believing Gentiles have come together with believing Jews to form this one new humanity in Christ. And so there’s not even these two groups anymore. We are “one new man” as verse 15 says. Or, in the words of Galatians 3:29, “You are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Now on the other end of the spectrum, there’s another imbalanced way of thinking about Israel and the church, and in my experience it’s a bit more common than the first. This idea still says that the Gentile Church and Israel are two completely different groups, but the difference is that it says they’re both God’s people. In other words, there’s not one people of God, there’s two peoples of God: Israel, and the church.

And extreme forms of this teaching say that Israel and the Church relate to God in different ways, are a part of different covenants, have different futures, and even have different eternal homes. The Gentile Church will spend our eternity in heaven, and Israel will get the New Earth down here.

Now maybe you haven’t taken things that far, but it’s possible that you’ve been  impacted by this teaching that “Israel” and “the Church” are two different peoples of God. It’s been very popular here in North America for the past 150 years or so.

All I would ask you this morning is to consider whether or not this idea really holds up against everything that the Scriptures tell us, especially in our passages today. Do all these statements about making us one, creating one new man in place of the two, causing us Gentiles to be fellow citizens with the saints—do they really fit with the idea that there’s two different agendas, two different futures, two different peoples of God?

Or just think about this teaching in the light of the second passage we read from Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:28-29).

According to Galatians 3:29, who are the true sons of Abraham? It’s those who have faith in Christ, whether they are Jew or Gentile.

Or think of what Jesus said when he met the very Gentile Roman Centurion, he said “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west [that’s from the gentile nations] and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:10-12).

We could go a lot of different places and see the same thing: what matters is not our ethnicity but our faith in Christ. And so once again I’d just ask us to consider this view which says that God has two different people—the Gentile church and the Jewish people—and ask if it’s really Biblical. Because it sounds to me like all these Scriptures are saying that God only has one people, made up of all Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus and draw near to God through Him.

Jewishness Still Means Something

Now, with all of that being said, we need to clarify something important. When the Scripture teach that Jewish and Gentile believers are all one in Christ, we shouldn’t take that to mean that being a Jew or a Gentile means nothing at all. It doesn’t mean that when a Jewish person believes in Jesus as their Messiah, their Jewishness just gets erased. 

Just think for a moment about Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

When it says that there’s no male or female, does that mean that our gender differences don’t matter? That when we believe in Jesus, our gender gets erased and there’s no difference at all between being a man or a woman?

Of course not! We see many times in the New Testament that we are still men and women, and our genders matter. We even have different roles to play in the home and in the church.

But what Galatians 3:28 is saying is that both men and women are an equal part of the one people of God, and we approach God on the same level ground of the cross. Being a man or a woman doesn’t make you any more or less closer to God, and being a man or a woman doesn’t make you any more or less a part of the people of God.

And so it is with Jews and Gentiles. We read in the New Testament that when Jewish people became believers in Christ, they didn’t stop being Jews. They didn’t have to erase or forget about that part of themselves. The Jewish part of the story still means something important.

One way we see that is by looking to the end of the story, in the book of Revelation, and noticing how our eternity is going to have a very Jewish flavour to it. The capital city of the New Earth will not be New York but rather the New Jerusalem. And as we walk into the New Jerusalem we’ll be passing through gates which are named after the twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 21:9-14).

And that’s kind of the point. What Paul is describing here in Ephesians 2 is not a replacement of Jews with Gentiles or an erasure of the Jewishness of this story. Instead, he’s saying that we Gentile believers have been welcomed into this one people of God, with all of it’s rich Jewish heritage.

And so as we look back at this very Jewish Bible and this very Jewish story it tells, and look to our very Jewish King Jesus, we should say, “That’s my story, too. Those are my people. That’s the family that I’ve been welcomed into.”

Israel’s Future

And there’s one more piece to all of this, which we find in Romans chapter 11. In that chapter, Paul compares the people of God to a tree, and he says that some branches have been broken off of that tree because of their unbelief in Jesus. In other words, they are no longer a part of the people of God. On the other hand, some other branches—us Gentiles—have been grafted in to that tree and now are a part of the people of God.

But then he says this about his unbelieving countrymen:

“And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.” (Romans 11:23–24). 

So it’s not like those branches that have been broken off don’t mean anything at all. He has hope that if they turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again to the people of God.

And as Paul goes on, it seems like he does expect a time in the future when many of these broken branches will be grafted in again. He says this in verse 25: “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25–26). 

And when we piece that together with the rest of the chapter, the idea that seems to emerge is that before Christ returns, a large number of the Jewish people will place their faith in Jesus and be grafted in to this tree again, this one tree of the people of God.

You may or may not recognize it, but that’s some pretty intense theology we’ve just covered. And maybe in what I’ve just said has raised some questions for you. Maybe you’re wondering how this fits with things that you believe or things you’ve heard other people teach. And I would love to have a conversation with you about that. Send me an email or a text, and come talk. I’d thoroughly enjoy that. 

Why Does This Matter?

As we prepare to wrap things up this morning, I want to ask a simple question: why does this matter? Why are we talking about all this today?

I see at least three reasons why we needed to make this stop this morning, and why this all matters to our lives today:

1) The first one, as I mentioned at the beginning, is that before we went any further, we had to clarify that that this story is our story. The Jewish Scriptures are our Scriptures. These covenants are our covenants. As Gentile believers in Jesus the Messiah, we really have been made a part of this story.

2) Second, as we understand our part in all of this, and how we’ve been brought into something that’s been going on for so long, it should cause us to have humility. That’s what Romans 11 talks about. After this discussion of the olive tree, Paul writes “Do not be arrogant towards the branches… So do not become proud, but fear” (Romans 11:18, 20).

We’ve been invited to join something very old and very precious, and not because we are special. Only because of Jesus. We were outsiders who have been made insiders because someone else died for us.

And so we should feel very humbled by this. There should be no swagger in the Christian life. No pride. We should be people marked by thankfulness and humility.

3) Third, it’s important for us to think about ourselves as a part of a people, because it reminds us that being a New Creation in Christ is not a solo mission. It’s not just “Jesus and me.” Instead, it’s Jesus and us. We’re a part of a people, a new humanity who will inhabit the New Heavens and the New Earth forever.

And there’s a lot of practical implications that come from thinking about ourselves this way.

For example, look around you for a moment. These are the people that you get to live forever with. And if eternal life has already begun, like we heard last week, then these are the people that you have already started to live forever with.

Do we live like that? Do we live like we’re a part of the people of God, a fellow citizen of the New Earth? Do we live like we’re in this together and that we’ve already begun to spend eternity together?

What would that look like to live that way? Well, let’s consider these words from Colossians 3 which talk about how we should live together as one body in Christ:

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:9–15). 

We could spend another couple of hours with those words. Don’t worry—we won’t. But I’d invite you to apply this message this morning by going home and reading through those words again. Colossians chapter 3, verses 9-15. Read it slowly, and really soak in what it’s saying about you and your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And pray: “Lord, where do I need to grow? What do I need your help to do better in? How can I better take up my place as a member of the people of God?”

We’re going to close here by standing and singing together again that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are our fathers through faith in Christ. That in Christ, we are Abraham’s offspring and children of the promise.

And just like our fathers, we’re going to walk this stretch of our earthly journey together, by faith, looking ahead to all that’s in store.

Last week we made a significant transition in our sermon series. Starting back in the fall, we’ve explored the big storyline of the Bible, and then seen how Jesus is the main character of that story. And now, we’re turning to see what our place in this story is.

We began by looking at 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says that if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. Another way of putting that is to say they are a part of the New Creation. Eternal life has already begun. That much is already true of us.

But we also saw that there’s so much that’s not yet true of us. Our bodies are still a part of this old creation, and we still struggle with sin and suffering and death.

And yet we saw that the arrival of the New Creation has changed so much for us. Even though sin and suffering and death are still around, our relationship with them has been totally changed in this time of already-but-not-yet. The arrival of the New Creation in our inner self allows us to fight sin and rejoice in suffering and even count death as gain.

And that’s really what this next leg of our series is about: what does all of this mean for you and I today? And we’re going to get specific. Next week’s series is about work. Like, our jobs and our work at home and in the church. The week after that we’re talking about money and then marriage and then singleness. That level of specificity.

But before we get into those specifics, before we’re really free to talk about our place in the story, there’s one more stop we need to make. And that’s where we are today, talking about the people of God.

Here’s where this topic comes from: as we’ve surveyed the big story of the Bible, it’s hard to miss that this big story, from Abraham onwards, has largely been about an ethnic people group. The people of Israel.

And as we try to find our place in the biggest story ever told, it’s only fitting for us to ask, before we go any further, “Do we have a place in this story? How do we fit in if we’re not a part of that ethnic people, if we’re not physically descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?”

I can speak for myself here: I’m not Jewish. Which means I’m a Gentile. And statistically, many of you are in the same spot. So how does that work? Was it ok for us this morning to sing “By faith our fathers roamed the earth”? Really? Our fathers? Are we allowed to say that? Are we sure we fit into this story?

These are important questions for us to ask before we go any further.

Always About the Nations

As we begin to try to answer these questions, I hope you’ll remember that from the beginning of the story, God was concerned for the nations. When He chose Abraham, He promised him that in his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 22:18). Reaching the Gentiles was always a part of the plan. And that was central to Israel’s calling. They were to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) and were to declare His glory among the nations (Psalm 96:3).

But by and large, they didn’t. They abandoned the Lord to serve the gods of the nations. When they were finally taken into exile, they profaned God’s name among the nations, as Ezekiel 36:21 says. And after the exile, their went way in the other direction and completely isolated themselves from the nations, so that by the time of the New Testament, most of the Jews wouldn’t even associate, visit (Acts 10:28) or eat (Galatians 2:12) with those who were not Jews. They insultingly referred to the Gentiles as “the uncircumcision” and had as little to do with them as possible. Hardly the posture of blessing.

Where We Were

And so it was that before Christ came, the Gentile peoples were in the position we read about in our passage this morning. Like verse 12 says, we were:

“Separated from Christ.” We were cut off from the Messiah. Like one commentator wrote, we had “no expectation of a Messiah to light up [our] darkness.”1

“Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel.” We were foreigners to the people of God. Another word we could use for “commonwealth” here is “citizenship.” We had no citizenship in God’s kingdom. We didn’t belong.

“Strangers to the covenants of promise.” We were outside of these incredible covenants God made with His people. We knew nothing about them and were not being touched by them.

“Having no hope.” Without the promise of a Messiah, without the promise of the covenants, what hope is there? None.

“Without God in the world”. This is the summary of it all. We were without any knowledge or relationship with our Creator.

Brought Near

This is a pretty bleak picture, isn’t it? But against this blackness, listen to how verse 13 shines out: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13).

In Christ, and by His blood, the door has been opened, and you and I have been welcomed in off the street and given a seat at the table. Our state is totally opposite of what it was. From far to near.

So how did this happen? How did Christ bring us near?

Verse 14 tells us. “He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.”

Let’s start to untangle this by looking at that last phrase there—the “dividing wall of hostility.” This is very likely a reference to a low wall that surrounded the courtyard of the Jerusalem temple. Outside of that wall, Gentiles were permitted to come and see the temple from a ways off. But you could only pass inside and draw near to the temple itself if you were a Jew. There was actually an inscription on this wall that warned Gentiles that they would be responsible for their own death if they went inside.

How’s that for a welcome sign? Can you imagine standing there, looking in, knowing you’ll never be allowed to simply because you were born into the wrong family?

But through Christ, that dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles is broken down. Jesus broke it down in his flesh, which speaks of His death on the cross. He paid for our sins once and for all, and completely fulfilled the whole system of rituals and regulations that had kept us out.

In fact, as verse 15 says to strongly, Jesus “abolish[ed] the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.”

That is strong language, and we’re going to come back to this verse in a few weeks when we talk about the law.

But for now, I just want us to appreciate that Jesus abolished that whole system by paying for our sins once and for all and making us perfectly righteous in Him. And so there’s nothing left to keep us Gentiles outside, cut off from God’s presence. The wall is knocked down and we’re welcomed inside.

But it’s not just like we’re allowed in as tourists or onlookers. We’ve actually been made a part of the people on the inside. Verse 14: “He himself is our peace, who has made us both one.”

Verse 15 & 16 say that Jesus has created “in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and reconcile[d] us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.”

Do you hear what’s going on here? Paul is telling us that this whole Jew/Gentile divide is a thing of the past. There’s not these two groups of people anymore. In place of them, Jesus has created one new man.

When you hear that phrase “one new man,” does it ring a bell at all? Does it sound a little bit like the “new creation” from last week’s passage? Scholars recognize that this is the same idea. This is talking about the New Creation humanity which Jesus has created.

We saw earlier this fall how Jesus is the Last Adam, the Father of the New Humanity. Maybe you wondered what that meant. This is what it meant. The New Humanity, or this “one new man,” is simply all those who have become a New Creation in Christ.

And it includes everyone—Jew or Gentile—who has been reconciled to God through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Galatians 6:15 brings these different ideas together really well, where Paul says, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.”

In other words, it doesn’t matter if you’re a circumcised Jew or an uncircumcised Gentile. What matters is being a new creation. Being a part of this New Humanity that Jesus has created.

And now with all of this in mind, listen to how verse 19 sums the whole thing up. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”

Remember verse 12? How we were separated, alienated, strangers, and without God? And now, the opposite is true. Us Gentiles, through faith in Jesus, are in all the way. We’ve been given full citizenship in the kingdom of God. We’ve been fully adopted into the family. We are full members of the people of God.

