The Mix

Right.

Here we are then. This is the mix, and we are looking at our 1st section, adult teaching, bite sized chunks. And let me begin with a question. Have you ever wondered, what what are what am I doing with my life? Where is my where is my life going?

What is what is my life all about? Well, you're in luck because I'm gonna show you this morning. Okay? This is how you are spending your life. This is what you're doing with your life.

Okay? So let's say that you live an average of 80 years. So Les at home, he's at 94. So he's doing way better. But let's say we live to 80 years, this is how we're going to spend our lives.

You will spend About 26.7 of your 80 years asleep. You will spend 10.3 of your years working. You will spend 7.6 watching and streaming. 6.8 years of your life will be spent doom scrolling. Eating 3.7 years.

Education, 2.2 years, I know kids, it might feel like you spend a lot more of your life in school than that, but it actually is only 2.2 years in the end. Commuting 1.3 on the toilet, you'll spend 240 whole days of your life on the toilet What are you doing with your life? Partly spending it on the toilet, quite a lot of it, and then personal care? Now that graph there tells us a few things, not least that our lives can be quite repetitive. Can't they?

We don't tend to do lots of new things. We tend to mainly do the same things over and over again. What are you doing with your life? Well, we're stuck in a bit of a pattern, aren't we? The book of Ecclesiastes, great old testament book, puts it this way.

What has been will be again. What has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which 1 can say, look, this is something new. Do you see the lack of novelty that he's describing?

Life is repetitive. It goes on and on. There is nothing new. Someone might say, here, look, there's something new. Here's a new invention or a new way of doing things, but actually the same old struggles remain, don't they?

There's a lack of novelty. There's a repetition. And I wanna suggest that that can be spiritually challenging for us. Have a look at these verses from 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter's writing to a group of Christians, and he says, most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come mocking the truth and following their own desires.

They will say what happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the time of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was 1st created. You see the connection? These mockers are saying to the Christians, do you actually think Jesus is going to come again? You you you you really want me to believe that at some point, history is gonna be dramatically interrupted.

There's gonna be a judgment, and there's gonna be a salvation. Unlike anything that we know, Don't don't you realize Christians that that basically everything goes on as it always has? It's just repetitive. That sort of thing doesn't really happen. We're stuck in the cycle.

And just look how he answers them. But they deliberately forget that god made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. The lord is not slow in keeping his promise. See what he's saying.

Once upon a time, many, many thousands of years ago, there was a man called Noah, and Noah was telling people to get ready for a dramatic interruption. A flood is coming. He was preaching. Something unusual and different is about to take place. God is gonna flood the world in judgment.

You need to get in the ark and be saved. It won't be long now. And the people of his time just thought it was ridiculous. Has he gone soft in the head? Noah?

Doesn't know or realize that everything goes on as he always has this kind of thing just doesn't happen, but then it started to rain. And then it didn't stop raining. And that dramatic interruption, which people thought was impossible, happened. And Peter is saying to the church, yeah, I I know I know life can feel routine. And I know 27 years of it are gonna be spent in bed.

And I know there's nothing really new under the sun, but just keep your head. Keep your head because 1 day the king is gonna return. Not with water, but with fire. And there will be a great judgment and a great interruption and a great salvation. So keep your head.

The lord is not slow in keeping his promise. And when that happens, you will all know about it. We will all know about it. You see the returning lord is not going to arrive like a mouse creeping into the room. It's gonna be more like that.

Yeah? It's gonna be the kind of interruption that is very difficult to ignore. Not a mouse creeping in. Some a trumpet sounds, and Christ is back, and we're all alert. We stop what we're doing.

If anyone was texting at that point, I reckon the phone was suddenly suddenly dropped. Yeah? It's a great interrupt. The question is, friends, when the lord Jesus comes, as he's promised to do, What's he gonna be like? And are we today ready for him?

