More.
They moved me back. Yeah.
I would like to turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Last week, afterwards, somebody came up to me and told me what they got out of the message on creation’s groaning. He said very seriously, “What I remember from your message is that Jeffrey talks to dogs.”
Like, yeah. It’s true.
This morning, at the breaking of bread, we were in Colossians 3:16-17. It mentions allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, among other things. This concept of the word of Christ dwelling richly has been my prayer for our time together.
Yesterday I was pacing around and meditating through this time. I had planned to share today about the cherubim and the New Jerusalem while talking about the new creation. There are some really neat things there. But yesterday I had such a time that I had to take a break. I was overwhelmed.
I told my wife that I was revelified instead of edified by this revelation about the new creation. So I am going to talk about it with a little less nerdy detail.
I think the real need for today is to allow the things we focus on to dwell in our hearts richly. Usually, when someone shares two messages in a row, the first ten minutes may be a recap, so you tune out at first. They may even talk in more of a monotone voice at first, and then somewhere in there it gets a little more exciting. Eventually, they are building up to something.
But I would like to skip some of that this time and just get into some exciting stuff, hopefully.
I passed out a chart. It says “copyrighted,” but it was copyrighted a long time ago, so it is public domain now. This fellow Larkin’s drawings are interesting, and some of them are a little crazy. This one, I think, is wonderful, so I wanted to pass it out with some of the things we are talking about today.
It is okay this time to go ahead and skim the chart. Last time I passed out a chart, I asked people not to look at it, and they still did. They told me how it affected their conscience. This time, it is completely okay to cheat.
We are going to use the chart just slightly, but mainly we are going to use some verses.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says:
So if anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation.
The old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new.
And verse 18 says:
And all things are of God,
Who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ.
There is another verse in Galatians 6:14-15:
But far be it from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through Whom the world was crucified to me, and I to the world.
For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision,
but new creation.
Let’s pray together.
Lord, we pray that our hearts can be very open to You today, even that we would be caught up into the things of God and away from the things of the earth. Pray that You would bless this time with Your life, and with Your life. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.” This is the translation I am reading from, and the words “there is” are in brackets in the Darby Translation. In other translations, that phrase is replaced with different words.
Very technically, it says, “If anyone is in Christ”—and then there is this pause, almost as if the writer forgot to put in some words—“new creation.” If anyone is in Christ: new creation.
It is almost as if English were a second language to the apostle Paul. Of course, he was writing in Greek. But it sounds strange, so we fill it in with other things. Yet it is larger than what we can fill it in with.
I like to say, “There is a new creation.” I think that is good. Some translations say, “He is a new creation,” and I think that is true. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. You are a new creature, part of the new creation.
But technically, if anyone is in Christ, suddenly they are in this realm of the new creation. There is a new creation, and it is all found inside Christ. There is a new start, a new beginning, and a new finality.
To speak about the new creation in its spiritual realm, I think it would help us first to look physically at the physical new creation that is yet to come. That is why I brought this chart, and I want to begin in 2 Peter 3.
I said 1 Peter, but I meant 2 Peter—2 Peter 3.
This chapter speaks of a new heaven and a new earth. There are a number of things on this chart that I do not want to use. They are neat, but they might help explain some terms you find. For instance, “the old world” is different from “the then world,” and the age to come, speaking of the kingdom age, is different from the new heaven and the new earth.
The chart uses 2 Peter 3 to show three major stages that the earth has undergone, or will undergo in the future.
Peter is addressing people who mock the coming of the Lord Jesus. In verse 4, they say, “Where is the promise of His coming? It is just like it was in the past. Nothing has ever changed. Since creation, things have been like this.”
Peter says it is through their own willfulness that they are deceived. They do not realize that things have not always been the same.
In verse 5, he says that this is hidden from them through their own willfulness:
The heavens were of old,
and earth having its subsistence out of water and in water by the word of God,
through which the then world, deluged with water, perished.