Correcting Some Imbalances

Now what we’re going to do next this morning, as we try to really wrap our heads and our hearts around this truth, is to see how this passage and this truth can help correct some unbalanced ideas that we sometimes encounter regarding the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the people of God, in the New Covenant.

So, let’s talk about one of those imbalanced ideas which you may have heard about. It’s called “replacement theology.” Now I’ve never actually met anyone who has held to this, but from what I gather, the idea that God is totally finished with the Jewish people. And on the day of Pentecost, God created the church as a replacement for Israel. That’s where the name “replacement theology” comes from. The church has replaced Israel as the people of God.

I hope you can see from our passage today that this is not Biblical. The church has not replaced Israel. Rather, believing Gentiles have come together with believing Jews to form this one new humanity in Christ. And so there’s not even these two groups anymore. We are “one new man” as verse 15 says. Or, in the words of Galatians 3:29, “You are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Now on the other end of the spectrum, there’s another imbalanced way of thinking about Israel and the church, and in my experience it’s a bit more common than the first. This idea still says that the Gentile Church and Israel are two completely different groups, but the difference is that it says they’re both God’s people. In other words, there’s not one people of God, there’s two peoples of God: Israel, and the church.

And extreme forms of this teaching say that Israel and the Church relate to God in different ways, are a part of different covenants, have different futures, and even have different eternal homes. The Gentile Church will spend our eternity in heaven, and Israel will get the New Earth down here.

Now maybe you haven’t taken things that far, but it’s possible that you’ve been  impacted by this teaching that “Israel” and “the Church” are two different peoples of God. It’s been very popular here in North America for the past 150 years or so.

All I would ask you this morning is to consider whether or not this idea really holds up against everything that the Scriptures tell us, especially in our passages today. Do all these statements about making us one, creating one new man in place of the two, causing us Gentiles to be fellow citizens with the saints—do they really fit with the idea that there’s two different agendas, two different futures, two different peoples of God?

Or just think about this teaching in the light of the second passage we read from Galatians: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Galatians 3:28-29).

According to Galatians 3:29, who are the true sons of Abraham? It’s those who have faith in Christ, whether they are Jew or Gentile.

Or think of what Jesus said when he met the very Gentile Roman Centurion, he said “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west [that’s from the gentile nations] and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:10-12).

We could go a lot of different places and see the same thing: what matters is not our ethnicity but our faith in Christ. And so once again I’d just ask us to consider this view which says that God has two different people—the Gentile church and the Jewish people—and ask if it’s really Biblical. Because it sounds to me like all these Scriptures are saying that God only has one people, made up of all Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus and draw near to God through Him.

Jewishness Still Means Something

Now, with all of that being said, we need to clarify something important. When the Scripture teach that Jewish and Gentile believers are all one in Christ, we shouldn’t take that to mean that being a Jew or a Gentile means nothing at all. It doesn’t mean that when a Jewish person believes in Jesus as their Messiah, their Jewishness just gets erased. 

Just think for a moment about Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

When it says that there’s no male or female, does that mean that our gender differences don’t matter? That when we believe in Jesus, our gender gets erased and there’s no difference at all between being a man or a woman?

Of course not! We see many times in the New Testament that we are still men and women, and our genders matter. We even have different roles to play in the home and in the church.

But what Galatians 3:28 is saying is that both men and women are an equal part of the one people of God, and we approach God on the same level ground of the cross. Being a man or a woman doesn’t make you any more or less closer to God, and being a man or a woman doesn’t make you any more or less a part of the people of God.

And so it is with Jews and Gentiles. We read in the New Testament that when Jewish people became believers in Christ, they didn’t stop being Jews. They didn’t have to erase or forget about that part of themselves. The Jewish part of the story still means something important.

One way we see that is by looking to the end of the story, in the book of Revelation, and noticing how our eternity is going to have a very Jewish flavour to it. The capital city of the New Earth will not be New York but rather the New Jerusalem. And as we walk into the New Jerusalem we’ll be passing through gates which are named after the twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 21:9-14).

And that’s kind of the point. What Paul is describing here in Ephesians 2 is not a replacement of Jews with Gentiles or an erasure of the Jewishness of this story. Instead, he’s saying that we Gentile believers have been welcomed into this one people of God, with all of it’s rich Jewish heritage.

And so as we look back at this very Jewish Bible and this very Jewish story it tells, and look to our very Jewish King Jesus, we should say, “That’s my story, too. Those are my people. That’s the family that I’ve been welcomed into.”

Israel’s Future

And there’s one more piece to all of this, which we find in Romans chapter 11. In that chapter, Paul compares the people of God to a tree, and he says that some branches have been broken off of that tree because of their unbelief in Jesus. In other words, they are no longer a part of the people of God. On the other hand, some other branches—us Gentiles—have been grafted in to that tree and now are a part of the people of God.

But then he says this about his unbelieving countrymen:

“And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.” (Romans 11:23–24). 

So it’s not like those branches that have been broken off don’t mean anything at all. He has hope that if they turn from their unbelief, they will be grafted in again to the people of God.

And as Paul goes on, it seems like he does expect a time in the future when many of these broken branches will be grafted in again. He says this in verse 25: “Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25–26). 

And when we piece that together with the rest of the chapter, the idea that seems to emerge is that before Christ returns, a large number of the Jewish people will place their faith in Jesus and be grafted in to this tree again, this one tree of the people of God.

You may or may not recognize it, but that’s some pretty intense theology we’ve just covered. And maybe in what I’ve just said has raised some questions for you. Maybe you’re wondering how this fits with things that you believe or things you’ve heard other people teach. And I would love to have a conversation with you about that. Send me an email or a text, and come talk. I’d thoroughly enjoy that. 

Why Does This Matter?

As we prepare to wrap things up this morning, I want to ask a simple question: why does this matter? Why are we talking about all this today?

I see at least three reasons why we needed to make this stop this morning, and why this all matters to our lives today:

1) The first one, as I mentioned at the beginning, is that before we went any further, we had to clarify that that this story is our story. The Jewish Scriptures are our Scriptures. These covenants are our covenants. As Gentile believers in Jesus the Messiah, we really have been made a part of this story.

2) Second, as we understand our part in all of this, and how we’ve been brought into something that’s been going on for so long, it should cause us to have humility. That’s what Romans 11 talks about. After this discussion of the olive tree, Paul writes “Do not be arrogant towards the branches… So do not become proud, but fear” (Romans 11:18, 20).

We’ve been invited to join something very old and very precious, and not because we are special. Only because of Jesus. We were outsiders who have been made insiders because someone else died for us.

And so we should feel very humbled by this. There should be no swagger in the Christian life. No pride. We should be people marked by thankfulness and humility.

3) Third, it’s important for us to think about ourselves as a part of a people, because it reminds us that being a New Creation in Christ is not a solo mission. It’s not just “Jesus and me.” Instead, it’s Jesus and us. We’re a part of a people, a new humanity who will inhabit the New Heavens and the New Earth forever.

And there’s a lot of practical implications that come from thinking about ourselves this way.

For example, look around you for a moment. These are the people that you get to live forever with. And if eternal life has already begun, like we heard last week, then these are the people that you have already started to live forever with.

Do we live like that? Do we live like we’re a part of the people of God, a fellow citizen of the New Earth? Do we live like we’re in this together and that we’ve already begun to spend eternity together?

What would that look like to live that way? Well, let’s consider these words from Colossians 3 which talk about how we should live together as one body in Christ:

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” (Colossians 3:9–15). 

We could spend another couple of hours with those words. Don’t worry—we won’t. But I’d invite you to apply this message this morning by going home and reading through those words again. Colossians chapter 3, verses 9-15. Read it slowly, and really soak in what it’s saying about you and your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And pray: “Lord, where do I need to grow? What do I need your help to do better in? How can I better take up my place as a member of the people of God?”

We’re going to close here by standing and singing together again that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are our fathers through faith in Christ. That in Christ, we are Abraham’s offspring and children of the promise.

And just like our fathers, we’re going to walk this stretch of our earthly journey together, by faith, looking ahead to all that’s in store.

_______

1. A. Skevington Wood, “Ephesians,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 11 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 39.

When I was a child, I loved stories—like most children, I think. I was gripped by stories. Whether I was reading them in a book or watching them on the screen, stories would take me away. And one of the best parts of being a child was that the stories never really ended. When the book or the movie was finished, we’d get to go outside or down to the basement and play that thing that we’d just watched.

See, my mom was quite strict on how much screen time I was allowed, which meant that I actually got to develop an imagination. And I remember one of the best years of my life in this regard was the year I was seven and we moved out to a farm. And my little sister and I had this whole farmyard to ourselves, and so we could get dressed up in full costume and go outside without anyone watching. And the hedgerows and sheds and hay bales could become anything we’d imagine—a medieval castle, a Wild West town, Batman’s cave—whatever. And so the stories never ended.

But then you grow up. You get older. And you don’t do that kind of thing anymore. And one of the saddest things I lost as I moved from childhood into adulthood was this connection between the stories and the real world.

It’s not that adults don’t care about stories anymore. We can still stay up all night turning pages in a novel, or go escape for a couple of hours at a movie theatre.

But then it ends. The credits roll, the magic feeling fades, and it’s back to real life, as the theatre attendants come in and start sweeping up our popcorn.

But what if we found a story that was actually true? A story that didn’t end when we closed the book? A story that kept going and which we discovered that we, ourselves, were actually a part of? A story that totally changed the way we saw ourselves and saw the world and saw everything?

I got a little picture of what this might look like back in 2016 when Pokémon Go became a phenomenon. It’s this game on your phone and you use your camera and it shows you these characters in the game as if they were a part of your real world. And you actually have to go to these different places in the real world to collect these different characters.

I don’t know if it was big here in Nipawin, but down in Regina it was huge. A friend of mine was a security guard at the University, and he said that at all hours of the night there’d be groups of students roaming the campus searching for these characters.

The church I worked at became quite popular, because apparently on our lawn was one of the big spots where you could get these creatures. So we’d see people out there all the time with their phones pointed at our building moving around and playing this game.

All we could see was our building and a lawn and our sign. But equipped with their phones, these people could see a whole new layer to reality. A while different story. And they engaged with it. That game caused a lot of people to go outside and get exercise. Dads and their kids were going on walks together. The story changed things in the real world.

And this is just a little picture of what should happen to us when we open the Bible and read it and understand it. Because the story of the Bible causes us to see things around us in a completely new light. And it calls us to do something. To step out of our comfort zones and actually engage with this new reality.

But the difference between Pokémon Go and the Bible is that the Bible is actually true, and the world that the Bible describes is actually the real world. What’s real isn’t just what we can see with our own two eyes. What’s real is the garden and the snake and the flood and the pillar of fire and the throne and the temple and the covenants and the kingdom and the prophet and the priest and the king who came from a far-away place to rescue His bride and promises to come back and be with her forever. This biggest story ever told is the real story.

And this true story is still happening today. It doesn’t end when we close the book. We are in this story today. And the more we understand this story, the more we understand our place in it, and the more we understand how much this story truly changes everything.

Where We’ve Been

And so today, we’re making a transition, from the first two parts of our story to this third and biggest part, where we’re considering our place in this story. But before we get to far, it would be good for us to go back and sum up where we’ve been for the past four months, and remind ourselves of what we’ve seen so far.

We began back before the beginning, with a Father and His Son and the Holy Spirit. We saw how they planned the whole story out. And we saw how this whole plan was all grounded in love. The Father chose us and gave us grace so that we will bring glory to Jesus by loving Him forever with the very same love that the Father has for Him. That’s what this whole story is about, and it was all laid out before the beginning.

And then there was a beginning. God created the heavens and the earth for His glory. And He created Adam and Eve in His own image. We explored how Adam was the first person to bear the roles of prophet, priest, and king, and how God charged them to rule this world as His representatives.

And then the Fall happened. The snake snuck into the garden and seduced Eve who then led her husband into an act of treason against the Lord. And in response to their sin, God cursed the ground. He brought the whole creation crashing down around them.

And yet in the midst of that curse, He made a promise about a serpent-crushing saviour who would come from the woman and make things good again.

Time passed. Things got bad. A man named Noah was born, and his father hoped that he would be the one who would save us. Noah was saved from the flood, and he inherited the covenant that God had made with Adam, but almost right away he and his family fell into the same kinds of sins that the people had walked in before. The real saviour must still be coming.

So then God began a new work of creation with Abraham, promising in a covenant that through his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed. That promise began to take shape when God raised up Moses to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, and at the foot of Mount Sinai He entered into covenant with them, promising to dwell with them and make them a nation of royal priests.

Israel fell far short of their calling, and so God raised up a king for them, promising David that he would have a son who would rule the world forever.

And then, after centuries of the darkness of exile, the baby was born. And that’s where we’ve been for these joyful past eight weeks as we’ve seen all the ways that Jesus reveals Himself to be the main character of the story of the Bible.

We’ve seen how Jesus is the last Adam, the Father of a new humanity.  He is the Offspring of Eve who defeated Satan. He is the Offspring of Abraham who brings blessing to all the nations. He is the High Priest of the New Covenant who sacrificed Himself to pay for all of our sins once and for all. He is the Son of David who brings the kingdom of God and will reign forever. He is our true Temple—God dwelling with us in flesh, and now the One through whom we approach the Father.

And then last week we heard how Jesus is the Judge and life-giver of the age to come. He is the Son of Man in Daniel’s vision, appointed by God to judge the world and give eternal life to the righteous and bring this age of human history to a close and usher in the Age to Come.