Returning Lord. We're thinking then about the return of the lord Jesus Christ. And, we are going to spend the rest of our time this morning looking at a very famous collection of verses from the book of Revelation, book of Revelation. If you don't notice the last book in the Bible, It was written by the apostle John when he was on the island of Patmos. He was not there for any kind of holiday.

He was in exile for being a Christian. And whilst he was there, god gave him a revelation. God gave him a vision of reality of what life was all about now and what life would be like in the future. And towards the end of the book, he gets a vision of this final day when Christ returns. And there are 3 things that we're gonna look at which he sees.

He sees a throne. He sees books, and he sees a new beginning. Thrown books a new beginning. Let's look 1st at the throne. This is from Revelation 20.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it, the earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. Here is a throne from the hub. This is what we use at, various kids events. And, as you'll see, there are quite a lot of differences between my throne, the 1 described in Revelation 20. Firstly, this 1 is not white.

It's, brown. Secondly, it's not very great. I think the 1 in Revelation would be significantly greater. And crucially, this 1 is is empty. This is a vacant throne.

The picture there is empty. That's true. But the 1 that we've just read about there, if you look, the earth and the heavens fled from his presence, there is 1 seated on the throne. There is a man there we're told. The throne is not vacant.

The lord Jesus Christ is sitting upon this throne in all of his judging glory, and we're told that the earth and the heavens fled from his presence. This is their creator, and yet when they see him as he is on the throne, they flee before him, not because they're scared of him, but because he's so holy that even the earth can't abide to be in his presence anymore. It's like all the curtains are being pulled back in the earth and the heavens, and all that exists now is this Throne, which has always been there. The throne has been at the center of the earth and the heavens, and now they make way so that the throne can be seen. The Holy god on his great white throne.

But then look what happens next verse. And I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne. You try to picture that in your mind's eye. Everyone is there. Everybody who's ever lived is before the throne.

The heavens and the earth are allowed to flee, but the dead cannot flee. They must have their time before the throne. And everybody's there. The the great world leaders are there. And the poor widow who nobody ever noticed is there.

Elon Musk is there without his millions. And the poorest, whoever lived are there too. Taylor Swift is there. And so is Travis. And so were all the people who cleaned up after them this weekend.

And your classmates are there? Both the ones that you like and the ones that you're less sure of. And your class teacher is there, and even your head teacher for all their power and authority is not on the throne this day. They are before the lamb. You are there, and I am there, and everybody in this room is there, all the dead are there.

Interesting, isn't it? When you you if if you see a picture of a crowd, which you know you're in, 1 of the 1st things you do before looking at where it was and when it was is you zoom in on the where am I, don't we? We We tried to see our own face in the crowd. I think I was there. Was I there?

Oh, that blokes heads blocked me out. Or, few, that blokes heads blocked me out. You know, we we look for ourselves. Well, you can be assured that you will find yourself in this crowd. We will look we will all be there.

And notice it can't be missed. You can't bring in sick. Call up the throne and leave a message for him and say, can we put another date in? I'm not feeling well. You can't send off a last minute email and cancel your appointment.

And it's not like the lord Jesus is gonna look her out and see, think we're probably 80 percent here. Should we just make a start? No. No. Everyone is gonna be there.

And then the books are gonna be opened. When everyone is there, the books will be opened. Have a look at how that goes. And books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life.

The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them. And each person was judged according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the 2nd death.

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. 1st comes the throne, and then come the books. My parents moved house not so long ago, and, we were going through some of their things together in order to clear out before the move. And we found a box that contains our old annual school reports and, records of achievement. This is my record of achievement.

Look how thin that is. Yeah. Very little achieved. You will have these things. This is from 19 96, 19 97 when I was 8 years old in class 3 p.

And there are a number of interesting things in this report. Handwriting is neater, but I would like to see him joining his letters more. He seems reluctant to do this. Content of writing is always performed too swiftly. He can listen well, but has a tendency to chat even when it is not demanded of him.

Tom could do very well with his number work if only he would slow down and really underlined think about what he's doing. Tom has much to give and is a very likable boy. And on the whole, he behaves well, though more concentration would be desirable. He does like a chat. Tom, next year, and then it moves to actually addressing me.

