In this talk, we’ll look at how the story finishes up - or perhaps we should say, the end of the beginning!

We’ll briefly remind people of the story so far:

• God created us to thrive in a healthy and whole relationship with Him, with each other, with ourselves and with creation. We rejected God and choose our own way and as a result all four relationships are broken - and we cannot fix it.
   
• God chose a nation - Israel - through whom he would initiate His rescue plan which would lead to Jesus coming. 
   
• The Israelites continued to reject relationship with God, and eventually ended up in exile in Babylon.
   
• After 70 years, a remnant return and the nation starts to be rebuilt but 400 years of silence follows where God is not speaking, they’re now brutally oppressed by Rome, and longing for their Messiah to save them
   
• God himself comes to be their Messiah through Jesus, God’s Son. Jesus shows us what God is truly like. He dies for our sins but defeats the powers of death through His resurrection. After 40 days with His followers, Jesus returns to Heaven but sends the Holy Spirit to fill His followers with power to be witnesses to the ends of the earth, until His promised return one day.
   
• The church is the family of God on the mission of God, and the Book of Acts tells the unfolding story of what happened in those early decades as the first followers of Jesus shared His good news.
   
• We’re still living in this time of the church but one day Jesus has promised to return and restore and renew the whole of creation. 

How does the Big story end - what is our great hope? And how should we live in the light of this today?

Key Scriptures: Revelation 21:1-8, Revelation 22:1-7, 20-21

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