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Revelation 21:1-6, 21:22-22:5
21:1 Then 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. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place1 of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,2 and God himself will be with them as their God.3 4 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.”
5 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.” 6 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 the water of life without payment.
[1] 21:3
[2] 21:3
[3] 21:3
(ESV)
22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
22:1 Then the angel1 showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life2 with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
[1] 22:1
[2] 22:2
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to open to Revelation 21. Revelation 21. I feel it's only appropriate that we finish our series on Revelation since the end of the world is coming tomorrow at 1:30 as we read about the sun being blocked from the sky. Actually, this morning's service, after I said that, we then lost all power. It was, it was quite dramatic.
Jeffrey Heine:Revelation 21. We'll begin reading in verse 1. Then 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. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
Jeffrey Heine:He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their 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. Go to verse 22.
Jeffrey Heine:And I saw no temple in the city for its temple is the lord god the almighty and the lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light and its lamp is the lamb. By his light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. And its gates will never shut, be shut by day, and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.
Jeffrey Heine:But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who were written in the Lamb's book of life. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal flowing from the throne of God and of the lamb through the middle of the street of the city. Also, on either side of the river, the tree of life, with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Jeffrey Heine:They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no light or lamp or sun, for this Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. If you would pray with me.
Jeffrey Heine:Our Father, that is our hope, and it's a certain hope that You will come and You will dwell with Your people, and even now begin stirring our affections towards that day. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. One morning while Francis of Assisi was gardening, someone came and asked him what he would do if he knew Christ was returning the next day.
Jeffrey Heine:And he thought about it, and he said, well, I I guess I would hoe another row. Similarly, Martin Luther, about 400 years later, was asked the same question, what he would do if he knew Christ was returning the next day, and he said he would plant a tree. He would plant a tree. Now let me ask you, do those answers make any sense to you? What what do you make of them?
Jeffrey Heine:How do these answers mesh with your understanding of heaven, or do they mesh with it? Can you think of a single reason, a single reason why you would want to continue gardening or or better yet, plant a tree if you knew Christ was coming back tomorrow. There's a lot to their answers. Why why would they answer the question this way? Now, if if our if our belief and our ultimate hope in the future is that someday we will escape this world that we believe is doomed for destruction and our spirits will fly off to live in heaven someplace and will exist in some disembodied state forever, then I cannot think of a single reason to plant a tree.
Jeffrey Heine:Why in the world would you plant a tree in a world destined for destruction? And and why would you hoe another row in gardening apart from the resurrection, apart from having a body that can actually partake in its fruits and enjoy it. So apart from a resurrected heaven or a resurrected earth and a resurrected body, these answers make no sense. Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther understood something that I think has been largely forgotten by modern Christians, and that's something that they believed in actually made them care about this world, care what happens in this world, care about the work that they do into this world, and that this world was not something that they were just ready to to discard, and their bodies were not just something that they were ready to shed. They understood that our bodies and this world were destined not for annihilation, but for resurrection.
Jeffrey Heine:And it made all the difference to them. The resurrection of our bodies and the resurrection of the earth is the very center of what we hope what we hope in as Christians. And if this sounds really strange to you, you know, as we were talking about the resurrection last week, and now we're talking about this resurrected earth this week, if this sounds really strange to you, it's because you could go throughout all the cultures and history, go through the different religions, go through the different philosophies, and you will not find any hope like that. A hope centered on us being physically resurrected. Such a hopeful view of this world that it will be resurrected and renewed.
Jeffrey Heine:You'll find a lot about maybe the end of the world, annihilation, or maybe history just repeating itself, but there is no hope like the Christian hope. And what I want us to do is just kinda dig a little bit deeper into that hope this morning. We can't address every issue. I'm certainly not gonna answer every question, but we can dig a little bit deeper. I wanna start by quoting one of my favorite authors, Mark Twain.