Here we have the phrase “heavens of old” and “the then world.” The heavens were of old, and that world became immersed in water. The earth now came out from that water, in Peter’s description.
Then verse 7 says:
But the present heavens and the earth by His word are laid up in store,
kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Peter continues:
But let not this one thing be hidden from you, beloved,
that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.
The Lord does not delay His promise, as some account of delay,
but is longsuffering toward you,
not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
He then says:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief,
in which the heavens will pass away with a rushing noise,
and the elements, burning with heat, shall be dissolved,
and the earth and the works in it shall be burnt up.
These things then being to be dissolved,
what ought ye to be in holy conversation and godliness,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
by reason of which the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved,
and the elements, burning with heat, shall melt.
But according to His promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Here we have the present heavens and the present earth. This is what is happening currently. They are waiting for a time of fire, when all the elements—all the things in them—will be completely burned up.
There is a time when this rock of earth, and all that is out there in the whole universe, will be purified by fire. Just as, in the past, the earth was covered over with water, in the future the earth will be purified by fire.
I mentioned last week the groaning of creation. At some point, a third of the plants and grass is burned up. But at this time, everything is really burned up. Everything is dealt with.
Peter asks, “If this is going to happen, how should we live right now? What should we be about?”
When you get some tangible thing from the earth, how do you look at it? Even in our happiness over things that are going on right now, there should be a hint that says, “This is going to burn.”
There should be a hint that says, “I am looking for and hoping for the new heavens and the new earth. I am living in this time of the new creation.”
Even though I finally got my grass to all be grass, all the potholes are filled in, and the dog finally learned to dig in just the back corner—we got this perfect—there should still be a hint in the believer’s heart: “Well, thank God, but it is going to all burn.”
I finally got just the right furniture to match the room the way I wanted it to look. There should still be that hint of flavor upon us: “I know it is going to burn. I know this is not going to last long.”
I finally got the newest phone, even though I cannot wait two more months until the next new phone comes and I trade mine. Still, you know, it is going to burn.
How do we live if we are waiting for the coming of the Lord, which points us to the new creation in the end? There is a longing for it. Peter even uses the term “hastening,” or making it faster. There is that kind of lifestyle for a Christian.
Physically, the new heavens and new earth happen after the thousand years, after the millennial kingdom. On the chart, the great big circle in the middle is speaking about the present earth.
The chart mentions the time before the flood, and it mentions the time when the Lord returns and brings in the kingdom. These were very major marks upon the earth and major changes.
After the flood, we began to have rain and storms and things like this. Before that, because of sin, the earth began to be very corrupted morally through mankind. After the flood, mankind not only died, but died much faster. Animals began not just to eat plants, but to eat each other and eat people.
Even after the flood, God said our bodies need the meat of some animals, so He made it appropriate to eat meat. Things changed after the flood.
In the future kingdom age, things will be very different from now. The animals will be peaceful again. The animals will not be eating each other or us. Mankind will live much longer. It will be rare for someone to die as young as one hundred years old.
Brother Kong would be a kid in that age, you know, as far as lifespan is concerned.
Now, at the very end of this, many things are judged by fire. The church is judged first by fire. If you look later at 1 Corinthians 3, there is a judgment seat of Christ mentioned there. It is a judgment experience for Christians.
It says that believers are judged according to their works, and the works are judged by fire. Even if your works are bad as a Christian, you will be saved, but “so as through fire.” All your works may be burned up, and you suffer loss and miss out on reward, which would be that thousand years.
There is a fire-judgment experience even for Christians. In Hebrews, when the writer warns believers about coming judgment, he mentions fire. In Revelation 2 and 3, one aspect of the overcomer’s reward is that they do not taste of the lake of fire. They do not taste the second death. They do not have that fire experience.
The church is judged by fire, and fire comes up a few times in the end times. When the sheep and goat nations are gathered before the Lord, the ones that did not do well during the tribulation go straight to the lake of fire.
