What Is the New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-2, Revelation 22, John 14:2, Acts 2:38

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--what-is-the-new-heaven-new-earth-and-new-jerusalem
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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The key, I think, is to understand when we say heaven, we really mean the presence of the Lord wherever God is. And of course, God is the omnipresent spirit, but we can think of him as having his his headquarters or his center of operations or center of consciousness.

Of course, since the incarnation, Jesus is God manifest in the flesh, uh he has a glorified human body. And just like our body will exist forever in a glorified state, so Jesus Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection, he exists today. And I think it's probably beyond our universe, but he exists in a glorified human body. And he will come back to earth. We'll actually see him and we will dwell with him for eternity as a visible human being. God manifests in the flesh for eternity. So heaven will be wherever Jesus is. Okay? Now in the Bible, heaven can have basically three definitions. It can be our the sky, sometimes just our earth's atmosphere, or it can be outer space.

So the stars are in heaven. So we could say the birds fly in heaven. That's earth's atmosphere. The stars are in heaven. That's outer space. And then the third heaven would be the presence of God where Jesus is, which is I don't think a planet somewhere or star somewhere. I I I think it's outside of the physical universe. He's a physical being, but it's some transcendent place. So some people say, "Well, we're going to heaven when we die." Well, what does that mean? I think we are in the when we die we're in the presence of God. So wherever our that is our soul will rest in the presence of God.

So we say we'll live forever in heaven. Uh I think and uh that people have a lot of vague concepts. They may think we'll be floating around the atmosphere which is a more gnostic concept. But I think we we there will it will actually be a place where we physically dwell with the physical Jesus. Sometimes Jehovah's Witnesses like to uh mess people's mind up by saying, "Oh, so you think you're going into some transcendent heaven and actually you're going to be on earth." Well, it I think it does. If you read Revelation 21 and Revelation 22, which wraps up the end, I think you get the idea that our current universe is destroyed or at least renovated.

So say it passes away, you know, it could be totally burned up and God creates something totally different or I kind of think it's going to be recognizable as our universe but totally transformed. All sin and imperfection gone, all natural disasters taken care of and but it would still be in some way just kind of like when we're resurrected, we'll have a glorified body. So in some sense is different but we'll still be recognizable. So Jesus when he rose again he had a body that could walk through walls was different but yet they could see the nail scars in his hand. So and they they could actually recognize who he was.

So I I kind of think just like our resurrection will be have a glorified human body but correlated or related to our imperfect body. So I think the new heaven and the earth new earth will be a renovated transformed universe. And that's how I think you know in the beginning God created everything as good and sin marred that. So I think this is God's way of saying I'm going to recreate the universe and I'm going to recreate planet earth as the way it was originally intended to be before the taint of sin and before destruction and chaos intervened. And so that's the purpose. But the new Jerusalem appears to be a a city that descends from heaven and either hovers over the earth as a like a satellite or maybe rest on the earth.

So it will be the headquarters and I think Jesus Christ will physically dwell there and the church will physically dwell there. Now there are a lot of symbolic elements. Some people say well the new Jerusalem refers to the church. I think it's the church but also the physical abode of the church in eternity. as after all in John 14 Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you and so while I think there is a lot of symbolism so I think it's probably a mistake to try to get an architect's rendition of the new Jerusalem based on revelation but it's going to be a a real place it's going to be a wonderful place a magnificent place and that's where the church uh will will live with Jesus Christ God manifest in the flesh for eternity now we'll have free access to the whole earth and I think probably to the whole universe and and it talks about the people um their people inhabit the earth and so that raises a lot of questions.

I tend to think the saved of all the ages will dwell on the new earth, but we as the New Testament church will specifically have our abode in this one city, the new Jerusalem, but we'll have access. There will be kind of like the headquarters, whether a satellite or a city placed on the new earth, we'll have access. You know, some have tried to speculate, try to tie up all the loose ends, you know, like babies that are miscarried or aborted or small children that die. They never had a chance. Maybe God let them grow up in the millennium. Maybe they will be part of the new earth if they choose God.

What about all the people during the millennium that live through the tribulation and weren't destroyed at the battle of Armageddon, but lived on to the new millennium into the millennium? And what about the people that were born? you know, there's still people and eventually they will need to be saved or not, but potentially they could continue. Those who are saved can continue on. Uh some have even said, well, this will be uh those that never heard the gospel. Uh maybe like um the Indian American Indians or people in BC times or maybe even people who uh never heard or never understood the fullness of the gospel in in our response according to Acts 2:38.

So maybe people who had impartial imperfect knowledge but respond to what they knew. So people try to find well maybe they will get to live on the new earth. All those are somewhat speculative because the Bible doesn't teach anything like that. But it is interesting to think well there will be some people outside the New Jerusalem. So I'm considering outside the New Testament church but the saved of all the ages in some sense. But I also think we'll have access to the whole universe. And it's kind of a fascination of mine. But the latest scientific research says the best estimates of our physical universe, both what's observable and what's beyond our observation, there are probably as many as one septillion stars.

That's using the American numbering system. In other words, one followed by 24 zeros. Now, we can only see, you know, even in a dark sky, we can only see a couple thousand stars. And sadly, with our modern civilization, you can't hardly see any of those. So, just to go out to a dark place like a desert and just see the visible stars, it's overwhelming. You could see how ancient people would have a sense of the majesty and awe of God in a way that we seemingly have forgotten. But, but that's just a few thousand. Why would God create a a septilian stars that we can't even see?

We can't even go to and throughout most of human history we didn't even know existed. What was the purpose? And maybe we could argue from uh physical science that the way God created everything all of that had to be in place. But I wonder is that kind of a hint of in eternity? They're amazing opportunities for exploration, for achievement, for accomplishment, for because if there are septillian stars, how many planets could there be and u it it will keep us busy. So the new heaven, new earth to me indicates God's magnificent creation, God's magnificent recreation, overcoming all the power and effects of sin, uh reasserting his lordship over the universe, and preparing something incredible uh inconceivable, magnificent for our eternity.

And so the big takeaway is the new heaven, the new earth, the new Jerusalem are what God has planned for our future. And however you define it or describe it, it's greater than we can imagine. It's grand and glorious and it's worth living for. Uh and I do believe we as the New Testament people of God will live with Jesus Christ in the New Jerusalem.