Jeffrey Heine:And, he, in the book Huck Finn, there's actually a number of different allusions to heaven in it and one of my favorite lines in there comes between a conversation between Huck Finn and a woman named Miss Watson. And miss Watson's talking to Huck Finn about heaven and and we get to hear his thoughts. And he says this, now miss Watson had got a start and she went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long with a harp and sing forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it.
Jeffrey Heine:But I never said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said, not by considerable sight. And I was glad about that because I wanted Tom and me to be together. Now I I would imagine that, there's actually a considerable number of people here, considerable number of Christians who secretly agree with Huck. You you can't say it publicly, but but deep down you actually agree with Huck.
Jeffrey Heine:It's hard to get excited about a heaven when all you could picture is clouds and harps and singing hymns forever and ever and ever. Now we know where we got this notion of harps having to be in heaven. Harps certainly are not in Revelation. They're not even in the New Testament. There's nowhere do you see Saint Peter handing out harps in the pearly gates.
Jeffrey Heine:I don't know where we get this, but I don't think, unless you really love harps, that there's gonna be harps in heaven. And I think deep down, we we all suspect that's really not what Heaven is like. We know that. But the honest truth is we don't know what heaven really is like. We haven't thought about it much.
Jeffrey Heine:And I found that Christians, we think a whole lot about the cross. We think a whole lot about the resurrection. We we think a whole lot about what it means to be saved. But, when it really comes to fleshing out what it means to be saved, we're not that sure. Like, we know where we're being saved from.
Jeffrey Heine:We're being saved from our sins. We're being saved from this destructive life. We're being saved from these things, but we don't have the faintest idea of what we're being saved to. Where are we actually going? What's the hope that's before us?
Jeffrey Heine:And so it's likely that many of us in here probably haven't actually taken the time to think about what the word salvation actually means. And probably the vague notion that we do have it is that it's our spirits being saved. Our spirits are being saved and they're gonna leave our bodies and they're gonna leave this world behind that is doomed for destruction and we're gonna go off to to wherever heaven is and live forever. And that's our kind of, you know, what I would call a really fuzzy hope. That's a fuzzy one.
Jeffrey Heine:We think the earth is gonna be burned up and everything in it, but thankfully for those who've trusted in Jesus, our souls will fly away and escape this place. Now, if that is your view of heaven, it's understandable why you're having such a hard time getting excited about it. And I I don't blame you. But thankfully, this is not what the Bible offers you. And I hope this morning, I hope what we could do is I get to broaden and maybe deepen your understanding of the hope that awaits us in a new heaven and a new earth, because the death and resurrection of Jesus give us something so much more substantial and so much more glorious than what we have come to define as our own personal Salvation is a much bigger word than we give it credit for.
Jeffrey Heine:A matter of fact, when we we personalize our salvation so much and we make it just about us, and so even verses like John 3 16, you know, that's that's where you go to. That's the go to verse about salvation, what it means to be saved. And we personalize it and we make it all about us, but how does it begin? For God so loved the world. God loved the world.
Jeffrey Heine:He loves the world and everything in it that he gave his only son. He didn't just love your soul, he loved the world and everything that he had created and and declared good in Genesis. And he set forth a plan to save it. That's our hope. Alright.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's dig into Revelation. What we see in Revelation 21, well let's just read the first two verses there again. Says, then 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. What we see right at the start here is when John gets this vision of the future, he doesn't see us leaving this world and going to heaven, he sees heaven coming down to this world.
Jeffrey Heine:Heaven comes to us. And we get this picture of the the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down from heaven and it brings with it all of the healing power of heaven. Every tear is wiped away. Death becomes no more. One of the the reasons I love apocalyptic literature, which is what this is, is because it uses so many different images to communicate its truth.
Jeffrey Heine:And often it it combines them into really strange metaphors or strange images. So here we see a city wearing a wedding dress. Later, we're going to see a lamb that shines like a light. Alright? But but here's this city wearing a wedding dress.
