**ReFrame Episode 6 - New Heavens and New Earth — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/reframe-episode-6-new-heavens-earth/

Exploring how Jesus' life, death, and resurrection reframe faith, hope, and meaning in everyday life and culture.

## Key Takeaways

- Jesus’ resurrection is foundational and redefines Christian faith and hope.
- Faith impacts all areas of life, not just religious observance.
- Living faithfully involves grappling with injustice and sustaining hope amid challenges.
- The biblical narrative invites believers to see their story within God’s larger redemptive plan.
- The ultimate Christian hope is a renewed creation where suffering and death are no more.

## What the video covers

- The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ bring hope and meaning to all aspects of human culture.
- Many struggle to see how faith shapes everyday life beyond Sunday worship.
- The biblical story reveals God's character and purpose, calling believers to live authentically in the world.
- Vincent’s experience inspecting factories in China highlights challenges of faith, hope, and justice in a complex world.
- The resurrection is central to Christianity, affirming Jesus' divine vindication and transforming history.
- First-century Jewish expectations did not anticipate an individual resurrection apart from broader national restoration.
- The disciples’ belief in the resurrection was radical and transformative, changing their entire worldview.
- The resurrection demonstrates God’s affirmation of Jesus’ life and mission rather than just his divinity.
- Thomas’ confession exemplifies the recognition of Jesus’ true identity following the resurrection.
- The vision of a new heaven and new earth offers ultimate hope beyond present brokenness.

Answers

## Questions about this video

Why is the resurrection of Jesus important according to the video?

The resurrection is crucial because it validates Jesus' life and mission, transforming Christianity from a failed prophecy to a movement grounded in the reality of Jesus being raised from the dead.

How does the video describe the relationship between faith and everyday life?

The video emphasizes that faith shapes all parts of life, not just Sunday worship, and calls believers to live authentically and purposefully in the world, reflecting God’s purposes.

What challenges did Vincent face in his work inspecting factories, and how does this relate to faith?

Vincent encountered labor abuses and unethical practices, which challenged his hope and faith. His story illustrates the tension of living out faith and hope in a broken and complex world.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:11

