Why Jesus Came to Die

We're gonna have 2 readings this evening.

The first will be from Isaiah 53. But the second 1 is from Romans chapter 8, which is on page 1 1 5 of your bibles on the tables. So maybe stick a finger in there first and then turn to page 7 4 1 7 4 1 for Isaiah 53. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground, He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like 1 from whom people hide their faces, he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by god, stricken by him, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on him.

And by his wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way, and the lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth, He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested? That he was cut off from the land of the living. For the transgression of my people, he was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

And though the lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied By his knowledge, my righteous servant will the servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong. Because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressions. Aaliyah's gonna come and read Roman's chapter 8 now.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the 1 who subjected it in hope, that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into freedom and glory of the children of god. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sunship in the re the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope, we were saved, But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they have already?

But if we hope what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts know them knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for god's people in accordance with the will of god. And we know that in all things, god works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose For those god foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

That he may be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called. Those he called, he also justified and those he justified, he also glorified. Thanks, Leah. Good evening, everybody.

Is there any life in here? There we are. Thank you. Just, just before we get started, I've been asked to give a little plug for sisters act. If you're here in the morning service, Abby talked about, a special sort of sisters act in which they're going to do a a secret service.

And it really is a a viable thing to do. We we actually did it, a few years back with our oldest youth group rooted. And, the the just the the time that you spend there thinking through our persecuted brothers and sisters is just so helpful. So in the way that they have to sing, in the way that they may, do communion. So do do make that a priority to go to women.

It's, is it next next Monday? A week month that's already a week Monday. So, that'll be really, really, viable for you to go to. Let's, let's pray as we we come now, to to our lord, savior. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much, for the privilege and the joy that it is for us to be able to meet together as your people, and we've just talked about our persecuted brothers and sisters who who don't have the ease by which we can, open up your words and meet together and sing your praises. And so, we pray father that you will make this, make us ready and wanting to hear, from your words. We pray that you will help us to understand what a joy it is, to do this. So we do pray for your help tonight, help us to see our great savior, help us to understand just how glorious Jesus is, help us not to be distracted by other people, or things that are going on in our lives. But, actually, that we would have our minds and our hearts focused upon the lord Jesus Christ that we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Well, we're we're starting or we're we're carrying on in this series, 50 reasons why Jesus came to die. Allow 50 is not a an exhaustive number, that's just, I guess, the ones that John Piper could think of. But it's an amazing thing to be able just, to focus in on the many different angles of what Jesus achieves, upon the cross. And so tonight, we come to our our next 1, which is to heal us from our moral and physical sickness, to heal us from our moral and our physical sickness. And so, You may, you may remember or you may have been involved in those classic conversations, maybe you, were in an IRS lesson, where, the the topic of suffering has been, put forwards.

The the the idea of, you know, you might have you might have had the epicurious epicurean paradox where apparently, epicurus, this Greek philosopher found it hard to believe that there could be a creator god because of the issue of suffering and evil in the world, or or the incan it's called the inconsistent triad of soviet. I haven't heard of that. Am I speaking to blank wolves? Yeah. No.

And Steve's like, I don't know what you're talking about. I barely just see the sheep, in the inconsistent triad of suffering. So in other words, if if if if there is a god, It it can he be both can he be all loving and all powerful? Well, if he's all loving, how why is there suffering? He can't be all loving of the suffering.

If he's all powerful, why is there suffering? He's not powerful enough to do about it. And so you have these great philosophical debates about suffering. I guess it's quite nice to discuss those things and have those academic conversations. But I think those questions of suffering and pain and sickness start to become much more real when you're in the midst of such times.

When you're in the middle of pain, then you may ask the question why. You may then think, is god really loving me here? And that would be a a much more genuine faith, genuine question. And so as Christians, how how are we to navigate this issue? How are we to to respond?

