A Covenant Christmas: A Covenant Keeping God

Good morning, CTK. It's a privilege to be with you today. I hope you had a Merry Christmas. I know we did as a family. And now we are gathering back together. But even though we're gathering back together after Christmas, we're still continuing our Advent series.

Over the season of Advent, we as a church have been looking at the idea of covenants. We've had a covenant Christmas. And you may have wondered about this choice. Why when we're kind of celebrating Christmas would we look at something kind of odd like the idea of a covenant? Why focus on these ideas of covenants, these solemn promises that we can find throughout the Bible?

Well, I think that the reason why we chose as a community to look at covenants in the Advent season is because covenants are really the foundation of Christmas. Covenants are really the things that help lay out for us why we should be rejoicing in this season. Because covenants ultimately reveal to us the character of our God. How do covenants do this?

Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winning author, wrote a book called Jazz. And in her book, there's this powerful line that I love. It says this:

I didn't fall in love, I rose in it. I saw you and I made up my mind. My mind and I made up my mind to follow you too.

What a powerful thing to say. A powerful thing that describes this character's intentionality to not just accidentally fall in love, but to rise in a demonstration of that love and to show that love in following this person to the end of the earth.

And that line, I think, captures what the covenants show us about the character of our God—the God that we worship, the God of the Bible, the one and true and only God. He is a God like that, who doesn't fall in love, but rises in it. Who reveals his love more and more to this world. And this is in part what the covenants show us. They show us the increasing love of God for his people throughout time.

But by showing us his love through these promises, it also shows us that he is following us into this world, that we might know his love and come to understand it. And Christmas shows us that. It shows us in Jesus, God coming into this world to reveal to us his love, following us here to where we are, to bring into humanity the redemption that can only come through him.

But this passage shows us that Christmas is not the end. It is not the end of the story. That you and I have not seen the full extent of God's love yet. But this passage holds out to us a yet more glorious day that we all should be longing for.

Keeping that in mind, we are gonna read today the book of Revelation chapter 21. And we're gonna read it together as a people so that we might internalize what it is that we hear. Read with me now Revelation chapter 21, the word of God for the people of God.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me saying, come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with 12 gates, and at the gates 12 angels. And on the gates, the names of the 12 tribes of the son of Israel were inscribed. On the east gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and on them were the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. — Revelation 21

The city lies four square, its length the same as its width, and he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. The wall was built of jasper while the city was pure gold like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysophrase, the eleventh jaseth, the twelfth ameseth, and the 12 gates were 12 pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.

And I saw no temple in the city, for the temple is the Lord, the God Almighty, and the lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives its light and its lamp is the lamb. By its light will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations, but nothing unclean will ever enter it nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the lamb's book of life.

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever. — Isaiah 40:8

As we look at this passage, this passage is rich with images, rich with symbolism, rich with truths that is important for us to see and hold on to. But as we reflect upon it, I want us to look and see the more glorious day that is held out for us in the promises of God. And we're going to do that by looking at it from three different perspectives: a more glorious place, a more glorious people, and a more glorious privilege.

A More Glorious Place

First, John shows us in this passage a more glorious place. He starts this passage with God remaking the world, riffing in a sense on Genesis one where in Genesis one, it says, "God created the heavens and the earth." We read in this first sentence of this passage, John says:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. — Revelation 21:1

Here John shows us that God's work of creation is not done but that he continues to create, that he continues to make this world into what he intended it to be. Here John is telling us that this world that is currently filled with things that we don't like, like COVID, like cancer, like death, like sorrow, like pollution, like evil, that those things are not eternal. That those things will be done away with.

And as John writes about this new heaven and new earth, he's not writing with a sense of newness as though he's saying that this whole world will be put aside and God will create something brand new, but he's writing with a sense of newness that speaks about God refreshing. A newness in quality or essence as opposed to a newness in time. God will take this world that is scarred and marred and make it whole once again.