Speaker A

[Music] The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ reframes everything, bringing hope, life, and meaning to every part of human culture. And yet many of us can't see how our faith shapes much of everyday life and experience Sunday to Sunday, the in-between days. Where was Jesus? I didn't think about the whole of who I am. What was I passionate about? Or how God uniquely made me? What are God's purposes for us? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? How do we live in the world but not of the world? God wants to make us more ourselves. He is holding all things together, and he is reconciling all things to himself. We're exploring how does the biblical story reframe our story. We lead out of our stories, so be located in the story, the biblical story in which God reveals himself, his character, and his life. [Music] In the last episode, we were challenged to encounter Jesus as the fulfillment of history, our Lord, Savior, and King, redeeming all of creation, restoring it under his rule. We know the Bible ends with Jesus coming back, but that's what we do now. Matter over certain thousands, thousands of factories as to making products to the West. And when you go in and in the factory case, you're like me, this loss of productions like what case booking work hard to put things in and out, assembly things. And I go there to inspect their wages, the labor conditions, environmental issues, have been safety issues on behalf of their buyers in the West. Vincent comes and lives in his native Hong Kong, where he worked as a factory consultant for multinational companies. Are we lost? Hong Kong, this place is excited, energetic, vibrant. Never rest, people work late, efficient productivity and profit. If ax t. Yeah, in early 2000, Vincent got a job inspecting factories in mainland China on behalf of clients in the West. I thought, you know, when people doing the business, they would fulfill, you know, the law in some way, but it is not the case. I actually found, you know, companies swallowing the labor law, right? They're not paying the minimum wages. As I said, they're not paying overtime. They employ our labor, and these discs are things. You know, I speak it out to the factory owner. You using, you know, this kind of child labor and overtime. It's just terrible. You know, what should you do? And I got the feedback is, uh, he's not gonna do anything. Yeah, I felt upset and just I know God would do something, but we don't know what at this. He reported the problems but got nowhere. He was bound by a nondisclosure agreement to not tell any third party and gradually he began to lose hope. In those days, I hunt able to find anime night. We were attached to be have Faith, Hope, Love every day. And when you actually put that into practice, you will came across challenger. Every morning, that got up, had my cup of coffee and pick up my briefcase, put my notebook, laptop computer, and then move out. And then it's just like a dead man walking. I pray that I can't see something better. You know, me not missing any worse, but they after another. I repeatedly, I still, you know, sort is kind of in the situation's so. And I start thinking that first of all, whether I should continue to do this, this number one. Number two is, can my questions fave able me to, you know, put it up and sustain this kind of tensions. At that time, I feel lost that that I know I shouldn't, you know, keep doing it for the next five or ten years or so, but I don't know what to do. Like Vincent, we can feel small, lost, and powerless in a complex and simple world. How do we sustain hope? We know that Jesus is life and death affirms our lives, but what about his resurrection? What about our ultimate hope and significance? Are we just waiting for heaven somehow enduring the brokenness of the world? How does the ending of the Bible, our vision of heaven, affect us today? 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 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 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. [Music] The resurrection is very important to understand that without the resurrection there would be no Christianity. Jesus would either have been forgotten or become just some another slightly odd footnote in the long history of failed prophets. But something happened, and within just a few weeks, these people were proclaiming the good news of Jesus' resurrection. Something had happened, and Jesus had been raised from the dead. Now you have to admit that's a pretty large claim. Jesus had been raised from the dead, and not surprisingly, all kinds of proposals have been made to try and explain this. We don't like stuff that messes up our world. Small doses in a movie theater, we can handle aliens, that's okay, but not a resurrection in my backyard, thank you. Now the first thing to understand is actually that these people are Jews, and that's important. No one else in the ancient world at this time even considered resurrection. It never crossed their mind. So whatever else people might tell you, this story could really only have originated among Jewish people, nowhere else. But actually, that only makes it even more difficult because when you talk to Jewish people, no one was expecting the resurrection of a single individual simply because resurrection was just one part of a much larger combination of events, all of which were expected to happen at the same time. And here's the checklist: it had to include the defeat of the Romans, the subjugation of all the nations to Israel, and the return of all the exiles and the restoration of Jerusalem, which meant also the eradication of its current corrupt leadership. Haven't finished yet. And the instrument of a Davidic King, the amazing renewal and transformation of all of creation, and then of course the resurrection of everyone. Now you put that together, and you can understand why nobody in the gospel narratives goes to the tomb to see if Jesus has been resurrected. They don't have to. All they have to do is look outside the window. Nothing's changed. Nor do they understand the language after three days to me, literally three days. It's a prophetic metaphor. It means not tomorrow, but sometime in the future. Now you see, it's not just that no one would believe them. It's more than that. It's that no one could even imagine anything like this. It's just not part of their horizon. You just don't have a resurrection in the middle of an unchanged world. That seems to me that the only way actually to explain what happened, to explain the disciples' complete turnaround, is however difficult we might find it, that something like this actually did happen. And if it did, everything is different now. What does the resurrection show? Well, many people think, well, it's showing that Jesus was God, but actually probably not. What it's really doing is demonstrating that God had vindicated him. That God had said yes to everything Jesus had said and done. Now I know it's common to talk about doubting Thomas, but actually he's my hero. I don't think Thomas is particularly skeptical. I think he understands what's going on because if Jesus has been raised from the dead, then it means that all those mighty deeds and words that Jesus was engaged in, acting and speaking as though he was actually Israel's God on earth, then it means that all of that is actually true. And that's why when Jesus appears, it's Thomas who offers the first truly Christian confession of Jesus. He kneels before him and says, My Lord and my God. This is a you talking to a human being. My Lord and my God. That's got to be one of the most astonishing things in history. No Jew is going to say that to a human being, and yet here is Jesus in