How are we to How are we to understand the issue of pain and of sickness and of death? Do we have any any answers at all? Well, let me, give you my first point, which is the reason for disease and death. The reason for disease and death. Season death If you know the story of the Bible, was never part of the original design.

When god created the world in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, The world that he created, he'd says time and time again was good until the very end, he says it was very good. The world that god created was perfect. It was a world without death and without disease. It was a world that was perfect, perfect morally, and perfect physically. So the original design of our world is a world that doesn't have death or disease at all.

But as the story goes, our original father and mother, Adam and Eve, after being tempted by the snake, rebelled against the god of the universe and took off that tree that they were forbidden to do. And as soon as that happens, humanity All of us is infected. All of us are spoiled. All of us are tarnished. We read Romans, just a a a couple of chapters beforehand in in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12.

Paul says, therefore, just a sin entered the world through 1 man and death through sin. And in this way, death came to all people because all sinned. That moment, but when when Adam takes the fruit, and he eats off it. The whole human race, sinful infected. See, the thing is disease and death is a moral issue before it's anything else.

It's a moral thing. It's deeper than what we see on the outside. It's deeper than the pain that you may feel The the the real issue in the garden of Eden actually is a spiritual 1 because it's in this moment that Adam and Eve are condemned to having spiritual death and spiritual disease. And so what is the result for Adam and Eve once they've taken that fruit? Well, they're banished from the garden of eden.

They're banished from the presence of god. They're cut off from the life giver himself. And so, therefore, spiritually, they are sick and spiritually, they are dead. And as a result of the spiritual death, physical pain comes into this world. The physical shows us our spiritual issue.

The physical is the consequence of our spiritual issue. So Romans's 8 verse 20 told us for the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the 1 who subjected it. In Genesis 3, when Adam has to stand and give an account for what he did. God says this world is gonna be cursed. This world is cursed.

There is gonna be pain, and there's gonna be death. Because you need to know You need to know what sin does. You need to understand that your sin has grave consequences. See, sometimes we don't always understand the gravity of our actions. And to understand the gravity of our actions, we need to understand the consequences of our actions.

And so god in his grace gives us death, and he gives us disease so that we are able to understand how awful our sin is. Alex helpfully prayed just beforehand. To say that we don't understand how sinful we are. And god gives us death to show us. Piper in his book says this, God subjected the world to the futility of physical pain to show the horror of moral evil.

And so spiritually, they die. And when they spiritually does, die, disease enters into this world. Cancer enters this world. Organ issues enter this world. Deformity enters this world paralysis, enters this world, blindness, muteness, deafness, mental health issues enter this world And as I say those things, I imagine we should all be familiar with this in our in some way in our lives.

And the greatest thing that comes into our world is that physical death enters this world. And the reason, because of our moral sin. That's the reason for disease and death. Secondly, the effects of disease and death, the effects of disease and death. 1 of the reasons I think the Bible so good is because the Bible doesn't shy away from this issue.

And the Bible isn't glib about this issue. The Bible is serious and speaks into our our world and into our pains and into our experiences of death, doesn't it? It's not like buddhism. They're buddhism where it's it just says suffering, it's an illusion. It's not real.

Or it's not just, you know, with scissom where you kinda have to just bear on the pain and disease and death and think, oh, well, I'll just put a hard face on it, you know, all the British, what's it called? Stiff of a lip, which no 1 talks about anymore. The stiff, what's it called? Anyway, move on. The stiff thing.

Anyway, the Bible doesn't do that. The Bible recognizes that these things affect us. The Bible recognizes that human beings feel the weight of death and disease. Even in this chapter in Romans, it took has that that word groaning, that sort of that when you're under a burden, you kind of moan and you groan, you let out size and exasperations. I mean, the old testament's got a whole book.

Called Job, which deals with this issue of suffering. And and when you read the gospels, you look at the people in the gospels when they're they're coming to coming to Jesus for help. They're They're desperate. The the the frustrated. The the the pleading with Jesus because they want help for a loved 1.

