Sticks: Session 6 | Sissy Mathew | June 18, 2024

All right last week when it's six weeks it feels weird it feels like we should

have three more weeks but we're not going to because next week is VBS and

that's like three weeks in one. So we've come to the last week of this study and

over these last six weeks we have journeyed through scripture looking at

key passages. We began in Genesis in the Garden of Eden and today we culminate in

Revelation in the Garden City. And this evening we're going to take a look at

the Tree of Life. All week you've been looking at the Tree of Life and we're

going to look at God's vision for our ultimate future.

But before we we look at God's vision for our ultimate future we have to stop

and think about our vision for our future. And so that's the question I'm

going to start with. What is your vision for your future? When you think of the

good life what picture comes to your mind? Or let me ask it another way. Where

are you putting your hope? Because for each of us we have a vision for

our future. We have this picture of the good life that we hold on to and

whether we're consciously aware of it or not we are constantly comparing our

present reality with this future vision. And what you put your hope in is

intrinsically tied to where you find your joy. And so when our present reality

doesn't line up with our future vision, anxiety and the desire for control,

begins to creep into our lives and we miss out on joy now maybe for you you're

single and your picture of the good life includes marriage and so you think to

yourself if I just get married if I just meet the one then finally I can be happy

and all the married women are shaking their heads you have no idea but

maybe you're already married and your vision of the good life means a better

marriage maybe it means your husband if you just got his act together or if your

marriage was just more fulfilling then finally you could be happy maybe for you

it's kids if your kids just didn't drain you so much if they just behaved better

if they weren't so rebellious if they just got into the right schools or

married the right people

then finally you could be happy or maybe you're here this evening and

you're struggling with infertility and your vision for the future this future

that you've always dreamed of includes having a baby and so if you could just

have a child you could be happy or maybe you're here it's none of those things

for you it's a successful career or financial security

or or it's a thinner body or a number of other things that we find ourselves

putting our hope in and you think if I could just have this thing then I can be

happy and none of those desires are wrong in fact they're all really good

desires there's nothing wrong with wanting to be married or have children

or a successful career all of those things are good gifts from a generous

and loving God but if we put our hope in other people's

or things other than God we will end up crushing them under the weight of these

unrealistic expectations that they can never meet that they were never meant to

meet and so if we put our hope in in those things if we think if I just if I

if I just have this thing or if this person then I could be happy or I could

finally experience the good life then what happens when we don't get it and

we're disappointed right we begin to grow anxious we begin trying to controll

the circumstances of our lives or even the people

in our lives they just acted this way if they just did what I wanted them to do

and ultimately it ends in misery and frustration

and we miss out on joy

but the Scriptures tell us that our ultimate hope is found in living under the rule

and reign of King Jesus

living in the

of God, both now in the present, but also in the future. And so we have a choice to make.

That's what we've been looking at for six weeks. We have a choice to make. What vision

will you live into? Will you live into your vision of the future? Or will you live into

God's vision of the future? What's your picture of the good life look like? And where are you

putting your hope? Is your hope in other things or people? Or is your hope in Jesus, the tree of

life? And will you choose to live near the tree of life? And so what I want to do in our just our

time together is to look at God's vision for the future. And then secondly, we'll look at how this

future vision impacts our present reality. Okay, so God's vision for the future, and then how this

future vision impacts our present reality. And so what I want to do in our just our time together

future vision impacts our present reality. So God's vision for the future, we're going to be in

Revelation 21 and 22. We're going to jump around a lot. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn

there with me. It'll be on the screen as well. Revelation 21 and 22. Let me set it up for us.

The Apostle John writes the book of Revelation, and he is imprisoned on a rocky island called

Patmos in the middle of the Mediterranean, somewhere near the end of the first century.

And the Romans had used Patmos,

like a concentration camp. This is where John is. And the risen son of God, Jesus, comes to John in

a vision, and he reveals to him what heaven, what our ultimate future will be like. Now, I don't have

time to do a deep dive into Revelation. One day I'd love to do that. But I'm going to try to paint

a picture for you of God's vision for the future, because this is what John is doing in Revelation.

Now, John tells us, here's one of the first things that he tells us. He tells us, here's one of the

first things he tells us. He tells us that heaven is a real physical place. Our ultimate future is

not going to be like Star Trek, where you get beamed up to this other world. It's not like the

beam-me-up Scotty kind of heaven. We don't escape to this other world. Instead, heaven comes down

to earth. And it's a real place. And very likely, it's not how most of us have imagined it, or even

how we've seen it talked about in novels. It's not how most of us have imagined it, or even how we've seen it talked about in novels.

