Series: Revelation: The Best is Yet to Come

Title: “Reverse the Curse: What is the New Eden?”

Scripture: Revelation 22:1-9

(Commentary helps listed at the end)

Need: Believe that God’s word is “trustworthy and true” enough to follow fully and faithfully.

Bottom line: We reverse the curse in our own lives when we believe the word of God in word and action.

INTRODUCTION

Opening story: Curse of the Bambino

The Curse of the Bambino was a superstitious sports curse in Major League Baseball(MLB) derived from the 86-year championship drought of the Boston Red Sox from 1918 to 2004. The superstition was named after Babe Ruth, colloquially known as "The Bambino", who played for the Red Sox until he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1920.[1] While some fans took the curse seriously, most used the expression in a tongue-in-cheekmanner.[2]

Babe Ruth as a member of the 1918 Boston Red Sox, the final season before the drought.

External images

Picture of the graffitied "reverse curve" road sign

Removal of the sign (then re-graffitied to read "reversed the curse") by a crew including Governor Mitt Romney, following Boston's 2004 World Series victory.

Prior to the drought, the Red Sox had been one of the most successful professional baseball franchises. They won five of the first fifteen World Series titles, including the first in 1903, more than any other MLB team at the time.[3]During this period, Ruth was a core contributor to the Red Sox's three championships in 1915, 1916, and 1918. Following the sale of Ruth, however, the once lackluster Yankees became one of the most dominant professional sports franchises in North America and set the record for World Series titles by more than twice the amount of any other MLB team.[4] The curse became a focal point of the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry over the years.

Talk of the curse as an ongoing phenomenon ended when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series.[5] The Red Sox's championship was prefaced by them overcoming a 0–3 deficit against the Yankees in the American League Championship Series (ALCS), the first and, to date, only time an MLB team won a best-of-seven playoff series after losing the first three games.

The curse had been such a part of Boston culture that when a "reverse curve" road sign on Longfellow Bridgeover the city's busy Storrow Drive was graffitied to read "Reverse The Curse,"[6] officials left it in place until the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series. After the World Series that year, the road sign was edited to read "Reversed Curse" in celebration.[6]

Read Genesis 3:1-19; Revelation 22:1-9

CONTEXT

We have seen:

• Jesus and his churches (1-3)

• The throne and judgments of God (6-16)

• The whore, the King, and his bride (17-22)

It’s also noteworthy that these last 2 chapters of Revelation and of the Bible occur when sin has been abolished from the universe. No more sin, shame, guilt, death—it’s all history.

Bottom line: We reverse the curse in our own lives when we believe the word of God in word and action.

OUTLINE

I. Description of the New Eden

A. We will be nourished by God. (1-2)

1. Water of life

2. Tree of life

3. Leaves of healing

B. We will worship our God. (3)

1. Curse is reversed

2. Throne of God

3. Appropriate response is worship/service (Latreuo) Ex. Romans 12:1

4. Worship God as Father and Lamb

C. We will see our God. (4)

1. We will see his face.

2. His name will be on our forehead.

D. We will reign with our God. (5)

In the meantime, accept these invitations (2 of 7):

II. Two invitations from God to us as we anticipate the New Eden and the reverse of the curse: (6-9)

A. Obey God. (6-7)

1. His words are trustworthy and true

2. The Lord sent his angel to show his servants what’s coming

3. He’s coming soon!

4. Blessed are the obedient

B. Worship God! (8-9)

1. John’s signature

2. John’s overwhelmed response is and isn’t appropriate (faith vs feelings—-> discipline)

3. We’re servants who worship and we’re worshippers who serve

4. When we take a good thing and turn it into a god-thing, we sin and commit idolatry

III. Five more invitations (NEXT WEEK)

CONCLUSION

Poem from pg. 409-410

-Jim Hamilton

Bottom line: We reverse the curse in our own lives when we believe the word of God in word and action.

Pray

Lord’s Supper, 1 Corinthians 11:17-32

OTHER NOTES:

OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS:

We make Superman out to be a god.

God makes Superman out to be a cartoon.

A little girl once defined repentance as “Being sorry enough to stop doing it.”

Fort Knox holds 173 billion dollars in gold.

It has held the nation’s gold deposit since 1937.

It could create a 20x20x20 ft cube of gold.

Now imagine how much gold it would take to create a 12,000x12,000x12,000 foot cube. Now 12,000 stadia! (1,500 miles)!

What’s the real treasure in the new heaven, earth, body and city?

God himself.

MAIN COMMENTARY HELP:

• Exalting Jesus in Revelation by Daniel Akin

• Revelation by Jim Hamilton

• Revelation by Paige Patterson, New American Commentary series

• Breaking the Code by Bruce Metzger

• 2020 Sermons by Matt Chandler

• ESV Global Study Bible

• Bible in One Year by Nicky Gumbel

• Bible Knowledge Commentary

• The Outline Bible, Wilmington

• Discipleship on the Edge, Darrell W. Johnson