And this is fulfilling a promise that we see throughout the Old Testament like in Isaiah chapter 65 where he says:

See, I will create a new heaven and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be no more. — Isaiah 65:17-19

God knows the pain that came into this world with sin. God knows what it's like for us to live in this world of pain and he wants to hold out to us a more glorious place where we will dwell where pain, as Isaiah says, will not even be remembered. The traumas that some of you have experienced, the sadnesses that some of you are sitting in today will not even be remembered. This is what John wants us to see.

God removing all the pain and the trauma of the world where evil dwell, restoring it, cleansing it as the hymn that we sing at Christmas says, "as far as the curse is found." And he's doing this to create back into this world what he intended it to be, a place where fear is not known, where sadness is not known, but only the joy and delight of His presence is known.

And John highlights this by saying that there will be no more sea. Now we live in a state with a beautiful coastline and many of you go down and you enjoy the sea and you're like, "I don't want to live in a heaven without the sea." But when he talks about sea here, he's not talking about the beautiful coastline that we have in our mind. But in Hebrew ideas, the sea is a place of chaos and uncertainty and fear. Which is why in Revelation chapter four, when we see the great throne of God, around it is a glassy sea. A place with no uncertainty but stillness in his presence.

When John says that there will be no sea here, he's saying that the world that we will live in is one with no chaos, no anxiety. John shows us that God restores into this world, creates into this world a place free from chaos. He does it even in the way that he says in verse 25 that the gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there. Again, God—John is showing us that the places of fear and anxiety in this world will cease. We will not have to fear the darkness. We will not have to go check twice to see that the doors are locked. We will not have to worry about things that go bump in the night or check the closets for monsters because darkness will not exist. Anxiety will not be present. Uncertainty will not be known. God will restore this world to the place that he created it to be. A place with no sadness and no fear.

One of the feelings that's connected deeply with Christmas is a sense of nostalgia. Have you had those moments—if you're older perhaps or even if you're younger—where a certain song or a certain TV show or certain smell evokes for your mind certain memories? Memories that are glimmerings of joy, glimmerings of a love that you experienced in the past. That nostalgia has within its heart so much sense of security and safety being with those that you love. Of course, for some of us these seasons don't bring just nostalgia, but also bring pain, trauma, sadnesses, and losses that this season reminds us of.

But whether Christmas invokes nostalgia or dread, this passage gives us something even greater to look forward to. The trauma and sadness that the season brings is not a wound that will be with you forever. It will be removed to where you don't even remember it. As John says:

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. — Revelation 21

And as I learned from our pastor Jeff, that's a sense of God not just wiping the tear from the front but behind the eye, removing the deepest sting of that pain.

The longing for safety, the longing for being loved that we experienced in nostalgia is not to be found in a wistfulness for the past. Perhaps that nostalgia is really a whisper to you of a greater day, a greater longing—a place where you will forever dwell in security and love. So much of what you fear, so much of what stresses you—so much of those things are the lingering of the curse in this world. So much of that longing that you have is a longing that you were built secure in love. And here John shows us that those longings will be satisfied.

God's Covenants Point to a Restored Place

This is what God wants us to know. This is what God has been shaping even in the covenants. All the covenants point towards a place. When Adam and Eve were banished from the garden, sent east of Eden, they were sent to dwell in a land that was cursed. But God promised to them that the curse would not be ultimate on the earth, that he would defeat evil.

Noah lived in a world that was washed over by that evil, but God promises by putting the rainbow in the clouds that that evil would not be ultimate, that he would not ultimately destroy this world, but remake this world, washing it away.

Abraham was called out of his land by God with a promise that he would not be forever wandering on this world, but that he would be brought to a land. And we see that God led his people out of slavery through Moses to a land that he said would be a place of milk and honey. And then God promises to David a land where they could dwell with that milk and honey in the promise secured by a king who he would raise up.

And in Christmas, we see that king born. We see Jesus, the king sought out by the three wise men, the true son of David who came into this world. But how did he come? Born in poverty, born in a stable, born into the experience of the curse so that he could defeat the curse on the cross.