The the grieving because They've lost a loved 1. And even Paul himself, as he writes, has the experience and the anxieties of pain on himself and pain on other people. And isn't isn't that our isn't that our experience? Isn't that our experience of suffering and pain? You know, the worry and that sort of helplessness when, you know, a loved 1 is sick.

And what can I do? The anger of such diseases like cancer. The frustration of not being able to Go to 1 that is suffering. Like, you want to. The the devastation and the havoc wreaked by death.

And these things tell us, but it's not natural. They tell us that there's a problem. And and as Christians were not removed from these things, you might think, oh, well, I became a Christian. I thought I'd be alright. Well, that's clearly not the case in Romans chapter 8 and verse 23 there, isn't it?

We groan ourselves. We're not removed from it. We all have all humanity has the experience of having to deal with a broken world, a cursed world, a world where death and disease are are a part of it, but we know it shouldn't be there. Were not removed, but the good news is that god's not removed from it either. Christ is not removed from it.

I think, you know, as I say, the Bible doesn't shy away from these things, and Jesus doesn't. I love the gospels because they are so real. And Jesus is so real so that when Jesus is confronted, with disease people. It talks about him being indignant. He's absolutely furious at disease It talks about him having compassion.

So he feels to his belly, to his core, the pains of people. It talks about where he stands at the graveside of 1 of his really close friends, lazarus. What does he do? He weeps because he realizes, and he understands more so than we can ever experience, ever understand that Death and disease are aliens that the sin of our, and our sickness, spiritually, has brought into this world. The world that he created to be perfect, he sees it now, and he sees that humanity is is desperately broken and desperately ill and desperately sick.

He's not removed, but the beauty of Christ is, yes, he shares our experiences, he shares our emotions, and he feels they're much more than we could ever truly feel them. He's caring, but He has power. Here is the good doctor. And so you'll notice in verse 20. Yes.

It says that creation was subjected to frustration, But at the end of that verse, it says, in hope. It was never a permanent solution for god to subject the creation to frustration. It was only ever temporary. And so the beauty of Christ is that there is hope with him. So thirdly, the healing of disease and death.

When Jesus comes, to this world, there's an amazing scene in the book of Luke it's elect it's actually an electric scene. I haven't got time to read it all. If I did, I would. But in Luke chapter 4, he walks into his hometown synagogue, and, he reads from the scroll of Isaiah. And he says, this is who I am in chapter 4 and verse 18 to 19.

He says, the spirit of the lord is on me Because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free to reclaim the year of the lord's favor. He says, I've come to bring healing. And so this week, I decided to, just work through the gospels to see how many healings are recorded. Oh, I might got this wrong. Anyone anyone got any guesses to how many times have recorded?

Any guesses? No. You don't know. 50. It's not that many, devastated.

PIM. Don't lower it. It sounds more now it doesn't sound very impressive. Does it? And now we all think Jesus is not impressive.

45 times. You're close. 45 occasions. It's amazing. You you just work through me.

There's another healing. There's another healing. There's another healing. 45 times. There's a range of things from the blind, to the deaf, to the mute, to the paralyzed, to the the ones who's impacted by evil spirits to the ones who were even dead.

He heals, and he heals, and he heals. And there are signal that says, I've come to bring redemption. They're not they're not the full redemption. They're just little flashing signals that say someone special's here. He's the 1 who's gonna bring some sort of healing.

And the language that they use when when he heals often, it's that it's that he completely restores. You you see a man who's got a shrivelled hand, and and suddenly Jesus just restores it completely that the hand suddenly is stored, or you go to the tomb of lazarus, he says come out, and suddenly all those cells and those those electrode whatever they are in your head, so I'm clearly not a science teacher. Am I? They they all come together so that then he is completely restored as a man? Or or that that that people are set free.

1 of my favorite stories, in in the Bible is in Luke chapter 13. And there's this lady, and she's been stooped over for 18 years of her life. Stooped over. Couldn't can't stand up properly 18 years. And Jesus gets her to stand and says, be healed.

