Redeemed

Our pastor closed his sermon on Revelation 21:9-27 two weeks ago with a moving illustration...

Imagine that you were born into a miserable situation: no family, no future, no hope. A father you did not know and never would have met sets his love on you. He makes elaborate plans to redeem you for himself, make you part of his family, and give you hope and a future. The price for your redemption is shocking, and this father who has decided to adopt you doesn’t even flinch.

At a cost to himself that you cannot fathom, a price that you will not understand until your own faculties have matured, he ransoms your life. The redemption entails a journey whose distance we have no categories for comprehending, a sacrifice that risks everything, suffers, dies, and rises from the dead, and in the triumphant resurrection your life is secured. He has bought you back and he will fetch you home.

He puts his name on you, and he has promised to bring you into his home where you will live in his presence. While you await the finalization of the adoption process, he gives you a down payment that can never be revoked, sealing you with his own Spirit. Brothers and sisters, what the Philpots have just done in adopting their baby son and daughter parallels so beautifully what our Father has done. We have been adopted. The Father who has redeemed us and made us part of his family shows us in this passage what we will inherit, the place we will live. If we believe this, let us live like the children of such a Father.