Harp Playing Cherubs or River Rafting Rulers?
(Heaven, Part 9 of 9)
Isa 65:17-19, Rev 21:1-4
I. Introduction
This is our ninth and final sermon in our series on the topic of Heaven.
There is a mocking statement oft quoted about Christians that accuse us
of being “So heavenly-minded, that we’re no earthy
good!” I reject that sentiment, and in fact would say just
the opposite. It is because so many Christians do not take heaven
serious enough that they are weak in their impact in the world
today. It is only the assurance and the anticipation of our
eternal reward that empowers us to live lives now of sacrificial love,
pleasure-delaying hope, and risk-taking faith.
Here is how C.S. Lewis expresses this truth:
“If you read history you will
find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just
those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who
set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built
up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave
Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were
occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased
to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in
this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth 'thrown in': aim at
earth and you will get neither.” C. S. Lewis Mere
Christianity
This is why we have taken nine weeks to explore in detail Heaven, our eternal home.
We have explored together so far:
• God’s grand plan for humanity and all creation
• What happens immediately after you die
• What happens during the “End times”
• How will Christ judge Christians and non-Christians
• What will be our eternal rewards
• What will our Resurrected, glorified bodies be like
• How will we be co-rulers with Christ of the universe
So if you have missed any of this exciting, life-changing,
destiny-defining study, I encourage you to get a copy of the series on
cd. This morning, we are going to explore where we will be living
for all eternity, namely on God’s New Earth.
II. God’s New Heaven & New Earth: Our Eternal Home
Let us pray… Scripture readings…
Many Christians still hold a mistaken view of the eternal Heaven.
Many think of Heaven as a purely spiritual place where we will live in
a purely spiritual state of existence. As I stated in the first
sermon in this series, many still hold a “Precious
Moments,” sentimental view of humans becoming chubby cherubs
playing harps on clouds.
What we have discovered in our Heaven study is that the eternal destiny
of redeemed humans is to be given new glorified human bodies that are
still physical only perfected, and that we will live and reign on a New
Earth that will also be physical only perfected. So we can say
with much Biblical certainty that our future is not to become harp
playing cherubs, but river rafting rulers!
One of the primary theologians we have drawn on for this sermon series
has been Randy Alcorn. I highly recommend his book simply called Heaven.
In that book he gives us a very helpful summary chart of the commonly
held mistaken views of Heaven compared to what the Bible actually
reveals. Let’s examine that chart:
So, as we have done we each of the topics we have explored so far in
this series, let’s examine what we know for sure about the New
Heaven and New Earth, and what can we speculate will be most likely
given the Biblical data.
III. What We Know For Sure
Only a new physical Earth fulfills God’s original plans
Some ask, “Why would God bother recreating Earth, why not create something brand new?”
• If God were
forced to abandon His original plan for Earth and humanity, it would
mean that evil won!
• God created Earth for His glory to be a place
of beauty and wonder, and to be inhabited by perfect beings dwelling in
perfect intimacy and harmony with one another, with the natural
creation, with the animal kingdom, and with the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
• God has not abandoned this plan!
One of my favorite Bible passages is Rom 8:18-25:
“I consider
that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that
will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation
for the sons and daughters of God to be revealed. For the
creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by
the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself
will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the
glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to
the present time.”
• We must remember that it was not just the
human race affected by Adam and Eve’s rebellion, the entire
physical universe was placed under a curse!
• Just as humans long for the day of
Christ’s return, this passage reveals that all creation groans in
longing for deliverance from the Curse!
• Now here’s the good news of the gospel:
Through Christ’s incarnated and sinless life, His substitutionary
death on the cross, His life-giving resurrection from the dead, and His
soon return, the Curse on humanity and creation has been broken!
• Christ did not just die for humanity. What do we discover in Jn 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
The word “world” here is “Cosmos” which
includes all creation. Creator God so loved all that He made,
that He died to redeem it from the Curse!
“New” may mean restored or brand new
Listen to what the Bible reveals about this glorious day when Christ completely breaks the Curse: 2 Peter 3:10-13:
“But 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. Since everything will be
destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You
ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of
God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the
destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the
heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a
new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”
Whether the current Earth is obliterated or simply restored is secondary to this truth:
• Christ will create a new physical universe and a physical New Earth.
• This New Earth will be both new and yet still resemble the current.
All this we know for certain. Now let’s explore some of
what is highly likely based on a literal interpretation of the Bible.
