The Beautiful Believable Basics 6: Heaven

[Music] [Music] we are continuing our beautiful believable basics series that's a bit of a tongue twister isn't it and we've been through five presentations up to this point and today we come to our pen ultimate that's a fancy word meaning the one before the last one our pen ultimate in the series a beautiful believable what does it say everyone beautiful believable heaven now next week does anybody remember what the last one in the series was titled oh yeah a beautiful believable hell and I've had several people come to me and say how are you ever going to preach a sermon titled a beautiful believable hell well you'll see next week at about this time in this very place so here's been our series so far a beautiful believable God part 1 part 2 a beautiful believable story that was great a beautiful believable man a beautiful believable plan a beautiful believable miracle we spent our time oh it's been a few weeks ago now but we were talking about the resurrection right we were talking about this miracle this miracle that makes all subsequent miracles possible the miracle of the resurrection and today part six a beautiful believable heaven we are addressing ourselves to these three questions in this series sometimes explicitly we're going right after questions and other times it's just implicit in the series number one is it believable is there any evidence for it number two is it livable is it consistent with human experience with our experience with day to day experience and then finally the aesthetic question number three is it beautiful is it believable isn't livable and is it beautiful those are the questions that we're seeking to understand trying to reach out to perhaps a seeker or perhaps a solid Christian who just wants to better understand her faith better we want to try and get our mind wrapped around the beautiful believable basics of the Christian faith last week we ended on the resurrection and this was sort of our takeaway this was our summary without the actual historical bodily resurrection of Jesus what happens to Christianity it crumbles right this is the point that Paul makes in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 he says if Jesus is not raised from the dead than your faith is futile you are still in your sins and so we spent time saying are there any extra biblical reasons are there are there any good historical reasons evidentiary reasons to leave that Jesus rose bodily from the dead and we came away with the the the settled conviction we were roundly persuaded just as scripture says say these three words with me if you would he is alive and one more time with all the enthusiasm you can muster he is alive very good now who is alive of course it's Jesus that's alive right and this is what we're gonna transition into our presentation today launching from the beautiful believable miracle the resurrection now into a beautiful believable heaven because the idea the Christian idea the Christian claim is that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and thus paved the way so that his followers people that put faith in Him could also be resurrected or in some cases translated which means being transmitted to heaven without seeing death that they could do the same right to heaven right so notice this in Luke chapter 24 verse 39 Jesus speaking to his disciples some of whom were doubting they were like man I'm not sure that's the guy how can it be that someone raised us from the dead it didn't make sense and you'll remember of course doubting Thomas who said I'm not gonna believe until I put my fingers in his side until I touch and feel I need evidence I need hard evidence Jesus says behold my hands and my feet showing them the scars the wounds that must have still remains that it is I myself it is what everyone what have I underlined there it is I myself there is a one-to-one relationship between the Jesus that was crucified and the Jesus that was raised they are they are the same person same body right a glorified version of that body but Jesus wants to be clear and this is gonna be very important for us Jesus says it is I myself handle me go ahead touch me for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have it is I myself today we're going to be dealing with the topic of heaven and one of the questions one of the many questions and misunderstandings that people have about heaven is yeah but who will I be in heaven and will I recognize people and and what will we do all of these questions are going to be addressing ourselves to today and I think you will agree with me at the end of the presentation the biblical portrayal is a beautiful believable portrayal of heaven the resurrection of Jesus paved the way to heaven for all subsequent followers and believers in Jesus right he was what the Bible calls the firstfruits right he was the one that went first and thus making away head me he himself said I am the way what what are the other two I am the way the truth and the life I'm the way to God I'm the way to heaven I'm the truth about God and I'm living the life of God which of course then raises the question what are we talking about here what is heaven right one of the disciples protested and said but we don't know the way we how do we know how to get to this place I don't have directions I can't find it on my GPS bright Google Maps is sending me all over the place I can't find it what is this thing called heaven and for us today as equally important what isn't heaven what is heaven and what is heaven Knots randy Alcorn in his book I'll quote from this book several times today I read this book over the course of the last several weeks it's about a 500 600 page book just an exhaustive treatment of the biblical material on heaven a deeply fascinating book and at other times a frustrating book a book that is frustrating for reasons that I will reveal probably next week not this week but the opening sentence of this book and I'm thankful to pastor Alcorn for writing the book because it's just a treatment a systematic exhaustive treatment of so everything really that the Bible says about heaven and I love this opening line in this treatise on heaven the sense that we will live forever somewhere has shaved every civilization in human history that sense that inbuilt sense that that this is not all there is that somewhere we will live in fact when I was unwell my wife is also unwell with me we like to do things together so we even get sick together in fact just this lack last week we celebrated our in fact day before yesterday our 19th anniversary so whoo go ahead go ahead yeah 19th anniversary you can just go out to a nice Italian place 20 that's not gonna cut it right next year it's gonna have to be something bigger than that it's gonna have to be better than that so so while we were unwell together because as I said we'd like to do things together we watched a documentary titled first contact a lost Amazon tribe released in like 2015 2014 first contact and as this anthropologist goes I think it was a Brazilian anthropologist he goes in and he there's these it's a fascinating documentary I recommend it by the way if you have Netflix it's available on there it's like 48 minutes long absolutely riveting and they have document like video documentation of various tribes and one in particular that they follow coming out of the woods in some cases for the first time like for the first time this tribe is seeing people and they're coming out and it tells this whole story and as the anthropologist is interacting with them fortunately there were some other people that were native to that area