Revelation 22:1-3a (NIV)
One of the last millwork jobs I was involved with, before I became a pastor, was a condo project at Bloor and Jarvis. We supplied the cabinet work for the model that was built inside an old abandoned building on the site. They had built an exact replica of a future condo unit on the 27th floor. When you pulled back the drapes you could see the night view looking south toward the CN tower. They had taken a picture at night at the height of the 27th floor and blown it up and mounted it behind the window so you felt like you were in the actual unit. Several months later, I drove by the site and all that was there was a deep hole in the ground; the model was destroyed and it took almost two years for the building to be completed.
Our Lord’s ministry on earth is very similar to that model built in an abandoned building. It is real, but it was for a time and a purpose and we are now in the building stage of the kingdom of God. Revelation 21 and 22 describe the finished city of God coming down to earth and the wonderful state of the people who have entered the kingdom of God. No more curse, no more death, no more disease, and no more evil!
Our Lord’s ministry of healing and driving out demons, was continued by the apostles with great power, but has since become isolated instances. His purpose was to show us a picture of what the consummated kingdom would be like, and to invite us to enter that kingdom through faith. May I remind us that all of the people that our Lord and His apostles healed, ended up dead? Even Lazarus died twice and John 12:10 tells us that it was likely that his second death was a violent one. There will be a finished kingdom. We don’t have to trust the word and finances of a human contractor - NO! We have the Word of the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He will come again, He will rid the earth of all evil, He will establish a kingdom, where there is no death, no sickness, no curse. And so we say: “Come, Lord Jesus, Come!”
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