On New Heavens and New Earth

SERMON SUMMARY:

Drawing from 2 Peter 3:5-13, this sermon explores the nature of the coming new heavens and new earth, challenging common misconceptions about the Christian's eternal hope. The pastor unpacks four key words from verse 13 -- new, and, dwell, and righteousness -- to demonstrate that God's redemptive plan is not one of escape or obliteration, but of renewal and reunion. The new creation is not a replacement of this world but a renovation of it, much like a restored classic car that is old in age but new in quality. Heaven and earth, once divided by sin, will be reunited in the day of the Lord. Christians are called not to escapism but to eager, patient anticipation of a dwelling place where righteousness is not merely credited but becomes the very fabric of existence.

QUOTES:

This world was not made to be treated like a disposable paper plate at a picnic. That you use it till it gets too much ketchup on it and then you're done with it and you toss it in the trash. This world was handcrafted by God.

Our future hope at the day of the Lord is not heaven instead of earth. Our future hope is the reunion of the new heavens and the new earth.

God has not given us as his people to escape the world, but to establish the world.

We do not, in the end, zoom up to heaven. but rather heaven comes down to earth. The earth is not obliterated. It is rather renovated.

That is, the righteousness of God becomes the fiber of who we are. That we live righteousness, breathe righteousness, do righteousness, always.

In the new heavens and new earth, there will be nothing unclean or detestable or false. All of our sin down to our very heart's desires, the ickiest stuff within us is totally refined, purified, purged. And sin then is not just forgiven, it is dissolved like snow in the sun, so that what remains is only what is righteous, and good, and true.

Our future hope at the day of the Lord is not heaven instead of earth. Our future hope is the reunion of the new heavens and the new earth.

A place where the reigning rule, which is fully happily embraced by all, is love. I'm not sure I can even imagine a place like that, but I sure can hope for it.

This is meant to draw us to lean forward into the promises of God toward a day in which he will make all things fully new in quality as he brings his people home to the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells.

We know that the earth that is now under a curse then groans to be set free in the language of Romans chapter 8. And one day this world will be set free in the day in which it is made new.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

2 Peter 3:5-13 (primary text)

2 Corinthians 5:17, which describes believers as a new creation in Christ

Ephesians 1, which speaks of Christ reuniting all things in heaven and on earth

Revelation 21:1-3, which describes the new heaven and new earth and the dwelling of God with man

Isaiah 65:17-21, which portrays the new creation as a place of building, planting, and inhabiting

Romans 8, which speaks of creation groaning to be set free from its curse

Genesis 1, the original creation of the heavens and the earth

John 14, in which Jesus promises to prepare a place and to come again

KEY POINTS:

- The word "new" in verse 13 refers to new in quality, not new in age. The earth will be renovated, not obliterated, much like how a Christian is made new in Christ without ceasing to be themselves.

- The "and" between new heavens and new earth matters enormously. Heaven and earth, once united and then divided by sin, will be fully reunited. Our final home is not heaven instead of earth, but heaven and earth together.

- Our forever home is not somewhere else. The new heavens and new earth is a real, physical, inhabited dwelling place where we build, create, eat, and live in the presence of God.

- In the new heavens and new earth, righteousness will not merely be credited to us as it is now in Christ. It will be the very fiber of who we are and how we live. Sin will be fully and finally dissolved.

2 Peter 3:5-13

Genesis 1:1

Genesis 6-9

2 Corinthians 5:17

Romans 8

Ephesians 1

Revelation 21:1-3

Isaiah 65:17-25

John 14

Malachi 4:2