and they spoke a language that was at least dialectically similar that they could understand one of the questions that the anthropologists asked of the many many questions of course you know what do you eat and where do you live and and what do you do in the various seasons and one of the questions he asked is what happens when you die what what happens when you die and without any hesitation the the the man who was the leader of the tribe and I say man he was it looked every bit of 22 or 23 just a young guy standing there and all of his you know creational glory right not clothed and he answers this question and he says he didn't have to think about it he knew he knew what happened he said oh when you die you float down this river right while large tributary of the m of the what river might think about here the Amazon River of course float floats down this river and then it says to where the river meets the sky and then we live in the sky he knew he knew of course he knew and if you would have asked anybody else in the tribe they would have known - his father would have known his grandfather would have known they all knew this is the point that Alcorn is making the sense that we will live forever somewhere has shaped a few civilizations most civilizations well every civilization in human history including those people that have had no exposure to the Bible or to other religious books there's just something inbuilt to humanity there's something inside of us that says this world is not all there is Jesus put some some concrete ideas behind this and I've purposely chosen that word concrete because there's a physicality there there's a materiality there when he was speaking to his disciples John 14 this is the we're recording just a moment ago we don't know the way we don't know where you're going I am the way the truth and the life just before that Jesus had said these words which elicited that concern hey where are you going how do we get there let not your heart be troubled you believe in God believe also in me in my father's what's the word house there are many what's the word mansions if it were not so I would have told you now watch this I go to prepare what what am i preparing a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also the word house has a has an inescapable physicality to it a materiality to it so does the word place so does the word mansion and so does the idea of where right you asked that Amazonian tribe what happens when you die we go to a place we I me go to a place my ancestors have gone to a place that's what happens we float down this river we where the river meets the sky we go into the sky Jesus here is confirming the basic idea that this world that you see around you right the flesh and blood that we now inhabit the world in which we live he said that's not all there is I'm gonna go prepare a place for you and there's a there's a mansion and in that mansion or many houses and I'm going to come back and I'm going to take you to the place to the location to where I am very important we're gonna continue to tease this out back to randy alcorn in this book heaven anthropological evidence suggests that once again how many cultures every culture has a god-given innate sense of the eternal that this world is not all there is not some cultures not even most cultures not the majority of cultures every culture in human civilization has some sense that this is not all there is that there is something transcendent that there is something invisible that there is something even eternal the Bible was on to this well before randy Alcorn the Bible was on to this going all the way back to the time of Solomon when he said he God has made everything beautiful in its time he has also set eternity in the human heart even in the Amazonian tribes where they've had no contact they never heard a religious program they've not watched this week at kingscliff I mean they've not had a Bible given to them they say oh we know where we go well this is this world's not all there is how do they know that who taught them that who taught the Egyptians to build these large pyramids and to to embalm the the bodies of the various emperors and stick to man who taught them this well God taught them by his Spirit because he placed a little seed a little germ a little nucleus in every human heart eternity eternity eternity you were not created to die you were created to live God has said eternity in the heart of man I love the way that the amplified version same verse but the amplified version turns up the volume a little bit and teases out some of the ideas that are contained embryonic lis in the passage he has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time he has also planted eternity a sense of divine purpose in the human heart a mysterious longing which nothing under the Sun can satisfy except God I love that that sounds very Augustinian God you have made us for yourself and we run tired and restless until we find ourselves in you there's this God shaped void that Augustine would speak about and that others have spoken about as well that we know we're made for something and Jesus said you're not just made for something you're made for someone me I go to prepare I will come you'll be with me and you're made for somewhere there's some place that you belong and there's someone to whom you belong you know this intuitively and every culture has known it intuitively now some of us when we think about heaven I read a quotation in my studies for this sermon what one author said man when I was young I used to be more afraid of heaven than of Hell because at least I had some idea of what we would do in Hell but I couldn't get my mind wrapped around what we would do in heaven and I asked my Sunday school teacher and she said it'll be Sunday services uninterruptedly for eternity and I thought well that's definitely not the place I want to go so if I'm given options here I'm taking hell I'm taking hell well Mark Twain in his The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn captures that same sort of ambiguity and hostility about what is heaven going to really be all about right in this particular passage here mark huck finn is engaging with the miss watson miss watson is the sister of marked of keep saying mark twain of huck finn's guardian the widow and she's she's prudish she's a Christian real strong prudish obnoxious austere Christian woman and this conversation takes place he's relaying a conversation that he had with Miss Watson she went on and told me all about the good place she said all about he would have to do there was go around all day long with a harp and sing forever and ever alright so I didn't think much of it says Huck Finn well I don't think much of that either I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there and she said not by a considerable sight and I was glad about that because I wanted he and I to be together yeah you're telling me we're gonna walk around all day and just sing and sing and sing and attend Sunday services over and over again you think mark 28 he says do you think Tom Sawyer is gonna be there now Tom Sawyer is not gonna be there I don't want to go right and by the way Huck Finn is closer to the reality here closer to the biblical reality and Mark Twain's novel then miss Watson is even though she's the Christian Right something about that social connection I want to be where I belong I want to be where someone knows my name and I know their name and we are in relationship together Alister McGrath one of the great minds on the planet today a theologian a scientist and author and many other such things one of my