Creation and Re-Creation, Pt. 2
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Most of us have had the experience of starting something over––a relationship that needed to be rebuilt from scratch, a job that turned into a complete career change, or even a room that needed a makeover. Pastor Nick Gatzke describes the ultimate fresh start and the God who is both the creator and the re-creator.
When sin and the cycle continued, God sends his son Jesus into the world to continue not only in creation, but now recreation in the world. And Jesus begins a work of recreation. He displays God’s glory in the world. He begins this act of recreation, but it’s not a recreation in the physical sense. It’s the recreation in a spiritual sense. It’s a recreation of people. And this is the magnificent news of the gospel, that no matter where you are or what you’ve done, in Jesus, you can become a new person.
And every single one of us gets to a point at one moment where we say, I don’t like the person I am or the person I’ve become or what I do or what I think or what I say. And in my darkest of moments, I know that nobody else likes me either. And certainly I can’t stand before God. with how ugly I can be on the inside. But when you trust Jesus to forgive you of your sins, he takes all of that sin away and he clothes you in his righteousness and he makes you a new person. He recreates you. In Jesus, you can become a new person.
And this is what’s talked about in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And it’s really in so many ways a continued theme throughout the whole New Testament. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we see the desire for recreation that is palpable for all of us. This is what it says in verse 2. Paul writes, “For in this tent [that means this body], we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” In this body, we groan. He’s not talking about the type of groaning that you do when you roll out of bed in the morning because your joints don’t work the way that they used to. He’s not talking about the type of groaning when your husband makes another cheesy dad joke. He’s talking about something internal in its nature.
He’s talking about the fact that each and every one of us know something intuitively, even if we can’t express it verbally. That we know when we look at our life, when we look at ourself, that we are not the best versions of who we could be. That there’s something better that isn’t being displayed yet. And it’s frustrating to continue to struggle with the same things, to continue to have the same thoughts, to continue to go through day after day, week after week, month after month, knowing that no matter how hard I try or what I do, that I’m not who I ultimately want to be. We groan.
But the good news of the gospel is seen later in that, very chapter, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and it says this: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, through Christ, who reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” You groan. And God looks at you who groans and says, I am going to reconcile you to myself through the Lord Jesus. And the way that’s going to happen is I’m going to recreate you from the inside coming out. You become a new creation, reconciled to God. It only happens through Jesus.
So how can an adulterer become faithful? How can a thief become generous? How can a racist become welcoming? How can a murderer become gentle? Only through reconciliation to God, through Jesus, the creator becomes the recreator. But some of you say, I haven’t done any of those things. And nevertheless, you groan because you need to be recreated.
And so, how can the guilt go away? How can the porn addict become pure? How can the one who struggles with anger become loving? How can the perpetually dissatisfied become content? Education isn’t going to fix that problem. Knowing more is not gonna solve it.
D.L. Moody once said, if a man is stealing nuts and bolts from a railway track and in order to change him, you send him away to college, at the end of his education, he’s gonna steal the whole railway track. Education isn’t gonna fix this problem. Minor maintenance or a slight upgrade to become a moderately better you isn’t going to do. You need to be recreated. And the good news is that through Jesus, the creator is also the re-creator.
And re-creation of people happens for two reasons. God chooses to do this first because, believe it or not, he desires to be reconciled to sinful humans because he loves us. That’s the first reason for re-creation. The second reason is that humans are image bearers of God. And sin mars the image of God. And God desires that his image would be portrayed accurately forever. God isn’t going to let all of eternity view him inaccurately. And so he recreates you as an image bearer for the sake of your good and for the sake of his ultimate glory. Now, God not only recreates people, but he will also recreate the earth. But here’s the thing.
When we move now to think about the present day and we turn our gaze toward eternity and the recreation of earth, you need to be recreated in order to enjoy God’s new creation. You need to be recreated if you are going to… or even have access to God’s new creation. You need to be a new person to enjoy a new earth. Now, some of you maybe have remodeled your home in the last couple of years and you have nice new wood floors and maybe you have fresh paint on the wall and you say, wow, this is the place that I’ve been longing to have for a long time. But all of a sudden, your dingy old recliner doesn’t look so good in that new place. Some of you maybe got a new car in the last year or so, if you could find one. And you have been dangling that same pair of dirty old fuzzy dice from the mirror since the 1970s. But it’s just not popping in the right type of way up against your new leather interior. You’re not going to bring the dingy, the dirty, the old into something new. God’s not going to do that in his perfect new creation either. You need to be recreated if you’re going to enjoy God’s new creation. And Romans chapter 8 points to the fact that not only do we groan because we know we need to be recreated, The creation, the world itself, also groans. Listen to this: “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Romans 8:19-23) You groan and the world around you groans in one voice.
