Two Journeys

I’d like to ask you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, what you just heard Jason read. We're going to begin walking through this passage. And as we do, we come in this section to of one of the greatest parts in the Bible, one of its greatest sections of Scripture celebrating the wisdom and the power of God in the cross of Christ. And the text itself gives us a sense of warfare, really, of a battle between God and the world, on the issue of wisdom and foolishness, and how in this battle of world views the world is saying to God, that the message of the cross is foolishness, makes no sense, and God is saying to the world that the way the world is living is foolishness.

And so there are these charges and counter charges of folly, of foolishness going on in the text. Now we, who are Christians, are kind of aware more and more in America, of a battle of world views, and we see things very differently than non-Christians. They see things very differently from us. But I want to appeal to you as Christians to stop seeing the battle out there with all of those people. That we need to realize that we still are thinking and behaving foolishly ourselves, that we haven't fully embraced the wisdom and power of God in the cross ourselves and that we need to be humbled by the cross.

So I want you to take this message of the cross, this foolishness and the weakness of God and have the Lord through the Holy Spirit drive at home into your heart that you will be humbled. The cross is the power to humble our proud spirits. And that's an ongoing work. I know you know it's true that we are still arrogant and so prideful, and the cross has the power to humble us, and that's what we're going to see in this text.

Now the context here is we're in the middle of a chapter of Paul's epistle here. Paul is writing to a church that he planted that is very talented, very gifted through the gifts of the Spirit, very talented church, but it's a dysfunctional church. It's the church with lots of problems, and he's writing this epistle to address a series of problems, one after the other. And the first one, we've already begun looking at it. But the first one he wants to address is divisions and factions within the church. "I follow Paul…I follow Apollos…I follow Cephas."

Now in Greek culture, there was this tendency, this pattern to arrange yourself under a great man, a great philosopher, as a disciple of that great leader. And the Greeks did this all the time. There were schools set up of Aristotle and Socrates and Plato and they would follow, and they would be disciples of Epicurus, and they would debate against each other, and they would lob grenades against each other. They were used to doing this. The Greeks of that time were fractious and divided people, city states warring against each other, and then schools of philosophy warring against each other, and so when the Gospel came, they just... The Corinthians just did the standard Greek thing, it's like, "Alright, we have new philosophical heroes now, I follow Paul the plan of the church, I follow Apollos, he's a more polished speaker. I follow Peter, he's the apostle to the Jews and the leader and was an apostle before Paul ever was. And I follow Christ more than all of you do." And so you have these factions and divisions, and Paul's wanting to address this and what he's going to do, not just with factions and divisions.

We're going to see these with problem after problem in the church, church discipline issues, sexual immorality issues, marital issues, problems with meat sacrifice to idols. He's going to address all of these problems, one after the other by showing the sufficiency of the cross for all of them. The cross is enough. The message of the cross is sufficient for addressing all of the problems in the Christian life, all of the problems of a dysfunctional, divided, immature Christian church. The cross is enough and he's going to zero in as we begin in this section here, on the apparent foolishness of the cross, the apparent weakness of the cross and say, "it's not what it appears".

I love Michael Card's music and one of my favorite songs is El Shaddai. I first heard it sung by Amy Grant. I thought she wrote it, but it wasn't Amy Grant that wrote it, it was Michael Card. I remember hearing Michael Card singing it on an album, and say "You stole that from Amy Grant" and that bothered me. But then I realized actually she didn't steal it, but sang his song. But one of the stanzas of El Shaddai, here's what it says,

Through the years you've made it clear,
That the time of Christ was near, Though the people failed to see
What Messiah ought to be.
Though your Word contained the plan, They just could not understand

Your most awesome work was done Through the frailty of your son.

Now that idea is foolishness to the world. How could God's most awesome work be done through the frailty, the mortality, the suffering and pain and death of God, the Son, how could that be powerful? And that's the very thing that Paul is seeking to address here. How could that be wise?

Now, the human race is in love with its own wisdom. We are enamored with ourselves. We are impressed with ourselves, just like Satan once before. Very impressed he was with his beauty and wisdom and power and fell so in love with himself that he sought to topple God from his throne and take God's place. And he then recruited us in a similar arrogant lofty ambitious upward path to topple God from his throne. Now a great deal of the difference between us and the animals, of course, is our ability to think and reason, and plan, and understand abstract reality through language, things that are not immediately in front of us. We can think about them, what might happen, what's going to outcomes, things like that. It separates us from every other creature.

And this is the very area that the intellect, the mind that Satan sought to attack and go after with the temptation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or how Adam and Eve saw that the fruit could make us wise and we would become like God, and maybe even, like Satan, topple God from His throne. And this continued to develop after they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. We see it in the spirit of Babel, the Tower of Babel. They developed some technology. They learned how to bake bricks thoroughly, get the moisture out, greater compression strength, cover it with pits, and they could build higher than they'd ever built before, and they thought to build a tower to heaven. And then now, God says, "Let us go down and see this cute little tower that they're building." He didn't say "cute little", but that's the sense, you've not even come close to me.

And yet, he says, this is the greatest statement God could ever make about our innate capability, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." So that's the sense of both our humbling before an infinite God, but also our capabilities and our power. And so we're in love with ourselves. We're in love with our wisdom, our intellect. And the love of wisdom was there in ancient Greece, too. The Greek word Philosophy means to love wisdom. That's literally what it means. And the city of Athens was the center of that love of human wisdom. It was named for the Greek goddess, Athena, the goddess of wisdom. And so people would come from miles around to be trained by Athenian philosophers and we know their names still. Socrates in the fifth century BC was born, and then his disciple was Plato, and then his top student was Aristotle. These are names we still know today.

Alexander the Great was himself a disciple of Aristotle and was so filled with zeal for Hellenism, for a zeal for the glory of Greece, that he spread it everywhere he went, also spread his own name, he established like 22 different Alexandria(s). But he's in love with himself and he was in love with Greece and Greek wisdom, and so everywhere that he conquered, he spread this love of philosophy. Paul was a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, an area part of the Greek Empire, then later part of the Roman Empire, but because of the heritage of Alexander the Great spreading the Greek language and Greek love of wisdom, Paul wrote all of his epistles in Greek, not in Hebrew or Aramaic.

Now Athens was the center, as I said, of this human, this love of wisdom, human wisdom of philosophy. In Acts 17, the apostle Paul as he continues to move throughout Greece to preach the Gospel, he comes to Athens at last, and there it says, a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him, to argue with him, and they said very disparagingly, "What is this babbler trying to say?" The Greek is literally "what is this seed picker trying to say?" A guy who goes around and picks up little ideas here and there and kind of spreads them. They're very, very arrogant toward Paul. What is this babbler trying to say? Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods."

They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then "they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, [Mars Hill] where they said to him, ‘May we know what this new teaching is that you're presenting?’ You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears and we want to know what they mean." Then Luke tells us, "all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their whole time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas." That's what they did in Athens, especially, at Mars Hill, and so Paul preached his great Mars Hill sermon. And then at the end of that, most of the philosophers just mocked it, they scorned it because he was talking about the bodily resurrection from the dead. That made no sense to them. Why would you do that? They sneered about it, but a few of them said, "We want to hear you again on this subject."

Well, a lot of that same arrogance and that love of human wisdom is alive today. We are in awe of human intelligence, human wisdom, human education. As a matter of fact, most of us, many of us tend to think if only we had more education, things will be better. That is the answer of many of our leaders, our governmental leaders, if we would just have more knowledge, more education, the world, our nation will be much better off. But there's so many things in history to disprove that basic thesis. For example, the most educated nation in the world in the first third of the 20th century was Germany.

They were at the pinnacle of almost every intellectual endeavor. Some of the best physicists and chemists, and biologists, some of the best writers and thinkers and educators were in Germany, in the first third of the 20th century. Some of the highest number of books were published around that time, highest literacy rate in the world, best system of governmental sponsored education was in Germany. There was no lack of education, no lack of literacy, and look what they did with it. It was harnessed to a corrupt government, perhaps among the most corrupt and wicked governments there's ever been in human history. They took all of that scientific knowledge and all of that economic power and strength and used it to try to conquer the world and exterminate the Jewish people.

And yet we still hear this, if we had more education, obviously, a higher literacy rate is better. For me, as a pastor, a higher literacy rate…Amen. So people can read this book, the Bible. Let's have as many people in the world literate so they can read and study the word of God. To me, when I think of literacy, that's what I think of. But more than that, that helpful beneficial education can in some way improve our lives and lessen the suffering that we all go through as cursed in Adam. And yet human wisdom, knowledge, love of knowledge is still part of our culture. And we understand, the more you get involved in evangelism trying to share the Gospel, the more you're going to bump into these hostile world views that are going to hinder the spread of the Gospel. They're in opposition to the message of Christ and him crucified. Setting aside just human religions via alternate religions, just looking at world views such as materialism, that life consists in the material world. The idea that the metaphysical world cannot be proven so it's really not important.

Now what you can sense with your five senses is all your life is or ever will be, materialism. Then there is hedonism or sensualism. Saturate the senses with experiences that will please you. "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Pursue pleasure of any sort that you choose as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. Then there's just science which is linked in many ways to the materialism I mentioned earlier. The ability to study the material world gives the human race all the knowledge it will need for success. The answer is more and more knowledge as we said. More education, more insight. Science is the crown jewel of the human race and science has the power to conquer all of our problems. And there's evolution, Darwin's theory of origins has extended far beyond any boundaries of biology, any boundaries he ever would have conceived. It's become a way of understanding all of human experience. We as the human race are continually evolving. Ever hear these kinds of phrases? We're evolving, we're getting better and better all the time. We have raised ourselves step by step from a pond of slime to the moon and to the stars beyond.

There's so much arrogance in all of this sort of stuff, but that's the idea of an evolutionary way of looking at a human experience. Then there's psychology. Sigmund Freud started this whole science and now it's gone in lots of different ways, but he developed the secular study of the human soul. That's what the word literally means, "the science of the soul," psychology. And he birthed what I would call more of a pseudoscience, which is constantly developing, notice I didn't use the word "evolving," constantly developing studying human beings based on their thought processes and their dispositions, their psychoses, their fears, their dreams, their upbringing from infancy, what their mothers did with them and their fathers when they were infants.

Then there's relativity. Albert Einstein came up with this theory, this physical theory in cosmology to answer a problem of distant starlight, and he developed the theory of relativity to address problems with Newton's physics at very high speeds, speeds near the speed of light. But it's become in popular thinking with people who, including myself could never follow, the math and the physics. But then you get popular expressions that say "everything depends on your frame of reference, the position from where you're standing."

So now you have this phrase "everything is relative."  And so, relativity is like a world view that we're dealing with and from that came more post-modernism. The idea that you really can't know abstract material principles absolutely, but only as they appear to you. So in our culture, we can say "I'm a Christian." Well, that's good for you, dear. Happy you found something that brings meaning to your life. Post-modernism. And there's many other such world views. This is a bubbling pot of philosophies that we are dealing with, we're marinating in them as Christians in the west in the 21st century. Beyond this we have technology that brings human insights, human understanding right to your fingertips, handheld devices. This is just a clock for me right now. It's very important for you guys, alright? Telling me what time it is and that's all. But you know that with these smart phones, you can Google anything.

I saw a humorous clip of a millennial being interviewed for a job and the person didn't have any particular knowledge base but was confident that at any moment they could Google the answer. So it was just meant to be humorous. But I think we all feel that way, that we can get answers and we can hear from experts at any point. Experts weigh in on current events, and YouTube can give you "how to" videos and just about anything, like nine steps on building a super computer. I'm like, "Really?" [I actually Googled how to perform hip replacement surgery on yourself. Came up empty. Nobody's done a video yet, but who knows?

And we can become instant experts on any topic via our smart phones. However, this ocean of data and human learning and opinion does not equal wisdom, does not equal wisdom. Actually, 1 Corinthians 1-3 will directly pit the wisdom of God against the wisdom of this world. And it's going to charge the world with foolishness just as the world charges us with foolishness. The worldly wise person, it says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, "cannot accept the things of God, because they are foolishness to him, cannot receive them because they are spiritually discerned." Now, if I can just stop and say to you Christians, who celebrate Christ and him crucified, who see already where we're going in all this, and see the message of the cross for you is the power of God for your salvation, you should stop and based on 1 Corinthians 2:14, thank the spirit of God for changing you, because if it weren't for the spirit of God, you would think it's foolish too, and you wouldn't be here today. So there is a war going on, a world view war between God and the unbelieving world. And God is fighting with some rather shocking weapons. There's going to be a progression of threefold foolishness in these first two chapters. We're looking just at the beginning of the first one. The first weapon of God in this world view war is Christ and him crucified, a dead savior on a Roman cross.

That's the start of the foolishness of God. The second step will be the Corinthian church itself. The fact that there were not many wise, not many influential, not many noble birth, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And so the Christian church is unimpressive and apparently foolish. And the third step will be The Messenger himself, the apostle Paul, not a great public speaker, was with them, in weakness and fear, and much trembling, not an impressive guy. But he's simply preaching Christ name crucified.

So those are going to be the three steps. God's weapons to humble the world. And God's goal in all this is the final verse of this first chapter, look at verse 31, it says, "Therefore as it is written, let him who boast, boast in the Lord." And He wants to work a humbling and in all of us so that when we get to heaven, we will be boasting entirely in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then his father, God the Father who sent Christ to die on the cross, we will be completely stripped of that devilish pride that dug us every step of our lives here in the world.

Alright, look at Verse 18, The Cross, Is it foolishness? Or is it God's power? "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." Now, every word in this verse is vitally important, and we have to begin with the first word, "for," so that means we're right in in the middle of a chapter in a flow of argument, that you got to be able to follow Paul's logic, his argument. So verse 18, is in the middle of a train of thought. So that means we need to go back to verse 17. Now, last week I preached on water baptism, and Paul's limitation of water baptism in verse 17. He said, "Christ did not send me baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power, for the message of the cross is foolishness…" You see the flow of thought. So he's already in Verse 17, beginning to address what he wants to address the rest of the chapter and under the chapter two. And that is that God sent him to preach a message, a simple unvarnished message of Christ and him crucified, even though he knew it would appear foolish in the world's eyes.

 He's distancing himself here from words of human wisdom, that's a polished presentation of human philosophy or rhetorical skills. These public speakers were trained in the polish of public speaking, of rhetoric, Paul threw all that out the window. So now, that's not what I came to do because if I did that, the cross of Christ would be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, this is the power of God.

The Message of the Cross

Now he zeros in on the message of the cross, the "word of the cross," literally. The Greek is specifically focused on the content, not on the delivery. Now, it is important for preachers to have a certain level of skill and speaking. If he is a very bad public speaker, it's distracting, it could be a beautiful piece of music but if the pianist is making lots of mistakes, it's just hard to hear the beauty. We understand that, but polished presentation will not save any souls, really all you're trying to do is remove distractions and make things clear, that's what you're trying to do. What's much more important than how a preacher speaks is what they say.

What is the actual message? That's what Paul's saying here, and the message of the cross is a simple shorthand for the Gospel itself. That there is an Almighty Creator God, that He made the entire universe and he made the earth, and he made human beings in his image and his likeness, created them to have a relationship with Him and to serve Him, but they rebelled against him, and fell into grievous sinfulness and could not save themselves, so God in His love and in His wisdom and grace sent His only begotten son to be born as a human being, born of the Virgin Mary. That he, this little baby, this little God Man was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, and that he grew up in a normal way, He grew in wisdom, and stature and favor with God and man.

He was a normal human being in every respect, yet was without sin, he walked along dusty roads as they did, and he got tired as they did and needed to sleep, he got hungry as they did and needed to eat, he got thirsty as they did and needed to drink. However he was also fully divine, never in any way lost his deity, not at all, he was truly Almighty God in human flesh, he walked on the water, he stilled a storm with a word, so that even the wind and the waves obeyed his voice, he was able to heal any and every disease and sickness among the people, there was never a case too difficult, he even raised Lazarus from the dead, after he had been buried for four days. And nothing was difficult for him, he did all things well. He was tempted in every way, as we are, in that way, he was human, but he never sinned, he was a sinless perfect God-man.

But the focus of this message was not that just that God was incarnate and looked ordinary like an ordinary human being. It's that he was arrested, tried, convicted, and crucified on a Roman cross. His hands and his feet were nailed to that cross and he bled out and died. And all of this was according to the scriptures, according to the plan of God, fashioned in the mind of God before the foundation of the world, that Christ would be an atoning sacrifice in our place for our sins, and that God would pour out His wrath that we deserve for violating his laws, that we deserve, He poured it out on the substitute on his own son, but not only that, God raised Him from the dead on the third day, and He was seen by many witnesses and you could touch him. You could and see that a spirit, a ghost, didn't have flesh and bones as you saw, as they saw that he did, and he ate some broiled fish in their presence. And he was with them for 40 days, and then God took him up, ascended him from the surface of the earth and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms. And from that place, someday, he's going to return to judge the living and the dead.

That's the message of the cross. And if you believe it, if you believe what I've just said to you, you'll be forgiven of all your sins by Almighty God, not if you go do good works, but if you just forsaking your own works, turn and believe that message, you will be forgiven. Now that message divides the human race into two categories: Believers and unbelievers. Those that believe that, and those that don't.

Foolishness to those who are Perishing

And that message that I've been describing is foolishness to those who are perishing. Now, the word "perishing" means in the process of dying and going to hell. We are dying physically, but the gospel is far more concerned with what happens after you die, because it's appointed for each of us to die once and after that, to face judgment. And there is a second death after the first death, but there's a way of perishing in this life, that shows your heading for that second death, Jesus said in Matthew 7, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it." So the people that are running on the highway to destruction, they are the ones that are perishing. That's what Paul is talking about here. And so, for those people that are in the process of perishing, that are on that broad road to destruction, this message is foolishness. That's what he's saying, utterly foolish. Why would God do that? Why would he leave the comforts and glory of heaven and be born of a Jewish virgin, a Jewish teenage girl, and be wrapped in rough swaddling clothes, why would he, why...? It doesn't make any sense, why would he do that?

And if you were going to do that, I would think you would rise to the highest place in human society and be a glorious king on a glorious throne. It doesn't make any sense for him to be in some obscure part of the Roman Empire that nobody even knows about, and he does all these things and ends up arrested and convicted and nailed to a cross which was only reserved for the lowest dregs of society that'd been convicted in a Roman court. Roman citizens could never be crucified. It's the lowest worse form of death there could be. It makes no sense at all to those who are perishing.

The Power of God for Us Who Are Being Saved

But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God, amen, hallelujah. So as we're singing the songs that Wes chose today that this team was playing, I was like, "Hallelujah for the cross" so I knew what is about to preach. I had an advantage over all of you, like, "Yes praise God, hallelujah for the cross that saves me and qualifies me to even do this, however foolish this preaching is." Thank you God for saving a sinner like me. For us who are being saved, it is the power of God, just as Paul said, in Romans 1:16, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." It is the single most powerful thing in the history. It will be obvious on Judgment Day, how true that statement is.

Nothing has ever happened in human history, with this kind of impact. It changed my destiny from eternity in the lake of fire to eternity in the New Haven, New Earth in a resurrection body. And not just me, but a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people, and nation will be saying, "Hallelujah to the lamb" Praising God for our salvation as it is written, "Let him who boast, boast in the Lord." We'll be doing that forever. So that's how powerful this cross is. And not only that, but we are being saved. So they are perishing, they're in the process of perishing. We are in the process of being saved. You're not done being saved yet.

Just a plug for church, that's why you should keep coming to church. Okay? None of us that's here in this room today are done being saved. I would say Indeed no one, not even the disembodied saints in heaven are done being saved, they're done sinning, praise God. But they're waiting for their resurrection bodies and that'll come at the end of the age. So in the meantime, here we are. And if you haven't died yet, you are in grave danger and you are, if you are born again, if you're justified, you will most certainly make it through and go to Heaven Amen. You will, but you are in the process of being saved.

So the scripture uses all three time senses, we have been saved, "for by grace you have been saved through faith," Ephesians 2, that's justification. You are being saved in sanctification by working out your salvation with fear and trembling, and you will be saved on Judgment Day from God's wrath through him, Romans 5:9. All three here are part of the package. And he who began the good work in you will carry it on to completion in the day of Christ as he is. Now, the cross, the message of the cross is Tim Keller, said it very beautifully, "It's not the ABCs of salvation, it's the A to Z" It's everything you need, the cross and the empty tomb is everything that you need. So the human race is radically divided into these two categories; Believers and unbelievers by the cross, and this is not a mere accident now.

God was very wise to do this, look at verse 19-21. God is wise to destroy human wisdom. Verse 19, "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." God planned before the foundation of the world to humble the human mind. To humble human intelligence and arrogance by the gospel. The message of the gospel is meant for little children, it's meant for spiritual beggars. It's not meant for people who are basically fine, but could use a little help. It's meant for people who are stripped of all that and who know that they need a savior completely. God means to humble each one of us and to make us as believers, the humblest believer actually wiser than the most genius super intellectual atheist unbeliever in the world.

And so he reaches for a quote here, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of intelligent, I will frustrate," from Isaiah 29:14. So he's going back to Isaiah and he's picking up Isaiah 29:14. Now the context here in Isaiah 29 is that Jews were under great pressure and in great danger from The Mighty Assyrian empire, and they decided king Hezekiah and his counselors decided to send emissaries down to Egypt with some money to hire the wisest of the wise down in Egypt. Egypt was like basically Athens back in their day. And to go to the Wise counsels of Egypt. And Isaiah The Prophet again and again, warned him, warned them not to do it, and so he says here, "I'm going to humiliate the wisest of the wise" Because you know what I'm going to do with the Assyrians? I'm going to send one angel, and he's going to kill 185,000 Assyrian troops. So much for all the money you sent down to Egypt.

The wisdom of the wise I will destroy and the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate. Here in our context, he's specifically meaning by the gospel, and on Judgment Day. Judgment Day will show how the unbelieving genius was a fool. I mentioned at Easter time Stephen Hawking, the British physicist who just died recently, he was an atheist who said this about the afterlife, "I regard the broad brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers, that is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark." Stephen Hawking.

Well there's tons of statements like that though, he's not the only one, history is full of scholars and skeptics and scientists and military conquerors, and inventors and authors and CEOs and other great men and women who mocked Christ in the church and the Gospel, and all of them thought they were smarter than Christians and smarter than the gospel. I think of Voltaire, who predicted that within his lifetime, the Bible would cease being read in France. Some of you know the rest of the story. Within a generation, his house was used by the Bible Society of France to print Bibles. That's God saying, "All flesh is grass, and all that glory it's the flower of the field, but the word of God stands forever."

Wow. The Bible is still here Voltaire. Bible is still here, Thomas Paine, you ranked atheist who railed against Christianity. Thomas Jefferson, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, all of them made disparaging statements about Christ and Christianity in their lives. All of them seemed to be, I would think, the best and the brightest. Some of the biggest geniuses we've ever had. Brilliant minds, but they thought the gospel of Jesus Christ is foolishness, but God promises to vindicate His son on Judgment Day. Look at verse 19 again, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate." On that day God will mock them in this way, look at verse 20, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age, has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"

So project ahead to Judgment Day, if they were super geniuses, who rejected the Gospel, you could, to some degree, imagine after the dreadful sentence has been read "Depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." To say to the philosopher of this age, the Wise Man of this age "Where are you now?" See that, look at verse 20, "Where is the wise man of this age?" I think you can project ahead to some degree, to say, "Where will you be eternally?" That's what's going on, that's the vindication of Christ and of the cross, and it was God's wisdom, verse 21, to make it impossible for these philosophers to find him.

"For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached, to save those who believe." Now, to unravel that statement, we start in verse 21 to say, "It was very wise for God to do this, it was wise for God, to set up himself as mysterious and unreachable by human philosophizing".

No humans could reason their way up to God, and find him. And that was actually wise for God to do that, so he wouldn't be listening to an eternity of boasting from those people who did it. It was actually very wise for God in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom, did not know Him and that is the greatest tragedy there is in the human race. Jesus cried out, in John 17:25 "Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you." The emptiness of not knowing God. Now, these people were brilliant. These Greeks, Archimedes, Pythagoras, these guys came up... Eratosthenes calculated the diameter of the earth within 15% accuracy without ever leaving Egypt, where he was. These guys were smart, but they could not reason their way up to God, that could not happen. And that was very wise because Isaiah 45:15 says, "Truly you are a God who hides Himself, oh God and Savior of Israel." God hides himself, and he can't be found that way. As a matter of fact, Jesus celebrated this. In Matthew 11, he says this, verse 25, and 26, "At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father for this was your good pleasure.’"

So Jesus celebrates the very thing Paul's talking about here in verse 21, "God was pleased to reveal Himself to the so-called foolish who are believing a so-called foolish message, he was pleased to save everyone who believes in this message. Verse 21, "God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached, to save those who believe." God delights in saving humble people. He enjoys it, he enjoys taking people from their arrogant highfalutin thoughts about themselves to make them like little children, because God opposes the proud, begets grace of the humble, he loves humbling us and then saving us.

Now Paul further heightens the point he's making verses 22 through 25 which we're going to look at, God willing, next week but I'll just read them. "Jews demand miraculous signs, Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, for the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." So we'll look at that more next week.

Applications first more than anything, I want to urge you, come to Christ, if you've come here today as an unbelieving visitor, you are guest. Maybe a friend invite you to church. Welcome, I'm glad you're here, I prayed for you this morning, and I prayed that you would see the wisdom of God in the cross, prayed that you would understand that, as it says in Isaiah 55, "My ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the Earth. So are my ways higher than your thoughts, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." But even better before that, he says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, and He will freely pardon." This morning, you've heard the gospel, you've heard it clearly. I've explained it from God the Creator, all the way to Christ's return to the right-hand of God. I've explained it, you know everything you need to be saved. Your works cannot save you, look to Christ and to Him crucified, for the forgiveness of your sins. Now to you Christians, who've already done that.

I've already said look, again, like at 1 Corinthians 2:14 and realize you would still think the cross is foolishness if it weren't for the Spirit of God. So just thank the third person of trinity for saving your soul. I have grown over the last year or two, in appreciation for what the Spirit did to save me. Swim in 1 Corinthians 2:14 say, "I would think the cross is foolish if the Spirit hadn't made me wise. So I turned my back on my own intellect and my own wisdom." So just thank him.

Thirdly, can you just let the cross continue to humble you? It's not done humbling you. When you are having a problem in your life, do not rely on your own wisdom and do not rely on your own strength. Turn away from that and come to the cross again and say, "Oh God, help me, save me. Strengthen my marriage, help me in parenting, help me in my work life, help me as a student. Would you please help me? I don't trust in my own intellect, I don't trust in my own understanding. I'm leaning on you, I'm turning to you, I'm bringing this problem to you. Would you please show me your wisdom and your strength? Which is greater than my foolishness and my weakness" And know that he has the power to finish your salvation, you are being saved, you're not done with your salvation. So the message of the cross is the power of God to finish saving you.

So keep coming again and again. And then finally, let's not be overly impressed by the experts, the pundits, the ones on the panels and CNN and all the ones that'll tell you exactly how you should think. And they'll also tell you what they think about you as a Christian, they'll tell you that too. Let's not be impressed by it, we're not going to be impressed by human genius. Let's look instead to the message of the cross that the world calls foolishness and see that it's actually infinite wisdom and power. And let's be wise, I believe that the more you grow in Christ, the more foolish you are going to look to the world. Be willing to make that journey. 1 Corinthians 4 is all about that, where he says to the Corinthians, "You guys are trying to become more and more esteemed and powerful and wealthy and comfortable. I'm on an escalator going the down way, and we're going lower, and lower, in the estimation of the world." Be you ready for that journey. The bolder you are in witnessing, the bolder you are in admission, the more foolish and hateful the world will see you as. Be willing to be humbled, and be a fool for Christ. Close with me in prayer.

Father, thank you for the joy of the gospel, thank you for the message of the cross of Christ, and him crucified. There's nothing new here, I've not preached any new doctrines today. God forbid that I would turn away from the ancient message of the cross, that the Apostle Paul preached so faithfully. Help each one of us to be faithful, to hear and believe that message, and then proclaim it to a world that is desperately in need of it. Thank you for the spirit of God that has made all of us appear to be what it really is, the power of God and the wisdom of God at work in us who believe, in Jesus name. Amen.

Hi, I'm Andy Davis. I'm Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church. I was wondering, with a number of you, if I would remember how to preach, I hope so. Someone likened it to roller skating, which made me a little nervous. I grew up ice skating and I had a mishap the first time I roller skated a few years ago. But yeah, about two months ago, I don't remember the exact number of weeks, I was preaching along in 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 and just making my way through that text and this little thing, this clock was... I thought it was lying to me, but it wasn't, it was like quarter of, and I was about two-thirds of the way through that sermon and I knew I wasn't going to be preaching for about two months, so I said, "Alright, what shall I do?" But I didn't worry about it because I had two months to figure it out.

What I feel led to do is to go right back into that text and to try to pick up on Paul's argument. He is dealing with the factions and divisions in the Corinthian church, but he zeroes in on water baptism. And I want to talk, having laid the groundwork, the context of his comments on water baptism, to talk about the significance of water baptism, the limitations of water baptism and just give you an understanding of that ordinance. So that's what we're going to do this morning.

Now, I myself was baptized in the Ipswich River in Massachusetts in the early summer of 1984 by Mark Dever. He was pastor of a church that we were planting up there. And I'm telling you right now, in the early summer, Ipswich River flows with water that has recently been snow and ice. So it was a vigorous experience that I had. I mean, it was a spiritual experience.

And I have the photo on my phone, I was actually going to bring it, I was going to project that photo on the screen while I preached, but I thought better of it at multiple levels. First of all, I'm just not big on projecting images while I preach. But when I looked again at the photo, it had been a number of years since I've seen it, I was like, "Okay, yeah, we're not putting that up on the screen." First of all, my hair was a lot longer and thicker. It's always tended toward bushiness. Mark Dever was wearing a... If you could call it a graphic tee, you have to understand in 1984 the science of graphic tees hadn't developed much. So Mark was wearing a shirt, a blue shirt that said in very small letters, "Mark." Okay. And I was wearing tennis shorts that were popular back then and if you know anything about what the tennis players wore back then you can picture it. So I'm not showing that picture to you.

But what happened was, I'd been a Christian for a very short time, less than two years at that point, and I was led to faith in Christ while a student at MIT by a parachurch group, Campus Crusade for Christ, and I was immediately discipled by a very skillful man, a godly man named Tim Schuman. And he poured into me lots and lots of helpful things in the Christian life, Bible study, evangelism, concern for missions, so many things. But many parachurch groups do not really focus on local church involvement, it's not really a strength. And so, water baptism just really never came up. Until a year into my discipleship with Tim, we started doing evangelism in the college campuses there in the Boston area, MIT, Harvard, BU, Northeastern, and we kept running into a cult there called the Boston Church of Christ.

