THE NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH (16 OF 16)
by Zach Terry
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-27
This content is part of a series.
The New Heaven and New Earth (16 of 16)
Series: Revelation
Zach Terry
Revelation 21
INTRODUCTION: Common wisdom teaches that thinking on heaven is not very practical. You know the old saying, “He’s so Heavenly minded, he’s no earthly good”.
1. John Lennon - in his song “Imagine”, went so far as to say the world would be a better place if you could imagine it wasn’t even there.
2. Carl Marx - Called religion in general, but specifically religions concept of the afterlife - the opiate of the people. It was a mind numbing drug leaving humanity ineffectual for any real good.
3. I heard about an Environmental Documentary some time ago where a scientist said, “the idea of heaven is the real problem, we will never take care of this world until we realize this is all there is.
Those ideas are common. They stand in stark contrast to historical christianity and to scripture.
John Stott, has said that God enables us to do spiritually what we could not do physically: that is, to live with one eye on the past, remembering what God has already done for us, and with one eye on the future, or to what He will do for us.
Jonathan Edwards made it a practice to meditate on heaven at least twenty minutes every day.
Practical Benefits from meditating on Heaven:
1. It’s like Prepping for Vacation: If I told you that you had a paid vacation for Hawaii leaving on Monday AM, you would radically begin to pack, arrange baby sitters, dog sitters, get your camera ready, ect. In the same way - when you are confident you are going to live in this place… for some of us in less than 40 years… you will begin to alter the way you live, what your priorities are, etc.
2. It motivates Evangelism - Suppose you had the cure to cancer and didn’t tell anyone, you would be considered diabolically insane. If you really believe you know what it takes for a person to go to this place and didn’t tell them - either you don’t really believer, you don’t really know about it OR you ...
Series: Revelation
Zach Terry
Revelation 21
INTRODUCTION: Common wisdom teaches that thinking on heaven is not very practical. You know the old saying, “He’s so Heavenly minded, he’s no earthly good”.
1. John Lennon - in his song “Imagine”, went so far as to say the world would be a better place if you could imagine it wasn’t even there.
2. Carl Marx - Called religion in general, but specifically religions concept of the afterlife - the opiate of the people. It was a mind numbing drug leaving humanity ineffectual for any real good.
3. I heard about an Environmental Documentary some time ago where a scientist said, “the idea of heaven is the real problem, we will never take care of this world until we realize this is all there is.
Those ideas are common. They stand in stark contrast to historical christianity and to scripture.
John Stott, has said that God enables us to do spiritually what we could not do physically: that is, to live with one eye on the past, remembering what God has already done for us, and with one eye on the future, or to what He will do for us.
Jonathan Edwards made it a practice to meditate on heaven at least twenty minutes every day.
Practical Benefits from meditating on Heaven:
1. It’s like Prepping for Vacation: If I told you that you had a paid vacation for Hawaii leaving on Monday AM, you would radically begin to pack, arrange baby sitters, dog sitters, get your camera ready, ect. In the same way - when you are confident you are going to live in this place… for some of us in less than 40 years… you will begin to alter the way you live, what your priorities are, etc.
2. It motivates Evangelism - Suppose you had the cure to cancer and didn’t tell anyone, you would be considered diabolically insane. If you really believe you know what it takes for a person to go to this place and didn’t tell them - either you don’t really believer, you don’t really know about it OR you ...
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