Christ Unleashed – New Creation

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A sermon by Adam Barcott

May 19 2019

Dear heavenly father, thank you for keeping us safe. Thank you for bringing us in today and we thank you that you hear our cries, like we hear the sweet little cry of a baby you hear us and you love us and we settle into that reality and we ask that you would bless us during this time and that we can hear from you and be assured of your great love and forgiveness for us in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Amen. You guys have a seat for a second today we’re talking about, all things new.

And so we’re shifting up, how we do things, at least for today. So if you could open up to page G in your song books. Let’s take a moment and be comforted in the fact that we’re not perfect and open ourselves up to receive forgiveness of Jesus. This is a prayer of confession taken from a ministry called Ransomed Heart, and we put it in our book because it’s really important. Take the next 30 seconds to read through this and privately confess your personal sins to God. The opportunity for Peace is always through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for you. If something comes to your mind, or someone you are holding unforgiveness towards this is the place to deal with it and be freed up to love again.

Father, we plead your blood over all of our sins, the ones we’ve done knowingly and unknowingly. I want to do better. You know our hearts. We don’t want to continue in brokenness and destruction and hurtful things. We want to do better. So forgive us. We are here today because you announced to us in these very places, I’ve given you my son to die for you. And it’s for His sake, God forgives you all your sins. Rest in the forgiveness of your sins.

Jesus can handle your sin and he’s taken all of it’s death in Jesus’ name. Amen. Today’s New Testament reading is from John Chapter 16 Verse 12 through 22 found on page 526

Verse 12 These are the words of Jesus to his disciples. And he’s talking about the Holy Spirit.

John 16:12 – 22I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now, when the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth for He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak and declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the father has is mine. Therefore, I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Yeah,

A little while and you will see me no longer and again a little while and you will see me. So some of his disciples said to one another, what is this that he says to us a little while, you will see me a little while you will not see me because I’m going to the father.

So they were saying, what does he mean by a little while? We do not know what he’s talking about. Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him. So he said to them, is this what you are asking yourselves? What I meant by saying a little while and you will not see me. And again, a little while you will see me. Truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. And that day you will ask nothing of me. But truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask the father in my name, he will give it to you.

We’ll stop there.

That’s Jesus saying, settle into the idea that you’re going to be sad because I’m going to leave, but I’m coming back. So let that get into your mind like the words of Jesus are. I’m telling you, I’m coming back to give you joy again. And that’s what we’re reading next in revelation. After we sing a song, go ahead and have a seat. We’ll read our text from the book of Revelation. We’ve been talking about it for a couple of weeks now.

Just a reminder. So it’s at the end of your Bible. If you want to follow along, it’s on page 603 in the Bibles provided. Revelation chapter 21

okay.

But just a reminder of what revelation means

the word,

means to reveal. The Greek word is apocalypse, right? We’ve been talking about that and I just love bringing it up because the world’s version of the apocalypse is zombies and hiding underground. I have to say it every week because you’re always bombarded with the world’s version of apocalypse, and I’m telling you, it’s super lame and sad and destructive because that’s the end of the story for people without the story of God, and they’re fascinated by it.

But the end of our story, the apocalypse, the revealing of our king is not surprise! Humanity is destructive and we’re all going to kill ourselves with technology. Rather, it is surprise, there is a son of God who came to save you and he truly is the king and he’s going to restore all things for you. So for us, the apocalypse is a wonderful event. We’re looking forward to the reality that your life has meaning and all the good things you did weren’t just used to be turned inward and destroy you and your

people.

So do you want to hear our apocalypse or do you want to keep watching walking dead? It’s your choice. I don’t care. I actually do care. So let’s read revelation and again, revelation, if it’s causing you confusion, just stop. It’s not for confusion, it’s for…. comfort. It’s for comfort. If the book of revelation is not bringing comfort than just stop, it’s not helpful at this point for you. This is going to bring comfort for us today in chapter 21

okay,

verse one says, then this is John writing.

Revelation 21Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

I heard a loud voice from the throng saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as they’re God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away and he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true, and he said to me, it is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end to the thirsty I will give from the spring of water, of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God, and he will be my son.

This is the reading of God’s word. Praise be to God. So revelation just as much God’s word is what we read from Jesus. Jesus saying, I’m going to come back. Now we get a glimpse in the book of revelation to give us comfort. Not Confusion, but it’s only comforting if you know what kind of literature it is. And it’s a vision. So remember in visions. It’s not always chronological or to be understood in a literal sense.

