If I Were Told the Future - Lesson 97 Everyday Life in Eternity Screen 1 Welcome to this lesson! Let’s pray together: Our Lord, Please accept our ultimate gratitude for the wonderful inheritance you reserve for us: Your holy city, the New Jerusalem. Now, please teach us about our activities on the New Earth. May Your Word and Your Spirit be our only guides. In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. ________________________________________ Screen 2 Revelation 21:9,10 «Come here, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.» And [the angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. ---------------------------------------------------- Our last lesson helped us to catch a glimpse of the wonderful splendor of the New Jerusalem, the marvelous city which will be the inheritance of God’s people. Today, we will try to understand the everyday life of the redeemed people in the New Jerusalem. In what surroundings will they live? What will be their activities? ________________________________________ Screen 3 2 Peter 3:10,13 The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (...) Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. --------------------- Revelation 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. ---------------------------------------------------- First, God’s people will live in a completely renewed world, with new heavens and a new earth. ________________________________________ Screen 4 Revelation 21:1 There was no more sea. --------------------- Revelation 13:1 And I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns. --------------------- Isaiah 57:20 The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest. ---------------------------------------------------- Often associated with evil and its disastrous effects, the seas, which were the outcome of the Flood that punished the unrepentant in the days of Noah, will no longer exist on the New Earth. ________________________________________ Screen 5 Isaiah 35:1,2,6,7 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. (...) For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. ---------------------------------------------------- God’s people will live on a completely restored earth, similar to the garden of Eden, out of which man was driven because of his disobedience. ________________________________________ Screen 6 «This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden.» (Ezekiel 36:35) «For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.» (Isaiah 51:3) «I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the middle of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.» (Isaiah 41:18-20) ________________________________________ Screen 7 Isaiah 11:6-8 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatted calf together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’s den. ---------------------------------------------------- All the inhabitants of the New Earth, both men and animals, will live in perfect harmony with Nature, which won’t present any danger to them. ________________________________________ Screen 8 Men will be able to rely on Nature’s complete cooperation: «I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing. (...) And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid.» (Ezekiel 34:25,26,28) «In that Day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.» (Hosea 2:18) ________________________________________ Screen 9 Isaiah 29:19-21 The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nothing. ---------------------------------------------------- But there’s still more: God’s people will live in an environment from which all kinds of evil will have been completely banished forever! ________________________________________ Screen 10 Isaiah 2:4 [The Lord] shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. --------------------- Psalm 72:3 The mountains shall bring peace to the people, and the little hills, by righteousness. ---------------------------------------------------- Wars, both small and great, will give way to everlasting peace. ________________________________________ Screen 11 Isaiah 32:16-18 Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. --------------------- 2 Peter 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. ---------------------------------------------------- In this world of peace and righteousness, locks on doors will be unnecessary! ________________________________________ Screen 12 Isaiah 60:18,21 Violence shall no more be heard in your land, wasting nor destruction within your borders. (...) Your people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever. --------------------- Malachi 4:3 You shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet. ---------------------------------------------------- In this new world created by God, there will be no living being stained by evil or sin, since Satan, his angels, and all the unrepentant will have been destroyed at the Last Judgment, as we have seen in a previous lesson. ________________________________________ Screen 13 Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. --------------------- Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all the earth: for the Lord has spoken it. ---------------------------------------------------- Even death, which is «the wages of sin» (Romans 6:23), will be no more. ________________________________________ Screen 14 1 Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, «Death is swallowed up in victory.» --------------------- Isaiah 35:10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. ---------------------------------------------------- God will give His people not only immortality, but also incorruption. So they will enjoy eternal health and vigor. ________________________________________ Screen 15 Isaiah 35:5,6 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. --------------------- Isaiah 33:24 And the inhabitant shall not say, «I am sick.» ---------------------------------------------------- God will have destroyed all diseases forever, so His people will enjoy perfect physical, emotional, and spiritual health. ________________________________________ Screen 16 Isaiah 65:17-19 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. ---------------------------------------------------- Living in a world where love, righteousness and peace dwell forever, the people of God will «be glad and rejoice for ever». ________________________________________ Screen 17 Revelation 21:3; 22:3,4 Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. (...) His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face. --------------------- Exodus 33:20 And [the Lord] said, «You can not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live.» ---------------------------------------------------- So many people wished to see God’s face, but the presence of sin would not allow it. On the New Earth, where sin will be no more, this desire will be satisfied at last. God’s people will not only be allowed to see His face, but they will also live with Him forever! ________________________________________ Screen 18 God’s redeemed people will have the privilege of contemplating His face: «Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.» (Matthew 5:8) «Your eyes shall see the King in His beauty.» (Isaiah 33:17) «Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.» (Hebrews 12:14) «For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.» (1 Corinthians 13:12) «Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.» (1 John 3:2) ________________________________________ Screen 19 Luke 24:39,42,43 [Jesus said,] «Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see Me have.» (...) And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat before them. ---------------------------------------------------- What will men be like on the New Earth? In