Now, the Boston Church of Christ is a cult, they have a branch here in the Triangle region called the Triangle Church of Christ. As a denomination, all churches of Christ are kind of a schismatic group broken off from the baptistic movement that goes beyond to something known as baptismal regeneration. And baptismal regeneration is the teaching that if you are not water baptized you cannot be saved, or more specifically, it's at the moment of water baptism that you are regenerate, that you are born again, that your sins are forgiven, which I think is not true. But I hadn't really developed many convictions and so as we're trying to refute these Church of Christ disciplers and evangelists on these campuses, Tim Schuman and I were going through the Scriptures and we were walking through the New Testament on water baptism, and I came to some very strong baptistic convictions. I came to believe that water baptism should be administered to people who can give a credible profession of being disciples of Jesus Christ, that they've come to faith in Christ, that's a basic baptistic conviction, but that water baptism was not required for heaven.

And there were some verses that we studied and this one today, in which Paul says that, "Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel," was actually a key to my understanding. And so also some other verses that we're going to talk about today. But in the course of that study, I came to realize that I, having been born and raised as a Roman Catholic, I was baptized as an infant by another church that also teaches baptismal regeneration. Namely, the Roman Catholics. I didn't realize that this was true until as a believer many years into my Christian walk, I think it was already at seminary, I went to the infant baptism of a Roman Catholic family, I was invited to come, and the priest was there and was baptizing the infant and was declaring that at that moment the infant was now born again. And I said, "Wait, what?" I wanted to raise my hand and say, "Excuse me, can I ask a question?" I wanted to do all kinds of things, but it was not the time.

But I came to realize years before that, that I had never been baptized really. Whatever it is that my parents did for me, I could not, in good conscience, call it baptism. And so, I needed to be water baptized as a believer. Now, I wasn't connected at that point with a church, but Mark and some others, including me, were starting a Southern Baptist church there, near Gordon-Conwell. So I started talking to Mark about water baptism, and I was baptized in the Ipswich River.

Return to 1 Corinthians 1.

Now, as we return this morning to 1 Corinthians 1, I want to talk about the issue at hand, what Paul's dealing with here, which is factions and divisions in the Corinthian church. But then I want to go off and talk some about the theology of water baptism. So that's what the sermon is going to be today. Now, in the first number of verses in 1 Corinthians 1, the Apostle Paul greets the church that he helped plant by preaching the Word, and he gives thanks for them, he wishes grace and peace to them, as he always does in his apostolic reading, gives thanks for the sovereign grace of God at work in their lives. He gives them a sense of confidence, that grip of grace by which Christ has seized hold of them, that he will continue and protect them until they are finally saved and in heaven. And so he's confident and he thanks God, he thanks God for their spiritual gifts and speaking and knowledge, but then he rolls up his sleeves, and he begins to address the many problems that we're going to be following in this epistle in 1 Corinthians, and the first is factions and divisions.

Now, these divisions were a huge issue in the life of this Corinthian church, this local church. And indeed, it is a huge issue for churches all over the world: Factions, divisions, disputes, dissensions, arguments, conflicts. This is common in local churches around the world and it's grievous to have to say so, and it's a huge issue. Sinners divide from each other, sinners argue with each other, sinners do not get along with each other, sinners are prideful with each other, sinners force their own way with each other and push their own agenda with each other, and churches are made up of sinners. And so this is going on all the time. Now, in Corinth it's articulated in this way, Paul hears that there are factions and divisions. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul." Another says, "I follow Apollos," and another says, "I follow Cephas," and another says, "I follow Christ."

And you can imagine how the arguments would go.

"I follow Paul, he planted this church to begin with."

"Oh, yeah? Well, I follow Apollos, he's far more articulate and a better speaker than Paul."

"Well, I follow Cephas, Peter, he's the apostle back in Jerusalem, he's the key apostle, he was an apostle before Paul was."

"Oh, yeah? Well, I follow Christ better than all of you."

Factions and divisions. And these divisions were a work of Satan in their midst. Now, the Greek mythology back then, there were lots of stories of the Greeks' gods and goddesses. But there's this one story that all of the Greeks would have known, about how the war between Troy and Sparta started. Some of you are aware of this story. The gods and goddesses were together having a big heavenly party, in Elysium or wherever they were. And there was a goddess that wasn't invited, Eris, the goddess of discord. Gee, I wonder why she wasn't invited.

Can you imagine that being your job description, to sow discord and division everywhere you go? Well, she was so put out with the gods and goddesses that she decided to get her revenge and she crafted a beautiful golden apple and inscribed on it, "For the fairest, for the most beautiful," and rolls it in amongst the goddesses. Well, they immediately started fighting. Here are the queen goddess, and Aphrodite, and Athena, and they're all fighting. And it led eventually to the war between Troy and Sparta. Now, that's all myth, but there is, I think, a god of discord and his name is Satan, and he loves to roll that golden apple of discord in amongst Christian people, he's been doing it for 20 centuries and, as Paul says, "We're not unaware of his schemes," we need to be willing to stand up and fight. So he's dealing with this issue of factions, "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ." And he's going to return to this topic, he develops it here and then he's going to return to it and settle it in chapter 3 by really minimizing himself.

“What after all is Paul? What is Apollos? Only servants through whom you came to believe as the Lord assigned to each one his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.” We are nothing, that's what he's saying. So here he says it this way, I follow Apollos, he says, "Is Christ divided?" Look at verse 13, "Is Christ divided?" Are we really rent apart?" What he's going to end up saying is, "You get it all, all things are yours, you get Paul and Apollos and Cephas and best of all, you get Christ." And anything Paul brings to the table, it's really Christ blessing you through Paul and anything Apollos brings to the table, it's really Christ blessing you through Apollos, and anything that Peter brings to the table, it's really Christ blessing you through him. But we're just vehicles, we are nothing. Christ is everything. And so he says, "Is Christ divided?" And he says, "The focus should be on Christ. Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?" I wonder what Martin Luther would think about people being called Lutherans. I don't have to wonder at all. It would be appalling to him.

Was Martin Luther crucified for you? That's what he's saying. Paul's saying, "I didn't die for your sins. I'm not the incarnate Son of God who was born of the Virgin Mary, and lived a sinless life and won a perfect righteousness that he's willing to give you as a free gift," this is the gospel. "And not only that, but willing to take all of your sins and rebellions on himself and die in your place at the cross. I didn't do any of that. I just told you about him. Were you baptized in the name of Paul? You were baptized in the Christ's name not into mine."

So then he somewhat, it seems, puts water baptism in its place. And this is really interesting. Look at verse 14-37, "I'm thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius so that none of you can say you were baptized into my name."

"Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel." These are amazing statements. He says he's thankful he didn't baptize hardly any of them, Crispus and Gaius. Oh, yeah, also the household of Stephanas. It's a very interesting moment in inerrancy for you. Anyway, any of you that are into this, go ahead and work at that, but at any rate... Oh, yeah, also, but... And he's not saying they all weren't water baptized, they were, but he just delegated that task to others, it wasn't important who did the baptism. That's what he's saying. What matters is what it signified. He somewhat dismisses, "We're just servants." And then he makes his final statement in verse 17, "Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."

Now, he's going to develop that over the next number of verses. We're not getting into that today, but how reliance on human wisdom and human heroes and human leaders would empty the cross of its power. We are nothing. Christ crucified and resurrected is everything. Now, I will say that this statement, "Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel," is a killer statement for baptismal regeneration. It should end it. Because if water baptism is required to go to heaven, then this statement is actually incredibly confusing. They would say water baptism to some degree is the gospel or an essential part of the gospel. Paul would say, "I disagree." So the bottom line alone is, Christ alone is the Savior and human messengers are merely servants.

Now, what I want to do is talk about water baptism, the significance of it, so I can try to just explain what it means biblically. Water baptism, immersion in water, the spiritual significance, was unknown in the Old Testament. It's not Old Testament ordinance that was brought over. It came up, it seems, during the intertestamental period when the Jews had been expelled out of the promised land because of their sins, northern kingdom under the Assyrians, the southern kingdom of Judah under the Babylonians, they were scattered, the dispersion, and everywhere they went, they continued to believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Gentiles were converted to Judaism. And when they were, the men would be circumcised to become Jews, but they added another ritual, the ritual of washings, it seems, to say, "You Gentile dogs are dirty morally and you need to be washed with water so that you can become clean." And so, the Gentile converts would be washed.

Suddenly, there came into Jewish history a man, unlike anyone who had ever been except one, Elijah, and this man was John the Baptist, and he was out in the desert, and he was proclaiming a whole new message. He was saying to the descendants of Abraham, to the Jewish people, "You need to be baptized too. You're as much on the outside as these Gentiles because of your sins." It says in Matthew 3:1-6, "In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the desert of Judea, and saying, 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,' and people went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River."

Now, we need to stop and talk about the word itself, baptism. The word, the Greek word, baptidzo, from which we just bring the letters over and get baptized or baptist, means to plunge or immerse or sink or dip. Those are the ways that it's used. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, whenever the word baptidzo or baptisms, that kind of thing comes in, there's always a dipping or a plunging into a container of a liquid. So the priest would baptize, would dip his fingers into blood and then sprinkle the people. Two different actions, or a ship would sink or Naaman would wash himself in the Jordan River multiple times to be cleansed of his leprosy. Same word. Or you remember Jonathan dipped his staff into the end, into some honey and lifted it and tasted it, he dipped it in. So, it's a plunging action, it never means sprinkle or pour. There's always an immersion. So John the Baptist was immersing Jews in the Jordan River for their sins, as they were confessing their sins.

Now, in the course of time, John's primary ministry, I'll never forget, John MacArthur said, "John the Baptist came to do three things: To prepare the way, proclaim the way, and get out of the way." I never forgot that. I think that's really, really good. So he was there proclaiming and doing all, preparing and then when Jesus came, he proclaimed, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." But in the Matthew account, he's there in the midst of the baptism, water baptism and then Jesus comes and he's there. From John's gospel we learned, "I wouldn't have known him except the Holy Spirit descended and remained, and I knew who he was." And this is what John the Baptist said to Jesus, he said, "I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?"

Now before Jesus came, John set the stage for Jesus, and he said, "After me will come one more powerful than I am, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie." Why do you say that, John? Why is he so much greater than you? He has, actually, a number of answers to that, but he zeroes in on the baptism. "I know he's greater because his baptism's greater than mine." "I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come one more powerful than I, whose sandals I'm not fit to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering up the wheat into his barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Wow, that's how John preached. Powerful.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit -  Or the Baptism of Fire

Now, the key with this is... Again, the word baptize means immerse. He will plunge you in the Holy Spirit and fire. How do you understand that? Well, the key is the fire, he's very clear about the fire. He's going to be clearing his threshing floor of wheat and chaff. Chaff always represents the wicked and the chaff, or drawn away, in Psalm 1. They are the wicked, they're like chaff that's blown away. And so the chaff represents the wicked, and Jesus is going to come and he's going to clear his threshing floor. Everybody is going to get dealt with. You're either wheat or chaff, you're either righteous or wicked.

And he's going to gather the wheat into the barn. But he's going to, listen to this, "Burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire," as John preached in Matthew 3:12. Now, whenever you hear "unquenchable fire," you must think about Hell, which we learn in Revelation 20, is likened to a lake of fire. So he's going to plunge the wicked into a lake of fire. He's far greater, John is saying. That's the kind of power he has. But he will also immerse you in the Holy Spirit. So, I really sense he was speaking to a mixed group, a mixed assembly, some of them were his bitter enemies, talking about John the Baptist, and some were very repentant sinners. He's talking to a mixed group. I think we can change the "and" to "or. " Jesus will either immerse you in the Holy Spirit or he will immerse you in fire, that's how great he is. And he's going to clear his threshing floor. Jesus will baptize everyone in one or the other. And clearly not both, because I believe that he immerses you in the Holy Spirit leading to eternal life, or actually you could say that is the essence of our experience of eternal life here on Earth. Or he will immerse you in eternal death, condemnation.

And so Jesus came at the right time, and John tries to stop him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you and do you come to me?" But Jesus said, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." John consented. And Jesus was baptized by John, and as he came up out of the water, Heaven was opened and the Spirit descended like a dove on Jesus and remained on him, and a voice came from Heaven, "This is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased." Now, Jesus was baptized not because he had any sin, but to show solidarity with John's ministry and methods, because a lot of that would be similar to what his disciples would do. They would preach repentance for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand and a need to repent from sins and then they would do water baptism, and so that's what happened, Jesus began doing his ministry there in Judea, and people were coming to him, and Jesus is making lots of disciples and was baptizing them.

But then you find out this key statement in John 4:2, actually, it wasn't Jesus doing the baptism, but his disciples, Jesus didn't water baptize anyone. And I think the reason why was that would confuse the image. It's the same reason Jesus didn't take a wife, it wouldn't have been ungodly, it would just confuse the image, because the bride of Christ is the church. And so he didn't water baptize because the real baptism of Jesus is the Holy Spirit, but his disciples were baptized.

And then after he died on the cross for our sins, and won for us to salvation, freeing us from all of our sins. If you just believe the gospel message that I've already proclaimed to you this morning, if you just believe that God sent his son, he lived a sinless life, died on the cross for you, rose again from the dead. If you believe that, you have become his disciple, you're forgiven of all your sins. He sent his disciples worldwide with that message in the great commission. He said, "All authority in Heaven and Earth has been given to me, therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and surely, I am with you always to the end of the age." So therefore, everyone of Jesus' disciples, having been made a disciple by faith, should be water baptized, and water baptism is going to be a part of the spread of the gospel and the advance of the church worldwide.

So, we need to understand then what it signifies. The water baptism signifies baptism of the Holy Spirit. After his resurrection, before his ascension to Heaven, Jesus had 40 days with his disciples to teach them many things. And in Acts 1:4-5, it says, "On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command. Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my father promised, which you have heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Well, that few days later was the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2, they were all assembled in one place and the day of Pentecost came, and "suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came and filled the whole house where they were sitting, and they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each one of them, and all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."

As the gospel spread more and more through the Book of Acts, more and more disciples trusted in Christ. People became disciples, they trusted in Christ, became disciples, and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, just as Peter said they would. There's Pentecost sermon there, at the end of Acts 2, "When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' Peter replied, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.'" And they did. Those who accepted the message were baptized. You hear that? The believers in the message, in the gospel, those were the ones that were baptized, and about 3,000 were added to their number, that began the church. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to the fellowship, to breaking of bread and prayer, that was the start of the church, and wherever the gospel went after that, water baptism went.

Now, what does it signify? Water baptism was one of the two ordinances of the Christian church. The other one, we're going to celebrate at the end of the message, the Lord's Supper. So we have water baptism and the Lord's Supper. We Baptists call them ordinances, because they were ordained or established by Jesus. Water baptism is an outward and visible symbol of an internal, spiritual reality, and I'm telling you, that reality is baptism with the Holy Spirit. You've already been baptized with the Spirit, now you're showing to the outside world that reality, so everyone can see. And we have had some wonderful baptisms right behind me. I have often been moved to tears by the stories of people and what God has done to bring them to faith in Christ, and I've seen baptisms. I myself was baptized, as I mentioned, in a cold river. Ron said it looked like a swamp, I think is because there was a log coming up out of the river, it was not a swamp. I was not baptized in a swamp, Ron.

I appreciate it, but it was a river, it was flowing, alright. But I've been involved in baptisms at oceans and ponds, lakes, but mostly here. And it's a sign, it's a symbol to the people watching, so they can see the physical symbol of something that's already happened.

We Baptists would not water baptize somebody that we don't believe has already been baptized in the Spirit, by faith in Christ. And so that linking, I think, is reasonable to make, 'cause later in the same book, 1 Corinthians 12:13, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul says, "For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greek, slave or free, and we were all given the one Spirit to drink." In other words, the moment you came into the Body of Christ, you were baptized into the body by the Spirit.

So to be baptized with the Spirit means to be immersed in Christ, think about that. I am immersed in Jesus, I want you to keep that image. I am plunged into Jesus, he is the Spirit of Christ, after all. So by the Spirit, we're immersed in all that Christ is, we're immersed in his cleansing blood, we are immersed in his wisdom, we are immersed in his love, we are immersed in his power. We are immersed in his plan, we are immersed in Christ. I love St. Patrick's prayer, as St. Patrick said,

"Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I rise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me."

It's an immersed life that we're talking about.

Water baptism, also from Romans 6, represents union with Christ. There's not any difference between them, you must see, immersed in Christ, united with Christ, it's the same thing. But in Romans 6, Paul deals with the issue of sin in the Christian life, he says, "Don't you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death." You are immersed in Jesus' death. "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection." So baptism signifies union, spiritual union with Jesus in his death and in his resurrection. Dead to sin, alive to God. That's what it symbolizes.

So full immersion in water baptism does symbolize this union. As we lower the individual down in the water and the water covers them, and then we bring them up out of the water as a picture of resurrection. But I have come to believe that that's not the end of the baptism, that's not it. What are you raised up out of the water into? You are into an immersed life in the Holy Spirit, that's what walk in newness of life is all about. So the baptism doesn't actually stop when you're lifted up, it actually really begins at that point. And we are immersed in the Holy Spirit, immersed in Jesus for the rest of our lives, that's what we're talking about.

So what are the proper subjects and mode of baptism? Therefore, as I've said, baptism should be administered only to believers, to people who can give a creditable testimony, profession of faith in Christ, not to infants. There is not a single command that Christian parents should baptize their infants, there is not a single clear example of Christian parents baptizing their infants. There are actually no thematic precepts, if you understand the relationship with the covenants properly, by which you can make that argument. So therefore, we repudiate infant baptism, as I did by being water baptized in the Ipswich River.

Now, keep in mind, Jewish fathers were clearly commanded to circumcise their sons in the Old Testament. There's chapter and verse on that, but there's no such commands for Christian parents concerning infant baptism. So we will baptize a person if this has happened. Romans 10, 9-10, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved, for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." Alright, now, I just want to see if you guys are paying attention. Okay. Alright, what is the proper mode of baptism? Immersion or sprinkling?  

Immersion. Please tell me you've been listening. What does the Greek word mean? It means to immerse. I actually saw a very intelligent Presbyterian teacher, brilliant guy, argue that the best mode of immersion, he said baptism, but the best mode is sprinkling. It'd be like saying the best mode of immersion is sprinkling. They are two different actions, so we immerse, we immerse.

Now, let's limit water baptism, let's limit it. Water baptism doesn't save anyone automatically. There's nothing about water baptism that saves the soul. Neither is water baptism required for salvation. First, we've got this statement here, "Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel." We also have the thief on the cross, who was not water baptized, and yet Jesus said, "Today, you'll be with me in paradise." So water baptism isn't required; neither can we say it's the moment of justification, etcetera.

And therefore, much of the so-called spread of the gospel in Europe, let's say, throughout Christendom, for about, I don't know, 15 centuries, in which there was forced mass baptisms. Have you ever heard of these things? Like some prince or king would think Jesus was the way to go, like... Well, I'm going to say specific names, Constantine, I hope he was genuinely converted, but he painted the Chi-Rho on the shields of his Roman soldiers, and that kind of pattern was regularly followed. Like in 988, Prince Vladimir, of the pagan Rus people, from which we get the word Russian or Russia, studied religions, decided his own paganism was wanting, and turned to what we would know as Greek Orthodoxy as the best religion he could find, better than the Muslims, better than paganism, so he became effectively an orthodox. And he decreed that all of his people should assemble at the river tomorrow or face the displeasure of the prince.

So if you are one of his subjects, what are you going to do? I'd be at the river. And then, you're all like, "What do we do?" "Go in, go in the river, yes, go in." So we're in the river, alright. And then a priest came and said some words and then that was it. And in the account I read, which is a contemporary account, everyone was celebrating this huge influx of Christians and that Satan had been defeated. These folks didn't know anything about the gospel, they'd not been proclaimed to, nothing, they're not converted, they're still pagans. But then that was a Christian country, that went on in countries all over Europe. This we repudiate, we Baptists would never want governmental force on anybody pressing them toward becoming Christians, that's just anathema. We don't want those kind of human coercions and pressures, we want you to hear and be pressed from the inside to follow Christ and baptism and to obey. True baptism is something done by the Spirit, where as it says in the words of Ezekiel, he reaches down and takes out the heart of stone and puts in the heart of flesh. By the power of the Spirit, he transforms you, and by his spirit, he moves you to obey God's commands and his decrees and ordinances. That's the transformation that we're talking about.

Alright, applications. Well, more than anything, the proclamation of the gospel is central. It is essential to each one of you to believe in Christ, to trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins. That's the key thing. The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And so that power is here now, by the proclamation of the gospel. Will you trust in him? Have you trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior? That's the key thing for the forgiveness of your sins. That's why Paul says in the next chapter, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." So if you confess your sins to God, if you believe in your heart that Christ is the Son of God, died on the cross in your place, rose from the dead, then you are forgiven of your sins.

Now, the next question I want to ask is, have you testified to that by water baptism? It's one thing for me to stand here and say, "You don't have to be water baptized in order to be saved," but it's a whole different thing to refuse to be water baptized. Now, that's different. The thief on the cross had no opportunity, but I think if he had lived after that, and he had understood, he would have been water baptized. So you can't refuse. I'm just asking, I went a long time, I went a couple of years as a born again believer, who had not been water baptized. That might be the case for some of you.

For me, I, as a church, I want to see lots of water baptisms. I want to see water baptisms of many types, those that are raised in good Christian homes, where their parents saturate their kids with the gospel from infancy, and at the right time, they come to faith in Christ and then testify it by water baptism, I love that. I also want to see others, and I've mentioned this, of a different category. I was lost, I met so-and-so, or a group of so-and-sos from your church, I don't mean it that way, but anyway, I met people from your church, they shared the gospel with me and now I'm here today testifying to faith in Christ. Don't you want to see a lot of those? We have to go out and win them. We have to go out and win those baptisms, those people. Now, we're not doing it so we can count the baptisms and send them into the state convention. That's not important. What matters is, each of those represent new lives in Christ. I want to see that. And if you have been baptized, I'm going to say a few things to you, "Don't trust in your water baptism." Don't say, "Well, at least I was baptized." If you're not living a holy life, you should seriously question whether you're born again.

You need to know, Romans 6, "If you're baptized spiritually, you are baptized into his death." You should be living out that crucified life. You should count yourself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, and live a holy life. That's the life that he wants. And just final word here, I want you to think of yourself as a baptized believer, as continually immersed in the Holy Spirit, in Christ. Christ inside you, Christ around you, in front of you, behind you, under you, over you, every moment immersed in Christ. When we were missionaries my wife and I, in Japan, we were in Tokushima, and it's a center of indigo dyeing, had been from the 10th century. Indigo is the color of blue jeans. And they would take white cloth, and they would immerse it, baptize it, they didn't call it baptism, but they would immerse it in a vat of purple dye. And the thing is, the longer they left it in there, the darker the color would become. The more the dye would influence the cloth, put it that way.

You know, if any of you ever do Easter egg dyeing, have any of you done that? So you have a color, like let's say blue, and you put an egg in there, if you leave it in there for 10 seconds, and take it out, barely anything. It's like a pastel kind of light robin's egg blue. But if you put it in there and do what I did one time, which is forget about it, and then come back. If it's still an egg at all, you lift it up and it's a deep midnight blue. So I want to just set those analogies, those are just analogies, but I want you to be immersed in Christ. So the way He thinks is the way you think. We have the mind of Christ. And the way he lived, is the way that you will live. That is the baptized life. That's what I want to come in. And if so, you will see it in actual works of holiness, where you're putting sin to death by the Spirit. And works of evangelism were filled with the Spirit like Peter was. You can say, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved." Acts 4:12. That came from being filled with the Spirit. So we're going to be bold in evangelism, and holy in our private lives, as we're immersed, baptized by the Spirit.

I'm going to pray now, and then we're going to go to the ordinance of the Lord Supper. And I'm going to pray that this experience will be an immersed experience. Do you know what I'm saying? That we are going to sense the presence of God, through the Holy Spirit in this ordinance. So, let's pray. Father, thank you for the Word of God, thank you for its truth, its power and its reality in our lives. And now, as we turn our attention to the Lord's Supper, Father, I pray that you would send forth the Holy Spirit of God, I pray that we would have a sense of being immersed in Christ in his death and his resurrection. That we would be immersed in the idea that some day we'll sit at table in Heaven with Jesus and with the redeemed. I pray that we'd be immersed in the fact that our sins have been forgiven, and that we're feasting on Christ and he is giving us nourishment. O God, send your Spirit that it would not be an empty ritual, but a powerful experience. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, I am so thankful to be back with you. I think I may be the only person that was both in Dallas where it was 100 degrees and Newfoundland where it was 31 degrees in the same week. I'm thinking I'm the only one, there might be others. I had the privilege of ministering in different settings, and I'm glad to be back with you today. And really, the idea of thankfulness unifies this sermon that I'm about to preach as we begin a verse-by-verse study in this challenging book in 1 Corinthians, it is challenging because Paul systematically goes through many issues that were facing that local church in almost 2000 years ago, 20 centuries ago, and we find how relevant it still is today. And we're going to see that as we begin that journey today. But we begin with the idea of thankfulness. And I feel just an overwhelming thankfulness to be a pastor in this church, an overwhelming thankfulness to be at First Baptist Durham. I love you, I love being here. There's nowhere I'd rather be than here. I am delighted with the wisdom of God in setting up local church so that we can know and be known and we're drawn together. And so the idea of Paul giving thanks for the Corinthians unifies this for me.

And so, I was meditating on thankfulness even this very morning, and I was thinking about how much thankfulness is tied to relationship. Imagine that you were just walking along in your life and some valuable material object just came in your path randomly. I don't know, I'm trying to picture... (I was working on this in the pew and I didn't come up with a real good solution because of the ethical obligations where you would need to give that back to whoever it was). But set all that aside, set the ethics aside, just go with me on the illustration.  Some incredibly valuable thing falls into your lap. You're walking along the beach, or you're in a city urban park, and there's no one around, and there it is. And it's now yours. But there's literally no one to thank. Imagine getting the same valuable possession from a friend who loves you and has sacrificed financially, and is thinking about you and is giving it to you, how different that is. It's the exact same thing that's come into your life, but it's come through a heart of love, it's come through relationship. And I think about all the unbelievers, the atheists that have many of the same common grace blessings that come into their life: Sunrise, sunsets, food that they eat, fun experiences, material possessions, clothes, all of that, but they have no one to thank. I wonder what they do at Thanksgiving.

I've heard some of the strangest things in November where they say, "Well, Thanksgiving is a time where we thank each other." And I think we should thank each other, but that's not what the Puritans thought. The Pilgrims were thinking that we should thank God because every good and perfect gift comes from God. And one of the greatest joys of my life is to realize that there are no random blessings in my life. None. They have all passed through the hands of God and have come into my life. Every good and perfect gift was intentional. It was thoughtful. And that this goes to the very issue of the sin problem and that there's this separation between us and our Heavenly Creator. By redemption in Christ, he is our adoptive Heavenly Father, and he wants us to know that he has good gifts to give us and that it's very personal. And so, as we go through 1 Corinthians, we're going to see more and more just how divided and dysfunctional and messed up this Corinthian church really was. And yet, how richly, fully, grateful the Apostle Paul was for them, and how thankful he was for them.

So, we begin at Verses 1-3 as Paul gives his usual apostolic greeting. He starts in Verse 1, "Paul called to be an Apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." Paul was not an accidental apostle. He was not an accidental random Christian. He was called by God to be a Christian and to be an apostle. The will of God overruled Paul's will for his life. And you know the story is well-known how Paul was a zealous, ladder-climbing Jewish person who is seeking to advance in Judaism far beyond any of his fellow Jews in his day. And he was making that progress. And that was his desire, but suddenly on the road to Damascus he had an experience that he never forgot. Blinding light surrounded him, the light of the resurrected, glorified Christ. And Jesus called to him from heaven saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" "I am Jesus." Those three words changed Paul's life forever. "I am Jesus, the whom you are persecuting… Now get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do."

I think Paul, looking back on that time from that moment on, realized how much grace was shown him in that he wasn't struck dead at that moment. As he was in route to be persecuting Christ's precious church, and Paul himself would write later in this epistle, "If anyone destroys God's church, God will destroy him." He was making himself an enemy of God. It says in the Book of Acts, Saul began to destroy the church. Put those two together, then why didn't God destroy Saul of Tarsus breathing out murderous threats? Because of grace. Because of the sovereign, loving grace of God. And so Paul, called to be an apostle by the will of God, God's will overruled. And I say that's true of all of us who are Christians. A boy who we just heard a moment ago, God overruled his will for his life, he overruled my will when I was 19 years old. And the same thing, even if you were converted at an early age in a wonderful Christian family, your will was to sin and to rebel, but God overruled your will if you're a Christian. And so praise be to God.

Paul’s apostolic authority attacked in Corinth

Now Paul is establishing himself right from the beginning. And this is going to be a unifying theme in these two epistles, 1 and 2 Corinthians, how he has to defend his apostolic status. He has to defend his apostolic ministry because it was under attack by some false teachers that came in afterwards, after he had planted that church in Corinth and they disparaged Paul. They said his letters are awesome, but in presence, he is not much to listen to. And that was one of the nicer things they said about Paul. Now, Paul wasn't on some kind of an ego trip here where he's defending his apostolic ministry because he's a power hungry person, not at all. He knows that the doctrine that we get in Christianity is tied together in some very rich ways with the people that give it to us.

Remember how Timothy was led to faith, through the genuine faith of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, and how Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, "You know those from whom you learned it." And so, it's truth through relationship, through personality it flows. And so, he's got to defend himself, not because he necessarily in and of itself wants them to think well of him, but he wants them, the Corinthians, to receive the truths that God is going to be pouring into their souls through him. And if the false teachers can disparage the source, they're going to start questioning the doctrine, and that's the issue. So he has to defend himself. He also mentioned Sosthenes our brother. Now Sosthenes did not, as far as I can tell, help in any direct way writing the letter. It's not from Sosthenes because throughout the letter he's using the first person singular, "I this, I that, etcetera." Paul's speaking in his own voice. This is a letter from Paul, ultimately from God through Paul.

But he mentioned Sosthenes, Sosthenes was one of their own. He's a Corinthian man, he was a Jewish man, and he pops up in the account in the Book of Acts, in Acts 18, where the Jewish people of that area made a united attack against Paul and drag them up in front of Gallio, the Roman procurator, the judge there, and Christ kept his promise to Paul, "No one's going to attack you and harm you in the city. I'm going to put a bubble around you." And so he got accused, but they threw it out of court, Gallio had no interest. So then the Jews turned and attacked Sosthenes there in front of the court, beat him up, the synagogue ruler. Now, I don't know if he was already a believer in Christ or following Christ at that point, or if Paul came later and said, "Let me tell you about Christ," and just picked them up out of that beating and led him to Christ. We don't know the order, but anyway he became a follower of Christ, and so he's Greek.

And then he describes the Corinthian church and it's so beautiful, look in Verse 2, "To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy." Now, those are timeless words. It's true of our church here in First Baptist Church Durham, this is true of us. "The church of God in Corinth." We belong to God, our God is a jealous God, and we are his possession, purchased at infinite price. We belong to God, the church of God, and it's in a locality. That's what local church is all about, it's the church of God in Corinth. That was going to be their sight of ministry, that was going to be their sight of temptation. You remember how in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus said, "I know where you live, where Satan has his throne." And so there's a challenge in every city. And in Corinth, their Corinth, that's where they were going to reach. those are the people they're going to reach with the gospel. We're called to the Raleigh-Durham, The Triangle area, this is our region, it's what we're called to do.

