Revelation 22.1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing (therapein) of the nations/peoples (ethnos). 3 No longer will there be any curse.The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

• Over these weeks we’ve been tracing the Bible’s image of trees—Jeremiah 17: a tree rooted in water, healthy even in high heat; Psalm 1: the introductory vision of the Psalms, a tree delighting in God’s word. And now, Revelation 22: the tree of life at the end of history.
  
  
• Revelation calls us to read with the end in mind—to see where the story is headed, and to live today with that hope.
  
  
• John’s vision gives us three big questions:
  1. What is there?
     • A tree, planted on each side of the river of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding every month.
     • Its leaves are “for the healing (therapia) of the nations”—healing for all peoples.
     • Even when we only glimpse healing here and now, Revelation promises that the tree exists. One day, every longing for restoration will be met in full.
  2. What is not there?
     • “No longer will there be any curse.”
     • From Genesis 3 onward, humanity lived under curse: first, that life is always fractured; second, that even good things are fragile and can be lost.
     • But in the new creation, the curse is gone forever.
  3. How is it not there?
     • Christ redeemed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). On the tree of the cross, He bore our curse and traded it for His Spirit.
     • This is the true prosperity gospel—not wealth or ease, but the priceless gift of the Holy Spirit, God’s presence with us. Like Frodo carrying a treasure he didn’t realize he had, we often miss the value of the Spirit already within us.
• This vision matters because it speaks to a suffering world. Nations are fractured, people are broken, and creation groans. But God sees it all, and promises: healing is coming.

From this passage we see that hope comes as: 1) faith that the tree of healing truly exists, 2) freedom from the curse through Christ’s cross, and 3) the Spirit’s presence now as the foretaste of God’s final restoration.

Pray - For Awareness of the Holy Spirit: Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see the treasure we already have in You. Remind us that in Christ, the curse is broken, and healing is promised. Plant us by Your living waters, make us a community rooted in Your presence, and let us taste the happy of God even now as we wait for the tree of life at the end of history. Amen.

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• Psalm 1 opens with the word “Blessed”—literally, happy. The Psalmist offers a vision of life as a tree—rooted, nourished, fruitful—set against the world’s competing vision of life as a race—relentless forward progress, competition, and comparison.
  
  
• If life is a race, then falling behind feels inevitable—and resentment toward God and others grows. But if life is a tree, the goal is not forward motion but strength in the present—growing deeper roots, wider branches, and steadier fruit in every season.
  
  
• The “happy of God” is available to us. It’s not easy, but it is simple. Psalm 1 shows how to receive it:
  
  
  1. The company you keep matters – Crowds and chaotic voices can immobilize you. Choosing God-centered company means leaving behind the “chorus of chaos” and its shallow measures of worth.
     
     
  2. The story you treasure matters – “The law” here means God’s instruction, His story. The happy of God grows in those who are immersed in His words—meditating on them until they shape our desires and direction.
     
     
  3. The One who keeps your company matters most – Verse 6 promises: “The Lord watches over the way of the righteous.” God sees, knows, and safeguards His people. Jesus Himself endured ultimate loneliness at the cross so our loneliness would have limits, and our connection to God would be limitless.
     
     

From this passage we see that blessing comes as: 1) rejecting the race paradigm for the tree paradigm, 2) rooting ourselves in God’s instruction and story, and 3) resting in the God who knows, keeps, and cultivates His people.

Pray
 Father, rescue me from the false paradigm of life as a race. Make me a tree—rooted in Your Word, surrounded by Your people, and kept in Your care. Thank You that Jesus endured the loneliest place so I could know the deepest connection. Let me find my happiness in You alone. Amen.

• In a culture obsessed with moving forward, Jeremiah 17:5–8 invites us to a different kind of flourishing—not about speed, success, or performance, but about being rooted, nourished, and fruitful right where we are.
  
  
• Many of us feel stuck, like we’re falling behind, even as everyone else seems to move forward. But Scripture says: you can be blessed—happy—even when life feels slow or dry.
  
  
• The passage paints a vivid contrast between shrubs and trees:
   Shrubs are scorched, isolated, rootless.
   Trees are anchored, interconnected, and fruitful—even in drought.
  
  
• This "tree life" isn’t earned by perfection—it grows through deep trust in God. Your happiness doesn’t depend on circumstances improving—it depends on your rootedness in the source of living water.

From this passage we see that blessing (true happiness) comes through: 1) surrendering the pressure to constantly “move forward,” 2) rooting our identity and hope in God alone, and 3) learning to trust Him deeply, especially in heat and drought.