When the Antichrist and the false prophet are taken by the Lord when He has landed on the earth, He puts them directly, alive, into the lake of fire.
Then, after the thousand years, Satan is released for a short time from the deep abyss in which he was locked up. Satan gathers multitudes of people on the earth to rebel against God, and they come against His city. This is in Revelation 20. Then God burns them all up. All the people who gather are burned by fire, and they die.
Satan himself is thrown into the lake of fire. Then those people, along with all the other dead, are brought before the great white judgment throne. Everyone not found in the book of life is condemned there to go to the lake of fire, as Revelation 20 says.
All these fire experiences bring us to the next point, where fire goes through everything in creation. Everything is physically purified, and this brings us to Revelation 21.
If you are interested in the new creation, the new heavens and new earth, and the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21 and 22 are the chapters to look at.
Revelation 21:1 says:
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away;
and the sea is no more.
I saw it. This comes right after the last of all people and the last of all beings are judged. Morally, everything is dealt with.
Even Hades itself—the place of the dead—is thrown into the lake of fire in Revelation 20. There is no more dying after that. There is no more moral corruption, no more sin, and no more temptation to sin. Everyone has made their choice at this point.
The first heaven and first earth have passed away. Chronologically, this brings you to the final new creation. All things have become new. All the old has passed away completely.
Morally, everything is right. Physically, everything is right. Spiritually, everything is pure. All the spiritual beings that rebelled are judged and dealt with, locked up forever or in the fire. The lake of fire was prepared for the devil and his angels.
This is the new creation, and it is something hoped for. Even during the kingdom age, there is still a sense of, “Almost, almost.” All the believers are not there yet—almost, though. All creation is not perfect yet—almost, though. All sin has not totally been dealt with, but it is almost there.
Things are restored very well, but not to perfection. Then come the new heavens and the new earth.
Then we read 2 Corinthians 5:17, which caught me off guard yesterday, even though I think I memorized it when I first got saved:
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.
The new creation has already started in Christ.
Physically, in time, things are going to happen over a thousand years from now: new heavens, new earth, new creation. But how does creation happen according to God’s style, according to the Creator’s way of creating? How does He do it?
Last week, we mentioned a little of how He does it. When God creates, He has His way of creating because it has to do with His purpose in creation.
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But how did He do it?
John 1 says that by the Word, which is Christ, everything came into being. My translation says that all things that have been came into being by Him, by Christ. There is not one thing that has come into being that did not come into being by this Word.
Later, it says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. This is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1 says that Christ is the firstborn of creation, that all things were created by Him, and that all things were created for Him. Whatever was created in the universe, the place from which matter came was from within Christ.
God’s reasoning for that is His final purpose for all creation and time. He wants all things to manifest Christ. He wants all things not only to be for Christ, but to be summed up in Christ. He wants Christ to be everything in all.
In the final picture of the new creation, not only are all evil things dealt with and all impurities removed, but it is more than that. If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. In that future new creation, everything has actually come directly from Christ.
This is God’s method of creation: He wants to create from Christ and through Christ.
Hebrews 11 tells us that the process of creation was a process of faith. It is similar to the experience we have with faith in smaller matters. Hebrews 11 says faith is the bringing into substance, or substantiating, of things hoped for.
What we are hoping for is this new heavens and new earth, this new creation. Faith brings it into substance. Faith is also the conviction, evidence, or proof of things unseen.
In Hebrews 11:3, we learn by faith that this experience of faith was involved when the worlds were created. We usually study the characters in Hebrews 11. Even I have always skipped over verse 3. But to think about creation itself: physical matter was created by faith.
In that way, the physical things we see have their origin in the invisible, in the spiritual. They have their origin in Christ.
That real tree in your backyard, the real ground you stand on, and the real people you say hello to—the matter of all creation has come from an invisible spiritual realm. In that invisible spiritual realm, it all came from Christ Himself.