00:31

Speaker A

in-between days where was Jesus I didn't think about the whole of who I am what was I passionate about or how God uniquely made me what a God's purposes for us what does it mean to be made in

00:46

Speaker A

the image of God how do we live in the world but not of the world God wants to make us more ourselves he is holding all things together and that he is reconciling all things to himself we're exploring how does the

01:01

Speaker A

biblical story reframe our story we lead out of our stories so be located in the story the biblical story in which God who feels himself his character in his life [Music] in the last episode we were challenged to encounter Jesus as the fulfillment of

01:55

Speaker A

history our Lord Savior and King redeeming all of creation restoring it under his rule we know the Bible ends with Jesus coming back but that's what we do now matter over certain thousands of thousands of factories as to to

02:15

Speaker A

making products to the West and when you go in and in the factory case you're like me this loss of productions like what case booking work hard to put things in and out assembly things and I go there to inspect their wages the

02:33

Speaker A

labor conditions environmental issues have been safety issues on behalf of their buyers in the West Vinson calm lives in his native Hong Kong where he worked as a factory consultant for multinational companies are we lost Hong Kong this place is excited energetic vibrant

02:54

Speaker A

Neverest people work late efficient productivity and profit if ax t yeah in early 2000 Vincent got a job inspecting factories in mainland China on behalf of clients in the West I thought you know when people doing the business they would

03:21

Speaker A

fulfill you know the law in some way but it is not the case I actually found you know companies swallowing the labor law right they're not paying the minimum wages as I said they're not paying overtime they employ our labor and these

03:41

Speaker A

discs are things you know I speak it out to the factory owner you using you know this kind of child labor and over time it's just terrible you know what should you do and and I got the feedback is uh he's not gonna do

04:06

Speaker A

anything yeah I felt upset in just I know God would do something but we don't know what at this he reported the problems but got nowhere he was bound by a nondisclosure agreement to not tell any third party and

04:22

Speaker A

gradually he began to lose hope in those days I hunt able to find anime night we were attached to be have Faith Hope Love every day and when you actually put that into practice you you will came across challenger every

04:42

Speaker A

morning that got up had my cup of coffee and pick up my briefcase put my notebook laptop computer and then move out and then it's just like a dead man walking I pray that I can't see something better

05:01

Speaker A

you know me not missing any worse but they after another I repeatedly I still you know sort is kind of in the situation's so and I start thinking that first of all whether I should continue to do this

05:15

Speaker A

this number one number two is can my questions fave able me to you know put it up and sustain this kind of tensions at that time I feel lost that that I know I shouldn't you know keep doing it

05:32

Speaker A

for the next five or ten years or so but I don't know what to do like Vincent we can feel small lost and powerless in a complex and simple world how do we sustain hope we know that Jesus is life and death affirms our

05:51

Speaker A

lives but what about his resurrection what about our ultimate hope and significance are we just waiting for heaven somehow enduring the brokenness of the world how does the ending of the Bible our vision of heaven affect us today

06:09

Speaker A

then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven in the first 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

06:22

Speaker A

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

06:36

Speaker A

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 [Music] the resurrection very important to

06:57

Speaker A

understand that without the resurrection there would be no Christianity Jesus will either have been forgotten or become just some another slightly odd footnote in the long history of failed prophets but something happened and within just a few weeks these people

07:19

Speaker A

were proclaiming the good news of Jesus resurrection something had happened and Jesus had been raised from the dead now you have to admit that's a pretty large claim Jesus had been raised from the dead and not surprisingly all kinds

07:38

Speaker A

of proposals have been made to try and explain this we don't like stuff that messes up our world small doses in a movie theater we can handle aliens that's okay but not a resurrection in my backyard thank you now the first thing to

07:54

Speaker A

understand is actually that these people are Jews and that's important no one else in the ancient world at this time even considered resurrection never crossed their mind so whatever else people might tell you this story could really only have originated among Jewish

08:14

Speaker A

people nowhere else but actually that only makes it even more difficult because when you talk to Jewish people no one was expecting the resurrection of a single individual simply because resurrection was just one part of a much larger combination of events all of