Jeffrey Heine:It's prepared as a bride. And what that means is heaven was made for earth. They were made to go together. Heaven and earth someday were going to complement each other. They're going to be joined together.
Jeffrey Heine:We have this beautiful picture not of heaven and earth forever being separated, but of heaven and earth forever being united. And so what we're seeing here, I believe is the fulfillment of Jesus' prayer. When he says, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom come, and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Jeffrey Heine:So our hope is that heaven comes to us. Now you might have been a little confused here because John, he uses language saying that there's a describes a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the first Heaven and the first Earth had passed away. And so when we read those words, new heaven and new earth, and first heaven and earth being passed away, it certainly sounds like the world that we know and the heaven that we know are going to be destroyed. That they're going to be annihilated, and then they will be replaced by something entirely new. And I will grant you this, if this was the only scripture we had about this, I could see that interpretation.
Jeffrey Heine:I could see where you could get there. But fortunately, we have so many passages in scripture that teach otherwise, that shed light on what is meant here. So as you go through the bible, overwhelmingly you're gonna you're gonna find this language of restoration, renewal, resurrection, recovery, regeneration, redemption. Over and over, you hear all those re words. Once again, restoration, renewal, resurrection, regeneration, recovery, redemption.
Jeffrey Heine:Those are the words that are used to describe the heavens and the earth passing away. When Peter preached his first sermon in acts chapter 3, the first sermon after Pentecost, what he said was, Jesus right now is waiting in heaven. He's waiting in heaven to come and restore everything. He's coming to restore everything. Perhaps a way to think of this is, when the flood came in Genesis, we talk about the flood destroying the earth, but the earth was still there.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, the waters receded and the earth is still there. New life still popped up. What what happened was when the judgment came and the waters came, it it washed away the wickedness. It washed away the evil, and then the new life came. Perhaps an even better way to understand this idea of, passing away and something new replacing it, comes from Paul because he actually uses the phrase new creation and passing away and new life.
Jeffrey Heine:He uses this to describe what happens to us as believers. And so in 2nd Corinthians 5, we read this. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, and the new has come. It's almost identical to what we see in Revelation.
Jeffrey Heine:We're a new creation. The old has passed away, the new has come. So when we become a Christian, we are a new person, but we're also not a new person. It's not like you have to reintroduce yourself to all the people you know that are gonna look at you and say, I know who you are. You are still you, but at the same time, you're an entirely different person.
Jeffrey Heine:And what's happened is God has washed away your sin, and then he has sent his Spirit to come and to dwell with you and to live inside of you. That's exactly what we see being described here in Revelation. God's judgment comes, and it wipes away the sin. It wipes away the evil. It wipes away the oppression.
Jeffrey Heine:It wipes away all of those things. And then we have the presence of God coming to dwell with his people. And the only way to describe that is the passing of the old, and now this is a new life. Completely new. The heavens, the earth will pass away in that sense, but they will not be utterly destroyed.
Jeffrey Heine:Another common term that's used to describe this is the word exposed. The world will be exposed. Peter uses this term in 2nd Peter. Paul uses this term in 1 Corinthians. He says on the final day, God's fire will come and it will expose the world, not destroy it, but expose it.
Jeffrey Heine:All the evil will be burned up, but what is right, what is beautiful, the works that were done in faith, those things remain, and you get a new or a better or a superior earth. Now this has enormous implications for us. If you don't believe this, it has enormous implications in how you treat the earth. And if you believe this, this has enormous implications for how you will take care of this world. If you believe that only the unrighteous works of this world are going to be burned, that only those things are gonna be washed away, then I can think of every reason in the world for you to plant a tree in faith.