Tom next year, slow down. Check your work more. There are some positives in there as well. I've selected the negatives for the purpose of self deprecation, you know. But there we go.

These are the these are the school reports. And of course, as you know, if you've ever received anything like this, I guess kids who are at school now, you are shortly to receive 1 of these at the end of term. You will know that it doesn't record everything. It can't. It only records a very limited snapshot.

So there's nothing in here about my thought life. There's no record of my thought life in here. There's no record of my motives. There's a record of things that I did and didn't do, but not why. There's no record of the things that I did while I was outside of school because much of my life was hidden from missus Parker in Westbury Park primary school.

Before the lord Jesus Christ, and in his books, everything is known. These are a perfect record of every human life. They record the things we did, which other people saw, and the things we did, which nobody else saw. They record things that we said out loud in public, and things that we typed in or searched for in private. They record the thoughts of the mind, and they record the attitudes of the heart.

And all the evil schemes and the lies and the plans that people think that they've got away with over history. Well, if there is no throne and no books, those victims are made mockery of. But there is a throne, and there are books, and there is a perfect record. And on top of that, it's a true record. It's not a version of myself that I would like you to see.

It's not me and Jesus sitting down in the half an hour before judgment day and deciding what should be left in and what should be taken out for the sake of saving face. And there's no exaggeration in these books. There's no twisting of the story. Is very interesting with us, isn't it? Often when we give a record of events, we cannot help but slightly twist the tail.

We don't just want to pass on what we have seen and heard. But our interpretation of what we have seen and heard. We record events in a way which makes others look less, and ourselves look more. We almost can't help it. But this is an unfiltered, true record of every human life.

And so the question is when the lord returns with his throne and his books, where are we gonna be? The question you see is not will I be there because you will be there. And the question is does not is not does god know about my life. He does know about our lives. The question is, are our names going to be found in the glorious book of life?

That's the only question that's gonna matter. Let's make our way back into Revelation 20. We've had a look together at the throne, and we've looked at the books, and now we need to spend a bit more time on this book of life. John says Revelation 20, and I saw the dead, great and small standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened.

Which is the book of life. And so what is this book of life? Well, this is a record of every person who has trusted in the lord Jesus Christ. As their savior. If you are here this morning and you've repented of your sins, which really just means to say sorry for and then turn away from our sins, and you've come helpless to Jesus, And you've said Jesus be my savior.

I don't deserve you, but you have loved me. And I wanna be with you in glory. Forgive me and save me. If you've said that or any version of that sincerely, then your name. Is written.

Think of it. Your name is written in the book of life. And on judgment day, that book will have the final word over you. You see, I don't think we are to imagine the books and the book like this. Like, we're all there together.

Christian and non Christian, and we're going through the alphabet, the register, and we get to SW, says my turn, Tom Tom Sweitman, SW, and, my name comes up and it's announced from the throne. And then the books start to come out. And 1st up, it's the books of everything that I've ever done, including all my sins, and you're all there about to hear it. Okay? And so we could say this is years, naught to 5.

It's 5 to 10. This is 10 to 15. 15 to 20. This is not a good not a good 1. 20 to 25.

25 to 30, 30 to 35, 35 to 40, and out may come like this 40 to 45, 45 to 50. 50 to 55, 55 to 60, 60 to 65, 65 to 70, and maybe there'd be a few more. Who knows? And then there's another book the book of life, but I don't think we are to imagine it goes like this. So we we come to my books and you're all there and all the dead are there, and we're just sort of listening to a humiliating record of my sin.

For hours and hours and hours. And you're all there nudging each other thinking, not the pastor we thought he was, is he? And, you know, did he really? Okay. Yeah.

And we're all sort of looking into wouldn't have done that. I'm sat there like, you wait till your turn, you know, and I'm doing it was then we'll see who's laughing. Yeah? And and then after many hours of hearing what a disaster I have been, then we turn to this book and a question is ask, should we see if he also happen to be a Christian? And, we look at this, and Tom's s w o, yes, he was a Christian as well.

