Then if you would take your Bibles and we're going to read backwards today. So we're going to start in the book of Revelation. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation 21 and we'll be reading the first eight verses. And I really wish we could read and meditate here for our purposes today on all of chapter 21 and 22. And I'll point out that one of the things that you'll note here is that the word and is translated temporally. In chapter 21, verse 1, then. In chapter 21, verse 9, then. chapter 22 verse 1, then. And so what's happening is that the writer, John the Apostle, is looking now, he's been looking at the present, he's been looking at things that are in his own time, and now he's looking away into the future. One place in Revelation it says, the things which have been, the things which are, and the things which shall be. And so even as I readily grant that the book of Revelation is a book full of symbolism, and there's different approaches to how to interpret all of those things, I want us to see that Christianity's together on looking forward and anticipating a time where there will be, what we've already read this morning in Isaiah chapter 65, this is the fulfillment, at the end of time, of Isaiah chapter 65 and 66. So that new heaven to new earth prophesied about, hundreds of years before Christ, now the Apostle John is looking away into the future, where these promises will be fulfilled. So Revelation chapter 21, verse 8. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. 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 as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated upon the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega. beginning and the end. So the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, As for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. This is God's Word. And then turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where we'll spend most of our time today. And I decided, after a lot of hesitation, to read this entire passage. What I found is that this passage always gets read in little tiny sections. And so we're going to take the time today to read 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And I want you to see. So I'm going to read fairly quickly. But I want you to see the progression of thought here, grounded in the earliest testimony, the earliest written testimony to the bodily resurrection of Jesus, quite possibly written within a decade of the events that Paul... Paul was not there, he's not an eyewitness in that sense. We have no record of that. He sees Jesus later as he appears to him on the road to Damascus. But listen to how Paul describes the tradition in verse 3. I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. That is, that Paul, while not an eyewitness, is hearing from eyewitnesses. And so now he's delivering what he has received. And so we have, here in 1 Corinthians 15, a very powerful early attestation to the resurrection of Christ. But then notice that in verses 12 and following now, the apostle is going to develop this doctrine of resurrection in a glorious way. That is, not only is there a historical fact here, but there is an implication about the nature of reality. He's going to talk in glorious terms about what we would call the events at the second coming of Christ. Last week we talked about the present heaven, or what's known in theology as the intermediate state. And now, today, we're living to look at the future heaven, or what theologians call the eternal state. Critical to our understanding of this doctrine is the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of the saints. Let's read 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you, lest you leave in vain. For I delivered to you, as of personal importance, what I also received, that Christ died for that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believe. Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and our faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testify about God, that He raised Christ. But He did not raise us, if it is true. the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. And also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are all men most we can be. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those, and now he uses this word again, and if you're not familiar with this word, it's the word cemeteria, and the key proof text for this word is John chapter 11. For as by man came death, by man also, by man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all died, So also in Christ shall all be made alike, but each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when it says, all things are put in subjection, it is plain that He is a Septuagint who put all things in subjection under Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him, who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all. Otherwise, what do people mean by being baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized on their behalf? Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Jesus Christ our Lord. I die every day. What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Wake up from your drunken stupor as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps a wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He has chosen, and to each kind of seed, its own body. For not all flesh is the same. There is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for a star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body. There is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, the first man Adam became a living being. The last half became a life-giving spirit. But it's not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. As is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. I tell you this, brothers. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this imperishable body was put on the imperishable. This mortal body was put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the same that is written." This is from Isaiah 25.8. You should read it in context sometime. death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. This is the Word of God. It's time that I read that passage. My heart is stirred. I was commenting to somebody yesterday at the wedding. One of the blessings of being a pastor is that you get to go into some really interesting places and situations in the lives of God's people. They talk about marrying and carrying and marrying. That's kind of a helpful thing to realize that on one hand, we have little babies coming into this world. glorious complication. I'm mostly thinking of the complicatedness of the child's body visibly, but also the complications that come when the child comes into this world. And on the other hand, to see you breathe your last. And that's really where we want to go today. Today, the title is Heaven Made New. I want to think about three things here. First of all, I want us to clearly define resurrection. Notice, and in fact, if you have your notes there, put a line after the re. The re-surrection, the re means again. An insurrection is people who stand up from within a country that's trying to be taken over by an enemy. A resurrection is somebody who's laid down standing back up again. The Greek word Anastasia, the name Anastasia is the Greek word for resurrection. Ana means again. And so this is a standing up again after someone has died. We'll talk about that. Secondly, I want to think about the future of heaven. And I realize we have some visitors here today, so I want to take a moment, and I want to try to, in just a few words, review some of the things that we've done. This is the fifth sermon on this subject of heaven. Back in the beginning, we said that we're storing up for ourselves treasures in heaven. We're challenged and reminded of the need to treasure heaven. to think about heaven, to dwell more deeply on the subject of heaven. That was the justification for this sermon series. Then we talked in Genesis 1 about the three heavens. Again, if you're not familiar with this terminology, go to Genesis chapter 1. We have the sky, we have space, and we have the secret place of God. The Bible uses the word heaven in these three different sentences. And it says we look up and we see the birds flying in the heavens and say, why can't I do that? And then we look up into space and we see things. And now, with modern telescopes, we see things that boggle the imagination. And then we look up even beyond that to the unseen world, which is the dwelling place of God. That's the evidence that the Bible is then going to unveil many mysteries to us. Jacob laid his head upon a rock in Bethel. And he says, behold, the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. This is the gate of heaven. He's talking about that highest heaven, the heavens of the heavens, the heavens that are, quote, above, not spatially, but are higher than the sky in space. And now we've looked up into space, how many millions and millions and millions of light years, what do we see? More. Friends, we need to see that heaven is a mystery. But then also, we need to see, and this is our focus last week, was thinking about the present heaven, and now today we're talking about the future heaven. That is, that there is a present heaven, or also known as the intermediate state, where our souls go when our bodies go to the ground. This is not the normal course of nature. This is the abnormal course of nature after our rebellion against God and the consequent just curse of God. on the creation. Can you imagine a world where there is no death? That's what the Bible is inviting us to contemplate. That there is a hope for the future that involves nothing less than the death of death through the death of Christ. So we distinguish between the present heaven And the future heaven, and the dividing line between those two things is the second coming of Christ. So let's go to our notes now. I stressed early in this series that heaven is not eternal. Heaven was created. God carried His house with Him, if you will, and He set up the heavens. He created the heavens in the beginning. Heaven is not eternal, only God is. This means, quote, new heavens will be coming as promised, and I've given you two, there are numerous other references to the new heavens. That is, Christ is now, so we shall be. What I have in mind there is the physical resurrection of Jesus. But our lives here are over. We are sown to the ground. You saw that person perishable, dishonorable, and weak. Our natural body's spinal condition cries out for something glorious to come. And Jesus' resurrection verifies the following resurrection. This is the clear teaching of Scripture. The question is, are we going to just let it sit out there like the North Star? When was the last time, maybe some of you, since we started this series, have found the North Star, have applied the messages in terms of actually looking at the North Star, but for 98% of my life, 99.5% of my life, the North Star is just kind of out there. I don't look at it, I certainly don't navigate by it. The question is, will the Doctrine of Heaven function in your daily life the way the North Star functioned in the heart and mind of the slave escaping slavery and traveling to Canada every night? Okay, I have to find a big dipper and then I have to go over here. And then, okay, that's the direction, Mom, we've got to go. And we've just got to keep traveling and traveling and traveling day after day, week after week, through all the rivers and all the swamps and all the bad guys in order to get to the place that we will get to if we follow the star. That's the burden of climate change. The more clearly they can understand this doctrine, the more clearly it can function as a North Star for you, in the midst of discouragements, and trials, and doubts, and fears. I know this congregation has a lot going on under the surface for us. Us. I include myself. I want us to see that if we can understand that there is a new Heaven coming that is even better than the present Heaven, then we can push on and push on and push on in the midst of our trials. The weak will give up. The weak will stop traveling north and start traveling wherever the road takes them. Just wander around and then wonder why there's never any fulfillment. God's promises are magnificent, but they are also specific. They're also pointing us in a direction. So point number one this morning is that Christ is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. Look with me in chapter 15 and verse 20. This is the snapshot of this doctrine here. In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. The word, fallen asleep, planetaria, or