And so that’s the story, and it easy to see how Jesus is the main character from first to last.

Our Place in the Story

But already last week we saw there in John chapter five a sneak peak at our place in this story. We heard how Jesus was shattering expectations by not waiting until the Age to Come to do these things. In fact, he said that He had already begun His work of granting eternal life to those who believed in Him.

That was there in verses 24-25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:24-25).

This would have been so shocking to His listeners, because they believed that eternal life was something you might get in the future, at the final judgement, if you had lived a righteous life.

But Jesus said that those who believe in Him were already experiencing these Age-to-Come realities, here and now.

And last week we asked, “How is this possible? How is it possible for us to just get picked up and dropped on the other side of Judgement Day?” And the answer is the cross. Because on the cross, Jesus stepped into our place and endured Judgement Day for us. And so because our Judgement Day already happened, we can be declared righteous and given eternal life.

I’m sure you’ve heard that when someone believes in Jesus they are forgiven for all their sin and declared to be righteous in God’s eyes.

What we can forget is that this is something the Old Testament saints were hoping to get in the future at the final judgement. But because our judgement happened in Christ at the cross, we can be counted righteous in Jesus today.

And I’m sure you’ve heard that when someone believes in Jesus, they are changed on the inside and experience new life. They are born again. But what we might not realize is that being born again is simply the first stages of eternal life. Jesus has brought the final resurrection to our souls, here and now. We’ve already passed from death to life.

And so this means that, once again, we get to experience something the Old Testament saints thought they’d have to wait until way off in the future to experience. It wasn’t going to be until the end of this age that the righteous would receive eternal life and then get to live forever in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

But in Jesus, these Age-to-Come realities have come backward through time and have broken in to this age and are already at work in us, here and now.

That almost sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it, or like a fairy tale? If you know Christ, you are alive with the life of a future age. You are already experiencing the realities of the Age to Come.

New Creation

The rest of Scripture confirms this for us. For example, the verse we read earlier, 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

When we hear “new creation” we shouldn’t just think that “people who believe in Jesus experience inner change. Isn’t that nice.” No, “new creation” is talking about the New Creation. It’s talking about the New Heavens and the New Earth, like John describes in Revelation, at the very back of the book: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” (Revelation 21:1,5,  cf. Isaiah 65:17).

This is what’s waiting for us when this age of human history comes to a close. After the resurrection, after the final judgement, this Old Creation is going to pass away and we’re going to live forever in a whole New Creation.

And the Apostle Paul says that if anyone is in Christ, He is already a part of that New Creation. The old has already passed away. What God is one day going to do for all Creation, He has already done for us.

That’s why your life changed when you first believed in Jesus. That’s why you’re different than you used to be. That’s why you don’t fit in with so many of the people around you. Because you are literally a part of a different world, a future age, a New Creation.

And all of this is what we already get to experience, today.

Still One Foot Here

But isn’t it also true that there’s a lot that we still do not yet get to experience? On the inside, we’ve been born again and made a part of the New Creation. But on the outside, with our bodies, we’re still very much a part of this world.

Just a few verses earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul made the statement that “though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). There’s that distinction. We belong to two different realities. Our outer self belongs to the Old Creation, and it’s going downhill, wasting away. He’s talking there about suffering and aging.

But our inner self, part of the New Creation, is being renewed day by day.

This series is called “You Are Here.” And this is where we are in the biggest story ever told: a part of two different worlds, a part of us in each. Already, but not yet.

What Does This Matter?

Now let me ask a question that maybe some of you are wondering about right now. “What difference does any of this make?” What difference does it make if my inner man is a part of the New Creation, but my body still hurts? If I still get the flu this time of year? If I’m still fighting against my sinful desires all the time? If I have to get up early to scrape my windows in the winter?

What difference does all of this New Creation stuff make? Because sometimes it just doesn’t feel very real.

Answering that question—“What difference does it make?”—is what this next stretch of our series is about. For the next 15 weeks we get to talk about all of the ways that the arrival of Jesus and the invasion of the New Creation really changes things for you and I hear and now today.

This morning, we’re going to get a sneak peak of that. We’re going to briefly look at three topics, three experiences, and see the difference that the invasion of the New Creation makes for us.

Sin

The first thing we’re going to talk about is sin. And so let me ask: in the Old Creation, before Christ invaded our lives, what was our relationship with sin?

Jesus tells us the answer in John 8:34: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

That’s what we were: slaves to sin. It had dominion over us, which means, it was our lord (Romans 6:6, 14, 17).

Some of you here remember what that was like. You remember when you couldn’t do anything except sin, when sin controlled and dominated you, when sin was just the air you breathed and you weren’t even aware of it.

That’s the way things were. Now if we look ahead to the fullness of the Age to Come, when Jesus reigns on the earth, what will be our relationship with sin then?

The answer is that we won’t have one, because sin won’t exist. When the kingdom comes in it’s fullness, we will be permanently changed and sin will no longer be a part of the picture (Romans 8:29-30, 1 Corinthians 15:51-51, Revelation 21:4, 27).

So before Jesus—slaves to sin. In the kingdom come—no more sin. What about us today, in the time in between? What difference does Jesus make today?

What Scripture tells us is that here and now, when the New Creation invades our lives, sin is not instantly removed. But our relationship with sin gets drastically changed.

Romans 6:6 tells us that because the old has passed away, we no longer are enslaved to sin. Sin is no longer our master. And so Romans 6:12 says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” In other words, sin is not the boss of you anymore! Don’t listen to it! Don’t obey it like you used to.

And then Colossians 3:5 tells us to put our sin “to death.” We are to kill our former master.

So what difference does the New Creation make today? A huge difference. Before, we were locked up in the dungeon of sin. But now the door of the dungeon has been broken down, our chains have been unlocked, someone has put a sword in our hands, and they’ve whispered in our ear, “Go join the rebellion. Make war against your old master. Kill your sin.”

Being a New Creation today means that instead of being locked up in the dungeon of sin, we’re out on the field, fighting against it. That’s a huge change.

Suffering

There’s a second change that the invasion of Christ has brought into our lives. And it’s in relation to suffering.

So let’s look back. When we looked at the Fall in Genesis 3, we saw that God cursed the earth in response to our sin. That’s where suffering comes from. The Old Creation, before Christ, is full of suffering. Sickness. Hurt. Pain and war and poverty and disease and natural disaster and relationship breakdown.

And we know as we look ahead to the future, when Jesus reigns here on the earth, that suffering, just like sin, will be completely taken away. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

So what about us today? Once again we see that when the New Creation breaks in to our lives, it does not immediately take suffering away. We still suffer. We’ve already heard Paul tell us that his body was wasting away. We know that Timothy had stomach problems and got sick frequently (1 Tim 5:23). The New Testament is full of examples of Christians suffering.

But being a part of the New Creation means that our experience with suffering is completely changed. Instead of being a hopeless experience that simply reminds us about our coming death, suffering is now a hopeful experience that reminds us of our coming salvation.

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved…” (Romans 8:22–24).

We’re going to spend a whole morning in a few weeks talking about this. The pain of suffering in our lives is not the pain of a man who is dying. It’s the pain of a woman who’s in labour. It’s the pain of coming life. And that’s why Romans 5:3 says that we “rejoice in our sufferings.” We rejoice in our suffering instead of complaining about our suffering. That’s the massive difference that the New Creation makes in our life.

Death

Third and final example: death itself. In the Old Creation, before Christ, death was the final wages for our sin, and it was the end. Death was the moment when all hope was lost (Psalm 88:10).

And I think we all know that in the New Creation, there will be no death. We read that already from Revelation 21:4: “Death shall be no more.”

For us today, the death of our bodies is still a reality. But once again, our relationship with it has been transformed. We’ve already begun to experience eternal life in our souls. And when our bodies die, that eternal life will just continue in the presence of Christ (Philippians 1:23). Which is why Paul could say that death is gain (Philippians 1:21)

That’s a big difference isn’t it? From a total loss to total gain.

And so we see that being a part of the New Creation means that we still have to interact with these aspects of the Old Creation—sin, suffering, and death. But our relationship with them has been completely changed, and our experience with each of them is shot through with the hope and the resurrection power of Jesus.

What’s Ahead

All this is just a taste of what we get to do in these next fifteen weeks of our series. We’re going to be considering what it means for us to be here, in this spot in the story, between the already and the not-yet. And we’ll be exploring all of the ways that the arrival of Christ changes things.

How it changes our relationship with sin and suffering, like we’ve already touched on this morning. How it changes the way we read the Bible and interpret the Old Testament. How it changes our approach even to good things like family and marriage. And how the big story of the Bible helps us understand our priorities and what God expects us to do with our life.

So that’s what’s ahead for us in these next weeks. Understanding our place in the story, and how we should then live.

But I hope we’ve seen enough today to be amazed—maybe even overwhelmed. If you are in Christ, you are already a part of the New Creation.

The old has gone, the new has come, and nothing should be the same.

As you think about the next few days of your life, maybe even the next few hours, it’s very likely that you’re going to be touched by the realities of sin. Probably suffering. And maybe even death.

I hope that this morning has encouraged you to face those realities in the light of the New Creation. We can fight sin and rejoice in suffering and count death as gain because of Christ.

And so let’s stand and sing together about the power of Christ in us. And march out of here ready to walk in that power, whatever’s ahead.

When I was a child, I loved stories—like most children, I think. I was gripped by stories. Whether I was reading them in a book or watching them on the screen, stories would take me away. And one of the best parts of being a child was that the stories never really ended. When the book or the movie was finished, we’d get to go outside or down to the basement and play that thing that we’d just watched.

See, my mom was quite strict on how much screen time I was allowed, which meant that I actually got to develop an imagination. And I remember one of the best years of my life in this regard was the year I was seven and we moved out to a farm. And my little sister and I had this whole farmyard to ourselves, and so we could get dressed up in full costume and go outside without anyone watching. And the hedgerows and sheds and hay bales could become anything we’d imagine—a medieval castle, a Wild West town, Batman’s cave—whatever. And so the stories never ended.

But then you grow up. You get older. And you don’t do that kind of thing anymore. And one of the saddest things I lost as I moved from childhood into adulthood was this connection between the stories and the real world.

It’s not that adults don’t care about stories anymore. We can still stay up all night turning pages in a novel, or go escape for a couple of hours at a movie theatre.

But then it ends. The credits roll, the magic feeling fades, and it’s back to real life, as the theatre attendants come in and start sweeping up our popcorn.

But what if we found a story that was actually true? A story that didn’t end when we closed the book? A story that kept going and which we discovered that we, ourselves, were actually a part of? A story that totally changed the way we saw ourselves and saw the world and saw everything?

I got a little picture of what this might look like back in 2016 when Pokémon Go became a phenomenon. It’s this game on your phone and you use your camera and it shows you these characters in the game as if they were a part of your real world. And you actually have to go to these different places in the real world to collect these different characters.

I don’t know if it was big here in Nipawin, but down in Regina it was huge. A friend of mine was a security guard at the University, and he said that at all hours of the night there’d be groups of students roaming the campus searching for these characters.

The church I worked at became quite popular, because apparently on our lawn was one of the big spots where you could get these creatures. So we’d see people out there all the time with their phones pointed at our building moving around and playing this game.

All we could see was our building and a lawn and our sign. But equipped with their phones, these people could see a whole new layer to reality. A while different story. And they engaged with it. That game caused a lot of people to go outside and get exercise. Dads and their kids were going on walks together. The story changed things in the real world.

And this is just a little picture of what should happen to us when we open the Bible and read it and understand it. Because the story of the Bible causes us to see things around us in a completely new light. And it calls us to do something. To step out of our comfort zones and actually engage with this new reality.

But the difference between Pokémon Go and the Bible is that the Bible is actually true, and the world that the Bible describes is actually the real world. What’s real isn’t just what we can see with our own two eyes. What’s real is the garden and the snake and the flood and the pillar of fire and the throne and the temple and the covenants and the kingdom and the prophet and the priest and the king who came from a far-away place to rescue His bride and promises to come back and be with her forever. This biggest story ever told is the real story.

And this true story is still happening today. It doesn’t end when we close the book. We are in this story today. And the more we understand this story, the more we understand our place in it, and the more we understand how much this story truly changes everything.

Where We’ve Been

And so today, we’re making a transition, from the first two parts of our story to this third and biggest part, where we’re considering our place in this story. But before we get to far, it would be good for us to go back and sum up where we’ve been for the past four months, and remind ourselves of what we’ve seen so far.

We began back before the beginning, with a Father and His Son and the Holy Spirit. We saw how they planned the whole story out. And we saw how this whole plan was all grounded in love. The Father chose us and gave us grace so that we will bring glory to Jesus by loving Him forever with the very same love that the Father has for Him. That’s what this whole story is about, and it was all laid out before the beginning.

And then there was a beginning. God created the heavens and the earth for His glory. And He created Adam and Eve in His own image. We explored how Adam was the first person to bear the roles of prophet, priest, and king, and how God charged them to rule this world as His representatives.

And then the Fall happened. The snake snuck into the garden and seduced Eve who then led her husband into an act of treason against the Lord. And in response to their sin, God cursed the ground. He brought the whole creation crashing down around them.

And yet in the midst of that curse, He made a promise about a serpent-crushing saviour who would come from the woman and make things good again.

Time passed. Things got bad. A man named Noah was born, and his father hoped that he would be the one who would save us. Noah was saved from the flood, and he inherited the covenant that God had made with Adam, but almost right away he and his family fell into the same kinds of sins that the people had walked in before. The real saviour must still be coming.