Now Corinth (we've already talked some about it a few weeks ago) is a city that is 50 miles southwest of Athens. Some years ago, a good friend, church member, Allen Carlson and I, we had the opportunity of traveling after I spoke to a group of missionaries to travel in Southern Greece in the Peloponnese and then we went to Corinth. It's one of the few Bible places I've ever been. And we were there checking into our hotel and it was owned by these two brothers. And so I said to these brothers who spoke good English, I said to these brothers,  "Do you realize that your city is famous all over the world?" He had no idea. So I showed him 1 and 2 Corinthians, and he'd never seen it at all. It was funny but tragic. Funny but tragic. I think they would consider themselves Orthodox Christians, but they'd never heard of 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians.

Called to Be Holy

But then Paul says, "sanctified in Christ Jesus." And this word, sanctified, is very important. It's a little bit different than the way I usually use the word sanctification. What it means is, "set apart unto God as his own possession," that's what it means here. It's like a religious term, and it's rooted in the Old Testament and the Old Testament animal sacrificial system.

There were many aspects, physical aspects of the animal sacrificial system in the tabernacle later in the temple that were called to be holy to the Lord or set apart unto the Lord. For example, the priest had a golden plate on their turban which said, "Holy to the Lord." So the priest was set apart unto God, the priest was his. And then other aspects, like they had this incense… They had a special recipe, and it could only be used there in the sacrificial system by the Levitical priests. It was holy to the Lord, it was sanctified unto God. It could not be used for common use. Or the same thing with all of their tithes. You're to set aside a tithe, the tenth of all of your flocks or your crop, whatever. It was to be set apart and given to God, it was holy to the Lord, it belonged to him.

And so here, he's extending that to the church. You are all, all of you who are Christians, you are holy to the Lord, you're sanctified unto God, once for all. So it's a once for all sanctification that he mentions here. The moment you're converted, you become holy to God. Out of all of the world, you are set apart and to be God's special possession, that's what it means here. And he says, "called to be saints." Some of the translation say saints, but one of the translation is "called to be holy." I think that's a little bit better. If you just say saints, you check out and it's like "called to be saints," and you think of it in a certain way. But the word saint means holy one. And so, I really prefer the translation, "we're sanctified and called to be holy." You're thinking, "Well, isn't that redundant?" No, it really isn't.

Now we're going to get into the other use of the word sanctification. That's not really found much in the New Testament, but the idea is there. And that is that we're called upon to become more and more holy in our thoughts and in our lives. We're called little by little, more and more to put sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit, to become sexually pure, to be pure in our minds, to be pure with our money, to be pure in the way that we do everything, to be pure in our lives. We're called to that. And so there's this progressive idea of holiness. Now, all of the issues of holiness that this dysfunctional, divided, immature church was facing, it was challenging their holiness. I mean, they would have problems with factions and divisions, they had a church discipline problem, which there was egregious sexual sin. And then in the next Chapter, Chapter 6, Paul goes on to general sexual ethics and purity in terms of temple prostitutes and things like that. Then there's just the issue of marriage, divorce and marriage, single people and marriage, sexual purity in that area, and also just healthy married life. And then the problem of meat sacrifice to idols... It's a struggle for this church. And they were called to be holy in the midst of all of that.

This Letter is For Us

Now, this letter that we're walking through today is intended for us. We're not reading somebody else's mail. Look what it says in Verse 2, "To the church of God in Corinth, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours." Well, that is our official permission to read this letter. That's us. Not only to that church in Corinth in that location and in that time 2000 years ago, but to all Christians everywhere. We are called on to read this. Just like in Revelation 2 and 3, where Jesus spoke to each of the seven churches, and then at the end of each of those letters to the seven churches, he says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Plural. By the way, whenever the word "church" is plural, you're talking about local church. There aren't plural brides of Christ. But whenever you see churches, you're talking about local churches. And so, that was a local church in Corinth, we are to read their letter because we're going to face the same things and look how he describes who we are, "All those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ-their Lord and ours." Those are Christians. That's one way of talking about Christians.

We are those who are in the process of calling on the name of the Lord. It's so important that you hear that. Yes, that's the sinner's prayer. Yes, it's true that when you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's the essence of the sinner's prayer. What I would say is, any genuine sinner's prayer that was prayed by a person who's right there in the midst of the process of being converted, and you share the gospel and they say, "What do I do?" And you say, "Call on the name of the Lord. Call on him, call on Jesus to save you from your sins." And then he prays, and I never feed them the lines on the prayer. If they say "I don't know what to pray," I say, "What do you want?"  If you don't know what you want, then we need to go back over the gospel, including heaven and hell. Do you want heaven and not hell? "Yes." "Alright, good, then ask for that." "Do you want forgiveness of sins?" "Yes." "Ask for that." "Alright, I got it now, I got it. I'm alright." "Good. Now pray." Alright?

If you don't know what you want, then we got to talk some more. But if you are ready now to call on the name of Jesus, he will give you what you ask for in his name. But here's the thing, that's just the first of many times you're going to do that. Let me ask each one of you veteran Christians… Are you done calling on the name of the Lord? No. Oh, you need him. And you actually, the more you grow and you're growing healthy, the more you see you need Him. And so you're actually continuing to call on the name of the Lord. "Their Lord and ours." And I love that statement. There's only one Lord, there's one God and Father of all, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. One. There is one work going on in this world. Only one. There's only one Lord, and He is both their Lord and ours. And you're wondering right now, "Pastor, only at Verse 2?" Are we going to get through this? I'm not worried about that. I actually forgot my iPhone, it's in my office. So I brought my watch. I'll glance at it from time to time. Let's keep going.

The Riches of Grace and Peace

Verse 3, "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Now one thing, this is a very common greeting. Any of you read the epistles? You hear it again and again. It's always the same and in the same order, it's always grace and peace to you. It's never peace and grace. Why is that? Well, you just need to understand what grace is. It is by grace that we are saved. What is grace? Grace is a determination in the heart of God. It's a disposition in God's heart towards sinners. I like to use the word "settled." It's a settled determination in the heart of God to do you good at many levels though you deserve to be condemned at every level. So that's a kind of a working definition of grace. It is a determination, a settled determination in the heart of God to do you good, you could add through Christ, it's only by his blood, to do you good who deserve wrath and condemnation.

So I give a broad definition. There are big gifts of grace and little gifts of grace, but it's all grace. And so when Paul writes in all of his epistles, "Grace to you," he's saying this epistle is grace. The things you're going to learn and get from this is grace. God wants to give you more grace. So just like a moment ago, I said you're not done calling on the name of the Lord so you are not done receiving grace, you need more grace, yet more grace. Oh, God, would you give me more grace? Now, we've already have received grace if we're Christians. "For it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not by works so that no one could boast." So we have received the grace of full forgiveness of sins, adoption into the family of God, the indwelling Holy Spirit. These are all by grace. But here's the thing, you need more grace, you're not done fighting sin, you're not done with this dangerous journey that you're on, you need more grace, and this epistle gives it to you. And so with Romans and so with Thessalonians, all of these… "Grace to you and peace." So he adds peace. So grace first then peace. It's never peace then grace. Why? Because you have a sin problem and if that's not dealt with, you will not be at peace with God, and He will not be at peace with you.

We read in Romans 5:6-8, it was up there while they were playing music. While we were still sinners, when we were still enemies, we were redeemed. At one point, we were enemies of God, but now, in Christ, you have been reconciled to God. You have been reconciled. You who are at one point alienated from him, enemies and hostile to God because of your evil behavior and evil mind now he has reconciled. And so you're in a status of peace with God. And what's the worth and value of that to you? God is not at war with you, He is at peace with you and will be for all eternity, a status of peace. Therefore, Romans 5:1, "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

But now this is talking about peace to you, so there's yet more peace. And this is where I would call it peacefulness or a sense or feeling of peace, being feeling at peace with God. And what's that worth to you? That you're not anxious, you're not troubled, you have a strong assurance of your salvation, and you have a feeling of peacefulness. And so we're told, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So grace and peace flow into you as you study this epistle.

Alright. So now let's look at the thanksgiving, Verses 4-9. Paul gives thanksgiving for the Corinthian church. I just want to stop and just give you an application right here. The more thankful you are, the happier you'll be in your Christian life, and the more fruitful you'll be. The more thankful you are for the gifts of God's grace to you, the happier you'll be, and the more fruitful you'll be, the better your marriage will be, the better your friendships will be, the better local church life will be. So start with thankfulness. If you're having problems with someone, if you're having problems with the church or whatever, start thanking God. Start thanking God for the grace you see in them, start thanking God for the gifts. And that's what he does here. Paul's very well aware where he's going in this epistle.

We have some problems to deal with. We have some mopping up to do. We have some construction work to do. But I want to just begin by thanking God for you. And it's not a minor thing, it's not a light thing. He is genuinely thankful in his heart, look what he says, Verse 4, "I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus." I'm just thankful for the grace I see in your life. This was in CJ Mahaney's Humility book. Just one of the most humble and building things you can do is think it and then say it. I just thank God for the grace I see in your life. It's a beautiful thing to do. It really joins Christians together. So he says, "I thank God always because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus."

Now, here's a key theological principle. If you thank someone for something, you think they are responsible for giving it to you. Are you tracking me? Alright. You don't open a Christmas gift and then thank another person in the room for that gift. That would be confusing to everybody, especially to the person giving the gift. If your wife gives you a beautiful sweater, you open it up and you thank your daughter, that's a bad moment. Don't do that, alright? And so, when Paul thanks God for the salvation of other Christians, what is he saying theologically? God is responsible.

One of my favorite sermon titles that I've ever done, did it years ago. And it's theologically accurate… And if you don't think it's exegetically true, let's come and talk afterwards. It was Romans 6:17, "Thank God you obeyed." Wow! "Thank God you obeyed." To God be the glory that I obeyed. You got to believe it and the more you go on in the Christian life, you'll know exactly how true that is. If God had not worked, I would not have obeyed. And it comes right from Romans 6:17, "Thanks be to God that though you used to be slave to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed that form of teaching to which you entrusted." Take all the words out and have "Thank God you obeyed the gospel." And so he gives credit and he's going to say it at the end. Look down at Verse 30. I know we're not quite going to get there today. We might not quite get to Verse 8 today, I'm doing my best. But look at Verse 30, you see what it says? "It is because of him, [God] that you are in Christ Jesus." Wow! That's a theologically explosive statement. It is because of God that you are a Christian. And so he's just thanking God for them.

I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. I'm just so thankful that we're going to spend eternity together in heaven. I'm so thankful that all these problems I'm about to write in this epistle, some day they'll all be gone and we're going to spend eternity one in Christ, and I just thank God for that. I thank God he knit you together in your mother's womb. I thank God that at the right time he saved you by the same gospel I was saved with. I thank God that we're now brothers and sisters in Christ. You have the same indwelling Spirit I have. I thank God for the grace I see in your life. And beyond that, he thanks God for their gifts, their spiritual gifts, look at Verses 5-7, "For in him, you have been enriched in every way, in all your speaking and in all your knowledge, because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. Therefore, you do not lack any spiritual gift, as you eagerly await our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." So they've been richly gifted or richly blessed with spiritual gifts.

Now, three whole Chapters are devoted to spiritual gifts later in this epistle. Chapters 12, 13 and 14 all deal with spiritual gifts, including the famous Chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, is really about spiritual gifts. So he's going to get to that. But what are spiritual gifts? Spiritual gifts, we talked about many times, it's very, very important you understand. Spiritual gifts are special abilities given to individual Christians for the purpose of building the entire body of Christ up to full maturity. Special abilities for building the church, and every single Christian has a spiritual gift package. It's the way I like to look at it. Not one gift, but an array of special abilities that enables you or should be plugged into a regular repeatable habit pattern of ministry. For me, it's preaching and teaching, there's no doubt, and I should be doing this. This is what I do. So I study commentaries, I write sermons and other things. And so I have a gift package. Every one of you Christians has a gift package. So the question you have to ask is, "Am I using it? Is there a consistent pattern of ministry in my life? Am I using my gifts?"

But he's thanking God there because this is a super talented or super gifted church, the Corinthians were. And he zeroes in specifically on all their speaking and knowledge. They've been enriched in every way through speaking and knowledge. Now I want to reverse it: knowledge and speaking. Isn't it better to know first then speak? Just think about it, you'll come to the same conclusion. But anyway, I'm grateful for your deep, rich theological knowledge. You are solid doctrinally, for the most part. And you also speak out of that knowledge, that doctrinal truth. And those are gifts. And he says, "I thank God" and he's going to get in Chapter 12 into a whole array of other gifts like healing and speaking in tongues, prophesies, he's got a whole bunch of things, and we'll get to all of that. There are two separate things: To have knowledge and to be able clearly to speak it and articulate it are two different things.

When I was a student at MIT, I was surrounded by some of the most brilliant professors in the world. Some of them were good teachers. I'm not trying to be unkind. They all, as far as I can tell, knew their stuff but some of them were not so gifted in speaking it. I had a hard time understanding what they were talking about, but others, it was crystal clear. They're really just two different gifts. It's like the difference between being a super basketball player and being a coach, they're just different things. But they were good at both, they had a solid doctrinal knowledge and then really gifted preachers and teachers and otherwise, they're a gifted church. Now later, Paul is going to actually be criticizing some of them for their flaunting of spiritual knowledge, that they are flaunting their freedoms with the meat sacrifice to idols and their knowledge wasn't tied to love, and they're forgetting that their knowledge should be bound together with love so that they could care for the weaker brother and sister.

And so we'll get to all that in Chapters 8-10 but he's going to criticize them in this area and say, "Look, you can have supreme spiritual gifts. But if you don't have love, it's worthless." You know exactly what I'm talking about, 1 Corinthians 13, "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am nothing. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and I have all these deep knowledge, but if I have not love, I gain nothing. I achieved nothing. I am nothing." So we'll get to all that. But he's saying, You're blessed, you're spiritually gifted, but there's more to talk about. And so in Verse 7, they do not lack any spiritual gift. Everything needed for that local church to flourish in whatever ministries God has for them to do, it's there.

And the same is true in this church, we are called on to fulfill a specific mission here in this church. We're not called to be everything for Durham and in Raleigh and in Chapel Hill. We're not called to be everything but we're called to be something specific, and the ministries that God has for us to do many of which I would contend haven't even begun yet. Haven't even begun yet. There are ways we could bless this region that we're not blessing yet. And some of you are going to have a vision for it. You're going to have a passion, not the elders, you. And you're going to move out and we are going to support that, and others are going to join you and we're going to see fruit, we're going to see people converted. You know what I want to see in baptism? I love all of the baptisms that we have, but they come in categories and I would like to see an increase in one category, someone that says, "I was lost until I met a member of your church who spoke the gospel to me and now I'm saved." Don't you all want to see lots of those? I want to see that happen. I was lost until I met so and so, they'd share the gospel and now I'm here. Pray for that. That's what I wanted because we've got thousands of people pouring into this area, thousands of lost people. Don't we want to see them converted?

So that's what we're looking for here. But everything that we need to do the job is here already. And he says, "You do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly await for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed." So he's talking about the second coming of Christ, the second coming of Christ, the unveiling of Jesus, it's the same Greek word. You're waiting eagerly for the unveiling of Jesus. There is no book that so clearly portrays all of that in the details as the book we just finished, the Book of Revelation. And isn't it interesting? You probably didn't notice this before but the Book of Revelation ends the exact same way 1 Corinthians ends. It says in Revelation 22:20-21, "He who testifies to these things, [Jesus], says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen." So that's the end of Book of Revelation. Listen to the end of 1 Corinthians. "Come O Lord, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. Amen." It's amazing. So what it's saying? A vivid, eager expectancy to the second coming of Christ is part of a healthy church life. So foster that.

God’s Faithfulness

Now, in Verse 8 and 9, he talks about the faithfulness of God's sovereign grace. He, God, will keep you strong to the end so that you'll be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9, "God who has called you into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our Lord is faithful." Our souls are under constant assault by the world, the flesh, and the devil. We're in enemy territory. We are called on to make an escape from a POW camp 20 miles behind enemy lines, and they're sending out search party searching for us to kill us and bring us back to the prison. So it is with Satan and his demons in this world system. We're in enemy territory and your soul is being assaulted everyday to turn away from Christ, to turn to sin and to turn to wickedness and idolatry, and to turn your back on your confession.

How do you possibly think you're going to make it through the next number of decades if God leaves you that long and still be blameless and trusting Jesus right to the end of your life? What is your confidence? How do you think you're going to do it? Don't underestimate the enemies that are arrayed against you. But here I'm saying to you, don't underestimate the far greater power of God to keep you. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear but with the temptation will make a way of escape. He's going to say that later. And so he is faithful and he's going to keep you strong to the end in Christ right to the end. And we trust in that.

Alright, now we get to the problems. We've had the greeting, Paul an apostle, grace and peace to you, I love you, praying for you. Now let's roll up our sleeves 'cause we have some problems to address and it's going to be a series of them. He's going to go from topic to topic to topic, and this is the first one. Verse 10, "I appeal to you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." So of all the many problems that he deals with, the first that he deals with here are their divisions and factions, their unity. And when you think of the laundry list of problems that are coming, why would you start with this one? But this is absolutely vital. It's essential for Christ's church to be evidently, obviously united. And he's appealing to them to stop arguing with each other. Stop arguing. There are disputes. He's going to say in Verse 11, there are disputes. There are arguments going on between you, stop it. You're like, "Well, can you just stop arguing?" Yes, you can. I've said this before, you know what I'm talking about. Two of you in the family are having some kind of discussion. There's some heat involved, and then suddenly, a neighbor comes by to borrow something or the phone rings, and you suddenly become sweetness and light.

You know exactly what I'm talking about. Just like that. So at least it's true, and it's theologically true. You don't ever have to sin again. You could be in the middle of sin, and not sin the next sin because you're not a slave to sin. You can just stop, say, "What are we doing? Come to my senses. I don't need to do this. We don't need to be divided. We don't need to argue. Let's pray together." And so he's deeply concerned about their unity because when we get to heaven, we are going to be perfectly united in mind and thought in every respect, just like the Trinity is. It's based on the unity of the Trinity: The Father, the Son, the Spirit are one. Three persons in absolute unity. And so Jesus prays in John 17, "O, Holy Father, may they be brought together to display the perfect unity that I share with you and you with me." "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me."

So our evangelistic success will be tied to how united we are with one another, how much we obviously love one another. Perfect unity. And look at it, Verse 10, we're not talking about a sham unity, we're not papering things over, we're not going to acting school. We really do agree. We really do agree. Look at Verse 10, "That all of you agree with one another and that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought."  Another translation, "Perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." So how do we do this? I would go over to Philippians 2:2. This is how you think and how you love. Your mind and your affections are totally one. That's what he's yearning for. Perfectly joined together. Like a beautiful piece of furniture where two pieces of wood come together so perfectly, like this pulpit, I can see it right now. I can see the different grains of wood, but I can't feel any two different pieces at all because the skill of the joiner, of the craftsman is so good. You know what I'm talking about? That we would have two different people or a whole group of people come together so united that there's no difference at all.

Now you're saying, "How is that even possible? Can two individuals who are deep thinkers and have strong opinions actually agree about everything?" Not only is it possible, you're going to spend eternity completely agreeing with lots of strong individuals from all over the world. And we will agree about everything. The more we can be united now, the more powerful we will be evangelistically.

Now, what's going on is, somebody says, "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas, I follow Christ." The ESV translation puts an "or" in between each of them. So he says in Verse 11, "My brothers, some from Chloe's household, have informed me there are quarrels among you." You're arguing, and what I mean is one of you says, "I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, [that's Peter], or I am of Christ." Those are my favorite ones. They're like, "No, no, isn't that right?" Not like that, it's not. Because you've got factions. "I'm of the Jesus party." Those are actually maybe the most dangerous of them all. "We have Jesus. You can have Paul, you can have Apollos, Cephas," is what it said. But at any rate, the body of Christ is rent, it's ripped apart by factions and divisions.

And this was common in Ancient Greece. They would follow philosophers and their schools. "I'm of Plato," "I'm of Aristotle," "I'm of Socrates," "I'm of Epicurus," "I follow that way of life." They're used to this. And the problem with it is, it's way too arrogant and prideful and man-centered. You're focusing too much on Paul or Apollos or Cephas. You're focusing too much. Let's start with the Jesus party. Is Christ divided? We all have Christ, there's one body. So, no, Christ is not divided. We are all of Jesus. But you're immature in your thinking, he's going to say in Chapter 3, "Because you don't see who Paul really is or who Apollos really is." Look at Chapter 3:5-7, he says, "What after all is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but God who makes things grow."

He says, "We're nothing. We are nothing. Everything is of God." So don't think too much of Paul or Apollos, whatever. A number of years ago, I went out to be in a wedding, I was the best man for a friend of mine from college. And brought me out to LA, then he and his new bride went off on their honeymoon, and I was there and I was so excited. I made a hour plus drive up to John MacArthur's church. He had been my mentor by radio and I'm going to go hear him preach Sunday morning. Drove up there, it actually took two hours to get up there, traffic and all, and even on Sunday. I got up there, I was there in plenty of time, and settled in at the church there, Grace Community Church, Panorama City. Settled in, ready to hear John MacArthur, only to be told Pastor John is going to take one week off, he'll be back next week. And I was crushed. And then I had this amazing experience through the Holy Spirit, who spoke to me and said, "I'm here."

That was a convicting moment. Who are you here for? Truth be told, I was there for John MacArthur. And he wasn't there that day, but Jesus was there. And I'm not saying that God doesn't raise up some servants and make them extraordinary. Paul was extraordinary, there will never be another Paul, ever. But he's not indispensable. And when he died, the church of Christ went on and flourished. And we have some gifted teachers here. For the next five weeks, you're going to hear preaching from other gifted men, and I praise God for them. But there's going to come a time, if the Lord doesn't return in our lifetime, we'll all be gone. I yearn that this church still be here and healthy in this community. And so, we're yearning to see younger gifted men and women use their gifts, and younger gifted men preach and use those gifts. That's our desire. And so, don't focus overmuch on the human servant.

And one thing you forget, he's going to say this in Chapter 3, if you say, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," and you put an "or" between it, it's like you get Paul, you can have Apollos. No, you misunderstand, you actually get them all. You get Paul and Apollos and Cephas and John MacArthur and any of the other teachers as long as they're teaching the truth. All of the truth comes from God, and you can get all of it. You don't have to pick and choose, you get them all because all things are yours. We'll get to that in Chapter 3. Well, I'm well aware of what time it is, and I'm also well aware how many pages I haven't covered yet. I have no idea what to do. But guess what? I've got five weeks to figure that out. So, I'm going to stop here, I'm going to just say this as we close. Factions and divisions have rent Christianity for centuries. Do you know how many Protestant denominations there are? I didn't know. 41,000.

Any chance there's some sin in there somewhere? 41,000 different Protestant denominations. But when we get to heaven, it's going to be perfectly united. So, by way of application, let me just finish by urging all of you. Paul's going to say, "When I was with you, I was with you in weakness and fear, and much trembling, and I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified." If I take this whole book, I'm going to unify it under one thing. No matter how many and how severe the problems are in the local church, Christ and him crucified is sufficient for all of them. He's going to bring each of these problems to Christ, again and again.

So I appeal to each one of you. I don't know your spiritual condition. If you are here today and you know you're outside of Christ looking in, I believe God brought you here to hear that your sins can be forgiven through the death and the resurrection of Jesus, if you just have faith in Him. So trust in Him. Don't leave here unconverted. Come and talk to me. If you've got questions about Christianity. This is what I'm here for. And there are other brothers and sisters that will be happy to talk to you.

So first and foremost, don't go to hell, don't be condemned. You don't know how much longer you have. Secondly, if I could just urge you also, just enrich your thankfulness. Enrich it in your marriage. Thank God for your spouse. And then your local church, thank God for this church. Thank God for the brothers and sisters here. Don't take Him for granted. Thank God for the grace you see in other people and express it to them. And don't allow your heart to become divided with other people here in the church. Take advantage. I would urge you, just go over these announcements and just look at them and look at VBS. And thank God for the spiritual gifts of Susan Fisher and others that just do this every year. I'm amazed. Do you realize how bad VBS would be if I were in charge of it? It would be awful. Not because I don't love kids, I do love kids. But specifically, the administrative things. I would not order the goldfish, I would forget to order the goldfish. And many other worse things would happen. So, I'm just praising God for that. Take advantage of the sack lunch thing. Let's draw together and love on one another.

I'm going to close in prayer. Lord, thank you for the time that we've had, however brief, to study your word. Grateful for it. And Father, I just pray that you would take the word of God and pour it into our hearts, help us to know how much we need you to continue to save us. We have been justified, but you continue to make us holy. And help us to help one another. Draw us together in a remarkable, evident unity so that we can be a light shining in this dark region. As thousands of people are pouring in here to live here, help us to witness to them and show them the life that truly is life. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians. My purpose today is to just give an overview of the 16 chapters, and as I do, I think about where we've recently been in the preaching ministry of this church and where we're going, and the dichotomy, the difference, the contrast between those two is rather stark. It reminded me of a moment in Jesus' life in ministry in which he (now this is in Matthew 17) took Peter, James, and John with him up a mountain and there he was transfigured before them, before their eyes, and his face became as radiant as the sun, shining in all his brilliance, and his clothes became as white as the light. And they fell down trembling, and a cloud surrounded them, and a voice came from the cloud saying, "This is my son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased." And they had the ultimate mountain top experience with Jesus.

But as they came down off that mountain top experience, they came back down into the muck of everyday life in ministry. Because what had happened while those three apostles were up on the mountain with Jesus is the other nine apostles were down in the valley blowing it big time, because a man brought his demon-possessed son to them to drive out the demon. This demon seized control of this man's son, and had done for many years, often driving him in a suicidal manner into the fire or the water, and the father again and again was rescuing his son from death, and heard that there was a ministry, Jesus and some men that could drive out demons. Matthew 10 had already happened, Jesus had already empowered them to go out and do exactly that, but they were completely ineffective.

And the man had very little faith at that point, frankly in Jesus or in his followers, saying, "If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us?" And Jesus responded, thinking about his church, thinking about his apostles, with these words, "Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." And later the nine who were unable, they came to Jesus privately (that was probably wise) said, "Why couldn't we drive it out?" Jesus said, "This kind can come out only by prayer." Now, you stop and think about that. They didn't pray. In their own strength they tried to drive out the demon, and they completely failed.

And so as we go from Revelation 21 and 22, the church in its radiant glory and perfection, perfected in the presence of God, shining like the sun, with all of her sins completely removed and atoned for, and the church in resurrection glory and standing in the presence of God, sitting on His throne, and they see His face, and they're filled with joy. You go from that to 1 Corinthians. Now, if you know anything about 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians is the story of the church dysfunctional. It's not just boots on the ground Christianity, this is boots in the mud. As the Apostle Paul writes and traces out one problem after another with this dysfunctional church, this is the bride of Christ still in garments of filth, not done being saved, wrestling with some of the darkest sins you can wrestle with.

And as I look at the summary of this book, I think about 1 Corinthians and what it's all about, I said to Wes right before we began worshipping, "I think what sums up these 16 chapters, as Paul goes in serial form from one problem to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next, and in every case, he brings this dysfunctional church back to the gospel, the simple gospel of Jesus Christ. This sums up for me the 16 chapters of 1 Corinthians." The gospel is sufficient to transform a dysfunctional church. And for me as a pastor, that's encouraging news because that's what we are.

Now, some of you may have been visiting for a while, you're praying about membership in this church, and you're a bit shocked to hear me say that, that this is an imperfect church. But this is an imperfect church, and all around the world in 24 time zones, imperfect churches are assembling to meet and worship Jesus Christ. All over the world. Imperfect, dysfunctional, faction-ridden, sin-struggling churches, local churches are assembling to meet and to worship Jesus. And the themes, the issues that come up in this book, in 1 Corinthians, they're not comprehensive, there are other issues that come up that aren't addressed in 1 Corinthians. But just the idea of the local church as sinful, struggling, imperfect, needing help is actually immensely helpful and encouraging. Actually, I think both of these are helpful. We need to know where we're going to end up and we're going to end up there. And we need to keep the glorious vision of the church in perfection, in glory, always in our minds. So read Revelation 21 and 22 again and again. Read it today.

As we go through 1 Corinthians, God willing, every chapter, every verse, as we just walk through that, and you look at all of the dysfunctionality and the sin and the struggle, and you realize it's in your own heart too, and it's in our church and we're struggling. Just keep going ahead to where we're going to end up, and say, "The sovereign power of God is going to get us there.” But this is reality. This is what we're really dealing with. And so we're going to walk through it. So today, what I want to do is I want to go through five major themes that I think are central in the Book of 1 Corinthians: The power of the gospel, the lostness of the world, the sinfulness of the local church, the power of mature Christian witness, and then the supremacy of love. These five are vital themes. They're not the only themes, but I think they're major themes that we're going to see as we study 1 Corinthians.

And as we go through, we're going to go through some of the most controversial issues that local churches ever face. You may wonder, "Why did you wait until the 20th year of your ministry here to preach on 1 Corinthians?" Well, that's why. I lack a certain amount of courage. At some point in these 16 chapters, every one of you will be offended with me. Every single one of you will be, in some way, upset with me. And honestly, if you're not, I don't think I've done a good job because all of us are off to some degree in our thinking. I might be completely right in what I'm preaching on that controversial topic, and you may be off, and you'll come to me in your off-ness and be upset with me for what I preached. Or I may be off. These are controversial and difficult topics, but we need to face them. And if we're going to be healthy, we need to address them. We're going to just walk through them over the next number of months, God willing, if God gives us the time.

And let's begin with the power of the gospel. It's the best place to start. It's where Paul starts. It's where Paul finishes. The power of the gospel, the basic, simple milk message of Christ and him crucified is sufficient for every one of the issues this church faces, and that's Paul's point. Now, the Apostle Paul brought the gospel to Corinth in a way that was scarcely even noticed at the time. Paul coming to Corinth wasn't a major heralded event in the history of Corinth. He had just been mocked in Athens by the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers on Mars Hill where Paul had reasoned with them in Acts 17. When he began his disputation, they said, "What is this babbler trying to say?" So they had a very disdainful attitude toward him. And then at the end, that was even more intensified with some of them when Paul mentioned the resurrection from the dead, which was preposterous to these spiritually-minded, philosophically-minded Athenian philosophers.

And so when they heard about the resurrection from the dead, some of them mocked him, but others said, "We want to hear you more on this topic." Well, that was Athens. He left from there to come travel 50 miles southwest to Corinth. He entered the city quietly. He found a couple of Jewish tentmakers named Priscilla and Aquila, and joined with them because that was his trade. And he settled in and he began reasoning in the Jewish synagogue like he always did if there was a synagogue in the town, and he began preaching. And he described his mentality, and you heard it in the reading that we just heard in 1 Corinthians, "When I came to you brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God, for I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling." That was Paul, and he began teaching about the gospel there in the Jewish synagogue.