Jeffrey Heine:Knowing that the things that are right and good and beautiful remain. But if you believe everything's going to be burned, I cannot think of one reason you'd want to plant a tree. I love Paul, and we we looked at this last week all about the resurrection. I don't even know if you noticed this, but his entire thing on the resurrection, the entire thing about Christian hope, he never even mentions heaven. His his hope is firmly that one day he will be resurrected, But he concludes it all.
Jeffrey Heine:This is his takeaway from it all, that one day we will really rise and we are gonna walk on a new earth with new bodies. He says, Therefore, your labor's not in vain. Therefore, what you do in this life matters. It matters. Now the best place to see this is in Romans chapter 8, if you want to turn there.
Jeffrey Heine:Romans chapter 8. Romans 8 is, I would say, not just the pinnacle of Romans. I think Romans 8 is the pinnacle of the Bible. Not saying it's more important than the other parts. Pinnacle meaning that, this is where Paul pulls together all the different threads that we see all throughout scripture, and he says, this is the end to which it's all moving and working.
Jeffrey Heine:It is it is the most glorious chapter. And so we'll begin reading verse 18. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Jeffrey Heine:For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who had the first fruits of the spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. It's a great picture of salvation. Paul describes the current state of this world as one of groaning.
Jeffrey Heine:It's groaning under the weight of a curse. When man first sinned in the garden, death entered man's body. But then the world was cursed because of that, which is I mean to us, it's just kinda curious. Okay. So why did when Adam sinned, God then cursed the world?
Jeffrey Heine:And the reason is this, that God has forever united the world and man. We're forever united together. We're even made from the dust of this earth. And when man was created, man was given dominion over the all all the earth. It was to rule over the earth.
Jeffrey Heine:It was to bring out the fruitfulness of the entire world. So of course, when man falls, he can't do that and all the earth falls with him. Which is why it says that even creation, they're waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. They're waiting for us to be renewed. They're waiting for us.
Jeffrey Heine:Creation is waiting for us to be resurrected, because it knows it will be resurrected with us. But right now, it's groaning because it is under the bondage of sin. But hear me. This is not the groaning of a wounded man's last breath. This isn't the the death rattle right before it all completely ends.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the groan of a woman in labor. Now I personally have never given birth to a child. It's not an option for me. Who knows where we're going? But, but it's it's it's it's not an option for me, but, I suspect it's painful.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm pretty good at like kinda reading facial expressions and judging from Lauren's facial expressions, it was painful. And And so it makes me glad that, you know, when we delegated our duties, I mow the lawn. She has the kids. And it was just kind of a fair exchange there. But from what I understand, childbirth is painful.
Jeffrey Heine:But can I tell you I have never ever met a mother who has said she regretted the pain? Always when there is that first cry, the pain is no more. In light of the new life that's there. Yes, there's groaning in the labor, but it is forgotten when there is the new life. What we read here is the earth is groaning not in anticipation of a being annihilated, but in anticipation of being liberated.
Jeffrey Heine:Someday it will be set free. I mean, you you you've got to acknowledge that if creation was destroyed, then evil won. What was the purpose in it all? You would have to say that evil won, that if the earth were to end and we live forever in some distant heaven, then earth will forever be remembered as just a graveyard of sin and failure. Staying as a monument for the rest of the world as just the graveyard for sin and failure.
Jeffrey Heine:It would be a lot like the Titanic in which the mission of the Titanic was to go here, but it sought, but thank goodness a few souls were saved, but nobody's gonna look back at the Titanic and call it a success. As beautiful as it was, as glorious as it was, it went down, and it is a failure despite the salvation of a few souls. But that is not the earth. God has not given up on the creation he originally called good. He's got other plans than annihilating it.
Jeffrey Heine:He has plans for liberating it. And so creation is groaning, waiting to be resurrected and liberated just as we are groaning, waiting to be resurrected and liberated. That's why Martin Luther could say, if Christ was coming back tomorrow, I'd plant a tree. Luther knew this world would not be destroyed. It'd be liberated.
