The New Heaven & The New Earth (The Eternal State Part 2)

All right, the second point we're looking at is this idea of the eternal state for believers.

Where do believers end up? Ultimately, we can generalize saying it's heaven and hell. True. This is what we would say for believers.

It says, we believe that the souls of the redeemed are, at death, absent from the body and present with the

Lord, and that there is a conscious bliss or unconscious bliss.

They await the first resurrection when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the

Lord. So, the first point we are looking at is this idea that when a believer dies, they are what?

Absent from the body. Scripture says, present with the Lord. Again, there is no soul sleep.

Those who believe in soul sleep also believe in annihilation, which is what we talked about in the last section.

So, it's absent from the body. This is what 2 Corinthians 5, 8 says, absent from the body, present with the

Lord. And there are other passages that indicate this. Do you remember in Luke chapter 23,

Jesus is on the cross speaking to the thief that just had a deathbed conversion, basically.

And what did Jesus say to the thief? Today, you will be with me in paradise. Today, you will be with me where?

In paradise. In paradise. Right. So, this man was a criminal. And the story begins with that thief.

He was just like the other thief. He was mocking Jesus. He didn't believe. But at some point, he realizes, recognizes his own guilt, which is necessary.

In order to be saved, you have to first recognize your own sinful condition. And he calls upon Jesus and he says,

Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Now, how much did this man know about Jesus?

I don't know. But he knew that this wasn't the end. He knew that Jesus was going to live beyond his death.

He knew that Jesus was a king and that he had a kingdom, which would indicate he believed he was the

Messiah. And most importantly, perhaps he believed that Jesus was able and willing to do something about his condition.

And ultimately, that's what it comes down to for people. You have to believe that Jesus is able and willing to save.

The term heaven. What is paradise? Yes, Carolyn. At this point, absent from the body and present with the

Lord, do you actually see the Lord at that point? I believe you would see

Christ. Yeah. If somebody, if a believer died today and went to be with the

Lord, I believe they would see Christ. You know, the vision, seeing the vision of God, the father in, in eternity, that that's, that's still way off in the future, but they would, they would be with Christ.

I believe. Yeah. I see another hand. No. All right.

But the Bible uses the term heaven in a few different ways, right? The sky is called heaven. Outer space is called heaven.

And then there's the third heaven, the dwelling place of God. That's what Paul is talking about. You will be with me in paradise.

Paul said in second Corinthians 12, I believe that paradise is the third heaven.

So there's no such place as limbo. You've heard of limbo. You know, that's made up.

That's, that's, that's non -existent. There is no place called purgatory and there, and there's no option of a second chance after death.

There's nothing in the scripture that would indicate any sort of second chance.

So when a person dies, their lack of a better term, their fate is settled.

That's why the church needs to be so active and, and busy preaching and sharing the gospel.

Now, while we have breath in us, because this life is the probationary period.

This is where, where it matters. Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse seven for a moment.

So when a believer dies, there's no interruption. If you believe in Jesus, you have what everlasting life.

Tell you that, but people die and your body dies, but you don't die. You continue to live on forever.

Just like we talked about in the last section. Yeah. The, the body goes in the grave. That's true.

But the spirit goes to one of two places. Jesus and rebuking the

Sadducees and Luke chapter 20, because the Sadducees said that there was no resurrection.

Jesus said that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Not he was the

God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The implication is Abraham was alive.

Remember when Jesus told the Jews, Abraham lived to see my day and he rejoiced.

They said, how is that possible? Abraham lived 2000 years ago and you're not even 50 years old. And you've seen

Abraham. The point is Abraham's not dead. Every person who has died, you know, in Christ, they're not actually dead.

They're alive. They're with the Lord right now awaiting the second or the first resurrection.

And that's where the Bema seat comes in. When they're raised, they're judged, not according to their sin. They're judged according to how they've served

God. And it's a judgment of rewards, not a judgment of sin. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 7.

What does it say? Because you're talking about absent from the body, present with the

Lord. What's absent from the body? The spirit, right? Ecclesiastes 12, verse 7 says, then the dust will return to the earth as it was.

And the spirit will return to God who gave it. All right.

Now let's turn to Philippians chapter 3. So Christians have always taken great comfort in this knowledge that deceased loved ones who have died in Christ.

They're not really they're not really dead. They are alive right now in the conscious awareness and the conscious presence of their

Savior. So the eternal state. So in the end, really all that changes is the location.

There's a new heaven and a new earth. And then there is the lake of fire. That same state of conscious misery or blessedness is still there.

It just goes to a different different place. Everyone understands that.

Okay, good. Philippians chapter 3. You figure we live.

Some of you have been living in Massachusetts for your whole life. 40 years, 60 years, whatever it is.

Well, Massachusetts really isn't your home. Aren't you thankful for that? I know it's it's nice around here in the fall.