Or in movies. We're not going to be sitting on clouds, playing harps, singing Chris Tomlin songs.

Like, that doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me. For most of us, that sounds kind of boring, right?

And so heaven sounds like, do I really want to go there? If that's how you picture it, you probably

don't. But I'm going to tell you that heaven is anything but boring. And I have nothing against

Chris Tomlin. I don't know all of what God's vision for the future is.

But I do know that it will be, it will not be boring.

So let's take a look. Revelation 21, 1.

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.

Friends, God is going to recreate, redeem, and renew the earth. God will not concede,

the earth to the enemy. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that Jesus has won the victory over

sin, death, and every evil, and he will not concede one inch of this world to the enemy.

The world that he created. Heaven comes down to earth. And John sees that there will no longer be

any sea. Now, here's the thing with Revelation. A lot of this is symbolic and metaphorical. Some

of it is literal. You have to know the difference between the two.

But for purposes here, when John sees that there's no sea, here's what it's alluding to.

In biblical imagery, the sea always represented chaos. And that's kind of how they thought about

it. The sea always represented disorder. And so when John sees this vision, in the new heavens

and the new earth, there is no chaos. There is no disorder. There is only peace. And John continues

his description in chapter 22, verse 1.

So 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 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of

the tree are for the healing of the nations. God's vision for the future is a city. History began in

a garden, but it ends in a city. But this isn't just any ordinary city. It's also a city of life.

It's also a garden, because the river of the water of life flows right through the middle. And it is

pure and refreshing, and it flows from the throne of God. And on each side of the river, there's the

tree of life. And there are trees bearing all kinds of fruit, and they're constant and plentiful.

And the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. If you and I could even

catch a glimpse of the sin and suffering,

that is going on right now in our world, we would not be able to endure it.

But in Jesus Christ, the tree of life, there is healing for the nations. There is universal,

cosmic healing, but there is also personal and individual healing. There's healing for you,

and there's healing for me. Because Jesus did not come to bring more rules. He didn't come to

bring us a set of rules, because rules can't heal us. They just show us how sick we really are.

We needed someone who kept the rules perfectly to do for us what we could not do for ourselves,

because we could not keep the rules. But Jesus did. And he came into the world to heal us of

the worst sickness that the world had ever seen, the sickness of sin. Sin has infected us to the

very core of our being, and Jesus came to heal us fully, completely. It's a city, but it's also a

garden.

It's a garden city. I want you right now to think of the most beautiful place that you've

ever been. Not something that you've seen in pictures, the most beautiful place that you've

ever been to. Okay? You have that picture in your mind? Maybe it's a breathtaking vista.

Maybe it's the endless ocean or a majestic mountaintop. I've gotten to go to a lot of

beautiful places, the cliffs of Moher in Ireland, the Grand Canyon, the backwaters of Kerala, India,

where my parents are from.

And none of that compares to what's coming. Augustine, one of the early church fathers,

said this, if these are the beauties afforded to sinful men,

what does God have in store for those who love him?

Can you even imagine what creation will be like when it could be fully what God has always intended

it to be? Friends, words cannot describe that kind of beauty. John goes on, Revelation 21,

verse 24, 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. Instead of death and decay, there

will only be strength and newness. Instead of pain, there will only be joy. Instead of mourning and

crying, there will only be celebration and laughter. This is what we have to look forward to.

The image of a city is a theme that we see throughout scripture. And it means much more

than a place with a bunch of people or, you know, a lot of people. It's a place where people are

living, they're living, they're living, they're living, they're living. And it's a place where

people are living, they're living, they're living, they're living. And it's a place where people are

a lot of skyscrapers. Genesis 4, Cain builds the very first city. And he builds it to be this

place where he could sort of put some distance between him and God, this place where he could

hide, where he could escape from God. And cities are a lot like that today. I grew up in the New

York, New Jersey area, spent a lot of time in New York City. I worked there, I went to school there.

And in a city like New York, you can feel like you're one in a million. And technically,

you're actually one in 8.3 million.

So you can hide. You can be anonymous. And Cain builds this city as a way of escaping from God.

And many of us do this today, even though we're living in the suburbs. You can live in such a way

where nobody knows you. You can live alone and isolated, apart from community and apart from God.

And at the end of time, God takes this thing that was once used to avoid and hide from God,

and he takes the city and he turns it into heaven.

Revelation 22, 3.

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.

God's vision for the future is a garden city, and instead of the city being this place where you go

to hide from God or escape from God, God will be right in the middle of it.