Jeffrey Heine:True, all the evil, all the hurt, all the oppression and bondage will be burned away, but all that is beautiful and right and good, and done in faith remains, and is transformed and liberated into something we would have a hard time imagining. Hear me, we have never seen the world as it was designed to be, but we will. We will. The picture that we have here in Revelation of this day, it shows us that heaven comes to this world, heals it. And new life begins with no longer the restraints of sin or death.
Jeffrey Heine:This this process or what we see here in this vision is that it's a city. This new Jerusalem is coming to earth. Here, we really get to see God's plan unfolding. No longer is it just Adam and Eve alone in a garden, But now, we have an entire community, an entire community that lives in paradise. You're living in a city.
Jeffrey Heine:And this city, it it looks very much like a city. There are buildings. There are streets. There's gates, there's a throne room there. It's also a garden.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a city garden. We see a river flowing from the throne room there. It goes down Main Street and it goes through the city, And then we see this, the tree of life again, this tree, but it's not just one tree because it's on both sides of the river. So it's saying there's a type of tree, it's called the tree of life, and it seems to be everywhere, at least on both sides of the river. And people can freely come and to take from the fruit of this tree.
Jeffrey Heine:This isn't just described here. This event is described in Isaiah 65. It's described in Ezekiel 47, with the river flowing from the throne room, and the nations coming to eat of the fruit of this tree and being healed. This is a theme that we find throughout scripture. We see the tree here.
Jeffrey Heine:It produces fruit and leaves that are for the healing of the nations. Now that might cause some of you to pause right there and and you're thinking nations. What's this idea of like, are you saying like heaven? There's gonna be different nations? And the answer is yes.
Jeffrey Heine:Yes. The new Jerusalem that's being described here, it's it's one of the cities that seems to be the capital city of the kingdom of God, but the city has gates. People can come and go from the city as they please. We actually get a picture of other kings. Kings, that would mean they're they're over other cities or over other nations.
Jeffrey Heine:They are coming into the gates. And once again, we see pictures of this throughout the prophets. Isaiah 60 is one of the best pictures we have that talks about the procession of all the kings coming into the gates. It talks about the ships coming across the ocean and bringing their tributes into Jerusalem. And so what we see is, yes.
Jeffrey Heine:There's different nations. There's different ethnicities. What's being described here is real life. Something we we actually are somewhat familiar with. And I think it's important for us to realize this because a lot of times when we think about heaven, it's it's kind of this ethereal existence.
Jeffrey Heine:It's not real, but this is real. It sets hands and feet to it. We see different ethnicities, we see different cultures, these are real cities. And the activities that will take place in our cities are going to be taking place in this city. That's what you do in a city.
Jeffrey Heine:There's going to be carpenters. There's going to be people in government. There's going to be people who do research, scientists, musicians, actors, all the life that happens in a city. We're still gonna have need for all of these things in the kingdom of God. Except for me.
Jeffrey Heine:I'm out of a job. Alright? You guys, you know, unless you're in healthcare, you've you've got you've got a job. You've got something to do there. I'm out of a job.
Jeffrey Heine:Those who are in health care or those who are soldiers are out. Because scripture says that they're gonna be beating they'll be beating their swords into plowshares. Soldiers are gonna have to learn how to garden. It says they're gonna take their spears and they're going to use them as shears. They're going to beat them into shears.
Jeffrey Heine:I love that image. Actually, one of my favorite images of heaven, because it just shows how, in a sense, ordinary it is, yet into plowshares, and you're gonna be beating your spears, and you're gonna somehow turn them into pruning hooks. And then he says, and above it all, he gets to the climax of what the new kingdom is gonna look like, he says, and you're gonna sit under the shade of your own tree without any fear or anxiety. You're like, that's that's it? It's like, here's my grand view of heaven, You get to sit in the shade of a tree, and you don't have to worry about anything.
