Loving Earth … Kind Of
Can I just tell you that I really, really, really, really, really, love Earth… kind of? After 43 years on this planet, that’s my conclusion. I love Earth with a big asterisk after that emphatic statement. I think of a family vacation that my wife and my daughters and I recently took. We drove way, way, west to the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Have any of you been there before? And just as we’re pulling in, we’re, like, going to our first stop and this truck passes us going in the other direction. He stops, he rolls down his window and says, “You need to turn left and park down there right now.” Okay. So, I turned the van in. It’s an empty parking lot, there’s no one around. We jump out, and do you know what we see? I’ll show you a video of what we saw. We go down to this river, and we just see this moose, like, chilling out during happy hour. Just getting a drink all by himself. Look in the back. Just these towering snowcapped mountains. The sun is shining. The water is still. It was just so epic. It was hard to believe that we were seeing this face to face, and it was just us. I pan over as I’m taking the video, my wife is just worshiping. My daughter is saying, “Yes!” Like, Earth, isn’t it amazing? And it is… sometimes.
When It’s Amazing … and When It’s Not
So, we get to our campsite. Some places on the internet say it’s one of the best campsites in all of the National Parks in all of the nation. It’s one of those campsites that you have to, like, be waiting on your computer to reserve it, like, exactly six months before the date. We did it. I got it. We set up the tent. This campsite has these towering mountain peaks of the Grand Tetons right behind it above the trees. As we set up the tent, I take a picture of the mountains. Here’s what the mountains looked like that day. Earth! Ah! Seriously, like the cloudiest, overcast week. Like, oh my goodness. We’re going to be here once in our life and this is what happens. And I was thinking of those experiences as kind of like a metaphor for my time on this planet. It’s amazing and then it’s not. It’s breathtaking and then it’s disappointing. There are moments that just so exceed my expectations and there’s moments that kind of break my heart.
The Beauty and the Burden
Like, in our front yard where we have this big tree. And every October, here in Wisconsin, it is the most beautiful tree you’ve ever seen. It lights up blazing, orange and red leaves. Literally, I’ll turn down my street, even after all these years, and just stop stunned and worship the God who made that tree. And then, if you’re from Wisconsin you know what happens next. Then November comes and all the million leaves of that tree sit down in my yard. And there’s just some weird curse of nature that my leaves fall directly down and all of my neighbor’s leaves fall at a 45-degree angle, also, in my yard. You know, I get this one day off every week and I’ll spend it raking, and raking, and bagging, and hauling the leaves. Like, it’s amazing, and then it’s not.
The Highs and Lows of Life
Or I think of my sporting career. I can remember a time, maybe 15 years ago, when a soccer teammate crossed me a soccer ball in the air, and I went for it. I jumped, like, f lipping bicycle kick, one in a thousand opportunity. I smashed it square. I watched it f ly over the goalie’s heads. I had strangers shaking my hand after the soccer game. It was the best goal they had seen in their life. Yes, Earth. And I remember my sophomore year at college when the other teammate crossed me another soccer ball and this one, I trapped right here on my chest. And when I did, my lung exploded, collapsed. Ended the year, almost ended my sporting career. Earth.
I think of that day when my wife, Kim, pushed for the last time. I could tell you right where I was standing and I discovered that I wasn’t just a father, I was the father of a daughter. Just, like, wept like I’ve never wept before. Awe, Earth. And I could also tell you where I was sitting next to my wife as she, a daughter, watches her father take his final breath. Earth. And so, I love it, and I love it not. It thrills my heart and then it breaks it. And I bet if you had a few minutes and a microphone you could share your own roller coaster journey on this old Earth. You know, the friendships and the heartbreak, falling in love, and falling out of love. Some days Earth makes you want to jump out of bed and dance, and other days, it makes you want to crawl back into bed and never leave.
Where Are You Today?
I even wonder just about today what your experience has been on Earth. Well, I bet a whole bunch of you just jumped out of bed feeling good. The coffee was hot. The breakfast was there. The sun was shining. And others of you were part of the sad statistic of 20% of Americans who live with depression, 31% of us who deal with frequent anxiety. You know, maybe you came to church, and you came with someone you loved, a good friend, a mom or a dad, a partner, a significant other. Or, maybe you’re part of the 50% of marriages in our culture that don’t make it, that start out with beautiful vows, and the dress, and the flowers, but they don’t end that way.