what form will they exist? In order to dispel our desire to spend eternity with God, Satan tries to make us believe that the elect will be like floating spirits, playing harps on the clouds... The truth is that they will have real bodies, just like Jesus after His resurrection. And will they be able to recognize each other? ________________________________________ Screen 20 John 20:14,16 [Mary] turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. (...) Jesus said to her, «Mary!» She turned herself, and said to Him, «Rabboni!», which is to say, Master. ---------------------------------------------------- This passage of the Scriptures answers our question. Risen and glorified, Jesus was not immediately recognized by Mary. However, when He spoke to her, she knew at once who He was. Likewise, although made incorruptible and immortal at Jesus’s return, God’s redeemed people will be able to recognize each other on the New Earth. ________________________________________ Screen 21 Isaiah 65:21,22 They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat. For as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. ---------------------------------------------------- Bursting with energy, never tired, with no fear of sickness or death, God’s people will be able to accomplish extraordinary things. Building houses and planting vineyards will be only two of all the innumerable activities on the New Earth! ________________________________________ Screen 22 Revelation 22:1 And [the angel] showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. --------------------- John 4:14 Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. ---------------------------------------------------- The redeemed people will be allowed to drink at the river of the water of life, «proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.» ________________________________________ Screen 23 Revelation 22:2 In the middle of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. --------------------- Revelation 2:7 To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the middle of the Paradise of God. ---------------------------------------------------- Also, they will be allowed to eat the fruits of the tree of life, the same tree that was in the garden of Eden in the days of Adam and Eve. ________________________________________ Screen 24 Ezekiel 47:12 And by the river on the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed. It shall bring forth new fruit according to its months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary. And the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine. ---------------------------------------------------- Many other trees, with succulent fruits, will also be the delight of God’s people. ________________________________________ Screen 25 Matthew 8:11 And I say to you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. --------------------- Luke 14:15 Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God! ---------------------------------------------------- The redeemed people will also have the privilege of sitting at the same table as God, eating in the company of the great figures of the Bible, and listening to their stories! But there’s even more... ________________________________________ Screen 26 Ezekiel 34:23 I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My Servant David. He shall feed them, and He shall be their Shepherd. --------------------- Revelation 22:16 I, Jesus, (...) am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright and Morning Star. ---------------------------------------------------- The elect will have the incomparable pleasure of receiving the precious teachings of their Shepherd, Jesus Himself, and will then be able to ask Him all the questions that went unanswered here on earth! ________________________________________ Screen 27 Receiving Jesus’ precious teaching will be a very popular activity! «And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. And many people shall go and say, “Come you, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.» (Isaiah 2:2,3) «The Lamb which is in the middle of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them to living fountains of waters.» (Revelation 7:17) «For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.» (Habakkuk 2:14) «And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.» (Revelation 21:23,24) ________________________________________ Screen 28 John 14:2,3 I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. --------------------- John 17:24 Father, I will that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me. ---------------------------------------------------- In fact, during His ministry on earth, Jesus often expressed the desire that His friends be with Him in the kingdom of God. ________________________________________ Screen 29 Isaiah 66:22,23 «For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me,» said the Lord, «so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me,» said the Lord. --------------------- Psalm 22:27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before You. ---------------------------------------------------- From one Sabbath to another, the redeemed people will express their gratitude towards God by offering Him a living and sincere worship. ________________________________________ Screen 30 God’s redeemed people will also sing beautiful hymns in His honor: «And I looked, and, see, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him a hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads. (...) And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.» (Revelation 14:1,3) «And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy on their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.» (Isaiah 35:10) «For the Lord shall comfort Zion: He will comfort all her waste places; and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.» (Isaiah 51:3) ________________________________________ Screen 31 Revelation 7:9,10 After this I beheld, and, see, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, «Salvation to our God which sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!» ---------------------------------------------------- Seeing the wonderful splendor of the New Earth created by God for them, the redeemed will never grow weary of praising the Lord for His priceless gift of salvation in Jesus Christ. ________________________________________ Screen 32 1 Corinthians 2:9 Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. ---------------------------------------------------- In spite of our best efforts in this lesson, we can’t perfectly describe, nor even begin to imagine all the wonders awaiting the people of God on the New Earth... ________________________________________ Screen 33 1 Peter 1:3,4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you. ---------------------------------------------------- ... however, we can, right here and now, show our gratitude to God for this wonderful inheritance. We must first renew our covenant with Him, and then redouble our efforts in order to bring as many people as possible to His salvation! ________________________________________ Screen 34 Let’s thank God: Our Father, Your prophetic Word lets us catch a glimpse of the marvelous inheritance You reserve for Your people. This revives our desire to accept the gift of eternal life, and live forever in Your company, in a new and perfect world where happiness and peace dwell. Please give us love and zeal, so that we may share this good news with the people around us, and so that they may also accept this wonderful gift of salvation in Jesus. In the most precious name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. cyberspaceministry.org
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:05:57 +0000
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