INTRODUCTION
Good morning church! Welcome to our final week in our foundations for faith series in the Bible engagement project. Over the last several weeks we've been looking at the end times and what the Bible talks about is coming in our future starting with the rapture which is called in the assemblies of the blessed hope, the millennial reign of Christ, and then the final judgment. After all this is done the Bible talks about there being a new heaven and new earth.
Illustration
A preacher and a song leader were both avid baseball fans. These guys didn't just like baseball; they lived, breathed and ate baseball. What time they weren't about church duties, they were attending a game, watching a game on the tube, or coaching a little league game in the park.
One day, one of them mused about whether there would be baseball in heaven and quite a conversation ensued. "Everything is perfect in heaven, isn't it? We will want for nothing in heaven, will we? Surely there will be baseball in heaven!" They finally made a pact that whichever one got to heaven first would somehow try to contact the other and let him know for a fact whether they had baseball.
As it turned out, the preacher died first. A week later he appeared to the song leader in a dream and said, "Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is, there is indeed baseball in heaven. The bad news is you are scheduled to pitch this Saturday. "
This morning, we are talking about Heaven, the New Heavens and New Earth.
Turn with me to 2 Peter 3:9-12
Like many of the other end time doctrines there are numerous ways that people interpret these scriptures. Some believe that instead of there being a new heaven and new earth that the earth is renovated and made new like that in the garden of Eden but when we look at the language here in Peter we can see that Peter is clearly talking about the old being destroyed.
1. This Current Earth must be destroyed
In verse 10 we see Peter saying, “the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise” The NIV translates this as the heavens will disappear with a roar. The Greek word here is ?a?e?e?s??ta? (dictionary form: pa?ep??µa?) Which translates to pass away, disappear or come to an end. This definitive language shows that there will be a point where the heavens will cease to exist.
In the three synoptic gospels during the sermon on the mount Jesus says that the law Of Moses will not be done away with until heaven and earth disappear, (Matthew 5:17-18) Using the very same word as was used in 2 Peter. Jesus’ indication that heaven and earth will pass away or disappear or come to an end seems pretty clear that this earth and this heaven will one day cease to exist.
In his letter Peter continues saying that everything around us the earth is going to be destroyed heaven will be set on fire and the elements will melt away. The word for destroyed and melt away is the Greek word ???µ???? (Dictionary form: ???) Which literally translates to unloose to untie or to break. It is used in the Bible as breaking ships or ships being destroyed or doing away with other things, In this context we see the literal translation of to dissolve or to destroy.
Peter goes further in his prophecy that the Saint of the judgment would be by fire and that the very elements of the universe would “melt away in the flames.” This really goes a step further in the miraculous of what God is doing here.
Illustration
In modern physics with the roots going back to the 1700s but formulated by Einstein is the law of conservation of mass and energy in which Einstein creates his well-known formula E=mc2. This law of physics talks about how matter can either be created or destroyed it can only change form. The total mass of the system therefore must stay the same both before and after any physical or chemical change happens. Peter however is witnessing God melt the elements with fire completely destroying this old earth. The God of the universe who wrote the laws of physics is the only one who is able to change those laws.
In revelation 20:11, at the final white throne judgment the earth seems to know that it's time to end has come because the scripture says that “the earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide.” This again seems to indicate an early forewarning of the destruction because the earth itself is recognizing that its time has come.
This concept of the earth being destroyed as even talked about in the Old Testament.
The Psalmist makes similar statements in Psalm 102:25-27
25 Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth and made the heavens with your hands.26 They will perish, but you remain forever; they will wear out like old clothing. You will change them like a garment and discard them.27 But you are always the same; you will live forever.
The psalmist talks about the destruction of this earth and the heavens but then it also talks about changing clothes like a garment to discard them and then place them on. The one thing that remains the same among all this change is God for he will always be the same he will always live forever. And so, there is this creation of a brand-new earth and on this earth is the creation of a new Jerusalem.