So then God began a new work of creation with Abraham, promising in a covenant that through his offspring all the nations of the earth would be blessed. That promise began to take shape when God raised up Moses to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, and at the foot of Mount Sinai He entered into covenant with them, promising to dwell with them and make them a nation of royal priests.

Israel fell far short of their calling, and so God raised up a king for them, promising David that he would have a son who would rule the world forever.

And then, after centuries of the darkness of exile, the baby was born. And that’s where we’ve been for these joyful past eight weeks as we’ve seen all the ways that Jesus reveals Himself to be the main character of the story of the Bible.

We’ve seen how Jesus is the last Adam, the Father of a new humanity.  He is the Offspring of Eve who defeated Satan. He is the Offspring of Abraham who brings blessing to all the nations. He is the High Priest of the New Covenant who sacrificed Himself to pay for all of our sins once and for all. He is the Son of David who brings the kingdom of God and will reign forever. He is our true Temple—God dwelling with us in flesh, and now the One through whom we approach the Father.

And then last week we heard how Jesus is the Judge and life-giver of the age to come. He is the Son of Man in Daniel’s vision, appointed by God to judge the world and give eternal life to the righteous and bring this age of human history to a close and usher in the Age to Come.

And so that’s the story, and it easy to see how Jesus is the main character from first to last.

Our Place in the Story

But already last week we saw there in John chapter five a sneak peak at our place in this story. We heard how Jesus was shattering expectations by not waiting until the Age to Come to do these things. In fact, he said that He had already begun His work of granting eternal life to those who believed in Him.

That was there in verses 24-25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:24-25).

This would have been so shocking to His listeners, because they believed that eternal life was something you might get in the future, at the final judgement, if you had lived a righteous life.

But Jesus said that those who believe in Him were already experiencing these Age-to-Come realities, here and now.

And last week we asked, “How is this possible? How is it possible for us to just get picked up and dropped on the other side of Judgement Day?” And the answer is the cross. Because on the cross, Jesus stepped into our place and endured Judgement Day for us. And so because our Judgement Day already happened, we can be declared righteous and given eternal life.

I’m sure you’ve heard that when someone believes in Jesus they are forgiven for all their sin and declared to be righteous in God’s eyes.

What we can forget is that this is something the Old Testament saints were hoping to get in the future at the final judgement. But because our judgement happened in Christ at the cross, we can be counted righteous in Jesus today.

And I’m sure you’ve heard that when someone believes in Jesus, they are changed on the inside and experience new life. They are born again. But what we might not realize is that being born again is simply the first stages of eternal life. Jesus has brought the final resurrection to our souls, here and now. We’ve already passed from death to life.

And so this means that, once again, we get to experience something the Old Testament saints thought they’d have to wait until way off in the future to experience. It wasn’t going to be until the end of this age that the righteous would receive eternal life and then get to live forever in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

But in Jesus, these Age-to-Come realities have come backward through time and have broken in to this age and are already at work in us, here and now.

That almost sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it, or like a fairy tale? If you know Christ, you are alive with the life of a future age. You are already experiencing the realities of the Age to Come.

New Creation

The rest of Scripture confirms this for us. For example, the verse we read earlier, 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

When we hear “new creation” we shouldn’t just think that “people who believe in Jesus experience inner change. Isn’t that nice.” No, “new creation” is talking about the New Creation. It’s talking about the New Heavens and the New Earth, like John describes in Revelation, at the very back of the book: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’” (Revelation 21:1,5,  cf. Isaiah 65:17).

This is what’s waiting for us when this age of human history comes to a close. After the resurrection, after the final judgement, this Old Creation is going to pass away and we’re going to live forever in a whole New Creation.

And the Apostle Paul says that if anyone is in Christ, He is already a part of that New Creation. The old has already passed away. What God is one day going to do for all Creation, He has already done for us.

That’s why your life changed when you first believed in Jesus. That’s why you’re different than you used to be. That’s why you don’t fit in with so many of the people around you. Because you are literally a part of a different world, a future age, a New Creation.

And all of this is what we already get to experience, today.

Still One Foot Here

But isn’t it also true that there’s a lot that we still do not yet get to experience? On the inside, we’ve been born again and made a part of the New Creation. But on the outside, with our bodies, we’re still very much a part of this world.

Just a few verses earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul made the statement that “though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). There’s that distinction. We belong to two different realities. Our outer self belongs to the Old Creation, and it’s going downhill, wasting away. He’s talking there about suffering and aging.

But our inner self, part of the New Creation, is being renewed day by day.

This series is called “You Are Here.” And this is where we are in the biggest story ever told: a part of two different worlds, a part of us in each. Already, but not yet.

What Does This Matter?

Now let me ask a question that maybe some of you are wondering about right now. “What difference does any of this make?” What difference does it make if my inner man is a part of the New Creation, but my body still hurts? If I still get the flu this time of year? If I’m still fighting against my sinful desires all the time? If I have to get up early to scrape my windows in the winter?

What difference does all of this New Creation stuff make? Because sometimes it just doesn’t feel very real.

Answering that question—“What difference does it make?”—is what this next stretch of our series is about. For the next 15 weeks we get to talk about all of the ways that the arrival of Jesus and the invasion of the New Creation really changes things for you and I hear and now today.

This morning, we’re going to get a sneak peak of that. We’re going to briefly look at three topics, three experiences, and see the difference that the invasion of the New Creation makes for us.

Sin

The first thing we’re going to talk about is sin. And so let me ask: in the Old Creation, before Christ invaded our lives, what was our relationship with sin?

Jesus tells us the answer in John 8:34: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

That’s what we were: slaves to sin. It had dominion over us, which means, it was our lord (Romans 6:6, 14, 17).

Some of you here remember what that was like. You remember when you couldn’t do anything except sin, when sin controlled and dominated you, when sin was just the air you breathed and you weren’t even aware of it.

That’s the way things were. Now if we look ahead to the fullness of the Age to Come, when Jesus reigns on the earth, what will be our relationship with sin then?

The answer is that we won’t have one, because sin won’t exist. When the kingdom comes in it’s fullness, we will be permanently changed and sin will no longer be a part of the picture (Romans 8:29-30, 1 Corinthians 15:51-51, Revelation 21:4, 27).

So before Jesus—slaves to sin. In the kingdom come—no more sin. What about us today, in the time in between? What difference does Jesus make today?

What Scripture tells us is that here and now, when the New Creation invades our lives, sin is not instantly removed. But our relationship with sin gets drastically changed.

Romans 6:6 tells us that because the old has passed away, we no longer are enslaved to sin. Sin is no longer our master. And so Romans 6:12 says, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.” In other words, sin is not the boss of you anymore! Don’t listen to it! Don’t obey it like you used to.

And then Colossians 3:5 tells us to put our sin “to death.” We are to kill our former master.

So what difference does the New Creation make today? A huge difference. Before, we were locked up in the dungeon of sin. But now the door of the dungeon has been broken down, our chains have been unlocked, someone has put a sword in our hands, and they’ve whispered in our ear, “Go join the rebellion. Make war against your old master. Kill your sin.”

Being a New Creation today means that instead of being locked up in the dungeon of sin, we’re out on the field, fighting against it. That’s a huge change.

Suffering

There’s a second change that the invasion of Christ has brought into our lives. And it’s in relation to suffering.

So let’s look back. When we looked at the Fall in Genesis 3, we saw that God cursed the earth in response to our sin. That’s where suffering comes from. The Old Creation, before Christ, is full of suffering. Sickness. Hurt. Pain and war and poverty and disease and natural disaster and relationship breakdown.

And we know as we look ahead to the future, when Jesus reigns here on the earth, that suffering, just like sin, will be completely taken away. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

So what about us today? Once again we see that when the New Creation breaks in to our lives, it does not immediately take suffering away. We still suffer. We’ve already heard Paul tell us that his body was wasting away. We know that Timothy had stomach problems and got sick frequently (1 Tim 5:23). The New Testament is full of examples of Christians suffering.

But being a part of the New Creation means that our experience with suffering is completely changed. Instead of being a hopeless experience that simply reminds us about our coming death, suffering is now a hopeful experience that reminds us of our coming salvation.

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved…” (Romans 8:22–24).

We’re going to spend a whole morning in a few weeks talking about this. The pain of suffering in our lives is not the pain of a man who is dying. It’s the pain of a woman who’s in labour. It’s the pain of coming life. And that’s why Romans 5:3 says that we “rejoice in our sufferings.” We rejoice in our suffering instead of complaining about our suffering. That’s the massive difference that the New Creation makes in our life.

Death

Third and final example: death itself. In the Old Creation, before Christ, death was the final wages for our sin, and it was the end. Death was the moment when all hope was lost (Psalm 88:10).

And I think we all know that in the New Creation, there will be no death. We read that already from Revelation 21:4: “Death shall be no more.”

For us today, the death of our bodies is still a reality. But once again, our relationship with it has been transformed. We’ve already begun to experience eternal life in our souls. And when our bodies die, that eternal life will just continue in the presence of Christ (Philippians 1:23). Which is why Paul could say that death is gain (Philippians 1:21)

That’s a big difference isn’t it? From a total loss to total gain.

And so we see that being a part of the New Creation means that we still have to interact with these aspects of the Old Creation—sin, suffering, and death. But our relationship with them has been completely changed, and our experience with each of them is shot through with the hope and the resurrection power of Jesus.

What’s Ahead

All this is just a taste of what we get to do in these next fifteen weeks of our series. We’re going to be considering what it means for us to be here, in this spot in the story, between the already and the not-yet. And we’ll be exploring all of the ways that the arrival of Christ changes things.

How it changes our relationship with sin and suffering, like we’ve already touched on this morning. How it changes the way we read the Bible and interpret the Old Testament. How it changes our approach even to good things like family and marriage. And how the big story of the Bible helps us understand our priorities and what God expects us to do with our life.

So that’s what’s ahead for us in these next weeks. Understanding our place in the story, and how we should then live.

But I hope we’ve seen enough today to be amazed—maybe even overwhelmed. If you are in Christ, you are already a part of the New Creation.

The old has gone, the new has come, and nothing should be the same.

As you think about the next few days of your life, maybe even the next few hours, it’s very likely that you’re going to be touched by the realities of sin. Probably suffering. And maybe even death.

I hope that this morning has encouraged you to face those realities in the light of the New Creation. We can fight sin and rejoice in suffering and count death as gain because of Christ.

And so let’s stand and sing together about the power of Christ in us. And march out of here ready to walk in that power, whatever’s ahead.

Well, here we are on the last Sunday of 2018. This is a time of year when many of us are thinking about just that: time. We remember this year that was past, and look ahead to the year that’s still to come.

As we come to the end of 2018, I wonder how many of us are thinking about more than just the end of 2018. I wonder how many of us are thinking about the end of everything. “The end of the world,” as you might put it.

2018 has been another hard and tense year for planet earth. You might remember that last January, the group of scientists who oversee the Doomsday Clock moved the time forward to two minutes to midnight. 11:58. That’s a symbolic number, and it shows how relatively close they think we are to a global man-made catastrophe, like a nuclear war for example. 

11:58 is as close to midnight as the clock has ever been. It’s the same spot it was at in 1953 during the height of the Cold War. Since then it’s backed off at times. But according to the experts, right now planet Earth is a dangerous place to live, and might not be all that far away from some form of an apocalypse.

As Christians, as 2018 comes to a close, we have reason to be thinking about the end of all things as we know them. Because, Doomsday Clock or not, we believe that God has told us that world history is moving towards a definite conclusion, a date known by Him on which this present age of human history will come to an end. And after that, a completely different kind of history will begin. The Age to Come, when God’s kingdom finally arrives here on earth in its fullness as it is in heaven.

And as we leave 2018 behind and move into 2019, that means we are one year closer to this appointment with divine destiny. We’re one year closer to the kingdom come.

And that’s what we’re going to be talking about this morning, as we make our final stop in this part of our series. We’ve been exploring how Jesus is the main character in the story of the Bible, and today we’re going to be seeing how Jesus is the main character of the end of the story. How Jesus Christ will be the central actor when this age comes to an end and the Age to Come begins. Today we are going to be exploring how Jesus is the Judge and Life-Giver of the Age to Come.

We’re going to be spending some time in John chapter 5, which we just read, and in which Jesus explains these things for us. But in order to understand John 5, we need to go back to the Old Testament and refresh ourselves on how the Jewish people generally thought about these things. What were their expectations for the last days, the end of this age? And how does that help us understand Jesus’ words in John 5?

And we’re going to try to answer those questions by reading a couple of passages from the book of Daniel.

Daniel 7: Judgement Day and the Son of Man

Our first stop is Daniel 7. In that chapter, Daniel is given a vision that represents the unfolding of human history in this present age. He sees four beasts, who we later learn represent four king or kingdoms (Daniel 7:17). The fourth beast is more terrifying than all of the others, and it grows a horn out of it’s head which has a mouth which speaks “great things” (Daniel 7:8). And this horn persecutes the people of God (v. 21). We later learn this horn represents a specific king (v. 24).

And then we read, beginning in Daniel 7 verse 9, “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire” (Daniel 7:9–11).

The picture here is of Judgement Day. God sitting in judgement. And He passes judgement on this beast, this kingdom and it’s king, and it is destroyed.

And then we read, in verse 13, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13–14).

Now when Daniel says “I saw in the night visions,” it might sound like that first vision has come to an end, and a new vision has begun. But if you read the rest of the chapter, it’s clear that this vision of the Son of Man is a continuation of what went before.

