What Does God Want You to Imagine?

This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on Sunday, December 28, 2025, as a part of our Advent series titled “Face to Face.” We are tracing the theme of seeing God face-to-face from the beginning to the end of the Bible, as a way of deepening our appreciation for the wonder of Advent, when God arrived in human history in the manger. Together we looked at Revelation 22:1-5. A recording of this sermon will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5) 

I hope you had a merry Christmas, it was great to be with many of you on Christmas Eve. But now, all that’s behind us; 2025 is soon to be old news. Who’s ready for 2026? I don’t know about you, but for me, this time of year between Christmas and New Years is a time when my imagination runs wild. End of a year, new one on the horizon…what’s in store for me? 

Where is your imagination taking you this year? If you could invite me or a friend on a tour of where your imagination is leading you, where would we go? What would we see? Maybe we’d go to a graduation ceremony, or a party celebrating a new job. Maybe your imagination looks ahead to the start of a new relationship, or the end of an old one. Maybe you’re imagining another year with chronic pain, or a first year without a loved one. 

What if God could take you on an “imagination tour”? Where would we go, what would we see then? That’s exactly what our passage is this morning: God is taking us on a tour to show us the one thing we’re all ultimately looking for—above and behind all our hopes and dreams and fears, the thing that haunts all our other imaginations—the one thing we were created for and our hearts incessantly long for. Do you know what it is? Are you ready to find it? God’s ready to show it! 

We have three questions on this imagination tour: Where are we? What do we see? Why does it matter? 

Where are we? 

That’s a really important question for us to ask when it comes to our passage. The book of Revelation can be a really disorienting place, like you were just dropped in the middle of a foreign city you’ve never been to before. You can’t read the street signs, don’t speak the language, don’t recognize the brands of cars driving by. But what if you turned around and right there was standing the Eiffel Tower? I’ve never been to Europe before, I’m not sure if I’d know the difference between Paris and too many other European cities just by being on the street, but if I saw the Eiffel Tower, I’d say “Oh, I’m in Paris.” It’s a distinct enough landmark to tell me where I am. 

Our passage comes with a few helpful landmarks. The first is genre. If you know what literary genre it is you’re reading, you have the right expectations for what you’ll read; it’s like you know the “rules of the game” you’re playing. The first verse in the book tells us “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev 1:1). That word revelation in Greek is Ἀποκάλυψις or “apocalypse.” We usually use that word as synonymous with “catastrophe” or “end of the world” but that’s not what we’re going for here. Apocalypse is a literary genre. 

Actually this is the second time we’ve been in apocalyptic literature in Advent. Last Sunday Rob preached from the book of Daniel where we saw the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man. Rob mentioned that many people come to apocalyptic literature with the wrong expectations, they try to play the game by the wrong rules. Lots of people try to treat Revelation like a treasure map or a secret code to predict the future—that’s not the point! The point is actually to encourage and equip readers for the present. 

Think about it like this, here’s an analogy another pastor friend shared with me the other day. You know what virtual reality goggles are? Like the Oculus Quest or whatever Apple’s one was called? How does it work? You put on the headset and it gives you a vision of another world, so you can imagine you’re in space or deep in the ocean or walking on a tight rope. Think of Revelation like a “spiritual reality headset.” When we read it, instead of seeing and hearing another world, it gives us a vision of the real world from God’s perspective. All these images and metaphors are meant to fuel our imagination with the truth so we can trust God under all this pressure we’re facing. 

So, these images aren’t hints meant to lead us down some kind of National Treasure hunt. They’re meant to fill our imagination with God’s promises and fill our hearts with faith. That’s our first landmark, genre. 

Our second landmark is history. Right after we’re told in chapter 1 verse 1 that this is a Revelation (or an apocalypse), we’re given a letterhead telling us who wrote it, when, and to whom. Who wrote it? John the Apostle, one of Jesus’ original disciples and by this time the last living apostle. He’s writing it toward the end of his life, late in the first century—so maybe 90 AD. He’s writing it to a handful of different churches across Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). 

Let’s think about that context for a minute: these churches are facing immense pressure without clear leadership. Immense pressure is coming from all directions. In the first few chapters of Revelation, Jesus addresses short letters to each of these churches and mentions a handful of specific examples of where this pressure is coming from. From their neighbors: some of these Christians are pagan converts facing pressure to return to their old religion, and others of them are Jewish Christians facing pressure to reject Jesus as a false messiah and rejoin their old Jewish community. From the government: the Roman Empire was going through a new round of persecution against Christians because they were disrupting the social and economic order, so you could be arrested or even executed for following Jesus. And from their own temptation: to sexual promiscuity, to a false theology which suited their own preferences, to simply stop caring about God. 

