This Present Age and the Age to Come

Various Passages
Written By Steve Estes

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Speaker: Steve Estes
Scripture: Various Passages
October 22, 2023

Sermon Outline

1. Suffering was introduced to the world by the fall of man

  • There was no suffering before Adam and Eve sinned

  • After the fall, Earth became a hostile place

  • God promised the restoration of paradise

2. The present age and the age to come

  • How are they described?

  • When will the age to come occur?

    • Already, but not yet

3. Why does God heal some, but not others?

  • The age to come has begun, but has not been consummated yet

  • Jesus healed to show what the Kingdom of God was like, but never intended to heal every disease of every believer

4. Conclusion

  • Did Jesus die so believers could live the good life on this earth?

  • Believers, past and present, have tasted the powers of the age to come

Steve Estes

Steve Estes has been senior pastor at Brick Lane Community Church in Elverson, Pennsylvania, for over thirty-five years. 

Steve’s books and other writings began with his longtime friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada. As teenagers, they grappled with why God allowed Joni’s paralysis in a swimming accident in the Chesapeake Bay. Steve left for college . . . they kept in touch . . . she liked the style of his letters. When her 1976 autobiography Joni spawned thousands of reader responses, she asked Steve to join her in crafting a follow-up. The result was A Step Further in 1978.

Later, Wycliffe Bible Translators commissioned Steve to write the biography of former college friend Chet Bitterman, a Wycliffe linguist who was kidnapped and murdered by political terrorists in Colombia in 1981. Other books and articles followed, including When God Weeps (with Joni) and A Better December (a giveaway book for non-Christian friends at Christmas.)

Steve was educated at Westminster Theological Seminary, Columbia Bible College and Jerusalem University College in Israel. He has taught homiletics at Westminster and is a board member of the Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation.

But Steve would say his most significant life achievement was persuading college classmate Verna Stoltzfus to marry him in 1974.  They now have eight children and more grandchildren than can fit in a van.

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