You know, I I I really I really can't see that that's what it's gonna be like. But rather that as Christians, as we stand before our savior. And when the day comes for me, and you, if you're a Christian, to meet Christ, that we will not hear hours of humiliating sins in public, but rather we will hear a record of what Christ has done for this wretched sinner and for sins. That's the gospel, isn't it? That's the gospel that when Christ died for us on a cross, he took all of our sin, and not just the punishment for it, He took all the embarrassment that it deserves as well.

But on the cross, Jesus was put to open shame that he paid the legal cost, but he also paid the public humiliation cost. So that everything I deserved, shame, and guilt, and death, and embarrassment has gone to the holy 1 who deserved none of it. And so when the Bible says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, It doesn't just mean the condemnation of death, but all that condemnation deserves, which is shame and guilt and death. In other words, if you are a Christian here, you will be judged as you are in the savior. That's what the book of life is all about.

It'd be weird, wouldn't it? If on earth, we enjoy union with him But then on judgment day, we're judged outside of him. No. He's born at all. And so, of course, it's true that our lives matter to him.

But the book of life says you will be judged as you are in Jesus, and not just in yourself. The lord says whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned for he has crossed over from death to life. He's left the world of death and sin embarrassment, and he's moved into life and freedom and righteousness, he's crossed over that realm. Just can't imagine that after enjoying sweetness of fellowship with Jesus on earth, when I finally see my savior, there's gonna be a kind of frosty remoteness between us. We're now everything hangs in the balance again.

Surely, it would be that the sweetness we enjoyed on earth is overtaken by. The sweetness of actually seeing him face to face even as he comes in all his holiness and in all his glory. And if that thought won't persuade you to put your trust in Christ now, well, he's the very plain alternative. Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life. Was thrown into the lake of fire.

They were not judged as who they were in Christ, but for their persistent opposition to Christ. Not every name is going to be in the book of life, is it? And not every person, perhaps not every person here will make it to the new creation. And that sentence up there just gives us a flavor of what life is going to be like for those whose names are not in the book of life. And so the question is, what what do you wanna do?

When the books are opened, do you want to be judged according to what you have done? Or by what Christ has done on behalf of sinners. Which book do you wanna go by? You wanna be in the book of life then come to him this morning. You know, he loves you, and we can almost imagine him in heaven now standing with his pen.

And he's ready to put your name. He's ready to put your name in the book of life. And all you have to do is to say Jesus, I don't wanna get to that throne without coming through that cross 1st. I wanna have you say my name as my savior. Ask him.

Ask him this morning, put my name in the book of life, Jesus, please. Put my name in the book of life. Get it sorted because when judgment day comes, that is not the day for changing our minds. That is the day when decisions made now are underlined forever. So change your mind now.

Because for those who do, there is some kind of glorious future ahead. Are you ready then for the great conclusion of history? Where it's all going. Revelation 21 verse 5. I put 1 verse up there, but I'm gonna read a larger section.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the 1st heaven and the 1st earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 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 away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne set. I am making everything new. Then he said write it down. For these words are trustworthy, and they're true.

Wanna show you quite a different picture now. This is a picture of a landfill, and, you probably haven't been to anyone that size, maybe you have, but you will have been down to, the local the local dump, the local tip, to drop things off. And, it's amazing, isn't it? Just to look at that picture there, and to think that at 1 time, all of those toys, gadgets, appliances, were new. Somebody bought those for themselves or for another.

Perhaps they polished it. They took care of it. They put it in a display case. They passed it on to their children and those children to their children. But sooner or later, everything ends up in the landfill.

That is the world that we are in, isn't it? Everything that is new runs down and breaks down because we belong in what you might call the old order. This is the order of decay and run down and break down where the new doesn't stay new and the good doesn't stay good. It it breaks down. But in Revelation 22, John sees a new heaven and a new earth that will never decay.

