Now and Not Yet

Some books have a prologue; this sermon does too.

The rabbis and the writers of the New Testament understood the term “the Kingdom of Heaven” to have a dual meaning:

The rule of God in the present
the reign of God in the age to come.[1]

Christians have long called this “the now[2] and not yet.” In Northern Michigan we know what this is like when it comes to seasons. When the first day of spring shows up on the calendar, the age of fulfillment has come, but the consummation is still in the future. Here is a biblical example.

“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)

Here are a few other examples where you are going to have to look up the address yourself :)

We are already adopted in Christ (Romans 8:15), but not yet fully adopted (Romans 8:23)
We are already redeemed in Christ (Ephesians 1:7), but not yet fully redeemed (Ephesians 4:30)
We are already sanctified in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2), but not yet fully sanctified (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24)
We are already saved in Christ (Ephesians 2:8), but not yet fully saved (Romans 5:9).
We are already raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), but not yet fully raised (1 Corinthians 15:52).[3]

The now and not yet.

* * * * *

Last week we talked about what all the sermons in the book of Acts present. Today, we will talk about some really significant things that are not present in the speeches in the book of Acts.

Specifically, heaven and hell are not presented as motivators for following Jesus in the book of Acts. They are barely mentioned at all.

Hades is mentioned once in Acts 2, where Peter is quoting Psalm 16. There, Peter is just applying a prophecy to Jesus (“You will not abandon my soul to Hades/Sheol”). He’s not making a presentation about it.[4]

In the New Testament, heaven (Ouranos) can refer to the sky, outer space, or the third heaven (God’s dwelling place). Acts uses “heaven” language as shorthand for “where God reigns” twice: God “raised Jesus” and exalted him (Acts 2:33–36), and Jesus is enthroned at God’s right hand (Acts 7:55–56).[5]

Even the phrase “eternal/everlasting life” appears only in one speech (Acts 13:46-48), but the phrase “eternal/everlasting punishment” not at all.[6]

Clearly, what happens in the age to come is a very important part of the Christian worldview and is talked about by Jesus and others as recorded in Scripture. But in the midst of all the sermons and speeches in Acts, the life in the age to come – the “not yet” - is not front and center, and punishment and reward in the age to come are not presented as motivators for following Jesus.

Acts focuses on the “now” part of the “now and not yet.”

Having said that, Acts absolutely does preach the importance of repentance with a coming judgment in view.

Paul teaches that God “commands all people everywhere to repent” because God “has fixed a day” to judge the world through the risen Jesus (Acts 17:30–31).
Peter told Cornelius, “[Christ] commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.” (Acts 10:42-43)

Clearly there will be a judgment that holds us accountable. Acts does not deny this at all. It just doesn’t record a detailed map of competing destinations in the afterlife, and it doesn’t incorporate a presentation of them into evangelism tools to reach their audience.

Why? I suspect that their audience had a grasp of reward and punishment that they took so seriously already that Paul and Peter didn’t need to raise the stakes for them as they considered whether or not to repent and follow Jesus. That is what we are going to examine.

When people in Peter and Paul’s audience were called to repent, they were generally trying to avoid “the wrath of God”. HELPS Word-studies defines this wrath this way:

“Settled anger (opposition) proceeds from an internal disposition which steadfastly opposes someone or something based on extended personal exposure…a fixed, controlled, passionate feeling against sin . . . a settled indignation.”

So, God’s wrath isn’t God flying off the handle in a temper outburst. God is, after all, “slow to anger” (Psalm 86:15, etc). God steadfastly opposes sin because He knows what it does (that’s the “extended personal exposure”). He has a settled indignation at the chaos it causes. He has a holy resistance to corruption. He loves His creation too much to let it be ruined without consequence.

In the framework of God’s Old Testament covenant with Israel, the wrath of God was more often than not very practical. Think of the OT blessings vs. curses within the covenant that mapped onto righteousness vs. sin. Wrath is God’s in that God warns us that sin will lead to consequences that God himself has ordained.

This was something the people of Israel had experienced already in this life, and the Jewish people continued to understand as seen in the writings of Paul.

Ezekiel 22:31 - “I will pour out my wrath…they have returned their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord God.”
Romans 1 - “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people…. God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts… God gave them over to a depraved mind.”
Galatians 6:7 - “Be not deceived; God is not mocked. What one sows, one will also reap.”

So what does the wrath of consequences look like? Two key results show up over and over again in the Old Testament; that pattern starts immediately in Genesis.

loss of life (“if you eat you will surely die”)[7]
loss of the land intended to give them life (exile from Eden).[8] To be exiled from the land is to be pushed back toward chaos and death. Wrath was the loss of life-giving space.

That pattern continues through so many stories. The wrath of God revealed as the wages of sin leads to death or loss of the land meant to give them life.

The people go to Egypt for help during a famine instead of trusting God, and they lose their land (and a lot of lives).
When they follow God out of Egypt, God leads them toward a land of Promise – and an entire generation dies outside the land because of sin.
They make it to the land; when their sin overwhelms them, they are conquered and exiled.[9]

This is exactly the framework that the apostles in Acts assume when they warn about the consequences of “wrath” without needing to tap into imagery of life or death in the age to come. Their audience already knows the story: the wages of sin are death and exile from the blessing of the land God had provided for them.

I suspect this is why the afterlife isn’t central in Acts. There was plenty of material here already. When Jesus warned them about the punishment of Gehennah (literally right outside the city gates), they wanted to avoid it at all cost. They had seen what happened there to their ancestors.[10] They knew what that meant. The wages of sin were death and exile.

