Heaven: All Things New

This is part 3 of our Heaven blog series. Pastor Phil preached a fantastic series on Heaven at Foothills Church many years ago. I've asked him for his manuscripts, so I could re-publish them here on the blog. I hope you find it as encouraging as I have. Because it is a sermon manuscript, it reads a little longer than our usual blog posts, but I promise it's worth the read! — Kaley Morgan

Written by Phil Christiansen

In this post, I want to devote our time to talking about what it will be like when Jesus makes all things new. I want to begin by taking a really quick look at 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 and talk about our bodily resurrection.

"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words." (NIV)

When the time is right, Jesus himself will come down from Heaven. He won’t send an ambassador or a representative—He’ll come in person. Jesus will shout the order and the archangel and trumpet will sound, calling the dead in Jesus back to life—resurrection! “For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies…” (1 Corinthians 15:52b) (NLT).

Imagine what that will be like: Jesus gives the order, the angelic voice and trumpet are heard (maybe they’re one in the same? Maybe not! Maybe they’re in stereo). Either way, it won’t be a whisper and a kazoo. Then, glorified bodies popping up all around, rising into the air. Can you imagine the look on peoples’ faces?

Then, just a blink later, those who are still alive and are in Jesus will be transformed, too! And they will rise to meet their resurrected friends and family in the clouds. Throughout the bible, clouds represent the envelope or package that contains the radiant glory of God (Exodus 13, 24, 33, 34, 40; Leviticus 16; Numbers 9-12, 14, 16; 1 Kings 8; 2 Chronicles 5, 6; Lamentations 2, 3; Ezekiel 10; Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9, 21; Acts 1; Revelation 10, 11, 14). So these guys, who just saw their friends and family in new, flawless bodies, will themselves be miraculously changed—being given imperishable, eternal, glorified bodies—and then they’ll be whisked into the sky to be enveloped by the glory of God and start the most amazing Family Reunion humanity has ever known. You have to be kidding me! This is what we get to look forward to!

There’s plenty debates amongst people far smarter than I am about where Jesus is going in this passage: Is He returning to establish His earthly kingdom and begin a 1000 year reign of peace? Is it the end of the world and final judgment? Is Jesus snatching the believers away in order to protect them from the coming Tribulation? This passage doesn’t answer any of these questions. But, the passage does make it clear that where Jesus is, these transformed, glorified people will also be… forever.

When all things are made new we will have resurrected bodies—unless we’re still alive at the time, in which case our bodies will be instantly glorified. Please remember: “The glorified body is not a different body, but a different form of the same body” (Oden)¹. What we know for sure is that Jesus, “…will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:21). Jesus’ resurrected body is the model for ours. We know that our resurrected/glorified bodies will never die—they are imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:42). Our bodies will be capable of reflecting the glory of God (1 Corinthians 15:43). We will walk and talk. Eating is definitely an option (Jesus ate! (Luke 24)). Our memories will be intact. Like we talked about last week: there will be continuity between the old you and the new you.
 
So, knowing our resurrected/glorified bodies will be like Christ’s and that they’ll no longer be subject to sin or its curse, what will they be like? If you are wearing glasses or contacts today, you won’t need them. If you need help with your hearing, you won’t need help any more. Are you uncomfortable just sitting today? Never again! No more pain for you. Resurrected bodies won’t suffer from Muscular Dystrophy, Cystic Fibrosis or Multiple Sclerosis. There will be no Down’s Syndrome, Autism, Cancer or chronic issues. No canes or wheel chairs will be needed. No orthopedic shoes or inserts. No backaches or arthritis. No Dementia or Alzheimer’s. No longer will you suffer from heartburn, poor circulation or high blood pressure. Whatever afflicts you now, will no longer be an issue in your resurrected body. You will hear perfectly, see perfectly, think perfectly, move perfectly, smell perfectly, taste perfectly, and breathe perfectly. You will be, in every sense of the word, perfect; glorified.

If there is any part of you, or a loved one, that doesn’t function properly right now—it will one day. That’s Jesus’ promise to those who know and love Him.

