What Will The Resurrec ted Earth Be Like 7-5-2020

HEAVEN - SEEING THE UNSEEN WHAT WILL THE RESURRECTED EARTH BE LIKE? Sunday July 5, 2020 Scripture Reference: Revelation 21:1-4 (NLT2) "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, "Look, God's home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever." Revelation 21:1-4 (NLT2) Intro. A. Well today I say, "Welcome Back". Not just to in person worship services but today I say "Welcome Back" to the series on Heaven that we began back in January of this year. When we began this time of quarantine back in March to felt led to pause this series to address some other things, I thought were important for us to know as we navigated this whole coronavirus thing. I trust that what I was able to share helped you and will continue to help you as we are still in the midst of this virus and all its affects on our lives. 1. You would not know this, but the timing of this break was significant because when we stopped, I was at the halfway point of this series. What I had tried to do for the first three months is to lay a solid biblical foundation for Heaven and now it is my intent to build on that foundation until I conclude this series. 2. Let me very briefly remind you of some of the things we talked about in those first three months. We talked about whether or not we are actually looking forward to Heaven. I will speak to some of that in my message today. We asked the question, "Is Heaven your default destination or is it Hell?" I spent a number of weeks on the subject of the Present Heaven. By that I mean what will our lives be like if we leave this world before the rapture and the second coming of Jesus. We talked a lot about whether this world we now inhabit will be our home or not. Again, today and next week I will be addressing some things along these lines. 3. Now I realize this is incredibly abbreviated, but I do not want to use all my time trying to review three months of sermons today. As some of you know I type my sermons out in manuscript form, even though I do not read them. If you would like a copy of those messages to kind of help you get ready for what I will be sharing for the next four months or so you can request a copy. It will probably be under 200 pages, but I will be happy to make them up for those of you who might want them. Just remember that I say a lot more than what is in these manuscripts, but you will get the intent of these messages in those manuscripts. Please use a Connection Card to make that request if you so desire. Trans. What I am going to do today and continue to do until I conclude this series is address what might be considered some of the more pragmatic questions we have about Heaven. What I am going to start today and finish up next Sunday I to address the question, "What Will The Resurrected Earth Be Like?" So, let's get started. What will the resurrected, the New Earth be like? I. WILL THE NEW EARTH BE LIKE EDEN? For many there is the idea that the New Earth will be a return to the Garden of Eden. I don't know if those thoughts include being naked or not, LOL. Here is what I think the Bible teaches us. A. This World Gives Us A Foretaste Of The World To Come. 1. One of the big questions many of us have and I sincerely hope to answer this question as best I possibly can in the coming messages is this, "What will Heaven be like?" For a great many Christians Heaven is viewed as an "other worldly place". What this means is that we are perceiving Heaven as something that is totally and completely different from this world we know now. It is my belief that it is this concept or maybe a lack of a concept of Heaven that actually makes some people either afraid of Heaven or apprehensive about going there. Are not most of our fears generated by the unknown? I was afraid to have a root canal about a year ago, but my fear was grounded in the fact that I had never had one and so I didn't have any idea what to expect except for the horror stories I had heard from some people. I guess only time will tell but I hope to completely destroy and eliminate those fears or apprehensions during the remainder of these messages. 2. When we look at what the Bible tells us about life on the New Earth what we see is that there is a direct continuity between our life now and our life then. For instance, the Bible talks about sitting down for meals, in fact very elaborate meals in Heaven. Is this not something we are familiar with now? While we do not eat around tables much at home anymore still the concept of having meals together is something we know quite well. There is room for debate as to whether we eat food in Heaven for sustenance or for the social reasons, but still we see that we will be doing this in Heaven. 3. I like what one author said because it really helps me understand what life will probably be like in Heaven. Here is his quote, "The best parts of the old world were sneak previews of this new one." Instead of having this fear that everything we now know will disappear when we get to Heaven, what if everything we know now is just enhanced to an unlimited degree? Let me share with you a discussion Sue and I have had several times about this. The question some of had about Heaven is, "Will we have animals or our pets in Heaven?" Now I will tell you that if you had asked me this question several years ago my unequivocal answer would have been, "Of course not." To me having pets in Heaven just seemed kind of dumb but consider this. Do our pets bring us a lot of Joy in this life? I think most of us would say "YES!" Well if the joys we have now are just enhanced as I stated earlier then why would our pets not be with us? Imagine all the joys of having a cat but never having to clean a cat box, or taking your dog for a walk without ever needing a pooper scooper? Now wouldn't that be Heaven? LOL. 4. Imagine with me your favorite place to be. Where do you like to go to find peace and enjoyment? If you are like me that place is the ocean and not just for fishing, but just to enjoy the majesty of the ocean. For me there is just something very powerful to my soul about being on or near the ocean. For you though it might be the mountains. I guess for me this runs a close second to the ocean. I love being up in the Mammoth area and again not just for the fishing, but for the incredible beauty of the area. For you it might be the desert. Think with me about how being at this place makes you feel. I bet your heart longs to be there right now. Now imagine with me if those feeling were multiplied by 100 or even 1000 times? The truth is as the Bible even tells us we cannot fully imagine the joys and the sensory delights these places will have for us when we reach the New earth. 