favorite just favorite thinkers on the planet today says to speak of imagining heaven just go ahead and let your imagination in a while I know you've done it before if you're a follower of Jesus and even if you're not a follower of Jesus you have tried perhaps struggling ly but you have tried to imagine what it's going to be like what are we going to do what will we look like what will we wear right you've tried to imagine and I love what McGrath says here he says to speak of imagining heaven does not imply or entail that heaven is a fictional notion constructed by deliberately disregarding the harsh realities of the everyday world no no sense McGrath that's not what's going on but what is going on it is to affirm the critical role of the god-given human capacity to construct and enter into mental pictures of divine reality which are mediated through Scripture he says you can use your imagination and then you can with your imagination go inhabit the world what world dr. McGrath the world that scripture speaks up the world to come the new heaven and the new earth he continues we are able to inhabit the mental images we create and we are able to anticipate the delight of finally entering the greater reality to which they correspond oh he says just let your imagination run wild let your imagination run wild and then not just your imagination in some hypothetical sense but then put yourself into that world put yourself into the world now it's not just any ordinary world he says it's the world that is mediated through scripture what does scripture say about heaven what does scripture say about the new earth we're gonna spend time on that in order to get our minds wrapped around the picture the portrait that scripture paints of what heaven will be like and the new earth we're going to have to deal with something that's going to sound a little heady it's gonna sound a little heavy I had a lovely conversation just this last week with a dear sister whom I loved with all of my heart and she said you know this has been a really good series but they're not very basic you know you've a beautiful believable basics it's like the beautiful believable complexities right she's just give me a little bit of a jab which I don't mind I'll take it I'll wear that but but at the end of the day the ideas are basic though I might sometimes try and explain them in ways that require a little bit of thinking I want you to think I want you to not only feel I want you to think okay so just indulge me for a moment while I talk about one of the most formative ideas in all of human history I want to say that again one of the most formative ideas in all of human history this idea has shaped the course of civilizations and of people and of religions okay and it boils down to basically two concepts what's called corporeality now you're thinking what is corporeality corporeality comes from the Latin corpus and it just means body like a corpse right so corporeality is to inhabit a body right to be corporeal is to inhabit about all of us in this room or corporeal right we inhabit bodies but this is contrasted with an idea that was introduced first of all I don't know if I was introduced by Plato but it was articulated first by Plato the Greek philosopher and the idea is what it's called sometimes platonic dualism after Plato or more commonly anthropological dualism now don't get worried about all those many syllables anthropological just means the nature of mankind's human beings what makes David day and Blair Blair and Emma Emma and Jame and jaemin what makes us us what makes us us and Plato positive this idea that you are actually two things you are body you are matter which is which is physical and not the best and you are also spirit which is non-physical or immaterial and it is pure and it's the best so he introduced a dualism that's what you have the word up there you are body and spirit which actually stood in significant tension with the biblical portrait the biblical portrait says that that you are not dual you are monastic you're one you're not body and spirit your body and spirit combined together that makes a soul they are inseparable we might say it this way they are distinguishable but not divisible but Plato believed they were divisible and Plato just launched or articulate an idea that it's gone down and shaped and I'm gonna spend some time on this the idea that the real essence of you is not that physicality not the big nose and the you know the graying hair and the increasingly large belly or whatever your particular case is that's not really what you are the thing that you really are is a spirit being you're a spirit and when you die that old body that messy old irrelevant body that thing goes to the grave and it was really never any good anyway because your spirit was trapped your spirit was entombed in corporate reality and now you are released to be whatever it is that you actually are right this is anthropological dualism as contrasted with basic corporal reality or what you could call anthropological monism not that you're too but that you're one the Bible touches on this just in such profound and yet simple enough language that a child could understand it when it says that God formed man kind Adam this is in Genesis 1 and 2 formed man of the dust of the earth there's the matter there's the body and then breathe into his nostrils the breath of life there's the spirit there's the breath the pneuma or in the Old Testament Ruach and then it says man became a living soul he had an integrated nature he wasn't this and this it was these two things that made this so he was monastic he is singular in his essence and so if a man dies the Bible says that his spirit spirit returns to God and his body goes to the to the grave and he is effectively asleep dualism teaches no no when you die you don't really die your spirit possesses consciousness awareness and who you really are actually floats back to whatever your particular version of heaven or Nirvana is now we're gonna have to get our minds around this a little bit so bear with me here nt riot one of the great thinkers of modern times in my opinion in his book Paul for everyone Romans Part 1 says death is defeated can somebody say Amen whoo death is a defeated enemy and it's corruption and decay will not have the last word it does get a word but it does not get the last word since the resurrection but this means now notice NT right here not that we'll all end up in a disembodied heaven now what does the word disembodied mean it means without a body it's the Platonic idea that your body just goes back to the but your spirit this effervescent non-physical noncorporeal in material body wafts back into the presence of God and NT Wright says not know not so that's not what's happening what is happening is that God will rescue the entire creation from corruption and decay he will give all of his people new what's the word new bodies like Jesus risen body to live gloriously in his what's the next word new world very good no wonder Jobe could say and perhaps the oldest book in the Bible the book of Job Joe chapter 19 verse 26 even though the world was falling apart all around Jove he could say look I know look I know I know I know that things are going rough for me I know that I'm in the midst of struggling I loved your prayer there Carl I loved your point about that when you're struggling you can't see around the corner just go with Jesus around the corner because he can see around the corner he's got those headlights that go around the corner right he knows what's coming and and job says look I don't know what's coming but I do know this after my