08:34

Speaker A

which were expected to happen at the same time and here's the checklist it had to include the defeat of the Romans the subjugation of all the nations to Israel and the return of all the exiles and the restoration of Jerusalem which

08:51

Speaker A

meant also the eradication of its current corrupt leadership haven't finished yet and the instrument of a Davidic King the amazing renewal and transformation of all of creation and then of course the resurrection of everyone now you put that together and you can understand why

09:12

Speaker A

nobody in the gospel narratives goes to the term to see if Jesus has been resurrected they don't have to all they have to do is look outside the window nothing's changed nor do they understand the language after three days to me

09:32

Speaker A

literally three days it's a prophetic metaphor it means not tomorrow but sometime in the future now you see it's not just that nodes you would believe them it's more than that it's that node you could even imagine anything like

09:45

Speaker A

this it's just not part of their horizon you just don't have a resurrection in the middle of an unchanged world that seems to me that the only way actually to explain what happened to explain the disciples complete turnaround is however

10:04

Speaker A

difficult we might find it that something like this actually did happen and if it did everything is different now what does the resurrection show well many people think well as showing that Jesus was God but actually probably not

10:23

Speaker A

what it's really doing is demonstrating that God had vindicated him the God had said yes to everything Jesus had said and done now I know it's common to talk about doubting Thomas but actually he's my hero I don't think Thomas is particularly

10:42

Speaker A

skeptical I think he understands what's going on because if Jesus has been raised from the dead then it means that all those mighty deeds and words that Jesus was engaged in acting and speaking as though he was actually Israel's God

10:59

Speaker A

on earth then it means that all of that is actually true and that's why when Jesus appears it's Thomas who offers the first truly Christian confession of Jesus he kneels before him and says my Lord and my god this is a

11:15

Speaker A

you talking to a human being my lord and my god that's got to be one of the most astonishing things in history no Jew is going to say that to a human being and yet here is Jesus in human form in front

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of Thomas and of course the language is taken directly from Israel Shema hear o Israel the Lord our God is one and Thomas says my Lord and my god God's God's yes to Jesus but it's more than that because Jesus comes back with a

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body he's not a ghost this is not Casper the Friendly Jesus now it's an unusual body because he can appear and disappear at will but when he eats it doesn't fall through his sandals it's a real body now

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you've got to hear that because this is also God's extraordinary information of the human body bodies ngata to god that's why Christians don't actually talk about just saving souls so the body doesn't matter we have to have a body in

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order to reflect God's image cannot be human without a body and the resurrection is God's affirmation of the continuation of this body into the world to come and of course if this body is physical it's going to need a physical

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place in which to exist and the resurrection is then also God's affirmation of the goodness of creation if you like Jesus resurrection is our first glimpse of the world to come and that world to come is going to involve a

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new heavens and a new earth now there's sometimes surprises in some respects but fortunately not so much over the last few years as people have begun to realize what their Bibles actually have to say about this you already learned from in the creation is

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God's temple so listen to these texts for God so loved my soul for God so loved human beings for God so loved the cosmos creation as the temple human beings as he image within it that he gave his son do

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you get that God loves his creation and he's not going to let the first set of snake features that comes along take it over and right he'll defeat Satan whether by hook or by cross but he's going to do it so committed is he to

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this creation and so when Jesus teaches us to pray what do we pray our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name may your kingdom go and take us with you is that what he says but it's amazing

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how many Christians actually actor so that is what Jesus says he doesn't say that he says what may your kingdom come your will be done where on earth heavens not the problem earth is and God is committed to

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restoring it that his will his kingdom might be done here Pauline Romans 8 says something similar creation groans waiting for its destruction no it's Redemption and that's the language that comes straight out of the account of the Exodus when God redeems

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Israel he doesn't destroy them he doesn't burn them up and start something new they're the ones who come through this when you get to Revelation what are we told the Saints will reign upon the earth of course we're not made for wings

