The Great Reversal
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Normally I only preach through a passage - but today is more topical for Co-Mission Sunday - so we’re going to do more of a big picture overview…
Pray
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Old Louis Armstrong sounds quite convincing doesn’t he.
When we forget the realities of life and just concentrate on the wonder of it - well it is wonderful - for a time.
After all - God did make it wonderful
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.’
A wonderful garden - trees of green.
PLeasing to the eye and good for food,
And there in the middle - do you see it - a magnificent tree - the tree of life.
And next to it - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The tree of life - well that is a tree of eternal fruit - eat from it often and enjoy the refreshing fruit of life - and Adam and Eve - would never know sickness, or frailty, pain or fear.
A wonderful life indeed.
A life and garden full of wonder, and full of Yes’s from God. - As the ‘Hope Explored Course’ puts it.
And just one tree of No.
The tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.
In a garden full of yes’s it would be easy to dispair at Adam and Eve as in the next chapter they decide they want more!
They eat from the forbidden tree - Wonderful is not wonderful enough!
But we would have done the same wouldn’t we.
We buy a nice car - and we then want a better one - or to improve the one we have,
We marry and good person - but we still fantisise about another.
We have a job - but desire a better one. - more money, less work.
Even In a world of yes - we too would choose the no.
Adam and Eve set the scene for us - and face the consequenes
To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat from it,” ‘Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’
And the Lord God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live for ever.’ 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.
The wonderful world - the tree of life - joyous and rewarding work - gone.
Sin has entred the world - death and God’s judgement was it’s consequence.
Louis Armstrong calls the night sacred - but those of us who have lived more than a few years will know darkness is not sacred.
Still born children,
Cancer,
Suffering,
Mental Illness,
Starvation,
Financial troubles.
Accidents,
Lies,
broken relationships.
Sure there are plenlty of glijmpses of the wonderful World - we can even sing about it when times are good.
But the night will come - it is not sacred - it is dark.
Death will come.
We are separated from the river of life that feeds - the tree of life.
We will sweat and toil in this life - just to eat at times.
How sin has destroyed our world - and yet we all choose the no.
We all choose sin.
As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.’
If this is where the story ends - well it’s not looking good is it.
God has given us everything - a wonderful world,
we have rejected him in sin and chosen our own way.
and the consequence is a hard life followed by death only to face God’s right judgement for rejecting Him.
And this is where the story ends for 8million people living in London.
Over 90% of this great cities population facing this alone.
A not so wonderful world - death - and eternal judgement.
Sad isn’t it.
But it doesn’t have to be.
A great reversal of all that went wrong has and will take place.
And God’s people - His church - All Nations here - knows of this great reversal.
The Lord Jesus - God became Man,
entred our broken world,
lived the perfect life we have not,
and died a death on the cross to take the judgement we deserve.
A reversal.
We have been seperated from the river and tree of life but Jesus offers us it again.
John 7:37–39 (NIV 2011)
… Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
For those facing death - it’s quite a statement to offer them a river of life that will flow within them through Jesus!
The Holy Spirit is given to all those who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus - and He is the Spirit of Life!
The great rivers of Eden that support all life are now being seen in those who profess faith in Jesus.
The curse is being reversed - by our Lord.
This is a message London - your neighbour's - your families - we need to hear.
Jesus - the one to give us life - he is their - he is our - only hope.
He gives us eternal life now in our hearts by His Spirit.
We may still live in this less than wonderful world - but we have a deposit - and garuntee of something truly wonderful.
The great reversal of our sin and judgement was won fully on the cross of Jesus’ death,
But - as we’ve thought about - it’s not yet fully here - it’s not a wonderful life - yet
But There is a great day to come - when Jesus will return and bring all who believe in Him into glory.
Into a new Eden. This time not a Garden - but a magnificent and wondrous city.
Many have tried to describe what God’s new creation - for his people will be like - but we can’t do better that the Word of God itself.
Revelation 21:1–5 (NIV 2011)
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, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell 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.’ He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’
Then Moving into imagery to represent the wonder of this new creation this vision in Revelation of the coming home for God’s people continues...
The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendour into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it. 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.
When we commissioned Rick and Esther to come over to this part of London to begin a new church - we had to give them up. And they are not easy to give up.
But we did not dispair - or begrudge loosing them.
For In a not so wonderful world - they were coming to tell others of this new creation - this city to come.
When missionaries leave family and friends to serve overseas - they do it - for in this not so wonderful world - those who have not heard need to hear of Jesus and his new creation to come.
When you are rejected or laughed at for speaking of Jesus - you need not shrink back - for there is nothing more loving to do that tell of Jesus and his new world to come.
It’s why it’s worth being part of Co-Mission - becasue we want to support each other to bring the good news of Jesus to as many in London as we can - and give them a local bible teaching church that will proclaim Jesus and His great reversal.
And so we reach todays reading which captures this big bible overview story… with a picture for us all to hold onto whatever we are facing in this not so wonderful life..
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.
Wonderful doesn’t do this new and eternal life justice.
Paradise would be better.
And there are 4 paradises we can hold onto this week..
1 - There is a river of paradise.
1 - There is a river of paradise.
Never again will we be thirsty - Jesus is there. The river flows from God himself and the Lamb.
As we saw earlier this life giving river is the Holy Spirit in our lives.
The Holy Trinity - flowing life in and aorund us always and forever. - down the middle of the street - you are never far from it.
2 -There is also the tree of paradise
2 -There is also the tree of paradise
- the tree that we were once cut off from - the tree of life is back in amoungst us.
And it doesn’t even matter wich side of the river you are - the tree is on both sides!
Bursting with 12 kids of fruit, 12 times a year. Eternity will be an abundance of variety and satisfaction. Never dull, never boring, never wanting.
And the very leaves of the tree will be a healing balm - never again will pain of fear, sickness of tears entre our lives or world - for the tree of paradise - feeding of the river of life from the Godhead himself - will keep us and sustain us each and every moment.
3 - There is freedom in paradise.
3 - There is freedom in paradise.
The curse given to humanity is gone we are told. We are free from the curse of painful and difficult work and death - and instead will enjoy and love to work and serve our Lord God.
Satisfied daily in our tasks and worship of our king.
No stress or dissatisfaction.
We will love our service and work to the Lord.
And why wouldn’t we..
For
4th there is happiness in paradise.
4th there is happiness in paradise.
We will see His face. our wonderful Lord and God - who in this life we could not gaze upon without fearing death for our sin - but then when all is completed - we will see him face to face.
His name will be on our foreheads - we will belong - we will be home and secure.
We will have no more darkness - just His light. We will know him and love him - we will not fear anthing anymore.
And we will reign forever.
This paradise will not end or weary or slow.
Paradise in Almighty God, Father Son and Holy Spirit.
So,
When we face the unhappiness of life - the less than wonderfulness of life - if we believ in Jesus - we know paradise awaits.
And that frees us from needing comfort and happiness now.
And that is a message London needs to hear.
There is life to come,
There is wonder - there is paradise - and it all flows from and thorough belief in the Lord Jesus.
Let us be part of God’s great reversal - by continuing in faith and telling all of Jesus.
The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Pray