Transcript The Eternal State

What Will Our Eternal Home
Be Like?
 Every Christian at some point thinks about what
Eternity will be like.
 Where will we be?
 What will we do?
 When people think of Eternity or Heaven certain ideas
often come to mind . . .
 There is a children's book by Maria Shriver called
What's Heaven.
 The book describes Heaven as "a beautiful place where
you can sit on soft clouds and talk...”
 According to a writer at Religion Free blogspot:
 “Who knows, maybe heaven will be a place in the clouds where
people play shuffle board. You can't eat and you can't drink, because
face it you're a spirit now and what you were used to on Earth is no
longer necessary in Heaven. Discovering and examining would no
longer be necessary, because everything is already explained.”
 Countless times it’s been heard: “I’d rather be in Hell
than Heaven. Heaven’s boring and Hell is where my
friends are having a great party.”
 Even Christians struggle
with what Heaven will be
like.
General Impressions of Heaven
 One big one is that
Heaven is a mystical
disembodied spiritual
existence.
 Second, many believe
that Heaven will be
boring.
 Other ideas of Heaven
include:
 --Wings and clouds
 --sitting around thinking
or singing all the time
 --no change (static)
 --no time
 --no fun (leave favorite
things behind)
 --we know everything
 --no learning because we
know everything
 --Unimaginable (don’t even try….)
 Randy Alcorn mentions that in his book, Heaven, he
collected more than 150 books on Heaven, both old
and new.
 “One thing I’ve found is that books about Heaven are
notorious for saying we can’t know what Heaven is like,
but it will be more wonderful than we can imagine,” he
says.
 Many think of Eternity as a big choir in the sky:
 Is this you forever and ever?
Stop the Madness!!!!
 Because of bad doctrine and teaching throughout the
centuries most people’s ideas of eternity are really
wrong!
 Many ideas of Eternity are “overspiritualized”.
 People often think that Eternity is just a misty spiritual
existence in the sky
 False views of Eternity are not from God, and actually
are from the Enemy:
 If the enemy can make us believe false views on
Eternity he can steal our hope and make us less likely
to share Jesus with others.
Key Verse
 But the Bible says our final destiny is a New Earth:
 2 Peter 3:13: “But according to His promise we are
looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which
righteousness dwells.”
 The best part of the coming new earth will be God.
 Being in relationship with God and His people.
 Rev 22:3-4: No longer will there be anything accursed,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it,
and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his
face.”
 We will enjoy relationship with God and the good gifts
He gives us.
 The new earth and the great things in it are gifts from
God. When we enjoy those gifts we are enjoying God
who gave them to us.
 Ex: Does a great gift from your parents make you love
your parents less? Of course not.
3 Important Passages
 Romans 8:18-25
 Isaiah 65:17-25
 Revelation 21-22
Romans 8:18-23

18 For
I consider that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to
be revealed to us. 19 For the anxious longing of the
creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of
God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not
willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its
slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of
the children of God.

22 For we
know that the whole creation groans and
suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. 23
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the
first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
redemption of our body.
 Points to note:
1. God’s plans for the future include this physical planet.
2. The creation (the universe and everything in it) looks
forward to our glorification.
3. The creation has hope of being restored.
4. Our present universe is going to be restored and will be
the place we live on.
Isaiah 65:17-25
 65:17: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new
earth; And the former things will not be remembered
or come to mind.”
 65:18: “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her
people for gladness.
 65:21-22: “They will build houses and inhabit them;
They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

22 “They will
not build and another inhabit, They will not
plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will
be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear
out the work of their hands.”
 Yes, you will live in houses.
 Yes there will be food and drink.
 Yes we will have work and things to do.
 65:25: 25 “The wolf and the lamb will graze together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be
the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all
My holy mountain,” says the LORD.”
 Animals will exist on the New Earth.
 The animals and creatures of the earth will get along.
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Isaiah 11:6-9:
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
7 Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
As the waters cover the sea.
“. . . and a little boy will lead them.”
Revelation 21–22
 Rev 21:1: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and
there is no longer any sea.”
New Jerusalem
 Rev 21:2: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a
bride adorned for her husband.
God lives with His people
 3 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,
No more bad things
 4 and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and
there will no longer be any death; there will no longer
be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things
have passed away.”
 Just think:
 No more sickness
 We don’t die.
 No one we love will ever die.
 No more goodbyes.
 No more separations.
The New Jerusalem
 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and
high mountain, and showed me the holy city,
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11
having the glory of God.
A real city that can be measured
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15 The
one who spoke with me had a gold measuring
rod to measure the city, and its gates and its wall. 16
The city is laid out as a square, and its length is as great
as the width; and he measured the city with the rod,
fifteen hundred miles; its length and width and height
are equal.
Size of New Jerusalem in
elation to the United States
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17 And
he measured its wall, seventy-two yards,
according to human measurements, which are also
angelic measurements.

18 The
material of the wall was jasper; and the city was
pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundation stones of
the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious
stone. The first foundation stone was jasper; the
second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth,
emerald;
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20 the
fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh,
chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the
tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth,
amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls;
each one of the gates was a single pearl. And the street
of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
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22 I
saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty
and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no
need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the
glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the
Lamb.
Nations on the New Earth
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24 The
nations will walk by its light, and the kings of
the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime
(for there will be no night there) its gates will never be
closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor
of the nations into it;
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27 and
nothing unclean, and no one who practices
abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but
only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s
book of life.
 Then he showed me a river of
the water of life, clear as
crystal, coming from the
throne of God and of the
Lamb, 2 in the middle of its
street. On either side of the
river was the tree of life,
bearing twelve kinds of fruit,
yielding its fruit every month;
and the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations.
 3 There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of
God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bondservants will serve Him; 4 they will see His face, and
His name will be on their foreheads.
 5 And there will no longer be any night; and they will
not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the
sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and
they will reign forever and ever.
Questions about Eternity
1. Where will we actually
live?
 On a new earth which is
a real planet.
 People in real physical
bodies need to live in a
physical environment.
 Humans by nature were created to occupy a physical
planet.
 A human can no more long for a purely spiritual
existence than a fish could long for a life outside of
water.
 A fish out of water
2.
Will we know and
recognize people that we
know now in Eternity?
Yes. God’s people will have
relationships with each
other and there is no
reason why we won’t know
and recognize people we
know now.
3. What will we do in Eternity?
--We will be in a relationship with God.
--We will be in relationships with other people.
--We will use the talents God gave use.
4. Will we live in houses?
It appears so.
John 14:2 “In my
Father’s house are many
dwelling places.”
Isaiah 65:21: “They
will build houses and
inhabit them.”
5. Will there be time in
Heaven?
Yes
Rev 22:2: “On either side of
the river was the tree of
life, bearing twelve kinds
of fruit, yielding its fruit
every month.”
6. Will there be
celebrations on the New
Earth?
Yes
 Matt 8:11:
 “I say to you that many will
come from east and west, and
recline at the table with
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of heaven.”
 Luke 22:15-18:
 “And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat
this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I
shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the
kingdom of God."And when He had taken a cup and
given thanks, He said, "Take this and share it among
yourselves; for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit
of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God
comes."
 Isaiah 65:21b: They will also plant vineyards and eat
their fruit.
7. Will we have
emotions?
Yes
 Luke 6:21—“Blessed are
you who weep now, for
you shall laugh.”
 Luke 15:7 says there is joy
in heaven over a sinner
who repents.