But soon they became abusive and Paul had to go to another place and rent a hall and begin teaching because of the abusiveness of the Jews there in Corinth. And frankly, despite Paul's amazing courage, unlike anybody, I think, in church history, in perseverance and courage, he needed to be buttressed by God in that preaching ministry. And so in Acts 18 it says, "One night, the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. Keep on speaking and do not be silent for no one is going to attack you and harm you because I have many people here in this city.'" That means many elect people, unconverted elect people; they are the focus of the International Mission Board, they should be the focus of the Southern Baptist Convention, the focus of this church; unconverted elect people who we want to see brought into justification and then fully saved by sanctification. That should be the focus of the work.

And so God gave Paul a special message of encouragement, "I'm going to put a bubble around you here in Corinth, and you'll be able to do your ministry for a while because you have a lot of work to do. There's some people that want to see you... " And those people, "I have many people in the city," they're the ones he's writing to here in 1 Corinthians. Those are the people that would cross over from death to life. So as a result of that encouragement, Paul stayed for a year and a half teaching them the word of God. And as we saw, his resolution in that ministry was to stick to Christ, to him crucified and resurrected. He was rejecting the worldly philosophies of the Greek experts and thinking, the Greek philosophers. He was determined to stick to the simple facts of the gospel, and those facts of the gospel are plain. He repeats them again and again. He goes back to it at the end of this book, 1 Corinthians 15. And there, he said, "Now, brothers I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you." Well, that's his mentality. It's like, "I want to remind you of the gospel. I want you to go back again to the gospel which you received, and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved."

Or I could say it this way, "You are being saved by this gospel if you hold firmly to the word I preach to you; otherwise, you have believed in vain." So you need to continue in the gospel. Now, I want to remind you about that gospel. "For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures." That's the basic gospel. And for me, as a pastor, as a preacher, the best thing I can do is to keep reminding you that Christ was crucified for your sins and that he was buried, and that he was raised from the dead on the third day, and that everything you need for life and godliness is wrapped up in those facts. They are the facts of the gospel, and that gospel has the power to save sinners to the uttermost, to save them completely. That message of the cross is the power of God.

In 1 Corinthians 1:18, he said, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are in the process of perishing, but to those who are in the process of being saved, it is the power of God." So the gospel is the power of God for full salvation. There's an initial saving work of God by the power of the gospel when you first hear with faith and you are justified at that moment, you are forgiven of all of your sins: Past, present, and future. The righteousness of Christ is credited to your account. You are seen to be as obedient to the law of God as Jesus was. That's given to you as a gift, and in that righteousness, you will stand on judgment day, perfect, holy, and blameless. That happens in an instant. It happens at the first moment when you're born again, when you hear and believe the gospel. But then the gospel is the ongoing power of God to finish the saving work in you. You're not done being saved because you have indwelling sin in you.

See Romans 7. Paul had it (indwelling sin) inside him at that point. He no longer has it, he's glorified now, but at that point, he had indwelling sin. And the very thing he hated, he did, and the thing he wanted to do, he didn't do. And we have that indwelling sin. And that's the Corinthians' problem too. That's our problem. That's what's making this thing so difficult. So the ongoing work of salvation generally called sanctification, the gospel is the power of God for that as well.

Tim Keller, in one of his commentary said this, "Paul is showing we never get beyond the gospel in our Christian life to something more advanced." So some of you high schoolers or even college students have graduated or will graduate soon. That's exciting, it's exciting to celebrate that. Can I tell all of you as Christians, you'll never graduate from the gospel? You're never going to go to the next level. That's what Tim Keller is saying. "The gospel is not the first step in a stairway of truths, rather it's more like the hub in a wheel of truth." It's the center of all truths. "The gospel is not just the ABCs but it's actually the A-Z of Christianity" The gospel is not just the minimum required doctrine necessary to get to heaven or enter heaven, but it is the way we make all the progress into the kingdom." And that's what we're going to see in 1 Corinthians.

The Role of the Holy Spirit

Now, along with this, we see the role of the Holy Spirit. The gospel is a set of doctrines, a set of truths that come up out of the pages of the Bible. Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. Christ was raised from the dead, according to the Scriptures. Just facts, doctrinal facts, historical facts. But we have learned that without the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, they will not, cannot save anyone. So the gospel itself, just the facts of the gospel, the words of the gospel are insufficient to save souls. It's not enough. Many people prove that by hearing the words preached very well, preached very clearly, and they're not saved. So it's the gospel plus the sovereign application of the Holy Spirit. That combination save souls every time.

And so Paul says that too in 1 Corinthians 2, he says, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on man's wisdom but on God's power." Only the Holy Spirit can transform a sinner into a Christian. As we're about to see in a moment, the natural mind cannot accept the gospel. Only as the Holy Spirit works through human messengers like me and others, evangelist preachers, while they are proclaiming the true message of the gospel, only at that time, through the sovereign work of the Spirit, can an individual be convicted of sin and see the greatness of Christ and be saved.

1 Corinthians 12:3 says, "No one can say Jesus is Lord apart from the Holy Spirit." This incredible sentence in Romans 10 says that is the essence of salvation. "If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  Well, you can't do that apart from the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 6, he talks to the sinners who have been rescued recently by the gospel, he says, "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." So all of you equally owe your salvation to the Holy Spirit as to Jesus. And there's no jealousy in the Trinity. Jesus won't be offended by that. It is the Spirit of Christ who's ministering Christ to you. Alright, that's the first point. The transforming power of the gospel. We'll find more about that as we go.

Sexual Immorality

Secondly, the lost-ness of the world. Corinth was a city that loved wickedness. They were known especially for sexual immorality, and centuries before Paul ever reached there, there were epithets and slogans tying Corinth to exceptional sexual immorality. Many scholars these days say by Paul's time, that was centuries old. I think Corinth was just an average pagan city that was sexually immoral like all of them are. It was a very bad place. It was a wicked place. Now, there was a specific geographical advantage. They were in a very narrow isthmus of land connecting the Peloponnese, the lower portion of Greece, to the upper portion by a narrow neck. And there were two gulfs that came in, and so ships were tempted to try to get across. There was no canal at that point. There is one now, but sometimes they'd even carry their ships across, but this was a busy port area.

 And anywhere in the world where there's unconverted people and sailors, and merchants and tradespeople, there's going to be sexual immorality. And so there was there in Corinth as well, especially tied to the pagan temples. There were temple prostitutes who would ply their trade and it was tied up with their worship of the pagan gods and goddesses. And the gospel of Jesus Christ alone has the power to break all of those sexual sins. And they were all going on in Corinth: Adultery, fornication, homosexuality, all of these things were going on. And so it's incredibly relevant to our day as well. Beyond that, we had the problem of idolatry, which is the basic sin of the human race, worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator, that's idolatry. But when we think of idolatry, we think of systems of religion tied around gods and goddesses, and they had them. They had idols and they worshipped them, idolatry.

Idolatry

And especially tied into their whole sensual thing, you had temple prostitutes, so there was a sexual side, there was also an appetite side, people who like to eat meat. But in the days before refrigeration you needed fresh meat, and so the place to get it was at a temple. And that's where they're offering animal sacrifices to the gods and goddesses, and you could go and get some meat. So you get your fill of meat and sexual immorality. And that's what the temple system was all about. Paul went beyond it to say, "Do you understand the spiritual realms? Do you understand the spiritual dimensions of paganism? In 1 Corinthians 10:20 it says, "the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons." "Demons. Not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons."

So I believe that demons are god and goddess impersonators who get behind the fake gods and goddesses but make them be spiritual and supernatural, and lure people in. And so there's a demonic side to the pagan worship there in Corinth. There also was human philosophies. As in all of Greece, it was a place rife with human philosophizing. Greece was known in the world as the center of human philosophies. So you have Plato, and Aristotle, and Socrates and all of these, the Epicurean philosophers and all of that flowing out of Greece, especially out of Athens, Athens not far away. And the Greeks were very prideful of their system of thinking, they were very arrogant about it. And so the first chapter is dealing with the arrogance of human philosophies. In chapter 1 he says, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"

And then he said, "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." And so they had that philosophical system, and the sinful mind couldn't accept the things of God. 2:14, it says, "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they're spiritually discerned." And only by the power of the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit can that ever change. So that explains the frustration we all have in evangelism. That explains it. When we go out and we explain the gospel and people react the same way now as they did 20 centuries ago, don't be surprised. This explains exactly why. So you got this powerful gospel surrounded by a very sinful wicked world of people who cannot accept its message.

Thirdly, we have the sinfulness of the local church. And here's where the rubber meets the road. The Corinthians were a truly dysfunctional messed up church. Now, for those of you that are hunting for the perfect church, if you think in some secluded valley somewhere, there's a group of redeemed people, Christians who are doing it perfectly and they are a flawless perfect local church here on planet Earth, if such a group exists, I know nothing about it. And as someone once wisely said, "If you ever find it, don't join it, you'll ruin it." It was fine before you got there and now look what you're bringing into it.

Honestly, the gospel is for dysfunctional messed up people like you and me. Do you realize how we must look to the perfection of heaven? The insanity of our lives, the corruption and divided nature of our hearts, the fact that we keep doing things we know are sinful. We need the ongoing help of the gospel, and it's actually encouraging that there's a book like 1 Corinthians, which is God's word to a dysfunctional church. Now, the Corinthian church was lavishly gifted. Paul, at the beginning in 1 Corinthians 1 says, he thanks God for all of the gifts they had gifted in every way. They're a supremely gifted church, but it was also rife with just about every, almost every trouble a local church could ever face. I could imagine this church personified showing up at an ER, like a spiritual ER, a pastoral ER. And they've got this level of disease. It's like, where do you even begin? It was difficult.

You see factions and divisions, there are false teachers, lawsuits among believers, sexual immorality even of the most scandalous kind, even the kind that pagans don't do, marital problems, divorce, remarriage. There was problems with single people and fornication, problems with singleness and understanding the gift of singleness. There's problems with idolatry, the fact that some had recently come out of idolatry and others have been out of it for a while and they weren't meshing very well. The whole meat sacrifice to idols, he's got to address that. Gender roles are addressed. Conflicts over the Lord's Supper, spiritual gift problems, false teaching on the resurrection.

Now we're going to walk through all these. I just want to touch on each of them briefly to see what a catalogue of difficulties this is.

Factions and Divisions

First, factions and divisions. I find it interesting and you should do a study yourselves and confirm what I'm about to say. Almost every epistle, you can discern divisions among the people Paul is writing to, problems in that church where people just aren't getting along. You definitely see it in Romans where he has to write Romans 14, where he has Jews and Gentiles it seems not really getting along well. You definitely see it in Galatians where they were about to bite and devour each other, the effect of legalism. You can see it in Ephesians where he's more general there, but he's pleading with them to do everything they can to maintain the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. You see it in Philippians where he is pleading with them to have the humble mind of Christ and to get along with each other.

And there's two women in particular, they get called out throughout all of time for 20 centuries because they couldn't get along with each other. Euodia and Syntyche. They're up in heaven now, they love each other, doing fine as far as I know. But then they were not getting along, and Paul pleaded with I think the pastor there to get in a room with these ladies and not come out till they were in perfect agreement with one another. I don't know how long that took. But every single church, there's dysfunction, and factions, and divisions, people not liking each other. And Paul has to appeal to them to be one.

False Teachers

There's a problem of false teachers. You see this much more developed in 2 Corinthians, but it's the same issue. There were these false teachers called super apostles who were totally throwing Paul under the bus, and Paul has to defend his apostolic ministry there. But he said that they were false apostles actually, they were servants of Satan masquerading as angels of light. That's serious. And they were drawing the bride of Christ away from her sincere and pure devotion to Christ by their false teaching. We definitely see it in chapter 15 of this epistle though where they are openly saying there's no such thing as resurrection. That's heresy. And he has to address that.

Lawsuits

Then there are lawsuits. Back in the day, Tertullian said... One of the number one apologetics, when Jesus said, "By this will all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another," and Tertullian said, "The pagans watch us and say, 'Behold, how they love one another,' we hate each other. 'Behold, how they would die for each other,' we want to kill each other." Well, that's when the apologetic is working well. When one is taking one another to court in front of pagans, that's a bad look. Very bad. And so Paul has to deal with this saying, "Is it possible? There's not anyone with enough wisdom within the church to settle these disputes?"

Sexual Immorality

And then there's sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 6, he's pleading with them to be sexually pure. They'd come out of the grossest type of immorality, and homosexuality, and fornication, and all that. And he said, "And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified…" "you've been redeemed out of that lifestyle." And yet in chapter 5, he's got to deal with a member of the church who's sleeping with his father's wife, probably his stepmother. And Paul says it's an immorality of such a kind that pagans even know not to do it. Scandalous. And so he's got to teach them about church discipline because of that individual. And then in chapter 6, he has to plead with the members of the church to not frequent the temple prostitutes. "Don't you know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? May it never be." And so he's got to reason with them concerning this sexual immorality. It's very relevant. We may think we 21st century Americans are the first Christians to struggle with sexual immorality. It's been there all along. And 1 Corinthians can help us in our battle for holiness.

Marital Problems

And then there's marital problems, address in 1 Corinthian 7. That'll be an interesting chapter as we walk through that. But just Paul laying down what a healthy marriage looks like, and divorce, and remarriage, and various issues.

Idolatry, Meat Sacrifice to Idols

Idolatry, meat sacrifice to idols, the problems in chapter 8 through 10, he does three chapters on that. And you may be saying, "Thank God that we 21st century Americans are done with idolatry." Don't be deceived. But there are other issues there where those that knew that meat's just meat and they can eat it whenever they want were flaunting their freedoms. And they didn't understand that some people have been out of that lifestyle for about three weeks, and their consciences were being hurt and they didn't know what to do. And Paul was trying to draw them together and say, "Your holiness should matter to me." And so he's got to teach them of a kind of a community conviction and discipleship on holiness, three chapters of that.

Gender Roles

And then there's gender roles. I'm not going to go into head coverings much this morning. I'm just mentioning that it's in this book. And so there Paul was talking about timeless gender roles wrapped up, and I believe a temporal expression of those timeless roles. And we'll talk about that in due time, but I think there may be no generation that's been so gender confused as our generation. And so we're going to need some good teaching on biblical manhood and womanhood, and it's going to come out of this book.

Conflicts over the Lord’s Supper

Then there's conflicts over the Lord's Supper. The Lord intended this to be a meal that united, and instead some of them were running ahead and taking half the bread, there was none left. And others were literally getting drunk on the wine served at the Lord's Supper. As a result, that was so serious that God, that Christ killed some of them, and others were sick because of how they were dealing with the Lord's Supper.

Spiritual Gift Problems

Then there was spiritual gift problems. So in due time, we'll get into the charismatic question. I'm telling you, one after the other, it'll be very, very fascinating. It comes from the Greek word gift, the gifts of grace, the charisma. But they were having problems back then too. There was an arrogance going on. There was a boastfulness. So those speaking in tongues were arrogant over those that didn't. And so, there's all of these things that are going on. 1 Corinthians 12-14, those three chapters all have to do with spiritual gifts, and right in the middle of them is the famous love chapter, so he's got teach them to deal with their gifts in love.

False Teaching on the Resurrection

And then finally, as I said at the end, there's a group of false teachers that were saying in verse 12 of chapter 15, there is no resurrection. "We're Christians but we don't believe in resurrection." Paul is saying it's impossible. Christ has been raised from the dead, and all of us are going to be made like him. He's just the first fruit of a vast resurrection, and you all are going to partake of it. So it is a church that needs some help. And so are we. And this timeless word to this dysfunctional church is going to help us in the midst of our dysfunctionality, whatever it might be.

Fourthly, the power of mature Christian witness. The most powerful weapon for gospel advance is a healthy church, and so the healthier the local church can get, the more powerful will be its witness in that community. And Paul has to teach these Corinthians how to be witnesses. 1 Corinthians 4 may be, for me personally, one of the most convicting chapters that there is in the Bible. For pleasure-loving, affluent Americans. American Christians who want a comfortable relationship with the surrounding world, who want to be thought well of, who want to dress like kings, eat like kings, live like kings, and still have an impact on the world. Paul is saying can't be done. And he gave himself as an example in 1 Corinthians 4. "We are fools for Christ," but then he says rather cynically to them, "But you, you are so wise in Christ. We are weak, but you, you are strong. You are honored but we are dishonored. To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we're in rags, we're brutally treated, we're homeless, we work hard with our own hands. When we're cursed, we bless. When we're persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment, we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the worlds."

Now, if you hear that and you're like, "Is that what I have to become to become an effective evangelist? That's a hard ask for me." It was hard for them too. But Paul is presenting himself as an example saying, "It's this kind of really other worldly commitment to Christ that really makes a difference in your generation." And so later in chapter 9 he's going to say, "I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means I might save some." And so this is a call to us to learn what it's going to take to become powerful witnesses for Christ here in our time. And we're going to get a lot from 1 Corinthians.

Now, the great joy of this is we need to be confident of final success. Every single one of the elect, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, are going to end up in resurrection bodies. Not some of them. Not most of them. All of them. And therefore, Paul links a final exhortation toward laboring in the gospel with his whole teaching on the resurrection. It's a little bit of a disconnect for most of us, it's like because there is going to be this glorious resurrection, you should work hard in the gospel. But that's what he does at the end of chapter 15, in verse 58, he says, "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." That's so encouraging.

Finally, the supremacy of love. This was a supremely gifted church as we've said. Every gift was at work in that church. They were all there, but there was serious pride issues as well. The gifts were not given to them by God to make them arrogant so they could compare one to another, so the hand could say to the foot, "I don't need you," or conversely, another could say, "Well, because I'm not a mouth or an eye or a hand, I don't belong to the body." And so, it was working both sides of the equation where you had some that were arrogant and think they didn't need anybody else, and then you had others who thought because they weren't gifted in a certain way, they didn't belong, and so they didn't have anything to do. And so all of this was going on around the spiritual gifts. And so in the middle of Paul's teaching on spiritual gifts, he gives the most famous chapter, maybe in the New Testament, certainly in this book, 1 Corinthians, and that's 1 Corinthians 13, the love chapter.

And he links it right to spiritual gifts. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and I can fathom all mysteries, and if I have all knowledge [if I'm a theological giant], and if I have the gift of faith and I can actually move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. And if I give all that I possess to the poor, [for those of you that are committed to mercy ministry], "I give everything I have, every moment I have to the poor, and I actually even surrender my body to death, but I have not love, I gain nothing." So right in the midst of all that spiritual gifts, if you don't have love, you gain nothing.

And then he defines it so beautifully. Love is patient. Love is kind. It doesn't envy, it doesn't boast, it's not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it never fails. That's the demeanor we're supposed to have while we're using our spiritual gifts, while we're ministering to the lost and even to other Christians. And he says all of those gifts, all of them, they're all temporary. They're all going to pass away someday. You won't need them. When we get to Revelation 21 and 22, when the church is perfect in glory, there won't be any spiritual gifts. You don't need them. When we're children, we need childish things. But when maturity, perfection comes, you don't need them anymore. And so when we get to heaven, all the gifts will be fulfilled, they'll be done, but love will still be there. Frankly, even faith and hope will be fulfilled and done. You won't need faith in heaven, and you won't need hope in heaven, but you'll still have love. And so love is supreme above everything else. That's taught clearly in this book

So what applications can we take from this? It's where we're heading. It's just quick overview of some of the main themes. First and foremost, I every week call on any that there are in the sound of my voice. If you know yourself to be in darkness, you're on the outside, you're not a believer in Christ, you're invited here today to come to church, and maybe only some of what I've said makes any sense to you, but let me be very clear. The Bible reveals that all human beings are sinners. We all fall short of the glory of God. We've all violated God's laws. The Bible is also clear that judgment day is coming, when we'll stand before a judge who knows everything we've ever done and all the motives of our hearts. There's no escaping that. It's coming. It is appointed us to die once and after that, face judgment. And Jesus is offering himself to be your righteousness on that day. He's offering to cover all of your sins and be your savior and speak for you and advocate his righteousness on your behalf on judgment day.

Oh, I would seize it if I were you. I would seize it now while there's time. You don't even know if you'll be alive tomorrow. I would seize this moment and say, "What do I have to do?" All you have to do is believe this good news that God sent his son to die on the cross, that he died a physical death under the wrath of God for sinners just like you, and trust in him to take your sins from you and put them on Christ, the substitute. And that God didn't leave him in the grave, He raised him from the dead on the third day, and that someday you also will be raised like him in glory. Just believe that, and you'll be forgiven, you'll be saved.

Secondly, for those of you that are members of this church, I hope I haven't shocked you when I've said that this is a dysfunctional church that needs the Book of 1 Corinthians. Those of you who've been here any length of time, you know it. I think a church can be healthy and still need this message. And I think our church is healthy. I think God's done a great work in this church, but I think there's a lot more that we could and should be doing. And we need this book. Now, I don't know that every one of the headings of problems or dysfunctionality that the Corinthian church faced, we face. I don't know that everything we face, they faced. But I know this, we are an imperfect, sinful church that needs the grace of the gospel, so we need to stand under this gospel more than ever before. We need to go back to Christ and him crucified, him resurrected and trust in that message. Drink that milk day after day. Remind yourself who you are, who you were, what God has done for you. Stop being arrogant. Stop being arrogant in your marriage. Stop being arrogant in your family life. Stop being arrogant toward lost people.

Wherever you find pride, be like the tax collector beating his breast saying, "Be merciful to me, the sinner. That's who I am." And just know we need that gospel. And ask God to work in this church. Pray. If you can't come at 6:00 AM and join us in prayer, okay. Pray where you are with us. Pray for our church, not just to be more fruitful evangelistically. Pray that we'd be holy. That we would be healthy in our marriages. Healthy in our personal lives. Healthy when we look at the internet. Healthy in everything we do. The internal journey of holiness. And that flowing out of that power we would be very courageous and bold witnesses. Pray for that.

Be willing to suffer as messengers for the gospel. 1 Corinthians 4. Maybe if you have time, read it. It's very convicting. And as you read it's like, "I don't want to be like that. I want to be a comfortable, affluent, pleasure-seeking American who's seeking the esteem of the world around me. I want to be a messenger of the gospel. Make me one, Lord." And then finally, just have a spiritual gift ministry and do it. Find what you're gifted to do and just do it. Stand firm in that ministry. And know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the initial overview brush that we've had across 1 Corinthians today. We are thankful for the power of the gospel to transform a sinful, dysfunctional people. Lord, we know in the end all local churches will become obsolete. They will go away. But the individuals in them are eternal. And I pray that you would help us, O Lord, to make the most of our time in this church. To grow in grace in the knowledge of Christ. Help us to love one another deeply from the heart. Help us to be humbled by the gospel and to love each other in that humility. And help us to be bold and courageous as witnesses to the lost people that are just pouring into this Triangle Region that don't know the Lord, that need Christ. We pray this in His name and for His glory. Amen.

Some years ago, my son Nathaniel and I were hiking in the White Mountains. We climbed Mt. Washington, the tallest mountain in New Hampshire and the most prominent mountain east of the Mississippi River, which offers spectacular view if the weather permits. We hiked the Tuckerman Ravine trail and as is often the case on that mountain, the weather was inclement — foggy and drizzly. Nathaniel had never been up that trail before but I knew what he was missing. I prayed for the weather to clear so he could experience the view. As we climbed above the tree-line where the views of the entire region are incredible, the fog and clouds cleared enough to allow us to see the view for about ten minutes. From that lofty perch, we had a spectacular, breathtaking panoramic view of the entire Mt. Washington valley below us — other peaks and valleys, countless trees, glistening rivers and lakes — before the fog closed back in.

This is the final sermon in the book of Revelation, the culmination of almost a year of sermons in this book — 49 in total. Today we will take in a panoramic view of this incredible final book of the Bible. From our vantage point, having preached line by line and chapter by chapter, through the entire book, I pray that we would have a sense of its hidden truths. “Revelation,” both in the Greek (apokalupsis) and in English, literally means pulling back or removal of a veil, to show us hidden spiritual realities. Faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we see these invisible spiritual realities of the past, present and future, based on the Word of God.

Another image comes from the title of a sermon John MacArthur preached years ago — “Jet Tour through the Book of Revelation” — in which he preached through the entire book in about 75 minutes. In the Mall of America in Minneapolis, there is a flight simulation ride in an IMAX theater called “FlyOver America.” It takes people on an aerial tour of some key landmarks and spectacles throughout the United States — Grand Canyon, Grand Tetons, other national parks, the Mississippi River — using virtual flight technology. It is a “full immersion experience,” including various weather patterns like wind and mist, and even has aromas diffused into the theater.

We do not want to provide a full immersion experience with this sermon, given the overwhelming, terrifying topics and images in the book of Revelation. The prophet Daniel was he was left half-alive, speechless, breathless, lying on the ground with some of his visions. In Daniel 8:27, after a specific prophecy of Alexander the Great, he said, “I, Daniel, was exhausted and lay ill for several days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was appalled by the vision; it was beyond understanding.” If God Himself were to pour into our souls vividly the kind of images he gave to John or Daniel, we would be similarly laid out, barely able to breathe.

We will walk through an overview all 22 chapters, and then I will pull out seven organizing themes. It begins in Revelation 1:1 with God’s purpose statement for this book. “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.” That is a statement of the two central topics of Revelation: Jesus Christ unveiled, and the future unveiled. 

Revelation 1:1-2 says, “He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who testifies to everything he saw — that is, the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.” The ultimate author of this book is Almighty God; the human author is the Apostle John. God the Father mediated the book to us: He gave the revelation to Jesus; Jesus gave it through the Spirit to an angel; the angel gave it to John; and John gave it to us.

In verses 4-5 there is an ascription to, or a greeting, from the triune God: “Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come [Almighty God], and from the seven spirits [or seven-fold spirit, referring to the Holy Spirit] before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.” There are blessings attached to reading this book, as verse 3 tells us: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

The rest of chapter 1 is a vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ moving through seven golden lampstands, dressed like a priest, which gives us a picture of the high priestly ministry of Jesus. The seven golden lampstands represent seven local churches in the province of Asia, which is modern-day Turkey. They were literal actual churches that were planted and growing and thriving or struggling in John’s day but they also represent all local churches in all geographical locations throughout all eras of church history, the number seven representing perfection or completion. These churches are relevant to all of us.

They are golden lampstands in that they are indescribably valuable to God and that they are set up to give light to everyone around. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” We are called on to be lights shining in our locality. Jesus walking in among them shows his active continual ministry to each and every local church in the world — continually aware of them, ministering to them, trimming their wicks, ruling over them, studying them, and addressing them. 

Revelation 2-3 are letters to the seven churches from Jesus. Jesus speaks to the seven churches, and through the seven churches speaks to all of us both as a local church and as individual Christians. John is commanded to write down the words of Jesus Christ to each church and each church is commanded to read not only its own letter but the letters of all the other churches as well. Through that doorway, we Christians read all seven letters and are addressed by God.

The letters show that Christ knows in perfect detail what is happening with each of the local churches around the world. He evaluates the churches in terms of their opportunities and their dangers...and their performance (their deeds) — the ways they please Him and the ways they displease Him. In every case, he appeals to individual Christians within the churches to overcome Satanic attacks and to live victorious lives in their circumstances by the power of the Spirit. He promises rewards to those who will overcome. In the end, all local churches are temporary, like scaffolding on the real temple or church that is being built, but the individuals within them are eternal.

From the cumulative lesson of the seven churches, we are exhorted to labor diligently for the Gospel and for the lost in our communities. We are exhorted to expose false teaching and refute it. We are exhorted to be sexually pure and to not tolerate sin in our lives or in our local church. We are told to stand firm in times of persecution. We are told to perceive open doors of ministry opportunity that God has set before us so that we can walk through those doors for his glory. We are warned to perceive Satan’s specific attacks in our community, to perceive where he might have a throne set up and how he is attacking truth.

Individually we are warned not to forsake our first love, not to become lukewarm but to be passionate in our walk with Christ. Christ searches hearts and minds and will reward each person according to what he has done. We are threatened as a church that if we are not faithful to the internal journey of holiness and the external journey of Gospel advance, he will remove the lamp stand and continue on without this local church, so we must be diligent and vigilant in all of these things. We are individually promised many, varied, rich eternal rewards if we will overcome by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

The next vision in the Book of Revelation is the most important in the entire book. John, in exile on the island of Patmos, was given an incredible invitation to ascend from the surface of the earth to go through an open door to perceive what is in Heaven. Revelation 4:1-2 says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.” That throne (and the One sitting on it) is the central reality of the universe. It is the throne of Almighty God, the King of the Universe.

Because Satan rebelled against that throne, he was hurled from Heaven to earth in disgrace with his angels, the demons. Because Adam and the human race joined Satan’s rebellion against that throne, we stand in need of a Savior. Because of human rebellion against the throne of God, wrath and curse and judgments are poured out on earth. It is reconciliation to God and surrendering to that throne, kneeling before Him, that saves us. In Revelation 7, the multitude greater than anyone could count are standing in white robes before that throne; they have been reconciled to it. In Revelation 22, God’s servants surround His throne there in the city, and His servants will serve Him forever. That throne, the Kingship of Almighty God, is the central reality of the universe and should be the central reality of our lives.

Around this throne are twenty-four other thrones, representing the twenty-four esteemed elders, redeemed, sinners saved by grace but put in positions of honor there.  They are continually falling down, casting their crowns, specifically celebrating and worshiping God the Creator, who created all things.

In chapter 5, the dramatic heavenly scene continues, shifting to focus on Christ the Redeemer. John sees a scroll sealed with seven seals in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne. A mighty angel cries out, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.” It is a very dramatic moment. In Revelation 5:5-7, “… one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne ... He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. This is Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world. He is the centerpiece of our Sovereign God’s redemptive plan in history.

Not only does he have the right to take the scroll and break open its seals to unfold events in history, he also has the right to stand in the center of the throne with Almighty God and share worship as God. He is a terrifying Lion to all of his enemies. But for the rest of the book he is not depicted as a lion. Even while dreadful judgments are happening, he is called the Lamb. That is because he is a Lamb for us. He is gentle and loving and kind; our Redeemer. By the Lamb, we are not swept away in the wrath and judgment that we deserve. He is equally worthy of worship as God the Creator, so those present in Heaven fall down in cascading worship of him, praising him because he shed his blood and “with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” 

In Revelation 6, Jesus begins to break open the seven seals one after the other. As a result of the actions of the Sovereign God through Jesus Christ, events happen on earth. The first four seals result in the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, bringing a series of devastations on the earth that are not unique: famine, certain types of governments, wars and rumors of war. Jesus told us in Matthew 24 that these things would come in every generation. Some scholars think that these first four seals are the unfolding of judgments throughout history preliminary to the final events; others have a different interpretation.

The fifth seal focuses on martyrs, brothers and sisters in Christ who have died unjustly at the hands of the devil and his henchmen on earth. They are depicted in Heaven under the altar of God, crying out for vengeance and justice. “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? They were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.” God has a certain number of martyrs, which will greatly increase at the end of the world.