cemeteria, this is the same word that's used in John chapter 11. Lazarus has fallen asleep, Jesus says, and I must go and wake him up. The apostles say, well, if he's fallen asleep, he's going to wake up. He's like, no, Lazarus has died. And for your sakes, I'm glad that he's died, because then you're going to get to see the power of God. Some of us in this room have been to El Lazarillo on the east side of the city of Jerusalem. It's a wonderful place to go and meditate on John chapter 11. But all of us have the capacity to read and study the Word and think carefully about what Jesus is doing there. Jesus is not doing some abracadabra. He's saying, I'm going to go, Lazarus has been dead three days in the tomb, and I'm going to raise him up. And you are going to see the supernatural power of God on display. And then he did it. And friends, I wish I could put that power of God handed to you. And I wish you didn't have to see your parents and your siblings, some of you even your children, go into the grave. Friends, that's what the path we are called to walk. It is not an easy path. But Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. I've shared this many times, but I'll never forget when I was in my mid-teens going out for a run one day along 42nd Street. right outside of our neighborhood. And we were right on the eastern edge of Indianapolis. And so, going east from our house, we went right out into the country. And I went jogging. It was a long jog. I was training for the Indianapolis Mini Marathon. And I was out among just endless rows of fields, endless squares, tracks, and fields. And all of a sudden, a big, big farm truck pulled up, pulled off the side of the road. And as I was running toward him, the farmer went up to the end of end roads, and he began to look and carefully inspect this corn. He pulled off. 16 or 18 years and threw them into the back of his truck to take home for dinner. I ran up and I stopped and talked to him for a couple of minutes. I said, what are you doing? He said, oh, just checking the corn for the first crews. It's ready. And with the pride only a farmer can have, he looked at his truck and he said, it's right there. And it was amazing corn. And He said, so it's been. The first fruits, friends, are the portion that are dedicated to God, and it's the portion that is the promise of the great harvest at home. What does it mean that Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep? It means that victory has already been accomplished by Christ. We are yet experiencing the full implications of that victory, that the victory has been won. Christ is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. So this really is a summary of verses 12 through 34 of this passage, and I would encourage you to look more carefully and meditate on those passages. But then in verse 35, we have now an interesting development. We move from the what of resurrection to the how. Someone will ask, verse 35, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? And again, there's a lot here. We're not going to go through this. But I love verses 42 through 44. It's sown perishable. It's raised imperishable. It's sown in dishonor. It's raised in glory. It's sown in weakness. It's raised in power. It is sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body. Let me caution you that the number one interpretive mistake that people make here is they make this physical versus non-physical. If you fall into that error, you are technically a Gnostic, not a Christian. This is not talking about physical versus non-physical. It's so, notice what it says, a natural body. That's a much better translation. A natural body is a body that is living under the curse. A body that is genetically descended from Adam and Eve, with all the genetic corruptions that have accrued over how many generations. A natural body is a body that's not fully under control. A natural body chases thoughts around inside of its brain, even as the mind is trying to have its eyes fixed clearly on Christ. A natural body is hard to live in. A spiritual body is also a physical body. It's just way better. In fact, our confession goes so far as to say that you, at your resurrection, will have the same body. Think about that. Where will it be located? How does physicality work? The one question that has haunted me since somebody asked me this, they said, so do the angels use backbones? Think about it. Friends, this is not just abracadabra. This is full bore God's creation doing what God originally intended for it to do. In other words, this is not plan B. This is plan A all the way. What God created the universe for, it's going to accomplish. Including people living eternally. with Christ on the earth. It's amazing. It's mind-blowing to think about. And I want to push you and challenge you to not go buy into the Gnostic lie. The Gnostic lie says, well, I am a human on the outside. I'm a male on the outside, but maybe I'm something else on the inside. Well, sorry. You're a person. You're a person. You are not some physical and some non-physical. You are a body-soul unity. And it is not a natural thing for a soul to depart a body. And it will be a glorious thing when a soul is restored to a body. When that body comes to life again. This leads us then So, point number two, let me state it clearly. In Christ we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. This is from verse 51. Again, answering this question of the mystery of how. There's a lot that we just don't know. These are difficult questions. But notice that Jesus himself, I am the resurrection, the life. John chapter 11. If he does die, that is physically he dies, he will live. But now verse 51 is addressing maybe the greatest mystery of all. Well, if Jesus is coming back, what about the people who are alive when he comes back? And Paul says, here's the mystery. We shall not all sleep. Not all of us are going to die before Jesus comes back. There will be human beings, I think many, many, many human beings, alive at the moment of Christ's return. I call it the terminal generation. Like, you know, you have an airport terminal. You walk and you walk and you walk. You get on trains and go underneath. And you get up and walk over bridges and elevators and escalators. And finally you get to your terminal, right? That's the place where you, now that you're done walking, get on your plane and fly. The terminal is the end. The terminal generation is the last generation. Some of them, I don't know, some of us, but some of maybe our descendants will be the terminal generation who are alive when Christ comes back. We will not all sleep, but even the terminal generation will be so radically transformed, they will all be changed. How? Well, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, listen for the trumpet. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. And friends, does not your heart cry out for that change? Maranatha, an Arabic word, means come quickly, Lord Jesus. How long, Lord, until you judge your enemies? How long until you fulfill these glorious promises that you've made to our fathers before us? The easy thing to do is to blow up the promises to your fathers. The easy thing to do is to just walk away from it all. And I say walk away from what? What promises are going to guide your life? If you abandon the faith of your forefathers, What faith are you going to embrace? Well, I don't embrace a faith. That's a faith itself. Friends, look at the promises of God. We shall all sleep, but we shall all be changed. And this then brings us to the third point this morning. This is the one that will develop in weeks to come. But I'm persuaded that Several writers, including my friend Randy Altman, they're right in saying point number three, Christ will bring heaven to the new earth and dwell with us. Here you can turn to Revelation 21. Again, this is nothing new. I know this is a familiar passage, but again, I want us to see that the dwelling, literally this word is the tabernacle. The tabernacle of God. This is taking us right back into the Old Testament. God had promised that He would dwell in the midst of His people. And they built Him this glorious tabernacle which was at the bull's-eye. I've wondered if we could lay out cities that reflected the hope of the dwelling place of God. Wouldn't it be cool to have a city that had that had a building, an ornate building for the state, and an ornate building for God to dwell in, like on the town square. We have a county courthouse. We have a county future dwelling site for God. But the promise is not that we are going to go out into the clouds and wear diapers and strong hearts, friends. The promise is that God will dwell in our midst. And I'm persuaded that the heaven and earth that were ripped apart in the rebellion of man against God, the spiritual battle that took place, will be healed, will be vindicated, will be reversed in the new heavens and new earth. The first heaven and the first earth passed away. The city of Jerusalem, it's not here, it's up there. The new Jerusalem, that is the people of God coming down as a bride born for her husband. Then there's this promise of He will dwell with them. All the things that are here as a result of the fall will be reversed. This is a glorious thing to contemplate. So, again, I'm trying to demonstrate these things from scripture, but I am persuaded that the new earth is the old earth restored. Randy Alcorn writes, we won't go to heaven He's talking now about the future heaven. We don't go to heaven and leave earth behind. Rather, God will bring heaven and earth together into the same dimension, with no wall of separation, with no armed angels to guard heaven's perfection from sinful mankind. Genesis 3, 24. God's perfect plan is, quote, Here is quoting from Ephesians 1 verse 10, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. To say it another way, God's redemptive goals are far less modest than we imagine. God surrenders no territory to the enemy. C.S. Lewis said of Milton's Paradise Lost, quote, reading it makes us feel what it is like to live in a universe where every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counter-claimed by God. God created it, he owned it, and the enemy tried to take it, and God said, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh. There are no Plan B's. Out of my dominion. Liar. Serpent. Snake. Accuser of the brothers. He don't understand. Friends, he is on the run. At least he sometimes is. Are you going to stand, or are you just going to let the river of the world carry you along? Are you going to stand firm, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, with your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace? Are you going to take up the sword of the Spirit, or are you going to just go with it? Are we going to be a community? I think that's the message for us today. We live in hope of something better. That means we will not be dissuaded from pursuing that course in our normal, everyday lives. where the job is hard, and where we don't have enough money, and where we feel our bodies getting old, and where we can't remember where we put our glasses. Friends, that's the world in which we are called to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross O Father, we pray that You would give us the hunger for heaven. Lord, thank You that we do not need to fear the enemy. who can kill the body but cannot touch our souls. We thank you, Lord, that you have broken the power of the enemy who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Lord, I would pray for those here today who do not understand that end of eternity or to go out onto the cliff and to look over infinite space and to feel how small one is and to pray the Lord that you would strengthen us and help us to have heaven function in our lives. as the North Star did in the hearts of those who were coming out of slavery, who were asleep under the heel of their corners. Lord, I pray that you would help us to have this doctrine ever more clearly in our minds. Lord, that we would not need to sleep. that we would persevere through all trials and tests. And Lord, that if we bumped into others who were also heaven-bound, we would delight. Being part of a community of people like this would help us to encourage one another, to build one another up, to have conversations about about these difficult and these mysterious matters. Lord, Your Word gives us promises by which we live. Thank You for the promises of God. They are very great and precious promises. And by them, in some mysterious way, we become partakers of the Divine Nature. Help us to live forward a new happiness. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.