Matthew 24:35
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
We rush past so many known, familiar, loved, comforting Words of Jesus and what do they actually say?
One answer immediately is - we all have opinions on interpretations on God's Word and also the validity. God is God. And God does not lie. Just because we don't believe some of God's Word to be His, His Word is not invalidated.
A human being can pray as Hezekiah does for a Word of God to be miraculously changed. That rarely happens. This is far different from prayer.
Prayer is promised many times in Scripture to be loved, heeded and answered. Miracles occur because the Heart of God warms to His Word being sent forth.
"Just because you believer or disbelieve God's Scripture - this doesn't suggest this doesn't apply to you."
And in the Old Testament we needed a prophet to explain what God means. God is so Vast while our lives are small, and the years are short, we might not encounter all of God's Word in our lives.
You might not encounter real war in our daily lives.
We might not encounter the amazing and overwhelming miracles of the New Testament.
Yet we live in a world changed and referenced by historians to this Word of God.
One of the right answers to the unanswerable "This isn't the Word of God" ? Fine, debate it with me in 90 years.
Right err on the side of Life and Mercy!
The first part is easy to understand! We Know we will all pass on. All of to His Heaven. Joel 3 tells us we will all have time with God. And we will be Judged.
No one can be good enough, and we rely upon Jesus.
Will Heaven pass away?
Jesus says right there, Matthew 24, that Heaven passes away. Jesus is explaining what?
Jesus explains Heaven a lot.
Acts 23:8
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
Matthew 22
28 Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
346 Times Heaven is referred to in the Old Testament.
Then Jesus tells us of a New Covenant.
The Old Testament contains 346 references to Heaven. This is called Sheol - the Place of the Dead.Yet not like Hades, God is present! Matthew 22 refers to Heaven before the New Covenant.
Jesus is in the process of the Lord's Prayer ~ Bringing God's Will in Heaven being done on earth. Good News!
John 15:15
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you
How is Jesus changing Heaven?
Immediately we see, Jesus is calling for a warmer Heaven. We are not just servants.
John 16:23
In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
Luke 10
And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you."
We all know about Elijah in the Transfiguration, Elijah has Jesus refers to as John the Baptist. Joshua of the Exodus has a parallel (I'm fond of saying the Bible repeats, so we remember and learn again in new paths). Joshua is repeated in the return from Babylonian Exile. A repeat of a good Joshua! (No, not reincarnation.)
Joshua the High Priest of the newly built Second Temple is in Ezra and Nehemiah's High Priest; he is called Joshua ,son of Jehozadak, in the books of Haggai and Zechariah.
Zechariah 3 tells us of the end of the old Heaven Old Testament and reverses the story of Job Chapter one and two. Satan has not been thrown out of Heaven before. God's Heaven had to accept all of the living.
Isaiah 14 explains Satan wanted to surpass God.
Ezekiel 28:13
You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. 14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. 16 Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.
I looked up once so see if cherubim was cherub and found NO.
A New Heaven and a New Earth
Zechariah 3
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right side to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?”
3 Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. 4 The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.”
Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
5 Then I said, “Put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood by.
6 The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua: 7 “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.
8 “‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch"
Tada. Here is Jesus and warm up, the pre-repeat - the Prodigal Father running to us ~ the unworthy!
And we are not required to sit next to the cherub who would plot against us or God. Not suffering the same fate as perilously awful.
Revelation 21:1
Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away
Revelation 21 continues
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
The Gates of Heaven are now Open. God is our Light.
And Earth?
We used to need a prophet to explain this to us and explain.
God uses His Spirit and His Word now.
Jesus has made us clean before God.
Teaching is helpful as our soul, filled with the Holy Spirit speaks to us.
All that is required of us is to invite Jesus to dwell within us.
God promises if we seek, He will answer.
John 4
23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
1 Timothy 2:5
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus
Jesus is the Word of God for us.
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:9
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
We should not worry for God's Holy Spirit coming to dwell in us. He is not like the old Star Trek movies demanding the use of the starship. God creates us to be ourselves, because this is why God loves us. We are His Children.
John 1:12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Thanks Be to God our Father Running to us. Jesus the Lord! Amen.
♔ Lord Jesus Saves †
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