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you can understand why God also in Revelation says he will destroy those who destroy the earth you and I wouldn't dream of dumping toxic waste in a land rose but will happily do it to God's temple stop no more in the end of all

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things the New Jerusalem does what comes from heaven to earth and there's the great acclamation at the end behold behold behold the dwelling of God is with humanity we are going nowhere heaven end God it seems our coming here

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that is an extraordinary thought the resurrection then is God's first down payment it's his guarantee it's God's commitment to this future what he's done to Jesus he will do to us and through that creation to will be set free from its

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bondage to decay can you imagine what that's like anyone here enjoy coffee you ain't had nothing yet baby you like that fruit juice that comes from the vine especially after it's been matured for a little while there yeah

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you haven't anything yet oh boy well I can hear some of you raising some questions so I'll hang on a minute hang on a minute there are a few little problems here right for example what do we do with this revelation 21:6 they're

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having an earthing in a pass away first heaven first earth gone I saw a new heaven a new earth hang on hold your horses go back and read Paul what does it say if anyone is in Christ they are a new

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creature the old has gone and the new has come he didn't suddenly change you weren't burned up and suddenly reappeared no no it's using this language because this transformation is so remarkable so astonishing you can only use this

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language and even then you don't get close to the edge on its extraordinary future that God has envisioned for us his enemies and his creation well doesn't 2nd Peter talk about the heaven on earth being kept for fire well

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yes but read the rest of the passage it's actually the wicked who were burned up on creation well what about the heavens passing by with a loud noise the elements melting the earth being burned up what about that text what you're seeing here is a

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cosmic Mount Sinai what happened at Mount Sinai the heavens moved apart God descended roaring noise and came face-to-face with his people that's what's envisioned here the coming of the glory of God to earth it's not a cosmic annihilation it's a cosmic Mount

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Sinai as God's presence comes to us so the resurrection God's yes to Jesus and because of him to humanity and therefore to his creation it points to the promise this cosmic Shalom peace a garden city with plentiful River and trees of

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healing for the nations [Music] there are lots of misconceptions about heaven and I will just mention briefly to one probably is still fairly common misconception of heaven is that it is completely separate from earth heaven is above earth is below heaven is in the

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clouds or above the clouds and the purpose that we have is to get away from this earth because it is something bad to escape and to go to this place up there somewhere in order to escape our bodies in order

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to escape the material world that God has made and thus finally to be at home it's a terrible way of understanding the Christian faith because God has made the created order God has made the material created order God has made our bodies

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he's made them good and he's made them with an eternal purpose the second misconception it seems to me is to completely conflate heaven and earth to lapse into a strictly materialist understanding of this world to say matter is all there is and everything

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spiritual can be explained in terms of matter and Scripture purposeless it seems to me purposely speaks of both heaven and earth we are looking forward to a fullness the fullness of what it means to be in Christ the fullness of

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what it means to see God face-to-face the scripture of implicit we're looking forward to something that we haven't even begun to comprehend the picture of the new heaven and the new earth is a picture that's the first thing to say it's a picture that has

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reality at the heart of it but it's a picture of something beyond our imagining pictures often are like that they are better than we can imagine profounder more wonderful the things that we can be certain of with regard to

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heaven that we shall be even closer to the Lord Jesus as individuals then any of us have been in this world and we should be surrounded by I am going to say a transformed creation and we shall be in that transformed Miglia in

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resurrection bodies modeled in some way that again we can't imagine on the resurrection body of the Lord Jesus because without matter and material bodies you can't have relationships and without relationships you simply can't have meaning Jesus's resurrection shows us that

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there's continuity of our physical bodies of the physical reality and validates that but it also shows us that there's a radical discontinuity he's able to appear in locked rooms which I think would be fascinating how do you do

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that so we can't just assume that things will be exactly the same somehow or other were brought to our perfection in that resurrected body same thing will happen with creation it's brought to its completion at the time of

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Christ's return [Music] now what does this mean for us today well the first thing it means is that whatever the gospel is about it's about life and God's life life that never runs out today here now in anticipation of