I like fall in New England, but I'm glad this really isn't my eternal home. Philippians 3, 20 and 21 says for our citizenship is where?

In heaven. Of course, that's not true for everybody. But Paul is talking to believers.

Our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait for the

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body. And it may be conformed to his glorious body.

According to the working by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself.

That's another thing that changes. You receive a new glorified body.

So you'll have the same type of body that Jesus had. Jesus could appear and disappear at will.

Jesus obviously could never get sick or he could never die again. So I'm really interested in what that will be like.

But that's what believers are waiting for. They're with the Lord in heaven waiting for the resurrection where they get that new that new body.

All right, let's turn to 1 Thessalonians 4. Quick question.

Yes. Kind of getting that a step further. So while they're waiting,

I wonder what the time factor is like. Are they like days, like a thousand years? Or are they like, let's get this done?

I think they're saying let's get some things done. Because in Revelation chapter six, it talks about how there are souls under the altar saying,

How long, O Lord, until you avenge our blood? Now that those are people who were martyred for the cause of Christ.

So they're aware of time. That would tell me that people who are with Christ today are aware of of time passing.

But again, what it's really like. The Bible tells us some things there's there's no way to really to really know.

But they're aware of their surroundings. 1 Thessalonians 4, 16 and 17 says,

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven. This is what they're waiting for with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first. So they get their new bodies then.

And then when we who are who are alive and remain, whoever that generation is, we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the

Lord. So you realize that some point in time, Jesus is going to return and then we're going to we're going to be with them.

It's going to happen that quick. All right, turn to Revelation 21. This is where we will close.

Now, we haven't talked about the details of what the new heaven and the new earth and the eternal state is going to be like.

Again, we talked about the lake of fire. We don't really know. There's been a lot of discussion. We don't we don't even really want to know in some ways.

But the Bible does tell us what the new heaven and the new earth look like.

And we've all what when you think of the new heaven or just heaven in general, what do you typically what comes to mind?

What do you envision? Clouds. Clouds. Okay. Yep. That's a common thing.

Streets of gold. Streets of gold. Right. One street. Yeah. Yeah. We've been reminded.

Lenny reminds us. It only says there's one street. So everyone's living on Main Street. Okay. All right.

Yeah. God's temple. Okay. Good. Look at Revelation 21 verse 1.

The Apostle John is seeing this vision and, you know, he's doing the best he can trying to describe it.

I don't think words probably do it justice. But he does say, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no more sea.

It doesn't mean there's no more water or bodies of water, but there is no sea. And then

I, John, saw a holy city or the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

So my understanding is that in eternity, heaven is up there, right? We're down here on earth in the eternal state.

The two become one. Heaven comes down to earth. There's a new heaven and a new earth.

And God is up there. Now he's dwelling with, with men. So that is a lot different than what's happening now.

Not just here, but even the people with the Lord in heaven. It's going to be a lot different. Verse 16, the city is laid out as a square.

Its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed.

12 ,000 furlongs, its length, breadth, and height are equal.

Basically, some people debate the measurements, but basically it's 1500 square miles cubed.

So 1500 miles this way, that way, 1500 miles high.

There's going to be plenty of room in the new heaven and new earth.

And then you see, this is where you get the street of gold. It says, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

Wait a minute. I mean, is that what gold is like? Well, in heaven it is. We don't have time, and I don't even know how to explain this, except that there's a lot of passages in the

Bible that seem to indicate the things here on earth are a copy for a shadow of what is above.

That's true with the tabernacle. So the gold here is very precious, but the gold in heaven, the way it was meant to be, and in the new heaven and earth, that's the way things are meant to be.

So it's going to be the same in some ways, but different. The same in some ways, but so much better.

Verse 22. Here's what John notices. It's all these wonderful things, street of gold.

There's the gate that is a pearl. So pearly gates, that's biblical too. But he notices there's no temple, right?

Verse 22. It's interesting, all the tie -ins between the first few chapters of Genesis and the final chapters of Revelation.

The tree of life reappears, right? And then you remember in Genesis 1, he said, let there be light.

Well, that was on day one. The sun, moon, stars didn't get created till day four. What was the light?

I think we see the answer. It's the glory of God. And Jesus is the glory of God.

So it's not just paradise restored. A lot of people talk about the new heaven and the new earth as paradise restored.

Why is it not paradise restored? It's even better than paradise restored because in paradise, what was there?

The serpent. The possibility of sin. There's going to be no possibility of anything abominable, sinful, temptation.

No possibility of anything ever entering in again. Revelation 21, verse 27.

But there shall by no means enter in anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those things who are written in the

Lamb's book of life. So this is the eternal state forever and ever.

Eternal bliss in the presence of God where you actually see

God himself face to face. That's what believers have to look forward to.