But then the interesting thing is that he leaves, doesn't he? He comes, he redeems, but then he leaves. But what did he say when he left?

I go and I prepare a place for you — John 14:2

Because his work is not done. We need to dwell in a place of security. And even after the cross, Jesus is at work. The Father is at work preparing this place where you will not know fear or sadness, where you will not know loneliness or a lack of love, but you will dwell secure in his love.

And that's what God created this world to be—a place where he brought us into his love to dwell with him. Sin destroyed the place that we were meant to dwell with God. But throughout the covenants, God is saying: "I will make it. I will bring you back to what I created you to be, to be with you in a perfect world."

And your nostalgia is whispering that longing. "I want to be in that place."

But the thrust of this passage is not just trying to get us to long for a geography to come, but it's wanting us to see that the hope of the new heavens and the new earth is not found in the territory, not found in the creation, but is found in the creator. Isaiah puts the power of God's promise this way:

The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra. A baby over the whole of a copperhead. And the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. — Isaiah 11

Why is this world gonna be perfect? Isaiah says:

For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. — Isaiah 11

You see, a perfect world without a perfect people is a problem. But the way that we can dwell securely in this perfect world is only if God shapes us to be a perfect people—and not just a perfect people morally, but a people that know him.

Perhaps you've seen the TV series The Good Place, which is a fictional series about characters who live in the afterlife. And to me, this show is fascinating because it was always talking about heaven and hell, but it would never talk about God. Never talk about a deity. It was all very mechanistic in the way that it described this afterlife. And it's fascinating as they kept moving towards progressing towards obtaining a perfect place, obtaining a heaven. At the very end, they get it—a perfect place to dwell where every desire, every longing was met. And you know how the show ends? It shows with them being unsatisfied and ending up bored in a perfect world and desiring to rather not exist than to continue in perfection.

If you live in a perfect world without God, it will not satisfy. A perfect world without God is closer to hell than heaven. A perfect world without God and yet all the fleeting pleasures that we can have will never satisfy.

And so God's goal for this world is to not make it a place of perfection for your comfort and pleasure, but to make it a place for you to dwell with him, where you will know him fully. And this is clearly the emphasis of this passage. Very little describes the ins and outs of what heaven will be like. But the theme that it shows again and again is God dwelling with his people, which makes sense, right?

What is one of the themes that we've heard throughout our covenant series? We've heard God say again and again, "I will be your God and you will be my people." We see again and again in the promises of God that he's trying to bring the people to dwell with him, and this is the logic that we see in John.

In verse one, the creation of this world leads to verse two, where he says:

I see the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. — Revelation 21:2

Before we get to verse three—God coming to dwell with his people—John shows us in verse two that God prepares those people to dwell with him. John shows us through the imagery of a bride who's adorned for her husband, who's prepared and made ready to be able to dwell with him, who is prepared and made ready to be glorious and radiant for the delight of the groom. This bride has been prepared, and John says that is what God is doing to us.

That he is longing to dwell with us. In this season that we live in—in between the resurrection of Christ and this day yet to come—is a season that God is preparing his people to know him, to dwell with him, so that as we dwell with him in a perfect place, we are ready to enjoy it fully. And John shows us that this is a way that we are receiving into ourselves the glory that God desires for his people.

John shows us that in order to take in the immensity of the glory of people, he cannot be right there. He actually is taken to a high mountain so that he can be able to encapsulate all the grandeur of what God does for his people. He's taken to a high mountain, and there he's shown the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, and as it says in verse 11:

Having the glory of God. — Revelation 21:11

Now, when it's talking about this city, it's not talking about a physical city by itself, but it's talking about a city as though it's the encapsulation of all the people. And we see this in the way that John describes the city. He describes the city with all these gates that have names like the 12 tribes of Israel, the cities that have the foundations with the 12 names of the 12 apostles of the lamb. And in this way, he's demonstrating that the city isn't a place primarily—it's a people. That God has given its glory. And we see the sparkling glory and all these stones whose names were kind of hard to pronounce. And we see this in the glory of the gold that is so clear, it's so glorious that it's clear.