5. One of the reasons we can know and expect Heaven to be a spectacular place is because God Himself is preparing it for us. God prepared Eden for Adam and Eve. Look at what Genesis 2 tells us. "Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground-trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit..." Genesis 2:8-9 (NLT2) Remember that God created Adam and Eve after He had created this amazing world for them to live in. 6. Now let's look at what Jesus said about this in John 14. "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. 4 And you know the way to where I am going." John 14:1-4 (NLT2) I want to spend a little time here because I think these words of Jesus are very significant for this time in which we are now living. Remember that in understanding scripture context is very important and no more so than in these verses we are looking at. We have to go back to chapter 13 to understand why Jesus begins this chapter the way he does. In Chapter 13 Jesus has performed a foot washing for his disciples. This was something a slave would do for the homeowners' guests but not something done by the homeowner let alone to be done by the Son of God. So, let's kind of dissect these words of Jesus. a) Look at V.1 "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me." First of Jesus is telling them to not be troubled or we might say, "Do worry" or "Don't be afraid." Jesus didn't say these words for no reason. His disciples were very troubled by what had just happened. First it was Jesus who washed their feet and you might remember that at first Peter strenuously objected. Then after the foot washing Jesus tells them that there is going to be a desertion by all of them and then a betrayal within their ranks. Then he tells them that he will not be with them much longer. Finally, he tells Peter that he will deny that he even knew Jesus. Now I think you can see why the next thing Jesus says to these men is "Don't let your hearts be troubled" because that is precisely what is happening to them. The word trouble that Jesus uses literally means, disturbed, agitated, perplexed, worried, tossed about, confused, distressed. b) Now here is why I wanted to highlight these words. I believe there is a powerful connection to what these disciples were experiencing and what you and I have been experiencing the past four months. Are we not living in toubled times? Don't the words, disturbed, agitated, perplexed, worried, tossed about, confused, distressed speak to where we have been and, in some cases, still are today? People have been getting sick, some have died. Now we have rioting in the streets along with burning and looting of businesses. The morning I was preparing this message I saw a report where in Chicago over that weekend a 13-year-old was killed by gun fire while sitting in their own home watching TV. A 3-year-old was killed when a bullet went through the trunk of the car they were in and struck them while they sat in a car seat. I could go on by my friends we are living in troubled times. But Jesus tells us to not let our hearts be troubled. Well how in the world do I do this in a world in chaos? c) The answer is found in the end of V.1 and V.2. Let's see. "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. 2 There is more than enough room in my Father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? First Jesus reminds us that our trust must be in Him. In case you have not figured this out yet, the government is not able to fix what is going on in our world today. If you are trusting this government to fix the problems that trouble our world you are going to be very disappointed. I am not completely discounting the governments role to help, but they cannot legislate the human heart. Our trust, our hope must be in Jesus. Then what does Jesus tells us. He reminds us that he is preparing a place for us to spend our eternity with him. Friends this is our Hope, this is our Promise. This is why and how we can face death with peace and assurance. Consider this. If God put such detail into the world he created for Adam and Eve in Just six days, how much grander will the place God has been preparing for us the past two thousand years be? Trans. Write this down. B. The New Earth Will Not Be A Start Over. 1. I think a lot of Christians believe that the New Earth the Bible speaks of will be a do over or a start over of earth. Now you probably do not remember but we talked a little about this back in February. Let me confirm for you again that the bible does not support this idea. Remember there was and is nothing wrong with the world God created. What is bad is not this world, what is bad is the human heart infected by sin. 2. God did not scrap the world after the fall of Adam and Eve. There was a continuity between the pre fallen world and the post fallen world and there will be continuity between the earth we know today and the New Earth to come. The fall certainly divided history but it didn't end history. 3. Have you ever considered whether or not all this technology we have today will follow us into Heaven? Will we have the internet? Will we have cars whether that is with electric or combustible engines? For many these things seem incompatible with life in Heaven, but this is because we only look at these things from the perspective of the negative affects they may have had on our world. Let me share a quote form a man named Albert Wolters what helped me with this, and I hope it will help you as well. "By analogy, salvation in Jesus Christ, conceived in the broad creational sense, means a restoration of culture and society in their present stage of development. That restoration will not necessarily oppose literacy or urbanization or industrialization or the internal combustion engine, although these historical developments have led to their own distortions or evils. Instead, the coming of the kingdom of God demands that these developments be reformed, that they be made answerable to their creational structure, and that they be subjected to the ordinances of the Creator." Albert Wolters Conclusion A. Next Sunday I will finish up this part of my discussion of the New Earth. Here is what you can look forward to next Sunday. We will talk about how what we know of Eden helps us look forward to the New Earth. We will talk about the question of the places we know now and enjoy; will we know them again in Heaven? Finally, I will address the question. Will we miss life on this Earth? 1. I hope that in this series you have a growing desire to be in Heaven. I hope that it warms your heart to think about being there and that your anticipation for Heaven is growing stronger. If these things are not happening is it perhaps because you do not have the assurance that Heaven is your final destination? If there is any uncertainty in, you about this that can be cleared up here and now. 2