Jeffrey Heine:That just seems so ordinary, doesn't it? But can I just say like, you know, when you when you turn on the world wide webs in the morning, you know, and you get you get inundated with with all the racism, with all the violence, with all the crud that's going on all around the world, and then your own fears and anxieties and depressions come crashing in, you know it, being able to sit underneath the under the shade of a tree and just enjoy a really good day Sounds amazing? I mean, so much we just long for, can I just have one day where I don't have to worry about anything? Can I just have one really good day? Micah says that day's coming, and it will never end.
Jeffrey Heine:We, we get it. The best times we have in this life hint at it, but it's a real life and it's an exciting one. So it's a new life and a real world, and this is the world that awaits us. And of course, the the best part of all of this, really the central point of all of this, is Jesus himself is with us. It's not in heaven if Jesus isn't there.
Jeffrey Heine:Really, that's the only thing that matters. But Jesus will come, and he's gonna live on Main Street physically, And heaven and earth will no longer be divided. They're now united because they've been prepared for one another. I hope when you as this is just kind of percolating in your mind and in your heart, I hope this opens up so many scriptures for you. I hope when you come across some of the passages in the Bible you just typically skip across.
Jeffrey Heine:Things like Colossians Colossians 1. You know, when Paul starts talking spiritual ease, you know, and he just kinda goes off, and you just kinda jump over it. I mean, you gotta nod and act like you understand what he's saying, but you really don't. It really doesn't resonate with you. But listen to this.
Jeffrey Heine:Hopefully, this resonates with you now, because Paul loves to go off on Christ, and he says, Christ is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones and dominions or whether rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together.
Jeffrey Heine:All things. Says for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven. Jesus is reconciling all things, whether it's on earth or in heaven. Heaven and earth become 1, and then Paul tells us how. Says he makes peace of them by the blood of his cross.
Jeffrey Heine:Man, there's so much there. I I know we've got to end. I hope this wets your appetite. The reason we have this hope, the reason all of this is possible is through the blood of Jesus, what we call the gospel, through His death and His resurrection. I'm not sure if any of you have actually watched the movie, The Passion of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:Man, it's a brutal movie to watch. You know, Mel Gibson directed it, I think, largely because of his Catholic background. He he really puts a a whole lot of focus on the physical sufferings of Christ. It's pretty much what the whole movie is about. But there is there's one scene, even though he overemphasizes that, there's this one scene that, man, I think he gets it right.
Jeffrey Heine:At least he gets the heart of the gospel right here. He has to take some artistic license. But there's that scene where where Jesus, He's holding the cross, He has been beaten beyond belief, He's hardly recognizable, and He's walking through the streets of Jerusalem, and He's got the crown of thorn on His heads, on His head. I mean, right there is a is an entire sermon just talking about the crown of thorns that Jesus is bearing. The thorns were the symbol of the curse of this world, and Jesus is taking the curse of this world, and he is putting it on his head and he is going to the cross.
Jeffrey Heine:And as he as he's going to the cross in the scene, he he falls down and and Mary, His mom sees Him, and this isn't in the Bible, but it's getting the heart of the gospel. Right? Mary runs up to Him, and you know the scene if you've seen it. Best line in the whole movie. Jesus looks at her through His His bloodied face, and He says, I make all things new.
Jeffrey Heine:I make all things new. That's what he was achieving in this moment, making all things new. His body was broken in order to repair the broken world. Jesus experienced abandonment by us father so that we might never experience that, so we might always know His glorious presence. Jesus cries out from the cross, I thirst, and he's talking about the spiritual thirst.
Jeffrey Heine:He's been denied the river of life at that point. And the reason he was denied that is so that we might have what we just read here, the river of life flowing from the fountain or from the throne, and we might freely drink from that. He was denied that so that we might never be denied that. He went to the cross in order to make all things new, both in heaven and in earth, and that brings us to this table, in which we remember how he made all things new, through His broken body and His blood.