WHEN JESUS COMES AGAIN –
LIFE ON THE NEW EARTH!
TODAY’S HEAVEN
QUESTION - SCRIPTURE IS
CLEAR THAT ONE DAY MY
·
When a
Christian dies, he or she enters into what theologians call the __________________(intermediate) Heaven, a _________________________(transitional)
period between our past lives on Earth and our future resurrection life on the
New Earth.
·
Usually when
we refer to “Heaven,” we mean the place Christians go when they die.
·
When we tell
our children “Grandma’s now in Heaven,” we’re referring to the intermediate
Heaven.
·
By
definition, an intermediate state or location like the “intermediate Heaven is _____________________(temporary)
and not permanent.
·
IF A
CHRIATIAN DIES TODAY, THEY ARE _____________________________(IMMEDIATELY)
IN GOD’S __________________________(PRESENCE).
Luke 23:38-43 (pg. 748) says:
38There was a written notice above him, which read:|sc
THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
39One of the
criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ?
Save yourself and us!"
40But the
other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said,
"since you are under the same sentence? 41We are
punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has
done nothing wrong."
42Then he
said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.[a]"
43Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today
you will be with me in paradise."
·
YOUR
___________(LAST) BREATH ON ________________(EARTH), IS YOUR
_____________(FIRST) BREATH IN _________________(HEAVEN).
Philippians 1:21-26 (pg. 831) says:
1For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful
labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! 23I
am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better
by far; 24but it is more necessary for you that I remain
in the body. 25Convinced of this, I know that I will
remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the
faith, 26so that through my being with you again your joy
in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.
2 Timothy 4:6-8 (pg. 840) says:
6For I am already being poured out like a drink
offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only
to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
·
Clearly Paul
anticipated being in God’s presence as soon as he died.
·
Heaven is
wherever God is!
QUESTION – WILL WE JUST BE SPIRIT’S FLOATING AROUND IN HEAVEN OR WILL WE HAVE A
BODY?
·
WE KNOW WHEN
JESUS COMES AGAIN, BELIEVERS IN CHRIST WILL RECEIVE
THEIR NEW GLORIFEID BODY… BUT DO WE GET A NEW INTERMEDIATE BODY AS SOON AS WE
DIE AND ARE IN THE PRESCENCE OF THE LORD?
·
ANSWER: THE SCRIPTURES DO NOT TELL US – ALL WE
KNOW IS THAT WE WILL BE IN THE LORD’S PRESCENCE IMMEDIATELY AFTER OUR SOUL
DEPARTS FROM OUR EARTHLY BODIES.
·
The Apostle
Paul caught a glimpse of Heaven and he said he did not know of there were
bodies in the intermediate state or not.
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (pg. 822) says:
1I
must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to
visions and revelations from the Lord. 2I know a man in
Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was
in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3And
I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know,
but God knows— 4was caught up to paradise. He heard
inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast
about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6Even if I
should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the
truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what
I do or say.
7To keep me
from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there
was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for
my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more
gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in
insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak,
then I am strong.
·
Paul saw a
glimpse of Heaven, but did not know if those who go there today have a body or
not.
·
He declared
that he did not know, but God knows and that is all that counts.
·
With that
said…
·
The Bible
does suggest we will have a body of some kind in the Intermediate Heaven.
·
We read in
the following parable in Luke 16:19-31:
Luke 16:19-31 (pg. 741) says:
19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple
and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his
gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and
longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and
licked his sores.
22"The
time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side.
The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell,[a] where he was in torment, he looked up and
saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he
called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'
25"But
Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good
things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you
are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you
a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you
cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
27"He
answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they
will not also come to this place of torment.'
29"Abraham
replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
30"
'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they
will repent.'
31"He
said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be
convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "
UNDERSTANDING THE PARABLE:
·
This is the
passage from where theologians came up with the term “Abraham’s bosom to describe
the place where Christians go when they die today.
·
In this
story, when Lazarus died, angles carried him to paradise.
