B.C.F., 13.11.2005
Summary of Week 3: New Creation in Christ
a. New creation is internal, permanent, participation in the life of God.
b. Corruption is in world through false desire.
c. Primary passion of Christians must be Christ before all things.
d. Renewed through repeated experiences of dying and rising.
e. Good works may not be “in Christ” e.g. symptoms of tiredness
f. Rev 3:1- 6 must be able to impart Christ, or BCF will die.
Question: What has God been saying to you over the last week on the basis of what we talked about last Sunday?
Look up key text: Revelation 21:1- 5
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, the 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, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.”
Question: Is this something the modern church dwells on?
In the Bible, the new heaven and earth ( = universe) is set in contrast to the old heaven and earth (= now).
Unbelievers are “inhabitants of the earth/earth dwellers” (Rev 3:10;6:10;8:13;11:10; 13:8, 12, 14; 17:2, 8), dominated by the visible, material, sensual world of idolatry. They are settlers who have made their home on the earth. Christians are those who have been “redeemed from the earth.” (Rev 14:3)
Christians may be “in the world” but they are not “of the world”.
Look up John 17:13 – 16
“13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world ”(John 17:13 -16)
Question: Look up (1 Peter 1:1 and ) Philippians 3:19-21,what does this teach us about the true home of believers
[ “Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ, to all those living as aliens (G.N.B. “refugees”) in the Dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen ” (1 Pet 1:1)]
“19 They are destined to be lost; their god is the stomach; they glory in what they should think shameful, since their minds are set on earthly things. 20 But our homeland is in heaven and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transfigure the wretched body of ours into the mould of his glorious body.”(Phil 3:19- 21)
Christians are pilgrims through a passing world and their true home is heaven. Not settlers but pioneers.
Look up Galatians 6:7 -8,
“7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8 If you sow to your own flesh (G.N.B. “natural desires”, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. ” (Gal 6:7 -8)
Whatever is sown to the flesh is lost 11 “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul”. (1 Peter 2:11)
Nothing of what is sown to the Spirit is lost in the new order. Revelation 14:13, “13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who from now on die in the Lord.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labours, for their works follow them.”” Cf. 1 Cor 15:58
Question: How do you know if your works are“in the Lord” and will follow you into heaven for a reward?
Cf. discussion last week about “good works” and “dead works”.
Look up 2 Corinthians 4: 8-18
“8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. 11 For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.13 But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture—“I believed, and so I spoke”—we also believe, and so we speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. 15 Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”
As Paul suffers for the sake of Christ he dies to the old nature/world etc. and enters into a renewal of his own inner life that communicates the glory and reality of the coming new world. (outer nature = temporary; inner nature = eternal)
Look up Romans 8:17-20,
“17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Rom 8:17-20)
This teaches the same as the above- as we suffer for Christ in this world we die to earthly attractions and grow in a sense of the glory of the reality of the world to come.
Let me read part of an email sent to me recently.
“God has been really good to my family. However, I am struggling with what’s happening in the world. I know we live in a fallen world, and there are hints of God’s glory, but I am having difficulty reconciling the two. The fallenness of the world to me manifests itself in terrorism, natural disasters, pandemics etc. It’s like there’s no place safe on Earth. It’s easier to deal with it when all I have is myself to care for; but with a young family, things are different. Sometimes you wonder: with such fallenness, should I have more kids? It appears that I fear life more than I fear God.”
Question: What do you think about this sentiment?
This Christian is doubly confused, first he is looking for God’s glory in the outside world, secondly he is focussed on how he feels rather than how God feels. In our individualistic and self- centred societies we think it is all about us.
As he approached the cross Jesus said this, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:31-32)
In crucifying Jesus the world passed a death sentence on itself; the whole mass of this worldly interests, attitudes, pursuits and priorities is condemned by the cross – it has no future. Families, nations, races, politics …and human society as we know them e.g. marriage (Matt 22:30) have no future. When Jesus died on the cross he was the first person to totally and freely die to all this- worldly attachments as we know them in their natural/fallen state (family, friends, race, religion, comfort, health…this was hard for him e.g. John 19:26- 27 “your mother…your son”), so that when he was raised from the dead into the glory of the Father a whole new creation/relationships came into existence. This is the message of the gospel.
Look up Luke 21:25-28
“25 “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.””
God is seeking to shake the self-centred optimism of humanity, especially in western society. The message in all natural disasters is that the entire world order is limited, mortal and perishing. (Times have changed – Cf. Lisbon earthquake in 1755 – ¾ city destroyed, many people thought this dreadful disaster must mean we have committed a dreadful offence against God.)
Much of the church is fearful because it has forgotten the power of the cross, it still lives with attachments to this world as if our present existence is ultimate.
Question: How should believers relate to the coming end of the world?
Look up 2 Peter 3:10 -1310 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed.11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
1. Christians should live holy lives.
2. Christians should want the end to come quickly (“20 The one who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20)
.3. The new heavens and earth are “home” to Christians because they are a place full of “righteousness”.
Conclusion:
In the New Testament the “righteousness of God” is concentrated in the gospel “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed ”(Rom 1:16-17). Our dissatisfaction with this world and our desire for the promised new heavens and earth will be in proportion to the power of the gospel in our lives.
Most of us have lost an awareness that the old creation has been sentenced to death (terminal) and new creation will soon be born. This destruction of the old and creation of the new is the righteousness of God. Cf. # an improved world.
Society needs believers in its midst who live without fear of what is happening around us (God is in control!) who live true to the fact that it is the world to come that is their home and NOT this world.
Question: If we are lacking these things we have we lost touch with the heavenly Lord (already in new creation).
Look up Colossians 3:1- 5
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3 for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.5 Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly…
Only as we share in the sufferings of Christ is the power of this present world put to death and we become faithful witnesses to the fact that the arrangements of this present order (our bodies, buildings, relatives, families, city, nation…) – is doomed to pass away and a glorious new world is coming because of the resurrection of Jesus.