The sixth seal seems to usher in the events that will bring the end of the world. Revelation 6:12-17 says, “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who will be able to stand?’” This seal tells of the impending devastation of nature and the end of all things.

At the end of chapter 6, as the people are looking for refuge, for a place to stand but finding none — just as in Noah’s day, people found no place to stand when the waters rose — people ask “When the great day of the wrath of God comes, who will be able to stand?” Revelation 7 answers that question. There will be a group of people able to survive God’s wrath. Christians should be thanking God at this moment, because we are no different than those who deserve to be swept away by God’s wrath. We are all sinners. But in Revelation 7, salvation is clearly portrayed, first for the Jews and then for the Gentiles.

Revelation 7:4-8 depicts the elect, 12,000 redeemed from each of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, 144,000 total. This is symbolic but also literal in the pattern of Jew first, then Gentile. Revelation 7:9-10 depicts “a multitude greater than anyone can count from every tribe and language and people and nation,” wearing white robes, holding palm branches, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” These are the saved, the redeemed from all over the world, the fruit of missions. These are the treasure that Christ shed his blood to win, the point of the history of redemption. They are standing before the throne, no longer rebels but now delighted to serve Him who sits on the throne. 

Breaking open the seventh seal produces the seven trumpet judgments, which are God’s judgment poured out on planet earth, part one. They result in ecological disaster such as the world has never seen before. Revelation is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to interpret, but it is possible to take a simple, grammatical, historical approach, looking through the symbolic language to a literal physical prediction of the future. The seven trumpets provide one of the key hermeneutical — interpretive — texts to the entire book. They cannot merely be symbolic; nothing like these events at this scale has ever occurred in history, so they must be predictions of future events that will occur.

Because of Adam’s sin, part of his judgment (and through him our judgment), the ecology of the earth was cursed. The ground would now produce thorns and thistles. The sins of Noah’s generation resulted in the entire earth being flooded. Romans 8 says that the earth is groaning and in bondage to decay, and so it will be at the end of the world.

These seven trumpets unleash a series of horrific judgments designed to give sinners on earth one final chance to repent before the end comes. The first trumpet results in fires raging on the surface of the earth, burning up a third of all the trees as well as all the green grass. The second leads to a third of the sea turning into blood, a third of the sea creatures dying, and a third of the ships being destroyed. The third causes a third of all the fresh water on earth to be poisoned. The fourth sees a third of the sun, moon, and stars darkened, which could mean a reduction in their total brightness. The fifth unleashes a billowing cloud of demons pouring forth from the Abyss to assault the human race, stinging like a scorpion, tormenting people for five months. People will yearn for death but not be able to die. The sixth brings a horrific demonic/human army that sweeps over the surface of the earth, numbering 200 million, slaughtering one third of all mankind — up to three billion people dying. Despite all of this horror, Revelation 9:20 makes a tragic statement: “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent.”

The next two chapters, Revelation 10 and 11, present a unifying theme of witness of speaking to the earth about what is happening. John is commissioned, or recommissioned, by a mighty, glorious angel, who takes his stand with one foot on the sea and one on the earth, with his head in the clouds. He holds a scroll in his hand, lying open, representing the revelation of God. There are certain aspects of this scene that John hears but is not allowed to write down. They are secrets. But there is also an open scroll. John is commanded to eat the scroll, which tastes sweet in his mouth but bitter in his stomach. He is told, “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.” He is recommissioned to explain these events to the world.

Chapter 11 reveals two witnesses — John MacArthur said he would volunteer to be one. They stand before the beast, the Antichrist in the city where Jesus was crucified (Jerusalem). They testify boldly and clearly for three and a half years about the ecological disasters. They are able to shut the sky so it will not rain. No one can overcome them, for “fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies.” The Antichrist, however, is finally able to kill them, but after three days they rise and they ascend to Heaven.

Revelation 12 is one of the clearest depictions in the Bible of our invisible but real enemy, Satan. He is repeatedly portrayed as a massive dragon. He stands before a pregnant woman, radiant and glorious. He is ready to devour her male child the moment he is born. This child, who is definitely Jesus, will rule all the nations. The woman represents, not specifically Mary, the mother of Jesus, but rather Israel, the people of God. Satan tries to kill Jesus before his time, but he fails — Jesus finished his mission on earth and then was caught up to Heaven. Then the devil turns his attention to Heaven to take it over. He wars against God but again loses his battle. The archangel Michael and his angels defeated Satan and his demons and cast them down to the earth. We do not know whether this detail has already happened or is still future, or both, but the devil is “filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.”

For the rest of the chapter and the rest of the book, he exerts all his effort against Jesus’ followers, “those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.” He hates them. He is a very powerful foe but one who is frustrated again and again in his violent designs against God and his people. That is a great encouragement to us. 

In chapter 13, Satan wields his greatest weapon against the church, the Antichrist. That word does not appear in Revelation, but is found elsewhere. Here we see Satan standing by the sea and summoning a beast from it. This image comes directly from Daniel’s vision in Daniel 7 in which four successive beasts emerge from a turbulent sea, each representing a world empire. In Revelation 13, there is one beast, one final terrifying empire, ultimately consolidated to the power of one man. 1 John 2 calls him the “Antichrist” — “You have heard that Antichrist is coming; even now many antichrists have come.”

This world ruler is given power over the entire earth. Previous wicked rulers have controlled at most only 1⁄4 of the earth (Genghis Khan) or less. This final tyrant will have it all. He will dominate it economically and militarily, but even more, he will dominate it in a religious sense. The people will worship him, because it appears that he died and came to life again. He is a parody of the Son of God.

The last part of the chapter concerns a second figure, the “False Prophet” or the Beast from the Earth, who uses false miracles, signs and wonders to persuade people to worship the Beast. In spite of the miracles, believers will not be deceived. He causes everyone to receive a mark on the forehead or hand, which is required for buying and selling. He will use the economic situation to force everyone to worship the Antichrist.

 In Revelation 14 we have a timeless warning concerning the terrors of Hell, of the judgment against any who receive the Mark of the Beast, who follow Satan in his rebellion against God. We must be faithful to tell our generation, even if we are not the final generation, that everyone who is condemned throughout history will be cast into the Lake of Fire, or Hell, experiencing eternal conscious torment. Revelation 14:11-12 says, “And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name. This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.” We are to endure patiently and to labor for the glory of God; we will receive rewards for doing so.

Revelation 16 brings the final judgments to be poured out on the earth. They parallel the seven trumpet judgments, but these are even more dreadful. Indeed, we cannot imagine the earth long enduring after them. This is the end. The first bowl brings malignant sores on the skin of people all over the world. The second bowl turns not one third but the entire ocean to blood and every living creature in the sea dies. The third bowl turns all fresh water to blood. The fourth bowl scorches people by searing heat from the sun. The fifth bowl results in an eerie, supernatural darkness. The sixth bowl opens the way for the kings of the earth to gather their armies to go a place, Armageddon, where the final battle will happen. The seventh bowl unleashes a massive earthquake and huge hailstones which kill many. The cumulative effect of all the events of Revelation is suffering but no repentance. Revelation 16:8-9 says, “…they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.”

Let me insert here: if you have repented of your sins because you know that you need a Savior, if you have turned in faith to Jesus Christ, then thank God for your salvation. This is a miracle of grace in each of your lives and you should never cease being thankful that God granted you the gift of repentance and faith in Jesus, because these people do not repent; their hearts are only hardened. 

Revelation 17 and 18 take us backward to reveal the concept of the world, “Babylon the Great.” In Revelation 17 she is portrayed as a whore, dressed in rich purple robes. She is enticing and alluring and is getting drunk on immoral pleasures and on the blood of the saints. She represents the allure, the enticing power of Satan’s wicked, complex world system. In addition, Revelation 18 depicts Babylon as a powerful massive port city in which ships captains deposit their wares, signifying power and material wealth and prosperity and sexual allure and food — all the sensual pleasures of this present age, the world system.

The great whore Babylon is cast down by the power of God and destroyed by His judgment. In these chapters, God gives us a timeless warning from Heaven about the danger of Babylon: Revelation 18:4 says, “Then I heard another voice from heaven say: "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues…” Do not love the world or anything in it, the warning says.

In Revelation 19 we have at last the Second Coming of Christ. As we saw from the beginning of the book, “Behold, he is coming soon.” He is returning after all the judgments have come. The armies of Antichrist gather in one place, Armageddon, to wipe out the remnant of God’s people on earth. They think it will be an easy battle. It will be, but not as they suppose, because at that moment, Jesus Christ comes from Heaven to rescue his Bride. He will not allow her to be erased from the face of the earth.

Revelation 19:11-16 says, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. ‘He will rule them with an iron scepter.’ He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

The Beast and his armies fight against him, but in a vast understatement, they lose. It is not any effort for Jesus to win that battle; he simply wins.

The Beast and all who fight against Jesus on that battlefield are consigned to the Lake of Fire. Satan is bound for a thousand years so that he cannot deceive the nations any longer. At the end of the thousand years, he is released. He gathers an army from the ends of the earth in one final rebellion against Almighty God, but they are defeated. The devil is thrown at last into the Lake of Fire.

Then follows the Great White Throne judgment. Rev. 20:11-15 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books... If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.” All of God’s enemies are weeded out, thrown into the Lake of Fire. The Redeemed are all that are left.

In Revelation 21 and 22, we have at last the goal of everything, The New Heaven and the New Earth, the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21:1-4 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’”

We have studied the beauty of the New Jerusalem, the world that is coming. It is the capital city of God’s new universe, a radiant glorious place. Revelation 22:1-5 tells of its culmination: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”

They will see his face — that is what I am looking forward to — the source of all goodness and holiness and beauty and perfection there has ever been, the thing that was denied to Moses on the mountain. He was told that was something no one ever had seen or can see. At last we will be in our resurrection bodies and we will be able to see the full glory of God in the face. We will thrive and serve Him forever.

The final verse in the Bible, Revelation 22:17, says, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

First, God the Creator rules the world. This is the first most important lesson of Christian theology: there is a king, Almighty God, who rules all things, for He made all things. Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Every living thing on earth continues to exist because of the power of God the Creator, for in Him we live and move and have our being. Therefore, seek him continually in His kingly glory; submit yourself to His reign every moment of your lives. Make it your goal to please God the King with every fiber of your being.

Second, Christ the Redeemer will triumph gloriously. The second greatest lesson of the Book of Revelation is really the first lesson extended to include human sinners: God reigns with and through His Son Jesus Christ who died on the cross, who shed his blood as an atoning sacrifice, for sinners all over the world. Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, has triumphed already and will ultimately triumph. Christ the Lamb of God was slain and has risen from the dead. By his blood he purchased people for God from every nation on earth. He is worthy to take the scroll and open its seals. He is worthy not only to control history — he is history. He is the Alpha and the Omega and every letter in between. The unfolding of the history of the world, even to the end, is in Christ’s hands. At the end of the world, at his Second Coming, he will slaughter his unrepentant enemies mercilessly and powerfully. In the New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem, Christ will reign with God gloriously and openly. Therefore, trust in him now. You have an opportunity before these events unfold to cross over from death to life. Trust in Jesus; repent, turn away from your sins. Ask God to give you the gift of repentance and faith while there is time.

Third, Satan is a relentless foe who hates God and His people, who is vastly more powerful than any of us. In his hand the whole world does wickedness and evil. “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” But praise God he is frustrated and defeated again and again and again by the sovereign power of God. Do not underestimate him: beware of his power, beware of the allure and pull of this satanic Babylon is on your soul. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. … For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.” [1 John 2:15-16] That is Babylon. Flee it while you can.

Fourth, Christians must overcome by the Spirit. Revelation says repeatedly, “To him who overcomes…” in Revelation 2 and 3. Individual brothers and sisters in Christ have a battle, a warfare, to fight. It will not be easy to get to Heaven. We must conquer by the power of the Spirit.

Consider these verses:

By faith in the Word of God, we overcome. Ephesians 6:10-13 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

Fifth, a countless multitude will be redeemed. Put simply, missions will work, and are working already! Let us sacrifice to take the Gospel to every tribe, language, people and nation. Let us care about and pray for missions and be involved in evangelism right here. People from every tribe, language, people and nation, including thus far unreached people groups, will most certainly be standing before that throne. 

Sixth, Satan’s servants, the wicked, will be condemned. Paul had “great sorrow and unceasing anguish” because of those who would be condemned to Hell. We should ask God to give us broken hearts over those who will be eternally punished. No book of the Bible so clearly depicts the ultimate end of the wicked as this book. Revelation 20:15 says, “If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.” The recent volcanic eruption on one of the Hawaiian islands, which is now overflowed by lava, is the closest I can come to imagining swimming in a sea of lava, but that is what Hell is. In some mysterious way, God sustains the existence of those who are tortured in Hell. “The worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” It is eternal conscious torment. We must feel the burden of that for people who are lost around us more than we do.

Seventh, the present universe, which is temporary, is under a curse. But someday a world, radiantly beautiful, will take its place. The New Heaven and the New Earth will come, and the New Jerusalem will be the capital city of that new empire. We will spend eternity looking at the glory of God in the new world that He will make. The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We will go in and out of the gates of the New Jerusalem and we will spend eternity celebrating the glory of God.

Father, we thank you for the book of Revelation. Thank you for its deep, powerful, rich interlocking themes. We thank you for the way it glorifies God and Christ. Thank you for the way it tells us the truth and warns us of “what must soon take place.” Nothing will stop the judgments that are coming. Help us, O Lord, to be vigilant over our own souls, that we be holy and that we not be worldly. And help us to be active in warning our generation of the coming wrath and urging people to flee and find refuge in Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I was raised in a Roman Catholic family in eastern Massachusetts. I attended church faithfully and enjoyed it. I was an altar boy, and I learned accurately about Jesus — that he was the son of God, son of Mary, and part of the Trinity. One thing I did not learn in the Catholic church is how a sinner like me could be made right with God, and so I was lost. I went to church every Sunday, but I lived a lost life throughout the week. When I went off to college, I stopped going to church. I was too busy on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings to go to church, and it was not in my heart.

I joined the Sigma Chi fraternity at MIT. One of our summer responsibilities was fraternity evangelism. That has nothing to do with the Gospel. We had to recruit incoming freshmen to join the fraternity, just as I had been the year before, who would agree to live in the house on Beacon Street in Boston to replace those who had graduated. If we did not, our rent would increase. I had to make five recruitment phone calls that summer to incoming freshmen in eastern Massachusetts, to invite them to summer parties hosted by the fraternity. I hated making those phone calls because the freshman were so cynical — they received calls from many fraternities besides ours. I made my five calls and then crumpled up the list and threw it in the trash. I was done. Then I felt guilty, thinking, “What kind of attitude is that? I will make six phone calls. I will go above and beyond the call of duty.”

The sixth guy, Steve Chamberlain, led me to Christ. Just as I took the list out of the trash can, to some degree God took me up out of Hell and into Heaven. (Steve lived in Topsfield, where I would later become a pastor; he was mentored by Mark Dever, the pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and the founder of the 9Marks ministry, whom I first met when he came to see me the week I was converted.) It took a year of evangelistic effort on Steve’s part. I treated him very badly. I was rude to him. At first, when he started talking to me about the Gospel, I was interested, and then little by little, I became offended. I did not like how I felt when he was around, so I did not want to eat with him or spend time with him. Eventually, God broke through. I did not come to faith in Christ the first time I heard the Gospel; it took a year or so, but eventually the Lord by His sovereign grace brought me. I think often of Steve Chamberlain’s faithfulness.

In the 36 or so years since that time, only a handful of people have evangelized me — not counting the Jehovah’s Witnesses that knock on our door — with the true Gospel. I was always thankful for those few, but I realize evangelism is hard for Christians. I have struggled with this my entire Christian life. I am not naturally outgoing; I do not naturally enjoy meeting strangers. It is a challenge. Satan has put up obstacles in our culture that hinder us from meeting strangers, talking comfortably to people that we do not know.

This morning we will talk about evangelism and the responsibility that we have to share the Gospel with people around us here in the area. We will focus on Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.” We will immerse ourselves in the mysterious calling of the Gospel, the responsibility we have to be involved in the Gospel ministry. We will learn more about evangelism, of calling thirsty sinners to faith in Christ.

Every day, we are surrounded in this Triangle region by unchurched, unsaved people. This area is exploding with people pouring in from all over the country, and from many places all over the world. People find the area a desirable place to live. There are jobs in the high tech industry, in pharmaceutical research, excellent hospitals, excellent universities. There is a pleasant, comfortable style and level of life that people find attractive. The climate is better here than in Boston, Massachusetts, I assure you — I do not miss the winters at all. This is one of the fastest growing metropolitan regions in the country. Most of those who come to the area are unchurched, unsaved. We have a responsibility to share the Gospel and we are strategically located in downtown Durham to do precisely that.

The folks who are pouring in here that are lost, outside of Christ, are desperately seeking something. They are thirsty for meaning and purpose in life, and they are drinking from, in a sense, the cup of the great whore of Babylon from Revelation 17, enjoying material pleasures and advantages of life. From Revelation 18, we know that is what is going on, but they do not know. Drinking from that cup only makes them more thirsty. It is an addictive cycle, like quenching thirst with salt water. They are never satisfied, trying to find joy and pleasure and satisfaction and meaning in life, but we know they will never find it from this world system. If they are to find it, they will find it in Christ and his Gospel. It is our privilege, our responsibility, to call on them to come and drink from Christ.

I tend to combine today’s text with Isaiah 55:1-2: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” We are strategically poised to invite thirsty people to come and drink, to find deep, rich, full satisfaction without money, without cost, to reach hundreds and even thousands with the Gospel, and to see dozens and dozens more baptized here in this church than we have ever seen before. That is my desire and the desire of all the elders.

We want to see the Lord open doors all around us, and we need to walk through those doors. Jesus said in Revelation 3 to the church in Philadelphia, “See, I have placed before you an open door, which no one can shut.” When He opens a door, no one can shut it. When he shuts it, no one can open it. He has that kind of sovereign power. This sermon is specifically about our cooperation with the Holy Spirit of God in evangelism. We are called on to be partners in a mysterious way with the Holy Spirit in this work of Gospel outreach.

This is God’s final invitation in Scripture to sinners to find salvation in Christ. We come to the end of the Bible — the final book, the final chapter, the final section, and whether we have God’s final invitation to sinners to come and find salvation in Christ.

This invitation is like the parable that Jesus told of a king who wanted to put on a wedding banquet for his son. Matthew 22:2-5 says: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off — one to his field, another to his business.”  God has been beckoning to lost people throughout the generations to come to the wedding banquet, but people do not come; they turn away in disinterest.

A number of years ago at Christmas time, I encountered Hans Christian Andersen’s short story called The Little Match Girl, a story of a very poor girl whose harsh domineering father sends her out in the freezing cold weather on Christmas Eve to sell matches. No one is out because of the cold, so she cannot get anyone to buy her matches. Outside a rich home, she looks through the window and sees a banquet laid out. The window is steamed with aromas of the roast goose and lavish food on the banquet table, but she is on the outside looking in. No one sees her or invites her in. Instead, she lights one of her matches. As she looks at the glow, she imagines herself sitting at the banquet table until that match burns out. One by one, she lights all of her matches until they are all gone. She is found the next morning frozen to death.

The parable of the wedding banquet has a different bent. Here, the happy King spreads a feast and yearns for people to come in and eat freely without money, without cost, to find their souls richly satisfied with the richest of fare. But he cannot get anyone to pay attention. Luke 14:18-20 is a parallel account: “But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’  Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can't come.’” They are jut making excuses, unlike the little match girl, who is desperate that someone would invite her so that she can come in and get warm and be fed, but no one will invite her or open the door and welcome her.

In this case, the tragic figure is the king. He wants people to come and celebrate with his son who is getting married but no one will come. In that parable, the king sends more and more messengers to compel people. Luke 14:23 says, “Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.’” Day after day, God beckons to sinners, inviting them to a banquet. Romans 10:21 says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” That is the picture that I have of evangelism. 

The people who have moved to this area drive by churches daily. Perhaps they believe that life will continue on and on, that they have limitless time. Maybe they have some attraction to church, having had good experiences in the past or at least curiosity, but they do not stop. They drive by these churches as they go to work, or to shop, or on their way to the golf course.

They see the steadiness of God’s gracious invitation day after day, week after week, year after year. The church seems solid, as though it will be there forever, giving the consistent message of salvation in Jesus. But I tell you that there will come a time when it will all come to an end. No book teaches that so plainly as the book of Revelation. It will come to an end. Every individual who is not in the final generation will die. It is appointed to us to die once and after that to face judgment. So as they goes through life surrounded like they are in America with many opportunities to hear the Gospel, there will come a last chance to hear the Gospel, to hear of the grace of God and Christ Jesus.

Centuries ago, the Baptist preacher John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, preached a sermon based on two texts in the New Testament: the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and the parable of the rich fool. In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus tells of the rich fool whose land produced an abundant harvest such that he could not store it. “Then he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and will build bigger ones, and there I will store up all my grain and my goods. Then I will say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take it easy. Eat, drink, and be merry!” ’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’” He also talked about how the rich man languished in Hell, asking for an act of mercy from Lazarus. The sermon was titled “A Few Sighs from Hell.”

Bunyan said, “The man, instead of thinking of death, thought how he might make his barns bigger. But, in the midst of his business in the world, he lost his soul before he was aware, supposing that death had been many years off. But God said unto him, ‘You fool, you trouble yourself about things of this life, you put off the thoughts of departing this world, when this night your soul shall be taken from you.’ ... And hence it is again, that you have some in your towns and cities that are so suddenly taken away, some from visiting the ale-houses, others from frequenting the whore-houses, others from playing and gaming, others from the cares and covetous desires after this world, unlooked for as by themselves or their companions. Suddenly it is all over! It all comes to an end! And we can well imagine one of the groans, and sighs and laments that will come from many damned people: ‘I always thought I would have more time! I always thought I would have one more chance! I always figured I would be able to time it, that when I had my last chance to hear the invitation to free grace in Christ, that I would seize it.’”

That is true of every individual. Life will come to an end. This is also true of the human race — the world is moving ahead to the end. There was an Alpha day and there will be an Omega day, a final day.

This is God’s last invitation in Scripture: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who is thirsty come, and the one who desires the water of life drink freely.”This is a call to redeem the time. For anyone here today in an unconverted state, this is an opportunity for you to cross over from death to life. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.”

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” It is an invitation to come drink the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:1-2 tells us what that is: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” It is an invitation to come and drink the water of eternal life, to come and drink and live forever.

Are you thirsty? Has sin left you parched and empty? Come and drink the waters of the river of life flowing from Christ. This is specifically an invitation to come to Jesus Christ as your Savior. John 6:35 says, “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.’” That is a typical Jewish parallelism, Jewish poetry, to say the same thing twice in slightly different ways. Jesus did the same.

To come to Jesus is to believe in him. If you do, you will never be hungry. You will never be thirsty. To come to the waters is to believe in Jesus, to trust in him for the forgiveness of your sins.

The Spirit and the bride are both saying, “Come, come to Jesus!” This is a marvelous verse on the cooperation between the Spirit and the Bride, who, we learned in Revelation 21, is the church of Jesus Christ, the people of God in this world. The Spirit and the Bride — the church — are together inviting lost sinners to come and drink from Christ and find life. Both the Spirit and the church, therefore, are instrumental in bringing lost sinners to faith in Christ. They both have a role to play. The Spirit calls sinners to come, and the bride calls sinners to come, and even those who are thirsty and who are coming and drinking are inviting other thirsty people to come and drink.

The Spirit invites, generally, universally, the human race to come. He does this by means of Scripture, the Bible that he has inspired. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Son and the Spirit inspired the Scriptures, the written Word of God, which has the power to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 3:15). In the Scripture, we have the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:16-17 says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed — a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” That is a summary of the whole book of Romans. The Holy Spirit was in the Apostle Paul when he wrote those words. Through the Book of Romans, the Holy Spirit is saying to the human race, “Come, come to Christ and find forgiveness.”

Later in that same book, we have the glowing heart of the gospel, in Romans 3:21-24: “…a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify [the law and the prophets together talk about this salvation in the Old Testament]. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified [forgiven of their sins, made right in the sight of God] freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Jesus shed His blood on the cross in our place that we might have forgiveness of sins. As Paul wrote, the law and the prophets testify to this gospel, even though they lived centuries before Jesus. The Holy Spirit was in the prophets, and he was showing them things about the future, things they would have no other way of knowing.

1 Peter 1:10-12 says, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. [The Spirit told Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel that centuries later, a savior would come to suffer and die, and be raised on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in His name to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. They did not understand, but Peter says:] It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.” The Holy Spirit was in the prophets and the apostles in the writing of the Word. Through the Scriptures, the Spirit says “Come” generally to the human race.

The Holy Spirit wrote the Old Testament through the prophets. He also wrote the New Testament through the apostles. After the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came into them, and then they wrote the New Testament. They were the eyewitnesses, which is the basis of the New Testament. Jesus told them it would happen in John 14:26: “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you [apostles] all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

The Holy Spirit reminded Peter, John, James, Andrew, and all of the apostles who were eyewitnesses, of all that he said and did. On the basis of that, we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the entire New Testament. The Father and the Son together sent the Spirit in the world to complete the redemptive work of God. This is amazing teaching. Without the powerful working of the Spirit, not a single sinner would ever have been saved. Jesus’ atoning work on the cross would have saved no one were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit. I am not speaking blasphemy or heresy; it is true.

The blood of Christ was shed, but it had to be applied, just as the Jews of old had to paint the blood on the doorpost so that when the angel of death saw the blood, he passed over that house. It is the Holy Spirit’s glory to apply the blood of Christ to sinners like you and me. He moves and works, and so I owe my salvation as much to the work of the Holy Spirit as I do to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and to the Father for the plan. It is a cooperative effort. By the Spirit, the Gospel goes out into all the world; by the Spirit, Jesus becomes famous in every generation.

When I was growing up, almost everybody had heard of the Beatles, an English rock group. Some of you younger ones have never heard of them, making my point. As every generation passes, they become less and less famous. One member of the group, John Lennon, once said, “We are more famous than Jesus.” Perhaps at that moment they were as close as anyone has ever been. But it is not true now — a new generation of babies has been born that never heard of John Lennon. There is no zealous, powerful, omnipotent God ensuring in every generation that John Lennon and the Beatles will be famous. All flesh is grass, and all their glories fade like the flower of the field. They become less and less famous with every passing year.

But Jesus somehow is famous in every generation. How is that? It is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is making Jesus famous all over the world by moving the bride to say, “Come.” By the Spirit, the church is moved to preach the Gospel. Jesus said to the apostles and through them to the whole church, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.”

The Spirit compels witness, and that is the very thing I am counting on now for you. All of us feel inadequate as evangelists. We need to remind ourselves that it is only when the power of the Spirit comes on us that we can overcome our weaknesses and our selfishness and actually share the Gospel with people. This is a point of application: Rely on the Holy Spirit. I know you know what I am calling you to do, and I understand — it is hard for me too. Ask God to give you power through the Holy Spirit to be His witness today. Ask for the opportunity, and when that moment comes, ask Him to make you alert to it. Then ask Him to help you get over your sinful weakness, to enable you to speak for Jesus. He will, by the power of the Spirit. The Spirit compels witness. He has been doing this in every generation.

One of my great missionary heroes is Hudson Taylor, a missionary to China. When he had finished his first tour of duty on the coast, as all the missionaries were, he returned to England and Scotland for some furlough, for recuperation and recruitment of new missionaries. While there, he had a vision. He saw a map of the inner provinces, the inland regions of China, and he knew that there were teeming hundreds of millions of people who had never heard of Jesus in those inner regions, while all of the western missionaries were on the coastline. He called it the accusing map.

He wrote this about his experience attending a service in England: “On Sunday, June 25, 1865, unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony, and there the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told Him that all the responsibility as to issues and consequences must rest with Him; that as His servant, it was mine to obey and follow Him— His to direct, to care for, and to guide those who might labor with me. Need I say that peace at once flowed into my burdened heart.”

Where did the burden come from? Where did the unutterable agony come from as he was wandering on the sand? Does that not come from the Holy Spirit of God? The Spirit puts a burden, a compulsion, on our hearts. Ask God to give you a burden, a burning compulsion to reach individuals or a group of people that you are equipped to reach. The Apostle Paul said in Acts 20:22-24, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.”

Consider the beginning of that passage: “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem…” The compulsion, the burden, from the Spirit of God, where little by little you consider your life worth nothing to you if only you can do the work He has given you to do — do you yearn for that to happen in our church? Do you yearn that more and more church members would have a compulsion by the Spirit toward some aspect of outreach? It does not have to be the same for everybody. We get different callings.

The Spirit says, “Come.”

The Bride says, “Come,” as well. The bride is the church. There is a collaborative, joint effort between the Spirit and the church. John 15:26-27 teaches this: “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth [the Holy Spirit] who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also [this is a partnership] must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” The Spirit and the bride together say, “Come.”

We are to preach the Gospel to anyone and everyone, indiscriminately, because we cannot tell who are the elect, chosen before the foundation of the world. It is true and biblical, but we do not know who they are. Our task is to be willing to suffer for unconverted elect people, to see them cross over from darkness to light, from death to life. Adoniram Judson was called to be a missionary to Burma. He went to one locality where he and his partner gave out 500 missionary tracts, and as a result, they saw one Burmese person baptized. That is so convicting.

I yearn for the 500 tracts. I want the one, but I want us to be the kind of church that will give out 499 and see the 500th person converted. I would love to be that persistent in evangelism where I am faithful, leaving the results to God, willing to have 499 failures to see somebody come to Christ. Our job is to continue to share Christ with as many people as we can, no matter how many or few respond.

George Whitefield was one of the most powerful open-air preachers in all of church history, probably the most effective ever. He preached to tens and tens of thousands of people and saw hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands and thousands, converted. He traveled by horse-drawn carriage from place to place to place in England and Scotland and in the colonies before the American Revolution. He said something that stuck with me. He said, “God forbid that I should travel with anyone one-quarter of an hour and not share the Gospel with them.”

On our way back from a conference in Louisville, Joel Harford and I flew from Louisville to Atlanta, and from Atlanta to RDU. In both cases, I had seat A and Joel had seat C. On the first leg, the guy in seat B, named Isaiah, was a 19-year-old baseball player from a college in the Louisville area, from a mild Baptist background, who had not been to church in years. On the second leg, our seatmate, named Joe, lived in Wake Forest. He was a nominal Roman Catholic and also had not been to church in years. Joel and I did not pound on them. We gave them a break. One asked if he could get by to use the restroom, and I wondered if that was to get away. But Joel and I agreed that we had done what we needed to do. We had a great time. Isaiah asked good questions. He was taking a World Religions class, and was reading whether the Gospel of Thomas should be included in the Bible. God put us there to have that conversation. At the end, Joe thanked us for the things we talked about. He asked questions and kept the conversation going until we landed. God gives opportunities along the way.

The Spirit alone has the power to cause a person to come. No sinner has or will ever resist the Holy Spirit’s mysterious, effective call, his effectual calling, or irresistible grace. When the Spirit moves, Ezekiel 36:26-27 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” This includes the command to repent and believe in Jesus. The Holy Spirit alone can do that. We cannot.