So much so that there's no need for lamps or a sun, because the glory of God will light that city up.

Because God makes all things new. The throne of God and the Lamb, that's Jesus, are in the city.

And in verse 1 of this chapter, we saw that the river of the water of life,

flows from the throne. Healing flows from the throne of God.

Personal, universal healing. Healing for you, healing for me, healing for the entire world.

Heaven is a real place, but it's also filled with real, embodied people.

Heaven will be the community of God's people, you and I.

It's filled with all the creativity and the ingenuity and the brilliance of humanity,

and it's not ruled by a political party or a persona.

It's ruled by God himself.

Revelation 21-24,

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.

The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.

Scholars have debated who the kings of the earth are that John talks about in verse 24.

Now here's what we know. Jesus is on the throne.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, in Revelation 22-5,

it says that we will reign,

with him forever and ever.

So you and I are going to reign alongside Jesus.

And so I believe the kings of the earth

is a reference to the people of God.

That the kings of the earth are you and I.

In biblical culture, the king embodied the culture of the nation.

So what John is trying to show us

is that you and I will rule and reign alongside King Jesus

in resurrected physical bodies.

Can you think about that for a minute?

You and I will reign alongside King Jesus.

We will have jobs, but there will be no toil.

In our world today, work always involves toil.

But that's not the way God intended it.

Work was not a result of the Fall.

Work is a good thing.

But it became much more difficult because of the Fall.

But not so in heaven.

We carry our cultures into this new reality.

So all that is done,

All that is beautiful about our culture

is brought into God's vision for the future kingdom

and all that is broken and ugly is stripped away.

I am second generation Indian American

and I love being Indian.

If I could pick to be something,

I'm gonna pick to be Indian.

I love so many aspects of my culture.

I love the value of family and community.

I love that we can celebrate anything

and man, we know how to celebrate.

Like everyone thinks they know how to party.

Nobody knows how to party like Indians.

Like have you ever been to an Indian wedding?

We go on for days.

The good food, the best food, the best drink,

that's a party.

It goes on, on and on and on

and listen, I will not be offended

if you tell me you don't like Indian food.

It doesn't really bother me

because on the other side of eternity,

your taste buds will be perfected.

Praise God.

Because I am confident

there will be Indian food in heaven.

That was for free.

There are many beautiful things about the Indian culture.

Many things that I love

and yet there are many dark things.

There are many ugly things.

And what we see in Revelation

is that only the beauty, not the brokenness,

of every culture will be brought into heaven.

The diversity of ethnicities shows the beauty,

the beauty of God's creativity.

There is no superior culture.

There is no inferior culture.

The beauty of all cultures,

every nation, every tribe,

every people and language

will be brought into heaven,

will be part of the new heavens and the new earth.

This is God's vision for the future.

Do you see it?

The life that we live in right now

is not the way God intended it to be.

This isn't normal.

We act like this is normal.

This is not normal.

Sin and suffering is not normal.

Poverty and racism and disease and homelessness

is not normal.

But for those who put their trust in Jesus,

there is a life to come.

God's vision for the future

is a glorious renewal of the entire world,

including your very being,

including your physical body.

The entire world will be remade and renewed.

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

And in the future, God will create the earth and the earth.

And in the end,

he will recreate the new heavens and the new earth.

And you and I will be made new as well.

Friends, that is good news

because there are mornings I get up

and I pull a muscle just getting out of bed.

And that will be no more.

A new universe ruled by a new humanity

saved and perfected by Jesus.

Never to sin, never to suffer again.

And we will live and we will work

and we will thrive.

And we will thrive in a remade world forever.

And listen to me,

God doesn't just want to clean you up a little bit

and make you a little bit nicer

or a little bit more polite.

That's not what he's after.

Through Jesus' work on the cross

and the power of the spirit,

God is making you,

God is making me even more glorious

than we could ever fathom.

That's what God is after.

That's God's vision for your future.

So,

what are the,

what are the implications

of that future vision

on our present reality?

If it's true that God has a glorious future

in store for us,

how does that impact how we live today?

How does that change how we live today?

Our ultimate hope is found

in living under the rule and reign

of King Jesus.

Living in the kingdom of God

today and in the future.

So, three implications.

Here's the first one.

We live as a counter-cultural community.

Paul writes this in Philippians 3.

But our citizenship is in heaven

and we eagerly await a savior from there,

the Lord Jesus Christ.

As followers of Jesus,

we are already citizens of this future kingdom

and yet God's vision for this future kingdom

will not be fully realized until the end of time.