And so the picture that emerges is that there are these four kingdoms. And the fourth kingdom has one specific king who harms and persecutes the people of God. But then God will sit in judgement, and destroy this final kingdom, and then give all authority and kingship into the hands of this Son of Man. And so after this final judgement, the Messiah reigns forever with His saints (Daniel 7:17-27, cf. Daniel 2:31-45).

And so this is a basic understanding of how the Jewish people understood how history was going to unfold and how the Age to Come was going to begin.

Daniel 12: The Resurrection

But there’s more to this picture. And we’ll see some of this if we turn to the last chapters in Daniel.

In Daniel 11, we read about a person, a king, who sounds an awful lot like the “horn” from chapter 7. He speaks astonishing things against God (Daniel 11:36) and persecutes God’s people (Daniel 11:41). And then we read this in chapter 12, beginning in verse 1:

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:1–3). 

These verses give us a different perspective on the final judgement. In chapter 7 we read about books that were opened and kings and kingdoms being judged. Here in chapter 12, it’s individual people who are being judged. 

And then we read something totally new and unexpected in verse 2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Alongside of the final judgement will be a resurrection from the dead. People who have died are going to be raised to life.

And some of those who are resurrected will be given everlasting life. They will be the ones who get to share in the Age to Come. Others will be given shame and everlasting contempt, which has the idea of eternal punishment.

This passage is the clearest place in the Old Testament where a resurrection from the dead is spoken of. And it adds a really important piece to this sketch of the end times. Because it tells us that we each have the opportunity to share in the Age to Come, regardless of when we live for die. But in order to receive this eternal life, we need to pass the final judgement. We need to be found righteous in the courtroom of heaven. And if that doesn’t happen, then we don’t get eternal life: we’ll be sent away to eternal punishment.

And so it goes without saying that these realities shaped the hopes of the people of Jesus’ day. They thought and wrote and talked a lot about these things. And it really framed the way that they lived. People wanted to life good and righteous lives, so that they would be declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven in the final judgement, so that they would be rewarded with eternal life and get to share in the Age to Come. That was their hope. Be righteous so I can receive eternal life. 

“Whatever the Father Does”

With this sketch in the back of our minds, we can turn now to John chapter 5, and hear Jesus talk to the Jewish religious leaders about these things.

The context of John 5 is really interesting. Because it doesn’t begin as a discussion about the last things. It begins as a discussion about the Sabbath. Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders said: “You can’t do that! That’s working on the Sabbath.”

So Jesus explains why it’s ok for Him to heal on the Sabbath. He says that He is allowed to work on the Sabbath because God works on the Sabbath, and He is the Son of God, and so He can do whatever God does (John 5:17). That’s what He says in verse 19: “whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19).

And then He says, in verse 20: “And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel” (John 5:20). In other words, making a lame man walk is just the beginning. The Son of God is going to do greater works than this, works that only God can do, and you will marvel.

So what are these greater works that the Son of God is going to do?

Giving Life

Verse 21: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (John 5:21). What’s greater than making a lame man walk? Giving a dead man life. And Jesus, the Son of God, is going to do this.

Now when you hear about Jesus giving life to the dead, what do you think about? Maybe the story of Lazarus?

Lazarus does fit into this. But the question we need to ask is: what would the Jewish people listening to Jesus have thought when He started talking about raising the dead? And the answer is that they would have been thinking about the resurrection from the dead that will happen when this age comes to an end. The resurrection that Daniel talked about.

And Jesus is saying that as the Son of God, He is the one that will be doing that. He is the one who will be giving life in that age-to-come resurrection. 

And that’s what He confirms for us in verses 28-29: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28–29). 

Jesus is basically quoting Daniel 12:2, putting it in slightly different words. And he’s saying: I’m going to be the one doing this. I will be the one calling forth the dead from their graves. And I will be the one giving eternal life to those who deserve it.

Passing Judgement

Now you’ll remember that in Daniel, the resurrection from the dead is connected to the last judgement. And so it’s not a surprise that in verse 22, Jesus moves right from resurrection to the idea of judgement. And what He says is stunning: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22).

Jesus is not just the life-giver. He is the judge. He does not just raise from the dead and give eternal life; He is the one who evaluates people and determines who gets eternal life and who does not.

He makes this even more clear in verse 27: “And he [God the Father] has given him [God the Son] authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27). 

Do you remember the Son of Man from Daniel’s dream? The one who approaches the Ancient of Days, and who is given an eternal kingdom that will never pass away or be destroyed?

Jesus says, I am He. I am the Son of Man. I’m the eternal, divine king. And I’ve been given authority by the Father to execute judgement. He has appointed me the judge and the life-giver.

This Begins Now

So Jesus has taken this in a direction nobody was expecting. It started with the Sabbath, and now Jesus has just informed his critics that He is the one who will be deciding their eternal destiny when the Age to Come dawns. He really turned the tables on them, didn’t He? 

But Jesus goes even further here. Because what He tells us next is that all of this work of judgement and life-giving is not something He is just going to do at the end of this age. They don’t need to wait for the fullness of the Age to Come to witness Him doing His work of judging and resurrecting. Because this work had already begun.

And we see this in the this mind-boggling “truly, truly” statement in verse 24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (John 5:24). 

Just stop there for now and listen to what Jesus is saying. Whoever hears his word today and believes the God who sent him “has eternal life.”

Those are revolutionary words for two reasons. First, because Jesus says that eternal life is given to those who believe. Not to those who work. Not to those who keep the law perfectly. No, eternal life will be given to those who hear His word and believe.

That’s the gospel. We are saved by grace through faith. Not by works.

But the second shocking thing that Jesus says here is that whoever believes “has eternal life.” Everybody hearing Jesus would have expected Him to say, “will have eternal life, in the Age to Come.”

But no, Jesus does not say that. He says that those who believe have eternal life. Today. Now. That thing that you were waiting for and hoping to get then, you get now.

But how can that happen? How can you receive eternal life before the final judgement? You can hear someone saying, “It doesn’t work that way. You only get eternal life if you pass the final judgement and God looks at your whole life and declares you to be righteous.”

But listen to what Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). 

It’s hard for us to wrap our heads around how big and how revolutionary this statement would have sounded to Jesus’ first hearers.

Those who hear and believe the words of Christ are given eternal life now because they have skipped over Judgement Day. They do “not come into judgement.” Judgement Day does not apply to them.

It’s like they’ve been picked up, carried past the events of Judgement Day, and dropped on the other side with all the rewards of a righteous standing with God. 

They’ve already “passed from death to life.” They are already living in the Age to Come. Even though their bodies have not been resurrected, their souls have been. And they are already experiencing the eternal life of the Age to Come in their souls.

That is what Jesus is getting at in verse 25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). 

That hour is coming in terms of our bodies. But the hour is now here in terms of our souls. When we hear and believe the words of Christ, this has happened to us.

How Is This Possible?

Now there’s still some questions that need to be answered here. How is this even possible? How can certain people be exempt from Judgement Day? How can God reward you for living a righteous life if you haven’t lived your whole life yet?

And friends, the answer to these questions is the cross of Jesus Christ. Because on the cross, Jesus took our place, and He endured Judgement Day for us.

You’ll remember we read that as Jesus hung on the cross, the sun went dark, and the earth shook, and some people were resurrected from the dead (Matthew 27:45, 51-52). Those were not just random events. Those were events that the Old Testament connects with the Day of the Lord, when God would come and judge sin.

And so we should understand that when Jesus died on the cross, that was our Judgement Day. Jesus stepped into our place and bore the judgement of God for us. “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

So we’re not exempt from Judgement Day. It’s just that Jesus took our Judgement Day instead of us.

And so God can count us righteous before our lives are over because Jesus already paid for all of our unrighteousness.

And, because Jesus is righteous, and God counts us righteous in Jesus. Do you remember this idea from Philippians 3? Jesus is like a team captain, who scores all the goals singlehandedly, and then his each person on his team gets to wear the championship ring. Jesus was righteous for us, and God counts us righteous, gives us the status of righteousness, in Him. It’s what the New Testament calls “justification.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 sums this up for us when it says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So for all of you who trust in Jesus, Judgement Day is not a future event you need to be scared of. It’s a past event you can look back on. And because of the work of Jesus on the cross, you’re been dropped on the other side of Judgement Day. You’ve already received the passing grade, you’ve already been declared righteous, and you’re already enjoying eternal life.

The Main Character, First to Last

Now next week, when we kick off the third and final leg of our series, we’re going to come back to these ideas and talk in more depth about what they mean for us. Because there’s a lot more we need to see in terms of the way that these truths should impact how we see ourselves and understand our place in the story.

But today, I want to end by turning our eyes on Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, the one who performs the last-days, age-to-come works of judgement and resurrection. Jesus, the one who lives a righteous life on behalf of His people, the one who steps in and endures Judgement Day for them, so that they can be forgiven and justified in Him and already begin to enjoy the benefits of the Age to Come.

Now here’s what’s so significant for us to pay attention to here. For the past several weeks we’ve been hearing about Jesus being the main character of the story of the Bible. How he fulfills these different roles that are spoken of.

And for most of these roles—the offspring of Abraham, the son of David—many people thought that it would be a man who comes and fulfills this role. David was a man, his son would be a man. Abraham was a man, his son would be a man.

But here in John 5, Jesus claims that to fulfill these roles that only God can fill. Judgement and life-giving were God’s work, and only God could do them. And that’s really what Jesus is demonstrating here: as the Son of God, He is God.

And so I trust you’re seeing how Jesus, being fully God and fully man, is the only person who can be the main character of the Bible. He does what men should have done but failed to do, and He does what only God can do.

From the very beginning of human history, He holds the centre stage. And that position continues into the Age to Come, as He is the one holding the keys to that age. He is the one who decides who gets to receive the reward of eternal life, and He is the one who gives that reward out.

So I hope you’re seeing the supremacy of Jesus. This really is all about Him, in ways bigger than we ever could have imagined.

So let’s take that home with us today. That Jesus is the main character. Which means that we are not. This story is not about you. The life that you’re living is not about you. We are all just supporting characters in the biggest story ever told. From first to last, it’s always been about the main character, Jesus Christ.

And that’s a truth that has a million practical applications. You want to see a difference in the way you act, the way you feel? Embrace the truth that your life is not about you but is one part of a big story that’s all about Jesus. Embrace the truth that the purpose of your life is to make Jesus look good. Embrace 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Embrace 1 Peter 4:11—“that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). And go looking for ways to live that out, to make that happen.

And here’s where we’re going to end this morning. I want us to end by being amazed. Because one of the things that makes this main character so amazing is how much love he shows to the supporting characters.

How we all start off as villains in the story, but how He pursues us and dies for us and shares His reward with us and gives us more than we ever could have dreamed to imagine, let alone ask.

And that’s where we’re going to end. “And Can it Be?” How can all of this even be true? But it is.

Well, here we are on the last Sunday of 2018. This is a time of year when many of us are thinking about just that: time. We remember this year that was past, and look ahead to the year that’s still to come.

As we come to the end of 2018, I wonder how many of us are thinking about more than just the end of 2018. I wonder how many of us are thinking about the end of everything. “The end of the world,” as you might put it.

2018 has been another hard and tense year for planet earth. You might remember that last January, the group of scientists who oversee the Doomsday Clock moved the time forward to two minutes to midnight. 11:58. That’s a symbolic number, and it shows how relatively close they think we are to a global man-made catastrophe, like a nuclear war for example. 

11:58 is as close to midnight as the clock has ever been. It’s the same spot it was at in 1953 during the height of the Cold War. Since then it’s backed off at times. But according to the experts, right now planet Earth is a dangerous place to live, and might not be all that far away from some form of an apocalypse.

As Christians, as 2018 comes to a close, we have reason to be thinking about the end of all things as we know them. Because, Doomsday Clock or not, we believe that God has told us that world history is moving towards a definite conclusion, a date known by Him on which this present age of human history will come to an end. And after that, a completely different kind of history will begin. The Age to Come, when God’s kingdom finally arrives here on earth in its fullness as it is in heaven.

And as we leave 2018 behind and move into 2019, that means we are one year closer to this appointment with divine destiny. We’re one year closer to the kingdom come.

And that’s what we’re going to be talking about this morning, as we make our final stop in this part of our series. We’ve been exploring how Jesus is the main character in the story of the Bible, and today we’re going to be seeing how Jesus is the main character of the end of the story. How Jesus Christ will be the central actor when this age comes to an end and the Age to Come begins. Today we are going to be exploring how Jesus is the Judge and Life-Giver of the Age to Come.

We’re going to be spending some time in John chapter 5, which we just read, and in which Jesus explains these things for us. But in order to understand John 5, we need to go back to the Old Testament and refresh ourselves on how the Jewish people generally thought about these things. What were their expectations for the last days, the end of this age? And how does that help us understand Jesus’ words in John 5?

And we’re going to try to answer those questions by reading a couple of passages from the book of Daniel.

Daniel 7: Judgement Day and the Son of Man

Our first stop is Daniel 7. In that chapter, Daniel is given a vision that represents the unfolding of human history in this present age. He sees four beasts, who we later learn represent four king or kingdoms (Daniel 7:17). The fourth beast is more terrifying than all of the others, and it grows a horn out of it’s head which has a mouth which speaks “great things” (Daniel 7:8). And this horn persecutes the people of God (v. 21). We later learn this horn represents a specific king (v. 24).