In the way we would say something like,

there’s a bird in the sky. It’s a different kind of literature things are vailed. And it is for our comfort, and he says at the end, those who conquer. So how do we conquer? So this is a vision of the end and you want to be on the right side, right? Blessed are you who conquer.

Conquering means you’re going to hold on, you’re going to persevere and have faith till the very end.

So there’s this classic story. If you’ve ever heard about perseverance, there’s many stories about perseverance, but essentially for the person who’s determined they can do almost anything, right? Do you believe that? Maybe not. Here’s the story. In 1952 there’s a woman named Florence Chadwick. She’s a swimmer and she’s going to be the first woman to swim across the Catalina channel. It’s off the coast of California and it’s 21 miles. She’s going to be the first woman to do this on July 4th, 1952, but it’s foggy, the water’s are freezing. There are sharks swimming around and the tides are messing things up. So they’re saying maybe don’t do it. She says, no, the fog will lift. Let’s go. So she swims for 15 hours and 55 minutes, and then finally she says, your mom who is in a support boat, I’m done. I can’t do it. Have you ever heard this story? So she gets out of the boat and they row in and they realize they’re just a couple minutes from shore. She didn’t make it. She gave up just a couple minutes away, she could have easily made it. So they asked her what happened? She said well, if I had seen the shore, I would’ve kept going. I couldn’t see the coast. I didn’t know how long to go. Florence came back to swim it a year later and completed it in 13 hours because this time she could see the coast in front of her. She knew, right. What Revelation does for us is, it lifts the fog.

If we know where we’re going, we know we can see the coastline. You can keep going. This life is hard. Life isn’t how it’s supposed to be right now. It’s broken. The earth is broken. We’re broken. Sometimes we make broken decisions. Sometimes we just are given brokenness. You know, like on the way here this morning I drove by a horrible accident. No one chose that. That’s a big event that just happened to some people on my way here. That’s the nature of this life.

For those of us who trust Christ though the fog lifts and the idea in revelation is, hold on, don’t let go. Do not let go of Christ. It might be hard and you probably are failing. We all are. But don’t stop. Don’t stop believing.

That’s, that’s essentially the message, right? But if you’re like me, you’re like, well, how do I, I don’t know how persistent I am, Adam. I don’t know if I’m actually that strong. I could give up. I’ve given up on a lot of things. There’s a lot of things I haven’t finished. Well, then this is the good news. The good news today is that not only does the fog lift and we can see, there’s a world coming and a life that we long for and that we’re trying to create our own, but we’re frustrated. It’s actually coming. Christ has promised it himself,

Unless Jesus is lying or crazy or the son of God, you’ve got three options, right? He’s promised this. This is what we believe, and that’s enough to go, okay, I’m going to keep going towards that. But he knows we are weak, right? So he not only lifts the fog, but he jumps in the water and swims for us to keep the metaphor going. He’ll do the work. We basically just root for him and put our money on him. Here’s how I know. See, we have a hard time. We give up on a lot of things or we, we settle. We just settle. But God doesn’t, he’s not gonna give up. Here’s the things today, he’s not going to give up on you. He’s persistent. He’s not gonna give up on the earth.

he’s persistent and he’s not gonna give up on the idea of us on the earth, living with him. He’s not going to give up on our life together. So the first idea is He is not going to give up on you. This is, this is the one that we can understand. This is like where we spend most of our time. We need to hear this the most, Christ has come to save you. He loves you. And what he’s doing is he’s saying, I’m dying for you, cause I know you’re going to die in the waters. You’re going to die. You’re going to struggle, you’re going to beat yourself up. You can never do enough. And he says, I will do enough and I’ll give it to you. And so if we go back to our passage, he says he’s making all things new and I want you to know he’s making all things new. One day he’s going to make it all new, but he’s making them new now too. And that’s what’s happening in our hearts, he’s given us a new heart so that he’s creating a new person from the inside out.

So he’s taking the cynical person who knows their limitations and the person who just settles and says, it’s always going to be this way. And he’s given you faith and he’s like with this faith through his word, the Holy Spirit says this is all true and he’s creating a new heart in you that believes. A heart that then once he believes, believes what? Believes that you are loved, now you have a shot at loving other people. If you’re on your own, you’re going to run out of love. You run out of energy. You can’t do it. You can do it for awhile, but you get tired. But his love is endless, and so he’s creating this in you, he says, I’m saving what I can right now, which is your soul, your spirit.

So the new creation has begun and Christ is with us and we understand that, right? That shouldn’t be too new.

But what’s new for a lot of us is the second one. Did you know that he’s not giving up on the earth. If you’ve been around me, you know that.

But

if you follow the whole story of scripture, there’s only three characters.