·
The rich man
died and went t a place of torment.
·
Lazarus is
with Abraham; the rich man is by himself (no one else is mentioned).
·
In this
parable, The intermediate Heaven and Hell are ________________________(separated) by a fixed chasm, but people on both sides
could see and communicate with each other, at least on a limited basis.
·
Both the rich
man and Abraham ______________________(reasoned) and ______________________(communicated),
and they maintained their distinct __________________________(identities) from
Earth as did Lazarus.
·
The rich man
and Lazarus are depicted as having _____________________(physical)
bodies.
·
The rich man
had a _________________(tongue) and a thirst that he
wished to satisfy with water.
·
Lazarus had a
__________________(finger), and there was water
available to him in
·
This was a
parable and these references may be entirely figurative, but they also may
suggest the possession of transitional physical forms, existing in a physical
THERE ARE BIBLICAL ACCOUNTS WHERE
DECEASED PERSONS APPEAR TO HAVE A REAL BODY:
·
Moses and
Elijah also ___________________(appeared) in a
________________________(physical) body with Jesus at the Transfiguration.
Luke 9:28-32 (pg. 733) says:
28About eight days after Jesus said this, he took
Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and
his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30Two
men, Moses and Elijah, 31appeared in glorious splendor,
talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring
to fulfillment at
FURTHERMORE:
·
Unlike God
and the angles, who are in essence spirits, Humans beings are by nature both ___________________(spiritual)
and ___________________(physical).
·
God did not
create Adam as a spirit and place it inside a body.
·
God first
created
·
There was
never a moment when a human being ______________________(existed) without a ______________________(body).
·
The martyrs
in Heaven are described as wearing __________________(robes) - disembodied
spirits do not wear _________________(clothes).
Revelation 6:9-11(pg.
870) says:
9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar
the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the
testimony they had maintained. 10They called out in a
loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the
inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" 11Then
each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little
longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be
killed as they had been was completed.
·
A fundamental
article of the Christian faith is that the resurrected Christ now dwells in
heaven.
·
We are told
that his resurrected body on earth was physical, and that this same, physical
Jesus ascended to Heaven, from which he will one day return to earth (Acts
1:11).
·
It seems
indisputable, then, to say that there is at least one physical body in the
present Heaven.
·
It also
appears that the “dead in Christ” have a physical body in the intermediate
Heaven.
·
But the fact
is, the intermediate Heaven is not our ______________ __________________(final destination).
·
Though it
will be a wonderful place, the intermediate Heaven is not the place we were
made for – we were made to live on the New Earth forever.
Hebrews 11:13-16 says:
13All these people were still living by faith when they
died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed
them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on
earth. 14People who say such things show that they are
looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been
thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to
return. 16Instead, they were longing for a better
country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for he has prepared a city for them.
·
God’s
children are destined for life as resurrected _________________(beings) on a
resurrected _________________(earth).
·
We must not
_______________ ____________(lose sight) of our true
________________________(destination) -
the ______________ ________________(new earth)
·
The
intermediate Heaven we go to when we die is just a ___________________________(temporary)
dwelling place, a stop along the way to the final destination: the New Earth.
·
The Bible
promises that we will live with Christ and with our brothers and sisters in
Christ forever, not on the intermediate Heaven but on the New Earth, where God
will be at home with his people.
·
THE _______________________(EXISTING)
HEAVEN BELIEVED BY MANY THEOLOGIANS TO BE THE NEW ___________________(
Revelation 21:1-5 (pg.
878) says:
1Then
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth
had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw
the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared
as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I
heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is
with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself
will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every
tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or
pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5He
who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then
he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
·
In this
passage, we see that the New Jerusalem, which was in Heaven, will come
down and descend out of the intermediate
Heaven to finally reside on the New Earth forever with God.
·
We are told
that the “throne of God and of the Lamb” is in the New Jerusalem, which is
brought down to the New Earth.
·
Wherever God
dwells with his people and sits on his throne, would be called Heaven.