And then we read, beginning in Daniel 7 verse 9, “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire” (Daniel 7:9–11).

The picture here is of Judgement Day. God sitting in judgement. And He passes judgement on this beast, this kingdom and it’s king, and it is destroyed.

And then we read, in verse 13, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13–14).

Now when Daniel says “I saw in the night visions,” it might sound like that first vision has come to an end, and a new vision has begun. But if you read the rest of the chapter, it’s clear that this vision of the Son of Man is a continuation of what went before.

And so the picture that emerges is that there are these four kingdoms. And the fourth kingdom has one specific king who harms and persecutes the people of God. But then God will sit in judgement, and destroy this final kingdom, and then give all authority and kingship into the hands of this Son of Man. And so after this final judgement, the Messiah reigns forever with His saints (Daniel 7:17-27, cf. Daniel 2:31-45).

And so this is a basic understanding of how the Jewish people understood how history was going to unfold and how the Age to Come was going to begin.

Daniel 12: The Resurrection

But there’s more to this picture. And we’ll see some of this if we turn to the last chapters in Daniel.

In Daniel 11, we read about a person, a king, who sounds an awful lot like the “horn” from chapter 7. He speaks astonishing things against God (Daniel 11:36) and persecutes God’s people (Daniel 11:41). And then we read this in chapter 12, beginning in verse 1:

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:1–3). 

These verses give us a different perspective on the final judgement. In chapter 7 we read about books that were opened and kings and kingdoms being judged. Here in chapter 12, it’s individual people who are being judged. 

And then we read something totally new and unexpected in verse 2: “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2). Alongside of the final judgement will be a resurrection from the dead. People who have died are going to be raised to life.

And some of those who are resurrected will be given everlasting life. They will be the ones who get to share in the Age to Come. Others will be given shame and everlasting contempt, which has the idea of eternal punishment.

This passage is the clearest place in the Old Testament where a resurrection from the dead is spoken of. And it adds a really important piece to this sketch of the end times. Because it tells us that we each have the opportunity to share in the Age to Come, regardless of when we live for die. But in order to receive this eternal life, we need to pass the final judgement. We need to be found righteous in the courtroom of heaven. And if that doesn’t happen, then we don’t get eternal life: we’ll be sent away to eternal punishment.

And so it goes without saying that these realities shaped the hopes of the people of Jesus’ day. They thought and wrote and talked a lot about these things. And it really framed the way that they lived. People wanted to life good and righteous lives, so that they would be declared righteous in the courtroom of heaven in the final judgement, so that they would be rewarded with eternal life and get to share in the Age to Come. That was their hope. Be righteous so I can receive eternal life. 

“Whatever the Father Does”

With this sketch in the back of our minds, we can turn now to John chapter 5, and hear Jesus talk to the Jewish religious leaders about these things.

The context of John 5 is really interesting. Because it doesn’t begin as a discussion about the last things. It begins as a discussion about the Sabbath. Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, and the religious leaders said: “You can’t do that! That’s working on the Sabbath.”

So Jesus explains why it’s ok for Him to heal on the Sabbath. He says that He is allowed to work on the Sabbath because God works on the Sabbath, and He is the Son of God, and so He can do whatever God does (John 5:17). That’s what He says in verse 19: “whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19).

And then He says, in verse 20: “And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel” (John 5:20). In other words, making a lame man walk is just the beginning. The Son of God is going to do greater works than this, works that only God can do, and you will marvel.

So what are these greater works that the Son of God is going to do?

Giving Life

Verse 21: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will” (John 5:21). What’s greater than making a lame man walk? Giving a dead man life. And Jesus, the Son of God, is going to do this.

Now when you hear about Jesus giving life to the dead, what do you think about? Maybe the story of Lazarus?

Lazarus does fit into this. But the question we need to ask is: what would the Jewish people listening to Jesus have thought when He started talking about raising the dead? And the answer is that they would have been thinking about the resurrection from the dead that will happen when this age comes to an end. The resurrection that Daniel talked about.

And Jesus is saying that as the Son of God, He is the one that will be doing that. He is the one who will be giving life in that age-to-come resurrection. 

And that’s what He confirms for us in verses 28-29: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28–29). 

Jesus is basically quoting Daniel 12:2, putting it in slightly different words. And he’s saying: I’m going to be the one doing this. I will be the one calling forth the dead from their graves. And I will be the one giving eternal life to those who deserve it.

Passing Judgement

Now you’ll remember that in Daniel, the resurrection from the dead is connected to the last judgement. And so it’s not a surprise that in verse 22, Jesus moves right from resurrection to the idea of judgement. And what He says is stunning: “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22).

Jesus is not just the life-giver. He is the judge. He does not just raise from the dead and give eternal life; He is the one who evaluates people and determines who gets eternal life and who does not.

He makes this even more clear in verse 27: “And he [God the Father] has given him [God the Son] authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27). 

Do you remember the Son of Man from Daniel’s dream? The one who approaches the Ancient of Days, and who is given an eternal kingdom that will never pass away or be destroyed?

Jesus says, I am He. I am the Son of Man. I’m the eternal, divine king. And I’ve been given authority by the Father to execute judgement. He has appointed me the judge and the life-giver.

This Begins Now

So Jesus has taken this in a direction nobody was expecting. It started with the Sabbath, and now Jesus has just informed his critics that He is the one who will be deciding their eternal destiny when the Age to Come dawns. He really turned the tables on them, didn’t He? 

But Jesus goes even further here. Because what He tells us next is that all of this work of judgement and life-giving is not something He is just going to do at the end of this age. They don’t need to wait for the fullness of the Age to Come to witness Him doing His work of judging and resurrecting. Because this work had already begun.

And we see this in the this mind-boggling “truly, truly” statement in verse 24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life” (John 5:24). 

Just stop there for now and listen to what Jesus is saying. Whoever hears his word today and believes the God who sent him “has eternal life.”

Those are revolutionary words for two reasons. First, because Jesus says that eternal life is given to those who believe. Not to those who work. Not to those who keep the law perfectly. No, eternal life will be given to those who hear His word and believe.

That’s the gospel. We are saved by grace through faith. Not by works.

But the second shocking thing that Jesus says here is that whoever believes “has eternal life.” Everybody hearing Jesus would have expected Him to say, “will have eternal life, in the Age to Come.”

But no, Jesus does not say that. He says that those who believe have eternal life. Today. Now. That thing that you were waiting for and hoping to get then, you get now.

But how can that happen? How can you receive eternal life before the final judgement? You can hear someone saying, “It doesn’t work that way. You only get eternal life if you pass the final judgement and God looks at your whole life and declares you to be righteous.”

But listen to what Jesus says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). 

It’s hard for us to wrap our heads around how big and how revolutionary this statement would have sounded to Jesus’ first hearers.

Those who hear and believe the words of Christ are given eternal life now because they have skipped over Judgement Day. They do “not come into judgement.” Judgement Day does not apply to them.

It’s like they’ve been picked up, carried past the events of Judgement Day, and dropped on the other side with all the rewards of a righteous standing with God. 

They’ve already “passed from death to life.” They are already living in the Age to Come. Even though their bodies have not been resurrected, their souls have been. And they are already experiencing the eternal life of the Age to Come in their souls.

That is what Jesus is getting at in verse 25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). 

That hour is coming in terms of our bodies. But the hour is now here in terms of our souls. When we hear and believe the words of Christ, this has happened to us.

How Is This Possible?

Now there’s still some questions that need to be answered here. How is this even possible? How can certain people be exempt from Judgement Day? How can God reward you for living a righteous life if you haven’t lived your whole life yet?

And friends, the answer to these questions is the cross of Jesus Christ. Because on the cross, Jesus took our place, and He endured Judgement Day for us.

You’ll remember we read that as Jesus hung on the cross, the sun went dark, and the earth shook, and some people were resurrected from the dead (Matthew 27:45, 51-52). Those were not just random events. Those were events that the Old Testament connects with the Day of the Lord, when God would come and judge sin.

And so we should understand that when Jesus died on the cross, that was our Judgement Day. Jesus stepped into our place and bore the judgement of God for us. “The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

So we’re not exempt from Judgement Day. It’s just that Jesus took our Judgement Day instead of us.

And so God can count us righteous before our lives are over because Jesus already paid for all of our unrighteousness.

And, because Jesus is righteous, and God counts us righteous in Jesus. Do you remember this idea from Philippians 3? Jesus is like a team captain, who scores all the goals singlehandedly, and then his each person on his team gets to wear the championship ring. Jesus was righteous for us, and God counts us righteous, gives us the status of righteousness, in Him. It’s what the New Testament calls “justification.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 sums this up for us when it says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

So for all of you who trust in Jesus, Judgement Day is not a future event you need to be scared of. It’s a past event you can look back on. And because of the work of Jesus on the cross, you’re been dropped on the other side of Judgement Day. You’ve already received the passing grade, you’ve already been declared righteous, and you’re already enjoying eternal life.

The Main Character, First to Last

Now next week, when we kick off the third and final leg of our series, we’re going to come back to these ideas and talk in more depth about what they mean for us. Because there’s a lot more we need to see in terms of the way that these truths should impact how we see ourselves and understand our place in the story.

But today, I want to end by turning our eyes on Jesus. Jesus, the Son of God, the one who performs the last-days, age-to-come works of judgement and resurrection. Jesus, the one who lives a righteous life on behalf of His people, the one who steps in and endures Judgement Day for them, so that they can be forgiven and justified in Him and already begin to enjoy the benefits of the Age to Come.

Now here’s what’s so significant for us to pay attention to here. For the past several weeks we’ve been hearing about Jesus being the main character of the story of the Bible. How he fulfills these different roles that are spoken of.

And for most of these roles—the offspring of Abraham, the son of David—many people thought that it would be a man who comes and fulfills this role. David was a man, his son would be a man. Abraham was a man, his son would be a man.

But here in John 5, Jesus claims that to fulfill these roles that only God can fill. Judgement and life-giving were God’s work, and only God could do them. And that’s really what Jesus is demonstrating here: as the Son of God, He is God.

And so I trust you’re seeing how Jesus, being fully God and fully man, is the only person who can be the main character of the Bible. He does what men should have done but failed to do, and He does what only God can do.

From the very beginning of human history, He holds the centre stage. And that position continues into the Age to Come, as He is the one holding the keys to that age. He is the one who decides who gets to receive the reward of eternal life, and He is the one who gives that reward out.

So I hope you’re seeing the supremacy of Jesus. This really is all about Him, in ways bigger than we ever could have imagined.

So let’s take that home with us today. That Jesus is the main character. Which means that we are not. This story is not about you. The life that you’re living is not about you. We are all just supporting characters in the biggest story ever told. From first to last, it’s always been about the main character, Jesus Christ.

And that’s a truth that has a million practical applications. You want to see a difference in the way you act, the way you feel? Embrace the truth that your life is not about you but is one part of a big story that’s all about Jesus. Embrace the truth that the purpose of your life is to make Jesus look good. Embrace 1 Corinthians 10:31: “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Embrace 1 Peter 4:11—“that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). And go looking for ways to live that out, to make that happen.

And here’s where we’re going to end this morning. I want us to end by being amazed. Because one of the things that makes this main character so amazing is how much love he shows to the supporting characters.

How we all start off as villains in the story, but how He pursues us and dies for us and shares His reward with us and gives us more than we ever could have dreamed to imagine, let alone ask.

And that’s where we’re going to end. “And Can it Be?” How can all of this even be true? But it is.

When I’m travelling, or even just on days when I’m working in the office all day, one of the things I enjoy is FaceTiming my family. I’m so thankful that I get to be a dad in an era when technology lets me not only hear their voice, but actually see their faces as we talk to each other.

It’s so much better than just a phone call. 

But as great as it is, it’s still not the same as actually being there with them. That becomes plain when the conversation draws to a close, and my very affectionate daughter wants to give me a hug. So she grabs the iPad and embraces the cold glass and aluminum.

It’s awfully cute, but all I see is her ear taking up my whole screen. You still can’t hug over FaceTime. And it goes to show that as wonderful as this communication is, nothing replaces really being there.

The Story of His Presence

That’s true in our lives, and it’s certainly true in the story of the Bible. As we’ve looked at the big story of the Bible over the past several months, God’s presence—God’s being with His people—has been one of the themes that’s been woven all throughout. it.

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve for relationship with Him. He came in the cool of the day to walk with them in Eden (Genesis 3:8). And when they rebelled against Him, they were sent out of the garden, away from the place God had created for them, and away from the presence of God. Adam and Eve experienced exile.

And from that point forward, each time God stepped into the story to redeem and save and make a covenant, His presence is a major factor. One of the best examples of this is the exodus from Egypt.

As God brought His people out of Egypt, He was with them in the pillar of cloud and fire. And one of the first priorities after the covenant had been established was to build the tabernacle, where God’s presence would be manifest.

In relation to the tabernacle, God said to Moses in Exodus 29, “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them” (Exodus 29:45–46) 

It’s just like He said later on in Leviticus 26: “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:11–12). It’s important to note that the word for “walk” that’s used there is the very same word used in Genesis 3:8 to describe God walking in the the garden.

So in the tabernacle, God was bringing His people a step closer to Eden. And this is further explained by the connections between the tabernacle and Eden, like the cherubim guarding the presence of God or the golden lamp stand that paralleled the Tree of Life. These are some of the reasons why some theologians have described the tabernacle as a mini-Eden, the place where God once again walks with His people.

