[0:00] This is the morning service at Holy Trinity on the 6th of January 2002. The preacher is Ken Perry.
[0:11] His sermon is entitled Making All Things New and is based on Revelation 2.1-7.
[0:25] Let's bow on a word of prayer. May the words of my lips and the thoughts and the meditations of all our hearts be always pleasing in your sight.
[0:42] O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen. On this, at the beginning of a new year, what does the future hold for you?
[1:04] Is it going to be more of the same as it was in the past? None of us really knows what the future holds.
[1:19] For us and for everybody. But for believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the saying holds true that we don't know what the future holds.
[1:48] But we do know who holds the future. The future is all mapped out for believers.
[2:06] Believers who are committed to live according to God's will day by day. It behoves us, therefore, to know him who holds the future.
[2:26] And also to get an inkling or some understanding of what that future will be like. And to do this, we will seek to know what his will is and the truth of God from his word as it is written in the closing book of the Bible in Revelation.
[3:00] Revelation 21, 1-7 Now we will examine what is written there under three headings.
[3:16] Firstly, who is it that holds the future? Secondly, what that future will be like?
[3:30] And thirdly, how that future can become a reality now?
[3:44] Who, what, and how? Firstly, who holds the future?
[3:54] our key verse is verse 5. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new.
[4:14] He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new. Now I don't know how that sounds to you, but it sounds absolutely marvellous to me and fills me full of praise because I am going to make, says he that is on the throne everything new.
[4:51] And by being new it means something completely different from what we experience now.
[5:04] That future is going to be perfect. Do you know what such things are? Perfection.
[5:16] We don't find it in our society. It's going to be perfect. It's going to be pure. It's going to be holy.
[5:28] It's going to be all loving. And he that sits on the throne is going to make everything new. This is the one who makes all things new, he who sits on the throne.
[5:48] Even Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. We learn a great deal about him who sits on the throne in this book of Revelation, particularly if we go back to the fourth chapter.
[6:06] verses 8 to 11, where we read each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings.
[6:20] Day and night they never stop saying, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him, who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who was on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.
[6:49] They lay their crowns before him and say, You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.
[7:11] What do we learn from this? That this one who sits on the throne is the one who lives forever and ever. Grasp hold of the fullness of that truth.
[7:26] truth. We may grow old, we may pass in and out of life, but he never, he lives forever and ever. we also learn that he is someone who is worthy to receive honour and glory and thanks.
[7:49] Is that something we do every day, every moment of our life? Give glory to him who sits on the throne, give honour to him and give thanks to him.
[8:03] we find out he is to be worshipped, to fall down before him and honour him as to who he is and what he has done.
[8:20] We learn also that he is the creator. Every living thing in this universe was created by him.
[8:33] your body, all that you are, is the work of him who sits on the throne. A little further on in verse six we read, he said to me, it is done, I am the alpha and omega.
[8:54] this one who sits on the throne has done everything that is required for man's salvation, man's salvation from sin and death.
[9:16] On the cross Jesus Christ cried out, it is finished. As our studies in Romans have revealed, we can do absolutely nothing to earn our salvation.
[9:39] salvation. It is all done for us. It is done for us from the beginning to the end, because he who sits on the throne is the alpha and the omega.
[9:59] For the future, everything is covered by him who sits on the throne. He who is the crucified, glorified saviour of the world, the one who holds the future.
[10:23] Who holds the future? He does. Secondly, what will the future be like? Twice in this chapter we learn that when the new comes, the old will pass away.
[10:45] Life as we know it will be completely different. And some of the ways in which this will be so are mentioned. In verse 4 we read that he will wipe away every tear.
[11:02] imagine what that means. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
[11:18] Verse 6 our thirst for the meaning of life will be met. Verse 7 we are told all these glorious things will be our inheritance and that we will enter into a glorious and intimate relationship with God.
[11:51] What is the future like? It is heaven, glorious heaven prepared for those who love him. as Paul wrote to the Corinthians when he said to them no eye has seen no ear has heard no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.
[12:25] When one becomes new in this life things change. I know when I became a Christian it was necessary for things that had been part of my life to go.
[12:43] I had to look at a new relationship with money. I had to look at a new relationship with my work. I had to look at all sorts of things that were new.