And the reason is because this new heaven and new earth belongs to a new order. It's not like a new heaven and a new earth is coming to live within the old order, where it will again run down and decay in a few million years. This is something altogether new. It's a new order, and this is a a creation, a heaven, and an earth that is charged with a kind of eternal life, a resurrection life. That's what he sees.

Behold something new, something different. And you can see how it applies there in verse 4. He will wipe away 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. I think the beauty of that writing is that we all sense that that would be lovely.

Are we? You've ever been sad. You've ever lost someone that you loved. Have you ever been hurt or scared? Have you ever been gossiped about?

Have you ever been jealous of somebody else? Have you ever looked in the mirror and wished you were just more of or less of or different to what you are. 1 day, all the tears. And all the mourning and all the death and the disappointment is going into landfill because it has no place in the new order. That's what John sees.

When when Christ returns, it's not just the wrapping up of the old and the judging of the old. It's the end of the old and the beginning of something altogether new and different. And the best best thing about it is that on that day, Jesus is gonna give him him give us himself forever. You can see the great excitement in the text. 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. That's where it's all heading for those who are in the book of life. To that moment when Jesus Christ the judge steps off his throne and begins to walk again among his people forever. That crowning glory of Eden, which was lost because of sin, god walking with us in the cool of the day, which was recaptured for a time at the incarnation when Christ came, is gonna be fully hours and better.

Forever as Jesus walks among his people. That's that's what is lifting John's heart. It's not just the bride and the city. Because there's something incomplete about just a bride in a city. There's the bride and the groom together.

That's the excitement. And there's the city and the god living in the city. And there's not just wiped away tears. There's the thumb of Jesus who's doing the wiping away. That's what it's all about.

That's where it's going. Best of all, is not the end of the old or even the new. It's Jesus in the new. With his people. Does that sound like home to you?

If you're a Christian, does it make you want to say come, lord Jesus? I do think that much of the frustration and the sadness that we feel in life arises because we've just got the wrong idea about home. We're thinking that the life without tears might be here in the old order. We're thinking the life of perfect peace might just be 1 purchase away or maybe at the church down the road. And we feel all kinds of frustration because we're looking for the home of righteousness in the old order.

And it's just not to be found there. It's to be found later. When Christ comes and walks again with his people. That is the glorious climax of all of history. We have a home of righteousness, and the lord is not slow in keeping his promise.

He will keep his promise, and he will come for his people. And so I wanna ask you again, are you are you gonna be part of it? You know, you don't know where your life is gonna go. This may be this morning your very last opportunity. Who knows what's ahead today?

This could be it. The day where you walk out, underlining your decision forever or the day when you change your mind. And so put my book in there, put my name in the book, Have me walk among you in that new creation. Will you come if you're not a Christian here? Or perhaps you sort of you think you are, but you're not really sure whether you are.

Wouldn't this be a time to say Jesus? I wanna share whatever that is, I wanna share in it and be part of it. So have mercy on me. You'll know we don't do this every week, but I've put up on the screen a prayer that we could close with together. It really doesn't matter whether you're already a Christian.

Whether this morning you'd like to pray something like this for the very 1st time. It's just a way of nothing magical about it. It's just a way of saying Jesus. I I want my name in the book of life. What I'll do is I'll just give you a minute or 2 to read it, then I'll pray it out loud.

Take a moment to read that. Think about what we've learned this morning and respond however the lord leads. Lord, Jesus, we bow before you in wonder and praise and thanksgiving. We thank you that you are the lord of all and the king of kings, the holy 1 before whom the heavens and the earth must flee. But we thank you because of what you've done for us.

That we no longer have to fear that day, that we will see you and we will be yours and you will be ours forever and ever since forgiven, conscience is cleansed. Yours forever in this wonderful new creation. All hail redeemer hail. You are the king who deserves all the crowns, and we thank you so much for what we've seen this morning and what we've been able to sing together. But help us to be those who don't just hear and walk away, but put into practice and live.

We pray in Jesus' name.