When God creates anything, this is how He does it. He brings us to see what is real. What is more real is that invisible spiritual realm. What is more real is what started all that we think of as real.
The reason I wanted to look at the physical time of the new creation is because our mindset is more physical. We are in physical bodies. We touch this earth so much. We can study the earth and study God’s creation.
We can study it to the point where we think, “If I am going to discover God, I need to find Him through physical things, because that is what I can study.” But what we miss is that the physical came from another realm: a spiritual realm. The physical came from the invisible.
Even in philosophy and science, we discover some things about God’s creation: nothing comes from nothing; everything has an origin. If we trace physical creation back, it has to start from something that is not physical. It started from the eternal God, Who never had a beginning.
Someone—something—has to have never started in order to start anything, because nothing comes from nothing.
This is our new-creation experience. If anyone is in Christ, there is already a new creation. Remember that God starts with Christ in His creating. Do not just think of our present world. Think of the future world to come: the new creation.
One is currently decreasing, and the other is currently increasing.
Since almost two thousand years ago, at the cross, the old creation was done away with and the new creation had its first beginning. How can this happen? It happened in that spiritual realm where God does His creating actions.
The new creation that we will physically see, that will have a look and tangibleness to it, actually had its beginning at the cross of Christ.
Christ took the old creation with Him. So 2 Corinthians 5:17 says:
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation;
the old has passed away;
behold, all things have become new.
Revelation 21:1 says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The old heaven and old earth had passed away, and the sea exists no more.” The old heavens and old earth pass away more than a thousand years in the future. But back at the cross, all the old things passed away.
That final experience in the physical realm has already happened in the spiritual realm at the cross of Christ. He took all the reality of the old creation and brought it through the process of the cross.
The whole way of creating the new creation is constantly this same thing. We are in the present world, but at the cross, two thousand years ago, the beginning of the end of the old creation started. The beginning of that final fire happened at the cross, and the beginning of that final beauty of the new creation happened at the cross.
At that time, the old creation was very large. It was huge. The new creation was just beginning. Christ is the first of the new creation. He is the firstborn of the new creation. He is the very beginning of this new creation Himself.
It is not simply that things were created by Him. Now it is different. He Himself enters into the new creation individually.
Through the expanse of Christ, His resurrection, and His ability to release His life, He begins to bring all of creation into Himself, into Christ. It began with the apostles and disciples who believed in Christ. When they saw Him in His resurrection, they believed. He breathed on them and said, “Receive eternal life.”
Those ones found themselves in Christ from then on. Ever since that time, believers have been found in Christ. Everyone who is born again is in Christ.
For the believer, at the point of believing in Christ, the new creation inside begins to take place. They begin to be brought into the realm of the new creation. Not only that, but the cross begins to work on the realm of the old creation inside of them.
This happens both in fact and in our experience.
I was away this week in Canada, learning about abiding. Of course, abiding brings up the difference between having our place in Christ and actually living there—our abode, our being about Him right now.
It is the same with the new creation. If anyone is in Christ, technically they are already in the realm of the new creation. You cannot jump out of it. But you are also in the realm of the old creation.
We are in bodies that are not yet redeemed. We also experience the old-man nature inside us. In a sense, I am in Adam and I am in Christ right now.
Morally and spiritually, we would call that old creation in us the old man, Adam. But in my experience, the old creation should be decreasing, and the new creation—the new life of Christ—should be increasing.
This should be our experience, but it hinges on whether we are abiding right now.
I would apply 2 Corinthians 5:17 to an experience, not merely a fact. Right before it, Paul says that we do not know each other according to the flesh. Some knew Christ physically, but now they know Him differently. As believers, we know each other spiritually.
Knowing each other according to the flesh is easy when we run into each other’s flesh, right? But there is an eyelid of forgiveness upon us. We close our eyes, then open them, and forgiveness has shattered the old-creation viewpoint through which we used to see that person.