[12:56] Life was going to be completely different. And this in a sense is a preparation for life that is going to be different when we leave this world of ours.
[13:18] Thirdly, how will this future become a reality now? we are told that it is he who sits on the throne who will make all things new.
[13:35] And so what better way can we make this a reality now and begin to enter into something of what this heaven will be like?
[13:46] we need to lift up our eyes as Paul says and lift up our heart to the throne of Jesus and look to him to make you new now and forever.
[14:06] we can become new people now and this will become or will go a long way to becoming entirely new when this life ends.
[14:26] I often have asked people in my ministry about the whole question of heaven and I asked them do you know if you're going to heaven?
[14:41] And many times people say to me I hope I am, I think I am but very seldom do you get anybody, even Christians, saying I know I am.
[14:56] And I often wonder about people who think they're going to heaven and hope they're going to heaven how they're going to get on. Where they go there'll be no swearing, there'll be no tears, there'll be no lots and lots of things and they're going to feel very very alien.
[15:18] They're not going to feel at home at all. But you can begin that process now and be made new in preparation for what is to come.
[15:32] But there are three basic steps that are necessary for this to be so. The first one is that there needs to be, as Paul has reminded us particularly last week, there needs to be repentance.
[15:50] Repentance for the past past. And repentance day by day for those areas where we have fallen short and sinned before our holy God.
[16:04] God. I very seldom have heard sermons on repentance but it is absolutely vital that we deal with the past or let God deal with the past and come to him in repentance.
[16:24] That's the first step to becoming new. The second step is to have faith in Jesus Christ as your personal saviour because that's what he came to be.
[16:41] He came to be your saviour and he came to be my saviour, to be the saviour of the world. If I asked you the question which we used to ask of our friends and others as young people, ask you the question have you been saved?
[17:04] I wonder what your answer would be. Do you know that you've been saved? Saved by who? By him who sits on the throne.
[17:19] Repentance and faith. You read the Acts of the Apostles. The way the church grew was it responded to the message. that was preached of repentance and faith.
[17:35] Without these you cannot be saved. And the third thing is a commitment to his will for your life so that he can make you what he wants you to be.
[17:48] God is a Christian. I thank God for those who were my counsellors soon after I became a Christian and who said to me, Ken, don't try and make yourself into a Christian because you can't.
[18:08] It won't happen. you can't make yourself. Let Jesus do what he said for the disciples. I will make you fishers of men.
[18:24] The other thing that I'm thankful for, for those who guided, was that you must seek the will of the Lord day by day.
[18:34] for that day and each day as it comes. And I thank God for that because each day as I sought God's will, that will was revealed and all things began to become new.
[18:51] I was on my way up the ladder to a very important work in engineering. What was I going to do to give that away in order that I might become a minister and a missionary?
[19:08] I had to be prepared for God's will and whatever it might mean. This commitment to let God make me.
[19:22] Not you yourself, for it is him who sits on the throne who makes all things new. Let me just take you through the scriptures for a moment.
[19:34] of all the prophets, can you name one who said to God, look God, I'm ready and I'm prepared to be a prophet.
[19:47] Send me out as a prophet. Not one of them felt capable of doing what God wanted them to do. Moses gave God's will.
[20:00] Moses gave every excuse in the book for not doing God's will. The prophets, Amos, who named them, whoever they were, they said, look, you can't expect us, God, to do this sort of thing.
[20:18] It just doesn't work. I can't do it. if somebody had said to me as a young man that I was going to be a minister and a missionary, I would have said to them, look, you better go and get your head read.
[20:35] There's no way in the world that I could do that. And I testify before you today that I am, by the grace of God, what I am.
[20:47] It is God, he who sits on the throne, who makes you. What about Peter? Did Peter feel adequate for the task?
[21:03] Very early, right at the beginning when our Lord called Peter, he said to them these words, Peter, you are, but you will be.
[21:15] This is what you are, Peter, but I'm going to make you into the rock man who will be a leader. One of the things that I've learnt over the years is that God doesn't like to hear the words, I can't.