·
“The New
Jerusalem does not remain a Heaven far off place, but it comes down to the
renewed earth; there the redeemed will spend eternity in resurrection bodies.
So Heaven and earth, now separated, will be merged: the new earth will also be
in Heaven, since God will dwell there with his people. Glorified believers,
will continue to be in Heaven while they are inhabiting the new earth.” Anthony
Hokema
·
That God
would come down to the New Earth to live with us fits perfectly with his _____________________
______________________(original plan).
·
God could
have taken Adam and Eve up to Heaven to visit with Him in His world - instead,
He _________________ ___________________(came) down to __________________(walk)
with them in the Garden of Eaten on the new world he created.
Genesis 3:8 says:
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the
LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid
from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
John
23Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey
my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home
with him.
·
This is a
picture of God’s ultimate plan – not to take us up to live in a realm made for
him , but to come down and live with us in the realm he made for ________(us) -
_________________(earth).
·
Rather than
our going up to live in God’s home forever, God will come down to live in ______________(our)
home forever – the New Earth.
·
Several books
on Heaven state that the New Jerusalem will not descend to Earth but will
remain “suspended over the earth”
·
But
Revelation 21:2 doesn’t say this.
2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down
out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her
husband.
·
When the
apostle John watches the city “coming down” from Heaven, there’s no reason to
believe it stops before reaching the New Earth.
·
The
assumption that it remains suspended over the earth arises from the notion that
Heaven and Earth must be _______________________(separate) – but scripture
indicates that they will one day be _________________(joined) together forever!
·
Their present
incompatibility is due to a temporary aberration – Earth is under sin and the
curse. Once the aberration is corrected, Heaven and Earth will be fully
compatible just like in the Garden of Eden.
Ephesians
10to be put into effect when the times will have
reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together
under one head, even Christ.
·
God dwelling
with mankind in the world he made for us will in fact be ____________________(realized)
because it is God’s ____________(plan) and He (not we) will _____________________(accomplish)
it.
·
One day,
Jesus will come back to earth and those who have died will have new resurrected
bodies.
·
The earth as
we now it will be destroyed by fire.
·
Most
Christian scholars believe, when Jesus comes again he will bring Heaven down to
the new earth.
·
Some scholars
believe the Earth that we inhabit now will be born again and made over to look
like it did before the fall.
QUESTION: But what about
the fire that will destroy the earth that the Bible talks so much about?
2 Peter 3:3-14 says:
3First of
all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and
following their own evil desires. 4They will say,
"Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died,
everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the
heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and
destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and
earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction
of ungodly men.
8But do not
forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand
years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is
not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient
with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10But the
day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar;
the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will
be laid bare.[a]
11Since
everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?
You ought to live holy and godly lives 12as you look
forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b]That day will bring about the destruction of
the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13But
in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new
earth, the home of righteousness.
14So then,
dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be
found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
·
Have you ever
seen a fire destroy a forest – it is gruesome.
·
But a year
later, new life has sprung and in time the bushes and trees grow back to be
more lush and more beautiful than before the fire.
·
Fire has a
cleaning element to it.
·
And thus many
scholars believe that the destruction by fire talked about in scriptures will
not completely do away with this current world but cleanse it from wickedness.
·
Such scholars
point towards the great flood in Noah’s day that served as a cleaning agent.
·
This coming
fire though will be a permanent eradification of the wicked, for when Jesus
comes again the wicked who have not surrendered to the Lordship of Christ will
be thrown into the eternal fires in Hell.
·
Heaven as it
exist now will be brought down to the new earth, creating a new heaven and a
new earth.
·
Focusing on
the hope of Heaven __________________________(empowers) the Christian to live for
Christ today!
Philippians 3:19-23 says:
Their mind is on earthly
things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we
eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who,
by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will
transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Romans 6:1-12 (799) says:
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so
that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin;
how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know
that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? 4We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have
been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united
with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old
self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we
died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For
we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death
no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he
died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In
the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that
you obey its evil desires.