John is trying to show us the depth of the glory that is given to the people of God through his work in them.

And through all these things, John is bringing to mind for the people that were Jewish, the way that Aaron, the high priest, used to go into the holy of holies wearing on his chest a breastpiece that had on it stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And those stones would be representing the people as Aaron would go into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies to bring the people of God into the glory of God. And what was symbolized there is shown to be a reality here. God makes us glorious so that we can come into his presence.

But how does he do that? He does it because here as John tells us, there is no temple. There is no place where the high priest has to go to meet with God because God has come to dwell. And even though there is no temple, there's still a sacrifice. There's still a lamb who was slain. And what does it tell us about this lamb? It tells us that this lamb is so glorious that there's no need for a sun. This lamb is so glorious that its glory pushes away all the darkness in the world.

And here it shows us how God makes us to be glorious through the work of the lamb, through the true high priest Christ who went into the true holy of holies, God's presence bearing on himself on his chest all of his people's names so that they would know the glory of God. And so here we see the radiant glory showing out of the people of God. But how does it come to them? It comes because of the shining glory of the lamb.

You see, all the glory that we need, all the glory that we long for is never found in our own efforts. But it's always found in what Christ gives to us. And here we see lived out the true blessing that the high priest used to give. What would he say? "May the Lord make his face to shine upon you." What does it look like for God's face to shine on you? It looks like this. This passage—God's radiant love and glory shining onto his people so much that it radiates back so that John has to take a step back to be able to see the immensity of the glory of the people of God who are transformed not by their efforts, not by their work, but by the lamb who was slain. Not by them obtaining a glory out of their own efforts, but the reflected glory of the love of God shining on them.

John wants us to see that there's a more glorious people yet to be formed. And that even now what God is doing in this church and the people in your community group that bug you and your children that you wonder if they're converted and those relatives that you've been praying faithfully for, that God is at work creating a glory in them that is not earned but is received.

The Greater Privilege

But lastly, John holds out to us a greater privilege that we know through God's promise. Listen again to verses six and seven where God tells John the ultimate direction of all his plans.

He says, "It is done. I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. And hear this, the one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son." — Revelation 21:6-7

You see, God is bringing a transformed people into a transformed place to dwell with him. But John helps us to see that the goal is not for us to ultimately just end up in a great place as God's people. "I will be their God and they will be my people" is not the end goal of God's promises. But there's something greater still that is held out.

And we see that in verse seven where God tells John, "The one who conquers will have this heritage. I will be his God and he will be my son." Don't miss that. John already said the promise of God coming and dwelling will be satisfied—that God will be our God and we will be his people. But here he takes it up a notch. God says, "I will be his God and he will be my son."

And here John helps us to see that the promises of the covenant create a privilege that all those who are recipients of that promise don't just get to know God as their God but get to know God as their Father. And the end goal that God has for his people is for them to be brought into his presence, to be brought into his family, to be adopted male and female into the privileged role of son. They get to be known and marked and seen as his son. That's their heritage. That's their identity. That's the thing that they will be known forever and ever as the son of God.

That is what God holds out to you with his promise—that you, mere creature, that your deepest identity marked by his promise is the son of the eternal infinite Creator of all things. Paul reflects this to us in Romans eight in the way that all the promises point us to this reality when he says:

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. If you are led by the Spirit, you are a son of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. — Romans 8

And if children then heirs, heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may be also glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

There Paul is saying that we should all be longing for this privilege to be known, to be seen, to be revealed fully as the sons of God. That's what all the promises are pointing us towards. That's what the longings of our heart should be—to know fully the sense that we are sons of God, to dwell with him not just as his people but as his beloved children.