In John 3:3-8, “Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.’” When the Spirit says, “Come,” he gives you supernatural power, like Jesus when He raised Lazarus from the dead. You come alive and see the glory of God in the face of Christ, and you are born again. The Spirit can do that.

When that happens, the text says, “Whoever is thirsty, let him come, and whoever wishes, whoever wills, let him come.” That looks like free will, right in the Bible. However, without the Holy Spirit calling on your dead heart, you will never be willing to come. When he gives you life and moves in you, you will see at last just how delicious that water of life flowing from Jesus is. You want it, so he comes.

John 6:37 says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me.” The Holy Spirit draws. Our job is to share the Gospel. Romans 10:13-15 says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’”

We have a partnership responsibility. Let Christ make you a fisher of people. He said to his disciples, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Our job is to learn the skill of fishing. Some of you love fishing, but I will never want to learn real fishing like trout fishing, bass fishing, deep sea fishing. I do not like either the process or the product, so I will not do that. I understand it is very relaxing and peaceful. I have heard you say if the fish do not disturb us, we will have a great time.

This fishing is different. We have a responsibility to learn the skill of fishing for people, to learn how to draw them skillfully, to answer their questions, to deal with arguments that Satan puts in their minds. God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation. We are positioned like Esther, “for such a time as this,” to share the gospel.

Our first task is to understand the Gospel message and to proclaim it boldly. Will Metzger, in his book To Tell the Truth, begins with this illustration: “Picture this: a runner in ancient Greece arrives exhausted before the emperor. Gasping, he blurts out, ‘My lord, I was given an urgent message, but... I am afraid I have forgotten what it was!’” That is bad. We must remember and understand the message we are sharing.

First and foremost, we need to understand what the Gospel is. You have a bulletin insert, a basic four-part outline of the Gospel: God, man, (humanity), Christ and response. It may sound familiar — Campus Crusade for Christ and others have used similar outlines, such as the Four Spiritual Laws, over the years.

First, God: He is the creator of everything. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created all things, and because he created all things, He is King and ruler over everything. This is his universe. We are in it. As King, He is the law giver. He has given laws to the human race by which we are to live — the Ten Commandments and the two Great Commandments. As King, He is also judge. He will evaluate us on Judgment Day for how we have lived our lives.

Second, man: we are created in the image of God by God the Creator. We were created to have a relationship with and to serve God the King, but we have broken that relationship through our sins. We have violated God’s laws; we are rebellious against God the King, and therefore, we are under condemnation by God the Judge. Physical death is promised. Eternal death in hell is threatened.

Third, Christ: Christ is the fourth office — God the Savior. “Jesus” means “Salvation is from the Lord.” God sent his Son into the world. He was fully human, born of a virgin, and also fully God. He had no human father. His was a supernatural birth, He lived a sinless life, and He did miracles — he walked on water, he fed the 5000, he stilled the storm with his words, he raised dead people, he healed sick people. There was nothing he could not do, but he especially came to die a substitutionary death on the cross. His blood shed on the cross pays the death penalty for our sin — for the wages of sin is death — and Jesus paid that penalty in our place. But God did not leave Him in the grave. On the third day, God raised him from the grave, and He is alive and will live forever more. He ascended to Heaven, and sat at God’s right hand. He rules over Heaven and earth, and some day he will return to judge both living and dead people.

Fourth, response: Therefore, we ourselves, having heard that, we must repent of our sins and believe the good news, that forgiveness of sins is available in Jesus Christ. You must not try to work for it or earn your salvation, but instead trust in the grace of God, for by grace are you saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one could boast [Ephesians 2]. Do not wait because you do not know if you will be alive tomorrow. Repent and believe the good news today. 

You do not need to do exactly that every time you evangelize, but it should be your goal to say those things in some form to the lost people around you, a pattern or a form of the Gospel message.

How will we evangelize? On the back of the blue sheet, you will see a menu of ideas in two categories, different ways of looking at your life. First, who can you share the Gospel with? Second, what can you do to engage with them?

Who will we evangelize? Here are six levels of concentric circles of people around you:

Family: The most effective evangelism in the world is parent-child evangelism. Be faithful to pour the Gospel into your children’s lives. Lead them to an early faith in Christ. Also, extended family — God often uses saved children to lead their parents to Christ. Maybe you have unsaved brothers or sisters or other relatives — cousins, nieces, nephews, other family members.

Unsaved friends: Build friendships with non-Christians.

Neighbors: When I was growing up, neighbors were out and about most days. The other day, I went on a two-hour bike ride. It was a little hot, but I did not see a single pedestrian the whole time — nobody working in the yard or taking a walk. It was strange. Everybody was inside on electronic entertainment or simply staying cool. Somehow we must meet the people who live near us.

Acquaintances: Meet people in your daily routine, at a convenience store, supermarket, on an airplane.

Co-workers: Workplace evangelism is one of the most effective strategies. You interact every day with non-Christians — co-workers, your boss, a subordinate — hunt opportunities to share Christian things. Invite people to church, to your home; use hospitality.

Total strangers: Go to a park nearby and sit down on a bench, or meet someone walking a dog or watching their kids play or strolling a baby. Have a conversation.

First, look to develop a long-term loving relationship. Be a human being, get to know people, ask questions. On flights, I always ask questions. Where are you headed? (Ultimately, where are you headed?) Have conversations in the workplace. Be interested in others’ lives, Let it flow naturally from love.

Be hospitable. Open your home. Make it a home base. Invite people over.

Participate in ministering to felt needs — mercy ministry. The international connections ministry is one such opportunity. ESL is a big felt need. People come from China and other places, as refugees or visiting scholars. Most want to learn English better but it is an opportunity to share the Gospel. Serve at the health fair, the Caring Center, Habitat for Humanity, other places that meet non-Christians’ felt needs.

Volunteer for events like VBS, coming soon. We get to interact with dozens of non-Christian parents who send their kids to VBS. That is a big ministry. I urge you to consider serving if you are able. The health fair is an event as well as a felt-need ministry. Plan an event at your home, such as a Christmas party or a 4th of July cookout. Invite people to attend.

Engage in shared interests, like running, biking, pottery, kids’ sports or music.

That is a basic beginning menu of strategies to help you find ways to interact with people.

I urge this church to be involved in a culture of evangelism. Let us develop as a church, caring for each other and getting involved. If you have an event at your home, involve other church members. Do not do it alone.

I have two books here, I’ve Got Tell the Truth by Will Metzger, and Evangelism by Mack Stiles — 10 of each. I am offering them free of charge to 20 people. If you take the book, you do not have to pay for it, but promise you will read it and when you are done, pass it off to another church member to read.

We need to give ourselves to prayer for this, to ask God to help us with our evangelistic endeavors. To that end, I offer three options on prayer. First, this is our last home fellowship of the year; we will talk about evangelism in our groups and have chances to pray, but I would urge home fellowships through the summer to get together and pray for evangelistic fruit in each other’s lives and in our church. 

Second, every week, a small group of us meets at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays to pray. Since you are coming to church anyway, all you need to do is adjust your schedule to arrive a little earlier to join us. We will pray for evangelistic fruitfulness. That might be the most convenient way to pray about this with others.

Third, starting this week, for four weeks, I will pray on Wednesday mornings at 6:00 a.m. I have done this in the past. Again, we will pray for our church to be fruitful in evangelism. If you would like to sacrifice a little sleep, we will meet here in the sanctuary to pray for God to bless our evangelistic outreach. 

Father, thank you for the time we have had to study. Thank you for the things that we have learned. Father, I pray that you would give us zeal for the glory of God and for the Gospel ministry. Help us to be energetically active as witnesses. Help us not to be afraid or fearful of it, but to be active in the things that you have called on us to do. Thank you for committing to us the ministry of reconciliation, as though God Himself were making His appeal through us. Help us, O Lord, to be faithful. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A godly dad told me last week that as he was preparing his family for last week’s sermon in Revelation, his young son, seven or eight years old, noticed what page they were on in the Bible and his eyes became like saucers. He asked, “Dad, are we almost done with church?” No — unless Jesus returns tonight, we are not almost done with church.

In this last section of Revelation, we come to Christ’s final inspired words to the world and the church. There is something very poignant about final words. Back in 2001, I had the privilege of being at the Southern Baptist Convention with Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of Purpose Driven Life. His church had just become a Southern Baptist church, and he was at the convention to preach. He gave an unforgettable testimony of him being at his father’s side as he died.

His father, Jimmy, had been a Baptist pastor with many roles for many years —missionary, church planter, church builder, carpenter, preacher. He had built over 160 churches with his own hands. He had terminal cancer, in the final stages. As Jimmy Warren was dying, he was in a dream-like state, in and out of consciousness, as sometimes happens at the end of life. He was hallucinating about the churches that he had built, calling out instructions about 2x4s and such things. Suddenly, this dying man was seized with an overpowering desire to get up out of the bed so he had to be restrained. He kept saying the same thing over and over: “I've got to save one more for Jesus, one more for Jesus, one more for Jesus.”

Rick Warren said without exaggeration that his father said this over a hundred times. Rick knelt by his bed and thanked God for a godly father. He felt his father’s hand on his head, like a patriarchal blessing. He said, “Reach one more for Jesus.” Rick said, “That is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Jesus’ final recorded words to the church before he ascended to Heaven are in Acts 1. After he died on the cross for our sins and was raised to life on the third day, he appeared over a period of 40 days to many people and gave many convincing proofs to his disciples that he was alive. He brought them to a mountain overlooking Jerusalem. “‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. It is reasonable to see that as his final words to the church.

Today we will walk through this text in Revelation, these final written words of God to the human race. We will take them line by line, beginning at Revelation 22:12-13, where he said, “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

Here is the end of the story, the end of history. We believe as Christians that history is linear, unfolding one moment at a time. History is the retelling of what has happened in the past, an unfolding of events in space and time. Many people want to make religion a pure idea, somewhat like metaphysics, having no effect on physical life, science, tangible things, not connected to real life. But we believe as Christians that it does and that history really is Christ’s story. We believe that history is absolutely vital to our Christian faith. The Bible begins with a historical assertion. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” That is a historical fact.

The Bible unfolds with the history of God’s dealings with a human race that fell into sin in Adam. We all sinned in Adam, and we died in Adam. This unfolding story continues across the Old Testament, focusing eventually on God’s dealings with the Jewish nation, the bodily descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. More significantly, the New Testament picks up the narrative of history to tell about Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary, his physical, literal human mother but no human biological father. He lived a sinless life, then died an atoning death in our place on the cross. We believe that he was physically raised from the dead on the third day, that the tomb was empty. That historical account is vital to our Christian faith. It is not just a metaphysical theory or a nice story that gives us inspiration; we believe it actually happened.

The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:17 “…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.” Then Christianity is nothing. So we believe in history — it really does matter.

We believe that history is linear. First, one, then two, then three, or A, then B, then C, or Alpha, Beta, Gamma, all the way to the Omega day. It is a linear, sequential unfolding of a story. Eastern religions like Buddhism, Shintoism, Taoism, and especially Hinduism, follow a cyclical view of history going on and on in a perpetual cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, or reincarnation. They may get this from looking at the cycles of nature, the cycle of seasons — spring, summer, fall, winter, and then back around to spring — around and around.

Ecclesiastes 1:4-9 says, “Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” We saw all these beautiful babies being dedicated, and we know what will happen. I have five children in extended stair step. We are still directly parenting, but we have seen them through from cute and beautiful babies to grown up. They get older, and then they move away. We have a beautiful multi-generational church. I have been here for 20 years and have done a lot of funerals. I have seen people age. We know what happens; we can see that linear view.

Hinduism specifically zeros in on human life. The Hindus look at the cycles of nature and posit that what must happen after they die is that they come back, reborn, reincarnated. Their principle of karma dictates that they are trapped in this endless cycle of rebirth, life and death, breaking out only by enlightenment. We Christians dispense with all of that — we know it is not true. We believe that it is appointed to each one of us to die once, and after that, face judgment. Even then it is still linear. This statement in Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I am coming soon!” This indicates that something is about to happen. 

Revelation 22:13 says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” We believe not only that history is linear, but that Jesus is history. He makes an incredible “I AM” assertion. “I am the story of the human race. I am history.” When he says “I am truth,” he does not merely mean “I teach truth,” he means “I AM truth.”

Linear history has a purpose, moving us to a destination, which is Christ. He says he is coming soon. We have to hear that with the eternality of God compared to the eternity that is coming to all of us, whether spent in Heaven or Hell. This life that we are living right now is a mist, a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes. After that comes eternity.

James Joyce, in Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, tries to capture eternity. He writes, “You have often seen the sand on the seashore. How fine are its tiny grains! And how many of those tiny little grains go to make up the small handful which a child grasps in its play. Imagine a mountain of that sand, a million miles high, reaching from the earth to the farthest heavens, and a million miles broad, extending to remotest space, and a million miles in thickness; and imagine such an enormous mass of countless particles of sand multiplied as often as there are leaves in the forest, drops of water in the mighty ocean, feathers on birds, scales on fish, hairs on animals, atoms in the vast expanse of the air: and imagine that at the end of every million years a little bird came to that mountain and carried away in its beak a tiny grain of that sand. How many millions upon millions of centuries would pass before that bird had carried away even a square foot of that mountain, how many eons upon eons of ages before it had carried away all? Yet at the end of that immense stretch of time not even one instant of eternity could be said to have ended. At the end of all those billions and trillions of years eternity would have scarcely begun.”

It is chilling to read that and think about people spending eternity in hell. That is the very thing that God sent His Son Jesus to deliver us from, to bring us over into an eternity of Heaven — the very thing that Revelation 21:22 addresses is at stake — surrounded by glory and beauty and joy. Jesus is coming soon to execute wrath and judgment on his enemies and to reward his saints. It is the final act of linear history that God planned from before the foundation of the world.

Christ is history. Christ was the Alpha day, the first day of history. Through Jesus, all things were made, and without him, nothing was made that has been made. Through him, God spoke the universe into existence. He is the middle day of history. Put the cross at the center of human history to divide western time into BC — before Christ — and AD — the year of our Lord. He will be the final day when His Second Coming ends human history. That is linear history.

Were it not for Jesus’ blood shed on the cross, there would not have been a single day of this history. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, if there had not been a planned redemption through Jesus’ blood, there would not have been one more day; it would have ended right then. Even atheists, Muslims, Buddhists, and others who do not recognize the atoning work of Jesus enjoy blessings on earth which were bought by the blood of Jesus. This includes all common grace blessings — their meals, the beauty of the sunrise and the sunset, the beauty of holding a newborn son or their daughter in their arms. Though they do not acknowledge God in any of this, Jesus paid for it all by allowing history to continue.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

The cleansing that Jesus worked by his blood is essential. Without it, we would have no right to enter the city. Revelation 22:14-15 says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” The washing of the robes represents salvation through Christ’s atoning blood. Sin pollutes and defiles us; it makes us dirty in the sight of God. The soiled garment is a symbol of a sinful lifestyle, the actual deeds done in violation of our consciences and of God’s law.

Jude 23 says, “... hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.” Because of God’s holiness, Habakkuk 1:13 says, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” He cannot look at us clothed in our filthy sin-covered garments. The washing of these polluted robes by the atoning blood of Christ represents our salvation, our cleansing, our justification in the sight of God, our forgiveness of sins through simple faith in Jesus. The multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation in Revelation 7:14 has done this: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Christians stand in radiant robes of righteousness given as a gift through faith in Christ. God sees us that way — not guilty, but holy.

This is like the beautiful statement to husbands in Ephesians 5:25-27: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” That is what Jesus did for the church. By dying, he has cleansed her; by the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, he has washed her and made her righteous and clean.

We have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, so we have the right to eat from the tree and to go through the gates of the New Jerusalem. Jesus has won for us rights and privileges that were not ours. The Greek word refers to authority, a legal right to act in a certain way. When Adam ate from the tree, in him we all sinned. God said in Genesis 3:22-24, “‘He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.’ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life” He was not permitted to go back in the garden to eat.

Now that Jesus has died for us, we have the right to eat from the Tree of Life. We have the right to enter the gates of the city. We have the right of access. As it says in Romans 5:1-2, “…since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” We have access, we have the right to go into God’s presence. We have the right to be called children of God, as John 1:12 says: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” We have the right of adoption, to be called God’s heirs. We have the right to the tree.

Colossians 1:12-14 says it beautifully: “…giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” We are qualified for heaven. That is exciting. It is much better than being pre-qualified for a loan. You are qualified to go through the gates and reach out your hand and take and eat from the Tree of Life, and live forever. Is that not incredible? Jesus paid for that.

Outside are the unclean. Revelation 22:15 says, “Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” This is a regular theme at the end. God is very clear about who will be excluded. We Christians are not Universalists; we do not believe everybody ends up in Heaven. Most do not. Jesus warned, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” We believe only a few will be saved, though it is — percentage-wise and numerically — a multitude greater than anyone could count from every tribe, language, people and nation. But outside are those who are rejected because of their wickedness and sin.

We get lists like this in Revelation 21:8: “…the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:27 says, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, [the New Jerusalem] nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Verse 15 gives a similar kind of list, saying, “Outside are the dogs.” Dogs in those days were not pleasant domesticated animals that are members of the family, beloved and grieved when they die. The term refers to wild, junk-yard-type dogs, rabid, prowling around, like wild boars. It can refer disparagingly to male prostitutes or anybody who is of repulsive moral make-up. It is used in that context here. Who are the dogs? Those who practice magic arts, or pharmakeia — the corruption of drugs and black magic. The sexually immoral: we live in a corrupt age with countless sexual perversions, one being the violation of one man and one woman in covenant relationship for life. Murderers: Jesus said it is not enough to not physically murder somebody, but if you are angry with them in your heart, you are in danger of the fire of Hell. Idolaters: anyone who sets a created thing above God, and lives for that created thing, rather than God who made them. Those who love and practice falsehood. All of these are excluded.

We need to be aware, to know, to understand these words. We need to warn those who are living this kind of life that they are in great danger. We need to fear God on behalf of people who do not. By the grace of the Word and the Spirit, transfer that fear. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. In grace, my fear is relieved. We want to fear on their behalf until they fear like they should and cross over from death to life. 

In Revelation 22:16, Jesus identifies himself as the speaker. “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” The authors of the Scripture frequently identify themselves by their own name and with the pronoun “I”. John does it twice: “I, John,” in Revelation 1:9 and again in Revelation 22:8, “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things.” But here, Jesus makes it clear that it is not John but Jesus himself who is the real author of Revelation. He has sent his angel to give the testimony for the churches, plural, to enable all of us to listen to this book of Revelation.

He presents a mysterious identification of himself: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” This connects to Isaiah 11:1-3: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him — the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD — and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.” The image here is Jesse, or his son David. David’s lineage seems to have been cut off, pictures as a stump, but it maintains an active root system. Up out of the seemingly defunct lineage of King David will come a branch, which will bear fruit. Isaiah 11:10 says, “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.” That refers to Jesus.

But here, Jesus claims to be both the root of David and the offspring of David. Effectively, he is both David’s creator and his descendant. That is the mystery. He is David’s creator and also his descendant. This is only possible by the mystery of the incarnation. This is who Jesus is, fully, eternally God, but also at the right moment in the fullness of time, human in the lineage of David.

The first thing the New Testament asserts about Jesus is “A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David.” He is the descendant of David, but he is also David’s creator. When the angel Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary with the news that she would give birth to the Savior of the world in Luke 1:30-32, “…the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.’” Imagine being Mary, hearing that — the Son of the Most High, given the throne of his father, David.

Christian theologian have spent centuries trying to figure that out. It is called the mystery of the incarnation. That is who he is.

He is also called the bright Morning Star. In the early morning before dawn, often right at the horizon, you can see the Morning Star. Frequently, it is Venus, not even a star, but it is a harbinger of the sunrise that is about to come. The Morning Star in this verse refers to Jesus and His incarnational life, and then the 20 centuries of the advance of the Gospel in his name. This is a harbinger, a Morning Star of the glory that is about to come. After all of this darkness, light is coming, He is the Morning Star.

Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” These are God’s final words to the human race. This is Jesus’ final word. He is pleading with thirsty sinners to come to Himself and be satisfied in salvation. The Holy Spirit is in partnership with the bride — the church. Together we have a role, to invite thirsty sinners to find salvation in Christ.

Three Scriptures come to mind related to this invitation. John 7:37-38 says, “On the last and greatest day of the Feast [of Tabernacles], Jesus stood and said in a loud voice [with thousands of Jews around], “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” Jesus called on thirsty sinners to come to Him, to believe in Him and find eternal refreshment, to find life. It is an invitation for anyone who is thirsty to take the gift of the water of life freely — without money.

Isaiah 55:1-3 says, “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Sin makes us thirsty. Being spiritually dead but still physically alive is a thirsty place to be. You violated God’s laws and your conscience, which leaves you on the outside. The sin is not satisfying but only makes you more thirsty, like drinking salt water. You need Christ. You need forgiveness. If you are on the outside, you are in danger; John 3:36 says you are under the wrath of God. If you die in that condition, you will go to Hell forever, but he is inviting you to come, drink, and he will satisfy you forever. Believers, those who have already partaken, are to participate in the invitation, to be inviting others.

Christ’s Word is complete. Revelation 22:18-19 says, “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”  This is the very end of the Bible. These words go beyond the book of Revelation. God intended that Revelation would be the capstone of written Scripture, His final word, the end of what He has to say.

There is a purpose for the words contained in this written book, in page after page of Scripture, in prophecy. Revelation 19:10 says, “…the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” The Apostle John — the same person who wrote Revelation — said at the end of his Gospel, in John 20:30-31, “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” No one comes to faith in Christ apart from the ministry of the Word of God. You do not think or reason your way to Jesus; you hear the Gospel proclaimed from the Scripture.

2 Timothy 3:15-17 says that the Bible is given to make us “…wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work [holiness, evangelism, ministry].” Scripture is given to bring us to faith in Christ and then to make us fruitful. 

He warns us — referring not only to the book of Revelation but to the whole Bible — not to add to it nor take away from it. “If anyone adds anything to them [the words of the Bible], God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city…” The Word is perfect, sufficient to save our souls and give us a fruitful life for the glory of God. We do not need anything more.

This is an ancient warning. Deuteronomy 4:2 says, “Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.” Proverbs 30:5-6 says, “Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.” Satan always seeks to interfere with the Word of God. He said to Eve, as though simply raising an innocent question, a topic for discussion, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” … You will not certainly die [a lie]. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil [the truth].” Satan is behind all cults, constantly mixing truth and error together, creating one big mess.

Various categories of people add to God’s word. Legalists insert extra-Biblical commands. The Pharisees, Scribes and teachers of the law in Jesus’ day added many Sabbath and other regulations, it was difficult to keep track. Jesus has cleared all of it away. The word of God commanded, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God — Yahweh — in vain.” They protected that command by putting extra wall around it, forbidding even saying the name Yahweh. Wherever the four letters pronounced “Yahweh” occurred, they inserted “Adonai” instead. That way, they were certain not to take the name of the Lord in vain. But God had said Yahweh was the name by which He was to be known in every generation, and they would not even speak the name. They added regulations to the commands.

Other legalistic cults and religions add extra commands. For centuries, the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, in which I was raised, have had to take a vow of celibacy. They are not allowed to be married, to have a godly wife. The river of immorality and wickedness which that interjected into the Roman Catholic life is indescribable. Paul says in 1 Timothy that forbidding marriage is the doctrine of demons. The Shakers, a cult, forbade men and women to touch each other. At the Smithsonian, in the religion section, there is a picture of a Shaker dance, depicting the women on one side and the men on the other. The Shakers had better be good at evangelism, because they are not raising up the next generation of Shakers. It is a cult — they are adding these commands. Other cults, like Islam, which by any definition is a cult, have added holy books. It came after Christianity, it adds and subtracts and multiplies and divides, meeting every criteria for false teaching. Its success gives it the status of a world religion. Their book, the Quran, was given by an angel to Muhammad in a cave. The Mormons, founded by Joseph Smith, added the Book of Mormon, given to him also by an angel, and other books besides.

On the other side of legalism, those who take away from the commands of this book practice license. They do not worry about commands regarding things like sexual immorality, encouraging people to live as they want, because all are forgiven. Jude 4 says that such teachers in the New Testament era were “…godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” Such people say, “Do whatever you want. Do not worry about this, do not worry about that, just believe in Jesus, that is all.” Or theological liberals do like the genius Thomas Jefferson when he created his own version of the Bible. He went through the Bible, perhaps with a red pen, and eliminated passages he did not like. Theological liberals pick and choose and get rid of aspects of Holy Scripture. They take away from the things written in the book of God.

I preach verse by verse, book by book because I want to teach all Scripture. Jesus said in Matthew 4:4, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” It is a lifetime work to become proficient in the Word of God. It contains milk and meat. Harmonizing all of these Scriptures, line after line after line, into a system of truth, is hard to do. But that is your lifetime work.

Verses 20-21 affirm that the grace of God and Christ is effective. Revelation 22:20 says, “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” For the last time in this book, Christ warns us that He is coming soon. We are to be constantly vigilant, doing the works that God entrusted us to do. We are to be like the faithful steward in a household, who is put in charge of the servants in the household, to give them their food at the proper time. Jesus said about them, “It will be good for that servant, whom the master finds him doing so when he returns.” We do not know when he is coming. We need to be vigilant. He is coming soon. We need to be aware that our lives are brief.

James 4:14 says, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” Isaiah 40:6-8 says, “All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” Knowing our lives are brief, and we will die soon, we are to be vigilant and active, growing in holiness, sharing the Gospel with lost people, until God takes us out of this world or Jesus returns. Psalm 130:6 says it well: “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.” We are to be expecting Christ in that way, with ready anticipation.

As we wait and as we work, we echo John’s agreement when Jesus says, “I am coming soon,” John agrees, “Amen. Come, Lord, Jesus.” Maranatha, come. He may not return this afternoon. All of us who are in Christ would be delighted, but it may be a while, so we are to work for the glory of God until then.

What will keep you in Christ between now and the day you die or the day Christ returns? Only the grace of God. He says very plainly in Revelation 22:21, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.” Every epistle ends this way. We are not independent of the vine, we are branches. He is the vine, and as we abide in Jesus through the ministry of the Word and the Spirit, we will stay alive in him. That is grace will keep flowing, and by that grace, we will keep walking with Him for the rest of our lives.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.

Come to Christ. If you are a family member here today for a baby dedication, we celebrate with you; we are thrilled to welcome all these children into our church family. But if you know that you are on the outside, you do not usually go to church, I yearn that you get more than that out of the day. That moment of the childhood of these infants is so brief. Jesus is offering you eternal life. Come to Christ.

First, for us who are already in Christ, reach out with the Gospel. Next week, we will talk about evangelism, the responsibility First Baptist has, to share the Gospel with people in Raleigh and Durham.

Second, see your life as part of this unfolding story of the Alpha-Omega. Does your life have purpose, or does it seem meaningless? Are you squandering your days on electronic entertainment that will burn like wood, hay, and straw on Judgment Day? Or are you called by God, gifted for a ministry to serve Him? He is the Alpha and the Omega, not only of all of human history, but of your life. Find your life purpose, find your story within the story that Jesus is telling. Do not waste your life. Do not waste this week.

Third, are you continually ready and awake and aware of the imminent return of Christ in the way you live your life? He said four times, “I am coming soon.” Are you able to say, “Amen, come Lord Jesus. I want to be ready at every moment, for the Second Coming of Christ”?

Fourth, purify yourself as He is pure. The text speaks of washing your robes so that you may have the right to enter the New Jerusalem. Justification does that, but you also need Jesus to wash your feet. A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. You get dirty as you live and as you walk. 1 John 3:3 says, “Everyone who has this hope of Heaven in him, purifies himself as He is pure.” Get ready for Heaven.

Finally, I challenge you to ask yourself if you have a taste for the things of God, for Scripture, like you used to. Is it greater, the same, or less than it was two years ago? If it is less, I guarantee that you are too much in the world, dining at the world’s table and you have less of an appetite for Scripture and for Christ. You have forsaken or you are in the process of forsaking your first love. Do not do that. Fast from worldly things. Get into God’s Word. It is not just a matter of protecting, not adding to or taking away. You must open it up and read it, feed on it, but also do not add to it or take away from it. Ask of God, “What do you want me to do? How can I live today? What can I do for your glory and to serve you today? How can I feed on your word to be strong for your glory?” That is the call.

Lord, thank you for the things that we have learned in your Word. Thank You for the power of the Word, for the way that you have spoken to us. What a rich day it has been. Thank you for Wes and brothers and sisters that have teamed with him today to bless us, enabling us to sing by their skillful playing. Father, I pray that you would give us a sense of the glory and the greatness of these themes in Revelation. I pray that we would rely on the grace of God more and more, to make it through the dangers that we have in this world. Next week, Lord, as we study evangelism, give us a heart to take risks, to share the Gospel with co-workers and people we will meet with, even this week. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In the fall of 1722, a teenager named Jonathan Edwards, a religious prodigy in almost every regard, came to understand the Christian life better than almost anyone that I have studied. At age 19, he set down a challenging set of resolutions that would guide the rest of his life. This was a common practice in Puritan New England, done by ambitious and high-minded people. The practice continued into the Colonial era — George Washington and Benjamin Franklin made similar resolutions, though more worldly and pragmatic, for self-discipline and achieving success in this world, their generation’s version of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Edwards’ resolutions are a masterpiece of godly determination and holiness, regarding making the most of every moment that we have in this world. They are all worth studying, but we will focus on Resolution #22: “Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

Edwards was determined to do whatever he could in this world to maximize his happiness in the other world, that is, in Heaven. This is a revolutionary thought. How we live our lives in time will affect how we enjoy eternity. Edwards speaks of endeavoring to obtain happiness in Heaven. That speaks of deeds done, of works. Furthermore, he expects that it will take everything he has to obtain maximum joy in Heaven. He speaks of pitching in all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence he has, giving every moment of energy, totally consumed at every moment, pouring out all the power of body and soul toward this one end. Then he adds the curious word “violence” as though he expects that obtaining maximum joy in Heaven will require war on earth. As the apostle Paul said at the end of his life, in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Edwards expected that obtaining maximum joy in heaven would be violently opposed every step of the way by those ancient foes of our soul: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I am so grateful for the beautiful multi-generational diversity God has given us in this church — godly elderly saints and godly teens. My heart is for all of you, even at an early age, to make the most of your time on earth. I will not give up on anyone no matter how old, but I do have a special word for the youth of our church — for teenagers and college students — that you would make the most of your lives, resolving now to do this. Edwards thought this was an appropriate way of looking at life, but was he right? Was he simply an 18th century Scottish rationalist, philosopher and mystic, such that we can discard his outlook? Can we actually prove by Scripture that our works will affect our heavenly experience? I believe that we can, and I assert that Edwards’ 22nd resolution was based on a true understanding of many verses of Scripture that show that our works — as justified, forgiven saints, people of God who have crossed over from death to life, from darkness to light, who have come to faith in Christ — will affect our heavenly experience.

