The Future: New Heavens and New Earth

Last week, John Farmer covered the doctrine of judgment. This week, we will finish our series on church doctrine by discussing the doctrine of the “New Heavens and New Earth.”  We will examine the Scriptures to see what the Lord has to say about the New Heavens and the New Earth and more specifically the New Jerusalem.

What is heaven?  Heaven is a place, not just a state of mind. Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our Father who art in heaven.”  Luke records in his gospel:

“When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” --Luke 24:50-52

The Future: Judgment

Good morning!  We’re closing in on the end of our long running series on Sound Doctrine.  In fact, there is just one more message next week about the New Heavens and New Earth.  Today, we are going to talk about the Final Judgment.

We’ll look at the Scriptural evidence of this coming event, its timing, who will be judged and how, and we’ll talk about why judgement is necessary and God’s justice.  We’ll look at the application of these truths in our lives today.  And we will briefly talk about hell, the doctrine of eternal punishment.

So, what does the Bible say?  Revelation 20 describes not only the millennium we talked about last week, but also the release of Satan and the great battle leading to the defeat of Satan forever.  At this point we read about the judgment:

The Future: Tribulation and Millenium

Of all the topics that we have covered our series here on doctrine these two, the tribulation and the millennium, are without a doubt the ones that historically have generated the most diverse range of interpretations and opinions. In this context, “tribulation” refers to the Great Tribulation, a time of great trouble and distress described by Jesus in what is called his Olivet Discourse in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. A “great tribulation” is also referred to in Revelation. Some interpreters also claim a connection with the “seventy weeks” mentioned in Daniel 9 and with various other passages mentioning God’s judgment on the earth.

The “millennium” refers to one thousand years of Christ’s reign on earth, mentioned specifically only in Revelation 20, though, here again, some interpreters read it into other passages. So we can certainly agree that these two topics are Biblical and that at some point in history they will happen (or have happened or are happening, according to some). However, what they will look like and how they will fit together with other events prophesied in the Bible is not explicit. Should these passages be taken literally or figuratively? Can we say with certainty how long each event will last? More importantly, why should we care about them? What is the significance of the tribulation and the millennium?

The Future: The Return of Christ

Welcome! Today we begin the final section of our series on doctrine, focusing over the next four weeks on the future. As we have gone through our series, we have seen again and again that there are some things that are quite clear and uncontroversial, things that are presented quite clearly and explicitly in Scripture, but there are also other areas, other questions, other topics, that are quite the opposite. As we move to begin to discuss future events, it should be obvious that we are moving into areas where there is a lot of uncertainty. Next week Tim has the unenviable task of discussing the great tribulation and the millennium, some of the most uncertain topics of all. The following week John Farmer will talk about the great judgement, and then Fred will close out our series by talking about the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Who knows what the acronym TEOTWAWKI stands for? TEOTWAWKI stands for the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it. Survivalists use this and many other interesting terms. They try to plan for how to survive a civilization-altering event such as nuclear war, a severe disease that wipes out half the population, a complete breakdown of our economic system, an electromagnetic pulse from a weapon or from the sun that destroys electronics and our power grid, a severe natural disaster such as a comet or large asteroid hitting the earth or a super-volcano eruption that leads to something like a nuclear winter, zombies, or the election of Donald Trump as president. I’m kidding on the last two. See if you can guess what some of these other acronyms stand for:

The Church and Body Life: Sound Doctrine

You are unique, just like everyone else.  I’m especially “unique.”  I think Miriam is amazed at my “uniqueness.”  I think I probably ooze “uniqueness.”  For example, I have a special gift of remembering people’s email addresses, home addresses and phone numbers.  I’ve sent prayer letters to friends and family for many years.  I can remember a lot of their addresses.  When I run into a student on campus that I’ve forgotten to send an email to I’ll say, “Is your email firemonsterbreathingbunny45678@gmail.com?”  They look at me with an astonished look.  I know they must be thinking that I’m very “special.”  Or they’re thinking that I’m a stalker.  Miriam will say to me, “How do you do that?”  It’s a gift.  Now, I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast this morning or what I wore yesterday but I can remember all that other stuff.  Go figure.

While there are some special abilities we have that God created us with, there are also spiritual gifts that God gives to individuals after they become Christians.  The ability to read well, retain details, perform math problems, or any other mental or physical strength is something God usually gives a person from birth (although that doesn’t mean that God is limited in giving such abilities to a person later on in life, like when He heals a disease or some kind of physical weakness).  On the other hand, the spiritual gifts that God gives are given for the sake of edifying other believers, progressing the Gospel, and glorifying God.  I’ll talk more in a little bit about the details of some these gifts, but first, I would like to show how the Spirit has been working through people throughout the whole Bible.