At some point after our resurrection we will stand before God to account for how we have lived, loved and served while on the Earth. This is called the Bema Seat Judgment or the Judgment Seat of Christ. The timing for this is described in Revelation 11:15-18 and “In essence what this tells us is that at the 7th trumpet, the true followers of Jesus are judged and rewarded in heaven before the judgment seat of Christ while God Almighty pours out his final wrath on earth” (Long)². This judgment isn’t to determine your salvation, but to reward you for how you lived for Christ while on Earth (2 Corinthians 5:10).

It appears that some people won’t be given any rewards at this judgment… though they will still inherit the Kingdom and spend eternity with Christ. Listen to 1 Corinthians 3:13-15, “…their 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. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.”

For what will the believer be judged & rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ? Some of the things will likely be:
 
- Whether we fulfilled our role in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).
- How victorious we were over sin (Romans 6:1-4).
- Whether we were successful in controlling our tongue (James 3:1-9).
- Whether the fruit of the Spirit was manifest in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23).
- Whether we honored God with our time, talent and treasure (Matthew 25:14-30, Proverbs 3:9) (ibid, p 6).

I know we don’t serve Jesus for rewards in Heaven, but out of a grateful heart for all He is and all He’s done. It would be more than enough for us to just be in His presence for eternity—but Jesus doesn’t stop there: He rewards us for our faithfulness. That definitely makes you think about how you live each day though, doesn’t it? (For more on the rewards given to the faithful, see: Matthew 6:19-21; 19:21; Luke 12:33; 19:17, 19; 1 Timothy 6:19; Revelation 2:26-28)

After the Bema Seat Judgment the devil gets thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, and then comes the Great White Throne Judgment. This judgment occurs after the 1000-year reign of Christ. Revelation is clear that, before this, Christians who have made Jesus Lord of their lives have found salvation and safety under God’s care. The Great White Throne Judgment is an event where those who do not believe in Jesus Christ are ultimately judged and condemned because of their disbelief. It is where people will be judged based on whether or not they have chosen to trust Jesus for their salvation or whether they have rejected Jesus. It is the time where people who have distanced themselves from Jesus their entire lives will get that distance from Jesus for their eternity (ibid, p 2). Revelation 20:10-15 describe how all this will unfold. What I want you to hold onto is the fact that the devil, death, along with all whose names were not written in the Book of Life, will be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur (Revelation 20:10; 21:8)—which is the second death.

Why is all this important? Well, it is only after the devil is banished and judgment at the Great White Throne that we come to Revelation 21 and read about everything being made new. Let’s take a look at Revelation 21:1-5.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Did you notice? New Heaven, New Earth, New Jerusalem, new location of God’s dwelling, new way of doing life: without death, mourning, crying, or pain—because everything is being restored, renewed, resurrected, redeemed, re-done. Everything is being, or has been made, right. That’s what Jesus promises.

God wants to restore humanity just as He wants to restore the rest of creation as well (see also Isaiah 65:17). That’s because all of creation was affected by the sin introduced in the Garden. All of creation waits and groans to be redeemed. Romans 8:19-22 says, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons 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.”

Because of sin, all creation was thrown into a mess over which it had no control. Gnostics believed that the Earth was an embarrassment to God because of the sin that afflicted it. To them, the best thing God could do would be to annihilate it, and start over. Could He have blasted it all away? Yes! Did He? No! Why? Because God is a redeeming, restoring, resurrecting God who wants to take what is there and breathe new life into it so that it becomes what He always intended it to be. That is why, at the Flood, God preserved His creation—though the text tells us that the Earth was destroyed (Genesis 9:11). Theologian Thomas Oden writes “…cosmic history is being brought toward a redemption that involves the whole of creation and not merely human history” (Oden)³.  (See also Colossians 1:19-20, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on Earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” [italics mine]).