And she's set free from the bondage of Satan. In Mark with the the woman who's been bleeding for 12 years says, oh, if no none of the doctors could help me. None of the doctors have been able to sort me out. I've tried every medical person that I can get my hands upon, and I cannot be solved here. But there's this Jesus bloke.

And if only I can touch his cloak, then maybe I'll be healed. I said she does. She reaches out. She touches his cloak, and she's instantly healed. And Jesus seeks her out and says, no.

Your faith is set you free from your suffering. He sets us free. From the bondage in this world of death and disease. There's these other occasions in the gospels where he just seems to be healing constantly. It's like there's like a whole waiting room of people, you know, you think about egg and e, but I think it would be, you know, triage would be a bit lot easier if Jesus was running triage, I must say.

Yes, because he they they come to him and he spends time with them and he heals them. So in Matthew chapter, 4, he says Jesus went throughout galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the every every disease and sickness among the people, news about them spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe saying. The demon possessed, those having seizures and the paralyzed, and he healed them. And then Matthew chapter 8, when evening came, many who were demon possessed, were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word, and he healed all the sick. He's just giving himself and giving himself to heal all.

But remember It isn't just about the physical here. The physical is just a symptom. The physical is just a consequence of the underlying issue that he has truly come to deal with the spiritual issue. And so you think about the the paralyzed man, which Matthew Mark and Luke record. Right?

There's these 4 4 blokes, and they've got their mate who's paralyzed, and they they come to the house and they think, well, we can't get in here because it's more crammed in a a London tube. So we better go up the up the stairs and through the roof and lower him in his mat. And he think, well, if we go over the basis of what we've just read here, right, what's he gonna do for him? Heal him. Right?

And so you think, well, lovely. Jesus's gonna heal him. And he looks down at the man. And he says, your sins are forgiven. Your sins are forgiven.

That's why he's done. And he says your sins have been given, and then he heals him. That's what he's come to do, and these are signals. They're signpost to what he ultimately achieves. And how does he ultimately achieve our healing?

Well, the next verse of Matthew chapter 8 says This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases. And so Matthew quotes that passage in Isaiah that Alex read towards at the start, and it's quite an image, isn't it? You know, healing after healing. He takes the pain, and it and he doesn't just, like that's it.

He takes it and he puts it on himself. Because you you're not strong enough to carry that that weight. You know, like when you you see somebody who's trying to carry stuff and they can't, and you think, well, I'm strong enough. So I'll take it off them. Well, that's what we're like.

You know, Jesus sees us. He sees all our all our disease and all our pain. And he sees it, and he comes to each individual, and he goes, I'll take it, and I'll put it on my own back. I'll take it out, put it on my own shoulders, and I'll take your death and disease, and I'll take your spiritual sickness and your sin, and I'll put it on here. We sing a song that goes all our sickness, all our sorrows.

Jesus carried up the hill. And so as he takes all of that stuff upon himself, He marches up to Calvary, and dies and across, and carries it all into the grave. In Isaiah 53, you would have heard the words verse 4. Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering. Yet we considered him punished by god stricken by him and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way, and the lord has laid on him the iniquity offers all, and verse 8 by oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people he was punished. There he is. He's put it all on his own shoulders. And he's gone and been pierced and crushed on a cross, not for his sin, not for his sickness, not for his physical flaws, not for his spiritual flaws, but because he's carried your sin. And god judges him for your sin.

Christ suffers the judgment of god upon sin that brought physical death and disease, and he heals us of both. Physical, and spiritual sickness. Did you see that in chapter 53 in verse 5? He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment was the punishment that brought us peace was on him.

And by his wounds, you have been healed. What a what a sort of paradox now? What a a strange sentence that that Jesus it's not usually the way you heal people, is it? You're not usually healed by somebody else getting hurt, but in some mysterious way, it's it's is as Jesus receives the floggings of the Romans, and as each whip comes down on his back and rakes like a plow field into his back. Each 1 signals, pay for healed so that the the pain of Jesus is back, the the pain of the the nails in his in his hands and in his feet are the very things that give us healing.