And Paul is saying, don't you hear that whisper from the spirit? Don't you hear the spirit teaching you to be a son, to teach you to cry out, Abba, father. God's spirit comes to dwell with us as Christ leaves us so that we would know that we are destined for this—to be his son. And Paul says that this happens provided we suffer with him. Provided we suffer with Jesus so that we may also be glorified with him, and this is also in a sense what we hear in verse seven when it says that those who conquer will have this heritage.

Now, what is it that John and Paul are showing us? It's that every covenant, every promise has mutual obligations. There's a responsibility that God has given in saying that this is what I will do. This is my promise, but there is a responsibility for his people, for us. But what is it that he's reminding us? He's reminding us that there is something that we need to do, and we even see this in the warning passage in verse eight where it says:

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, the murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

And again in verse 27 where it says:

But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

What are those verses warning us against? They're helping us to know what it looks like to not conquer, what it looks like to not suffer. It's a warning against us trying to find in this world something that will not satisfy—in our idolatry, in our sorcery. It's a warning against us finding our joy in the fleeting pleasures that we can find in this world like sexual immorality. Warning us against finding glory out of our own strength and cunning like we could see in murder or lying—to ultimately live this life trying to shape our own identity as though there's a greater privilege that we could gain through our efforts in shaping our identity than the one that we can receive through his promise to be sons of God.

But ultimately, that's what so much of our striving is—trying to form for ourselves an identity that we've achieved out of our own efforts that is greater than the one that is held out for us in the promise of God that we can be his son. So often we spend our lives trying to craft this unique identity, wondering, does my life matter? Am I significant? Am I seen? What will my legacy be? Will I leave this world a better place?

But these warnings are in this passage to remind us that the greatest danger to our identity, the greatest danger to our existence, the greatest danger to our self is to try to find and make a blessed world apart from God. To find a glory that is not from his face. To long for an identity greater than the privilege that comes with the promise that we will be sons of God.

The True Longing

And so what do we do? Verse six tells us, our job is to thirst. Our job is to long. There it says:

It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

You see, what is required from you isn't you conquering out of your own strength, but you are longing for the king who would conquer. What is required is not for you to find glory out of your own strength, but to long that God's glory would shine on you. To not long for you to make a home in this world that is safe, but you to long for God to come to dwell with you.

John writes this passage. He writes this book to get our longings in the right direction—that our longing will be for him and for his promises to be fulfilled. And really that's the whole sense of Christmas and the Advent season for us: to not be satisfied with what we have. How many of you looked on Amazon yesterday or got an email this morning about a sale? And you begin to think, even after Christmas, of something that you want. Without looking back at Christmas, there's a sense that you miss that person, you miss that joy, and that there's still, even after a good Christmas, something lacking.

Christmas is not supposed to satisfy because Christmas is the rehearsal for this day.

Christmas shows us what it looks like for God to come and dwell with his people, but it shows us in a short time for what will ultimately be the eternity. Christmas is the appetizer for the feast that we see here and what it looks like to fully live out the reality of God dwelling with us. All our longings point to a deeper desire to know and to dwell more fully in the love of God as our Father.

And this only comes from Jesus who was the living water, who cried out on the cross,

I thirst

so that he could create in us a well that would spring eternal, a well of knowledge that we are being made the sons of God through his work, through the Spirit's presence so that we would be brought into full knowledge of the love of God the Father.

Friends, every covenant, every promise of God whispers to us, shouts to us, helps us to see clearly the character of our Father. It helps us to know his nature so that in the midst of the darkness and uncertainty that we live in in this present moment, we would not count these sufferings as greater than the hope that we have.

In Advent, we enter into a reminder of the darkness so that this light shines brighter. And this is not a hopeful idea. This is a memory that is secure. This is a reality that will be. Which is why God says to John,

Write this down for these words are trustworthy and true.

Beloved, hold this picture in your heart and rest in the promises of your Father. Amen.

Let us pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the promises that you give to us and the great hope of a day where they will be fully realized. May we long in this direction. Amen.