hope?

Hope is always FOR something. And 1 Peter 1.5, Hebrews 9 and Romans 8 indicate that the hope we have is for an inheritance, received as God's children.

I’d want to suggest to you firstly that this inheritance, that the object of our hope is the fulfillment of, the final installment of our SALVATION.

Now, some of you would rightly say, but, wasn't salvation secured on the Cross? YES! it was, amen, and hallelujah! When Jesus said ‘It is finished’ he wasn’t kidding around -

We were saved by an event in the past, and that past salvation secures for us not only new spiritual life in the present, but it also adopts us as the children of God, which gives us the right to an inheritance – and a pretty freakin’ amazing inheritance at that.

What will this inheritance be like?

Well, we have to go back to the person and the event that secured this living hope for the day we receive our inheritance.

We've gotta go back to JESUS’ RESURRECTION.
From that event, we learn a few things, but I'll touch on two --

1. Our inheritance is a new body:
A Physical body.

When Jesus rose from death, He walked around in a physical body. He wasn’t appearing by hologram like Star Wars. No: he ate, he walked, Thomas stuck his hand in his flesh - he was PHYSICAL. His body was made of the same stuff – he still had the scars in his hands and side. But it wasn’t the same stuff, was it. Mary and the women didn’t recognize him when they saw him in the garden outside the tomb – that’s weird, I’m pretty sure they knew him well. But at the same time, it's different - I don’t know about you, but my body can’t just appear amongst people in a room which has locked doors; nor can my physical body just vanish. Jesus has a physical body, right now. But his resurrected body is different.


A Glorified, Eternal and Imperishable body
Jesus' body - It’s the same stuff, but at the same time, it really isn’t the same stuff. It’s imperishable. It’s glorified. It’s eternal.

And that is the kind of resurrection body that you will have if you trust in Jesus.

The full realization of the life that has been rebirthed in us when we were saved is a body that has been made new, just as our spirit has been made new RIGHT NOW.

2. Our inheritance is a new earth:

Jesus doesn’t say, ‘when I return, I’ll scoop you off the earth and we’ll chill for eternity in the clouds with lots of Philly Cream Cheese and sing lots of chapel songs FOR ALL ETERNITY WOO :|’

That is the notion that comes to mind for 80% of you when someone mentions the word “heaven”, isn’t it? Not only is it horrible, but it is so devastatingly INACCURATE.

In fact, the Bible doesn’t really use the language of ‘heaven’. It speaks of a new creation. Just as we will be living in a physical resurrected body for eternity, so we will be living in a physical earth. Why does Romans say that the WHOLE EARTH IS GROANING FOR THE ADOPTION OF THE SONS OF GOD? Because part of our inheritance, as God's sons (not an anti-women term, just talking about heirs) is the restoration of the earth – a new creation!!!


We won’t be scooped off into the clouds, friends. Jesus will come down and restore – restore everything that is broken, there will be no more death, no more sickness, no more cancer, no more gossiping, no more shame, no more fear, no more tsunamis, no more pride, no more frustration, no more self-esteem issues, no more eating disorders, no more feelings of worthlessness, no more striving for the approval of people, no more rape, no more genetic illness, no more murder –

do you get the vision?

It will be a physical reality on a physical earth, probably with mountains to climb and beaches to swim at and campfires to sing around. But it will be a physical reality without the bondage to decay that sin has brought about.

When Jesus says in Matthew 5 ‘blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth’, he didn’t mean this crappy, fractured world – he meant the earth as it will be when it is restored.

WHEN WILL WE RECEIVE THIS INHERITANCE?

When Jesus returns.

Yeah. It’s Twenty centuries later. And this makes His return MORE imminent, not less.

Take the Regina Spektor gig earlier in the year – she was late! So I thought. Her arrival on stage is not less likely because she’s 15 mins later than I expected. The Opera House has assured me she’ll be on stage, Regina herself has tweeted that she’ll be there, I have a ticket securing her promise that she’ll be there – how foolish would I be to bail on the gig and go home, and miss out!

Friends, Jesus is AT THE DOOR. He is ready, there is nothing more to be done – the sound check has been done, the lights are ready, EVERYTHING IS READY – Jesus is just holding off so that more people can take their seat and be there for the gig of their life.

It is my desperate prayer that you will see Him for who He is before He arrives.