Piper says the horrible blows to the back of Jesus bought a world without disease. How good is that? That's the healing of death and disease. Here's the 4 thing. The hope of disease and death dealt with.

The hope of disease and death dealt with. See, there's hope and comfort now. There's incredible news that we have had our spiritual sickness. We have had our sin and we have had our death all dealt with upon the cross. Jesus has left it in the grave and has risen glorious from the death, so there is new life on offer for all that trust in him.

There is hope now And there is no other hope in this world. I don't know I don't know what you, you know, what your people around you are are hoping is. I don't know what you what you have hope in, but no other hope is is satisfactory. No other hope can actually give you hope. It's ill futile.

But here, we have real hope. Here, we have hope that lasts. Here we have hope that will will will will give us joy and peace. So much so that even when death hurts us, and even when death takes the the the the lives of of lost ones. We don't grieve like the world grieves.

The world grieves. They see death. They think I have no answer for this. There is no answer for the death, but Paul says in 1 thessalonians, we do not grieve like them but we grieve with what, with hope. Why?

Because we believe in resurrection future now. Jesus in his death and his resurrection. Brings healing spiritually yes, but he will bring ultimate physical healing in the resurrection day when he returns. There is a day coming, and some of you will be more excited than this than others because you feel the pain more than others. Yes.

I'm not looking at anybody in particular. Young ones obviously don't. They're fine, but you may get aches and pains There's a day coming when those aches and pains will be no longer. How good is that? Yeah?

You know when you're playing football on the away day, for goodness sake, and you pull your hamstring because you were going too hard at it. Well, there's good news. In heaven, my hamstring will be restored. It's not that bad. I mean, sound like it's terrible.

The bodily pain that we may feel today, the diseases that ravaged, maybe us, and maybe loved ones, the death that there is will ultimately be vanquished on resurrection day. Revelation 21 It's 1 of my favorite passages in the Bible. If you ever heard me preach, I I often go to it, but it's so good. I'm gonna read it. Revelation chapter 21, and verse 1 to 4 says this.

What a glimpse of glory that we get in Revelation, just a glimpse. 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 see. Now that means there's no longer any sin or chaos or destruction. I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, god's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and god himself will be with them and be their god. He 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. Brothers and sisters in Christ, if you are trusting in him, that is what Christ achieves by healing us physically and spiritually so that 1 day we will be in eternity with him.

Free from pain. Free from death. Free from disease. Some of you may have heard of Joni Ericson, Tarda. Joni Ericson is a lady who, at the age of 17, when she tried to dive in some water, ended up paralyzing herself from the neck down.

She's been in a wheelchair ever since that day, and, but she is a Christian. And she's used her disability to really serve the gospel in many ways. She talks about the new creation, and it is really wonderful. So I'm gonna try and read this. We'll see how we get on.

Talks about this day when she'll see Jesus. She says this. At that point, Christ will open up our eyes to the great fountain of joy in his heart for us beyond all that we ever experienced. On earth. And when we're able to stop laughing and crying, the lord Jesus really will wipe away our tears.

I find it so poignant that finally, at the point when I do have the use of my arms to wipe away my own tears, I won't have to because god will. What a glorious picture of our loving savior who will wipe away our tears, and will bring us to eternity, free of physical sickness, and free of spiritual sickness. And so maybe tonight, you've never trusted in the lord Jesus Christ. Well, look what he has to offer. Healing.

Healing, spiritually, healing physically, and an ultimate freedom from death and disease for eternity. Or you're trusting him tonight. And for you Christians, is this not caused to rejoice? I mean, you should all be smiling from a to a, I'm not gonna lie. There's a day coming when you're gonna be an eternity with Jesus.

That's worth rejoicing about, isn't it? That's worth singing about. And I have no point singing about your stupid football team. Yeah? Because they only go and draw to crystal palace.

