Living in the Already-But-Not-Yet
(Heaven Series: Part 2)
Daniel 7:13-27; Luke 17:20-26; Revelation 1:7-18; Revelation 11:15-18

I.    Introduction & Review
We are on our second sermon of what we be, Lord willing, an eight-week series on the topic of Heaven.  To understand Heaven, however, we must understand heaven in a far broader context than just some beautiful and perfect, yet vague and mysterious, place we go to when we die.  When the Bible speaks about Heaven, it is ultimately referring to the kingdom of God.  So to understand heaven, we must understand what the Bible means by the kingdom of God.  So that is our topic for today’s sermon:  What does it mean to live in the already-but-not-yet kingdom of God.

II.    Scripture Readings:   
Now we are about to read some long passages.  These four passages together will give us the big picture of how the kingdom of God has always been the ultimate plan for the human race.  We’ll see how this kingdom came in partial power with the first coming of Christ, and how it will come in full power at Christ’s Second coming.   

Listen for these themes:
a.    Christ as the Son of Man.  When the Old Testament and then when Christ Himself refers to Jesus as the “Son of Man,” this title portrays Christ as both the only one who is fully God and fully man and therefore the only Savior, but also this title is meant to represent Christ as the apocalyptic warrior who ushers in the end of the world and establishes the eternal kingdom.
b.    Christ as King of God’s everlasting Kingdom.  
c.    Stages of the Kingdom:  (Notice how God’s kingdom comes in three stages.)
i.    Preparation for the kingdom with the nation of Israel
ii.    Inauguration with the first Coming of Christ.  
iii.    Consummation with the Second coming of Christ
d.    Our destiny as the People of God who reign with Christ in this eternal kingdom

Scripture Readings…

Dan 7:13-27:  In this Bible passage, the prophet of God named Daniel, gives us a sweeping overview of the entire course of human history from creation until the end of this current world with the return of Christ.  He places all human history in the framework of four major world kingdoms that will rule over earth.  

The portion of this prophecy that we are going to read picks up where God is explaining to Daniel the meaning of this fourth king and kingdom, which will include the reign of the antichrist.  

But God also goes on to reveal how another king, namely Christ the King, will conquer this antichrist king, and then hand over the kingdoms of this world to us, the people of God who will then reign with Christ on the New Earth forever and ever!

Luke 17:20-26:  In this next passage from Luke, Christ reveals that with His first coming, His living a sinless life, proclaiming the gospel in power, His death and Resurrection, the Kingdom of God broke through into the human condition and rebellious planet Earth.  

This is the stage of the kingdom we are now in.  This is the stage where our missionary God is reclaiming the captive, restoring the wounded, and redeploying the equipped to reclaim ultimately all planet Earth back under God’s full reign.

Rev 1:7-18:  In our next Bible passage, we discover that when Christ does return to planet earth to usher in the full kingdom of God, He will not return as the meek, gentle, shepherd riding on a donkey.  Rather, Christ will return as a mighty warrior with eyes of blazing fire and a double-edge sword in His hand to execute God’s righteous wrath and grace-filled judgment.  

Rev 11:15-18:  In our last Bible passage, we discover the culmination of everything that God has been up since first deciding to create the human race.  After centuries of God’s people living in the promise and persevering through the trials, the kingdom of God comes in fulfillment.  

Christ returns and removes all evil and evil doers from this world so that Earth can once again become what God designed it to be all along, a perfect paradise where God, humans, angels, and animals and all creation dwell in peace and prosperity.

Let me now sum up all that we just discovered in our fly over of God’s grand plan for humanity.  

To understand who we will be, what we will do, and where we will live for all eternity, we must understand this:  Everything God is up to with the human race, with planet Earth, with all the universe, with all creation, and with all your life, can only make sense when you place everything into the bigger picture of what God is up to in bringing all creation back into his eternal Kingdom.   


III.     The Already-But-Not-Yet Kingdom
When we study heaven in the Bible, we discover that heaven for human beings comes in two stages.  And these two stages of heaven fit into God’s bigger plans of bringing all creation back into His eternal kingdom.  God’s kingdom for human beings comes in three stages.  So let’s explore briefly these two stages of heaven and three stages of God’s kingdom.

  The Two Stages of Heaven
    Stage One—Present Heaven:   This is the heaven that exists right now.  
a.  All those who die with his or her sins forgiven by Christ go directly into God’s presence in this current stage of heaven.  We’ll talk about this stage in detail next week.  
b.  But briefly, this is still an interim state and place of residence.  It is still an intermediate state because, even though we are in God’s presence, we still do not get our Resurrection bodies, the bodies that we will have forever, until the Second Coming of Christ.  
c.  Present Heaven will eventfully be joined with the New Earth to become Eternal Heaven
  
 Stage Two—Eternal Heaven:  
a.  The present heaven is still an intermediate also because its current form will change when Christ returns to remove all evil from the world.  
b.  At that time, Christ will create a new Earth and a New Heaven wherein Earth and Heaven together become the Kingdom of God.
c.  The throne of God will move from the current Present Heaven to the new Earth.


