This past Sunday, I preached from Acts 3. My central aim in recounting this encouraging story of a lame man being healed at a gate of the Temple mount was to show that because we see what God has done through the name of Jesus (healing the lame man), we can trust what God will do through the name of Jesus (heal every single one of us, who are also lame in some way).
In showing what God will do, it was intriguing to note Peter’s use of three unique words to describe God’s accomplishments through Jesus. He described the wholeness Jesus brings (Acts 3:16), the refreshment poured out upon us through Jesus (Acts 3:20), and the future hope of the complete restoration of all Creation, which will be consummated at the coming of Jesus (Acts 3:21).
As I often do, I ran out of time for the preaching, so I didn’t get to fill out that last and critical bit, that remarkable future hope of restoration. You see, the Bible wants us to look to our future in great hope as a way to sustain us through difficulties in our present. God tells us that someday everything will be made right, and he wants you to hold fast to that promise, thus persevering in an age where things are not the way they are supposed to be because of the destructive influences of sin, Satan, and death.
If all that is true (and it is), then we need vivid pictures of that future hope, that we might be sustained.
I find one such Biblically inspired picture through one of my favorite poems, "Justified Forevermore" (found in pastor John Piper’s remarkable book, Future Grace). Soak in this vision again and again, and may it be an anchor for your soul in the difficult seas of life in this age.
As far as any eye could see
There was no green. But every tree
Was cinder black, and all the ground
Was gray with ash. The only sound
Was arid wind, like spirits’ ghosts,
Gasping for some living hosts
In which to dwell, as in the days
Of evil men, before the blaze
Of unimaginable fire
Had made the earth a flaming pyre
For God’s omnipotent display
Of holy rage.
The dreadful Day
Of God had come. The moon had turned
To blood. The sun no longer burned
Above, but, blazing with desire,
Had flowed into a lake of fire.
The seas and oceans were no more,
And in their place a desert floor
Fell deep to meet the brazen skies,
And silence conquered distant cries.
The Lord stood still above the air.
His mighty arms were moist and bare.
They hung, as weary, by his side,
Until the human blood had dried
Upon the sword in his right hand.
He stared across the blackened land
That he had made, and where he died.
His lips were tight, and deep inside,
The mystery of sovereign will
Gave leave, and it began to spill
In tears upon his bloody sword
For one last time.
And then the Lord
Wiped every tear away, and turned
To see his bride. Her heart had yearned
Four thousand years for this: His face
Shone like the sun, and every trace
Of wrath was gone. And in her bliss
She heard the Master say, “Watch this:
Come forth, all goodness from the ground,
Come forth, and let the earth redound
With joy.”
And as he spoke, the throne
Of God came down to earth and shone
Like golden crystal full of light,
And banished, once for all, the night.
And from the throne a stream began
To flow and laugh, and as it ran,
It made a river and a lake,
And everywhere it flowed, a wake
Of grass broke on the banks and spread
Like resurrection from the dead.
And in the twinkling of an eye
The saints descended from the sky.
And as I knelt beside the brook
To drink eternal life, I took
A glance across the golden grass,
And saw my dog, old Blackie, fast
As she could come. She leaped the stream -
Almost - and what a happy gleam
Was in her eye.
I knelt to drink,
And knew that I was on the brink
Of endless joy. And everywhere
I turned I saw a wonder there.
A big man running on the lawn:
That’s old John Younge with both legs on.
The blind can see a bird on wing,
The dumb can lift their voice and sing.
The diabetic eats at will,
The coronary runs uphill.
The lame can walk, the deaf can hear,
The cancer-ridden bone is clear.
Arthritic joints are lithe and free,
And every pain has ceased to be.
And every sorrow deep within,
And every trace of lingering sin
Is gone. And all that’s left is joy,
And endless ages to employ
The mind and heart, and understand,
And love the sovereign Lord who planned
That it should take eternity
To lavish all his grace on me.
O, God of wonder, God of might,
Grant us some elevated sight,
Of endless days. And let us see
The joy of what is yet to be.
And may your future make us free,
And guard us by the hope that we,
Through grace on lands that you restore,
Are justified for evermore.