The Church and Body Life: The Lord's Supper

Welcome! He is Risen! (He is risen indeed!) Today we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. There is no greater miracle, no more important event (perhaps other than Creation) in the entire Bible. The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of our faith. Because Jesus rose from the dead, we know that we can trust everything He ever said, that through believing and trusting personally in Him, we can be forgiven of our sins and have eternal life.

I have recently been looking into wills and trusts for our family. We have a will, but we have not updated it in many years, and there have been many changes to our family and our possessions since then; as a result, we are long overdue in going back and, really, starting over, asking the big questions about what we want to happen when one or both of us is gone.  As I have thought about this personally, I have been surprised by the intensity of the emotions I feel specifically in wanting things to be arranged as much as possible for Mimi if I should precede her in passing on to the “better country” as C.S. Lewis puts it. I can imagine the stresses of having to deal with all the accounts, government agencies, decisions, and so on, on top of the stresses of the loss itself, and I greatly desire to ease things, to set things into place in advance, as much as I can while I still can. The thought of not being there for Mimi to help her brings on unique emotions, emotions I find hard to even name.

This has made me think of Jesus. He loved His disciples and friends (and by extension, us) infinitely more than I could ever love my wife or children. But He too thought about leaving them behind. Everything comes to a head at the last supper. I want to go through some of the account of it starting at John 13:1.

The Church and Body Life: Baptism

Good morning and welcome!  We’re now in a new phase of our Sound Doctrine series.  Let’s look at the overall sections.  We began the series back in the fall covering topics like the Bible as our authority about the things of God.  We moved on to talk about what the Bible says about things like God’s Nature, His Creation, us, humanity as the pinnacle of His Creation, Jesus and what He has accomplished for us.  Our previous segment looked at the affect that our salvation in Jesus has on us in several topics on Redemption.   As evidenced by the number of sermons devoted to the topic, the heart of this series on doctrine is Jesus, and what He accomplished for us when we are redeemed through faith in Him.

Now, we are in the section on the church and body life.  Tim taught last week on the true church.  He mentioned how our church is part of an association of churches.  This association is called Great Commission Churches.  We are connected to other churches through this association, and it is organized regionally.  There is a high degree of autonomy or independence in the Great Commission Churches.  One way that we have independence is in how we choose what series we teach on whether topical or expositional (that is from a book of the Bible).

The Church and Body Life: The True Church

What do you think of when you picture a “church”? Do you think of a tidy, white building with stained glass windows and a steeple? Or do you think of something grander, like a cathedral? We tend to associate “church” with a building, in a certain location. But the building itself really has no significance. “The true church” must refer to more than a building. Some churches don’t even have buildings. Or they have very ordinary buildings. Our church building here, for instance, is nothing special. It wasn’t even built as a church originally.

Redemption: Death, Resurrection, and In Between

We are in the heart of our series on Sound Doctrine.  If you’re new to the series, you may be wondering why are we talking about doctrine?  Or where are we in the journey?  Or maybe even, what is doctrine?

The word doctrine comes from Latin roots and means “teaching”.  In the context of Christianity, a doctrine is a teaching of what the Bible has to say about a particular topic.

The title of the series alludes to Titus 2:1, which says,

You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.  Titus 2:1

The “however” comes from warnings Paul wrote to Titus in chapter 1.  People inside the church were teaching unsound doctrine, and it was having strongly negative effects on the church.  This kind of thing happens still to this day.

Redemption: Persevering

I’m glad each of you persevered in showing up to hear this teaching this morning.  I know that it was God who was at work both willing and working for His good pleasure.    Which of the following statements are true?   

1. A person is given eternal life when their physical body stops living and their spiritual body enters heaven. 

2. Those who have been chosen by God have been given the Spirit of God.  The presence of the Spirit of God is proof that they will not lose their salvation.  

3. Some of Jesus’ disciples didn’t experience salvation even though they were chosen by Him.   

Redemption: Growing in Likeness to Him

When I first heard about this topic, I was excited, because I thought it would be interesting to talk about. When I started making some notes, however, I was dismayed. I realized what a huge subject this is – like maybe half of the New Testament. I started thinking about all that could be said about spiritual growth, about sanctification, about Jesus as our example. Wow, how to narrow this down?

