Video Transcript: Future

We believe in the visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus himself says, they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, when Jesus comes again, you're not going to have to wonder whether he came, it's going to be allowed, it's going to be visible, he's going to be coming again in power, and great glory, a lot of different ideas about the exact timing of events near the end of time. 

And I'm not going to get into that our statement of saints doesn't narrow it down and say, Oh, we believe in this scenario, or that scenario, Christians have sometimes differed on those but we all agree, Jesus is coming again. And he's coming again to judge the living and the dead. And he's going to come visibly, and we're going to know that he's back, and it is going to be wonderful. For those who've been looking forward to is coming in, it's going to be terrifying. For those who do not have a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. 

He's coming again, that is the hope that runs all through the New Testament Scriptures. And when He comes, he's going to make all things new. He must remain in heaven until the time of the restoration of all things. That's how the Scripture describes it, the time of the restoration of all things. Or Jesus says, another place the renewal of all things. He didn't come just to save souls, and then snatch them away somewhere else. He came to renew his creation. 

He liked the original creation, and he's going to bring it to what it was originally intended to be. The new heaven and the new earth will be a renewed Heaven and a renewed earth. The Bible says the creation itself will be freed from its bondage to decay into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 

In Revelation, Jesus says, Behold, I make all things new. So the Scripture speaks of the wolf lying down with the lamb, the cow, and the bear feeding together, and incident playing near the hole of a cobra of creation, where they neither harm nor destroy, on all my holy mountain says God, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 

God intends to make it all the way it was meant to be. And that is a wonderful thing to look forward to, that. It's not just going to heaven, and our souls do go to heaven when we die. But the ultimate destiny is for Heaven, to come to earth, for heaven and earth, to be reunited for this physical creation, to be made afresh, and to be what God originally intended it when he created the heavens and the earth. And with that, the Bible says that the creation is going to be renewed at the redemption of our bodies, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies, so that they will be like his glorious body. We're going to have bodies like his it's hard to imagine exactly what that will be like. 

But the Bible tells us that when Jesus was resurrected, He could enter a room and leave it without the door ever being opened. He had such complete command and control of his body, his body wasn't a ghost because he could eat and drink and touch people, but it could also just be somewhere else. 

The Bible says that Jesus was caught up into heaven, He ascended into the air, the Bible says that when he comes again, we will rise up to meet Him. So our bodies will have a capacity to fly. Jesus walked on water. So did Peter for a few minutes. The ability of our bodies to have command over creation is going to be something that's kind of hard to picture now and I don't know exactly how it's going to be. 

But we do know that when we see Him we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is and the Bible says our bodies will be like his glorious body, and we will see his face and we will reign forever and ever So the main thing to look forward to in the new creation is to see God to see our Lord Jesus again, and to see him in the flesh and have our flesh made like his, and to reign with Him forever and ever again, that's a staggering thought. But the Bible says it I didn't make this stuff up. 

Jesus says, To him overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Jesus has thrones. And that new creation that is bringing about is going to be governed and managed by his new humanity, who he's transformed, to be like himself, What a glorious future that we have to look forward to when we trust in Jesus Christ, died for our sins, raised to make us right with God raised to give us bodies, like his glorious, eternal resurrection body. 

Sad to say, not everybody who rises will rise to life. The prophet Daniel says multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt, to have God and God's disapproval upon you forever. That's what it means by shame, and everlasting contempt, they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord. 

That is the destiny of the last of those who refuse to repent, and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus will say, depart from Me, you who are cursed, in the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 

Revelations, says anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life, was thrown into the lake of fire. If we're to be leaders in the church of Jesus Christ, we cannot neglect the facts about the lost. We need instead to have a heart of compassion for them a desire to see them saved, but also a willingness to warn that a terrible judgment awaits the enemies of God. Just all happy, nice talk all day long. Ignoring the reality of sin ignoring the reality of judgment, we will be failing our mission, if we don't warn people of the routes to come, as well as the promises of the glory that awaits those who trust the Lord and walk with Him. 

And so we need to keep both facts about the future in mind the fact that the eternal glory awaits, but also that eternal fire awaits, depending on our relation to that judge who's coming again, to judge the living in the dead. Christ will return visibly to rule the world. And to make all things new, what a glorious new creation that's going to be. 

God's people will be raised bodily from death to eternal life, in the new creation, but God's enemies will be punished with eternal hell. This is what we believe. This is what we must communicate. Let's not get so distracted by ideas of exactly how it's going to play out that we ignore the main realities. He's coming again. He's going to raise us he's going to make things new, and he's also going to punish and banish his enemies.