Being Near God

And the tabernacle was really the centrepiece of their life as a nation. As the people settled in the promised land, they were to go up to the tabernacle three times a year to “appear before the Lord GOD,” in the words of Exodus 23:17. If they wanted to be near God, they had to go to the place where He was.

We see hear of this longing to be in the presence of God all throughout Israel’s hymnbook, the Psalms. Psalm 84:1-2 says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” That’s talking about the temple, which replaced the tabernacle as God’s permanent residence.

Similarly, Psalm 42:1-2 says, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” That language of “appearing before God” is taken from Exodus 23 and speaks of going up to the Jerusalem temple to worship.

Psalm 43 says, “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God” (Psalm 43:3–4). 

And then there’s a whole collection of 15 Psalms, from 120-143, called the Psalms of Ascent, which are all songs for the journey going up to Jerusalem.

This is something we often miss: that in the Old Covenant, the people’s relationship with God was directly connected to their ability to go appear before God, be near God, in the temple.

Exile

And so, when the people were finally cast into exile by the Babylonians, and the temple was destroyed, the sharp edge of the whole experience was really losing access to the presence of God. 

And that’s why we see, for example, Daniel praying towards Jerusalem three times a day (Daniel 6:10). The great hope of the exiles was that God would bring them out of these foreign lands and bring them back to Himself at a new temple in Jerusalem.

Isaiah prophesied about this return from exile, and it’s interesting to read how he described it like a second exodus (Isaiah 43:16–19). Just like God led His people out of Egypt in order to dwell among them, so He was going to lead them out of Babylon in a great second exodus so that He might dwell among them again.

And so, after the 70 years had passed, we read in Ezra chapter one how Cyrus king of Persia made a decree allowing the Jews to go back to their land, and… do what? Rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1–4). Just like in the first exodus, where they left Egypt and built the tabernacle right away, so a second time, God’s people leave the place of captivity and begin to build a dwelling place for God.

But something was different about this second temple. We read in Ezra chapter 6 about the day it was finished, and the celebration the people had, and that’s about it (Ezra 6:15-16). It’s so different from when the tabernacle had been completed in front of Mt. Sinai, and God came in a visible way, filling up the place in a cloud of glory (Exodus 40:34). He did the same thing when Solomon finished the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). God was showing them in a very visible way that He was there and would dwell there with them.

But when that second temple was finished after the exile, nothing like that happened. There was no glory. God’s presence never came and filled the place like it had before. 

This just confirmed the suspicions that while the people had returned to Jerusalem, God hadn’t returned with them. They were still in exile, still without the presence of God, even within their own land. The people were still waiting for God to be with them.

Prepare the Way of the Lord

So, can you imagine the excitement in the hearts of the people, centuries later, when a wild-haired prophet named John began to call people to repent out in the Judean desert? And when the religious leaders asked him who he was, “He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said’” (John 1:23).

Now here’s what’s so important about this. John is quoting from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 40, from one of the very prophecies that spoke about the second exodus, where God promised to come and be with His people again.

By quoting this verse, and applying it to himself, John is saying: the second exodus is finally going to happen for real. The exile is about to end. The Lord is finally coming to be with His people.

What John may or may not have known is that the Lord was already there. And He was there in a way more real and more precious than perhaps anyone would have dared to guess.

Would anyone have guessed that God was already there, walking among them as a man?

The clues were there all along. Isaiah himself had told us: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), which means “God with us.”

He also told us that “to us a child is born, to us a son is given,” and that this child shall be called “mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6).

And so it was that when God returned to His people, He didn’t come in cloud or smoke and thunder. He came as a baby.

“And the Word Tabernacled Among Us”

I love how the Apostle John describes this in the passage we read earlier. John begins by introducing us to the Word who was with God and is God. The second Person of the Trinity, through Whom all things were created. And then verse 14 tells us these incredible words: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 

The divine word because flesh. You may remember from our series in 1 John how mind-boggling this would have been to many of John’s readers. They thought that these bodies, this flesh, was a bad thing, and the best thing will be when we die and finally cast them off, and all that’s left is our soul.

But this divine Word, the light and life of men, became flesh. He took on a body. He became an embryo, and then a fetus, and then He was born.

And so, verse 14 says that He “dwelt among us.” The word that’s used here for “dwell” is so rich. In the original Greek this word actually literally means “pitched his tent.” I’m not making this up: you can go look it up. And so verse 14 is really saying, “The word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.” Or, as I’ve heard it put, “The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

God walked among His people in the tabernacle, and now He walked among His people in flesh. In a body.

So I hope now the title for today’s message makes sense. When the Word became flesh, Jesus replaced the temple. He became the way in which God dwelt with His people. Not in a building, but in a person. 

This is what’s going on in those words we read earlier from John chapter 2. “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:19–21). 

Jesus’ body, His flesh, was the new and true temple. It was the place where God’s presence really was, where God really dwelt with His people.

And throughout His ministry Jesus made repeated references to the truth that it was through Him, not just though a building in Jerusalem, that people would meet with God and experience His presence and grace.

It shows up in places we might not see it at first—for example, in the familiar story of the paralytic who was lowered down in front of Jesus through a hole in the roof. And what did Jesus say to him? 

“Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). And then we read “Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:6–7).

There’s another layer to the story here. Only God would forgive sins, and where did He do that? Where is the place you would go to receive God’s forgiveness for your sins?

The temple.

And here, in a crowded house miles away from Jerusalem, Jesus does something that could only happen at the temple. He forgives sins. In other words, He is saying, “I am the true temple.”

Not Just His Body

I hope you see how rich this is. And yet I also hope you see how disappointing this would be if this is where the story ended. 

If Jesus’ body replaced the temple, and that was it, you and I would still be in a really tough spot. Because we’d still need to travel to be near Jesus in order to experience the presence of God. And now that Jesus, in His flesh, isn’t even here on Earth anymore, we’d be in essentially the same place as the people were before He came in the first place.

But we know this is not the end of the story. Because Jesus Himself told us that He was going to do something that would open up access to God in a bigger and greater way than anyone could have imagined.

We hear about this in His conversation with the woman at the well in John 4. “The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father’” (John 4:19–21).

You see what He’s saying? The time is approaching where it won’t matter where you worship God. You won’t need to be in a specific place to worship God and access His presence. That hour is coming.

And that hour came when Jesus went to the cross for us. Because there on the cross, Jesus paid for our sins.

The whole reason why God’s presence was kept locked away in the temple behind a curtain with priests as the go-betweens is because of our sin. God is holy and if we entered His presence we would die.

And so there on the cross, Jesus died to make us holy. He took our place and suffered the full punishment for our sins. And as He did, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Do you know what Jesus suffered on the cross? Exile. Jesus was cast out from the presence of God. Jesus experienced the depths of spiritual exile for us.

And He did it so that we would never need to again. Jesus suffered our exile so that we would be counted righteous in Him and could experience the presence of God forever.

And so, when Jesus “cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit… the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50–51). 

The curtain of the temple is what separated God’s presence from the rest of us. You and I could never go behind there. But God ripped it in half. Not needed anymore. Because our sins have been paid for, and we’ve been counted righteous in Christ through faith, we have access to the Father.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). 

Because of the death of Jesus, we have access to God at all times and in all places. Just listen to these words from Hebrews chapter 10:

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19–22). 

Oh, there’s so much there for us to see. Do you hear these temple references? Wherever we are, we can enter into the holy places—we can draw near to the presence of God—through Jesus and the way that He purified us when He died for us on the cross. 

Is This It?

This is so rich. But this is also a spot where it’s easy for us to trip up. Because we hear these words about holy places and drawing near, and it might be easy for us to ask, “Have I ever experienced anything like that? Have I ever felt like I ‘entered the holy places’? Am I missing out on something?”

I’ve spent some time in churches that used these words to try to seek the presence of God through mystical experiences. The whole church service was one big hyped-up journey and we would try to arrive at some kind of experience where it “felt” like we had been in the presence of God. And if we had a good enough experience or felt the right things, then we had encountered the presence of God. But if not, we’ll try again next week.

But friends, please listen: what Hebrews chapter 10 is describing is something that we experienced here already this morning. Just think about what happened when we prayed. You and I—small, insignificant people—approached our holy God and confessed our sin to Him and asked Him to forgive us. And then we made our requests known to Him and asked Him to help us with those things.

Do you realize how incredible that is? That we just get to do that? In Nipawin? We can draw near to God, and ask for His grace and His help, and experience His forgiveness, without having to hop on a plane and take a trip to the Middle East.

It’s absolutely mind-blowing. The Old Testament saints would be awe-struck at what we get to experience.

But there’s even more than that. Because God is actually with us here today through His spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the one who is here, convicting us of sin (John 16:8) and helping us see the truth about Jesus (John 16:14) and opening our eyes to the wonders of His love (Romans 5:5). Even right now, as I’m preaching His word, if you’re understanding it and it’s resonating in your heart and it’s causing you to treasure Jesus more, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of God with us.

And so the presence of God is just what we call the normal Christian life. Reading the Bible and understanding it. Praying. Receiving forgiveness. Experiencing joy in the truth of God’s word. Growing in our love for Jesus. Having fellowship with God’s people. The normal Christian life. All of it enabled by the presence of God.

And it’s anything but normal. The Old Covenant saints would have lined up to trade places with you any day. They would gladly have given up walking through the Red Sea or eating manna from heaven to experience what we get to experience every single day.

The End of the Story

But let’s pause again and be honest: as wonderful as our present experience is, don’t we still long for more? Don’t we long for a closer experience of the presence of God? Don’t we feel the truth that for as much as we already have, there’s still some not yet that we’re longing for?

I feel that way. And that’s where 1 Corinthians 13:12 is so comforting: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” A clearer and more perfect experience of God’s presence is coming to His people.  When we flip to the back of the book and see how this biggest story ever told finishes up, we’ll see that God coming to dwell with us in person, here on earth, fully and finally forever. 

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:1–3). 

That’s our hope, folks. That’s what we’re still looking forward to.

The baby in the manger was pointing forward to this. The presence of Jesus with us today by His Holy Spirit is pointing forward to this. God with us. Fully and finally, forever.

We Are the Temple

Now, what does all of this this mean for us today as we head out into our weeks? What do we do with this now?

We’ve already seen one answer, which is that we recognize and appreciate and enjoy all of the ways that God is with us. That we do that Hebrews 10 tells us to do: we draw near to God through Jesus. We take full advantage of what Christ has done for us.

But there’s one more piece to this whole picture which says a lot about us today. And it’s this: if God’s Holy Spirit is with us, dwelling in us, then that means that we are also His temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” And in Greek, those are both plural verbs. You, plural, you as a church, are God’s temple because God’s Spirit dwells in you.

2 Corinthians 6:16 says, “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

And that means we have the mission and responsibility to represent God in the world. It means that when people encounter us, they should be encountering God.

And it means that Christmas isn’t just some event that we get to look back on and celebrate as if it happened, and that’s it.

Because Jesus has commissioned His church to carry on the work of representing Him to the world (John 17:20-23). As the Father sent Him into the world, so He has sent His followers out into the world (John 17:18).

In a very real sense, when Jesus ascended to heaven, He passed the baton of embodying the presence of God to us.

And so Christmas should remind us of our mission. Just like Jesus left heaven and brought the presence of God into a painful and uncomfortable world, so we must do likewise.

And we might even have opportunities to do that this week. Maybe you’re not looking forward to this week of celebration. Maybe your Christmas isn’t going to look like a Normal Rockwell painting and you’re tempted to feel sad about that. Or maybe you need to spend time this week with some difficult family members, and you’re struggling with that.

What would change if you embraced the mind of Christ? If you embraced your mission to represent God into those painful and uncomfortable circumstances?

Maybe you are just looking forward to a good time with your family this week. But what might change for the better, even there, if you embraced the mind of Christ? That might mean something like inviting someone to join you in your celebration who would be alone otherwise.

Jesus spent His first Christmas with perfect strangers, and that means that Christmas is the perfect opportunity to show uncomfortable hospitality and generosity.

These are just some examples, but I guarantee you that if you keep your eyes open this week, you’ll have opportunity to represent God. You’ll have opportunity to play your part as a member of God’s temple.

And you’ll certainly have many opportunities to enjoy and take advantage of all that Christ did for us on the cross. Every time we pray, every time we open up our Bibles, every time we experience forgiveness, every time we draw near, we get to enjoy access to the Father through Jesus, our real temple.

And as we do that, we look to the day of His return, the day when He’ll be with us in Spirit and body forever.

When I’m travelling, or even just on days when I’m working in the office all day, one of the things I enjoy is FaceTiming my family. I’m so thankful that I get to be a dad in an era when technology lets me not only hear their voice, but actually see their faces as we talk to each other.

It’s so much better than just a phone call. 

But as great as it is, it’s still not the same as actually being there with them. That becomes plain when the conversation draws to a close, and my very affectionate daughter wants to give me a hug. So she grabs the iPad and embraces the cold glass and aluminum.

It’s awfully cute, but all I see is her ear taking up my whole screen. You still can’t hug over FaceTime. And it goes to show that as wonderful as this communication is, nothing replaces really being there.

The Story of His Presence

That’s true in our lives, and it’s certainly true in the story of the Bible. As we’ve looked at the big story of the Bible over the past several months, God’s presence—God’s being with His people—has been one of the themes that’s been woven all throughout. it.

In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve for relationship with Him. He came in the cool of the day to walk with them in Eden (Genesis 3:8). And when they rebelled against Him, they were sent out of the garden, away from the place God had created for them, and away from the presence of God. Adam and Eve experienced exile.