One of the challenges is that this phrase, “Growing in Likeness to Christ,” does not actually appear in the Bible, so the first thing we have to do is decide what it means – in the absence of a specific biblical context. The Bible does have plenty to say about spiritual growth, what it means to mature as a Christian, in terms of our understanding and experience of God. However, the title might sound like growing in holiness, which brings up the subject of sanctification – the process by which we are made holy. This can muddy the waters a bit, because sanctification is something of a paradox, as is predestination, which is what we were talking about just before I left on my trip. The reason sanctification is tricky is because there are two ways (some say 4 ways!) of looking at it. On the one hand, as believers in Jesus, we have been made holy, once and for all by the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. We have been clothed in his righteousness. When God looks at us, he sees the righteousness of Jesus, not our sin.

Redemption: Justified & Adopted

Good morning!  Today, we have a couple of fun topics.  I say fun because both of them are good news, extremely good news.  We are going to talk about how when we have placed our trust in Jesus we are justified before God and also how we are also adopted into the family of God.

Let’s take a moment and pray again before we get started.

Lord God, thank you for how you set things right between us and You.  You did all the work.  “Nothing was done that You did not do Yourself.”  We are justified not by our works but by Yours.  We are not adopted because of any ability or talent we possessed.  We are adopted because You chose us to be Yours.  Help us to marvel, rejoice, and be refreshed today in what You have done for us.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

Redemption: True Repentance and Saving Faith

Welcome! For a variety of reasons, including illness, it has been quite a few weeks since I have taught up here. With all that has been going on, I am reminded freshly that it is and has always been a tremendous honor and privilege to serve you in this way. One never knows how long we have to do anything in this life, when doing something will be our last time, and so I want to take this opportunity to say that I love you and that it has been a total joy to dig into Scripture for you and share what the Lord has shown to me. To the Lord, and to the Lord alone, goes all the credit for anything that I have shared that has instructed you, inspired you, corrected you, or encouraged you. Soli Deo Gloria. To the Glory of God alone!

We are going to dive into some challenging topics today; our title is True Repentance and Saving Faith. Repentance is a word that has fallen out of use. From time to time I like to look up words in Google’s ngram viewer, which looks at word use in publications through history. I decided to look up “repentance” and “repent.” Other than antiquated words like “thine” and “heretofore”, I don’t think I have ever seen a more precipitous decline in use, a drop of fully 90% from the peak back in the early 1800s. I wish there were a way to only search Christian publications; sadly, I suspect that we would find the same decline in the usage of “repentance” there as we do here in general.

Redemption: To Be Born Again

Today we are continuing our series on church doctrine.  We have been going over this series since Sept. 6, 2015 and we hope to complete it by May 1, 2016.  Today’s message is “To Be Born Again” which could be alternatively titled “The Doctrine of Regeneration.  However, I want to remind you that our purpose for sharing these messages on doctrine is not to make great theologians at CCC.  Rather, the purpose for these messages (and all Sunday morning sermons) is to help equip the saints for the work of service. 

Before I begin today’s message, I want to define a few terms and explain how they relate to today’s topic and to this series on doctrine. Doctrine by definition is a noun meaning a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church.  That is what this series is all about, a set of beliefs held by our church.  In contrast, dogma is also a noun meaning a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority that is unquestionably true.  That is not what this series is all about, although we may cover some of the principles in God’s Word that would be considered dogma as we discuss the different doctrinal topics.

Redemption: The Gospel

Today we continue in the series Sound Doctrine, and we continue to investigate the area of our Redemption.  Today’s topic is the gospel, and that’s good news.

What is the gospel?

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin.  Galatians 1:11

It is no message from men.  It is a message from God to us.

With that, let’s pray and ask God to speak into our time:

Lord Jesus, we need understanding and insight.  Impress on us the beauty of the gospel message and the effectiveness of its call.  Encourage us to be even more diligent to communicate the good news to others.  All this we pray, in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Redemption: The Elect

We are in the heart of our series Sound Doctrine.  If you recall, from late November through the end of the year our topic was Jesus, and we talked about His nature as God and Man, Jesus as the Focus of Prophecy and the Object of Foreshadowing, the Incarnation, the Atonement, His Resurrection and Ascension.

Last week, we opened a new part of our series on the topic, doctrine, or area of study:  Redemption.  Redemption is one aspect of the Atonement which we talked about just after Christmas.  As sinners, we were in bondage to sin and to Satan.  We needed someone (Jesus) to redeem us out of bondage.  It’s the idea of ransom described in Mark 10:45.  Now, we are going to look at the application of redemption in our lives.

