A new heaven. A new earth. And the Holy City, the New Jerusalem.
It comes out of heaven, comes from God, fully formed, prepared as a bride
beautifully dressed for her husband.
It sounds like quite a place, right? The paragraph
before this described all the beautiful, incredible, precious jewels the walls
of the city will be decorated with. We read that there will be no need
for the sun or the moon, because it will be lit with the light of the glory of
God, focused by Jesus, the Lamb, as its lamp.
There will be no night there. The city gates will
never be shut. In other words, we won’t need to worry about being
protected from anything. We’ll have God Himself as our protector, and
besides, there’ll be nothing we need to be protected from anyway.
“Nothing impure will ever enter” the city, “nor will anyone who does what
is shameful or deceitful.”
There will be an abundance of everything. There will
be trees that yield a different crop every month, so we’ll have plenty to eat.
We will see the Lord’s face and His name will be on our forehead. And the Lord will reign forever.
It sounds like quite a place. And that’s where we’re
going someday, if we have faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior. The new
earth. The earth as it should be. The earth as it was originally, before sin
entered the world. We’ll live in that New Jerusalem. And when we go there someday, it’s going to
be awesome.
But that’s for someday. Because right now we live on
the old earth. And the old earth is--well, let’s just say that it falls a
little short. This is not the earth as it should be. This is not an earth without sin--there’s
plenty of sin on this earth, and as sinners we all participate in it all the
time. We all do things that are shameful or deceitful. We have gates and doors that need to be shut,
and locked, because there are lots of things we need to be protected from.
And this is the tension we live in as Christians. We
are called to be the people of God, people who are worthy of living in the New
Jerusalem on the new earth. But we don’t actually live there yet. We live here.
So the question is, how do are the people of God supposed to live while
we’re still on the old earth? How do we live here while living as people
worthy of living there?
Billy Graham once said, “My home is in heaven. I’m
just traveling through this world.” And
as Christians, most of us would nod our heads in agreement with that. But
how many of us live our lives as if we truly believe it? I’m not talking about agreeing with it as a
theoretical theological point. I’m talking about actually living our
lives as if we believe we’re just travelers in this world. I’m talking about truly feeling like we don’t
really belong here, like we’re strangers in a strange land. Feeling like
people who may enjoy our time here, but who don’t really feel at home on earth,
because we know earth is not our true home.
I suspect not very many. And it’s
understandable. This world, this earth,
is the only home we’ve ever really known. It’s the only frame of
reference we have. It’s the only thing
we can relate to. And so, we tend to
treat this world as our home. We don’t live like travelers, like
strangers in a strange land. We live
like people who are at home where we are.
We live like people who belong here. We live like people of the
old earth, not people of the new earth.
And that means that, as we live our lives, we try to fit
into this world. We go along with what’s considered normal in this
world. And again, it’s understandable.
It’s part of human nature to want to fit in. It’s part of human nature to want to have
friends. It’s part of human nature to want to be part of the crowd. Very few people want to be thought of as the
oddball, as the strange one. Most of us want people to like us and accept
us.
And so we adjust our behavior
in ways that will make that more likely. We make compromises. We continue to believe--but we don’t make a
big deal out of it. We continue to have faith--but we don’t make it too
obvious. We accept Jesus as the
Savior--but we don’t talk about it to anybody. After all, what would
people think?
I’m as guilty of this as anyone. As I said, this is
all part of human nature. But at the same time, we should not use that as
an excuse. Because, again, while we currently live on the old earth, if
we have faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior our destination is the New
Jerusalem on the new earth. But how do we avoid this? How do we live here without conforming to the
ways of here?
This is one of the many things Jesus did for us while he
was on earth: he showed us how to live here while living as the people of
God, the people of the New Jerusalem. After all, Jesus did not belong to
this world, either. And yet he lived
here. And I suspect that, for the first
thirty years or so of Jesus’ life he did fit in, more or less. At least
the Bible does not give us any indication that he did not. In fact, it tells us how surprised the people
of Jesus’ home town were when, about half-way through his ministry, he came
back home. He did not fit in anymore.
And we’re told that it was hard on him.
It had to be hard for Jesus to
resist the temptation to compromise, to fit in. And there had to be all
kinds of people who were suggesting that he do it. Luke Chapter thirteen tells us of a woman who
had been bent over double for eighteen years. She was unable to stand up
straight. She went to see Jesus on the
Sabbath day, and Jesus healed her.
I don’t know, but I suspect
there were people around Jesus who were saying, look, Jesus, don’t heal her
today. It’s the Sabbath Day. I
know you don’t believe in those rules about healing on the Sabbath, but you’re
going to get yourself in trouble. Just compromise. Just a little. Wait until tomorrow. I mean, this woman’s been crippled for
eighteen years. She’s stood it this
long, she can stand it one more day. What difference will one day make?
Jesus refused to do it. Jesus refused to
compromise, even a little. He was not going to wait even one day to help
someone who needed help. He was determined to follow God, no matter how
much trouble it might get him into. He was determined to do what God
thought was right, no matter how many humans might think it was wrong. He
was not going to live as a person whose home was the old earth. He was going to live as a person whose home
is the New Jerusalem in the new earth.
There were so many times in his
ministry when Jesus could’ve compromised, could’ve tried to get along, could’ve
tried to fit in. People must’ve told him, Jesus, don’t argue with the
Pharisees so much. They’re not that
bad. Jesus, don’t talk about that
“Messiah” stuff so much. And for crying out loud, Jesus, don’t go chasing
the money changers out of the temple with a whip! After all, what will people think?
How many times do you and I
compromise? How many times do you and I just try to get along, just try
to fit in? How many times do you and I live as people whose home is this
earth? How many times do you and I worry
about what people will think, rather than living as the people of God, the
people of New Jerusalem on the new earth?
Again, it’s understandable, and
I’m as guilty of it as anyone. It’s understandable--but is it worth
it? Is it worth it to compromise rather
than to do what Jesus said, to go and make disciples? Is it worth it to
fit in so people will like us, rather than to stand up and live out our faith
in no uncertain terms? Is it worth it to
live as if our home is in this world, rather than to live as people whose true
home is in the New Jerusalem?
In his letter to the Romans,
the Apostle Paul wrote, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Which will it be? Will we conform to the old earth? Or we be transformed, living as the people of
the New Jerusalem in the new earth?
It’s a question each of us has
to answer. And it’s a question each of us has to answer every day,
because that temptation to compromise, to fit in, to go along and get along,
comes every day. I will say that the more we resist it, the easier
resisting gets. But it’s never easy, and
we never completely get past it. It’s a
decision we have to make over and over again, a temptation we constantly have
to face.
Jesus gave us the example.
And if we pray, the Lord will help us resist the temptation. But
still, the decision is ours. We either
live as people of the old earth, or we live as people of the New Jerusalem in
the new earth. May God give us the strength to make the right decision,
and to keep making it every day.
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