Sermon Tone Analysis

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

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Among the many comforting words spoken by the Master for the encouragement of His people, the words of this text must assuredly rank among the most precious.

Many Christians consider them seminal assurance.

The comfort derived from these words may prove false, however.

What I mean is that whereas we focus on the need to be comforted through the immediate words of Him in whom we have believed, the context dictates something different, though equally important.

There is great comfort in our Lord’s glorious promise that His people have not been forgotten.

“‘If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

And you know the way to where I am going.’

Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me’” [JOHN 14:3-6].

The promise is iterated in another form when the Lord promised that He would not leave us as orphans [JOHN 14:18].

One other, especially comforting, promise has been recorded in JOHN 10:27-30.

That promise, beloved as it is and familiar to the people of God, testifies, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

I and the Father are one.”

Surely, you will agree with me that these are comforting words.

They give believers confidence in the world and courage to stand when every foundation seems to turn to dust.

Recognise that each of these statements expressing Christ’s concern for His people is an eschatological statement.

His promise that we cannot be snatched from the Father’s hand is a statement of the eternal power of the Father, even throughout eternity.

His promise that we will not be left as orphans is an eschatological statement that during His physical absence His Spirit is with us.

His promise that He is “the way, the truth and the life” is an eschatological statement based upon the promise that He is coming again.

Just so, the promise of the certainty of His words is an eschatological statement.

THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE WILL NOT ENDURE — “Heaven and earth will pass away.”

Even were true the material universe to continue indefinitely, it is certain that none of us will endure in this present condition.

However, the Second Law of Thermodynamics dictates that this present material universe, of necessity, must end.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics is a universal law with application to every facet of the material world.

Though the Law does not predict when the end of all things will occur, it does point to the certainty of the end of all things.

Every indicator received through the five senses warns of the impermanence of this material universe; and our own inexorable march toward eternity testifies to the dissolution of all that we know and now observe.

Peter testified to that truth when he wrote, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” [2 PETER 3:10].

Speaking through Isaiah, God makes a similar affirmation.

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens,

and look at the earth beneath;

for the heavens vanish like smoke,

the earth will wear out like a garment,

and they who dwell in it will die in like manner.”

[ISAIAH 51:6]

The Psalmist, in the 102nd PSALM, addresses God, saying:

“Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,

and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you will remain;

they will all wear out like a garment.

You will change them like a robe,

and they will pass away.”

[PSALM 102:25, 26]

Likewise, God asserts that the heavens will be destroyed.

“All the host of heaven shall rot away,

and the skies roll up like a scroll.

All their host shall fall,

as leaves fall from the vine,

like leaves falling from the fig tree.”

[ISAIAH 34:4]

The Word of God identifies created things—the universe and all that is in it—as the “things that are shaken” [see HEBREWS 12:27], and by implication, “the things that cannot be shaken” are those things that are eternal—God and Heaven itself.

This imagery helps to sift through what is valued by man and what should be valued.

Anything you can handle, taste, see or smell, everything that creates a sound, is doomed for dust.

Only that which is of the Spirit is eternal.

Of course, the things that are created, that which can be shaken, may be used for God’s purpose—for His glory—but we must be cautious not to become too attached to the things of this dying earth.

Christians must learn this valuable lesson to distinguish between permanent and transient.

We are given a fascinating revelation that teaches us that [Christ] “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

The passage concludes by testifying, “In [Christ] all things hold together” [COLOSSIANS 1:17].

Not only has Christ created all things [see HEBREWS 1:2; JOHN 1:3], but all things have been made for Him [see ROMANS 11:36].

Between the beginning and the end, all that now exists is held together by Him.

Gravity and the stabilising forces that hold together molecular and atomic particles are but the power of Christ.

When He ceases to give His consent for all things to “hold together,” then all created things will end.

When Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away,” He makes an eschatological statement.

Nor is this the only time the Lord employed this eschatological imagery.

During the message we know as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus referred to the Law.

“Truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” [MATTHEW 5:18].

Jesus’ assertion that “heaven and earth will pass away” is focused on an event that is yet future.

Unfortunately, modern Christendom seems uninformed and uninterested in future events.

We have become so caught up in the now and we have lost sight of the not yet.

It was not always this way among the churches, however.

At the time I came to faith, evangelical Christians lived in anticipation of the imminent return of the Saviour.

Perhaps I am showing my age, but in the year I came to faith, one of the bestselling books was “The Late Great Planet Earth.”

The Jesus movement was in full swing.

One of popular songs in the budding CCM movement was sung by a young hippie named Larry Norman.

The lyrics of that song included these words these:

Two men walking up a hill,

One disappears

And one’s left standing still.

I wish we’d all been ready.

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Christian literature of the late sixties and the early seventies focused on the proximity of Christ’s return, and urged evangelism growing out of concern for the lost.

Contrast that era to this present day when the emphasis of literature and music is upon self-esteem.

Much of the literature promotes the concept of “self-esteem,” and even much of the music dedicated to worship is focused on how the “worshipper” feels.

Somehow, what is felt is considered to be of greater value than is exaltation of the Lord; it is an extension of the emphasis on self-esteem.

As an aside of great significance: when one meets the Living God, that one will not feel “good” about himself or herself, but that one will hold the True and Living God in awe.

What else can the words Isaiah wrote mean?

“Thus says the One who is high and lifted up,

who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

‘I dwell in the high and holy place,

and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,

to revive the spirit of the lowly,

and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

[ISAIAH 57:15]

This is also the intent of ISAIAH 66:2:

“This is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit

and trembles at my word.”