Jesus said,

you are the light of the world.

A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.

He's talking to his disciples

and he's saying you,

and he's not talking to them as individuals.

He's saying,

all of you are a city on a hill

whose outward behavior shines

and brings glory to God.

To be a city set on a hill

means that we are called to be

a counter-cultural community in our community.

That we're called to be

an alternate city in our city.

And we do this by modeling

a different way of doing life.

We have to live and relate to each other

and interact with one another

in counter-cultural ways.

The way we treat our neighbors,

the way we share our resources,

the way we care for the marginalized,

the way we treat the ethnically other,

the socioeconomically other,

the politically other,

all of it has to be different.

And when Jesus commands us

to be a city set on a hill,

he's not talking to us as individuals.

This isn't a command I can obey on my own.

The only way I can obey this command

is in relationship with others.

We have to do this with people

so profoundly,

so profoundly united together

that you become a city set on a hill.

That when the world looks at us

and how we live

and how we interact

and relate to each other,

our outward behavior shines

and brings glory to God.

We live as a counter-cultural community

that is a foretaste,

a glimpse of that future garden city.

We live as a glimpse of the world to come.

We live as a counter-cultural community

Number two,

we find our hope

in being beloved daughters of God.

We do not place our hope

in relationships or in our career

or in our looks or anything else

because we know who we are.

Revelation 21.3

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.

We are his people.

We are the beloved daughters of God

and there will be a day

when we will be with him forever.

But until that day,

we remember who we are.

Henry Nouwen says this,

We are not what we do.

We are not what we have.

We are not what others think of us.

Coming home is claiming the truth.

I'm the beloved child of a loving creator.

We are the beloved children

of a loving creator king

and this is the truest thing

about us.

And so we put our hope

in being the beloved daughters of God.

Here's number three.

What we do today matters.

If we buy into the idea

that heaven is this place

that we escape to,

then we can start to believe

that this world really doesn't matter.

So why should we work?

Why should we care about the environment?

Why should we fight injustice or racism?

Maybe we're better off

just sort of burying our heads in the sand

or just living it up until we die.

And the writers of scripture

would argue against this line of thinking.

They say that this present life

has value, has immense value

because God will one day

redeem all of it.

God will raise all of it up to new life.

So what you do today

matters because God has a great future

not only in store for you

but in store for this world.

Your work matters.

Your life matters.

The things that you care about matter.

N.T. Wright says this.

What you do in the present

by painting, preaching, singing,

sewing, praying, teaching,

building hospitals, digging wells,

campaigning for justice,

writing poems, caring for the needy,

loving your neighbor as yourself

will last into God's future.

These activities are not simply ways

of making the present life

a little less beastly,

a little more bearable

until the day when we leave it

behind altogether.

They are part of what we may call

building for God's kingdom.

Whatever you do today,

whether you're a stay-at-home mom,

a college student, a single woman,

a married woman, a grandmother,

or a mother, whatever you do today,

you are building for the kingdom

and all of it matters.

All of it has significance

and God will use it for his glory.

This is our vision of the future.

I used to be a runner

and about three years ago,

I had a pretty significant ankle injury

that sort of put an end to my running.

And over the last 10 years,

I've tried to pick it up again

and it just always felt hard and painful

and so I just sort of give up.

And about two months ago,

I started running again.

And just so we're clear,

I'm not running marathons.

I'm running like a couple miles

a few times a week, that's all.

But here's the thing.

If I'm really honest,

I don't like running.

In fact, I would tell you

I hate the act of running.

It just feels hard.

My legs begin to ache.

My breathing is labored.

My knees hurt.

All of it.

And the entire time I'm running,

and this happens to me

almost every single day,

the entire time I'm running,

I'm thinking,

why am I doing this?

Why am I running again?

I hate this so much.

And then it's over.

And once I'm done,

I experience what many people

call the runner's high.

And I feel amazing.

Like my endorphins

are full of energy.

They're firing all over the place.

And I think I can take on the world.

But that only happens

after the run.

Definitely not before

and definitely not during.

So here's what I've learned to do.

I've learned to bring the after

into the before.

As I'm going through the discomfort

and the pain of that run,

I remember what I'll feel like after.

And this pushes me to keep going.

I put my hope in this future vision

and it helps me to get through

my present reality.

In fact, it transforms my present reality.

And in many ways,

that's a picture of what we have to do

in our lives.

When life is hard,

when the diagnosis comes,

when the relationship is broken,

when you get the bad news

about the layoff,

when there isn't enough money

in your bank account,

this is what we have to do.