Now we look at them and see: if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. This person is a new creature.
The experience of the new creation can happen right now through abiding in Christ, through living in the new creation. Have we found ourselves in Christ?
There is the “in” and there is the “ofness” of a Christian. The Lord Jesus, in John 17, prayed not that we would be taken out of the world, but that we would remain in the world while not being of the world.
It is the same with Christ. You are in Christ, and then there is being of Christ. It comes down to this: I am cast on Him. I am walking with Him. I am enjoying Christ. I am of Christ.
I am not merely in the family; I am living in the home, with the family, doing things together. This is our current experience of the new creation.
What I think I saw yesterday was this: everything—everything that makes it to the new creation—is inside Christ.
The rocks, the stars, and the universe—all of it squeezes through that cross and is in the new creation because of Christ. Nothing can be there that is not of Christ.
He literally and physically, not only spiritually, is everything in the very end. I am not saying you lose yourself, but you shine Christ. The trees shine Christ. The rocks shine Christ.
A brother reminded me last time of a verse that shows things in creation having a voice, talking, and worshiping God—the trees and so on. He shared it with tears, and I really, really amen that.
I do not know what it looks like. I know someone will say that what they got out of this message is that Jeffrey thinks trees are going to talk to us too. Maybe. I may be crazy.
But all I know is:
The trees of the field shall clap their hands.
When we sing it, if you watch the wind, the trees are doing this, and some branches start to break and whatever. But maybe, at least spiritually, creation burned up and purified so that it is only in Christ—maybe something is beyond our imagination.
Maybe the new creation is different from the staleness we give it.
We can enjoy it right now. The new creation has already started. The new heavens, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem have already begun in Christ.
This is literal. This is real and tangible—spiritually tangible. The new creation can be touched and enjoyed right now.
The new heavens, new earth, and New Jerusalem can happen right now. This matches all of history, because throughout history God creates through Christ. He always wants it first to be spiritual and then physical.
The creating process is happening now. We can speed it up or slow it down. We are part of the new creation and part of the experience of this creating work. We are part of the new heavens, new earth, and New Jerusalem being built and purified by fire. It is literally happening today.
This blows me away. When I am experiencing the new creation deep inside and abiding in Christ, I see that all the old things are gone. Technically, right at that moment when you are in Christ, experiencing Christ and abiding in Christ, all that old creation is gone.
True, you are trapped in the clothing of your old-creation body. True, you may see a squirrel five minutes later and be distracted. We are limited. But you can experience the new creation today.
Let us contemplate that just a little together. In the new creation, there is the New Jerusalem.
I am not going to get into all the details, and I am not going to have my New Jerusalem chart out today. But there are some things that everybody probably remembers. The New Jerusalem shines clearly as a strange type of gold.
Let us say we are experiencing the spiritual reality of the new creation right now. Someday, physically—and physically and spiritually is a little complex—there will be a physical earth and physical new heavens and new earth wherein dwells righteousness, and the New Jerusalem will be there.
People will come to the gates. Kings of the earth will bring their glory to the gates, or whatever they have. No one enters except those written in the book of life, but they go out.
There is the tree of life and a river flowing. The tree of life has not only one fruit, but twelve fruits, for each month of the year. The leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations.
This is something true in the future. But is it true right now, in that creating process of the new creation happening inside us? I think it is literally and spiritually happening right now.
Those abiding in Christ already have a portion of the tree of life. What is more real: to see the physical tree of life with its fruit ten feet away and know that it is the tree of life, or right now, as someone in Christ experiencing the new creation, to take the spiritual fruit of the tree of life and live by the life of Christ?
Live by eternal life. I think that is more real.
I think the reason God does the physical after the spiritual is because, in His mind and viewpoint, that spiritual reality is more real. That is what is solid in this universe and beyond this universe.
We take of the tree of life right now. There is also the river of life. Within a believer, there is life flowing. If you tap into the life of Christ, it is not that you have to keep going to the well, like the woman at the well in John 4.
