“In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth.” Those are the very first words of the Bible. The Bible begins by telling us the story of
God creating the heavens and the earth.
And when you think about it, that’s kind of an odd
phrase. “The heavens and the earth.”
Not “heaven and earth”, but “the heavens and the earth”. Is there
more than one heaven?
Some say that the word “heavens”, in that context, just
means the skies and the clouds and that sort of thing. And we do use the
word “heavens” that way sometimes. But
there are other references in the Bible to there being more than one
heaven. For example, the Apostle Paul, in Second Corinthians Chapter Two,
refers to a man who was caught up to the third heaven. What’s the third heaven? Is it better
than the first heaven or the second heaven?
And is there a fourth or a fifth heaven?
And then, to throw another wrench into all this, we come to
our reading for today from Isaiah. Isaiah quotes God as saying, “See, I
will create new heavens and a new earth.”
New heavens? Why would God need to create new
heavens? What’s wrong with the old heavens? Will the new heavens be different from the
old heavens? If not, what’s the point of creating them? But if so, did God make mistakes when He
created the old heavens? And in what way will the new heavens be
different?
Well, the only answer I can give you is: heaven
knows. This is not the only time in the
Bible that references a new heaven: it’s mentioned in Second Peter and
also in Revelation Chapter Twenty-one.
But none of those passages describe the new heaven, any more than Isaiah
does. And in a way, I guess that makes sense. I mean, we don’t even know much about what
the old heaven or heavens are like, so we certainly cannot expect to know much
about the new one.
The only thing we know about the new heavens is that they
will be better. In fact, they’ll be so much better that “the former
things will not be remembered, nor with they come to mind.” In other
words, the new heavens will be so much better that no one will be able to
remember what the old ones were like. Nobody will even want to remember
what the old ones were like. They will
simply “be glad and rejoice forever” and what God has created. So,
apparently, however awesome the current heavens are, the new heavens will be
even awesomer. But other than that? We just don’t know.
But we do know what the new earth will be like. And
it’s going to be pretty awesome, too.
For one thing, we’re going to live longer. Listen to what Isaiah
says, “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or
an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will
be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be
considered accursed...For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people.”
Think about that. My dad lived to be ninety-six, and
my mom is ninety-four, and I feel very fortunate that I’ve had them in my life
for as long as I have. But in the new earth, a person who’s in their
nineties is going to be just getting started.
A person who’s a hundred years old is still a kid. That’s pretty
incredible.
Isaiah says that the people who live in the new earth will
be “a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.”
But it’s not just the people. All of
creation will be blessed on this new earth.
“The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw
like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm
nor destroy.”
I read all this, and I think, where do I go to sign up for
that? How can I get to this new earth?
But, of course, there’s no way we can. God will create this new
earth when God decides to create this new earth, and I doubt there’s anything
we can do to hurry God along.
But that raises a question. If there’s nothing we can
do to make this new earth come about, then what’s the point of God telling us
about it? I mean, sure, it sounds great.
But if I cannot go there now, then what good does it do me to know about
it?
Well, here’s the thing. We cannot go there now, but
we will be able to go there someday. Here’s what the Apostle John said in
Revelation Chapter Twenty-one. He describes the holy city, the New
Jerusalem, descending from heaven. It’s a place that shines with the glory
of God. It’s filled with gold and
precious jewels. There’s no need for the sun or the moon, because the
glory of God and of the divine Son gives all the light that’s need.
There’s no night there. And he concludes, “Nothing impure will ever enter into it,
nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose
names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
You and I can have our names written in that book. We
can be in Jesus’ book of life. All we
need to do is have faith in Jesus Christ.
And that’s true even if we have done things which are
“impure”. It’s true even if we do things that are “shameful or
deceitful”. Because Jesus died to save
us. Jesus took the punishment that should have gone to us for our
sins. And when we accept Jesus as the
Savior, we have the assurance that our sins are forgiven. But it’s more
than that. Not only are our sins
forgiven, it’s like they never happened in the first place. That’s what we mean when we say that the blood
of Jesus Christ washes us clean. The stains of all our sins are gone,
because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And all we need to do to have that happen is
accept Jesus as the Savior.
But all that raises the question: where exactly do we
go when we die? Do we go to one of the current heavens? If so, will
we someday go to the new earth, to the New Jerusalem? Will we ever go to
the new heavens?
I don’t have an answer for you. But I will tell you
this: I would not worry about it too
much. Because wherever we go, it’s going to be an awesome place. We know it’s going to be an awesome place
because we’re going to be in the presence of God. God is in the current
heaven right now. And in Revelation, we’re
told that God will live with his people in the New Jerusalem. So wherever we go when we die, whether to the
heavens or to the New Jerusalem, we’ll be in the presence of God. And it
does not get any better than that.
But this is why it’s so important that we do what we can to
spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not because we think we’re better than
other people. Not because we’re trying
to force our beliefs on anyone. Not because we’d like to see our church
grow. Not for any reason other than love--love
of God and love of other people.
You and I, as Christians, know something other people don’t
know. And it’s something incredible.
It’s the secret of salvation and eternal life. And because we know
that, we have an obligation to do what we can to share that secret with
everyone we can, so that others can have salvation and eternal life, just like
we do. Jesus does not want that secret to stay a secret. That’s why he came in the first place. And that’s why he told us to go and make
disciples of all nations. Jesus wants
everyone, everywhere, to have a chance to accept him as the Savior. He
wants everyone, everywhere, to have a chance for salvation and eternal life. And the only way that’s going to happen--the
only way people are going to have a chance to accept Jesus as the Savior--is if
Christians like you and me love those people enough to do what we can to spread
the word and give them that chance.
This time, right now--the time before Jesus returns--this
is truly the critical time. This is the time we have to spread that word
and give people that chance. I don’t
know how long it will be. It might be ten million years. Or it might be ten years, or ten weeks, or
ten days. We don’t know, and we have no
way to know.
It’s easy to put it off.
It’s easy to leave it to someone else. It’s easy to make excuses for
ourselves. Believe me, I know.
I’ve put it off, and I’ve left it to someone else, and I’ve made excuses
for myself. I still do, many times.
I know how easy it is to do, and how tempting it is to do. I know all the fears we have, all the
hesitancy we have, all the reasons we can give to avoid doing this.
That’s why it really is a
matter of love. Love of Jesus, and love of other people. If we love Jesus enough, and if we love other
people enough, that love can overcome our temptation to put it off. That
love can overcome our temptation to leave this to someone else. That love can overcome all the excuses, all
the fears, all the hesitancy. It really
all comes down to love.
If we accept Jesus as the
Savior, we know we’re going to an awesome place when we die, because we’re
going to the presence of God. And if we love people, we want them to be
there with us. So let’s do all we can to
help them get there. Let’s do all we can
to give everyone the chance for salvation and eternal life. May our love
overcome our fears.
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