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this world to come that's what the gospel is about and that's exactly John's point if you read his gospel unlike Matthew Mark and Luke he doesn't talk much about the kingdom of God why because he knows most of us non-jews

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won't get what that means so he translates it more than 40 times Jesus says this what does God want from you he wants you to open your hands and accept his gift of eternal life that's what he wants I have come to bring you

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life and to give it to you more abundantly than you've ever known is this how we come across to people around us in our workplaces in our cities suburbs where people bump up against us and when they meet Christians

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they immediately think life because if they don't we have a problem what's your vision of God like what if holiness is not about keeping all these rules not about being the moral police what if holiness is actually a matter of whether

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I bring the life of God to somebody or not what is the mark of me being holy of you being holy of us being holy is that people feel more alive after they've been with us than they were before would

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you like that you kind of get a bit tired of waving the finger at people would it be nice just to offer them God's life would that be great that's what we called to be citizens of heaven living in anticipation of this

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glorious coming kingdom and it doesn't mean we just sit around holding on no just like the Incarnation the resurrection how following Jesus is meant to be lived out in the coffee shops in the schools in the parks on the highways in the workplaces

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in the fields the whole earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof or is the Lord's now that's how we meant to be living in the light over there we are about people keeping long history of Christianly engagement in the world

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high view of women in those early Christian meetings not only could women pray they could also prophesy speak on behalf of God to his people astonishing a high view of sexuality where people weren't just objects to satisfy our

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wandering desires imagine that you're living in the first century you're a young boy nine years old you were bought by a very wealthy master to be his sexual plaything and that's all you know except on one day of the week you come

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to a meal at which there are all kinds of people Jews Romans Greeks all kinds of status men and women rich and poor slave and free like you and you sit down together and this is the one meal in the

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week where everyone around that table treats you with dignity and respect start doing that and the world cannot stay the same and it doesn't matter how many legions you have at your disposal people respond to being loved children

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mattered they were just about forming better financial relationships with wealthy rich families a high view of slaves so that even slaves can become bishops in God's church limiting the state of the power of that the power of the state protecting the weak from the

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powerful now I know we've not always done this well I know that but in his part of our history and since creation is part of this future that God has destined for us it's high time and past high time that we began to show the

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way in caring for creation we are the sign and the foretaste of what is to come Paul says we are meant to be shining like stars holding out the promise of life to others every human being asked questions of eschatology of what the

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future will be like you don't have to be a Christian to do that so what we believe about the future actually affects the way that we live our lives now which is why the language of a new heaven and a new earth matters the

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Christian story is not just that we started with creation and we're waiting for God to get rid of it so we can enter into a kind of Eastern mystic you know spiritual reality Christianity didn't teach that and the fact that the whole

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biblical narrative starts with two chapters on creation the goodness of creation and ends with two chapters on the goodness of creation ought to be a giveaway but the stuff in between means that we live in this world as God's

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world hopeful of the renewal of creation but caring for it as best we can well we wait years ago a minister in Harlem named Jeff white and gave a great analogy and he held up a little paint spoon the type that you get when you go

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like to a baskin-robbins ice cream store and you've got all your 31 flavors there and essentially they give you this little taste of the of the chocolate or the strawberry or whatever and it's a foretaste of the ice cream to come and

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so there's a way in which we can sort of stand up with one another and say you know Jesus is calling us to be this he's calling us to be these pink spoons people whose lives give to other people

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this foretaste of what is coming in the future Kingdom ironies was a second century Christian theologian a very distinguished one actually and one of the things he said was that the glory of God is a human being fully alive and I think

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that that's a profound truth why is it that so many Christians have trouble living this out I think it comes back to the fact that we don't really understand what it means to become a citizen of heaven and that's because we haven't

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really understood how fundamental stories are to who we are as people we live out of our stories when I react I'm reacting out of my story when I show kindness it's because of how or who I understand myself to be on the basis of

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my story you see we learn who we are by looking into other people's faces right and we get the chance in Jesus to look into God's kindly face toward us and his first words to us as to the woman caught