How many of us are truly looking forward to the New Earth? Consciously? Daily? In our idle moments, when our mind gravitates to whatever excites and interests us the most, what do we think about? A new car? A movie? A business opportunity? A chance to get rich? The Next thing to buy on Amazon? A fun vacation? Or the New Earth? Likely, we look forward to many things more than the New Earth .
Turn with me to revelation chapter 21.
Read Revelation 21:1-17
2. The New Earth with All things New, Will be much bigger than this current Earth
The exact dimensions of the New Heaven are measured by an angel and reported to be 12,000 stadia, the equivalent of 1,400 miles or 2,200 kilometers, in length, width, and height (Revelation 21:15-16). Even though these proportions may have symbolic importance, this doesn’t mean they can’t be literal.
In fact, Scripture emphasizes that the dimensions are given in “man’s measurement” (Revelation 21:17). If the city really has these dimensions (and there’s no reason it couldn’t), what more could we expect God to say to convince us? (I deal with whether the dimensions are literal in appendix B of my book Heaven, “Literal and Figurative Interpretation.”)
A metropolis of this size in the middle of the United States would stretch from Canada to Mexico and from the Appalachian Mountains to the California border. The New Jerusalem is all the square footage anyone could ask for.
Even more astounding is the city’s 1,400-mile height. Some people suggest this is the reach of the city’s tallest towers and spires, rising above buildings of lesser height. If so, they argue that it’s more like a pyramid than a cube. But that doesn’t matter as much.
The city is 1,400 Miles High… Let me put that into a little bit of perspective. If the city was 1400 miles high that would mean that the atmosphere would have to extend past that if that's where the highest buildings are. In earth if you were to take the first line of aerospace in what is normally referred to as the edge of space or the highest that most planes fly you would be about 62 miles in the air that's known as the Kármán line. If you to go to the next outreach of the thermosphere where heat is that extends between 370 and 620 miles high. Anything beyond the thermosphere is considered low earth orbit and while they can detect some particles up to 6000 miles away from earth. The International Space Station orbits the earth at about 250 miles above the earth in the thermosphere which is far beyond the Kármán line Of space and yet the new Jerusalem has a dimension of 1400 miles high
That would mean it would not fit on this earth by a long shot it's too tall and so we would need a bigger planet. If we took that 1400 miles high as the edge of aerospace like the Kármán line for earth about 62 miles up and compared it to earth that means that the radius of the new planet would have to be 22.6 times larger than the radius of earth which would mean that it would have a New earth radius of 89,440 miles (Earth’s Radius is 3,959 miles). Its mass would be 11,600 times bigger than our current earth.
We don’t need to worry that Heaven will be crowded. The ground level of the New Jerusalem will be nearly two million square miles. This is forty times bigger than England and fifteen thousand times bigger than London. It’s ten times as big as France or Germany and far larger than India. But remember, that’s just the ground level.
Given the dimensions of a 1,400-mile cube, if the city consisted of different levels (we don’t know this), and if each story were a generous twelve feet high, the city could have over 600,000 stories. If they were on different levels, billions of people could occupy the New Jerusalem, with many square miles per person . And that’s just one city on a very large new earth!
WE BELIEVE that Christ is preparing a new heavens and new earth for all people who have accepted Him, that will be for all time (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21–22).
Let’s Continue in Rev 21:18-22
John saw the city filled with the radiant glory of God and the very light that filled this new earth wasn't from the sun but from the son of God.
Features of Heaven—the New Earth
1. Jesus is the light
There's no longer a need for any type of heavenly body to light the earth as there was with our current earth because the light comes literally from Jesus. Listen to what Isaiah prophesied in
Isaiah 24:23
Then the moon will be disgraced And the sun ashamed; For the LORD of hosts will reign On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem And before His elders, gloriously.
ILLUSTRATION
Have you ever had the opportunity to look at the moon through a telescope. I had that opportunity when I was in undergrad and I took an astronomy class during a summer semester, and we went to an observatory and got to see really up-close images of the moon through that telescope. This past winter Josiah got a telescope for Christmas and on one of the warmer below 0 nights I set it up so that the kids could see the moon through the telescope. And when you look at the moon on a beautiful night it's beautiful but when you look at it through a telescope it's breathtaking. The beauty of this thing that is sitting up in the sky and you have to do this in a night in which the moon is at least 1/4 moon or less because otherwise it is too bright for you to look at with the telescope.