Jesus said that if she knew Who was speaking to her and believed, there would be a spring of water flowing out. Many of us have probably experienced this. You have had a dry day, but then you tap into Christ.
It is not that you spent an hour and gained a good supply of grace that you can unload on somebody. It is that, right at this moment, you are living by the life of Christ. The life of Christ is your drink and your flow, and it overflows even without much history. Right now, that is your portion.
There is also this gold. Fire is purifying everything. Even us, 1 Peter 1 speaks of precious faith purified like gold by fire. This is what is happening to us.
These shining materials are being purified through the dealings of the cross. This is our crossfire. More and more, Christ shines out.
More and more, you can see through the wall and see what is inside the New Jerusalem. What you see is almost a blinding light, because the light of Christ shines throughout the whole place.
Imagine thick, tall walls that are transparent. The reason they are transparent is that they have been so purified by fire that all you see when you look at the wall is Christ. There is a stone there, or there is a piece of gold there, but you can see through it because it simply shines Christ.
It is the same experience with believers spiritually right now. I really believe the Lord wants to create that New Jerusalem spiritually before He physically puts it together. He wants this to happen spiritually.
We notice believers, more and more as they progress spiritually, shining Christ more and more. It is the whole John the Baptist principle:
He must increase, but I must decrease.
This is spiritual growth. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation is being built, and it is happening right now.
In the New Jerusalem, there are tall walls. I am not saying anybody is really bad out there, but even now the wall experience of dwelling in the New Jerusalem is our portion. It is very tall, there are specific gates to enter, and only specific things are allowed in.
There is a filter—the filter of the twelve tribes of Israel. They allow into the city only things that are of Christ, things that have eternal life. What comes out from them is just of Christ.
Then we come to these crazy verses in the Bible that tell us to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Do all things, whether eating or drinking, to the glory of God. Let everything we say be pure and helpful, not merely common.
These are out-of-this-world, impossible types of encouragements—or you can take them as commands. But they are normal in the New Jerusalem. Whatever comes out of that city shines Christ. Nothing comes in except what belongs in that city.
These walls are not only for protection from the outside, though in our current day we would certainly say that. They also bring a sense of home. The home stops here.
Where is my house right now? As you walk around on this earth, realizing that everything is going to burn and will not last forever, there is still a togetherness of living in the New Jerusalem deep inside.
It is like this: What do I let come into my heart? Proverbs says to guard your heart, because out of it comes life. Protect your heart.
This comes down to relationships, time spent, what your eyes watch, and the things you do. It comes down to all of this. But basically, if you are in Christ, there is a new creation, and all the old things have passed away. You are experiencing the New Jerusalem right now.
I just wanted to get up today and testify how amazing this is. I do not have a lot of really cool things to say, actually, except something that needs to be contemplated and meditated on. We need to let the word dwell richly in our hearts.
For me, to know how real the new creation is currently—not merely as a future hope, but to know that right at this moment I am in the new creation—is tremendous. It is my experience. I am in Christ.
By God’s grace, I can stand up here and say that I am in Christ. Those old things have been done away with by the cross. The world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world. There is no circumcision or uncircumcision, no other background-type things. There is only new creation.
This is all we have.
Which realm are we living in right now? Where are you dwelling: in the new creation, or in this failing, about-to-be-burned old creation?
Let us pray together.
Lord, I want to thank You so much for bringing us all into the new creation. Thank You that it is our portion today. Thank You, Lord, that You love us to the uttermost, save us completely, and give us the privilege, over all creation, to enter into this first and to pave the way for the rest of the world.
Thank You that we can pave the way for all the animals, all the plants, and all the things out there. Lord, I really take it as a privilege. We all together, as Your people, can be overwhelmed by the largeness of Your purpose in creation, by the immensity of what You are doing out there and with us.
We worship You as Your people. In Jesus’ name, amen.