This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “New Heavens & New Earth” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 19, 1989.
About this sermon
Why do Christians think so little about the world to come? Six reasons explain the church’s indifference toward its future estate in heaven, and Scripture answers that indifference with its many promises of new heavens and a new earth. Hebrews 12 reminds us that we have already come to Mount Zion, and it sets the course for the whole series.
Sermon transcript
We are reading from verse eighteen through the end of the chapter. Let’s hear the word of God. For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet, the sound of words which sound were such that those who heard begged that no further word should be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, even if a beast touches the mountain, it will be And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, that I am full of fear and trembling. That you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels. to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirit of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
See to it that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less shall we escape and turn away from him who warned from heaven. And his voice shook the earth dumb, but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. And this expression Yet, once more, he notes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. He do not hesitate to ask you, our God, for your help. We know your word is sent that we may be comforted in our griefs, in our sorrows. It is sent that we may be strengthened in our weakness, corrected in our sin, established in that righteousness which is granted us in Christ.
We might in fact know how we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God, in the house of the living, pray our God, therefore, that we might, in fact, stand by your word, and that we might be seen as those for whom Christ hath offered himself, and in whom presently Christ dwells.
We ask, Lord, your help with your word, and we will not misunderstand We move on from our consideration of the book of Revelation last third installment in the book of Revelation, chapters 8-11, to a new series. Some of you may be disappointed that we didn’t just plow right ahead into chapter 12 in Revelation. Really, we should probably take the book of Revelation in little doses. I want to take up a theme with you that certainly bears upon the message of the book of Revelation, and that is the theme of the new heavens and the new earth.
I take up this theme because of its importance and because there seems to be a true lack of concentration with respect to what stands central in our hope we do in fact lack that ability it seems to concentrate upon what the bible has told us is our hope we are easily sidetracked we are easily confused and we are readily discouraged now not only is there this lack of concentration and I certainly understand the problems that you have because I have them too But in addition to this lack of concentration there is what seems to be a prevailing, and I mean to emphasize that word, a prevailing indifference to the question about our future eternal state. a manifest and obvious prevailing indifference about our future eternal state we’ve been over this ground before I don’t want to go over it every week But with respect to the situation in which we find ourselves, with respect to this attitude of indifference, we can note certain things that have been characteristic of the Church, of Christians in our time.
First of all, we are living in an age of Christian activism. Now this shouldn’t be strange to us after what we had to say this morning about Immanuel Kant. And the triumph of the ethical and moral categories in our world, even in the world of the church. We are living in the age of Christian activism, a time that is preoccupied with practice and with practical affairs. We are not to be bothered about the transcendent consideration. We are not to be bothered about the religious dimension of that transcendental consideration, specifically.
The vital union that exists between the Creator and His creature. The vital religious union that exists between God and His people. The vital religious communion that exists because of what God has done concretely in faith and time for His own. These truly are no longer considerations that are to focus and dominate our attention. Now in this age of Christian activism there are many things that are good in and of themselves but because of the character of our time they have become perverted. For instance, evangelism. A concern for the evangelical wing, a concern for the reformed world. Evangelism, the proclamation of the gospel. But increasingly as you listen to the message of evangelists, Increasingly, as you listen to the message of the evangelist, so called from the church of our time, it does not any longer seem to have at its center the question of our internal state.
Put differently, it doesn’t seem to have at its center the issue of eternal life. Now that’s not to say that eternal life isn’t mentioned, of course it is. But increasingly it isn’t defined. It isn’t explained. It is vaguely referred to, and there is virtually little, if any, content given to it.
Eternal life in scripture has as its center God. Do you love God so much that you want to be living forever? Is the objective the full enjoyment of God through all eternity as it has been given? Now that is what gives content to the full question of the future eternal state or eternal life. That vital relationship with God, our union with Him, dwelling with Him in perfection forever. But increasingly, as we hear the message of the evangelists, as we hear the evangel so-called, spoken in our time. Eternal life, though mentioned, is only vaguely conceived of.
More to the point, evangelism now seems to have in mind the rescuing of people from unfortunate habits or wicked lifestyles. Putting your life back in order. Getting beyond the tragedies. Supplying you a cure. Helping you cope. That is what the evangel has become. How to get on better in this world. How to survive. How even to get what you want. in this world. Beyond this aspect to the modern message of evangelism is that of social integration. You’re lonely? Find strength through social bonding. Here’s the message of evangelism. Salvation means, then, being integrated well within the structures of a society, a community, that you might not feel alone, alienated, distant, separated, segregated, outside.