And maybe you’re running around this morning. Got in the early run and work out at the gym. Or, maybe you’re one of the 40% of people who get cancer. Maybe you popped out of bed excited about your connection to God. You knew that God is with you, that God is for you, that God forgives you. You, like, almost, could feel His presence, believe His promises. Or, maybe you’re having one of those days where, you know, you come to church and you sing the songs, just doesn’t work. You try to pray and read the Bible, that doesn’t change things. You don’t feel necessarily forgiven. You don’t feel like God is near you.
Why We Ache for More
I think for all of us, sooner or later, there’s these highs and there is these lows. We just get used to the uncertainty and all the stuff that can happen to us right here on Earth. Sometimes, Earth feels like a glimpse of heaven, and sometimes Earth feels like a living hell. And I think that’s why we ache for something more. Man, I don’t know that any of us wants to just hold our breath and hope that today is like this instead of, like, this. To hope that this ends soon, or this doesn’t end soon. There’s something within us that just doesn’t want to have to worry about everything falling apart or the wheels falling off the blessing bus. We just want to know it’s going to be good, and then it’s going to be good, and then it’s going to be good.
We ache for something stable, something certain, which is exactly what God promises us. There’s a promise in the Bible that, honestly, a lot of Christians are totally clueless about. Actually, after I just preached a sermon, a guy came to me in the lobby. He said, “Pastor, there are lot of Lutherans who don’t know this.” To which I responded, “It’s not just the Lutherans.” A lot of people don’t know that God has said that this old Earth has an expiration date. And that God has a physical place, a new Earth for his people to live. That’s what I want to talk to you about today.
I’m going to show you that in the Bible, in the Old Testament and New, God has promised every follower of Jesus a whole new world. That is where we’ll be. A thrilling place. A wond– No, these are the lyrics to an Aladdin song, if you don’t know. Like, this whole new world that God has promised us, I’m going to show you from the Bible, that’s coming. It’s certain for every follower of Jesus, and it is better than you can ever imagine.
The Promise: A New Earth
So, today, I want to open up to one of the last pages of the Bible. Like, if you’ve read this far in the good book, you get to the final two pages where God wants to talk to you about this world new world what we call the new Earth. So, look what Jesus’ friend, John, writes in Revelation 21. “Then I saw 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.”
Any of you kind of get freaked out when you’re swimming in really deep water? I do too. You never know what’s like down in the darkness. The seaweed kind of gets — big creatures. In the ancient world, the sea was a scary place. You know, waves could whip up and end your life, big creatures, bigger than you that can swim faster than you, might be swimming beneath the surface. And so, this line, there’s no longer any sea, it’s just reference that all the scary, uncertain stuff, all of that is absolutely gone and instead, what John sees is quote, “A new heaven and a new earth.”
But if you had read through the Bible up to this point, you would know that what John sees is not entirely new because God had actually promised this before. Go all the way back to the Old Testament, the book of Isaiah and God made this promise. “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.”
First century Christians picked up on that promise. They ached for this new heaven and a new earth. And, in fact, Jesus’ friend, Peter, wrote these words. He said, “We Christians are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. You know, righteousness means everything is all right. Like, me and God are all right. Me and you are all right. We and nature are all right. You know, right now, there’s tension, frustration. Things go wrong all the time. But on the new earth, righteousness dwells. Everything is all right in every single direction.
In other words, the Bible in Old Testament and New says, like, “Remember, see, look at this, God is going to create something brand-new.” I love how John describes it in verse 2. Back to Revelation 21, he says, “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
I’ve been to the old Jerusalem, the now Jerusalem, and it is an amazing place, kind of. You know, it’s a place where people have worshiped for so many years and they’ve also gone to war for countless years. It’s a sacred space where our savior himself walked and that space also made him so mad he flipped over tables in the temple. It’s a place that some Christians can’t wait to visit and see with their own eyes. And other Christians are scared to visit because they know what happens in that land. But John doesn’t see the old Jerusalem, he sees the new one. All the history of God’s faithfulness, all the beauty, all the part of you that aches for it, that wants to see it. Except, it’s not broken this time. It’s a whole new version. What John sees coming down from heaven is like Earth, but infinitely better. Closest description he can come to it is that, “This place has been prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”
You know, as a pastor, I get to go to a lot of weddings. And as a pastor, I get the privilege of standing closer to the groom than often even his mother and father in the front row. Do you know what I’ve never seen in over a hundred weddings? I’ve never seen a groom when he sees his bride look bored. I’ve never gotten nudged or elbowed by a groom that’s saying, “I don’t know. You want to bail?” Like, no. When he sees, a bride beautifully dressed for her brand-new husband it’s one of the most beautiful things. He already loved her, and now it’s like she’s as beautiful as she gets. That’s what John says the new earth is like. You’re not bored. It’s not, “Uh, forever.” Like, no. It’s like when you see it, it’s like a city, but holy. It’s like Jerusalem, but new. It’s not just like dating or being married. It’s like the wedding day when it’s so, so beautiful. This is the future that God has promised for this planet when he comes back and makes all things new.
