Here is one preached yesterday morning in Canterbury Prison. We had
established on All Saints' Day that all born-again people are "Saints",
and all others are "Aints".
Isaiah 66:20-23
1. FOR THE SAINTS, A NEW HEAVEN AND A NEW EARTH 20-23; 2 Peter 3:13
From earth's remotest parts, then, the dispersed of Israel will be brought to
Jerusalem like a homage offering by the Gentiles. There will be former Jews
and Gentiles among the Saints; Old Testament Saints and New Testament Saints.
St Paul, the converted Jew, was the Apostle to the Gentiles, who brought them
to God as an "acceptable offering to God" (Romans 15:16). Jew or Gentile, we
are all accepted in Christ. Indeed, we are all made "kings and priests unto
God" (Revelation 1:6, 5:10). Not just Priests and Levites.
New Moon and Sabbath have ceased to be binding upon Christians (Colossians
2:16), and it is implausible to suggest that these 'times and seasons' will be
reinstated (Galatians 4:10). They stand here for an ongoing round of worship
and praise to God our Creator and Redeemer in His new Heaven and New Earth in
which righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13).
Oh when the saints go marching in,
Oh when the saints go marching in,
Oh I shall be among that number,
When the saints go marching in.
2. FOR THE AINTS, A LAKE OF FIRE 24
In the synagogues, verse 23 is read again after verse 24 to soften the ending
of the prophecy. But Daniel warned his hearers "And many of them that sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2). Jesus wrned his hearers to avoid
"hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched" (Mark
9:47-48). The prophecy of Isaiah begins with a promise of a Messiah to be born
of a Virgin: God incarnate, Immanuel God-with-us. Later chapters describe his
sufferings, his death and his resurrection. The final chapters end with a new
Heaven and a new Earth: but close with a warning of a burning Hell to avoid.
So ends Isaiah, the longest book in the Bible with 66 chapters.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Ben
--
Revd Ben Crick BA CF, and Mrs Joanna (Goodwin) Crick
<ben.crick@argonet.co.uk>
232 Canterbury Road, Birchington, Kent, CT7 9TD (UK)
http://www.cnetwork.co.uk/crick.htm
