Because God First Loved Us, We Live in Hope (2000)

Message Delivered at Urbana 2000
by Steve Hayner

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One of the most frequently used words in all of the Bible, is the word remember. And tonight is a night when we remember. It is not just about remembering tonight, it's about remembering the past, and the present, and the future. And it is an incredible story. And I love to tell this story.

The story began in eternity, with the fellowship of God within the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, living in endless love and glory. At some point, God's love and creativity moved into time, and the universe came into being.

Into the darkness burst light, and the universe exploded with a spectacle of a billion galaxies. And then, God created our little blue planet, and brought forth life in such diversity and abundance, and into the center of it all, God created people: created in God's image, with the ability to make decisions and to create and to rule the earth and, most importantly, to love and to worship God. And to love each other.

God's plan was to nurture these new creatures, to help them to learn, to grow in their love. And ultimately, to share the fellowship if the Trinity forever. Now when we connect our story with that story, it's so exciting because you suddenly begin to realize God doesn't create any junk.

And he makes us right. That's good news for people like me. All my adult life, I've struggled with the fact that I'm a very shy person. In fact, I was so painfully shy as a child and as a young adult, I didn't even want to go shopping, because I didn't want to deal with store clerks. It is God's great irony, that somehow he puts me in a position like this.

And the fact that God is our creative father means that each one of us is totally wanted. Now you know, that some of you tonight are people who know, somewhere in your heart, that your parents didn't even want you. But you know what? There are no unwanted children in the kingdom of God.

But God's plan took an ugly turn. Our first parents took God's gift of freedom, and they walked away from God. They decided that this grand creation was about them, about their story, rather than God's story. They wanted to be the center of things. And instead of living in the freedom of serving their creator, and being all that they were created to be, they tried to determine their own objects of worship, and their own destiny.

"We want to do whatever we want to do, whenever we want to do it," they said. "Don't tell us what's right and wrong! We will do what we want." And with that first act of rebellion, what the Bible calls sin, judgement and death came into human experience.

I'm not surprised about what our first parents did, because I know the rebellion in my own heart. And the consequences of sin is not just that bad things may happen to us, but that we will be cut off from God, from life, from love, forever.

The Bible describes death with many images throughout the Old and New Testaments. The Bible says it's like being thrown into the always-burning garbage dumps outside the city's walls. It's like everlasting darkness and loneliness. But mostly, it's about being away from God.

And whether you are a starving child, or Bill Gates of Microsoft, the only difference between the two of you is a few years of relative comfort, trying to grab some happiness. In the end, we will all die. Do you think God, who created us, who lives us, and who wants good for us, wants death? No.

That's why God has been on a mission throughout history. God could have taken all of creation, and wadded it up and just thrown it away. But the loving creator didn't do that. God never gives up in this mission to reclaim humanity. And the pages of scripture are full of God's redeeming story: God on a mission, reaching out to people. Though they continue to ignore and rebel and deny and blame him.

I am so grateful that God kept searching for me. And I can now look back on my life, and see some of the places where God was at work. Can't you? Through people, through situations, through various kinds of hints that he was really there. God reached down and took us.

Almost immediately after our first parents sinned, God took the initiative to woo people back to himself. He called a family and a nation to be his special emissaries in the world, to proclaim his love, and to witness to his care.

[Scripture recitation by Bruce Kuhn: Genesis 12:1-3]

In the second millennium BC, God gave his chosen people the Law to help them understand his character, and what the good life really looked like. He communicated with them not only through the glory of creation, but also through the grace of his forgiveness, demonstrated in the temple sacrifices and rituals. And through his words, given to them by his messengers the prophets. And through his call to worship. And then, in the fullness of time, God himself came, and walked among the people.

[Scripture Recitation by Nina Thiel: Luke 1:26-55]

Jesus the son of God, showed us what it looked like to have a full relationship with God. And if that were not enough, God who knew that we could never make up for the wrongs that we had done to him or to each other, gave himself up for us. Jesus took our place, died on the cross. God in Christ again gave us what we needed, rather than what we deserved. It's called grace.

The good news is, we can quit pretending to be good, and begin to let God love us.

Irenaeus, one of the great fathers of the early church, said that God "reached out and hugged humanity with the Son and with the Holy Spirit." Irenaeus said that the Son and the Spirit are like the two hands of the father, holding us close to the father's heart.

Our Korean brothers and sisters most often give gifts with two hands, as a sign that nothing is held back. And that is what the father did for us. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians says, "Blessed be the God and father of our lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love."

You and I are now in Christ. That is, all that God has done in Christ, and all the love which God has for Christ, is now ours, because we too are in Christ. We have been adopted once more into the family. We're part of God's love circle of heaven. This is God's great story.

The important thing to know about this story is, it's not about us. And that's a good thing, because God's story is far, far better than anything you and I have going on. This is good news. It is fantastic news. My nine-year-old son says, it is "jawesome" news. Jawesome? A hundred times awesome!

