7th April 2023
Pray (ACts) Read - Hebrews 11:39–40 Message Alan Burke As we come to the end of our series on Hebrews 11 and the so called heroes of the faith remember among them were adulterers, prostitute, swindlers, cheaters, murderers, manipulative parents, rebellious children. If we took time I’m sure we could name many more of their character faults, their failures but what mattered was to whom they looked, they looked to Christ. It was by faith all those who are listed here in Hebrews 11 were saved through the shedding of the blood of our saviour Jesus Christ. Through him we can have assurance, we can know that we are loved by God, we can know that in spite of what we have done we are forgiven through the atoning work of Christ on their behalf. Through what Christ Jesus has done, we are indeed forgiven if we have repented of our sin this day and looked to him in faith. And we along with those who are listed in Hebrews 11 look with hope to how we with them will be made perfect. While the believers of old, lived and died looking to the future in faith, while they are with Christ Jesus right now in Glory and they are recipients of the salvation that Christ Jesus has wrought they like all who have lived since the coming of Christ and like us await the day when we together with them will be made perfect. All these were looking to a city whose foundations and builder is God, and when Christ returns, after the final judgment takes place, we with them will be made perfect with the coming of the New Jerusalem. As John saw in the book of Revelation, 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. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 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.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”…(Re 21:1–5). On that day, when God recreates the heavens and the earth, when God gives us new, glorified, perfected, resurrected bodies, then will we finally and perfectly experience that which we were created to do. Then we will finally know what it means to glorify and enjoy God perfectly, without the burden of sin laid upon our backs, forever! There will be no more tears, death, mourning pain, there will be no more dodgy backs, no more falling out with our shadows, no more disappointments, no more of any of that (Rev 21:4). Instead we will live as Adam was always intended to live, in a covenant relationship with fullness and depth with our God (Rev 21:2), where we will enjoy God’s presence, where we will be his people (Rev 21:3). This is what the saints of Old were looking to, where the redeemed from throughout the ages along with millions of angels will sing the praise of our redeemer God, as together with us they would be made perfect. That is the hope of those who have faith, in that city whose foundations and builder is God, what are we looking forward to, today, tomorrow, in the midst of this life that is far from how we would want it or desire it to be. What ever lies ahead in this life, what ever tomorrow will bring, or the next, or the next, by faith in Jesus we have hope of the heavenly city and the faith we have in him, the gift that we have received means that when this life is all over we will like the saints of old, even though some of them are those if they were alive today who we’d probably cross the street to avoid, will be made perfect all through what Christ has done for us on Calvary’s hill. We cannot like they could not imagine the reality of that wonder in its fullness, but we look to that something better that lies ahead. Pray (acTS) Sing WSC Q14 What is sin? Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God. (1 John 3:4)
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Alan
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