IV. Some Biblically-informed Speculation
The New Earth will include the best of the old Earth, and aspects that will be brand new
It is quite possible that the New Earth will contain many of the same
places of great beauty that now exist only in a perfected state.
As beautiful as the current Earth and universe is, it is but a
crumbling ruin of what God intended. If this is true, we will we
get to explore all the places that we didn’t get a chance to in
our current life.
Not only that, if the New Heavens are both similar and different from
the current Heavens, we will get to explore all the other planets and
galaxies as well! For example: The volcano Olympus Mons on
Mars is three times hire than Mt Everest. The Valles Marineris on
Mars is 2800 miles long, 370 miles wide, and 4.5 miles deep. It
could hundreds of our Grand Canyon.
C.S. Lewis, in the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, called The Last Battle
has all the characters meet in the “New Narnia” after the
old one had been destroyed. His description captures the essence
of how God’s New Earth will be both similar and different to our
current Earth:
“The
Eagle is right,” said the Lord Digory. “Listen, Peter. When
Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you
were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a
beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia
which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own
world, England and all, is only a shadow or copy of something in
Aslan’s real world. You need not mourn over Narnia, Lucy. All of
the old Narnia that mattered, all the dear creatures, have been drawn
into the real Narnia through the Door. And of course it is different;
as different as a real thing is from a shadow or as waking life is from
a dream.” “….I have come home at last!
This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been
looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. The
reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little
like this.”
We can draw on the Biblical data as well as from the Spirit-inspired
imaginations of great poets, artists, authors, even from those who have
had visions of Heaven, and make some sound, Biblically-informed
speculations about what the New Earth will be like. Colors,
smells, tastes, will be more vivid, more intense. Think of your
favorite flower or musical sound or natural wonder, and then imagine it
more alive, brighter and more varied in color, perfect and more
harmonious and complex in its sound, more glorious in its beauty.
Again, when C.S. Lewis describes the New Narnia, the grass is greener,
the sky bluer, the mountains larger.
Far more meaningful and powerful than the physical aspects of this New
Earth is this: Every life cut short now, will get to be lived out
in its fullness on the New Earth. All those deaths that just
didn’t make sense. All those shattered dreams. All
those severed relationships. All restored! All made
new! All given a chance to be fulfilled!
The Best of Human Culture Will Be Carried Forward
There is good reason to believe that the best of human culture
and accomplishments will somehow be brought into the New Earth.
In 1 Corinthians 3, the apostle Paul reveals how Christ will judge each
person’s life work as to its eternal value.
1 Cor 3:12-13: "If any person
builds on this foundation (Christ) using gold, silver, costly stones,
wood, hay or straw, his or her work will be shown for what it is,
because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire,
and the fire will test the quality of each person's work.”
We discussed this judgment in detail in a previous sermon in this
series. Those works done for God’s glory and motivated by
faith, hope and love survive judgment. So it is possible that
these works might include some of the best of present human culture.
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Human Ethnicity Will Still Be Present
The apostle John’s vision of heaven included this from Rev 7:9: “After
this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one
could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing
before the throne and in front of the Lamb.”
It seems most consistent with God’s love of diversity that our
glorified bodies will still reflect our different ethnicities, and that
life on the New Earth will still be lived out with a diversity of
cultures.
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There Will Still Be Time
Isa 66:22-23 reveals this: "As the
new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,"
declares the Lord, "so will your name and descendants endure.
From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all
humanity will come and bow down before me," says the Lord.”
There Will Still Be Progress
There is no indication that in the Bible that we will be perfect in
ability or knowledge. I will not all the sudden be able to sing,
or to play golf flawlessly! We will still have to grow in every
area. We will spend eternity learning ever more about God, and
never exhaust His infinite depths of wisdom and beauty!
There is also no indication in the Bible that human progress and
technology is inherently evil. There is no reason to believe that
we will not still engage in technology. And just imagine how fast
we can progress when all humanity is working as one with no
competition, sin, or greed! So there will still be a place in
heaven for craftsman, engineers, architects, artists, musicians, for
all human skills, gifts, and holy passions.
We also have a mysterious passage in Isa 9:7: “Of the increase of his (Christ’s)government and peace there will be no end.”
Might it be possible that we will slowly inhabit more and more planets,
or perhaps expand God’s rule of other already inhabited planets?