And when you take all that into account that the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed when compared to the glory of God in the new Jerusalem it should really get you excited about what this will be like and that there won't even be darkness or night because God will always shine bright. His glory will fill the place.
Creates will personally be the lamp the source that transmitter of light and energy so there will be no more need for anything else. That is God will mediate to us divine light and energy directly through Christ.
This is the ultimate depiction of God as the light of the world. And it's the final fulfilling prophecy of this. If we go all the way back to exodus with God as the fiery pillar leading the Israelites we now have God as the light to lead all in the coming new world. His light shines so bright that the city never closes because there is no night and all the kings of the world enter this place into its glory and because of the light there is no place for evil to live and it's only the place of those whose name is in the lamb’s book of life.
2. The Tree of Life
Read Revelation 22:1-6
This is the very tree of life that was there at the very beginning in the garden of Eden that God took because of the curse but it has been given back to those who have been faithful. While God is the direct light we however are still finite dependent beings without a source of energy within ourselves. This seems to be confirmed with the tree of life and the need for the healing or well-being of the nations. And the nations would be comprised of all the believers whose name is in the book of life. Not only will there be no sickness or pain, but we will know what it means Beyond all doubt what it would be like to live as the Lord is our shepherd and not lack anything. You will provide a fullness of life strength and joy.
1st Corinthians 13:13 “Three things will remain forever faith hope and love and the greatest of these is love.” and we will get to live in the love of God like nothing else. The curse will finally be gone, and our worship of the Lord will be unhindered. We shall see the Lord and his name will rest upon us forever identifying us as his special belongings.
3. Room for all
The 1993 Song, “big house” by Audio Adrenaline came into my mind, here is the Chorus:
It's a big, big house With lots and lots a room
A big, big table With lots and lots of food
A big, big yard Where we can play football
A big, big house It’s my Father's house
All I know is a big ole house With rooms for everyone
All I know is lots a land Where we can play and run
All I know is you need love And I've got a family
All I know is your all alone So why not come with me?
Come and go with me To my Father's house
Listen to what Jesus said in John 14:1-6
CONCLUSION
Right now, Jesus is preparing a place for us and as we saw it's plenty big and it's going to be glorious.
To sum it all up we know that the new Jerusalem will be a place of on surpassing beauty and light.
There will be a fullness of knowledge there. 1 Corinthians 13:12 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Where all of our questions will be answered finally once and for all.
It will be a place of interesting activity, but it will, above all, be a place to rest from a frustrating forgetting life.
It will not be a place of sheer inactivity however for there will be meaningful service for us all to do. It will be a place filled with joy and love and wonderful fellowship. I think best of all besides having God there in our presence it will be a place of no more heartache, no more loneliness, no more suffering. It will be permanent never in jeopardy of being disrupted by sin for once and for all sin will finally have been vanquished forever!
I don't know about you, but I look forward to the new earth to heaven like never before. The longer I live the more frustrations on earth the more I can't wait to see God in the end and hear him say well done my good and faithful servant.
To those that have been serving him for a long time don't grow weary with the work you're doing because there will be a time when they will all come to fruition, and you will receive your reward.
Let's continue reading Revelation 22:7-13; 17-21
If you hear this morning or if you're joining us online and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and savior then that means your name's not in the book of life, and you won't get to experience this wonderful place. Choose now to follow him so that you too can receive your reward. If you want to accept Jesus and you haven't done that please either message me online or if you're here in person come talk to me I'd love to talk with you more about this.
Let's close with giving him one last song of glory and praise.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
25 May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
26 May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.’
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i Baseball in Heaven By Joe Bertone, Copied from Sermon Central
ii New Earth By Randy Alcorn: Copied from Sermon Central
iiiTHE DIMENSIONS OF THE NEW HEAVEN By Dr. Larry Petton Copied from Sermon Central
iv © 2023 The General Council of the Assemblies of God. All rights reserved. www.BibleEngagementProject.com