  The Three Stages of God’s Kingdom
    Stage One—Kingdom Come: This is the stage of the world before Christ came to earth the first time.  
a.  The kingdom of God during this stage was one of Preparation.  
b.  God used the nation of Israel to reveal to the world who He was, and what are His plans for humanity for redemption.  
c.  Satan during this age period was allowed enormous power over planet earth and humanity.  
d.  The gospel during this period was mostly limited to Israel and non-Jews who joined their temple worship.
e.  This was an age of anticipating the blessing of the kingdom.
f.  Heaven during this period was “Paradise,” or “Abraham’s Bosom.”  Those who died in faith did not go into what we call the present heaven, but a place of conscious, peaceful rest.

    Stage Two—Already-But-Not-Yet Kingdom:  This is the stage of the world right now.
a.  The kingdom of God during this age period is one of Inauguration.  
b.  Satan has been bound in that he cannot keep the gospel from being proclaimed with power to the world.  
c.  The gospel is open to all people groups.  
d.  This is an age of partial participation in the blessings of the kingdom.  This is “already-but-not-yet stage of the kingdom that we are now in that includes tragedy and triumph, joy and sorry, defeat and victory.
e.  Heaven during this age is the Present Heaven that we described above.  

    Stage Three—Eternal Kingdom: This is the stage of the world once Christ creates the New Heaven and New Earth.  
a.  The kingdom of God will then experience full Consummation.  
b.  We will live in our new bodies on a new earth reigning who Christ over the universe engaged in meaningful work, exciting recreation, and prefect relations.
c.  Satan, all evil doers, death, and hell are thrown into the “Lake of Fire,” and so rendered powerless forever.
d.  Present Heaven becomes Eternal Heaven

Charles Ladd has a helpful definition of the Kingdom:  “The Kingdom of God is the redemptive reign of God dynamically active to establish his rule among men, and this Kingdom, which will appear as an apocalyptic act at the end of the age, has already come into human history in the person and mission of Jesus to overcome evil, to deliver men from its power, and to bring them into the blessings of God’s reign.  The Kingdom of God involves two great moments:  fulfillment within history and consummation at the end of history.”


IV.    Living in the Tensions of the Already-But-Not-Yet
So what does all this matter to your daily, “I’m-just-trying-to-make-it-through-another-day” life?   
•    Seeing your life from God’s big picture, God’s grand story perspective gives meaning, purpose, hope, and faith
•    Knowing that God has a big and good plan for humanity gives meaning and hope in the face of so much suffering and injustice
•    Knowing what stage of the Kingdom you are now living in empowers you to know what to expect from life, God, others, and yourself.

Life in the “already-but-not-yet” is life lived in tension.  The ability to embrace these tensions is what separates the mature from the immature Christian.  

(Let me quote myself from a previous sermon.)

Only by embracing live in the tensions of the already-but-not-yet, and waiting in hope for the pleasures of heaven, and savoring the appetizers of kingdom blessings God does grant us now can we break free from our addictions, greed, self-centeredness, cynicism, and apathy.  

All sin is an attempt to either get back into Eden—to live a life free of futility and pain, or a demand that we have the fullness of heaven, of the coming kingdom now—to live in with the perfection and pleasure for which we were created.  

If sin is demand for heaven now then the remedy for sin is hope.  To hope is to long, to groan, to ache.  The apostle Paul, in speaking of our hope says in Romans 8 that we inwardly groan as we eagerly await our adoption as God’s children, and the redemption of our bodies.  We are to be people who groan, not gripe, not moan, but groan inwardly.  

This is a deep ache in our souls to be with Christ, to be in the perfect world we were created for, to be clothed with a glorious resurrection body.  True hope hurts!  It’s an uncomfortable comfort.  It’s a hunger that can’t be satisfied.  It’s homesickness for heaven.  And it’s this very truth, that to hope deeply is to hurt deeply, that keeps many from living in deep hope.  We sin both to satisfy the hunger of hope, and so appease the hunger.  

But we also sin to kill the hunger for hope and so numb ourselves for having to live in ache.  Most people have somewhere along their life’s journey killed hope, because it hurts to much to live in longing.  Life offers us few guarantees even when we apply Biblical principles.  Godly parents end up with drug addicted kids, and drug-addicted parents sometimes end up with missionary kids.  Such is life in the “Already-but-not-yet” kingdom of God.   

To live in the tensions of the already-but-not-yet is to long for the day when we will live in perfection that we were created for, but to stop demanding it now, and instead savor every moment that goes well—savor every moment that gives us a taste of something really good.  Savor each moment when you are healthy, your spouse and you are getting along, your children are living well, your project is successful, savor them, but demand them.  Receive such moments for what they are—a gift from the Father—and to let every moment when life fails you to be an opportunity to grow in faith and hope.

We live in the “already-but-not-yet” kingdom of God.  Christ’s complete victory is assured, but right now a battle still wages that has eternal consequences for human souls!  Right now a battle still rages in which even we as God’s children can experience horrific woundedness.

But what is available to us in the “Already” is HUGE!  
•    We have the forgiveness of our sins; and reconciliation with God.  
•    The marred image of God being progressively restored in us,
•    the pushing back and overcoming of the demonic;
•    reconciliation between people groups.  
•    We can experience substantial physical, spiritual, emotional, and relational healing
•    And all this on top of the promise that one day the already-but-not-yet will become the “already-and-forevermore!”