Sermon Tone Analysis

HEAVEN - SEEING THE UNSEEN

WHAT WILL THE RESURRECTED EARTH BE LIKE?

Pt.2

Sunday July 12, 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. Welcome back to week two of my message on "What will the Resurrected earth be like?"

Last week I spoke to the fact that for a lot of Christians there is fear and apprehension about Heaven and the reason behind those fears and apprehensions is because we either do not know or we have accepted false information about what Heaven will truly be like.

I addressed some of this in one of my earliest messages in this series and I want to share a few of those things with you now.

1.

Here was a pastor's perspective of Heaven.

"Whenever I think about Heaven, it makes me depressed.

I'd rather just cease to exist when I die."

"I can't stand the thought of that endless tedium.

To float around in the clouds with nothing to do but strum a harp... it's all so terribly boring.

Heaven doesn't sound much better than Hell.

I'd rather be annihilated than spend eternity in a place like that."

A writer named John Eldredge said this, "Nearly every Christian I have spoken with has some idea that eternity is an unending church service.

We have settled on an image of the never-ending sing-along in the sky, one great hymn after another, forever and ever, amen.

And our heart sinks.

Forever and ever?

That's it?

That's the good news?

And then we sigh and feel guilty that we are not more 'spiritual.'

We lose heart, and we turn once more to the present to find what life we can."

2. Now where to these false concepts and misrepresentations of Heaven come from?

Well I think it is The Devil! Listen to what the scripture tells us.

"He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven."

Revelation 13:6 (NIV) Consider this, if Satan can get us thinking wrongly about Heaven and making this a place, we would not wish to go to then why live for God at all?

If Heaven is going to be more of a nightmare than a dream come true, then why do this whole Christian thing at all?

And if we buy that argument then guess who wins? Randy Alcorn said this, "Satan need not convince us that Heaven doesn't exist.

He need only convince us that Heaven is a place of boring, unearthly existence."

Randy Alcorn

B. Now before I get back into this subject of what the resurrected earth will be like I feel compelled to speak to one other important issue.

I sincerely believe that the timing of this series is crucial.

Listen to these words of Jesus.

"One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, demanding that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.

2 He replied, "You know the saying, 'Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow; 3 red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.'

You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don't know how to interpret the signs of the times!"

Matthew 16:1-3 (NLT2)

1.

If there is one thing, we are seeing a lot more of these days it's signs.

(slide with various signs) In fact for us to be able to reopen our church we had to get signs made.

We have the big tall one outside to tell you to social distance.

We have signs on the doors talking about social distancing, face coverings and hand washing.

I had to put signs in all the bathrooms to wash your hands.

Jesus tells us there will be signs of his second coming, but we must be able to read those signs.

2. There are many who feel this and so do I that the whole coronavirus pandemic is another one of the signs of the coming of Jesus.

Yes, it is true that there have been plagues or pandemics through-out history.

We see several of them in bible times.

The reason I feel that this pandemic is another sign of the second of Christ is because these plagues or pandemics are increasing and are in greater frequency.

Just over the past 30 years we have had the swine flu, SARS, AIDS, and the H1N1.

All these plus other things Jesus mentioned in Luke 21 like earthquakes and famines should be signs to us that the rapture of God's people is drawing nigh.

I heard pastor Greg Laurie illustrate it this way.

We see signs of Christmas as early as August when stores start putting out Christmas decorations, but consider this.

The signs that say Christmas is just around the corner also mean that Thanksgiving is even closer.

If we are seeing signs that indicate the coming of the Anti-Christ, then these signs also mean that the rapture is even closer.

3.

If in fact the second coming of Christ is drawing near then this series is vital for us.

I don't know about you but because I have been making preparations for these messages it has also caused me to think about the people in my life, my Oikos who will perish in a Devils hell for all of eternity if I don't try to do what I can to point them to Jesus now!

C. Now I do not expect any of you to admit this, but I wonder how many of us have had this thought?

"If Jesus returns today, I am going to miss out on some things I still wanted to do here on earth."

We might even feel that if Jesus returns soon, we might get "jipped out" on some things as it were.

Now please understand these feelings are not sinful.

They do not represent a fall from grace.

They represent what I have already stated and that is that we have false or misleading ideas about what Heaven is really like and I am trying to dispel those ideas as best I can.

1. Remember I told you last week that this earth will not be destroyed, and God will start all over.

This earth will be redeemed and restored to what God originally intended.

We will not lose anything when we get to Heaven, but everything we know now will be enhanced to a degree we can't even imagine right now.

[] Let me tell you a story I also heard from Greg Laurie.

I hope I can tell it as good as he does.

It is the story about a husband and wife who both died at the same time and went to Heaven.

They were 85 years old and had lived a very healthy lifestyle due to the wife's insistence.

2. As funny as that story is the part I like the most is how the home is so incredible, and the golf course changes every day and the food has no negative effects.

This is precisely what I have been talking about as we think about what life on the New Earth will be like.

We won't lose anything but will gain even more than we can imagine.

Trans.

Today we continue to think about our lives on the New earth I want us to consider two questions.

The first one is this.

A. How Does Eden Help Us Anticipate The New Earth?

1.

When you think about Eden what is the first word that comes to your mind?

Some of you might say "paradise" but if I asked you to use the word in a sentence you would probably speak of the "Garden of Eden".

I would bet that for most of you as it was for me to think about the Garden of Eden is to think about a relatively small area.

The actual Garden of Eden might have been somewhat small, but the area of Eden was actually quite large.

Look at the bible's description.

"A river watered the garden and then flowed out of Eden and divided into four branches.

11 The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found.

12 The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there.

13 The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush.

14 The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur.

The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.

Genesis 2:10-14 (NLT2) Now these verses show us that there seemed to be a specific area called the Garden of Eden but it was not all that Eden was.

A river flowed from this area into four other areas.

I found a map that tries to show what the area of Eden probably encompassed at this time.

(Show map)