skin is destroyed this I know that in my flesh I will see God not in my spirit not in some ethereal immaterial reality no in my flesh I will see God remember what Jesus said touch me feel me handle me it is I myself there's a one-to-one correlation in between the Jesus that was crucified in the Jesus that was raised it's the same Jesus it'll be the same job and it's gonna be the same you Philippians chapter 3 verse 21 he will transform our lowly bodies that's the bodies were in now so that they will become like his glorious body there's still be a body but it will be like his glorious body the times Jesus spent with his disciples after the resurrection were remarkably normal just quite normally standing he's eating some honeycomb and some fish standing on a beach hanging out with him in a house kind of like the Jesus before he was raised notice notice this salient observation by Alcorn by observing the resurrected Christ we learn not only about resurrected bodies but about resurrected relationships because Jesus is talking to Peter and Peter is talking to Jesus when when Jesus says to Mary Mary when he says her name she says Ramona she recognizes him and he recognizes her this is not only telling us that we're gonna have bodies with fingers and toes and knees and elbows and all of the things that you have now a full head of hair and a six-pack not only all of that but but your relationships will remain intact continuing the fact that Jesus picked up his relationships where they left off is a foretaste of our own lives after we're resurrected well now we've just answered one of the major questions that people have about heaven will we recognize one another oh come on the Bible says in the book of Matthew chapter 8 jesus says that many will come from the east and the West and we'll sit down get ready for this with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom now who here has met Abraham Isaac or Jacob have you followed them on Instagram have you seen their Facebook profile how are you going to know that you're sitting down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob I'll tell you how you're gonna know they're gonna tell you they're gonna tell you and then you're gonna say my name's Karl right now the Bible just say you're gonna get a new name so you'll be Karl and you'll have this amazing new name I don't know what it's gonna be right could be just like better than even Nebuchadnezzar like some great name is gonna be awesome maybe some great name my name is gonna be awesome that's how people I just can't get it David I just can't get my mind around it I can't imagine what my glorious body will be like no that's not true that is not true at all you might just need to turn up the volume on your imagination but let me help you it's gonna be like the body you're in right now it's gonna be like the body you are in right now only better but it's gonna be a body because here's a basic truth that you have to get your mind wrapped around you cannot hope for or desire what you cannot imagine just try it try to hope for something that you cannot think of try to desire something that you cannot conceive of or imagine it's impossible by the way it is it is it is impossible to hope for that which you cannot imagine that which you cannot conceive of now are there mysteries about the glorified body of course are there mysteries about our heavenly body of course there are but what we know is that we'll be a body we know that it will be recognizable Jesus was recognizable he had hands he had feet he invited them to handle his hands and feet right so so yes there is an element of mystery when we get there we'll find out but but don't think like dudududu I have no idea what it's going to be like it's going to be very similar remarkably similar to the body that you're in right now the body that you are in right now I love Clark pinic on this and I'm gonna get into this more deeply next week speaking of this dualism this Greek idea of the separation of the body and the spirit pinic says and I love this quotation oven quoting it for years anthropological dualism has done such serious harm in weakening Our Blessed hope and Christ's return and distorting our understanding of the world to come right it was certainly distorted for Huck Finn in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as I go what are we gonna do well we're just gonna sort of wander around all day and sing now it's distorted our understanding of the world to come notice what pen it goes on to say here it has also fostered many false dichotomies including here's platonic dualism a negative view of the body in contrast with a positive view of the soul and this concept of salvation as interior experience rather than total transformation and this is one of the contributions that I love about the seventh-day Adventist Church one of the one my favorite things there are many things that I love about the seventh day of insurance one of my favorite things and that's why I personally am a seventh day evidence is that they emphasize not just a privatized compartmentalized religious experience where you just say something and then now every other area of your life remains untouched notice it's you are a whole being you are a sexual social physical mental emotional being right and all of that gets transformed when you're saved say salvation does not just see a bow down you get on your knees and you say I admit I'm a sinner and I need Jesus to save me and you get up and all of the rest of your areas of your life are unaffected no pinic says if we if we divorce body and spirit then we're gonna say well it doesn't really matter what you eat doesn't matter how you live it doesn't matter if you take care of your body because your body's irrelevant and pinic says no this is harmful it's actually turned salvation into an internal experience rather than a total transformation what we call sanctification the making holy of the person look at this worst of all says pinic it is given a rise to the sadistic teaching that God makes the wicked suffer on ending conscious torment in Hell which has once been such a burden to the Christian conscience and an unnecessary offense to many seekers we're gonna pick that up next week Cygnet on Sat and his commentary on Romans says the notion of an immaterial soul and in classic academic understatement he says the notion of the immaterial soul that lives separately from the body has been a disruptive concept in the history of ideas I love that a disruptive concept yeah it's been absolutely horrific its disruptive it's harmful final quotation to this effect is not a theologian but an American poet and novelist Wendell Berry he says the separation of the soul from the body and from the world is no disease on the fringe it's no aberration it is a fracture that runs to the mentality of institution or religion like a geological fault it is fundamentally flawed thinking it's Greek it's it's it's wrapped up with paganism and it has nothing to do with biblical Christianity in which our bodies will be redeemed and our bodies will be restored and our bodies will go to a place called the new heaven and the new earth where there will be mansions there will be houses now you might still be thinking but what are we gonna do maybe miss Watson was right we're just gonna wander around all day and Tom Sawyer's not gonna be there we'll get there in just a second we now bridge out of the conversation between anthropological dualism and corporate reality and we talk now about this basic biblical idea that is so simple and yet so profound that in the Bible we go from Eden to Eden if you walk through the