[21:38] Because by the grace of God, if he wants you to do something, the answer is, I can, by the grace of God. I've already mentioned for the disciples, can you imagine that group of men, humble fishermen, tax collector, zealot, any one of them saying, oh, I'm right, Jesus, I'll do this job.
[22:06] Every one of them had to put themselves in the hands of Jesus, who said, come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
[22:20] And they had to be made new by, day by day. Today, Jesus went and healed a blind person. Tomorrow, he heals a leper.
[22:32] But each day, they were being made new. And all of us need to be continually made new, day by day, year by year, according to the three steps which I have mentioned, to prepare us for the new heaven and the new earth.
[22:53] Are you being prepared? Will this year bring more preparation so that when you pass through that portal from life to death, you will say, oh, this is what I've been waiting for.
[23:08] This is what I've been looking forward to. This is great. A skilled artisan, once found in the cellar of a house, an old table, covered in dust and cobwebs and in very poor condition.
[23:33] But he could see that with some hard work, it could be restored to its original condition. So he set to work with dedication and commitment and patience.
[23:51] And after quite a long time, the table was ready. And it was brought out into the light. And there is the final step table.
[24:04] The table was polished. Then as the artisan looked into the surface of the table, he saw his own reflection.
[24:20] reflection. When Jesus Christ looks into our life, does he see a reflection of himself?
[24:35] It was said of the early missionaries in China that after they'd been there a while and the people had been hearing the message, they came to realise who these people were.
[24:50] And the missionaries then, when they were walking down the street or in some other place, the people would say, there comes Jesus Christ. Because they saw in these people the Christ whom they preached.
[25:07] changed. And so let Jesus, the Master Craftsman, work in your life more and more this year, so that you may reflect him in your everyday life.
[25:27] I came across this the other day. You have an advantage, says Dr. Hugh Shee, the father of the Renaissance movement in China.
[25:41] You have an advantage in that all the ideas in Christianity have became flesh in a person. Yes, and the further advantage of our faith is this, the Christmas word can become flesh in us.
[26:00] Today and every day, it must be a reflection of Christmas. In other words, every day this year must be a reflection of Christmas, that he was born to be our Saviour.
[26:15] And it concludes this story by saying, pause on this, that there's another Christmas time to remind yourself that the Christian spirit is the Christmas spirit, extended through the whole year.
[26:33] Christmas we must be prepared to carry the Christmas spirit everywhere we go, not just today, but every day. We are made more like Jesus as we submit to his lordship, as that first song we sang, mentioned, and cast our crowns before him and acknowledge him to be worthy to receive honour and glory and power.
[27:08] What does the future hold? Well, I can tell you it holds, according to God's word, it holds a glorious inheritance.
[27:18] It holds a marvellous, glorious, intimate relationship with God. On the condition, as verse says, he who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
[27:43] So the key to this is that we must overcome. And what do we need to overcome? The first and foremost is that we need to overcome our fear of commitment complete to Jesus Christ.
[28:06] We're scared stiff of giving all that we are and all that we have to Jesus. Because of what our friends may say, or what others may say.
[28:21] We're fearful of committing ourselves to God's will. This is what we need to overcome by the grace of God. We need to overcome our fear of handing over everything to Jesus.
[28:39] I remember one time a girl who came into our CMS office when I was there who came in and put 500 pounds on the desk.
[28:52] And she said I was going to use that to go overseas for a holiday. But she said God has shown me that I must give this to you so that those in Africa can at least have a bicycle to get round their parishes.
[29:10] over coming out and might I say and go on to say that that girl as a result of that came into great blessing.
[29:23] One of the choruses that we used to sing as young people one that meant a great deal to many of us were the words these words of the chorus.
[29:37] All to Jesus I surrender. All to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him and in his presence daily live.
[29:53] All to Jesus I surrender. Make me saviour holy thine. Let me feel the Holy Spirit truly know that thou art mine.
[30:11] And so friends determine that this year and forever more it will be not what I can do through new year resolutions what I can do for myself but what God can do for me as I offer myself to him with open hands.
[30:44] When you stand before God is that the way your hands are? Clenched up to fight the fight of life to hold on or is that the way your hands are going to be?
[31:02] Open to God to take what he will and use it for his glory. Amen.
[31:12] Amen. Thank you.