On Pentecost, Jesus empowered his followers to share this news - his invitation to receive God's love - with the whole world. The church has one purpose in the world: to carry on the mission of God, working out his purposes, loving people, and inviting them into his worship.

[Scripture recitation by Jess Delegencia: 1 John 4:7-21]

[Scripture recitation by Bruce Kuhn: John 21:15-22]

For the last two millennia, those like Peter, who have followed Jesus, have been telling others, and doing the "jawesome" news. And tonight, our generation will walk into the third millennium. Of course, many times we get so caught up in our pitiful little lives, thinking that our story is so important, that we lose sight of God's story.

Because most of us live with many privileges. It's easy to think that we can control life. We think we can ignore God, and God's story, and make life good enough on our own. We have managed to take things, and make them fulfillment in our lives. But is it?

I can guarantee you, that no matter how good we might pretend that life is, or can be, all of us will inevitably face anxiety and pain in this life, that will cause us to scream inside: "This is NOT the way it's supposed to be!"

Now for many in our world, this pain and anxiety is a reality that cannot be imagined away. We've seen that all week. If you and I woke up this morning with more health than illness, that is more than the one million people who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture of the pangs of starvation, then you are ahead of five hundred million people in the world today.

If you and I can attend a church meeting, and worship Jesus, without fear of harassment or arrest or torture or death, then you and I have more freedom than three billion people in our world today.

If you have enough food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, then you are richer than seventy-five percent of the people of the people in our world.

And if you have money in the bank, or in your wallet, or a spare change dish someplace, then you are among the top eight percent of the world's wealthy.

And if you can read, you have more education than two billion people in the world who cannot read at all. Is life good enough for these fellow human beings or for you?

Brent Curtis and John Eldridge in the book The Sacred Romance, have rightly observed:

"If for all practical purposes we believe that this life is our best shot at happiness, if this is as good as it gets, then we will live as desperate, demanding, and eventually despairing men and women. We will place on this world what it was never intended to bear. We will try to find a way to sneak back into the Garden. And when that fails, as it always does, our heart fails as well. And most of us live as if life is our only hope."

"All the crises of the human soul flow from there," say Curtis and Eldridge, "all addictions and depressions, the rage that simmers under the surface, and deadness that characterizes so much of life, all has a common root. We think this is as good as it gets."

The best human life is unspeakably sad. Even if we manage to escape the big tragedies, life rarely matches expectations. When we get a taste of the truly good, as many of us have had this week, it seldom lasts. Every vacation ends, friends move away, careers don't satisfy, and we feel guilty about feeling disappointed.

No matter how much we live in the illusion of goodness, eventually all of us will face the ultimate enemy of life as well. Our bodies will die, and we will live this life.

But lest you think that I'm a completely depressing speaker, let's not lose sight of God's great story! Death is not the end of anything. God promises that those who have identified with Jesus will pass on to Life with a capital "L": Life with God forever. Or else, they will be separated from God forever.

And someday, Jesus will come again. And he will bring down the curtain on history as we know it, and there will be a whole new creation. This is the rest of the story.

[scripture recitation by Jess Delegencia and Nina Thiel: Revelation 21:1-8; 22-27; 22:1-5; 16-17; 20]

When you think of heaven, what comes to your mind? Peter Kreeft says that for most of us, heaven isn't very compelling, because we haven't used our imagination guided by scriptures very well. He says,

Medieval imagery of light, jewels, stars, candles, trumpets and angels no longer fits our ranch-style supermarket world. Pathetic modern substitutes of fluffy little clouds and sexless cherubs and harps and metal halos, presided over by a stuffy, divine chairman of the board, are a joke, not a glory. And even more modern, more 'up-to-date' substitutes, heaven is a comfortable feeling of peace and kindness, sweetness and light and God is a vague, grandfatherly benevolence, a senile philanthropist, are even more insipid. Our pictures of heaven simply do not move us.

So imagine with me for a few moments what eternity will be like. Here are at least three things that we know for sure about this life forever with Jesus:

First of all, heaven will include the love and intimacy for which we have always longed. From the time we were born, we longed and long to love and to be loved. The possibility of being left out is one of life's most painful experiences. But in heaven, we will be welcomed to the great wedding feast of the lamb, by Jesus himself. It is life, filled with the presence of Jesus. We will be fully accepted and loved by Jesus and by those around us.

And each of us, who are created, and were created, as an unrepeatable miracle of God, our lives are now cluttered with pain and with guilt and with barriers to being truly ourselves, but in heaven, we will be free to be exactly who and what God has created us to be. We will be utterly freed from everything that makes us not ourselves - whether it is a physical ailment, or a mental deficiency, or the sin that dogs us every day.

There will be no more trying to hide from God or others. There will be dignity for all. There will be no more shame. What Jesus has done for us on the cross, will finally sweep away the last remnants of whatever holds us back, and we will be released for real loving.