front door you're in the Garden of Eden Genesis chapter 1 and 2 you walk through the back door revelation 21 22 year in Eden so from Eden to Eden from a place to a place from a garden to a garden from a relationship to a relationship this idea is just so simple that a child can grasp it and yet it is hugely profound back to Alister McGrath on this point the idea when we think about Eden the word Eden by the way I should say means pleasure did you know that did you know that the Hebrew word the Garden of Eden means the garden of pleasure the garden of delights right and the word paradise is an old word it's an old old old Zoroastrian Persian word paradise well what does that word mean when we talk about paradise what is it the idea says McGrath in his a brief history of heaven of a walled garden enclosed carefully enclosing a carefully cultivated area of exquisite plants and amazing animals was the most powerful symbol of paradise available to the human imagination mingling the images of two things the beauty of nature number one with number two the orderliness of human construction the whole of human history is the sin folded in a subtle interplay of sorrow over lost paradise and the hope of its final restoration I love this idea paradise it's it's the coming together of create of nature which is God's creation and order an imposed and beautiful order which is man's creation it's a marriage Paradise is a marriage God put Adam and Eve in the garden Eden to tend it and keep it Adam didn't make the tulips and he didn't make the vines and he didn't make the trees but he was placed there to bring his own order his own sovereignty his own stewardship over God's creation it's a marriage of divine sovereignty and human sovereigns amazing by the way is actually what it means when it says let us make man in our image let man be a volitional sovereign reigning being over this particular area God is a delegator right man so some of us are micromanagers I don't think I'd like like think I'm a delegator but but some people they have to micromanage and control every decision every whatever gods like no no you do that and you and you he's a delegator we see this all throughout the book of Acts and we've studied that here in this church what God could do something himself but he gets Simon Peter to do it God could do something himself but he gets Ananias to do it God could do something himself but he gets Saul to do it so God placed Adam and Eve in the garden and he said here's my creation now you add your flair now you you you you you do your thing now make it awesome make it a paradise make it pleasurable make it beautiful I say a 65 seventeen for behold I create a new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembered nor come to mind not I create an effervescent ethereal reality that no one here can comprehend you cannot comprehend reality apart from your body because you've been in your body your whole life right so saying to somebody that heaven is gonna be your not it's gonna be so different you can't desire something that's so different you can't hope for something that's so different you can't even imagine something that's so different no it's going to be a new heaven and a new earth Isaiah 66 22 for as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make sure remain before me says the Lord so shall your descendants and your name remain second Peter chapter 3 verse 13 nevertheless according to his promise look for a new heavens and what is that a new earth in which righteousness wells last one here Revelation chapter 22 21 verse 1 now I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away the promise and I love the way Alcorn says this God doesn't promise us an on earth he promises us a new earth you can't imagine an on earth you can't imagine an on bodily incorporeal existence either but God does that's not what God tells us he says I go to prepare a place and I'm gonna go to that place and then I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna get you because you belong to someone and you belong to somewhere that somewhere is heaven and that someone is Jesus you cannot hope for or desire what you cannot imagine I want to do a little exercise with you here a little bit elec sir sighs this is what system Atisha pnes do people that study the whole of scriptural revelation they they take a topic and they'll go right from Genesis all the way through to Malachi and then getting into the New Testament for Matthew all the way through to Revelation and they they systematize the great teachings of Scripture and what we're gonna do here is we're gonna look at the past which is Genesis 1 and 2 that's Eden that's going through the front door and then we're gonna go through the present which is where we are now and have been ever since Genesis 3 but we're going to look forward to the future the future that Isaiah promised and we just saw Peter promise and we just saw John saw in Revelation let's let's move through this because this is going to be revolutionary for some of you and it's gonna be revelatory for others so in the past and even there was an unfallen earth in the president we live in a fallen earth and we have just been told and repeated biblical passages we are going to a place of a new earth number two Adam was Adam and Eve both were given Dominion but after Satan came in through the great controversy in Genesis chapter 3 that Dominion was disputed and Satan claimed dominion over the earth we know this by the way because in Matthew chapter 4 when he tempted Jesus he said I'll give you all of this I'll give you the earth and the kingdoms thereof if you just bow down and worship Me how can you give something you don't know and what's fascinating is that Jesus did not dispute that it was Satan's right to offer us he just disputed that that's not the way to get it he got it in another way so the the the Dominion who actually is in charge who's who's in charge down here quickly in the book of Job when all of the sons of God have assembled themselves before God Satan comes in among them and God says what are you doing here and he says walking to and fro on the earth and that walking to and fro is a territorial claim he's saying I just been hanging out of my planet and God then God then refutes God contests the territorial claim and says if that's really your planet and if that's really operating on your principles what about my servant Joe he lays claim and so there's this disputed Dominion who's in control and yet when we get to the new heaven in the new earth Dominion will be restored God's sovereign over the universe and mankind believe it or not sovereign over the new earth knock yourselves have fun with it it's an empty canvas make it orderly and beautiful a walled garden there was no curse in Genesis 1 and 2 we live in the midst of a curse and this is an agricultural curse it's a social curse it's a if this curse is on multi levels that we're not going to get into right now but then it says it's fascinatingly right in Revelation 21 and 22 it says there is no more curse no more agricultural curse no more that animals running away from you none of that fact we're gonna get the animal thing in just a second this is one of my favorites because it's a thread that runs right through Sabbath in the past Sabbath in the president Sabbath in the future can somebody say Amen in the past there was a strictly vegetarian diet and if you want to be really technical it was a fruitarian diet they ate fruit right they ate fruit and fruit is anything that has the seed inside of itself right and so they were fruitarians and now in this world in which we live meat