Last week we looked at the four successive views of heaven in the Bible: Paradise; Hades; the Intermediate Heaven; the New Heaven and New Earth. We looked at a few surprising aspects of the intermediate heaven where all the believers in Christ today are after the point of death. Let’s consider again our theme verse for this series… Colossians 3:1-4: “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
This morning let’s ‘set our minds’ on the wonder of the New Heaven and New Earth. If there is ever a time when you have visualized heaven as a place of familiar faces and human form and the splendor of beautiful structures and the radiance of the Throne of God, the New Heaven and New Earth are probably the closest fulfillment of those thoughts. The idea of what’s in heaven being brought to the face of the earth and both transformed in the process is not new, it is what lays at the heart of the most famous prayer… “Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come (Ultimately referring to the final fulfillment) Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” The prayer that Jesus gave to the disciples appeals to God for a great harmonizing of His will in both places, ultimately fulfilled when… at the time of the . . .
Last week we looked at the four successive views of heaven in the Bible: Paradise; Hades; the Intermediate Heaven; the New Heaven and New Earth. We looked at a few surprising aspects of the intermediate heaven where all the believers in Christ today are after the point of death. Let’s consider again our theme verse for this series… Colossians 3:1-4: “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
This morning let’s ‘set our minds’ on the wonder of the New Heaven and New Earth. If there is ever a time when you have visualized heaven as a place of familiar faces and human form and the splendor of beautiful structures and the radiance of the Throne of God, the New Heaven and New Earth are probably the closest fulfillment of those thoughts. The idea of what’s in heaven being brought to the face of the earth and both transformed in the process is not new, it is what lays at the heart of the most famous prayer… “Our Father Who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come (Ultimately referring to the final fulfillment) Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” The prayer that Jesus gave to the disciples appeals to God for a great harmonizing of His will in both places, ultimately fulfilled when… at the time of the New Heaven and New Earth. Just before His arrest and trial, Jesus tells His disciples of the time when He will finally judge the earth at His return. What He specifically says in Matt.26: 34 is, “…Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” If we are to conclude that the kingdom of God in it’s ultimate form is to be found in the New Heaven and New Earth then this verse cues us to the fact that it was in the plan of God from the very beginning. Several thoughts may cross our minds…1. What made it take to so long to fulfillment?
1. What made it take to so long to fulfillment? 2. Why did our omnipotent God not just create the final version in the first place?3. What implication was there in God’s mind for the role of Jesus in all this?
3. What implication was there in God’s mind for the role of Jesus in all this? Good questions, right? Let’s seek to answer these:1. What caused the delay from Eden to the New Heaven… well the short answer is the introduction of sin into mankind’s being, into his very nature. Just take a quick review of Genesis 1 and 2 and you’ll see God creating the earth and heavens, the vegetation, the creatures of the sea and air, the creatures on the face of the earth and ultimately man and woman… after all this, “God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good.”(Gen.1:31) The implication… there was no sin and thus there was no death in anything, it was very good. Just remember Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into THE WORLD, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…”. At the start it was very good, then sin entered and it’s effect spread to the whole of creation. I’d like you to just consider the impact that sin had on creation. Certainly it caused a great tear in the relationship between man and God. Blood was needed to bridge that tear from the very beginning, the blood of sacrifice of the life of other creatures under mankind’s authority. Remember the words of God to Adam in Genesis 3: 17… “Cursed is the ground because of you…”. Earth itself experienced the curse from sin, the existence of death. Adam would have to fight the ground to get food from it. What about Paul’s choice of words in Romans 8:20-22, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of it’s own will but because of Him who subjected it, in HOPE that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Creation started out ‘very good’, then sin in mankind caused it to be cursed, and all this with a view of hope that it will certainly, absolutely, definitely, one day be made as it was…the New Heaven and the New Earth! It took 4000 years from Creation to the Cross, it’s been 2000 years from the Cross to the Second Coming, there’s another 1000 years of Christ’s reign on earth prior to the New Heaven and New Earth…at this point about 7000 years in total, a rather perfect number in God’s eyes! Okay that’s the first question, that’s why it’s taking so long, Christ has come to put an end to sin and that, in totality, at His second coming yet to occur.