I want to call each one of you to maximum spiritual effort. I want to ignite within each of you a godly ambition to use your life well, a fire that will result in maximum spiritual and physical effort for the glory of God for the rest of your life. No book of the Bible so clearly depicts our life in the next world as does this incredible book of Revelation, especially the final two chapters, 21 and 22.

Revelation 22:12 says, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” Christ is coming soon with his rewards. He asserts a promise: “Behold, I am coming soon!” He directs our attention, as though the veil is being pulled back — behold! — referring to the Second Coming of King Jesus, when he will come in breathtaking glory to punish his enemies and reward his servants. Behold, he is coming soon.

Most of the book of Revelation depicts what terrifying dreadful things he will do to his enemies. But these last two chapters speak of what he will do for his servants. Let us put this promise in context. “Revelation” means “unveiling,” pulling back the veil so that we can see present invisible spiritual realities. Present realities include the fact that the resurrected glorified Christ is ministering among the seven golden lamp stands, which represent local churches like this one all over the world, through every era of church history; that Almighty God is sitting on His heavenly throne of glory surrounded by 24 elders on thrones, living creatures and 100 million angels; that the Lamb of God is triumphant, looking as if he had been slain, having redeemed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation; that the devil and his angels (demons) constantly assault the people of God in this world.

The book of Revelation also speaks of future realities. Revelation 1:1 says, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.” John details, over many chapters, the future of the progressive unfolding wrath of God, with judgments within seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls; the future Second Coming of Christ; the future New Heaven and New Earth and New Jerusalem, and what that world will be like.

Now, he says, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” He says this four times — verses 6, 7, 12, and 20 — as if we had somehow missed it, begging us to hear. Revelation 22:20: “He who testifies to these things says, 'Yes, I am coming soon.’” John immediately replies, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.”

The word “soon” may be perplexing to us. It has been 2000 years, but 2 Peter 3:8 says, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” The word “soon” is meant to make us as servants who do not see our master every day with our eyes to cause us to be perpetually vigilant in his service. But with the expectancy that at any moment he may come, it affects the way we live at every moment. We are to be continually alert, active, and aware.

When he comes, he will bring his reward with him. We could use negative terms, as a warning to his enemies. I will instead zero in on it being a reward for his servants. This brings us to the doctrine and theology of Christian rewards. John intensifies it in verse 12, “I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” According to your works. The word “reward” — misthos in the Greek — indicates a concept of pay or salary, always relating to recompense, something given back for deeds done. It is never used in reference to forgiveness of sins or reconciliation with God or justification.

As a matter of fact, Paul vigorously separates the two ideas in Romans 4. He asserts in Romans 3:21-25, the glowing center of the Gospel: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified [made right with God, declared not guilty, forgiven of sins ] by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation [a sacrifice that takes away the wrath of God through faith in his blood] by his blood, to be received by faith.”

Then in Romans 4:2-5, he says, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about — but not before God. What does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’ Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. [Again, “wages” — misthos — are not a gift but what is owed for service.] However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.” As far as the east is from the west is how far He separates forgiveness of sins from works. We cannot be forgiven of our sins by our works. 

I have been praying for this moment in the sermon. God has brought some visitors here that are as yet unforgiven, on the outside, know not Christians. Let me make it plain: if you want to go to Heaven, it will not be by works. For forgiveness of sins, simply trust in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for sinners like you and me, willing to take your wickedness and sins on himself to die under the wrath of God, so that he could give you his perfect obedience to the law of God. His righteousness is a gift, in which those who believe will stand on Judgment Day, forgiven of all your sins. In that righteousness, you will walk on into Heaven through the gates of the New Jerusalem. That is the only way to get to Heaven.

However, beyond justification, there is the possibility of rewards for service done. Having been justified, we can store up rewards. Matthew 5:11-12 says, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” There are smaller rewards, medium rewards and great rewards. Think of it as a dimmer switch. If they beat on you for my sake, if you are a martyr for my sake, rejoice and be glad because you have a great reward in Heaven.

Matthew 6 is the key chapter on rewards. There are many other Scriptures, but this comes right from the lips of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He shows in Matthew 6 that he is zealous that we not lose our heavenly reward by going for it here on earth; he wants us to have a reward in Heaven. He says in Matthew 6:1, “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 6:3-6, 16-19: “But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. …  And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others [who may say, “What a godly prayer warrior!”]. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. … When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. … Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth where moths and vermin destroy, where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

What could you possibly store up in Heaven if not rewards? Justification is not accumulated little by little but given as a gift all at once. But Jesus said that there are things we can store up day after day — treasure in Heaven. We are to set our hearts on it rather than on things on earth. Jesus said in Luke 14 that when we give a banquet, do not invite all our best and wealthy friends. Rather, invite the beggars, the lame, the poor, the outcast, the blind. He said in Luke 14:14, “Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” 

It is easy to misunderstand this teaching. In terms of justification by faith alone, all who are redeemed by faith in the blood of Christ will be infinitely, perfectly happy just to be there. My primary witness on this is a famous individual known as the thief on the cross. He was crucified with Jesus, and at some point, God, in his sovereign grace to this sinner, gave him a revelation of who was being crucified next to him, who he is, who he will be — the coming resurrected glorified King. The thief turned and said, Luke 23:42-43, “‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.’” On what basis does that man get all of his sins forgiven? Romans 2 says he was storing up wrath every day of his life, and wrath was all he had to the moment they nailed him on the cross. That stored-up wrath was removed at that moment. What treasure did he have stored up in Heaven? Very little. He made a few comments and died. His hands could not move, his feet could not move, he was not going anywhere or doing anything. He was justified by faith in Christ apart from works. That day, he was with Jesus in paradise, and he was perfectly happy. He is now absent from the body and present with the Lord. Later, he will be there in a resurrection body, still perfectly happy.

There are aspects of Heaven we will all enjoy equally. Revelation 21:1-4 says, “I saw a new heaven, a new earth, and the new Jerusalem. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with people, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” Every saint in Heaven will exist forever in the presence of God. There will be no more curse for any of them. They will all be in immortal glorious resurrection bodies. They will all see the face of God; His throne will be there in the city, and His servants will serve him and see His face. They will all drink from the River of the Water of Life flowing clear as crystal. They will all have the right to eat from the Tree of Life and the right to go in and out through the gates of the New Jerusalem. They will see that radiant city in its glory and its beauty. They will see all of the colors and perfection of that place. All will enjoy that equally.

These and countless other blessings of our eternity in the world to come will be equally deeply, richly, eternally satisfying to all the redeemed.

Today we will focus not on what we will all equally enjoy but on four differences between the saints in heaven — some saints will enjoy more rewards, glory, authority and more of God than others.

Some saints will enjoy more rewards than others. Jesus urges us to store up treasure in Heaven, and he sets no limit on how much we can store up. He showed us with the widow and her two copper coins that we will be surprised on Judgment Day how much he valued certain works. She gave everything she had to live on, so that gives us a clue on some of the rules here. The level of sacrifice is important but so is every cup of cold water given to one of the servants of the Gospel — even the smallest things. Jesus said we will never lose our reward.

These rewards are all by grace. We do not deserve to be rewarded because all of our good works are done by the power of Jesus in us. He is the vine, we are the branches. If we remain in him and he in us, we will bear much fruit. Apart from him, we can do nothing. All of our rewards are his, which is why we see the saints in Revelation casting their crowns before God. They are saying that all of these rewards are what He did it in them, so the rewards are His.

What are the rewards? Simple doctrine tells us that praise from God is our reward. The most famous text on this is Matthew 25:21, the Parable of the Talents — the five talents, the two talents, and the one talent. 

The man with five talents earned five more; the man with two talents made two more. They both got the exact same thing. Matthew 25:21 says, “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” That is praise from the master — praise from your Father, praise from Jesus. Well done! This is verbal commendation that will come with symbols of it as well. God is saying he is pleased with what we did. Another clear text on this is 1 Corinthians 4:5 “At that time each will receive his praise from God.” Those three words are the rewards — praise from God. Not praise for God — we will be doing that constantly, and He will deserve all of it. This is the other way around — He will praise us. Jesus said in John 12:26, “My father will honor the one who serves me.” In the Parable of the Talents, the master invites the servant to enter into his joy. God wants us to enter into, to share, His joy with us for the moments when we do unseen things such as going into our rooms, closing the door and praying to the Father who is unseen.

There are four criteria for which deeds receive rewards: they must be done for the glory of God; done by faith in Jesus, like a vine abiding in the branch, relying on him; done in obedience to the Word of God, doing what was commanded; and done with a loving demeanor — love is patient and kind; giving all your money to the poor without love will not be rewarded.

When Jonathan Edwards’ desire to obtain as much heavenly happiness as possible was 100% nestled within his relationship with God. I want my Father to be as pleased with me in my life as He possibly can be, and I want him to express that to me. I want him to tell me about it. I have a drawer in my room packed full of artwork my kids have done over the years. I working on a second drawer. The artwork is of varying levels of quality, but it is precious to me, because my kids did it, because they love me. It is relational. These rewards are relational. My question is, how much of that do you want in Heaven? How many such expressions of God’s pleasure in what you did do you want?

Some saints will display more glory than others. We will all shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father, radiant in our resurrection bodies. Matthew 13:43 says, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” But Paul also said in 1 Corinthians 15:41-42 about the resurrection body: “... star differs from star in glory. So it will be with the resurrection of the dead.” Some stars are brighter than others; some are bigger than others; some shine more radiantly than others. Friends, you need only study church history to know that this is true. Some brothers and sisters in Christ shine more than others. They did more for Jesus and are more radiant and glorious. It will be displayed forever in Heaven. Not every star shines equally brightly in the night sky, and so it will be at the resurrection. Some people will shine more brightly than others and be adorned with more symbols of their glory than others.

Some saints will enjoy positions with more authority than others. This will not be like socialism; everybody is not equal. The 24 elders sit on 24 thrones and have crowns, which they cast down in praise. But do not think that they cast them away and never saw them again. Those are the elders’ crowns to cast. Forever they are acknowledging that, saying, “My crown is yours. It is mine to give.” It is the same when we give tithes and offerings — it is ours to give.

When James’ and John’s mother came to Jesus on behalf of her sons, she asked him to give her whatever she asked, a blank check. In Matthew 20:20-23, “She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ‘You don't know what you are asking’ [a profound statement]. Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?’ ‘We can,’ they answered [having no idea what it was]. Jesus said to them, 'You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.’” Jesus does not deny that there are positions of authority in his kingdom. What he is asking the brothers is whether they know what it will take to get there.

The other ten were indignant, so in that moment, Jesus taught them a lesson about authority. Matthew 20:24-28 says, “When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’” Positions of authority in Heaven come through suffering service. The more you suffer in service to God vertically and to your brothers and sisters horizontally, the higher the position of authority you will have. It is not that they do not exist, but that is how it happens. The ones who give the most in service to others will be rewarded the most.

Some saints will enjoy more of God than others. Jesus said, “The measure you use is the measure you'll receive.” Jonathan Edwards, used an illustration in a couple of sermons, one on Romans 2:10, and another on the end of 1 Corinthians 13 called “Heaven is a World of Love.” He pictures God in Heaven as an infinite ocean of Himself. We saints are all vessels, completely immersed in the ocean. None of us has the whole thing because God is infinite and we are not, nor will we become infinite when we go to Heaven. We will always be learning God — there will always more of Him to take in. The vessels are of different diameters. Every saint is completely full, but not every saint is equal in their fullness. Some saints have more of God and see more of God than others. Edwards said no one will be dissatisfied for, “All shall have as much love as they desire.”

That is a provocative statement. How much do you desire? We actually set our own measure: “The measure you use is the measure you will receive.” In truth, this is a call for heavenly ambition.

A number of years ago, I preached on Matthew 16:26: “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what would a man give in exchange for his soul?” I came across a short story written by the Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, in 1886. James Joyce called it the greatest short story ever written. Tolstoy wrote it to warn us against earthly ambitions, against greed. The focus of the story is a peasant named Pahom.

Pahom was frustrated with his economic level in life. He wanted more, but he knew in tsarist Russia in the 19th century that it all came down to how much land you had. He determined to find a way to get more land. He tried a variety of tactics, and then heard from a friend that in the distant east beyond the mountains, there was a tribe of people called the Bashkir people who were selling land at an incredibly low rate, good land for farming and cattle. So he sold as much as he could, collecting a thousand Rubles, and traveled hundreds of miles to the east, across the mountains, arriving in the region of the Bashkirs.

He found the tribe, and the chieftain confirmed that they were selling land. When Pahom asked the price, the chieftain said it was always the same, one thousand Rubles a day. Pahom did not understand. He was expecting the price to be some amount for a certain number of acres. The chieftain said no, it was a thousand Rubles for as much land as a man could walk around in a single day. The rules were the man must walk, not use a horse. He must start and end at the same spot, before the sun goes down, or he would lose all his money and whatever land he had walked around. Pahom could not believe it. He thought that a man could walk around a huge amount in a day. That night he could barely sleep, he was so excited. The next day, he was up before dawn and met the tribe and the chieftain on the top of a hill.

As the sun was rising, he could see the land. It was beautiful in every direction, but particularly so toward the east. As soon as the sun rose, the chieftain threw his cap down. Pahom took off down the hill. According to the rules, he took a spade with him to mark the boundaries by digging a hole and piling up the dirt. He could not believe how good the land was. Picture a baseball player running the bases — first, second, third, home. The further along he went from home to first, the more beautiful the land became. It looked richer and richer. He was about to dig his first hole, but saw another little river and a bunch of fruit trees, and desired to include that.

Finally, he realized he might have bit off more than he could chew, so he dug a hole and he made his first turn. Now the sun was getting high, maybe even past noon, and he had not dug the second hole yet. He was getting hot and removed his coat and his backpack. He drank water and took a brief lunch break and realized he needed to move more quickly to get back. He dug the second hole, and the sun seemed to accelerate, moving fast across the sky. He became worried that he might not make it back. He dug his third hole and he could see the hill in the distance where he started, but it was late in the afternoon. The shadows were long. He dropped the shovel and began to jog, going as hard as he could.

He was not in great condition. When he got to the base of the hill, as far as he could tell, the sun had set. He threw himself down on the ground, but they called down to him that they could still see the sun from there and he should not give up. He got up and labored up the hill, but it took everything he had to get to the top. Just before the sun set, he grabbed the chieftain’s cap — he made it all the way around. The tribe celebrates — it is the most land they had ever seen anyone get. But there was blood coming out of Pahom’s mouth, and he died. Tolstoy’s genius lay in the answer to the question which is the title of the story: How Much Land Does a Man Need? The answer is: about six feet — enough to bury him head to toe. The story is meant to be a warning against earthly ambition.

But as I was thinking about Edwards’ resolution, the story flipped on me all of a sudden. Listen again to the resolution: “Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.”

I fear that in this comfortable 21st century west — the American Christian Evangelical scene — there are some spiritual Pahoms who bring a La-Z-Boy recliner with them to the top of the hill before sunrise. As the sun comes up, they stretch and admire the view of the beautiful land, but they do not move. About mid-morning, they pick up their shovel go down the hill, about 80-100 feet, dig their first hole, move on over, dig the second one, and so on in good order. They are back in their La-Z-Boy before sitting down to their delicious lunch.

I would give everything I could to be sure you do not live your life that way. It is not how you live one day only but how you live every day, how you approach life. I would stimulate you to ambition by asking this question: How much heaven do you want? The beauty is, if you run this race with endurance, give everything you have and die for the chieftain’s cap, you then get your reward, your inheritance. You have not lost anything. It is all waiting for you. This is a call to heavenly ambition, to run the race marked out before you with endurance, to store up heavenly treasure, to redeem the time because the days are evil. It is a call to do daily good works as unto the Lord. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “…whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

You can store up treasure in Heaven with an average American life, living it for the glory of God, holding down a secular job, raising your family to the glory of God, all of these things. I am asking, is that all you want? Could I not challenge you to a heavenly ambition, to something higher and better? Not that you would quit your job or move, but consider a different way of looking at the remaining days, months, years you have here on earth, to run relentlessly. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” That is a call to press on toward holiness, to put sin to death by the power of the Spirit. Paul says in Acts 20:24, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.”

Those are the two journeys, the two races — the race for holiness in 1 Corinthians 9 and the race for evangelism in Acts 20. I am calling on you to run your version of those two races. I especially want to challenge the young people — college students and youth. In the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire, the master of King’s College in Oxford in 1919, a year after the Great War ended, used the sober image of the war list — the names of the boys who had died in World War I posted on the wall at Oxford — to motivate the incoming freshman class to exertion: “Let me exhort you. Examine yourselves. Let each of you discover where your true chance of greatness lies. For their sakes, for the sake of your college and your country, seize this chance. Rejoice in it! And let no power or persuasion deter you in your task.” It was a thoroughly secular speech, but I want to capture it to ask you where your true chance of greatness lies. How has God gifted you? What is your passion? What's your ambition? Do it and let nothing stop you.

What great thing is God calling you to do? What are you ambitious for in a good way? Paul says in Romans 15:20-21, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’” The word “ambition” is used three times in the New Testament, translated literally “love of honor.” In other words, Paul is saying to Jesus that he would love the honor of winning lost people for his kingdom. He loves the honor that would come back to him for doing so. He says the same thing in 2 Corinthians 5: “We make it our ambition to please God.” That is for everybody. I would love the honor, O Lord, of pleasing you today. What is your love of honor? What is your ambition? Some of you may desire to be a missionary to one of the 400 unengaged, unreached people groups that IMB.org has identified and listed. You might be one of those that would be called out to win them to Christ.

Perhaps God is calling you into devotional ministry in which you are planting a church in some North American city, or a pro-life ministry, or a mercy ministry to the poor and needy. Maybe if you have academic writing gifts, He is calling you to use that for the glory of God. My imagination only goes so far, but God has a vast imagination. He has gifted you and He will call you to do great things. What is your path of true greatness? What would you love the honor to do?

The third use of the love of honor is very interesting, different than Paul’s trailblazing frontier church planting approach. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 says, “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” A homeowner, holding down a job for the glory of God, providing for his family and trying to win outsiders who are watching his life, is pursuing an ambition too. They are very different callings. But what is your love of honor? What will you want to stand holding on Judgment Day to be evaluated for? How much heaven do you want?

Father, thank you for this promise that you have made. Behold, Lord Jesus, you said “I am coming soon. My reward is with me and I will repay each one according to what he has done.” I pray that you would give us a passion, O Lord, help us to find out what you are calling us to do, to be ambitious for and help us to do it for your glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We are nearing the end of our study of the book of Revelation. Ordinarily, I preach through the text, and at the end draw out applications. But this sermon will be different, one filled with application of the entire book of Revelation, though not comprehensive.

We do not know everything that God wants us to do. There are many times in the Bible in which individuals were cut to the heart and came to the one proclaiming the Word, saying, “What must we do?” Many came to John the Baptist asking that question. He would answer appropriately for their office or station in life. People asked Peter the same question when he preached the Gospel to those who were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. At that point, Christ had died and risen and ascended to Heaven, and the Holy Spirit had been poured out. Peter preached the Gospel boldly and clearly, that the ones listening were cut to the heart. The Philippian jailer asked the same question. As he drew Paul and Silas out of the Philippian jail, he fell down before them and asked, “What must I do to be saved?”

I want you to think about that as we come to the text today. In a few weeks, I will go over the entire book of Revelation, as I always do when I finish a book. Keep that question in mind. We are at the end of the book, the final chapter, the final verses. What shall we do? How shall we put into practice the things that we have learned?

Revelation 22:1-5, the verses immediately prior to our text today, provides a revelation, an unveiling, of the New Heaven, the New Earth, and the New Jerusalem: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.”

John has just received the most sublime vision any human being has ever had, a vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth and the radiant perfect city of God, the New Jerusalem. Now, John must return to planet Earth. The vision has ended and it is time for him to return in his mind to the rocky island of exile, the island of Patmos.

The sublime words that he has had poured into his soul by his angelic guide, through the Holy Spirit, must be lived out by faith. The final verses, Revelation 22:6-21, make up the epilogue, the final section of the final chapter of the final book of the Bible. As John returned to Patmos, so we return to our daily lives — jobs, families, challenges, medical issues, financial issues, wrestling with sin, commitment to evangelize, to reach out with the Gospel. We must return, and we must be changed. These words must burn in our hearts. The Bible must make an impact on us, and through us must make an impact on the world. We have traveled overwhelming ground, 21-plus chapters. John has given us a vision of things that are already presently going on in the heavenly realms, as well as a vision of the future. Many of the events outlined in Revelation are still in the future for us as they were in the future for John, but closer now.

With this final section, we have come full circle in Revelation. There are clear parallels between the verbiage in today’s passage and the beginning of the book. That is completely intentional. Compare Revelation 1:1: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. God made it known by sending his angel”; and Revelation 22:6: “God sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.” They are almost exactly the same. Revelation 1:3 says, “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” Revelation 22:7, 10 says, “Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book. …for the time is near.”

Revelation 1:8, 17 says, “‘I am the Alpha, and the Omega,’ says the Lord God. …the First and the Last.” Revelation 22:13 says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” In Revelation 1:9, 17, John writes, “I John… When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.” Revelation 22:8 says, “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down."

We have come full circle, back to where we started. God wants to press in on our hearts now the application of the things that we have learned. The question is: how, then, shall we live? Now that we have taken in all of this truth, how should it affect our lives? This closing section sums up how we should respond. We are not merely to be astounded, amazed, overwhelmed, befuddled, and then return to life as it was before. Still less are we supposed to shrug and act as though the words of Revelation are not significant. John did not make all of this up in his mind or have some weird dreams or hallucinations.

We must take this book as a revelation, an unveiling from Almighty God of something he wants us to see and know. Despite the powerfully symbolic nature of the words in this apocalyptic genre — writing that is so very difficult to understand and interpret — He wants us to take these words and draw them in. We are to take them as much as we can grammatically, historically, literally, to try to understand them and apply them. We are to apply what they say about what God is like right now and what His plans are for the future of the human race. The application comes down to these questions: What should we understand? What should we believe? Who should we be? What should we do? Understand, believe, be and do.

The fundamental issue here is the words that we are reading. Revelation 22:6 says, “The angel said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.’” This is a book of predictions of the future. Only the God of the Bible can do this. No other religion makes these kinds of predictions. Only God can tell us the future. As we learned in Isaiah 46:9-10, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please."

The angel told John that the words of this book are trustworthy, and they are true. Trustworthy means if you base your life on these words, you will not be disappointed. They will not fail you. True means that in the end when we get to Heaven we will look back and see that all of the prophecies came true. God will let none of them fall to the ground, but will do everything that He has predicted that he would do.

When I think about the word trustworthy — as the word of God is trustworthy — I think about something I can put my weight on. Some time ago, I was reading the book, Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson to Daphne. We tried to read the primary source, but could not get the Scottish burr down enough to be able to understand much. We were looking up Scottish words all the time. There is a critical scene early in the story, in which David Balfour, the main character, goes to ask his wicked uncle, who lives in a creepy old castle, to take him in because his parents have died. His uncle does not want to give him any of his fortune, so he has David ascend a spiral staircase in the tower of his castle. The uncle knows very well that one of the steps has been viciously altered so that it will give way when he puts his weight on it, which is exactly what happens. The step completely gives way and David starts to fall, but he saves himself by grabbing another stair at the last minute, hanging between heaven and earth, his life hanging in the balance, before managing to escape.

That is the opposite illustration of what I am talking about. The Word of God will not give way when we step out on it. These words are trustworthy. Jesus likened it to building a house on a rock. When the storms of life attack, it will be solid and secure. Everything built on this book of Revelation will be solid and secure. He mentions the words of Revelation again and again.

Revelation 21:5: “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” He wanted John to write down these words. Revelation 22:6: “The angel said to me, ‘These words are trustworthy and true.’” Revelation 22:7: “Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.”

Revelation 22:9-10: “But [the angel] said to me, ‘…I am a fellow servant with you and with your fellow prophets and with all who keep the words of this scroll. Worship God!’ Then he told me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this scroll, because the time is near.’” Revelation 22:18-19. “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll.” He is almost belaboring the point: The words in this book should be the focus of our attention. We should study them.

This book must not be disparaged or ignored. Many scholars disparage it. They make light of it. Right up the road, there is a false teacher at UNC named Bart Ehrman. His express purpose, especially with evangelicals, is to destroy his students’ faith in the Bible. He does special work on the book of Revelation.

He says the book of Revelation belongs to an apocalyptic genre that was well known in first-century Judaism, in which the Jews were yearning for deliverance from the Roman oppression. They wrote these visionary books hoping that God would come down and intervene and throw off the yoke of the oppressor, which never happened. That is absolutely not true. Bart Ehrman actually said Jesus was an apocalypticist himself, one who indulges in this genre and makes predictions that do not come true. Jesus said this generation would not pass away before all of these things had taken place. Ehrman zeroes in saying even Jesus was wrong when he predicted the imminent destruction of Rome. Another unbelieving scholar said that the book of Revelation is a mess, disorganized. This is the kind of disparaging that we must not do. Christ gave these words to tell us, his servants, the things that must soon take place. There is no other book like it in the Bible.

Revelation 22:7 says he coming soon to end history. “Look, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this scroll.”

Right before he left, at the end of his first advent, his mission on earth, in Acts 1:7-11, they were curious and pressed Jesus, “‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ [That is the Great Commission. Our job is to take the Gospel to unbelievers.] After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’” In Revelation, Jesus predicts that he will return soon. Revelation 22:13 says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” History will come to an end. 

The early church had a sense of urgency about the imminent return of Christ. We see this repeatedly in the Epistles. In Philippians 3:20-21, Paul says, “… our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” We eagerly await the Second Coming of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:7 says, “Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.” Paul told Thessalonican believers that they are a model to believers everywhere. 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 says, “…They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” We serve while we wait for Christ to return.

Jesus says he is coming soon. The word “soon” gives us a sense of urgency and expectancy. He does not look at time the way we do. With the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, a thousand years is like a day. He told a series of parables in Matthew 24 and 25 about our demeanor while we wait. Matthew 24:45-51 says, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 

Another parable with almost the same lesson is the five wise and five foolish virgins. The foolish virgins were only partially prepared for the coming of the bridegroom, so they were excluded from the wedding. Jesus says at the end of that one, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

How do we live out this sense of urgency, knowing that Jesus is coming soon? In Revelation, God has given details of events that will occur before the Second Coming. None of those things has happened yet — the seven trumpet judgments, the seven bowl judgments, the Antichrist rising up to rule over the whole earth, the man of sin setting up the abomination of desolation. Putting all that together, we do not expect the imminent return of Christ yet. We must hold all of those things in tension, keeping in mind that we also do not know about our own future, what day we will die, when we will be called to give an account, like the wicked fool who greedily built bigger barns and died before he could use them.

If we do not know the length of our own days, we certainly cannot know the timing of the Second Coming of Christ. We must harmonize all the signs, but Jesus is saying, “I am coming soon. You do not know the day or the hour. You need to be vigilant, watchful and energetically, actively serving me.”

How then shall we live? How do we apply this in practical terms? John McArthur organized these ideas with the words “urgent, immediate.” I am borrowing his word to give you an immediate application. Even if the Lord does not return for a long period of time, still there is a sense of immediacy. If you hear God speaking to you today and you do not put it into practice, your heart will become hard. If today you hear His voice, do not harden your heart. Instead, put into practice what God wants you to do.

Revelation 22:7 speaks of immediate obedience to His word: “Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book.” The word “keep” in a simple way means to guard, protect, keep sacred. “Keep this command” is commonly translated “obey”. We have a sense of protecting Revelation against attacks, but even more protecting our own souls against attacks coming from the world, the flesh, and the devil. We must protect it so that we obey it. Within our own hearts, we must cherish these commands and take them in with a noble and good heart that bears 100, 60 or 30 times what was sown. That is what we want to do — obey.

Jesus said, John 14:15, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Jesus, our Lord, measures love by obedience. Whoever has his commands and obeys them is the one who loves him.

Revelation is not filled with many commands. There are far more in an average epistle — Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. We must take the Bible as a whole. This is the last chapter of the last book. It sums up all of God’s commands that are binding on the hearts of Christians. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book, which we should take to mean the whole Bible.

Revelation has few commands, but the general teaching carries with it a moral imperative found in Mark 1:15: “‘The time has come,’ he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!’” That is how to keep the words of this book. Are you ready to meet your maker? Are you ready to stand before God on Judgement Day to give an account? Do you have a savior, an atoning sacrifice for your sins? The saints are described in Revelation 12:17 and 14:12 as “those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

2 Peter 3:11-12 sums up the Lord’s two central commands: “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” We find the two journeys in that. The internal, infinite journey of holiness — live a holy and godly life, put sin to death by the power of the Spirit, be pure as you wait for the day when the Lord will return. And the external journey of evangelism and missions — we look forward to the day of God and speed its coming by preaching the Gospel, because the kingdom will not come until every tribe and language and people and nation has had this Gospel preached to it. The overarching commands are to be holy and be a witness.

There are many lesser commands as well that fit into what it means to be holy and to be a witness. We could, with good profit, go back to Revelation 2 and 3, to pull out all the commands that were given to the seven churches at the end of each of the seven letters. Revelation 2:7 says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Take all seven messages to heart and keep the commands.

To the church at Ephesus: “Do not become progressively hard in your heart toward Jesus; do not forsake your first love.” To the church at Smyrna: “Be faithful to the point of death; be willing to pay a price to be witnesses.” To the church at Pergamum: “Do not tolerate sin, especially sexual sin.” To the church at Thyatira: “Do not tolerate false teaching, but expose false teachers.” To the church at Sardis: “Do not have a reputation of being alive, but we are actually dead.” That could happen to a church like ours. If the Lord does not return within a generation, this church could have a reputation of the days when it was alive, but has become dead, coasting. To the church at Philadelphia: “Walk through the door of opportunity that Christ has set before us that no one can shut. Be faithful with those open doors.” To the church at Laodicea: “Do not be lukewarm, but be on fire for Jesus. We do not want him to spew us out of his mouth.” We want to take to heart, to keep, the commandments in those seven letters.

Let Revelation give you a sense of how right it is to continue seeking perfect obedience. We want to obey all of the commands God has given to us, to be faithful to them knowing we are not justified by our obedience to them. Seek to live the best possible life as we wait for the Second Coming of Christ.

Revelation 22:8-9 “I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, ‘Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!’”

Isn’t it amazing how honest the Bible is about its heroes? It is a proof that this is the book of truth. We are all sinners. For the second time, John falls down to worship an angel. He did it in Revelation 19:10: “At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!’” And now he does it here.

This brings us to the fundamental issue of worship — false versus true worship. The central problem of the human race, of us in our sin, is idolatry. Paul gives a clear definition of idolatry in Romans 1:25: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen.”

The essence of idolatry is, in your heart, with your body, with your life, to fall down and give homage and total dedication to a creature, a created thing. Satan’s basic temptation is to call us away from worship of the true God into worship an idol. He tempted Jesus with that. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world, all the beauty of the creature. Matthew 4:8-10 says, “…the devil [a creature] took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ‘All this I will give you,' he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Away from me, Satan! For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”'"

Revelation 13 and following details the worst organized idolatry of the human race, which is yet to come. The Antichrist — the Beast from the Sea — will do signs and wonders, seeming to be assassinated and then come back to life. He is backed by the hidden power of the dragon — the devil. He will demand worship from all people on planet Earth. The Beast from the Earth — the false prophet — will set up an idol and give it life supernaturally. He will compel people under pain of death to worship the idol and to receive a mark of the beast. Those who do not receive it cannot buy or sell, and probably will be executed. Those who do receive it will spend eternity in hell.