eating is permitted we know now based on a giant body of evidence that it's not ideal and it's not what you were made to eat but you can with permission it's an accommodation you can eat meat but you're not gonna be eating meat in heaven and I had somebody say to me one time well that's what I want to eat all I can get now because this is my only chance this is my only shot right I gotta I gotta fill up because I'm not gonna be eating it in the I said all right well that's interesting reasoning you talk to Jesus about that reasoning the very last verse of Genesis chapter 2 says they were naked and not ashamed if you could suddenly be naked in this room you'd be like whoa what happened to my clothes and you'd flee in fear right you'd be ashamed you'd be ashamed and yet in the future we will be honest shames we will be innocent I cannot comment on whether or not we'll be naked we'll see tree of life was available in Eden The Tree of Life was removed after the fall of Adam and Eve and yet revelation 21 22 says the tree of life will be restored back then was before Redemption we spent time on the redemption just yesterday in the arize class and I just had the time of my life can any arrived students amen here's the awesome I just had so much fun talking about the location of redemption maybe I'll just quickly ask the arrived students where is redemption located thank you I love you we are now in the midst of the process of redemption and then the future will be post redemption in Genesis 1 and 2 sin was unknown it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God did not design them to know experientially what sin was we live now at a time in which we can't escape sin we're like fish swimming around in the ocean it's the ubiquitous reality in which we find ourselves sin suffering death and decay that's our reality so I give I give you a past if you have a difficult time imagining a world without sin and suffering and death I I find it difficult to imagine I try I can just begin to see glimmers of it but I'm so sin stained and so since saturated it's not easy it's not easy but sin will be healed and forgotten and in the inimitable words of my good friend Ty Gibson he said heaven is going to be so healing heaven is gonna be so amazing heaven is gonna be so awesome and eternity is gonna last so long that we will look back on all of the pain all the suffering all the sickness all of the death all of the disease and he says it will seem at some point in the future like a night in a bad hotel you remember that one time we slept in that terrible hotel I don't know you remember at the terrible carpet and it smelled like dog oh yeah I do remember that and that we will be so thoroughly healed that yes we will still intellectually remember our experience but we will not experientially remember all of this pain all of the sickness all of this suffering and all of this death no death in the end Genesis 1 and Genesis 1 and 2 and here death of course reigns and death has been defeated since Jesus raised from the grave man was created from the earth let us make man in our image he was formed and fashioned now we return to the earth when we die we go into the earth but the good news in this wonderful symbiotic relationship between man and the earth is that we will be resurrected from the earth can somebody say hey man Satan was on the earth in Genesis 1 and 2 of course he was in the tree Satan is successful in this intervening period but he will be judged in fact Jesus says now as the judgment of this world I've won this victory we just got out we're just here at the tail end of the movie but it's over it's over for him sin and death have been defeated by Jesus and Satan will eventually be destroyed we'll deal with that next week in the Garden of Eden they had face to face communion with God we have lost that face-to-face communion and just moments ago we sang when we see him face to face Revelation chapter 22 verse 4 they shall see his face I put this one in from Melbourne mell where you sitting I put this in for you Mel and and I had a lot of things I could have put in this list and others that I left out but I left this one in from Mel because it's a burden of her heart it's a real burden of my heart there was unhindered connection unhindered Communion and unhindered worship in the Garden of Eden they just they just would have it laid with no shame no guilt no insecurity and we live in a time now where our worship is hindered its hindered by a minute great many things but often by sin off my insecurity and a sense of what others might think but I got news for you just go read revelation 4 and 5 just go read how you will be worshiping this is how you you you quiet reserved stoic though very sweet and lovely Australian people you will be like Hagen yeah worthy worthy is the lamb and you might even say Amen occasionally it's gonna be amazing it's gonna be amazing you will have unhindered worships so in the same way for those of you that are vegetarians and you're you know in your sanctimonious piety like me I'm the same I say well I'm just getting ready for heaven I'm just getting ready for heaven that's how I'm gonna eat in heaven I'm not the guy that you know how many eat as much steak as I can because I'm not gonna get it eat it there no I'm the guy that says I'm gonna start eating like I'm gonna eat there because it's better for me well for those of you that are vegetarians and that's your reasoning let me give you a little piece of advice why don't you start worshipping like you're gonna worship in the hereafter why don't you start worshipping like that come on now stop it stop it woo creation was perfect uh one of my favorite texts Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul in poetic language says all creation groans its onomatopoeic that word groans it sounds like what it describes it groans it says awaiting its redemption you see friends what God is rescuing going back to that early quotation we have from NT right God is not just rescuing your spirit or your soul God is rescuing the earth God is rescuing the grizzly bears God is rescuing the salmon God is rescuing the giraffes God his record rescuing the hippopotamus God is rescuing two whales God is rescuing the oceans God is rescuing the earth the earth was good when God looked at it he said man that's really good I mean if I do say so myself that's really good right not just about your privatized compartmentalized spiritual experience so that you and the Huck Finn saga can go sit on a cloud and play a heart no God is going to redeem the earth and in Romans chapter 8 it says that all of creation the giraffes and the the salmon and the the various endangered species of the world it's like they're sitting on the edge of their prospective seat waiting for the revelation of the sons of God oh we have brought so much pain to this world so much pain to this world man human beings God must look down the Angels must look down and weep at the exploitation and the pain that we have brought to his good creation in the name usually of profit profit that turns into gold and gold that turns into nothing dust and dirt all right we haven't fun today harmony with the animals in the Garden of Eden exploitation and fear of animals in the present and hallelujah harmony with the animals one of the questions that people sometimes ask me is will my dog be in heaven your little dog well if it was if it's a chihuahua probably not but all larger dogs I think are going to be there okay but let me just say this let me just say this you set your sights a little higher right like okay you had your dog on earth right let's set your sights