Pray

(Pray a whole-life invitation)
 Father, I confess that I often chase forward progress instead of rooted presence. But you say blessing comes when I trust you. Make me a tree—anchored in your Spirit, unshaken by the heat, fruitful even in drought. Teach me to draw my hope, identity, and joy from you alone. Amen.

We've been on a months-long journey exploring two questions: How has the world been pulled apart? And how is it brought back together? Scripture shows us that at the core of the unraveling is our alienation from God, which then ripples out into alienation from self, others, and even creation.

Into this brokenness, the God of the universe is actively restoring all things—and what’s more, he is inviting us to participate in that restoration. In a city overflowing with opportunity, what's often missing is a meaningful invitation, and Jesus offers one: “Let’s do something together.”

But then comes the tension: Why is this mission so impossible? Two words—All Nations. Jesus calls a small, unqualified group to world transformation, not just across countries, but across all ethnic groups. And he does this without giving them the credentials we’d expect.

If you were Jesus, building a world-shaping team, who would you pick? Jesus picks those who have nothing on paper:

• They were uneducated, common, “idiotes” (Acts 4:13).
  
  
• They had no formal training and a terrible track record—the ones who deserted him when he needed them most.
  
  
• And yet he chooses them. They had been with Jesus, and that’s what mattered.
• What about those of us who do have credentials? Jesus still uses us—but it might require more unlearning. Think of Paul, who had the pedigree, the passion, the track record. But God had to blind and prune him so he could learn that confidence for mission cannot come from natural advantage.

In Philippians 3, Paul reflects: “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss... that I may gain Christ.” He teaches us that resumes don’t move the needle in the kingdom—knowing Jesus and being filled with His power does.

So whether you feel inadequate or overqualified, the call is the same: divest your confidence in yourself, and place it fully in Christ. The way of the Kingdom is not the way of the world.

What did the disciples have that mattered? A promise. Luke 24:48–49 – “You are witnesses... stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

The metaphor of being “clothed” is deeply biblical. It shows up in Genesis 3 when God covers Adam and Eve in grace. It shows up in the Sermon on the Mount as a symbol of care and security. And now Jesus uses it to describe being covered in the Holy Spirit—our protection, identity, and confidence.

Acts 1:4, 8 echoes the same idea: wait for the promise from the Father, and you will receive power. The only thing that made the early church different was this: the power of the Holy Spirit fell upon them.

So deepen your yearning—not only for more training—but for a power outside of yourself. Because the only confidence we carry is this, the power of the living God, in the presence of the Holy Spirit, has clothed us.

Pray

• (Pray a whole-life invitation) Father, I confess that I often rely on my qualifications or feel paralyzed by my limitations. Today, I surrender both. Clothe me with the power of your Spirit. Let my confidence be rooted not in what I bring, but in the fact that I have been with Jesus. Make me your witness—not by strength, but by your Spirit. Amen.

• Luke 24 mirrors Matthew 28’s Great Commission—Jesus extends a meaningful invitation not just to do something, but to join Him in the greatest work: the restoration of all things. In a world full of options, what we truly crave is meaningful inclusion, and Jesus offers it.
  
  
• This is a genius mission—to you, through you, and with you. First, we are recipients: God is healing the deep places in us marked by shame, pain, and unmet longing. This mission doesn’t begin with output but with inner transformation. Then it flows through us to others. And finally, it happens with us—through the power of the Spirit.
  
  
• We focused on the second piece of this mission, from Luke 24:47, Jesus calls us to be Heralds and Healers. He says: “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations.”Heralds proclaim something significant, and the truth is—we already are heralds. We naturally share things that move us. Maybe the issue isn’t heralding but discomfort in heralding this message. But here’s the good news: Jesus’ call to proclaim repentance and forgiveness is a call to announce that you can come home, no matter what you’ve done.
  
  
• This echoes the return-from-exile theme in the Old Testament. Forgiveness wasn’t just a legal clean slate—it meant a way back home. Jesus expresses this powerfully through the parable of the Prodigal Son: one son experiences exile of the body (he ran), the other, exile of the heart (he stayed but didn’t know the Father). Yet the Father’s invitation stands for both: come home.
  
  
• We herald when we share our stories—moments of surrender, moments on the brink when God came through. These are more than testimonies; they are healing announcements that God restores, forgives, and brings us back into His embrace.