1. What caused the delay from Eden to the New Heaven… well the short answer is the introduction of sin into mankind’s being, into his very nature. Just take a quick review of Genesis 1 and 2 and you’ll see God creating the earth and heavens, the vegetation, the creatures of the sea and air, the creatures on the face of the earth and ultimately man and woman… after all this, “God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good.”(Gen.1:31) The implication… there was no sin and thus there was no death in anything, it was very good. Just remember Romans 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into THE WORLD, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…”. At the start it was very good, then sin entered and it’s effect spread to the whole of creation. I’d like you to just consider the impact that sin had on creation. Certainly it caused a great tear in the relationship between man and God. Blood was needed to bridge that tear from the very beginning, the blood of sacrifice of the life of other creatures under mankind’s authority. Remember the words of God to Adam in Genesis 3: 17… “Cursed is the ground because of you…”. Earth itself experienced the curse from sin, the existence of death. Adam would have to fight the ground to get food from it. What about Paul’s choice of words in Romans 8:20-22, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not of it’s own will but because of Him who subjected it, in HOPE that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Creation started out ‘very good’, then sin in mankind caused it to be cursed, and all this with a view of hope that it will certainly, absolutely, definitely, one day be made as it was…the New Heaven and the New Earth! It took 4000 years from Creation to the Cross, it’s been 2000 years from the Cross to the Second Coming, there’s another 1000 years of Christ’s reign on earth prior to the New Heaven and New Earth…at this point about 7000 years in total, a rather perfect number in God’s eyes! Okay that’s the first question, that’s why it’s taking so long, Christ has come to put an end to sin and that, in totality, at His second coming yet to occur. 2. Why wouldn’t God just create the final version in the first place? Are you ready for this answer… because it glorified Him to do so! Look at this passage from Isaiah 61:1-3: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified.” Why has God allowed Satan and sin and human foolishness to exist as it has… that He would be glorified to the MEEK, BROKENHEARTED, CAPTIVES, THE BOUND, TO ALL WHO MOURN, TO THE TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS! Do you see it, God reveals Who He is and what He does through the history of the fall of man into sin, man who was created in His image. In the redemption of this man in Christ is He glorified, in fact the whole groaning earth that longs for release is filled with the glory of the Lord (Isaiah 6:3). Romans 1:20 says the same thing. Glory be to God !3. What implication was there in God’s mind for the role of Jesus? It’s like a chain, all creation was given to man for him to subdue it and have dominion over it. All the seeds of plants and fruit of trees were there for food for all of creation. Everything found it’s place under the rule of Adam. When mankind sinned all creation under his rule was effected, it was cursed by God. By sin came death, and it moved in the animal and plant kingdoms as well as in the human realm. Certain animals that had been plant eaters would become meat eaters, certain plants that were beneficial became problematic and prolific, the thorns and thistles of Genesis 3:18. Even into the depths of the universe, the effects of mankind’s sin were felt. All that God had created and declared ‘very good’ was now wrinkled and stained. The works of the devil through the disobedience of man needed to be addressed and this was to be the role of Christ in God’s mind. 1 John 3: 8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” When did Jesus destroy the works of the devil? It was at the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the resurrection which followed the cross where He took over from Adam. Before all had followed in the heredity of Adam’s sin but now since the cross and the resurrection there is a new Adam and in Him is a heredity of forgiveness of sin and life. Read Romans 5:12 if you doubt this principle.
3. What implication was there in God’s mind for the role of Jesus? It’s like a chain, all creation was given to man for him to subdue it and have dominion over it. All the seeds of plants and fruit of trees were there for food for all of creation. Everything found it’s place under the rule of Adam. When mankind sinned all creation under his rule was effected, it was cursed by God. By sin came death, and it moved in the animal and plant kingdoms as well as in the human realm. Certain animals that had been plant eaters would become meat eaters, certain plants that were beneficial became problematic and prolific, the thorns and thistles of Genesis 3:18. Even into the depths of the universe, the effects of mankind’s sin were felt. All that God had created and declared ‘very good’ was now wrinkled and stained. The works of the devil through the disobedience of man needed to be addressed and this was to be the role of Christ in God’s mind. 1 John 3: 8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” When did Jesus destroy the works of the devil? It was at the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the resurrection which followed the cross where He took over from Adam. Before all had followed in the heredity of Adam’s sin but now since the cross and the resurrection there is a new Adam and in Him is a heredity of forgiveness of sin and life. Read Romans 5:12 if you doubt this principle.The resurrection of Jesus was the hinge point between Paradise and the New Heaven and New Earth. Everything that God had begun in Eden was set back on track at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Mankind was redeemed from sin, creation began to look forward to the day of mankind’s resurrection as it’s graduation day. Look at what happened at the cross and at the tomb on the first day of the week, earthquakes, rocks cracking open, the planets themselves affected for three hours causing darkness on the face of the earth. In Revelation 21:1-5, Jesus sitting on the throne says, “Behold, I am making all things new.” It has begun and soon will be. Set your mind on the things above, your life is hidden with Him, you will soon be revealed with Him in glory.
Rev. Spence Laycock pastors at Church of the Open Bible, Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.
www.churchoftheopenbible.ab.ca