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in adultery I don't condemn you offering life but we don't quite live out of that story because we're still trying to be Australians and Canadians and Chinese and those things are not bad in themselves except everywhere about countries every whatever histories are

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broken insecure alienated why did a for so will upon others I'm better than you because I missed rally all right how in the world can we bring the life of God when we try to lead those two narratives

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what we have to do folks is learn to live at a visceral story we are now children of Abraham called to be a blessing to the nation's a follower of Jesus the servant King that's one of the things that reframe is trying to do here

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we're trying to inculcate God's story in you so deeply then when something happens you just instinctively react with the character of God that's expressed in that story in order to think about it in which sense because it's who you are

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it is so deep inside of you that's just where you come from well Jesus is very clear about this this thing is not something we can do in our own strength this life comes through the spirit and that's what makes the difference

31:17

Speaker A

it began with Jesus baptism when the Spirit of God came upon him it was that spirit in whose power he came out of the desert you can't even think about beginning to live the Christian life to live as Jesus without being filled with

31:33

Speaker A

the spirit and that's the great promise of the New Testament you could have your sins forgiven at the altar in the temple what you didn't get was the transforming life of God's Spirit freely poured into you that's the gift that's the great joy

31:50

Speaker A

that just runs all the way through the New Testament now it's about God living out of me that's the great promise our scene is having been forgiven we are set free from the past and with this spirit now in us transformed ready to live into

32:07

Speaker A

the future the new heavens and the new earth [Music] the biblical story begins in a garden and ends in a city but it's a Gordon City the peoples of the earth bring their glory into it there's a great text

32:40

Speaker A

very end of first Corinthians 15 in which Paul says because of the resurrection therefore your work is not in vain in the Lord because God is making all things new and invited us to participate in that newness our work is

33:01

Speaker A

not in vain in the Lord that too can be brought into the City of God I don't think he's just talking about so-called gospel work or ministry work I think he's saying if we do things with faith hope and love for the Lord that in

33:24

Speaker A

some way beyond our imagination I think may find its place in the new heaven the new earth so I don't know whether you know my my carvings are going to painted the new heaven into Earth but I wouldn't be

33:37

Speaker A

surprised back in Hong Kong Vincent had lost hope while working as an inspector and a broken factory system but this biblical vision of new creation changed his perspective about what he was doing I will discover the meaning of my work

33:56

Speaker A

every day and trading off of the purpose I live in the kingdom the kingdom comes but when I seen a bad side of the around me I also realized that the kingdom is not it's not yet calm and and I have to

34:13

Speaker A

deal with that every day to live in the tensions even though I may not see the immediate changes I start to trust that God someday a little bit of difference - I just wait and see what God will be

34:28

Speaker A

doing after some of the some of the factories I believe is it again after four years something's changed during their time I thought this is useless this is just so check boss but four years after and I've took the bias read my report they start

34:48

Speaker A

to do something and then take us something truth that God taught me true she listened to the people's needs and every time when I talked to the factory owners if they also if they always follow Vincent it's very difficult to

35:05

Speaker A

change sometimes i confident you know I'm a Christians if you read me I can't write for you what I will hope is more authentic questions stand up and put up your their faith every day back like a difference in the workplace the

35:24

Speaker A

workplace is this complex and complicated and difficult to to work out your Christians believe from time to time but we believe that is this is what God want me to do [Music] so it seems that what we believe about

35:48

Speaker A

the future really does affect how we live today when we think that heaven is completely disconnected from this world it's difficult to see how what we do now matters it's all about waiting to escape but the Bible tells us that what we do

36:00

Speaker A

now does matter and somehow God will incorporate it into his kingdom Christians are called to be signs and foretaste of the kingdom today God promises that we don't do this alone this is the great gift of Pentecost and

36:12

Speaker A

the next episode in the biblical drama [Music] you

Topics: Jesus Christ resurrection faith and culture hope biblical story new heaven and new earth Christianity redemption justice Regent College

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