When life is difficult,

in the midst of the pain,

we bring the after

into the before.

We put our hope

in God's vision for the future

and we let that transform

our present reality.

We bring the after into the before.

Our ultimate hope is found

in living under the rule and reign

of King Jesus.

Living in the kingdom of God

in the present and in the future.

And so you have a choice to make.

I have a choice to make.

What vision will you choose to live into?

Will you live into your vision of the future?

Or will you live into God's vision of the future?

Where will you put your hope?

What does your picture of the good life look like?

Is your hope in other things or people?

Or is your hope in Jesus the tree of life?

Will you choose to live near the tree of life?

Because there will be a day

when God will return,

when Jesus will return

and he will redeem,

and he will remake the entire world

including you and I.

Because the life we are living in now

is not at all how God intended it to be.

Sin and suffering

and poverty and abuse.

None of this is normal.

But for those of us

who have put our trust in Jesus,

there is a life to come.

And God's vision for the future

is an absolute renewal

of all of creation

including you and I.

This is what we're looking forward to.

A new universe ruled by a new humanity

saved and perfected by Jesus.

We will live and we will work

and we will thrive in a brand new universe.

Remade, recreated by King Jesus himself.

John says this,

they will see his face

and his name will be on their foreheads.

There is a world coming

that is far better than the one we live in today.

And it's not the streets of gold

or the,

you know,

pearly gates

that will make it worth it.

It is God himself.

He's the treasure.

He's the reward.

In the end,

we get to be with him forever

in a renewed creation

and we will see his face.

I have walked with Jesus

for nearly half my life.

26 years.

And I have failed him more times

than I can count.

I've tried my best to follow him

and yet again and again

I have followed my own selfish desires.

I have experienced his presence

in the most profound way

and I have found ways

in the darkest of days

and I've sensed his delight for me

in the most glorious moments of my life

and yet I have questioned him

and I've doubted him.

I have wept at his kindness

and his goodness to me

more than I could ever deserve

and yet I have been unfaithful

and he has always been faithful.

And through it all,

he has loved me,

he has protected me,

he has guided me,

he has rescued me again

and again and again.

He has never left me,

he has never forsaken me,

he has never turned his back on me

and there will be a day

when I will see his face.

And so will you.

And listen to me,

on that day,

he will not look at you,

he will not look at me

with anger or ambivalence

or with disgust or disappointment.

He will only look at you,

he will only look at me with love.

Well done, good and faithful servant.

You are my beloved.

You are my beloved daughter.

With you I am so well pleased.

Welcome home.

Enter into your master's happiness.

This is my hope.

This is my ultimate future.

There will be a day

when all that is fractured

will be fixed,

when all that is wrong

will be made right,

when all that is broken

will be made beautiful

and I will see his face.

This is our hope.

So today I choose to live

near the tree of life

because this is where salvation

and healing is found.

And so friends,

what will you choose?

What will you choose?

If you have put your hope

in anyone or anything

other than Jesus,

look at Jesus.

He went to that cross,

the tree of death,

so that you could live

near the tree of life.

He took your pain,

your punishment,

your sin,

your shame,

so that you could experience

the hope of this ultimate future.

Daily, sometimes multiple times a day,

you and I are faced with a choice.

And we get,

to decide,

may we choose wisely

to trust God

rather than to take matters

into our own hands.

May we choose to notice God

in the ordinary moments of our lives,

which really aren't all that ordinary.

May we choose to remain faithful to God

because he is always faithful to us.

May we choose to stay connected to Jesus

so that we might live fruitful lives.

And may we choose to be women

who live near the tree of life

and allow God's vision,

for the future,

to absolutely transform

our present reality.

May we be this kind of people.

Let me pray for us.

Father, thank you

that you are a God who is with us.

And we thank you for Jesus,

for his life, death, and resurrection.

We thank you that he has won

the victory over sin and death

and every evil on our behalf.

And we long for the day

when King Jesus will return.

When he will set all things right.

When he will rule and reign

once and for all.

But until that day,

help us to choose wisely.

Help us to put our trust in you

and not to take matters

into our own hands.

Help us to remain faithful to you

in the most difficult times.

Help us to stay connected to Jesus.

And help us to choose

to live near the tree of life.

God, most of all,

may we choose you.

May we choose you again

and again and again

because you have first chosen us.

And so we look to you

and we trust in you.

Make us this kind of people.

And may our hope

in this ultimate future

that you have prepared for us,

may it transform how we live today.

May it be so.

We ask this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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