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• Will Smith observed that those who experience life at “cliff top” face the same abyss experienced by those on “rock bottom.” It is a honest and vulnerable admission that proves Jesus’ right that a common problem we face is that we do not know “the things that make for peace.”
• Luke records Jesus making his assertion in the moments following his arrival in Jerusalem. And this assertion helps modern readers to see how the event of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem (as well as the following events of Holy Week) bring peace.
• From this passage we see that peace comes as 1) an alien arrival, 2) a welcome into our constructed strongholds, and 3) an invitation into the center of our self-understandings (our identities!).

Pray

• (Pray a whole-life invitation) Father, I invite your presence into every corner of my life. I invite you to center of my self-understanding—may your good and loving presence be the lens that allows me to see every part of my life.

For the summary for this sermon and others - click here!

• In Genesis 3.17-19, we see a fourth layer of alienation w/ nature, “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life” It is an unraveling that impacts that sits at the intersection of how we worship (Lord), how we work (labor), and how we live in God’s creation (land).
• Our post-fall predicament is that we have lost the experience of abundance, security, and resource-fullness of Eden. Instead our work lives, even in the backdrop of materially wealthy global city, are marked by scarcity, severity, and insecurity.
• What we are facing is (at-least) two-fold: 1) scarcity of soul/inner world, and 2) scarcity of resources. This dual-scarcity leads to work-creep, where work and longing for security moves to the center of our existence. And, this experience of scarcity leads to overwork (for ourselves) and overuse (exploitation of God’s creation).
• In a world reeling from an alienation from nature, God prescribed for his people a Sabbath rest for us (every week) and for the land (every seven years). Yet, his people did not adhere to God’s invitation for Sabbath rest.
• Therefore, what is the hope for us in a world marked by scarcity? Scripture says the hope is found in our adoption. We are adopted by a King and we are adopted into the Kingdom! Our adoption by a King infuses us with a new identity that transforms the scarcity of our inner world. Our adoption into the Kingdom places us within Jesus’ Church. And, when the Holy Spirit falls on the Church in Acts 2, the Church receives a capacity for generosity that stands as a counter-cultural example of supernatural abundance.

For the summary for this sermon and others - click here!

• In Genesis 3 and 4, we see the third layer of alienation—a social alienation that pulls us apart from each other. This alienation and unraveling leads to the active conflict we observe in our world, as well as the apathy we can possess towards the material needs of those around us.
• In response to the widening dysfunction and violence multiplying in the world, God chooses a nation to embody a different way. This different way can be seen in passages such as Deuteronomy 15.
• In Isaiah 58, we see glimpse of God’s desire for a spirituality—a “life with God”—in a world marked by conflict and apathy. It is a spirituality that 1) has eyes for others, 2) is rooted in continuous intimacy with the Father, and 3) delights in grace!
• We can often miss God’s desire in two directions: 1) a religious direction and 2) an irreligious direction. We err in the religious direction when we focus on the rituals of spirituality without allowing our love for God translate into active love and concern for others (Isaiah 58.1-5). We can also err in an irreligious direction, where we seek justice for others but discount the necessity of life with God. We desire to remedy alienation #3—social alienation—but do not address alienation #1—alienation from God.
• Jesus embodies a potent spirituality that both 1) challenges a spirituality that ignores the material plight of others (Mt. 23.23) and also 2) prioritizes connection to the Father. A Jesus-Church*,* following after the way of Jesus, gets to experience and embody the same!

Pray

• Father, gives me eyes to see the needs around me; grant me to experience the power of life with you; and fill me with a delight to remember that no matter how often I fall short, you provide incomparable grace.

For the summary for this sermon and others - click here!

• In Scripture, shame has both an passive and and an active component. The passive component is what we are familiar with — the visceral reactions we’ve experienced that stem from feeling exposed and insufficient. Genesis 3 explains that it is our human way of experiencing the world now that we have experienced the disconnection from God once available to humanity at Eden.
• A Scriptural understanding of shame also requires understanding shame’s active component. In Psalm 25.1-3, the psalmist declares that those who put their trust in God are not put to shame. And, this is a recurring idea in Scripture—biblical authors speak of shame as resulting from our misplaced trust.
• The redemptive power of shame, as argued by Allender and Longman, centers on shame’s ability to expose our misplaced trusts—the deep idols of our heart. We feel shame, because the things we depend on for identity and sense of security—such as the respect and admiration of others, the financial stability our jobs provides, the affection of loved ones—cannot provide what we long for.
• Shame exposes our misplaced trusts, which can lead us to repentance and worship!