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Heaven is a city – Hebrews 11:10, 16, 13:14
- The new Jerusalem – Rev 21:2
- What is a city – buildings, people, trees, parks, museums, entertainment
Why does God make a new heaven and earth? Rev 21:1
- Why not just allow the current earth to disappear, be annihilated and we can all just go on living in (the intermediate) heaven?
- He is not a weak creator who failed the first time around, and having failed, will start over.
- Matthew 19:27-28 – At the renewal of all things
- Because God does not say He will start over – He says He will renew.
- Our resurrection is part of that renewal – we do not get brand new bodies, we get our current bodies resurrected, made perfect and incorruptible.
- He will do the same with all the Earth and Heaven.
- As was the plan with Eden and the beginning of creation.
- After all, He made it and said it was good.
- God is not going to start over
- He is going to renew and restore what He already made
God’s plan is to unite Heaven and Earth
- Eph 1:9-10 – All things will be brought together under Jesus
- All things, in the original Greek, pas
- Rev 21:3 – the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them.
- God’s dwelling – Heaven – will be where man is – the New Earth
There will be no more curse
- Rev 22:3
- Man and the Earth are intertwined.
- We are brought about at the same time.
- When we are cursed, the Earth is cursed
- When we are resurrected and renewed, so is the Earth
- Gal 3:13 – the cost of removal of the curse was high
- Jesus’ victory on the cross was for our souls
- It was also for our bodies
- And for the Earth
- And for the Universe
We will live in our resurrected bodies
- 1 Corinthians 15:17,19
- If Jesus wasn’t resurrected, we are pitiful people
- If our hope is just for this life, we are pitiful people
- Paul doesn’t say if there was no resurrection, there would be no heaven
- He is saying that heaven without our resurrected bodies would be incomplete
- Resurrection is physical – not just spiritual
- Our bodies were meant to last as long as our souls
- Death is unnatural
- It was never meant to be
- It tears apart body and soul
- The resurrection renews the original design
- We do not get another body, we get resurrected bodies
- Our bodies are the same as old, as are our lives – history, memory, interests
- God does not scrap the old, He renews it
- Our resurrected bodies will be like Jesus’
- Our bodies die and deteriorate because of the curse
- When the curse is gone, our bodies will not deteriorate
The whole creation waits for our resurrection
We need to begin to recognize that Heaven is not the beginning of a new life as a spirit being.
- It is the continuation of our current lives in a physical place
- It is no more a new life than getting off a plane and stepping into a new country is
- It is simply the next step on our journey
The New Earth
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Reaching and Developing People for Jesus 