It’s helpful to look at the story. When you read the Bible, it gets really fuzzy and it’s like, well, that’s too much information, but then the more you read it, it becomes very simple. I’ve finally broken through and got to the simple part until it gets confusing again, but there’s three characters. We know God, right? God was there. What was next? The earth. Don’t skip the earth. The earth is a character. It’s the second character in the whole story. He creates everything. Then he creates humanity. Think about when he created everything. He said, let there be. He creates out of nothing we can create with created things, he creates out of nothing, so powerful and so in control. He’s the creator. He just creates, and the scripture say’s,

He said the creation was very good.

Do you ever have a moment at work or at home when you do something well and you step back and you say that is good! I put that ceiling fan up and it’s not wobbling. I got one out of three. That one’s good.

and then we’ll get back to those other two. Very good. God steps back and exclaims…I love this! Don’t overlook that because that’s a major character in the story. We all overlook it because we’ve just… well let me just say the name Plato.

look him up. He’s a philosopher and he started breaking up spirit and flesh and started saying spirit is better than flesh. Flesh is dirty and gross and there’s death and sickness, so we want to get to the spirit. That is not from the Bible. That is not from Jesus Christ. That’s not from God.

It’s from the pit of hell, honestly, because it’s messed our minds up. We think this flesh is bad.

And then we think the invisible spirit is good, but none of us want to go to some clouded spiritual real…when pressed on the idea most of us admit we want to stay on the earth, stay here.

Begin to connect it and you realize God made the earth. He said, this is so good. I love it. Then he makes humans. He says, I want you to be fruitful and multiply. I want you to enjoy it with me. I’ll walk with you in the garden and we will be spirit and flesh together and be creative and beautiful and all the things we long for. That’s what he starts with in the first two chapters of the book. Then if you follow the earth character,

we always follow God and man, but look for the earth, re-read it and watch the earth. It just keeps appearing, it never leaves. This is why he creates a people, but then he says, I have a promise land for you.

I have a place where I want to meet with you. That’s why there’s a temple. He says, I want to meet with you in this land, but the land is so full of violence. See we look at it from our perspective, which is, I don’t understand the Bible. God’s people are killing people in these lands, but what about those foriegn people?

and when you read the Bible, God says they are polluting the lands with violence and wickedness. They’re killing and destroying. They’ve so corrupted human nature that God in his graciousness is telling us that the land is polluted.

It’s like if there’s a bunch of oil in a little lake, God’s like, I’m going to get rid of the oil and the dead animals. We wouldn’t say, that’s not nice. We’d say, Oh yeah. That’s what you have to do. From God’s perspective, the land is so polluted with violence. People don’t even look like humans anymore. God’s like, I’m cleaning you out and giving you my people, a people who are going to care for the land, because I love my earth.

His environmental movement is not connected to politics. He actually loves the earth because he cares for her, he lovingly created it.

and you think about the most beautiful place you’ve ever been.

Think about it.

I was remembering all the beautiful places I have been.

There’s something really powerful about creation, right? I’m not the only one that has moments where I recognize… wow, the sky is beautiful or the ocean. You go to the ocean when the sun’s setting and I don’t have to reapply sunblock,

I think,

and you’re just like, this is so perfect. Or you been to the mountains or when we were out in the Southwest deserts, you see these massive rocks and it makes you go, ah, there’s something big going on. There is something powerful and eternal about this natural thing, and that’s because God created it and he loves it. Just like He is starting a new thing in you, he still rules creation now. Even in it’s brokeness, he still holds it together. Every day, the sunrises, every day we have these little birds and I’m very encouraged by the birds. We have a little feeder now I’m encouraged because I’m like, God takes care of these little creatures, so I have a shot of making it another day. It’s good to think that way. God cares about his creation. He says, I created this. I love it, and I need you all to realize we love it too. In fact, it’s our inheritance. You know the famous verse? God so loved the world. Do you know what the actual word for world is? Cosmos. We think God so loved the people of the world that he sent his only son. No. The verse reads, God so loved the world that he sent his only son. Then whoever believes in him shall have everlasting life. Jesus came for the physical world because it’s his, and just like if you came in and messed with my one good ceiling fan, I wouldn’t protect it and say, don’t steal that one. Steal these two…

and you start to get God’s perspective. He’s not giving up on the world. He loves it. He put his heart and mind into it. He says, I love it. I want to live here with you. And he’s not giving up on people even though they’ve become twisted, corrupt, violent, demonic versions of themselves. He’s motivated by his love and he’s persistent and he’s like, I’m coming after you. I’m not giving up. Then we see in our passage, he says, I want to dwell with you. So why do you come after us? Because I love you. You’re my kids. We are his prized creation. So he loves creation, but we’re creations too. We are a part of his creation where he chose to put his Spirit in us. He made us to work the creation with him. And he loves us, loves us to the point where he’s like, I will do it all for you. I will persevere. I will be mocked, humiliated. I’ll walk through failure. I’ll walk through poverty. I’ll walk through death for you so that you can experience love and acceptance and riches and a inheritance, even though you’ve lost the inheritance.

