Garden of the City

Sermon Notes - April 24, 2022
In the Garden-Pastor Daniel Knutson

Justification
Sanctification

Each of us has been created for eternity.

Glorification

Revelation 22:1-5 (NIV)
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life-water as clear as crystal-pouring out from the throne of God and the Lamb, flowing down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit yielding it fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations. And there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him, and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they will weigh forever and ever.

Revelation 7:9 (NIV)
After these things I looked, and here was an enormous crowd that no one could count, made up of persons from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb dressed in long white robes, and with palm branches in their hands.

Heaven is not yet, which is why we still experience brokenness.

2 Corinthians 5:1-6 (NIV)
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:7b-9 (NIV)
…we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

Heaven is now, and it is displayed through us.

We have to learn to live in the tension of now, and not yet.

Jesus’ resurrection is what reconciles the world.