All that pressure is compounded with a crisis of leadership. Again, John is the last of the apostles; these guys had been running the church since Jesus’ resurrection, and now they’re gone. The churches are asking themselves “Who do we listen to? Who do we follow? There’s lots of people claiming authority, who’s right?” 

That historical context helps orient us to the Book of Revelation. This book is John’s answer to those church’s questions. Whatever images we see on this imagination tour, they have to have been a meaningful answer to that original audience. 

The good news is, that context isn’t so foreign to us. We know what it’s like to face pressure from our neighbors and from our own temptation. We don’t live in a country where our government is arresting or executing Christians for their faith, but we have our own unique pressures when it comes to the government. And we have perhaps more voices than ever before in human history competing for authority and leadership in our lives: an endless scroll of pastors and authors and  influencers telling us exactly how to think about every Bible passage or social issue, all clamoring for you to follow them. So whatever God has to say to those churches in Turkey 2,000 years ago, we’d do well to listen up 

That’s our second landmark, history. Between that and genre, that gives us a pretty solid orientation to know where we are on this imagination tour. Let’s move on, then, to our second question. 

What do we see? 

Come back to our passage with me, look at Revelation 22; that’s where we find the one thing we’re all ultimately looking for. The end of the book of Revelation is kind of like the “Greatest Hits” of the Bible’s imagery wrapped up into one spectacular vision. We see this place called New Jerusalem which is an amazing mixture of the places we’ve been in our Advent series. We started in the garden of Eden, and here again we have a garden paradise—the river of the water of life, the tree of life, eternally fruitful trees. We went to God’s heavenly throne room in Isaiah 6 and Daniel 7, and again we have the throne of God and of the Lamb with eternal worshippers pouring out their praise. We have the defeat of sin and death, the healing of the nations, eternal security and peace. There’s no more need of sun or lamp, which are references to the passages we’ve read in Isaiah for our calls to worship. 

But most importantly of all, we’re given verses 4-5. One commentator I was reading this past week explained it this way: 

In the earthly temple in Jerusalem the high priest, once a year only, wore the sacred name of God on his forehead and entered God’s immediate presence in the holy of holies. In the New Jerusalem, which is God’s eternal holy of holies, all will enjoy this immediacy without interruption. But nothing expresses this immediacy more evocatively than the words: ‘they shall see his face’ (22:4). This is the face of God that no one in mortal life could see and survive but to see which is the deepest human religious aspiration…To see God’s face will be to know who God is in his personal being. This will be the heart of humanity’s eternal joy in their eternal worship of God.¹ 

We started this advent series with a quote from the author Curt Thompson: “We all are born into the world looking for someone looking for us, and…we remain in this mode of searching for the rest of our lives.”² That impulse we have even as infants, to seek a face looking for us, to have the attention and love and security of another—that impulse is an echo of this longing to see God’s face. Remember our sermons on Jacob wrestling with God and Moses hiding in the cleft of the rock? Even in Isaiah 6 and Daniel 7 we were given descriptions of God’s general appearance or the impression of his presence, but never actually his face. 

Here in Revelation 22, God promises us exactly what we’ve been longing for—one day, when Jesus comes back and he makes all things right, we will finally and truly see him. Our eyes will no longer be darkened by sin, we’ll no longer have the weakness of these mortal bodies. We’ll be able to stand before God fully innocent and fully accepted. 

This is what the whole New Testament points us forward to. First Peter 1:8 says “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.” First Corinthians 13:12 says “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” 

That’s where God is taking us on this imagination tour: he’s taking us directly to himself, to see him looking right back at you with an intense love. This isn’t just manifesting, isn’t not just the “power of positive thinking” or closing our eyes real tight and pretending like it’s all going to work out. This hope is grounded in well documented, real historical events—the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here’s some facts for you. 

No historian questions that Jesus was a real person. No historian questions the fact that Jesus was crucified. No historian denies that there are an overwhelming number of early, reliable sources that claim Jesus rose. When looking at the manuscriptival evidence, we can be literally twice as certain about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus than we can be about the life and death of Julius Caesar.³ And just as a cherry on top, the very next verse past our passage reiterates this: “These words are trustworthy and true” (Rev 22:6). 

Why does it matter?

So that’s the imagination tour: to see God’s face—to rest in the sure promise that one day, faith will be sight. Why, of all the ways the Lord could have ended the Bible, does he choose to give us this imagination tour? Why does it matter for us? Simply for this reason: our imaginations have huge power over what we believe and do. 

Let me give you a silly example and a serious example. First a silly one. You’ve probably heard the strategy to make public speaking less intimidating: “Just imagine everyone in the crowd in their underwear.” Don’t worry, I don’t do that when I’m preaching. But you get the thought behind it! If you can imagine the crowd is in their underwear or in silly outfits, or if you imagine that everyone in the crowd is your best friend, it helps break the ice and lower the pressure. 