a little higher like a pet blue whale a pet rhinoceros maybe even a pet brontosaurus I mean who knows the sky's the limit it's like Alister McGrath says let your imagination run wild harmony with the animals this is another one I had Sam Vennela our head elder here when I put this one in mind because he's a guy that knows how to work and doesn't know how to not work very well satisfaction in labor there was deep satisfaction in labor in the world that many of us live in now not all of us but many of us live in now certainly not me as a pastor I wanna make this clear but many of our jobs are toilsome and monotonous and exim labor we're just like man I can't wait to retire I can't wait for the weekend I just but but in the new heaven and the new earth we will be back laboring we're not gonna be sitting around in our hands will be laboring but there will be a deep satisfaction in that labor because she won't be working for the man you'll be working for the son of man come on now you all be working for the man you'll be where you own your own house and you'll have your own place the Bible says you'll plant your own vineyards you'll sit under your own fig tree in fact that was the Jewish conception of heaven I don't know if you knew that the Jewish conception of paradise communicated in this simple phrase every man under his own fig tree come on who doesn't want to sit under his fig tree I love it every man under his own fig tree and so I was thinking of you Sam there's gonna be deep satisfaction in labor abundant food and water now we live in a time of scarcity of food and clean water you know that abundant food and water in the new earth Eden lost Eden regained even restored and magnified and this one I saved for last Adam and Eve would have learned and created in innocence man they would have had some great ideas but those ideas were thwarted by evil and by Satan we now learn and create in sinful selfishness oh we learned terrible things we learn how to make bombs that eviscerate people that blow their biology into bits we've learned how to make things that pollute the world and we we've made some cool inventions but we can't seem to get by the byproducts that's the world we live in and one of the worst things that we're getting really good at is killing people war we're really good at it but when we get to the new heaven and new earth we will learn and create in innocence and in wisdom I say a chapter two verses 2 to 4 it will come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of Yahweh's house will be established on the top of the mountains of all of the religions of all of the cultures of all of the peoples Yahweh's house will be at the top and it will be exalted above the hills and all nations will flow into it right not just Australians and Americans but all nations people from Azerbaijan and people from Iran and people from Jamaica and people from Afghanistan all nations flowing in many will come up and say hey I got a good idea let's go to church let us go to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths let's go learn the gospel from the gospel himself for out of Zion will go forth the law and I put it in parentheses there so you wouldn't forget it love the law of love and the word the word of course is Jesus all of that will come from the Lord out of Jerusalem he will judge between the nation's and he will rebuke many people what is he rebuking people about what is he teaching them about what are the ways that they're learning to walk in the ways they had to unlearn here it is they show voluntarily I've put that in for you beat their swords into plowshares their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation and notice neither will they learn war anymore they're not gonna study that anymore that's what he studied during the fall that's what nations are studying now how can we acquire more land how can we solidify our borders how can we harm people how can we disenfranchise people how can we not receive immigrants or whatever the case may be that's the world we live in now a world of geography and of geopolitical boundaries and of refugees presently - at right now there are more than 1% there's like 70 million people that are estranged and alienated from their native lands right a full 1% of the earth is refugees right now right now refugees no place to live but in some ways that's actually a slight blessing because they would be learning that this world is not their home they were like Abraham pilgrims and strangers in the words of Albert Walters creation regained Jesus miracles are miracles of restoration restoration to health restoration to life restoration to freedom from demonic possession Jesus miracles provide us a sample of the meaning of Redemption where God is putting things back to the way they were of freeing creation from the shackles of sin and evil and noticed this into a reinstatement of the creaturely living that God intended that's what Jesus is doing when he says ought not this woman a daughter of Abraham who Satan is bound be loosed from this burden on the Sabbath day in Luke 13 he is he is restoring Eden in a microcosmic way that's what Walters is saying here that's all of Jesus miracles were pointing us back to Eden this reminded me of one of the founders of the seventh-day Adventist Church and a woman who wrote a great book called the desire of Ages on the life of Christ and I've always loved this statement I've quoted it many hundreds of times in my life she says in that book the very essence of the gospel is what's the word restoration and look at this the power of love was in all of Christ's healing because a healing when but the body you were not born to die you were not born to get disease God's original intent was healing God's original intent was life God's original intent was was flourishing God's original intent was for Prosperity and so when Jesus brought healing when he raised Lazarus when he healed woman who touched the edge of his garment he was actually showing us what Eden was supposed to be like there's not supposed to be pain and sickness and suffering and death and disease the essence of the gospel she says ah restoration what else could it be no there's a slide I have to get to I'm racing there Isaiah chapter 11 verses 6 to 9 the wolf was the wolf shall dwell with the lamb the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together and a little child will lead them one of the isaiah visions of the new heaven and the new earth the cow and the bear will graze their young ones shall lie down together the Alliance shall eat straw like the Ox continuing the nursing child shall play by the Cobras hole and the weaned child shall put his hand in the Vipers den this is the key point I want you to see they will not hurt or destroy in all of my holy mountain for and I put the word in here just so you know the word means because they're not going to hurt or destroy God says in all of my holy mountain because the earth will be filled with a knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea the reason that we won't hurt is because we've learned of his ways we've sat at his feet we've beat our plowshares into fruit and we beat our spears into plowshares and pruning hooks we won't behave that way anymore not because God compels us externally but because we voluntarily say we don't want to live like that we've seen what that looks like we've seen what cruelty and exploitation and torture and and war looks like we've seen that movie and it was a terrible movie and it's gonna be fresh in our minds and probably the first hundred or two hundred or two thousand years it's gonna be fresh in our minds