The earth is beautiful, but it has many, many problems, and you know it, and you see it, and you feel it, and it groans because when Adam and Eve sinned, the earth was subjected to futility, but it will not be so forever. God will recreate the earth again.
Creation and recreation. It’s at the very beginning. It’s all throughout the middle. And it is at the very end. And in the second to last chapter of the Bible, Revelation chapter 21, we see that God recreates.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I was a child, I didn’t have a very good understanding of why heaven would be so great. I mean, I knew it would be better than hell. Obviously. But my idea of heaven was shaped largely by the culture around us. And it was probably pretty similar to what author Stephen King expressed his idea of heaven is. In 2014, author Stephen King was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine. He spent most of his career writing about death. And he was asked in the interview, do you hope to go to heaven? And he responded, I don’t want to go to the heaven that I learned about when I was a kid. To me, it seems boring. The idea that you’re going to lounge around on a cloud all day and listen to guys play harps? I don’t want to listen to harps. I want to listen to Jerry Lee Lewis. And a lot of people think that is what eternity is going to be like. But here’s the reality.
Friends, That’s not what eternity is going to be like, number one. And number two, I have news for you. If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re not going to spend eternity in heaven — because God recreates a new earth. The creator is also the recreator. And you need to be recreated if you are going to enjoy this new creation. We see a picture of it in Revelation chapter 21. The vision of John about the end, and it says this: “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.’”
Try to picture it. Heaven and earth are gone. A new heaven and earth will come. And if you are a new creation in Jesus Christ, then you will be in that new earth. But what will it be like, you ask? Well, I imagine that the new earth will be a lot like this earth, but without the groaning.
Imagine everything you hate about this earth. Pain. Hard labor, disease, mosquitoes, and the incessant temptation to sin, those things won’t be on the recreated, perfect earth. Imagine all the things that you love and try to imagine them even better.
The smell of the mountain air, the random occurrence of wildlife in your backyard. the best foods and the sweetest of relationships and the most exhilarating of fun and enjoying the nearness and the presence of God forever. The new earth awaits. The creator is the recreator. What will it be like? I won’t be lounging around in a cloud listening to angels play harps.
The new earth will be the very, very, very best of a perfect recreation from the most talented of creators for his people who he loves the most so much, in fact, that he… bought them back when they looked nothing like themselves, and he recreated them to put them in this new creation. You need to be recreated if you’re going to enjoy that new creation. And the storyline of the Bible, the story of God, his relationship with humanity, and the best of news is that through Jesus Christ, you can be. It’s in the beginning. It’s in the middle. And it’s in the end.
As I close this morning, I love the short story by Max Lucado that gives us a glimpse into the allure of creation, something that we long for, and the desire to get there. This is what he writes. He says, I make no claim to be a good golfer, but I love to play golf, watch golf, and on good nights I even dream about golf. And so when I was invited to attend the Masters golf tournament, I was thrilled. A pass to the Masters is the golfer’s holy grail. Mine came via golf pro Scott Simpson. Off we went to Augusta National Country Club in Georgia where the golf heritage hangs like moss from trees. I was a kid in a candy store. And as we walked about, it wasn’t enough just to see the course and to walk the grounds. I wanted to see the locker room Clubs of Ben Hogan and Paul Azinger are displayed. But when I got to the door, they wouldn’t let me in. A guard stopped me at the entrance. I showed him my pass, but he shook his head. I told him I knew Scott, but it didn’t matter. Only caddies and players, he explained. Well, he knew I wasn’t a player, and caddies had to wear their required white coveralls. My clothing was a dead giveaway. And so I left, knowing that I had made it all the way to the door, but I was denied entrance.
God has but one requirement for entrance into heaven and into the new earth, and that is that we are clothed in Christ. And so when someone prays, God, take my sinful rags and clothe me in your grace, Jesus, in an act that is only visible to the eyes of heaven, removes the stained robe. He replaces it with the robe of righteousness. He recreates us. And because of this, we have no fear of being turned away at the door of the new earth. What a great story. What a great reality. What a great God.
Let’s pray. Father, we praise you because you do what no one else can do. You alone are God. You create, you sustain, you recreate. You are infinitely patient. You are kind. You are gracious. And we love you. God, today, if there are any among us who are groaning, on the inside, because they know they need this type of recreation that only Jesus gives, then we pray right now to minister to them by your spirit through this word, that more would be made in your image, that more would be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, that more would enjoy your new earth forever. We pray this, and we long for the coming of our Savior. Amen.
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This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