Here’s a more serious example from my own life. I said this is a time of year my imagination runs wild. If we were to take a journey back to December 2016, I was in a very dark place. I was battling anxiety and depression and addiction, and I got to a point where I genuinely could not imagine a world where I was free from my struggles. That imagination led me to some very dark places—to believing I was worthless and hopeless, and to the brink of some very dangerous actions. But slowly, through taking God at his word in Scripture and working through a lot of counseling, my imagination opened up to see the possibility of a better life. That changed everything for me. 

So what power does your imagination have over what you believe and do? Let’s wrap up with three closing thoughts. 

First, think about the fuel of your imagination. What is fueling your imagination? You’ve probably heard the expression “You are what you eat.” That’s true for our imagination more than anything else. What have you been feeding your imagination? If your imagination has been overwhelmed by horror or graphic violence or porn from what you watch online, come find freedom in Revelation. If you’re feeling fatigued from the 24/7 news cycle shoving panic and rage down your throat, come find rest in this vision. If your mind is constantly bombarded by anxious thoughts of how other people might see you or how everything might go wrong, come and listen to God speak peace. Let the word of God saturate your imagination and sanctify your thoughts—this is what Paul is getting at when he calls us to “renew our minds” in Romans 12. 

Second, consider the destination of your imagination. Where is your imagination leading you? What is it your imagination is running to these days? Whatever it is, the good behind that longing can only be found in seeing God’s face. Maybe we’d go to a graduation ceremony, or a party celebrating a new job. Those would be great things to happen this year, but don’t settle just for that; let Scripture fuel your imagination with the thought of God himself looking upon you at the end of your life and saying “Well done, good and faithful servant.” In all the things we might imagine, God stands just behind the curtain. In Revelation, God pulls it back to reveal himself and tell us “I am what you long for, and in Christ, I have made myself available to you.” 

Finally, consider the influence of your imagination. How is your imagination influencing what you believe and do? When God fuels our imagination with the truth, that leads to an active faith. Our lives become marked by comfort because when we lift our eyes to see God’s face, we realize he was already looking at us with an intense love. That deep longing to be known and loved is fully satisfied, so we don’t have to try to fill the void in our hearts with addictions or obsessions, and we don’t have to put the pressure of divine expectations on our relationships. We’re marked by profound hope because God has promised us he is making all things new, and one day there will be no more tears, nothing accursed, evil will be gone forever. No amount of outside pressure or uncertainty in a crazy world can keep us from the end of the story where we see God’s face. And we’re marked by holiness, because God has not only banished away evil and sin out there; he’s freed us from it in here, in our hearts. We can strive to live like Jesus, following all the ways the Bible tells us Christians ought to live, not as a way to earn God’s favor, but simply as a response to seeing God’s face. 

God is inviting you to come and see his face this new year. Let him open your eyes through his word, and ultimately, through the restoration of all things. Rest in the sure promise that what you long for above all else will one day be yours when you meet him face to face. 

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¹ Richard Bauckham, The Theology of the Book of Revelation, (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142. 

² Curt Thompson, The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe about Ourselves (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015), 138. 

³ The resurrection of Jesus is one of the most well-attested events in ancient history. Fifteen independent sources point to the historicity of Jesus and his death, and many of them also point to his resurrection. According to typical standards for historical research, “two or more independent reports are often sufficient to trace an ancient saying to the person in question.” Gary Habermas, On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidences (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2024), 290. 

For comparison, Julius Caesar’s Gallic Wars depends on five key sources and modern versions of the work rely on only twelve manuscripts, the oldest of which dates to the ninth century. Darrell L. Bock, “Sources for Caesar and Jesus Compared” Gospel Coalition, (June 11, 2015) https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/sources-for-caesar-and-jesus-compared/ Bock writes, “Two of the most important sources for the emperor’s life, however, Suetonius and Plutarch, write in the early second century. That’s more than 100 years after the time of Caesar…Around 12 manuscripts are essential for determining the wording of Caesar’s account. The oldest manuscript is from the ninth century—a full 900 years removed from the actual events. The list extends to manuscripts from the 12th century. Cicero’s speeches have an even older pedigree. They have about 15 manuscripts ranging from AD 400 to 800. Sallust’s account has around 20 manuscripts from the 10th and 11th centuries. Plutarch’s Lives is also mostly divided across six key manuscripts that range from the 10th and 11th centuries. Suetonius’s manuscript is dated AD 820.”

This falls far short of the New Testament. There are more than one hundred copies of individual New Testament books or portions of them which date to the second and third centuries. Craig L. Blomberg, Can We Still Believe the Bible? (Grand Rapids, MI: BrazosPress, 2014), 27.