The Three Phases of Earth
Maybe I could summarize this Biblical teaching on Earth with the points in your bulletins. If you’re taking notes, real quick. I think there are three phases the Bible talks about with Earth. Here’s the first one. When God created the heavens and the Earth way back in the beginning, Earth was Earth! God looked at everything that he had made, the man, and the woman, the plants and the animals, the sea and the land, and it was so good what God saw. Put an exclamation point after that. It was Earth! in a beautiful form.
But then, sadly, Earth! with an exclamation point, became Earth… with an ellipsis. After the fall into sin when Adam and Eve tried to do things their way instead of God’s way, when they lived their truths instead of God’s truth, followed their hearts instead of God’s heart, Earth got broken and you see the proof around you every single day. It’s good and it’s bad. It’s wonderful and it’s not. You wish you could be here forever. You wish you could escape it today.
But this teaching we have, this amazing phase three, that the Bible is teaching us that after judgement day when Jesus returns, that could be today, or tomorrow, or ten thousand years from now, Earth will not be the same. In fact, how many exclamation points you got room for in your program? Fill it up all the way to the edge because we are talking about Earth!!!!!
God With Us
So, John is talking about back in Revelation 21, look at verse 3, thinking of the new earth he says, “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look!'” It’s like the guy who rolled down his window to tell me about the moose. “Look, like, don’t miss this.” “God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he, God, will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” The amazing thing about the new earth is not just a 2.0 version of your body, or birds being better, or cities being more beautiful. It’s the fact that God who you used to see by faith, now you get to see face to face. And the thought is so amazing that John doesn’t just repeat it, he repeats it again, “God will dwell with His people.”
And not that long ago, a little second grader from Ohio named Eli, was sitting in his little desk at another day at school. Except, this would not be just another day at school for little Eli because just then as his teachers mysteriously pulled their phones from their pockets, the school mascot came walking through the door, big tiger. He walked in, waved at all the kids. And then, mysteriously, he kneeled down right in front of little Eli’s desk. Eli cocked his head and smiled at the mascot, but the tiger on its knees started to shuffle closer to the desk, and then closer to the desk.
Then the man inside the mascot costume put his hands on either side of the tiger head and lifted it up. And Eli’s expression went from a curious smile to… because guess who was inside the costume? His father. His military father who had been deployed for over a year had come home. And when his brain processed that he was this close to the face of his father, you should find the video online, he was like a leapfrog. He launched himself out of the desk. He tackled the tiger, rolled him on his back. Like, he always had his father. He believed in him, knew him, loved him, but now, he was seeing him face to face.
And that’s what the judgment day is going to be like for every follower of Jesus. Like, to know that we have a heavenly father that we love, but now we get to see his face. Before we had faith, but on that day, we will see his face. Can you even imagine this? That I love God so much. When I just slow down, like, the craziness of life and just think about how great God must be. When I think that God literally made mountains and gave me eyes to just get a glimpse of his glory.
Do you realize that God made, like, parenting? He gave me daughters and then put dopamine and oxytocin wired in my brain so that I would just get this little glimpse of what my relationship with my heavenly father is like. To know that the mountains and the moose, the bicycle kicks, and my best days, were all little appetizers of the greater feast to come of seeing the face of my father. When I think about that, like, how insane is God?
So, if that’s what I think about, what do you think it’s going to be like when you actually don’t have to think. When you get to that day and you don’t need faith? You don’t have to wonder in your heart what it’s going to be like. We don’t need to believe because believing is something you can’t see. And God’s going to take off the mask to every one of his sons and daughters. I think I know how we’ll feel. Prophet Isaiah said, “Rejoice forever,” because on the new earth you will see the face of your father. His promise is not just for the best Christians, it is for every Christian. Those of us who are flying high and those of us who have hit rock bottom. Those of us who are improving in our faith and those of us who feel like we’re getting worse when it comes to following Jesus. For everyone who trusts in Jesus Christ, this is the future. “God himself will be with them and he will be their God.”