There Will Be Animals and Our Relationship With Them Will Be Restored
Isa 11:6-9 reveals this picture of the New Earth: “The
wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child
will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will
lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The
infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put
his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor
destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
The hostile relationship between humans and animals is a product of the
Curse and not God’s original plan. Moreover, since all
creation is under this curse, we do not know what animals will be like
once released from the curse. Certainly, the intelligent animals
will be even more intelligent. Perhaps some will be able to
talk! Humans and animals will certainly enjoy a renewed
relationship. Perhaps God will resurrect every extinct animal
ever created, including the great dinosaurs! Imagine being able
to fly on the back of a Pterodactyl!
And as for pets…well if you really need your current pet in
Heaven to be in perfect joy, there is no reason why Christ won’t
resurrect Rover or Fluffy for you!
The New Jerusalem Will Be a Real City
In Revelation 21 and 22, we are given a very detailed description of a
city called the “New Jerusalem.” Given all this
detail, there is no reason to believe that this city is symbolic.
It may be, just as all the physical descriptions we’ve been
exploring could also be symbolic. I personally do not think
so. And even if they are, they symbolize a place of exquisite
beauty and blissful joy just the same!
These passages describe the new capital city of the New Earth that will
come down out of Heaven and rest upon the New Earth. Here are
some highlights of this New Jerusalem:
“One
of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last
plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife
of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great
and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was
like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as
crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with
twelve angels at the gates.
“….The
city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He
measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in
length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it
was 144 cubits thick, by man's measurement, which the angel was using.
The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as
glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with
every kind of precious stone. ….The twelve gates were
twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street
of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
“….I did not see a
temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its
temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on
it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its
lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the
earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates
ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and
honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will
ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful,
but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of
life.”
Randy Alcorn helps us to grasp this amazing capital city of the New Earth:
“The exact dimensions of the
heavenly city are measured by an angel and reported as a 1500 mile
cube. This base of over two million square miles would stretch
from the west coast to the Mississippi river, and from the borders of
Canada to Mexico, covering two thirds the entire land mass of the
United States. That’s forty times bigger than England, and
ten times bigger than France or Germany. And that’s just
the ground level! More astounding is its 1500 mile height.
By present standards, that would be some 600,000 stories.
Billions of people could live there and still have man square miles
each."
That’s just one city in this New Earth! Granted it is the most important city. And here’s why:
Revelation 22:1-5: “Then
the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as
crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle
of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood
the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of
the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne
of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve
him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their
foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the
light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give
them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”
God Himself will be living with us! We will see God
face-to-face! So intimate will be our relationship that the very
name of Christ will be written on our foreheads in some mysterious
manner. We may wonder how Christ will have time for personal
intimacy with us given the innumerable multitudes of humans who will be
redeemed and living on the New Earth. (I do think Hell will be
mostly empty!) But in Revelation 2:17 we have this mysterious
promise:
“I (says Christ) will also give
to them (all the redeemed humans on the New Earth) a white stone with a
new name written on it, known only to them who receive it.”
That’s intimacy, each of us will have a special nickname known
only to Christ! Perhaps every time Christ calls out this name,
suddenly we’ll find ourselves walking all alone side-by-side with
Christ someone for some intimate, one-on-one time with our Lord!
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this is our amazing destiny: New bodies co-reigning with Jesus Christ on a New Earth!
V. The Present Power of this Future Promise
But right now, life in the in-between times of Christ’s first
coming and His Second Coming is a life full of trial and victory, joy
and sorrow. All this talk of Heaven can be either pie-in-the-sky
escapism, or a present empowering, sustaining promise. It all
depends on how deeply you believe and fully understand these
promises. A vague understanding of Heaven can only foster a weak
hope. This is why we have taken so much time on this amazing
topic.
Alcorn tells this story: In 1952, young Florence Chadwick stepped into
the waters of the Pacific Ocean off Catalina Island, determined to swim
to the shore of mainland California. She'd already been the first
woman to swim the English Channel both ways. The weather was
foggy and chilly; she could hardly see the boats accompanying
her. Still, she swam for fifteen hours. When she begged to
be taken out of the water along the way, her mother, in a boat
alongside, told her she was close and that she could make it.
Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and
was pulled out. It wasn't until she was on the boat that she
discovered the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news
conference the next day she said, "All I could see was the
fog….I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made
it." (From Heaven by Randy Alcorn)
I hope with this Heaven series much of the fog has been lifted, and you
all can “see the shore” a little clearer now!