Tuesday, April 5, 2022

City of God - Part 3 The PURPOSE of God Fulfilled

 

Title and other images:  Wikimedia Commons

To fulfill is to take the old and bring it to completion; to bring about the ultimate purpose.  God has always had a purpose.  He is the God of design, balance, beauty, and order.  In our text today He takes the ordinary believers of all history, and fulfills their destiny.  He takes all the countless and un-named church members of all ages, including the struggling, loving Philadelphians, and the lazy Laodiceans, all those martyrs and survivors down through the ages, and completes what has always been in the heart and mind of God.  He gathers the entire family of God, and makes us feel quite at home in the New Jerusalem, the city of God.  This fulfillment has its being in relationship. 

Notice the completion of the fulfillment of God’s purpose, the perfectly-new relationship.  What will it be like?

Intimacy Unhindered

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.  Revelation 21:3

God’s purpose, from the time of Adam’s fall, has been to restore Eden’s intimacy.  That was God’s purpose in the first place.

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone;  Genesis 2:18

The fact that God made man in His own image indicates the reflection that it is not good for God to be alone either.  C.S. Lewis said:  If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.[1]

Better applied to this text is the reality that we are made for more than this, or any other world.  We are made for close fellowship with God.  Sin separates us from that.  In the New Jerusalem, the City of God, we will not have closed gates, space, darkness, or anything else to prevent free access to the very presence of God.  The purpose of God removes every obstacle to His purpose of intimate fellowship with us.  We shall see Him face to face. 

Beside Intimacy Unhindered, there is:

Integrity Untainted

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”  Revelation 21:4

There is a sense in which former things dog us all the days of our lives. 

     ·       How can we have nothing between God and ourselves when the memories of past failures bring tears to eyes. 

     ·       And the death of loved ones brings sadness. 

     ·       And there is pain in this world. 

Integrity is a relationship of complete oneness.  Our sin, and this sinful existence is separates us from complete rest of mind and soul.  We are stuck in former things.  New things will require a clean sweep. 

As a child I did quite a few things that caused myself pain.  Often, I cried.  I can still feel the cool washcloth on my face as Mom washed away dirt, sweat and tears.  I can remember the way it felt so good to be near her and be comforted.  If that is possible for a child with a human Mother, how much more the refreshing of our integrity, our wholeness, when the Father above wipes away all the former things!  Intimacy will be Unhindered, Integrity Untainted, and

Inheritance Unmeasured

All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.  Revelation 21:7

When someone inherits, it is based most visibly upon two things:

DEATH...of the person who grants the inheritance.  Jesus’ death on the cross was the act that sealed the Father’s will.  Besides death, RELATIONSHIP...is the other factor. 

As a recognized point of law, blood kin and adopted kin are entitled to inheritance.  The victorious believers of whom John writes are those who cling to the blood-stained cross, and His name.  Even the prodigal son knew it was not enough to recognize he was in the pig pen, and far from the father, he got up and went to the father, and was received.  Beloved, the only way to be there when the inheritance is handed out without measure, is to be related to the Father. 

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  John 1:12

Intimacy will be Unhindered, Integrity Untainted, Inheritance Unmeasured, and

Identity Unmistakable

No longer will there be a curse upon anything.  For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.  And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.  Revelation 22:3-4

The name in the forehead is an obvious opposite to the mark of the beast.  Those who take the name of Jesus will have His mark.  It may not a physical mark, but more likely an identifiable character.  We are to be transformed into the image of Christ[2]This is what Paul sought:

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.  Romans 8:29

The only real trouble with the church in any age is our identity crisis when believers do not live up to the name – when we don’t even try to be conformed to His image.  We have the name Christian, it means little Christ, disciple of His

Are you becoming what the name implies?

The passage says that His servants shall serve Him.  The word has a special meaning.  It is only used in the New Testament to describe doing things for a Master that only the most trusted slave would be permitted to do.  What that means is that the family will provide for our Lord what nothing else in the universe can do, or be, family.  We are His, and He wants no other. 

Child of God, you should not have any identity crisis.  You are wanted and loved by the God, eternal.  You are needed by Him.  Nothing else will do! 

In the fulfilled purpose of God your identity will unmistakable!

Insight Unending

And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them.  And they will reign forever and ever.  Revelation 22:5

That great author Victor Hugo said, I feel within me that future life.  I am like a forest that has been razed; the new shoots are stronger and brighter.  I shall most certainly rise toward the heavens – the nearer my approach to the end, the plainer is the sound of immortal symphonies of worlds which invite me.  For half a century I have been translating my thoughts into prose and verse: history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode, and song; all of these I have tried.  But I feel I haven’t given utterance to the thousandth part of what lies with me. 

When I go to the grave I can say, as others have said, My day’s work is done.  But I cannot say, My life is done.  My work will recommence the next morning.  The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare.  It closes upon the twilight but opens upon the dawn.[3]

Heaven allows for the fullest expression of life.  All the secrets of the universe will open in the City of God.  Our line of vision will be unhindered for eternity.  Paul said we shall know, even as we are known. 

As a baby in the cradle I received tender and loving care from my Mother.  I was satisfied to eat, burp a little, and sleep.  My universe revolved around warm food and a dry diaper.  As an adult I have experienced much more.  I have held my own babies, grandbabies, and great-grandbabies.  I’ve stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon in awe.  I have flown around the world.  I have lived and learned these past nearly 75 years.  There was always much more to life than just the inside of that cradle, and Mom’s arms, and life has been good. 

But then, O, then there will not just be more, there will be no limit at all in the city of God.  God’s purpose, throwing the lid off the limits for His beloved! 

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”  1 Corinthians 2:9

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!  


[1]James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, (Wheaton, Tyndale, 1988), 172

[2] According to Romans 12:1-2

[3]Ibid., 173



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