There will be no more dividing walls between people. People from every tribe, and every language, and every culture will be there, bringing with them the very best that their respective cultures have to offer.

And there will be no more tears of agony. No more fear, or pain, or disease, or loneliness, or hunger, or abuse.

Secondly: Heaven will be a world of unsurpassed beauty. Can you remember those moments of your life, when your spirit soared because of the experience of something beautiful? It might be the experience of a particular place, or a beautiful person. Or a work of art. I have visions of majestic mountains and grand cathedrals and gardens of flowers and great pieces of music.

There are lots of times when I have said "WOW! This is a little piece of heaven." And if our world is a mere shadow of God's kingdom, I can't even imagine what music or art or nature or learning or fellowship is going to be like in heaven.

You see, beauty is a kind of pipeline for joy to flood into our lives. And that is what will happen in heaven. No wonder the Bible says, we will be feasted. It's not just that there will be no more suffering: we will have glorified bodies and every part of our being will help us to absorb the delights around us.

And Thirdly: Heaven will be a place of unsurpassed fulfillment and adventure. What do you imaging that we will do in the new creation? Sit on clouds? Strum harps? Even the response "we will worship" doesn't sound totally exciting to me, if our view of worship is just about singing over and over again, even if we get to be led by Matt Redman and Charles Wesley and Sundee Frazier. (And I think we're going to be led by all of them.)

But in heaven, all of life will finally be worship. Few of us have ever had a sense that our lives and our talents were being used to their fullest, but in heaven - heaven is about fulfilling our total design. We will be caught up in something far greater than ourselves: a drama of heroic proportions, the extreme.

And we will have a key role to play. We will have an eternity to explore all the wonders of the new heaven and the new earth. We will be able to understand and explore ourselves, our past and how God was using all the parts of this life to help us become more like Jesus.

We will finally understand how all of our life is a part of God's redemptive process. And because we are totally forgiven, we will again be able to walk through our lives, and savor not only the great moments, but also the moments we've tried so hard to forget. But this time, we will see each one in the light of God's grace.

And there will also be the phenomenal adventure of loving and knowing one another in heaven, because there will be no barriers, and no shame, and no embarrassment, and no fear between us. And surely, our greatest adventure of all will be exploring God himself: Father, Son and Holy Spirit - in all of the splendor and mystery and wonder and holiness of the Trinity.

Someday - and it won't be long, even if we live to be a hundred years old, you and I will take our last breath from this body, and all we long to be, we will be. And all that has hurt us so deeply, all the abuses, the betrayals, the idols of this world that have seduced us, or promises of love which have failed, and even Satan himself, will be forever gone.

And then, dear friends, real life will begin. This is what we were created for: romance with God. The great kisses, the deep belonging, the beauty, the adventure, the mystery of it all! We were created to be a part of God's forever family.

I share all this with you tonight, because I want your desire for heaven to rise. The book of Hebrews says that "Jesus ran the race of this life, because of the joy that was set before him." He ran with desire. His heart was fully in it. And even the final, cruel week of his life was fired by passionate and desire. When the going gets tough, when the glorious visions that some of you have had for your lives begin to fade for whatever reasons, when sin or despair begins to pull you down, you go nowhere without hope. But we know the end of the story.

And as our desire for God, and or love for God grows, we become sensitive to both the pleasures and the pains around us in this world too. We appreciate goodness and beauty and joy more, and we suffer more intensely with the pain and evil around us too. And when we live in light of eternity, the ache gets deeper and deeper as we realize the true nature of what sin has done to us, and to the people around us, and this world that exhibits so much potential.

When we live in light of eternity, we press on through the failures and the successes, and the past, and the great temptations that would get us off track. We press on, when life is unbearably difficult, because of the joy that is set before us. "For these momentary light afflictions," says Paul, "are working in us an eternal weight of glory."

Life now is not just a matter of waiting for that time when we will be caught up with Jesus for eternity; God's gift to us now is that we participate in this eternal drama. We are privileged to follow God's spirit into our world, with all of this hope and love and joy, and we can extend invitations to a life with God forever, to people who will not be there if someone doesn't tell them.

Brothers and Sisters, people need to know!

God calls us to live our lives fully and faithfully in light of the fact that we will someday be living with him forever. So as we walk into the third millennium tonight, don't settle for little things.

Don't get seduced into believing that the story is ultimately about you. Don't think that even an ambition to gain even the whole world, is really a big ambition. It's not. Because you can gain the whole world and lose your soul for eternity.

So my dear friends, live in light of eternity. Love in light of eternity. Share the gospel in light of eternity. Serve in light of eternity.

Brothers and Sisters, we will worship together throughout eternity.

[collective recitation of part of Isaiah 66]

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Because God First Loved Us, We Live in Hope (2000)

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December 27-31, 2009