I'm an amateur fox. Right? Now this is worth singing about. But let us learn this now. Let learn now.

You young ones. You better learn this now before physical pain comes your way. Before death wreaks havoc in your families. And you in this room too? Learn it now.

Learn it now so that when You know, that pain and that disease and that death comes to your life. You have an anchor for your soul to understand that, yes, I understand that there is sin that has caused this world to be broken, but I also understand that Jesus is so glorious and so loving and so caring and so powerful that he came to have a way, have a way with that suffering and that pain. And and it points me to a, a time and a place, a longing for somewhere else to go. And so learn, and we are incredibly blessed, aren't we, Cornerstone? We have people in our church who have used their suffering and used the pain and used the cancer to teach us to look forward to Jesus.

Don't look into this world. Don't look at the things that you can get in this world. Look for the new world. Wasn't it we used to hear about, really, our dear sister, before she went to be with the lord, how she used her cancer to point people to Jesus. Oh, dear brother, Paul Whitfield, when we're diagnosed with with so little time to to to to live, used his cancer, not to go, oh, where was me?

But actually to say, I'm looking forward to the day when I'll be with my glorious savior, the lord Jesus Christ. There's people in your families I'm sure to rejoice that you have. I stood at the graveside of my granny, and my granddad always had a way of just surprising because we've, like, been crazy. We'd been married to Granny for over 50 years, and we were all there in the graveside. I think that's it.

They've they've lowered it in. I mean, You think there was silence? And then suddenly out the silence, a voice pierce the the air. Goodbye, Sally. You're with Jesus now.

I'll see you in heaven. Brilliant praise god that people point me to the lord Jesus Christ and what he has to offer. And so as we learn, let us long. Do you long for the lord Jesus to come back. Do you long for him?

The prayer of Revelation has come, lord Jesus. Is that your prayer? Is that your prayer? Come, lord Jesus. Not come a little bit later, lord.

I'd like to quite like to get married. Come a bit later, lord. I quite like to travel to Thailand. Come a come a bit later, Lord. I quite like to get my GCSEs and my A levels and career.

Come a little bit later, Lord. No. Come lord Jesus. This is better than he comes now. It's not like, oh, okay.

Now that I've lived my life in this earth, I suppose I'll have to go to heaven. That's ridiculous behavior. Isn't what? You've you wanna live in this world with the death and the disease and the sickness, where there's a world on offer where you'll have ultimate joy and peace You won't you you're crazy. No.

The prayer, Christian, is come, lord Jesus. Do away with this world. Do away with my sin. Do away with my physical flaws, come lord Jesus. Commentate me home to be with you.

At the end of his book, here's how Piper writes it. 1 day, All disease will be banished from god's redeemed creation. There will be a new earth. We will have new bodies. Death will be swallowed up by everlasting life.

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and all who love Christ will sing songs of thanks to the lamb who were slain to redeem us from sin and death and disease. Praise God for our lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we do. We do thank you that you do not leave us in this world to try and navigate disease and death on our own.

We thank you that you are a god who is not removed from our pain, that you are not a god who is distant, but you are a god who sends his darling son, the lord Jesus Christ. To enter a world of disease and death so that he may heal those who suffer from them. Lord Jesus, we praise you. We praise you that you not only felt our experiences and our emotions as a man, but you also had the power to deal with our great enemies of disease and death of spiritual sickness. And so he prays you, Jesus, that you were willing to take on to your own shoulders and put it on your own back, my sin, my physical ailments, and that you were willing to die and take the judgment of your father so that we may be healed.

We thank you, Jesus, for the future that you have secured because of that action. We thank you that in your resurrection, you promise us, resurrection lives. We thank you that the promise is for eternity. There's a promise in which you will take us home to be with you to a world free from death and from disease and from sin. What a glorious savior you are.

And so let us be those who rejoice. Let us be those who learn more of your salvation, and let us be those who long to gaze at your face in eternity, and we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.