God’s original plan for the earth was perfect and holy but through the serpent’s temptation, man turned their back on God through sin. In his infinite grace, God gave humanity another chance, will restore and redeem the world, and invites Christians to live in a New Heaven and New Earth with Him forever.
GOOD NEWS: How God Will Fix the World He Made
2016 Forbes neuropsychologist Dr. Fabian van den Berg bad news = bad health: It increases the risk for mental illnesses like anxiety & depression, will shorten your life, & will just make you weaker in general...can cause a domino effect, shifting the balances in your brain & entire body
- Proverbs 15:30 …good news refreshes the bones.
- Proverbs 25:25 Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news…
= the news/economy/public mood meter responds to bad/good news
Good News of the Kingdom –Luke 4:43 “I [Jesus] must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.”
1. What is life on earth supposed to be like?
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 2:7 the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it
Genesis 2:24-25 a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 1:27-28, 31 God created man in his own image…male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion”…And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
Genesis 2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work
- Perfect relationship with God and other Divine Beings including angels
- Perfect access to Heaven and earth
- Perfect relationship between your body and soul
- Perfect job under perfect work conditions
- Perfect mental/emotional health w/o sin or shame
- Perfect relationship with others, starting with spouse
- Perfectly blessed by God in every way
- Perfect dominion over creation with all of creation to explore and create in
- Perfect health leading to perfectly healthy families
- Perfect rest for your body and soul
= This is the world God made. This is the plan God has not changed.
2. What went wrong on the earth?
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
Genesis 3:7-8 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
Genesis 3:17 to Adam he [God] said, cursed is the ground because of you
Genesis 3:22-24 Then the Lord God said, “…Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
1. We all seek to be happy & healthy – can lead to God or sin
2. From moves to vacations we never feel at home because we were made for more
3. When moving you research so you A. know how to get there B. look forward to
4. Longings lead to Heaven. Anthropologists – every culture some vision better life after death
5. We are told a bit about hell, and how to get to Heaven, but not enough about Heaven
Satan – failed coup heaven, kicked out, lying about heaven & promoting heaven on earth
3. What happens to people who die before Jesus returns?
2 Corinthians 5:8 we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
Philippians 1:21-23 to live is Christ, and to die is gain…to depart and be with Christ…is far better.
1. Heaven is in 2 realms that were connected until sin.
2. War in unseen realm was won & unseen Heaven open = Intermediate Heaven
3. When war in seen realm is over – 2 are reconnected into 1 like = your body & soul
Revelation 6:9-11 I saw…the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer…
· Isaiah Ezekiel John – all saw
- Consciously aware of what is happening in both realms (seen/unseen)
- Communicate w/God & each other
· ?Temporary body in heaven (Jesus now Acts 1:11), Enoch & Elijah, Moses & Elijah???
=We struggle w/a holy body because our unholiness is in a body
4. How will God repair the world?
Romans 8:18-22 the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth
- = Curse lifted – ETERNAL LIFE IS THIS LIFE PERFECT FOREVER
- God RETURNS to His original design plan – restore, redeem, renew, resurrect,
- God doesn’t change, but we do
- God doesn’t change, but heaven and earth do
-Childbirth = painful process that’s worth it for the new life
5. What will the New Heaven and New Earth be like?
Isaiah 65:17 I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.
2 Peter 3:13 we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Acts 3:21 the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets
Revelation 21:1-3 I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them
-Gen 1-2; Rev 21-22 – Beginning Middle Beginning
-Jesus incarnation Heaven & earth together, New Heaven/Earth bring Heaven & earth together
- Perfect relationship with God and other Divine Beings including angels
- Perfect access to Heaven and earth
- Perfect relationship between your body and soul
- Perfect job under perfect work conditions learning, growing, exploring
- Perfect mental/emotional health w/o sin or shame
- Perfect relationship with others, starting with spouse
- Perfectly blessed by God in every way
- Perfect dominion over creation with all of creation to explore and create in
- Perfect health leading to perfectly healthy families
- Perfect rest for your body and soul
The good news of what’s on other side of this life gets us through this life. “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill
(GOSPEL – follow Jesus)