Conversely, there is also no book of the Bible that depicts true holy righteous worship more clearly. Revelation 1 details the image of the resurrected glorified Christ, moving through seven golden lamp stands. In Revelation 4, we see the image of the throne of Almighty God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. All in Heaven are worshiping God, the Creator of all things. In Revelation 5, the Lamb appears on the throne, looking as if it had been slain. All in Heaven continue to celebrate God the Creator and Christ the Redeemer. They are organized in concentric circles around the throne of God, giving Him glory. There is no book of the Bible that gives you a better picture of healthy worship of the true, triune God.

The practical application is to worship God. Attack any idols in your heart. Is there any created thing that has a hold on you, that you are living for, that has become too important, that you are pursuing blindly, that is dominating your life? It could be success, money, power, sex, sensual pleasures, entertainment. Go after it, as 1 John 5:21 says: “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

On the other hand, whenever you see remnants of God’s beauty in nature — ocean, mountains, rivers, lakes, anything that causes you to wonder at this marvelous creation — imitate the actions of the people in Revelation 4:11, giving God praise and glory and honor: “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Whenever you feel yourself to be a sinner but you know that you have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, join in the celebration of Revelation 5:9: “You, O Christ, are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Worship God the Creator, Christ the Redeemer.

His warnings and promises are immediately proclaimed. Revelation 22:10-11 says, “Then he told me, ‘Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near. Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.’”

God said, “Do not seal up the words” in direct contrast to the end of Daniel 12, where Daniel is told twice to seal up the scroll because it concerned a distant time. You would not understand it, and it was not for him. Here John is told, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, because the time is near.”

Sealing the words gave the sense that they could not be entrusted to the common people, who would not be able to understand them. They would read them and be confused by them. But Jesus tells John, “Do not seal them up.” That implies that these words are clear enough to be understood by all. Therefore, preachers would do well to preach sermons on Revelation and drink in the blessing of Revelation 1:3: “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” Casting far and wide for all the help I could get over the last year preaching through this book, I have been amazed how few preachers try to do this, to go line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter through Revelation. It is a difficult book to interpret, but they are missing a blessing.

Those who do preach from this book generally do so in ways that are not helpful, serving an eccentric eschatology that zeroes in on details and makes specific predictions that at best do not build up the body of Christ, and at worst are openly toxic. We do not need to do that; we need only read the book consistently, drink it in, steep in its themes — the holiness of God, the power of God, the coming wrath of God, the beauty of the New Heaven and New Earth and New Jerusalem. Drink in these themes all the time, proclaim it, do not seal it up, but get the word out. These words are clear enough to be understood.

I was raised in the Roman Catholic Church. I was a baby when Vatican II happened, when they converted the Mass from Latin to the vernacular, the local language that can be understood. The majority of the Roman Catholic world did not understand a word that was spoken in Mass when it was in Latin. I learned that over the centuries, it was a consistent pattern that people who translated the Bible into the vernacular would be hunted down like criminals and executed, like William Tyndale and others who translated the Bible into English. His translations were collected and burned by the Roman Catholic authorities.

Why? In 1199, Pope Innocent III wrote to a bishop of Metz, saying, “The mysteries of the sacraments of faith should not be explained everywhere to everyone, since they cannot be understood everywhere by everyone, but only to those who can conceive of them by their faithful intellect. Because of this the Apostle [St Paul] said to the simpler people: ‘As unto little ones in Christ I gave you milk to drink, not meat.’ For ‘strong meat is for the perfect’, as he said to others: ‘we speak wisdom among the perfect;’ ... Such is the profundity of divine Scripture, that not only simple and illiterate men, but even prudent and learned men do not fully suffice to investigate its wisdom. ... For it is written: ‘seek not the things that are too high for thee.’” He is saying, “This book is too hard for you to understand, do not read it. As a matter of fact, it is best not to translate it into your language because you will never understand it.”

But the angel told John, “Do not seal up the words of this prophecy, publish them broadly and widely, drink them in and read them.” I am not saying you will understand everything; there are difficulties, there are mysteries, but we need to take it in.

God’s Word does not return void. Isaiah 55:10-11 says, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Everywhere the Word of God goes out, it achieves what God sent it out to do.

If that is the case, why are there so many unbelievers? Why do so many people hear the Gospel and not repent and believe? We need to understand as theological grown-ups that God is not sending out the word to do the same thing in every case. He is hardening some by the Word and saving others by that same Word.

Revelation 22:11 says, “Let him who is wrong continue to do wrong, and let him who is vile continue to be vile. [And conversely] Let him who does right continue to do right, and let him who is holy continue to be holy.” The parallelism is interesting, that he who does wrong will continue to do wrong, and he who does right will continue to do right. It is a bifurcation of the wicked and the righteous. They will be confirmed in this by the Word of God.

Ultimately in Heaven and Hell, these words in verse 11 will finally be true for the righteous and the wicked. Those who are confirmed in their righteousness by the ministry of the Word of God will spend eternity being righteous. There will be no future fall from Heaven, but forever they will continue to be righteous and do righteously. But for the wicked, at some point, this will be spoken as a decree of judgment over them. It is a final verdict.

In the meantime, we have the hope of the Gospel. One can cross over from death to life. A wicked Saul of Tarsus in the morning can become a transformed Saul in the evening. That radical transformation can happen to the thief on the cross in an instant. He can suddenly see who Jesus is and believe in Him. We yearn for the wicked to cease to be wicked, and for the unrighteous to repent of their sins and cross over.

Revelation 22:14 gives us hope: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” That means all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have violated God’s commandments and laws. None have kept His Ten Commandments or His Two Commandments to love God and to love our neighbor. Our robes are soiled. God sent His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who lived a sinless life and died in the place of sinners. He shed His cleansing atoning blood for sinners like you and me. By faith in Him, you can wash your robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. I would urge you while there is time to do it.

Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!' Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.” That is the message that I am proclaiming to you right now: If you came in here thirsty and dead and soiled, Jesus can cleanse you. He can pour the living water of life down your parched throat and you will live forever. You must only turn from your sins, repent of your wickedness and turn to Christ, and he will forgive you. We get to preach that message every day this week, to share that with somebody at our workplace or in the neighborhood or at a convenience store. That is what we are called on to do. 

Jesus said in Revelation 22:12, “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.” Get busy immediately serving His kingdom. Be faithful to serve Him, whatever your calling, whatever your spiritual gifts, whatever good works he has prepared for you to do. You will never lose your reward. Next week, we will look at  rewards, how the things you do here in life will enrich you in heaven forever.

Father, thank you for the time we have had to study. Thank you for the specific applications you give us that we have walked through today. Help us to worship you with all of our hearts by the power of the Spirit. Help us to be faithful to obey the commands you have given us, to keep the words that you have given us and to fight for the purity of the Word of God against all satanic attacks. Help us, O Lord, to be faithful to obey by the Spirit. Help us to put into practice the many lessons we have had in the book of Revelation, so that you may be glorified and that we might be blameless and unafraid and ready at any moment for the Second Coming of Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

What a joy I have today to preach on aspects of our heavenly inheritance. In Ephesians 1, the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesian Christians, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints…” [Ephesians 1:18] Putting it simply, he prayed that they would know how rich they will be in Heaven. There could be no better passage of Scripture than Revelation 22:1-5 to give us a catalog of some of the aspects of our heavenly inheritance.

Recently a friend encouraged me to listen to an audio recording of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas. One of my favorite parts is the description of the treasure. It is marvelous. Edmond Dantès had escaped from the prison on Chateau D’If and had followed a treasure map to a hidden grotto where this vast treasure had been hidden in the 1490s. It is divided into three categories.

“Three compartments divided the coffer. In the first, blazed piles of golden coin; in the second, were ranged bars of unpolished gold, which possessed nothing attractive save their value; in the third, Edmond grasped handfuls of diamonds, pearls, and rubies, which, as they fell on one another, sounded like hail against glass. After having touched, felt, examined these treasures, Edmond rushed through the caverns like a man seized with frenzy; he leaped on a rock, from whence he could behold the sea. He was alone -- alone with these countless, these unheard-of treasures! was he awake, or was it but a dream? He raced around screaming like a madman at his lavish fortune… Then he fell on his knees, and, clasping his hands convulsively, uttered a prayer intelligible to God alone. He soon became calmer and more happy, for only now did he begin to realize his felicity. He then set himself to work to count his fortune. There were a thousand ingots of gold, each weighing from two to three pounds; then he piled up twenty-five thousand crowns, each worth about eighty francs...; and he saw that the complement was not half empty. And he measured ten double handfuls of pearls, diamonds, and other gems, many of which, mounted by the most famous workmen, were valuable beyond calculation.”

Edmond Dantes had to take in his treasure a little at a time. It was way too much for him to understand how wealthy he had become. He had to lift things up one at a time to take them in. That is the sense I have in our passage today. Quick, brief statements, one after another, list treasures of indescribable value. For example, “they will see his face…” A quick phrase but infinite in worth and value. We will lift up each of these treasures one at a time and ponder them. I pray that the eyes of our hearts will be enlightened to realize just how rich we will be in Heaven in our inheritance with the saints. If you are not yet a Christian, my desire is that you would be jealous to be that rich and you would cross over from death to life this very morning as I proclaim the simple truth of the Gospel. All you must do is believe the Gospel and you, too, will be that wealthy.

This section in Revelation continues the Apostle John’s description of the New Jerusalem, which he began in Revelation 21:9-11: “One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”

John then describes the glorious architecture of the brilliant city, the New Jerusalem: its great high wall with twelve gates, each named for one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and each with an angel standing at the gates, not to guard it from threats but to welcome all who come; its twelve-fold foundations, each bearing the name of one of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb; the gates, each made of a spectacular single pearl; the streets, made of something unknown to us, like transparent gold; the foundations of the city wall decorated with twelve different colored gems, giving off every color of the spectrum with marvelous, radiant beauty.

The New Jerusalem is incalculably massive in size, effectively the distance from Orlando to Abilene Texas, and up to the border of Canada, and as tall as it is long and broad, an incomprehensible size for a city. It is continually radiant with the glory of God, possessing a glowing translucent quality. The city gates stand open continually, and the wealth of the nations come stream in to beautify the city and make it even more glorious. John mentions the kings of the nations will come into it and bring their glory into it... so this city will be the focus of the New Heavens and New Earth.

In some mysterious sense the New Jerusalem represents us, the people of God, the Bride of Christ. But it cannot be only a symbolic representation of the multifaceted diverse beauty of the Church of Jesus Christ, because we will need a place to live forever. We will have actual physical resurrection bodies like Christ’s resurrection body. Christ, “by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” [Philippians 3:21]

After his resurrection, when he appeared in the upper room, Jesus was trying to prove to his Apostles that they were not seeing a ghost. He said “‘Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.” [Luke 24:39-40] In the same way, we will have bodies. We must have a place to walk, a place to gather, a place to dwell, a place to eat and drink, and that place will be the New Jerusalem.

We saw that it is a perfectly pure place, free from all threats, enemies, wickedness. Revelation 21:27 says, “Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

That gives us the context for Revelation 22. The first five verses complete the line by line description of the New Jerusalem, and I can do nothing better, like Edmond Dantès, than to take up one treasure after another to consider the value of each one. We will look at them briefly this morning, but in Christ we will live them eternally. My desire is that our hearts will be filled with joy, peace, happiness and hope based on the Word of God and the ministry of the Spirit.

Revelation 22:1-2 says, “Then the angel showed me the River of the Water of Life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.” John is seeing all this in a supernatural vision of the Spirit led by an angelic guide, introduced in Revelation 21:9. The Holy Spirit is giving him a vision that he would have no other way of seeing. The New Jerusalem did not exist when John wrote this and still does not; it is not finished from our perspective, so it is only by vision and by Scripture that we can have an idea of what it is like. John could not have concocted this complex image in his mind. He was not a literary genius coming up with images from his own fervent imagination. The angel had a mission from God to show him a vision of the future; he saw it and wrote it down.

John sees the river of the Water of Life. It is a powerful image, a sparkling, bubbling, rushing river of water, endlessly flowing, ready to refresh the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem forever. It is flowing clear as crystal, brilliant, radiant, shining with the glory of God like everything else in the city. We once took a trip from Miami, Florida, where my dad was raised, down to the Florida Keys. The road to the Keys is amazing, a flat highway just above the surface of the water. We pulled off for a picnic in a cove along the way. I had never seen water so clear in all my life. I do not know how deep it was, but it was like glass — we could see straight through it — perfectly clear, beautiful water. The river of life is like this — no impurities, no mud, no silt.

The river flows down the middle of the great street of the city. That street is depicted as made of transparent gold (Rev. 21:21) The whole plan of the city centers around this street and this river, so they seem to go together. The image is similar to the one seen by Ezekiel the prophet in his vision of a mysterious glorified temple. He describes a river flowing from the mystical spiritual temple.

Ezekiel 47:1-5 “The man [an angel] brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east)... As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in — a river that no one could cross.” It gets deeper and wider as it flows further and further away, suggesting an infinite supply of water.

In Ezekiel’s image, the river produces vast and diverse life and fruitfulness: Ezekiel 47:6-9 “Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, ‘This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live.’” Hallelujah!

Ezekiel 47:12 says, “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.” There is little doubt that the same Holy Spirit who inspired the prophet Ezekiel to write those words was inspiring the Apostle John to write these words in Revelation. He is giving us a description of the same future heavenly blessedness. We will have a New Jerusalem.

The idea of the river of the Water of Life connects with many images in Psalms, of thirsty souls coming to God: Psalm 42:1 says,“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.” Psalm 46:4 “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.” There is a river where God will dwell, and it makes everyone glad.

It also is reminiscent of the original Garden of Eden. From the midst of that garden, Genesis 2:10 says, “A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.” That gives me the sense that Adam and Eve were not meant to stay in that garden but they were meant to move out and fill the earth and subdue it and multiply and explore it. Genesis 2 also talks about aromatic resin and onyx and gold out in the earth — a world waiting to be explored. So also, the river of the Water of Life leads out into the city, the New Jerusalem, and out into the New Earth, inviting its inhabitants to follow it out to explore and discover all that God has done.

It also reminds me of the statement Jesus made to the Samaritan woman in John 4. She was trying to understand him and his message. He said “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” [She did not know who he was and was not all that impressed with what she saw.] “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” [“Are you greater than Jacob?” Yes, infinitely greater than Jacob! And I will tell you how:] “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

This is the consummation of all these images, a source of endless spiritual refreshment through our relationship with God and Christ. It also teaches that the source of our eternal life will forever be God and Christ — there is no independent eternal life in heaven. We will depend on the river of the Water of Life flowing from the throne forever. We will not cut the tie with God and His throne. Our eternal life is dependent on Him, and He is eternally willing for us to continue living. It is a continual choice on His part that we should continue to live in Him. We are made in His image; thus, we are forever dependent on Him.

The source of the water is the throne of God. He is a mighty king, seated on His throne, and life flows from His kingly rule. The water is created right from the sovereign power of the King of the Universe. In the same way that He created the universe — ex nihilo, Latin for “out of nothing,” by the word of His power — He continually and infinitely creates this water. It represents God as the source of all life, happiness, joy, and refreshment forever.

It also shows the nature of His kingship. Human rulers use their authority to dominate and oppress others, to fleece them and strip them and shred them of life and possessions and dignity. Not God. He uses his dominion to give life and blessing to all his subjects. Those around the throne are not running from it, as rebels, but running to the throne to receive refreshment and to delight in God and His good gifts.

This reminds me of a different river that also flowed from the throne of God. In Daniel 7, Daniel the prophet had a vision of four beasts coming up out of the turbulent waters, representing mighty, godless, wicked, satanic empires, one after another. In the middle of that chapter, we see the throne of the Ancient of Days, Almighty God, ruling to judge and bring wrath on these demonic, wicked empires.

Daniel 7:9-10 “Almighty God took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him.” From the same throne comes both a river of fire and the river of the Water of Life. That is Hell and Heaven, both coming from the sovereign power of Almighty God. Both eternal life and eternal death flow from the throne of God, and no one can overturn his will. 

Revelation 22:2-3 “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” 

To some degree, in our hearts and minds, it must seem as though this is a return to the Garden of Eden, except this is perfected, infinitely better now. We are not on probation; we are not being tested. Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and we see the tragic river of wickedness that flowed from that sinful decision on Adam’s part, a flood of miseries of sin, sickness, sorrow, tears and death. After they sinned, Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden. God the Judge placed a sentinel cherubim with a flaming sword flashing back and forth, “…lest they reach out their hands and take and eat from the Tree of Life and live forever.”

But Jesus Christ came and paid the death penalty and removed that sword, that angel. Now we have the right to enter through the gates of the city and eat from the Tree of Life forever. Jesus won us that right; he paid for it with his blood.

The position of the tree is challenging to understand. One tree on both sides of a mighty river? That is a big tree! It is an amazing picture. Ezekiel 47 describes a grove of trees on each side, but John’s image is “the” Tree of Life. The Tree of Life and the river of the Water of Life show different aspects of the same thing. They are two different ways of representing that God intends for us to drink and eat and live forever. It is like the godly man in Psalm 1:3 “… like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers…” There is continued fruitfulness. The tree bears fruit every month.

I have seen a commentary which uses Ezekiel’s image, a grove of trees; another says they all stem from the same root system which shows its gnarly roots in places above ground. Perhaps it is a massively huge single tree that spans the stream, narrow as it flows from the throne, wider as it flows further on. Others make no effort to make sense of it physically, because they do not try to do that with Revelation; for them it is simply a symbolic spiritual image. I think it is a physical tree and though I cannot imagine it, I cannot wait to see it. I do know that the Tree of Life derives its life and fruit from the water flowing from the throne of God.

Here is another mystery: “…the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” We have already learned in Revelation 21:4 that “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain…” Death is finished. Why would there be need for healing for the nations? It is like saying the hospitals in the New Jerusalem will be top notch, or the funeral homes will be the best ever seen. That is not the gist of what is being described. Rather, as our lives depend on God, so our vitality, our healthfulness, our power in our resurrection bodies are also dependent on Him. We will derive endless strength and potency from eating from this tree.

This is also perhaps why pain is not needed. I do not imagine that we will have any kind of injuries in the New Jerusalem, but if it were possible for one to be clumsy — not likely —, there will be instantaneous healing of the resurrection body from eating of the tree. There is no need for pain, no need for the resurrection brain to know about the injury at all. Just as when Peter cut off Malchus’ ear with his sword and Jesus restored his ear instantly,  there will be a continual healthfulness from eating the tree.

Another benefit of the New Jerusalem is that there will “No longer … be any curse.” [Revelation 22:3] The curse came on Adam and his progeny because he ate the forbidden fruit. Death, the main curse, will be gone forever! God also cursed the ground because of him, saying it would produce thorns and thistles; and his labor was cursed — he would work for his food by the sweat of his brow. In the New Jerusalem, the earth will not be cursed, and we will not be cursed with death. We will work but it will not be in cursed labor — we will have satisfying projects using our amazing resurrection brains and bodies to do amazing things. 

The Jews were promised blessings as they entered the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 28:3 says, “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.” What a sweet meditation that is in light of the New Jerusalem and the New Earth. Everything we do in the city and in the country will be blessed. “You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out… The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to.” [Deuteronomy 28:6, 8] How marvelous is that!

Revelation 22:3 speaks of the throne of God and of the Lamb: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city.” We saw this in verse 1 as well. The throne of God is the place where he rules, where He reigns over the universe, which at that time will be the New Heaven and New Earth. 

In the present universe, the throne of God is situated in the words of Scripture as infinitely high and lifted up above us. Isaiah tells us that the Almighty says, “I live in a high and holy place.”[Isaiah 57:15] He says in Isaiah 66:1, “This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.” We have a sense of God’s throne being high and lifted up, and to some degree inaccessible to us.

But in the New Jerusalem, when she descends out of heaven from God prepared as a bride, the throne of God will be right there in the midst of the people, in the midst of the city, no gap, no separation. God is still infinitely holy — He is Creator, we are creature — but the throne will be accessible. This is what God has always wanted, to be in the midst of and dwell with His people. He would be their God and they would be His people. That will be fulfilled. Our access to the throne will be perfect. We will be able to walk right up to the throne of grace and mercy, because Christ has opened for us eternally a new and living way into the presence of the king.

This also speaks to the deity of Christ. There is one throne, which is called the throne of God and of the Lamb. This is the complex imagery of the deity of Christ, sharing the throne with God the Father. Jesus said in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.” and we have one throne as God. In Revelation 5:5-6, where John was weeping because no one was found who could take the scroll. “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Rood of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.” It is the same image — Jesus, the lamb slain for the sins of the world is standing in the center of the Father’s throne. There is no doubt what that means: Jesus is Almighty God.

Next, we have the catalog of a series of rich blessings that will come to us as servants of God. Verse 3 says, “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.” The throne of God is immediately accessible, but our primary role, according to this Verse, there are other roles, is to serve. The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates it as “slaves”, which is more accurate. His slaves will be ready to do His bidding. The word “serve” indicates a priestly religious verb. His slaves will serve Him in priestly roles. In other places, we are called sons and daughters, and we will share inheritance with Christ. But the image here is one of slavery. God is a mighty king, worthy of our full obedience. In Adam, we joined Satan in rebellion fighting against the King of the Universe. We have been redeemed from all that, and we will be delighted to take the king’s yoke upon us. We will not be fighting the yoke anymore; we will be glad to have a mighty king to rule over us, commanding us.

The Greek word used here is the common word for slaves, sometimes translated bondslaves. In Ephesians and Colossians, Paul gives commands related to the master-slave hierarchy. Christian masters are commanded to treat their slaves with respect, because they are under a master too. Some day they will be required to give an account to their own master for how they treated their slaves, who were fellow human beings.

Any thoughtful Christian in the 21st century reading those commands will have a question pressing on their minds: Why did Paul not command Christian masters to emancipate their slaves, to set them free? I have covered that topic previously when I preached on those passages in Ephesians and Colossians, if you would like to look up those sermons. In the past couple of centuries, Christian forces were unleashed that fought to make chattel slavery illegal all over the world. In those sermons in Ephesians and Colossians, I referred to Revelation 22:3. One possible answer is that slavery is eternal. In some respects, we will be considered the slaves of God. Peter and Paul and James, in their Epistles, did not mind that at all. They called themselves bondslaves of Christ; they were honored to have that title. But I continued to meditate on the question — why would we do this?

Keep in mind that Jesus took that same thing on himself. In Philippians 2, Jesus “who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be [grasped]; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of [what?] a servant [SLAVE]. And being found in appearance as a man [or “made in human likeness”; meditate on that phrase — the very nature of a slave implies being human, so in this passage, human equals slave] he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!” Jesus is forever seen to be a doulos, a servant.

He is also forever seen as the Son of God, and we have the same dual aspect. We are sons and daughters of the living God by adoption, and we are also slaves of the eternal God. Jesus is every bit as much slave as he is God, as seen in Philippians 2. He was not faking it, only acting like a servant while on earth. This is who he really is. He served us by washing our dirty, nasty feet. He served us by taking our dirty nasty sins on his holy self and dying in our place on the cross under the wrath of God. He served us, and he will continue to serve us in Heaven. Luke 12:37 says, “I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them.” Picture feasting in the New Jerusalem. Your cup is running low, and somebody taps you on the shoulder and wants to refill your cup. It is Jesus, the King of Glory, wanting to fill your cup. There is nothing demeaning about this kind of service — this is a service in Heaven!

What is the difference between being a slave and being an employee? I see two key differences: salary and freedom. Slaves do not get paid for their labor, and they are not free to walk away. What about Heaven? I tell you, you will not want to be paid for your service. You are infinitely rich as a member of the Royal Family — you will not need a salary.

But in the days of chattel slavery, they were not singing songs in the fields for wages, but for freedom. Freedom to what? To walk away, to escape from a wicked master and to live with autonomy. Meditate on that. You should see that this not anything you will desire in Heaven. Anyone who want to walk away from the Master are free now to do so, living their entire lives away from the Master, the King. They rebel against his kingly rule and receive their condemnation. We who follow Christ embrace the yoke and the kingly rule, and we delight in it forever. We do not desire to go anywhere else, and we will spend eternity serving him.

As I said, the word implies religious service, like the work of the priests in the temple. Back then, it was manual labor within an animal sacrificial system. The priests had to keep the fires burning, wrestle bulls onto the altar, kill them, pour out the blood, and more. It was very physical, a hard day’s work. All of that has now been fulfilled. I do not know what worship work we will do in Heaven, but we will enjoy it. We will work at worship forever, with access to the throne.

Perhaps the greatest blessing of all comes in Verse 4: “They will see His face.” How can I capture the significance of those words? If you are redeemed, a child of God, some day you will see God’s face. This is the very thing that was forbidden of Moses on the mountain. Moses was having an intense time of a love relationship with his Creator, God the Father. “Moses said, ‘Now show me your glory.’ And the LORD said, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ [Paul quoted this in Romans 9. We do not deserve to have God show us his glory. It is given by grace.] ‘But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’  Then the LORD said, ‘There is a place near me where you may stand on a rock. When my glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back, [The Hebrew is akin to “hind quarters”; I think of it as His trailing glory, like the last part of a comet going by] but my face must not be seen.’” [Exodus 33:18-23] 

John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God’s face at any time.” 1 Timothy 6:16 says that God “alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.” In Adam, we were all condemned criminals. Frequently, a judgment by the king on a condemned criminal is not being able to see the king’s face. When Absalom was banished and then allowed to return to Israel, he was not permitted to see the face of the king, his own father, which caused him great anguish. Wicked Haman, who was condemned by King Xerxes, had his face covered as the king gave his decree — he was forbidden to see the face of the king anymore.

We are condemned sinners, and as a result of indwelling sin, we are corrupt. Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” [Matthew 5:8] We are not pure in heart. There is wickedness and corruption in us, so we are not fit to see God’s face. 1 Corinthians 15:50 says, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God…” We are not able to see God’s glorious face in our flesh and blood, but some day we will see Him face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; [now, we have exegesis, sermon, preaching, imagination, which cast a poor reflection, like in a kind of a dirty mirror] then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” That vision will be absolutely transformative. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” [1 John 3:2]

The mystics of the Middle Ages called it “the Beatific Vision,” the vision of blessedness. This is absolute, perfect happiness. You could imagine yourself like a dust speck in a stream of light, floating in an ocean of happiness to see the face of God. I look on God as the source of all beauty and all love and all goodness in the universe. We will finally be able to go to the source to see Him in the face.

CS Lewis, in Till We Have Faces, said this: “It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home? For indeed it now feels not like going, but like going back.”

Verse 4 says, “…his name will be on their foreheads.” His name sums up His being, and having His name on our foreheads means we will glow with His glory. Moses’ face, after beholding the trailing hindquarters of God, was shining radiantly. God’s glory reflected on Moses’ face faded, as in the Old Covenant, but we will look into the face of God and our whole bodies will glow forever.

God will stamp his name on your forehead, saying, “You are mine. I bought you with a price; you are my adopted sons and daughters.” He will claim His absolute ownership. The forehead also gives a sense of the complete transformation of the mind to love and honor the name of God, the Ineffable Name, the unpronounceable, the mysterious name of God. You remember in Judges 13:18 “He replied, ‘Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.’” Somehow we will come closer to comprehending the name of God in Heaven. He will own us and we will be immersed in him. He will be our Father, and we will be his children.

Verse 5 says, “There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.” We saw this in the last chapter; it is repeated here. Night can be a dangerous time — wild animals, predators, criminals, wicked people approaching by stealth to do harm, all depend on the cover of darkness. 

With some light, night can also be beautiful. It is beautiful in autumn when the harvest moon rises over a field, big and red and orange in October. It is beautiful in spring when the stars are vivid in a cool night in the mountains with the Milky Way and all the starry host visible. It is beautiful in summer with moon shadows dancing everywhere and crickets chirping with the rest of the peaceful energetic chorus, or sailing in a cove on placid waters with the moonlight shimmering on the water. It is beautiful in winter with the trees denuded of their leaves, revealing their stark fingers under a cold, distant silvery moon.

As much beauty as nighttime can possess, it will be superseded by God’s display of light coming from His own glory. He will do light beautifully and perfectly there, and we will not miss the night. There will be no light lamplight there — human technology such as the incandescent light bulb from Thomas Edison or the AC grid from Nicola Tesla or the energy footprint will not be needed anymore. God will be pulsating the place with the light of His glory.

Finally, in verse 5, “And they will reign for ever and ever.” God will be our King — Jesus will be our King of kings and Lord of lords. We will each reign over a sub-kingdom, but I believe the redeemed will not all have equal positions of authority. Some will have more authority than others. Some of you may disagree, thinking it will be more egalitarian, with no hierarchy. But I think there will be places at Jesus’ right and left in his kingdom. Those who suffered and served the best will receive those places of honor. But however those rulerships go, all the redeemed will rule under Christ forever and ever.

If you are a non-Christian, you are on the outside of all this looking in. God has given you something called “today.” You do not know that you will have tomorrow. Yesterday is gone; you cannot do anything about what is past. You have today, right now. I have already given you the basic center piece of the Gospel: God sent Jesus to die on the cross under His wrath for sinners like you and me. All you need to do to have a place in this marvelous New Jerusalem is believe in Jesus, trust in him. Repent of your sins, turn away from sin, and believe in Christ. Say to him, Oh Lord Jesus, I want you to be my Savior. Your blood is sufficient for all of my sins. I trust in you. Come to Christ so you can join with all of the redeemed in celebrating this kind of life.

Second, ask the Holy Spirit to work in you a sense of the glories of Heaven. Take this text home and lift out the treasures yourself and look at them one at a time.

Ask God to give you a foretaste of what it will be like to see His face. Worship Him more. Sing to Him Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Speak Psalms to Him. Thank Him for all that He has done for you. Worship him longer. Make yourself happy in His presence every morning, based on these truths, and seek to purify your life from all those things that you will be ashamed of on Judgement Day. Put sin to death by the Spirit. Get yourself ready through holiness, to enjoy as much of Heaven as you possibly can, even while you are still here on earth.

Realize that all of the beauty, all of the things that you see that you think are beautiful here in this world, come from the throne of God. Give Him thanks for that beauty.

Finally, share the Gospel. This week, screw up your courage by the power of the Holy Spirit and say something to a lost person about Jesus. Say something to a co-worker, a neighbor, a total stranger. Talk to them about the glories of the place to which we are going, and the even greater glories of the redeeming work of God that will get sinners like us there. 

Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the joy that we have in meditating on Heaven. Thank you for the beauty of the place where we are going. I pray, O Lord, that you would strengthen each one of us to delight in that beauty and in that glory now by faith. Some day we will see it with our own eyes. Help us, O Lord, to live in open, obvious hope. Help us, O Lord, to live out Gospel joy. Help us to be bold in sharing the words of the Gospel with those who are presently lost. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.