but but a million years from now two million years from now it'll be like a night in a bad hotel oh I can't wait this is the slide I wanted you to see I need to address some of these myths these myths that people have about heaven and I want to give you the biblical truth the facts the biblical truth about what the Bible says first of all we've dressed this one already the missus is gonna be an on earth it's just gonna be floating around on clouds like little eyeballs spinning around give me a break it's not an on earth it's a new earth we sometimes think it's gonna be like unfamiliar and otherworldly what's it gonna be like how can you get excited about something you know what you don't know what it's gonna be like now it's gonna be familiar and it's gonna be an earth a corporeal existence not a disembodied existence which you couldn't imagine any way but resurrected bodies a a corporeal existence of an existence very similar to the existence that you're living right now we think all heavens gonna be foreign and strange no no when you get there you're gonna say I'm home something about it it will just feel like you've you you're returning to a place even though that'll be the first time you were there it's gonna be like home it's gonna be like traveling from a far country back to your homeland our memories are an essential part of our individual personality this is how you're gonna remember your wife's name is that you gonna remember your children's name is how you're gonna remember your own name you're all the memories you're gonna bring why how do we know that because your memories are an essential part of your own individual personality in order for you to be there in order for you to be you in heaven there must be continuity between the heavenly body and the heavenly person that you are excuse me the earthly body and the earthly person that you are in the heavenly body and the heavenly person that you are heaven will not be the loss of your personality and of your individuality it will be the glorious flowering of your personality you will truly be and become the best you that could ever be and you have eternity to become it it's gonna be absolutely amazing foreign strange we've done that slide here we go some people think wow man I'm gonna be leaving some of my favorite things behind I'm really worried what how do I know it's gonna be awesome now no no no the best is yet to come people they've all made heavens gonna be so weird no time in space now there's gonna be time in space the Bible says are going to keep the Sabbath and the Sabbath happens on a weekly cycle there's mansions and there's a house and there's a place and there's a vineyard and there's a fig tree and there's a mountain it's a place and there's time right you can't even imagine the life without space and time it's it's unimaginable people think all heavens just gonna be the same thing every day no it's not gonna be static it's gonna be dynamic people say well what are we gonna do is not gonna be anything to do there okay well don't get it excited don't get interested if this doesn't sound good to you here's just a short list we will worship we will serve we will play we will explore we will plan we will build we will create we will craft we will adventure we will study we will learn we will love we will grow we will plant we will harvest we will eat now if you can get excited about that say Amen that sounds pretty good to me sounds like vacation sounds like fun I don't want to go on vacation I hate vacation said no one ever myth but we're not gonna learn anything we're gonna know everything no you're gonna be continually learning you're gonna be continually discovering somebody once said to me well we won't be able to be wrong in heaven are you kidding you're wrong about that of course you're gonna be learning you're gonna be growing there might be some strange migration pattern that you observe of a certain animal or a certain bird species you know I wonder why you will make a hypothesis and you might find out you were wrong the beauty of heaven will be the scientific enterprise learning and studying and knowing and growing people think nah man heaven sounds boring to me well yeah if it's the Miss Watson Huck Finn version of heaven it is gonna be boring but the vision that is described in Scripture and by Jesus it's going to be not boring but fascinating and it's not going to be friends the loss of desire it is going to be continuous and ever-increasing fulfilment of your desires our desires and I want to end on this point friends the desires that you have all the desires that you have just wrap it all up all the desires that you have are but echoes of God's passionate intention for your happiness there's a lot that settle into you what's the strong desire that you have that that strong desire that you have is just a just a an echo of God's desire for you God's wants you to be happy more than you want to be happy yourself right interview if every kind of happiness is included in this by the way every kind of happiness the happiness of eating the happiness of human sexuality the happiness of human fellowship the happiness of creating something the happiness of a good day's work every happiness you can conceive of is created by God because Satan can't create happiness he can only co-opt the happiness and the pleasure that God has made it for illegitimate purposes Satan's never created a pleasure he's not created he's destructive so every happiness every desire every pleasure is the Garden of Eden it's the garden of pleasure everything that your mind can imagine all of that is an echo of ryuko in the chamber of the great truth that you were made for joy you were made for pleasure you were made for somewhere and that place is heaven the new heaven and you were made for someone and that someone is Jesus so put away this gobbledygook and this foolishness about Oh heaven I'm not sure I want to be there what are we gonna do anyway trust me no one is gonna get there and say I thought it'd be better laughs I've seen better you should have gone to Hawaii Hawaii was it blue this place out of the water no no trust me on this if God invites us to be hospitable God commands us to be hospitable he is not going to be outdone by being less hospitable than he invites us to be right when you are here if you're getting ready to have a child Sam and Katie have just had a child a whole lot of people in this this church have just had children you-you-you buy stuff and you make a room and you do and the only thing that limits the energy and the efforts that you pour into that child is your resources I Got News for you God has no limits on his resources the stuff that he is going to put together for you and I is going to be imaginable and yet simultaneously incomprehensible and trust me on this you want to be there if you want anything anything that you've ever wanted a cabin in the woods a condo in Hawaii sex anything you've ever wanted wrap all of those wants up together a good meal family fellowship reunion to travel the world to go backpacking around the world to hike the John Muir Trail to sail around the world any desire you have ever had is an echo of a longing in your heart for a place you have never been but which you were made for and of a person that longs to spend eternity with you and that person's name is Jesus Father in Heaven's [Music]

Channel: Kingscliff Church

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Keywords: Heaven, Life after death, death, life, afterlife, angels, Kingscliff Church, David Asscherick

Id: LTqiTiSybSk

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 10 2018