The Case of the Incredible Shrinking Jesus
Revelation 22:1-5
1.
One of the greatest tragedies that I see happening in
the church is the individualism of our time
2.
While we may not even recognize it, we are putting
ourselves in the center of the universe
3.
When we become the center, the work of Christ is
shrinking
4.
Consider how we talk about Christianity in our culture
a.
The health and wealth gospel: Jesus exists to serve me
b.
Jesus wants to give you your best life now, make you
rich, make you healthy
c.
An individualized understanding of the faith
d.
Form #1: I will make Jesus my personal Lord and Savior:
have you ever thought about how arrogant this is: do we really believe that
Jesus needed our approval to be Lord
e.
Form #2: We speak of salvation in individualistic
terms: I remember growing up in the church and I thought that this was all that
was going on
f.
While Jesus must be personal to us and we must have a
personal relationship with Jesus, we must consider that we are the prime actors
g.
We cannot focus on the individual aspects of conversion
exclusively, we need to remember the cosmic scope of what Jesus is up to in our
world
5.
There is no greater place to look at the scope of
Jesus’ great work than Rev.22:1-5
I. Because
of Christ We are Granted Access to the Tree of Life: 1-2
A.
In Genesis we
are introduced to the world that God created without the fall
1. Eden means delight: the garden of Eden was to be a
garden of delight
2. Adam and Eve were placed in the garden to not only
to enjoy, but to take care of it
3. Their whole life revolved around God and the
enjoyment of all he that made them to enjoy
4. Then the unthinkable happens, they violate the one
command that God had given: they eat of the forbidden fruit and they begin to
die
B.
In Genesis we
were banished
1. The wages of sin: death
2. The gift of God: eternal life and this is even
promised in the pronouncement of the curses in Gen. 3:15
3. The grace of God in banishment: Osborne says: God
banished the first couple for the tree of life in Gen. 3:22 so they would not
find immorality in the midst of their sin
C.
In Revelation
we are partakers of the tree of life
1. This is better than Eden
2. The river of living that is more sufficient that the
Euphrates and the great river in Genesis
3. The living comes from the throne of God and the Lamb
4. Ezekiel prophesized of the day that living waters
would flow from the temple
5. Jesus himself stated emphatically that he is the
living water in John 7
6. The source of our refreshment and sustenance comes
not from a place, but the person of Jesus Christ
7. This is picture is so breathtaking and the beauty is
so amazing, it makes us yawn at Eden
8. New fruit every month, perpetual healing, amazing
beauty: this is what we have in Christ for all eternity
II. Because of
Christ the Curse has been Removed: 3
A.
The initial
affects of the curse
1. Cursed is the ground, cursed is the serpent, cursed
is man
2. The sin and Adam and Eve threw things into a
tailspin and things have not been right since the fall took place
a.
Satan: he was
determined to wage war and destroy: he wants to kill the Messiah, destroy the
family, and corrupt the culture
b.
Woman: he
relationships with her children and husband are strained
c.
Man:
relationship with wife, his work, and environment are cursed
3. Alienation with God: we can’t enjoy him anymore
4. Alienation with each other: we will have friction
with each other
5. Alienation with nature: thorns and thistles will be
produced from now on
6. As a result of the curse, we get to live, get sick,
and eventually die
B.
The work of
Jesus in the Gospel’s
1. To undo the works of the devil
2. Remember, Jesus miracle stories are not mere acts of
kindness, they demonstrations of what his eternal kingdom will be like
3. He stilled storms, he raised from the dead, the cast
out demons, he healed people completely: all precursors of the eternal kingdom
will be like
4. When Jesus returns and eternity ensues, the Eternal Kingdom
will be established and the old order of things will pass away: 21:4b
C.
The new
creation
1. Rev.21:4-5
2. Things are better than they ever were in Eden
3. We have to be very careful when we define the
mission of the church: it is not the church’s primary responsibility to make
the world a better place
4. It is the church’s responsibility to introduce
people to the king so that they will gain entrance into God’s eternal kingdom
where they can reside in Shalom with God forever
5. This is our future, because of the redemption that
Christ won
6. While Jesus is making us new creations, giving us a
new heart, we must not forget that he is making a whole new heavens and a new
earth as well
III. Because of
Christ We can Enjoy God Again: 4
A.
The enjoyment
of God before the fall
1. One of the first shocks that Adam and Eve
experienced after the fall is they knew they were exposed before God
2. Instead of enjoying God’s presence in the cool of
the day, they were hiding from Him shame
3. Ever since that day, man has not been able to enjoy
the presence of God without a mediator
4. All throughout the Scripture, God is making a way
back for his people to enjoy him, but it was never as intimate as it was in
Eden
5. In Ex.33:20, The Moses that would converse with God
was the same Moses that was told that he could not see God’s face and live
6. John 1:18: no one has ever seen God
B.
The restoration
of enjoying God’s presence
1. God has branded his people with the blood of his Son
2. As a result of Christ’s finished work, we will see
God’s face
3. This will be the renewal of walking with God in the
cool of the day and then some
4. God is better than everything else that new order
has to offer: he will be the centerpiece of heaven
5. If Jesus and the Father were not in heaven it would
be nothing less than a gold plated hell: this is not our hope: it is much
bigger: our hope is God
IV. Because of
Christ We can be What God Created Us to Be: 5
A.
God put Adam in
the garden to worship, serve, and rule
1. Work was a part of the pre-fall world: it just
wasn’t excruciating like post-fall work is
2. Adam and Eve were given dominion and responsibility
to serve God as vice-regents of all that he had created
3. Our labor has been marked with pain and struggle,
and while we do rule in some ways, it is an incredibly frustrating rule because
of the activation of the curse
B.
When the curse
is removed, we will do what God made us to do
1. We will rule the world that God has graciously given
us
2. We will rule with God forever and ever
3. How does this impact the way that we live our lives
right now
a.
Impact for the
soccer mom: as you transport kids back and forth from practice, if they are
believers you need to remember that you are transporting royalty: kings and
rulers for all eternity
b.
We also need to
remember, because of eternity we are never engaging ordinary people
c.
“There are
no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures,
arts, civilizations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life
of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and
exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we
are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that
kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who
have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - no flippancy, no
superiority, no presumption.”
d.
We must
take seriously the greatness of the work of the Son: he is not just saving you,
he is saving an entire people for himself
e.
He is not
just remaking you, he remaking all that you see
4. How amazing is the grand scope of God’s plan
5. The world has been trashed, but not so bad that it
can’t be made right again
6. When we consider all that God has promised, we have
to be awestruck by all the Christ accomplished
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