And we lose the inheritance by saying, I don’t want what you have God. He says, I want you, but I’m not going to force you to do anything. I’m not making you slaves. So by the end of it, you see God saying, I’m not gonna make you slaves, but I’m sending you my son. And for those of us who’ve said, yes, I believe this. There’s comfort for you today. He’s not giving up on you, even though you may have given up on him.

(24:21 lost audio) When we die, we will go to heaven, but that is just the bus stop for God’s people as they wait for the re connecting of flesh and spirit. We are longing for the new heavens and the new earth. We go to heaven and in heaven, they’re all longing. I have so many verses for you. I have to choose which one. But in Romans 8 it talks about the earth is longing for the adoption of sons and and in other parts of revelation, the saints are going, come Lord Jesus. You know why? They’re in heaven. Their spirits are right with God and like they are feeling great, but you know what? They’re missing their bodies and you’re missing good food. You’re missing your body’s because that’s what we were created for. So they’re longing for Jesus to do what? To resurrect the saints. Cleanse the earth. He doesn’t destroy it. He cleanses it once with water and then again with fire. It’s a refining process, not a destructive process. He’s refining and cleaning his beautiful creation, his piece of art and he’s like, I love it, and he’s refining and putting us back together with our bodies.

And then he’s like, now we’re going to live together the way we all want to, the way we know it ought to be. We all know what ought to be. There should be peace and there shouldn’t be violence and this shouldn’t be hard. This should be right. We know that because God put that in us and he’s persistent and the book ends of the Scripture are, living with you in the new creation. I’m walking with you. You’re doing jobs and doing things that are fun. It’s not a pain to work with the earth. It’s fun to raise kids! Two chapters at the beginning of the Bible. Then it breaks down and now we’re still waiting. But the last two chapters, 21 22, it’s the same thing. God on the earth with his people, with you, and He wants you to know he’s engaged to you. There’s this scene in our passage where it’s a bride, the city, the people, the church. We are the bride of Christ and we are adorned. We are beautiful. He’s cleansing us now with the washing of water and the word. He’s baptizing as he’s gathering us around his word. He’s cleansing you and preparing you for a wedding day just like we do in real life, I used to see it like on old shows where the husband carries wife across the threshold, of their new house. Does anyone remember that or is that like so old? Well, the whole idea is this from Revelation.

Christ is preparing, He’s adorning the bride and there’s a day we’re Christ is going to pick us up as his people and say… welcome home we’re starting our new life together without sin, without death, without corruption forever. It’s going to be awesome. Do you believe that? At a minimum you should want to believe this, it’s either that or the walking dead and there’s only a couple of people that make it far in the walking dead.

Of course we want life with God in His world and I’m telling you have it.

This is why we confess that Jesus Christ is our savior and all you do is say, God help me. I want it and he say’s I know. so start being engaged with them. It’s fun. Pick your head up, get forgiven for your sin and think about this day, I’m trying to restore that for you because

That’s how you keep going…we are moving towards something amazing. We’re all going to be together and the people we’ve lost, loved ones. We’re going to see them again.

He’s restoring all things. He’s making all things new.

and I’m only going to get to know you guys this much here, but it’ll be fun to know you in the new creation. That’s what we call it. We call our inheritance the new creation.

not heaven,

in the new creation we’ll get to know each other forever and ever. That’ll be kind of fun. I’ll know the true you,

not the

insecure version of you or the insecure version of me. Let me pray. Father, thank you. Thank you that you will call us your sons and your daughters and that you’re preparing this place. It’s hard to imagine and get excited about it because we’re so consumed with between now and the day we die.

But right now you give us your son and assure us of our forgiveness of sins and thank you for that. And the more we fall in love with you now, the more excited we’ll get about our actual wedding day with you.

I pray that you’d put this idea of eternity in our hearts and our minds. Holy Spirit, use it to encourage us and to get us to imagine and to be more free and more loving and more courageous because we know this is just a test run we’ve got nothing to lose. Thank you Lord.

we asked that the peace that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

So let’s pray the prayer. Jesus taught his disciples saying, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Receive God’s blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace now and forever. Amen. Have a great week.