No More Pain
And when God takes off the mask, look what he does next, verse 4, “And he, God, 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.” And imagine a day where no one sins, when there’s no trauma, no triggers, no temptation ever. Imagine when there’s no unrest or uneasiness, there’s no, like, vice that you hide in your heart or viciousness in the comment section when you check your phone, when no one worries and there’s no war, when no one reaches for a Xanax just to calm down or yells at each other, around the Thanksgiving table. Imagine where no one zones out from boredom. Like, A to Z, everything that is broken about the old Earth, God will say, “Done. It’s finished. It’s absolutely over.” Because all that is old and God has promised, “I’m about to make everything brand-new.”
Everything New
Well, verse 5, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'” God wanted you to know this, to hold on to this, and believe this. That no matter how good or how bad, it is going to get better for the people of God. You’ll never have to wish you weren’t down here. You’ll never have to wonder when this is going to end. God will end this. So, please, write down this final promise. This is one of the Bible’s best that this life as we know it with all its uncertainty and pain, with all the messed up stuff inside of you and around you, God has promised that he will end this. He will show up one day, look you in the eye, wipe away every tear from your cheek and give you something beautiful and new.
If You’re Not Following Jesus Yet
So, what do we do with this? Well, let me speak to two groups of you before I say, “Amen.” Number one, for those of you who aren’t Christians just yet, maybe you’re here checking out church, maybe you’re watching at home for the first time and you’re not so certain about Jesus, maybe you’re living for you, and not calling Jesus your Lord and your savior. What I would say to you is, it’s not too late.
You might have showed up at church today because you love the girl sitting next to you or mom dragged you, but today, Jesus has you here and he’s offering you this gift, the new Earth. You know, it’s kind of weird to say this as a pastor. But you know that you don’t really need Jesus for this Earth? Like, whether you’re a Christian, or an atheist, or somewhere in between, we all do this with or without Jesus and we all do this. Christians get cancer and non-believers do too. The fact is you can have a pretty decent life on this Earth relatively speaking with or without Jesus.
But on the next Earth, only those who followed Jesus will inherit this glory and this joy. When he comes back and the judgment day occurs, you and I will both be judged. And the question is not, am I better than you or you better than me. The question is, does God see anything bad in you? Because all that’s bad will be pushed away. And Jesus is saying to you today, “It’s not too late. Come to me. Believe in me. At the cross, I’ll take everything wrong, and broken, and messed up, all that old and I’ll erase it. I’ll bear it. I’ll pay for it so that you yourself are prepared for the new earth.”
Man, I wonder if some of you aren’t here in this moment, for this moment. God is saying, “I still have room. There still is time.” That you don’t have to fix your hundred vices before you come to Jesus. You can come to him today. He is the savior of sinners. He is your savior too. Believe in Jesus and the new earth will be your new hope and your new future.
If You Do Follow Jesus
Second, and if you do follow Jesus, I’d put it this way. When you think about the new Earth, these moments get better and these moments get bearable. When you go through something that just stinks, something you wish you could change, if you believe in the new Earth, you can say, “That’s going to end soon.” I’m just stuck in my own head, racing thoughts. That stuff doesn’t happen on the new Earth. Frustrations at work, division in my family, checking the news wondering when the next war is going to happen. None of that is allowed on the new Earth. It’s like one of those sand timers and every second of every day is closer to that never happening again. What I’ve told you today is not some Disney clip to give you hope. It’s not some fairytale. It’s not some opinion that I made up in my heart. I found it from the words of the God who is incapable of lying. “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!'” Believe it. It’s all true. No more pain. No more struggle. No more old Earth. Because of Jesus, God will make everything new, even this Earth, even me, and even you.
Prayer
Let’s pray. Oh, Jesus, come quickly. Man, some days I love my life so much and some days I don’t, but when you come back, we’re going to love every second of it. I cannot wait to see your face, but I also know that you’re saving people day after day, some people that I know and care about. And so, give us patience as we bear the burdens of this life. Help us to believe that you’re a good shepherd that walks with us even through the valleys. May we believe every promise you’ve made to us that no matter what’s happening today, you’re here and you will help, and we can do this, and you’re going to use this.
And when we put our head on the pillow, help us just to remember you’re going to end this and you’re going to make everything new. God, this Earth can be enjoyable, fun, comforting, amazing, but I pray that every heart here would believe that what’s coming is a billion times better. Help us to ache for eternity, to long for that moment for which our hearts were created just to see you and to be in your presence. As the Psalmist said 3,000 years ago, “My heart says of God, ‘Seek his face.'” And so, your face, Lord, we will seek. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray all these things. And God’s people say, “Amen.”