Let me describe what I mean. Have you ever known anyone who restores cars? They comb through every single element of the car. They clean, reupholster, sand, paint, replace broken parts, and do whatever they can to make it just like new again. If you were to look at the car, you’d think, “That thing is brand new!” But the owner knows better. The owner knows it’s a 65 Mustang. It has the same body, same wheels, same color, same steering wheel and seats as it did originally—but it’s all been restored. Is the car new? Technically, no, but it might as well be. That’s what we’re talking about with the New Heaven and New Earth except that unlike the car, the New Heaven & Earth will be even better than the old ones. God will “restore everything to its original unfallen condition” (Oden)⁴. That’s what Acts 3:21 points us to, “[Jesus] must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”

God is in the remodeling business. He’s all about taking what is broken and renewing it. That’s what He did with human beings: Jesus died to rescue us from the power and penalty of sin so that we could be redeemed, restored, renewed.

Some may wonder, if restore or redeem is what God has in mind, why are there Bible passages that describe the end of things with words like: vanish like smoke, be dissolved, melt, burn, pass away, and be no more (see Psalms 102:26; Isaiah 51:6; Matthew 24:35; 2 Peter 3:7, 10, 12)? That’s a fair question with a pretty straightforward answer, I think: the destructive words are used to describe what will happen to creation so it can be cleansed of sin’s curse. They are words of purification not annihilation.

Let’s take a couple minutes to talk about the New Jerusalem. This is the City of God and His people. More than likely, this is the place the Jesus was speaking of in John 14 when He said, “I am going to prepare a place for you…” (John 14:1-4). This place, this amazing city, is HUGE! It’s around 1500 miles wide and long and high…like a cube—and this shape reminds us of the Holy of Holies (1 Kings 6:20). The entire city will be like the Most Holy Place in the Temple (Keener)⁵.

The huge, high walls describe safety—no enemy can get in—because the devil, death & Hades have been cast into the lake of burning sulfur. Sin is no more! There’s no enemy to worry about. That’s also why the gates are always open—no reason to close them & plenty of entry points, so the faithful can come in (Revelation 21: 26).

The jeweled descriptions of the city, with all the gold, giant pearls, and layers of precious stones point to several things, but a couple of them are: 1) This city is going to be unlike anything you’ve ever dreamed of living in. 2) The opulence may indicate that the things we used to value so highly on the old Earth are like wood, nails, concrete and mortar in the City of God (NIVAC, p 495).

The Throne of God is there and the river of the water of life flows from it down the middle of the city to water the Tree of Life (Revelation 22:1-2).

And here’s the kicker: This wondrous, awe-inspiring city, made not by the people of Earth, but by God Himself, comes down and settles where the old Jerusalem would have been on the old Earth except this city is much larger! Does this mean that the New Earth is much larger? I don’t know. It may need to be since there will be so many who would have placed their faith in God (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6; James 2:23).

Listen again to Revelation 21:3 from the NASB, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…” (NASB). Where is the dwelling place of mankind? The Earth. God has always sought to be with us: In Genesis, God came to walk with them in the Garden (Genesis 3:8), but everything got messed up because of Adam’s sin. Later, God established the Tabernacle so He could dwell amongst His people. Then, the Temple was established, so God could be with His people. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, came to tabernacle (dwell) among us (John 1:14). After Christ ascended, the promised Holy Spirit came to indwell every Christ-follower. In the end, when all is made right, God will again make His dwelling among His people. Do you see what I’m saying here? God has always come to us. He has made all the effort. He has done all the work. Throughout history, He has come to us on the Earth and we’ll see that happen again at the end of the age. When all is made right: God will make His dwelling among us on the Earth. This is a flashback to how God hung out with Adam and Eve in the beginning. At long last, this will be the fulfillment of Christ’s Kingdom. He will be Lord of all and Lord over all. No more sin. No more curse. No more enemy. No more death. One Kingdom. One King. And everything will be under His authority (Ephesians 1:9-10).

What might the new Earth be like? Without being sarcastic, it will be like Earth. When someone tells you, “We just bought a new house” you don’t wonder if that house will have walls, a roof, bedrooms, a bathroom and kitchen. You know a house will have those things. You may not know the arrangement of the rooms or how many of them there will be or if there are two bathrooms or eight, but you know what a house is like.