When John the Baptist said, “Flee from the wrath to come,” his audience had centuries of history that formed the legitimacy of this warning. So many times, God’s people had fallen into sin, failed to hear the prophets, and experienced the wrath of God through the consequences of their sin. It’s been an ongoing reality. That’s why Paul can write,

“The wrath of God is being revealed (present tense) from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness…” (Romans 1:18)

But that wasn’t the end of the story. The prophets had always insisted that the goal was always repentance, return, and restoration into a renewal of life. Here is just one (fairly famous) example.

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:10-14)[11]

The Jewish people still thought of themselves as exiled even though they were back in their own land. Rome ruled them; they were convinced God’s Spirit had left them; the glory hadn’t returned to the Temple; and so many of the prophets promises had not been fulfilled.

And if they were still in exile, they were still under the wrath of God.

The apostles are convincing their audience that Jesus has conquered the power of death and exile. That’s why the focus is on Jesus’ resurrection/exaltation (He’s God!), the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (“The Kingdom is within you!”), and a new community of belonging (“You’re home!”).

In a sense, Jesus relives Israel’s history of death and exile by participating in it.

Goes into Egypt (Matthew 2)
Enters the wilderness (40 days)
Crucified outside the city (Hebrews 13:12)
Hung on a tree (Deuteronomy 21’s curse)
Enters death (Hades)

On the cross, Jesus stepped into exile and overpowered it. He entered the realm of death and took away its power. Acts preaches that, because of what Jesus has done, the exile is over. The King has returned and sits on a throne in His Kingdom, which has now expanded to include all the nations. He is pouring out His life-giving Holy Spirit for renewal and refreshing. And he has even rebuilt the Temple, but this time it’s His people.

The age of exile is over because the risen King has come. A national and even cosmic restoration has begun.

Acts’ dominant evangelistic posture is a proactive summons into this new life of restoration and reconciliation. Repentance is a doorway into resurrection life and Spirit-formed community. The stress is on what it looks like to experience the Kingdom of God now.

Forgiveness of sins
Gift of the Holy Spirit
Inclusion in a new community
Participation in God’s renewing work

Acts invites its audience to align themselves with Jesus, because resurrection has already begun. They are no longer exiled from the true land that nourishes them with the true Water and Bread of life. The land – the Kingdom of God - is theirs to enjoy, beginning now. Paul told Timothy,

“Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.” (1 Timothy 6:12)

Every commentary I read said something like this: Believers have begun "eternal (aiṓnios) life" right now, experiencing this quality of God's life now as a present possession.[12]

Around the time Jesus lived, the rabbis were discussing the difference between hayei olam (Hi-YAY Oh-LAHM), meaning eternal life, which is contrasted with hayei sha’ah (Hi-YAY Sha-AH), which means fleeting or earthly life.

This wasn’t about before death and after death. Hayei olam was “lasting life,” and it referred to living in a way that focused on matters of eternal importance. Hayei sha’ah was about only being concerned with short-term material needs of today: working, making money, eating, etc.

We as followers of Jesus have hayei olam, and it begins now. There’s more to come, but it begins now. Let’s go with John 4:14’s image:

“The water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

If you go to where the Boardman River pops out of the ground, and put your kayak in, you are on the Boardman river. But the spring is just the beginning. That river will take you somewhere. You are on the river “now” but you are “not yet” where it plans to take you. So, how do we start eternal life now?

“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

Knowing has to do with being transformed into the image of Christ, having the Holy Spirit at work in us, absorbing the truth of God’s word, ordering our life around the things of God, seeking to see God at work in every situation… It’s an active, all-encompassing, total life surrender and make over.

Eternal life starts with repentance, turning away from all that is sinful and unrighteous and turning toward the path of life made possible through Jesus. It’s living in God's righteous path centered in God's will, making it our highest priority to further God’s interests and kingdom in every way by having eyes that see what Jesus sees, hearts that respond like the heart of Jesus, and hands that do what Jesus would do.

And if we do this as entire communities of people, the “now” gives us clearer and clearer images of the glory and goodness that awaits us in the “not yet.”

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[1] “The Kingdom Of Heaven In The Here And Now And Future.” Marg Mowczko, https://margmowczko.com/the-kingdom-of-heaven-here-now-future/

[2] “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst (or, within you).” (Luke 17:20b-21)

[3] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/already-not-yet provided that list.

[4] The word “hell” did not exist when the Bible was written. Hell comes from a word with German roots, haljō, referring to a "concealed place" or the place of the dead. Norse mythology made it famous: “Hel” refers to both the realm of the dead and the goddess who rules it (no surprise – her dad is Loki.) “Hell” starts showing up in Bible translations around 1,000 AD. It eventually became a catch-all word that referred to Sheol (Old Testament realm of the dead in Hebrew); Hades (New Testament realm of the dead in Greek), ,Gehenna (the valley of Hinnom), and Tartarus. The individual words matter, because they meant different things to the audience in the book of Acts.

[5] Heaven is God’s headquarters. The emphasis in Acts is on exaltation and lordship, not relocation after this life

[6] You see “everlasting/eternal life/punishment” discussed more in the letters to the churches.

[7] Genesis 2. Also, “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel)

[8] Genesis 3

[9] The Northern Kingdom was destroyed by Assyria and the people deported because of idolatry and injustice. (2 Kings 17) Jeremiah and Ezekiel record the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the people removed from the land.

[10] And, sadly, would happen again in A.D. 70.

[11] The author of Romans will note: ““We were enemies… we were reconciled… saved from wrath.” (Rom 5:9–10)

[12] All the discussion that follows on eternal life as understood in the time of Jesus is from Lois Tverberg, writing in “Eternal Life, Here and Now.”