One way of thinking about this topic of Redemption is, “What does it mean to ‘be saved’ in its many aspects?”  From this point until early March, we will talk about God's Grace, The Elect, The Gospel, Being Born Again, True Repentance and Saving Faith, Justification and Adoption, Growing in Likeness to Him, Persevering, and concluding with Death and Resurrection. 

Brian spoke about God’s grace last week.  Today, we will look at the Elect and consider when and why did God choose us?  As well as the difficult to consider thought, are some not chosen?

Redemption: God's Grace

The crippled young man was carried into the room.  He had heard about the one he was about to meet and had mixed feelings.  Were the stories all true?  He heard that this ruler had been responsible for killing thousands of people.  He was a great warrior and was greatly feared.  He could give a command and it would be obeyed quickly.  The whole country was under his control.  Other countries feared him as well.

The young man heard that this ruler had humble beginnings.  He had heard that he was a man just like him, except not crippled.  He was honored and excited to get a chance to even see someone that entire families would never see throughout generations.  What kind of man was he about to meet?  Why did he want to see him?  Why did he bring him here?  Was he in trouble?  That could be the only explanation because he had nothing to offer.  After all, what could a crippled man offer to a king?  So, Mephibosheth was sat down in the presence of King David and this is where our story begins.

This story is a good picture of what God’s grace is like.  King David was a powerful man.  Mephibosheth was a crippled man.  David initiated with Mephibosheth and not the other way around.  The king brought Mephibosheth to himself just like God draws people to himself for salvation.  David brought Mephibosheth out of a barren land just like God can bring us out of the barren land of sin and into the land of peace.  He shows gentleness to Mephibosheth just how God exercises gentleness over us.  The crippled man was brought into a relationship with the King through somebody else that he knew, not because he had something to offer the king.  In the same way, God has given us forgiveness if we belong to Jesus Christ.  Even though Mephibosheth wasn’t actually a son of the king, he was adopted just like God adopted us.  David was elaborate in his generosity towards Mephibosheth just like God is toward us.

Jesus of Nazareth: Resurrection and Ascension

Happy New Year! I am honored to share with you our first message of 2016. At the beginning of a new year, I often think of the poem God Knows, written in 1908 but only becoming widely known in 1939 after Princess Elizabeth of England handed it to her father, George VI, and he quoted part of it in his 1939 Christmas speech to the British Empire. It was the early days of World War II, a time of great uncertainty and foreboding in the world, not too different from the fear of terrorism that we face now. The poem begins:

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

It’s a great encouragement to remember that whatever 2016 holds we can walk toward it confidently, holding the hand of God. The reason we can have that confidence is because of the reality of what we are going to be talking about today: the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. This truth is at the heart of what we believe as Christians, an essential part of what Jesus came to do. Last Sunday, I believe you talked about Jesus’ atoning death on the cross. His death was the sacrifice that paid the price for all our sins, allowing our relationship with God to be restored. That is what the atonement means. However, the story doesn’t stop there. Jesus came back to life, breaking the power of death, proclaiming his eternal victory over Satan and all the forces of evil. Without the resurrection, it would mean that this life is all that there is – and what a hopeless prospect that would be!

Jesus of Nazareth: Atonement

Good morning!  Today, we will have a time of communion where we take the bread and the cup and remember our Lord Jesus.  But, before we do, we are going to continue in our current series, Sound Doctrine.   We have a very fitting subject for today as we continue to talk about Jesus our Savior.  We are going to talk about the Atonement.  It is through the Atonement that we are reconciled to God, so it is a pretty cool thing and a very big deal and one of the main things to reflect on when we take communion.  We don’t have so much time today, so let’s pray and jump right in to the topic.

Lord Jesus, we thank You that you came and lived a sinless life, that You sacrificed Yourself and allowed Yourself to be killed on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  Please help us right now to reflect on the amazing work that You accomplished to make things right between us and God.  Teach us we pray.  Amen.

Let’s start at the top.  What is atonement?

Jesus of Nazareth: Incarnation

Jesus said in the book of Revelation, “Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” –Revelation 3:20

Today, we have reached the last Sunday before Christmas.  I feel like in a lot of ways Christmas comes rushing upon me each year.  I know this familiar visitor.  I know it comes but once a year, and I know it comes the same time.  And yet, I don’t think I’m ever quite ready in one way or another. 

So, this last Sunday comes sort of like that verse from Revelation, “Behold!  Christmas stands on the door and knocks.”  Are you ready to open the door and let Christmas in?

Part of the struggle is trying to figure out what is Christmas anyway?  Christmas is supposed to be the celebration of Jesus’ birth.  In our culture, it has become just a teensy weensy bit about some other stuff than Jesus.