And from that point forward, each time God stepped into the story to redeem and save and make a covenant, His presence is a major factor. One of the best examples of this is the exodus from Egypt.

As God brought His people out of Egypt, He was with them in the pillar of cloud and fire. And one of the first priorities after the covenant had been established was to build the tabernacle, where God’s presence would be manifest.

In relation to the tabernacle, God said to Moses in Exodus 29, “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them” (Exodus 29:45–46) 

It’s just like He said later on in Leviticus 26: “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (Leviticus 26:11–12). It’s important to note that the word for “walk” that’s used there is the very same word used in Genesis 3:8 to describe God walking in the the garden.

So in the tabernacle, God was bringing His people a step closer to Eden. And this is further explained by the connections between the tabernacle and Eden, like the cherubim guarding the presence of God or the golden lamp stand that paralleled the Tree of Life. These are some of the reasons why some theologians have described the tabernacle as a mini-Eden, the place where God once again walks with His people.

Being Near God

And the tabernacle was really the centrepiece of their life as a nation. As the people settled in the promised land, they were to go up to the tabernacle three times a year to “appear before the Lord GOD,” in the words of Exodus 23:17. If they wanted to be near God, they had to go to the place where He was.

We see hear of this longing to be in the presence of God all throughout Israel’s hymnbook, the Psalms. Psalm 84:1-2 says, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the LORD; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” That’s talking about the temple, which replaced the tabernacle as God’s permanent residence.

Similarly, Psalm 42:1-2 says, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” That language of “appearing before God” is taken from Exodus 23 and speaks of going up to the Jerusalem temple to worship.

Psalm 43 says, “Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God” (Psalm 43:3–4). 

And then there’s a whole collection of 15 Psalms, from 120-143, called the Psalms of Ascent, which are all songs for the journey going up to Jerusalem.

This is something we often miss: that in the Old Covenant, the people’s relationship with God was directly connected to their ability to go appear before God, be near God, in the temple.

Exile

And so, when the people were finally cast into exile by the Babylonians, and the temple was destroyed, the sharp edge of the whole experience was really losing access to the presence of God. 

And that’s why we see, for example, Daniel praying towards Jerusalem three times a day (Daniel 6:10). The great hope of the exiles was that God would bring them out of these foreign lands and bring them back to Himself at a new temple in Jerusalem.

Isaiah prophesied about this return from exile, and it’s interesting to read how he described it like a second exodus (Isaiah 43:16–19). Just like God led His people out of Egypt in order to dwell among them, so He was going to lead them out of Babylon in a great second exodus so that He might dwell among them again.

And so, after the 70 years had passed, we read in Ezra chapter one how Cyrus king of Persia made a decree allowing the Jews to go back to their land, and… do what? Rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1–4). Just like in the first exodus, where they left Egypt and built the tabernacle right away, so a second time, God’s people leave the place of captivity and begin to build a dwelling place for God.

But something was different about this second temple. We read in Ezra chapter 6 about the day it was finished, and the celebration the people had, and that’s about it (Ezra 6:15-16). It’s so different from when the tabernacle had been completed in front of Mt. Sinai, and God came in a visible way, filling up the place in a cloud of glory (Exodus 40:34). He did the same thing when Solomon finished the temple (1 Kings 8:10-11). God was showing them in a very visible way that He was there and would dwell there with them.

But when that second temple was finished after the exile, nothing like that happened. There was no glory. God’s presence never came and filled the place like it had before. 

This just confirmed the suspicions that while the people had returned to Jerusalem, God hadn’t returned with them. They were still in exile, still without the presence of God, even within their own land. The people were still waiting for God to be with them.

Prepare the Way of the Lord

So, can you imagine the excitement in the hearts of the people, centuries later, when a wild-haired prophet named John began to call people to repent out in the Judean desert? And when the religious leaders asked him who he was, “He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said’” (John 1:23).

Now here’s what’s so important about this. John is quoting from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 40, from one of the very prophecies that spoke about the second exodus, where God promised to come and be with His people again.

By quoting this verse, and applying it to himself, John is saying: the second exodus is finally going to happen for real. The exile is about to end. The Lord is finally coming to be with His people.

What John may or may not have known is that the Lord was already there. And He was there in a way more real and more precious than perhaps anyone would have dared to guess.

Would anyone have guessed that God was already there, walking among them as a man?

The clues were there all along. Isaiah himself had told us: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14), which means “God with us.”

He also told us that “to us a child is born, to us a son is given,” and that this child shall be called “mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6).

And so it was that when God returned to His people, He didn’t come in cloud or smoke and thunder. He came as a baby.

“And the Word Tabernacled Among Us”

I love how the Apostle John describes this in the passage we read earlier. John begins by introducing us to the Word who was with God and is God. The second Person of the Trinity, through Whom all things were created. And then verse 14 tells us these incredible words: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 

The divine word because flesh. You may remember from our series in 1 John how mind-boggling this would have been to many of John’s readers. They thought that these bodies, this flesh, was a bad thing, and the best thing will be when we die and finally cast them off, and all that’s left is our soul.

But this divine Word, the light and life of men, became flesh. He took on a body. He became an embryo, and then a fetus, and then He was born.

And so, verse 14 says that He “dwelt among us.” The word that’s used here for “dwell” is so rich. In the original Greek this word actually literally means “pitched his tent.” I’m not making this up: you can go look it up. And so verse 14 is really saying, “The word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.” Or, as I’ve heard it put, “The word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

God walked among His people in the tabernacle, and now He walked among His people in flesh. In a body.

So I hope now the title for today’s message makes sense. When the Word became flesh, Jesus replaced the temple. He became the way in which God dwelt with His people. Not in a building, but in a person. 

This is what’s going on in those words we read earlier from John chapter 2. “Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ But he was speaking about the temple of his body” (John 2:19–21). 

Jesus’ body, His flesh, was the new and true temple. It was the place where God’s presence really was, where God really dwelt with His people.

And throughout His ministry Jesus made repeated references to the truth that it was through Him, not just though a building in Jerusalem, that people would meet with God and experience His presence and grace.

It shows up in places we might not see it at first—for example, in the familiar story of the paralytic who was lowered down in front of Jesus through a hole in the roof. And what did Jesus say to him? 

“Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5). And then we read “Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, ‘Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:6–7).

There’s another layer to the story here. Only God would forgive sins, and where did He do that? Where is the place you would go to receive God’s forgiveness for your sins?

The temple.

And here, in a crowded house miles away from Jerusalem, Jesus does something that could only happen at the temple. He forgives sins. In other words, He is saying, “I am the true temple.”

Not Just His Body

I hope you see how rich this is. And yet I also hope you see how disappointing this would be if this is where the story ended. 

If Jesus’ body replaced the temple, and that was it, you and I would still be in a really tough spot. Because we’d still need to travel to be near Jesus in order to experience the presence of God. And now that Jesus, in His flesh, isn’t even here on Earth anymore, we’d be in essentially the same place as the people were before He came in the first place.

But we know this is not the end of the story. Because Jesus Himself told us that He was going to do something that would open up access to God in a bigger and greater way than anyone could have imagined.

We hear about this in His conversation with the woman at the well in John 4. “The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father’” (John 4:19–21).

You see what He’s saying? The time is approaching where it won’t matter where you worship God. You won’t need to be in a specific place to worship God and access His presence. That hour is coming.

And that hour came when Jesus went to the cross for us. Because there on the cross, Jesus paid for our sins.

The whole reason why God’s presence was kept locked away in the temple behind a curtain with priests as the go-betweens is because of our sin. God is holy and if we entered His presence we would die.

And so there on the cross, Jesus died to make us holy. He took our place and suffered the full punishment for our sins. And as He did, He cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Do you know what Jesus suffered on the cross? Exile. Jesus was cast out from the presence of God. Jesus experienced the depths of spiritual exile for us.

And He did it so that we would never need to again. Jesus suffered our exile so that we would be counted righteous in Him and could experience the presence of God forever.

And so, when Jesus “cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit… the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50–51). 

The curtain of the temple is what separated God’s presence from the rest of us. You and I could never go behind there. But God ripped it in half. Not needed anymore. Because our sins have been paid for, and we’ve been counted righteous in Christ through faith, we have access to the Father.

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). 

Because of the death of Jesus, we have access to God at all times and in all places. Just listen to these words from Hebrews chapter 10:

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19–22). 

Oh, there’s so much there for us to see. Do you hear these temple references? Wherever we are, we can enter into the holy places—we can draw near to the presence of God—through Jesus and the way that He purified us when He died for us on the cross. 

Is This It?

This is so rich. But this is also a spot where it’s easy for us to trip up. Because we hear these words about holy places and drawing near, and it might be easy for us to ask, “Have I ever experienced anything like that? Have I ever felt like I ‘entered the holy places’? Am I missing out on something?”

I’ve spent some time in churches that used these words to try to seek the presence of God through mystical experiences. The whole church service was one big hyped-up journey and we would try to arrive at some kind of experience where it “felt” like we had been in the presence of God. And if we had a good enough experience or felt the right things, then we had encountered the presence of God. But if not, we’ll try again next week.

But friends, please listen: what Hebrews chapter 10 is describing is something that we experienced here already this morning. Just think about what happened when we prayed. You and I—small, insignificant people—approached our holy God and confessed our sin to Him and asked Him to forgive us. And then we made our requests known to Him and asked Him to help us with those things.

Do you realize how incredible that is? That we just get to do that? In Nipawin? We can draw near to God, and ask for His grace and His help, and experience His forgiveness, without having to hop on a plane and take a trip to the Middle East.

It’s absolutely mind-blowing. The Old Testament saints would be awe-struck at what we get to experience.

But there’s even more than that. Because God is actually with us here today through His spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the one who is here, convicting us of sin (John 16:8) and helping us see the truth about Jesus (John 16:14) and opening our eyes to the wonders of His love (Romans 5:5). Even right now, as I’m preaching His word, if you’re understanding it and it’s resonating in your heart and it’s causing you to treasure Jesus more, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of God with us.

And so the presence of God is just what we call the normal Christian life. Reading the Bible and understanding it. Praying. Receiving forgiveness. Experiencing joy in the truth of God’s word. Growing in our love for Jesus. Having fellowship with God’s people. The normal Christian life. All of it enabled by the presence of God.

And it’s anything but normal. The Old Covenant saints would have lined up to trade places with you any day. They would gladly have given up walking through the Red Sea or eating manna from heaven to experience what we get to experience every single day.

The End of the Story

But let’s pause again and be honest: as wonderful as our present experience is, don’t we still long for more? Don’t we long for a closer experience of the presence of God? Don’t we feel the truth that for as much as we already have, there’s still some not yet that we’re longing for?

I feel that way. And that’s where 1 Corinthians 13:12 is so comforting: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.” A clearer and more perfect experience of God’s presence is coming to His people.  When we flip to the back of the book and see how this biggest story ever told finishes up, we’ll see that God coming to dwell with us in person, here on earth, fully and finally forever. 

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:1–3). 

That’s our hope, folks. That’s what we’re still looking forward to.

The baby in the manger was pointing forward to this. The presence of Jesus with us today by His Holy Spirit is pointing forward to this. God with us. Fully and finally, forever.

We Are the Temple

Now, what does all of this this mean for us today as we head out into our weeks? What do we do with this now?

We’ve already seen one answer, which is that we recognize and appreciate and enjoy all of the ways that God is with us. That we do that Hebrews 10 tells us to do: we draw near to God through Jesus. We take full advantage of what Christ has done for us.

But there’s one more piece to this whole picture which says a lot about us today. And it’s this: if God’s Holy Spirit is with us, dwelling in us, then that means that we are also His temple.

1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” And in Greek, those are both plural verbs. You, plural, you as a church, are God’s temple because God’s Spirit dwells in you.

2 Corinthians 6:16 says, “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

And that means we have the mission and responsibility to represent God in the world. It means that when people encounter us, they should be encountering God.

And it means that Christmas isn’t just some event that we get to look back on and celebrate as if it happened, and that’s it.

Because Jesus has commissioned His church to carry on the work of representing Him to the world (John 17:20-23). As the Father sent Him into the world, so He has sent His followers out into the world (John 17:18).

In a very real sense, when Jesus ascended to heaven, He passed the baton of embodying the presence of God to us.

And so Christmas should remind us of our mission. Just like Jesus left heaven and brought the presence of God into a painful and uncomfortable world, so we must do likewise.

And we might even have opportunities to do that this week. Maybe you’re not looking forward to this week of celebration. Maybe your Christmas isn’t going to look like a Normal Rockwell painting and you’re tempted to feel sad about that. Or maybe you need to spend time this week with some difficult family members, and you’re struggling with that.

What would change if you embraced the mind of Christ? If you embraced your mission to represent God into those painful and uncomfortable circumstances?

Maybe you are just looking forward to a good time with your family this week. But what might change for the better, even there, if you embraced the mind of Christ? That might mean something like inviting someone to join you in your celebration who would be alone otherwise.

Jesus spent His first Christmas with perfect strangers, and that means that Christmas is the perfect opportunity to show uncomfortable hospitality and generosity.

These are just some examples, but I guarantee you that if you keep your eyes open this week, you’ll have opportunity to represent God. You’ll have opportunity to play your part as a member of God’s temple.

And you’ll certainly have many opportunities to enjoy and take advantage of all that Christ did for us on the cross. Every time we pray, every time we open up our Bibles, every time we experience forgiveness, every time we draw near, we get to enjoy access to the Father through Jesus, our real temple.

And as we do that, we look to the day of His return, the day when He’ll be with us in Spirit and body forever.