Now, we’ve been over this territory before, and I don’t want you to misunderstand me. Certainly, we hope to cope with life. Certainly, trials and difficulties, troubles are unpleasant. And the gospel does have something to say about them. And yes, God comes into our lives with incredible force, we must believe it. He who is able to accomplish the impossible, breaking down barriers and completely transforming character, so that old ways of life are completely destroyed and new ways of life appear. And in Christ, there is resolution to alienation. loneliness, even unhappiness. But in the midst of all of this is the clear, clear, certain, well-focused, well-defined center of evangelism.
Eternal life. Life with God. So well described for me in the Word that I can see Him as it were, by faith. And there is nothing that thrills me more than to reflect upon that relationship that I have with Him, that I and His people shall enjoy forever. Rescued, yes, from that which separated me from Him. My sin taken care of. My offensiveness removed.
My unrighteousness answered. and me given victory over death well this is the age of Christian activism and more and more our evangelism and our missionary and mission enterprise has been characterized more by the activism than by the message. We have as well the rise within this age of Christian activism of that increased intensity with respect to social involvement. It’s not just the liberal.
Some of you may well know that there was a book, a very important book, written in 1947 by Carl Henry. Maybe the leading evangelical American theologian of our time. A book called The Uneasy Conscience of American Fundamentalism. in which he chided fundamentalism and evangelicalism for their lack of social involvement and as we survey the previous 50 years possibly we find that many evangelicals and fundamentalists were shying away from social involvement because they identified it with the social gospel and with liberalism, with modernism they were going to concentrate upon evangelism seeing people saved Well, Henry contended that that was an improper dualism.
We’ve heard about dualisms on Sunday morning. Chuck Taylor’s Sunday school class. But at the same time, you see, with this resurrected conscience of the fundamentalist and the evangelical, there has come now a realization by evangelicals and fundamentalists just how much social power they have. And this is telling me the media has not yet estimated the power of that portion of America’s population. But this has made evangelicalism and fundamentalism a little light-headed, if not big-headed.
She’s staggering a bit now. She’s really… having discovered her own importance, and just what kind of a wallop she passed. So now she’s turned her gaze, the liberals aren’t alone now, now she’s turned her gaze upon this world. And it may well have been in a former time she had her gaze set upon heaven, she was waiting for the ship to sink, and she had her lifeboat ready. No more! No more! The ship’s being refurbished, it’s being redecorated, and man, we’re set in sail with the engines full steam ahead! The world is now very much at the center of things.
And the evangelical and the fundamentalist believes increasingly that they have the power, the ability to remake the world to make it over they’re beginning to flex their political muscle and they’re having quite an impact a very definite impact but for all that can be said about a proper view of a Christian’s social responsibility What is evident increasingly is that this world is dominating, to the exclusion of the world to come. We know the old saying, why those fundamentalists and evangelicals of a former era were so heavenly minded they were no earthly good. But you see the reverse can also be true. You become sober, you might as well have a drink. And that’s the danger that presently looms. There’s a development also, corollary to this, that increases the perplexity.
For you see, it is obvious to us now, is it not, that we live in what is called a pluralist society? Wasn’t it true that in the last century we had assumed that the ship that we were on was a Christian ship? It was charting Christian courses. It was headed in a Christian direction. That’s a reality of a bygone age.
We now live in a pluralist society. That’s the nature of life on this ship. And in this situation, the Christian community has now become just one aspect one constituent part of that plurality. Now what do you know about life in this pluralist society? Every segment of the pluralist society is now becoming sexually discriminated. Every segment has its own rights. Every segment is insisting upon justice for it. Every segment is flexing its own political might.
No less, then, the fundamentalists or the evangelicals as they find themselves now leading to a pluralist world. They, too, are now identified as a minority fighting for justice with respect to their faiths, arguing their point of view in order that they may be well established within the community and live without threat to their children. We are all concerned about our rights. What is right from our point of view. The age of Christian activism It was a movement that came into this environment that also has been shaped and molded by it. It was an honorable movement. Some of us are very much involved with that movement, the movement in Christian education, Christian schools.
Here too, the other world is lost sight of. Increasingly, the orientation places premium upon worldly excellence. What do I want for my kid? I want the best. Nothing but the best. He getting the best will cause the world to sit up and take notice of him and our movement. On the basis of that philosophy, A mother separates from father, takes the kid with her to New York City so he can get by on his own. Excellence. The pursuit of worldly excellence. The promise, success in this world, productiveness, and money. Is that the objective of Christian education? For the Christian school? Well, this is an age of Christian activism in which the future world is eclipsed by the present world.
We no longer can see it well. This is also an age of what we might call myopic Millennialism. Myopic, single eye, see only one thing. Myopic, Millennialism. Now we would think that this readily identifies with the whole question of the future hope, the future state, eternal life, what awaits? The ultimate! That beyond which there is nothing more to be gained. But what has happened? Do you know your millennial views? Have you tasted them recently?