I believe when we read that there will be a New Earth then we can expect it to be like the Earth we now know. Identical? No. But Earth, redeemed, renewed, resurrected. Thomas Aquinas “…argued that the world was made to be humanity’s dwelling, so that when humanity is renewed, ‘the world will be likewise’” (Oden)⁴. We’re talking about a resurrected Savior living with His resurrected people on a resurrected Earth. I think that’s what Jesus was pointing toward in Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

Okay. So, if the New Earth is going to be like this one, but better, without the curse of sin, what might it be like? There are a couple of safe approaches to imagining what the New Earth will be like. I think the safest approach to this is to look forward by looking back at how things were before sin entered the picture.

What was the Earth like back in Genesis? I would encourage you to read Genesis chapter 1-2 sometime this week because it will awaken your heart and mind as you think about what the New Earth might be like. For now, let me quickly summarize for you what we know from Genesis. The Earth had land, seas, seed-bearing plants and trees that bear fruit. The waters teemed with every kind of living creature, great and small, and birds flew above the earth. There was livestock, animals and the creatures that move along the ground (Genesis 2:19-20). We know that God made a garden and filled it with trees that were pleasing to look at and good for food. In the middle of the garden was the Tree of Life and there was a river that watered the garden.

Revelation 21:1 says that there is ‘no longer any sea.’ That may mean that on the new Earth our water arrangement will be different. “In John’s day, the sea meant danger, storms, and separation (John himself was on an island at the time!)”; so maybe this means no more danger, death or distance (Wiersbe)⁶.

This is just a quick sketch of what we know about the Earth before sin messed everything up. Here’s what’s interesting: Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). That word, “paradise,” in the original language meant “a garden with a wall” (Douglas)⁷. We see the same word in Revelation 2:7, “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” There are some strong indicators in scripture that suggest Heaven includes, in some way, a garden reminiscent of the first garden in Eden. Isn’t that cool?!

The other way we can get an idea of what the New Earth will be like will be to look forward by looking around. Certainly what we see around us today suffers under the weight of the curse of sin. We know that. But, Romans 1:20 tells us, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” God’s divine nature is revealed through His creation, despite its imperfection due to the presence of sin. God’s glory, power, wisdom and love are all displayed through His creation (Psalm 19:1; Isaiah 40:26, 28; Psalm 104:24; Psalm 33:5-6). So, before you throw your hands up and say, “This Earth is broken and useless and good for nothing…” remember: even in its brokenness, creation still points us toward God. There are still many things about God’s creation that reflect His glory.

Think about the most beautiful view you have ever seen. Maybe it was the Swiss Alps or while standing on a tropical beach in Tahiti. Maybe it was on top of Half Dome in Yosemite or sitting beside a still lake while fishing. Do you have that breath-taking view in mind? The new Earth could be like that… only better—even more beautiful—because it will fully reflect the glory of God.

Consider also that the present Earth is full of culture: every kind of tribe, tongue and nation. Jesus said that He wants all those people groups with Him for eternity—not wanting any to perish. It’s safe to assume that the new Earth will be full of people who look different than us, worship differently, and speak different languages. The new Earth will be full of variety—all of which reflect God’s glory.

We get whispers of the Garden as we study about what is to come. We also get a clear picture that New Jerusalem will be the capital city on the New Earth. The original hearers of Revelation 21 would have pictured a sprawling, urban environment and it’s fair for us to expect the same. The New Earth will be both rural and urban. There will be gardens and at least one amazing city.

If you want to know what the new Earth may be like, look back and look around.

There is so much more to be explored as we think about where we’ll spend eternity. And the more we study, the thinner the line between Heaven and Earth seems to become—and I think that’s the way our Lord wants it! “God’s perfect dwelling will be with us; we will enjoy the intimacy of the Most Holy Place with him forever” (NIVAC, p 509). One day, everything will be made right. We’ll have our glorified, sinless bodies and we’ll live forever with Jesus in the new Jerusalem on the New Earth where there will be no more death, no more pain, no more mourning and no more crying. Everything will be restored to the way God wanted it all along and everything will reflect His glory!