Can you tell me about post-millennialism and pre-millennialism and our millennialism? What about the post-mill? Seems that we’re all functional post-mills now. Doesn’t matter how important you might be, we’re all functioning as post-mills because you see, increasingly, The intensity of our attention is focused upon renovation of things here.
The transformation of a world in keeping with post-millennial hopes. A utopian vision with respect to a golden age that awaits us right around the corner, when in fact all institutions will be Christianized. And the world will be governed Christianly.
Heaven then, glory above, glory beyond, suffers because we can never get to it in our thinking, in our reflecting, in our religious devotion. It doesn’t play a role. It doesn’t even enter in. What does enter in is some sort of preliminary remedy, some sort of pathway house remedy for the problems that we face personally or as a society. What enters in are some sort of adjustments to the institutional structures of this world, the promise of which is to grant us all felicity. Bliss. Here, now, in this world. So, we end up a step short of glory. We never quite make it. Our vision simply doesn’t focus that far out The pre-millennialists, we know of them. Jerry Falwell is a pre-millennialist.
Did you know it? By the way, his organization has structured itself. It appears that he is very much set up shop in this world. He’s most definitely set down his roots, as have almost all pre-millennialists now. All of those that were telling us at one time, the ship is sinking, get to the lifeboats. Pat Robertson is a pre-millennial. He’s not acting like one, but he is one.
You see, we’ve all become functional post-millennialists. laboring for the renovation of institutions that will transform society and realize our hope here and now. But even if we don’t go in the direction of bettering these institutions that we have established, we as premillennialists still have a hope that is most definitely focused upon an earthly institution, the Temple in Jerusalem. A hope with respect to the nation of Israel that sees the Jews together with Jesus returning to the city, the Temple intact, and He ruling from the city for a thousand years. If the post-millennialists ended up one step short of glory, the pre-millennialists does too. But those things that interfere with their concentration upon the end point, cause them truly to end up short.
And what about the omnibus? I’m one. I’m an omnibus. But I have never encountered a greater group, a bigger group of deadheads in my life. Audibles have just simply copped out. I’m not going to argue the case. I’m not going to debate it. They’re the ones that are supposed to have heaven well in view, do they? I don’t know. I wouldn’t know from their talking, from their writings, from their preaching.
They don’t seem to get excited about anything. At least the postmills get excited. At least the premills get excited about something. The audios seem to doze through life. And they present you well-balanced messages that are intended to keep you on course and well satisfied, but basically lethargic.
It’s almost as if the company to which I belong, the armamentalists, all had frontal lobotomy. finally in this respect this is the age of Christian activism this is the age of myopic millennialism and finally this is the age of narcissism how am I going to see heaven if all I see is myself? I mean, I see myself in my immediate needs, my immediate wants, my immediate desires. I’ve said this to some of you in jest, I think that one of the things that churches should really develop now is a need meter. You know, a little meter you can wear when you come into church and tell what your need is.
The age of narcissism. An age which is still full of self-preoccupation. I know, I love no one as well as myself. It’s my business. It’s my life. It’s my name. It’s my life. How can I say that? What concerns more than me, my concern is how I’m doing today. My concern is my own personal image, my self-esteem, my success. My house, my kids, my security, my world. Those are the most important. The philosophy now has become even well entrenched within the church. All this! And that’s where it stops. Don’t even bother to go on and say, in heaven too. All this.
And how wonderful a person I am, and how well deserving I am to take advantage of. Well, as one brilliant black preacher once said, heaven ain’t what it used to be. That’s why I have chosen this subject the new heavens and the new earth to focus our hope to call us back to reset our gaze upon glory and I dare say having our eyes and our hearts refixed, reset will re-establish for us the magnitude of God’s greatness. Just what has been given to us. And having all of that set up, well set up, we’ll be set ourselves to meet the world and re-attain to this vision.
Now, I read for you tonight from Hebrews 12. We’re not going to get into the text this evening, but save it for next week. But that passage, especially verses 26 through 28, bear particularly upon the question of our eternal hope and what God, in fact, prepared originally. Originally, I’m talking about from creation. And that irrespective of sin, irrespective of sin, what God prepared for us. Now that’s just one of the passages that we’ll be looking at.
We’ll also be looking at 2 Corinthians 5.17, a passage which some of you know very well. We read it this morning.
We’ll be looking at Matthew 19.28, which speaks about the regeneration of all things, Jesus promising We’ll be talking about some passages from other places in the New Testament. A passage like Revelation 21, verse 1, its description of the new heavens and the new earth.
2 Peter 3.13 speaks about the new heavens and the new earth as that environment in which righteousness dwells. We’ll be looking at the Old Testament too. passages specifically from Isaiah Isaiah 51 verse 16 Isaiah 65 verse 17 and 66 verse 22 and of the other related passages as we look at this theme in scripture as we pull together the verse strands to help us understand better and to focus upon better our hope Oh, man.
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