"A New Beginning: The 'Rebirth' of Planet Earth"

                                                             A New Beginning:

The “Rebirth” of Planet Earth

 

March 27, 2021

Larry R Evans

 

Introduction

 

When Jesus told Nicodemus that he could not see the kingdom of God without being born again, it was a shock. His response? “How can someone be born when they are old?”

 

Today we will again be looking at “rebirth.” This time, however, it is about the rebirth of a very old planet called Earth. Once again, we can ask, “How is this possible? We will see that we aren’t talking about “pink clouds, golden harps and streets made of gold.” It is as radical as “being born again” (John 3:7).

 

We might add, “With so much evil in the world, how can we possibly expect to see the rebirth of this planet? After all, we humans have many ways to restart our world.  In 1931 Aldous Huxley wrote about the “Brave New World”, then President Roosevelt initiated “the New Deal” in 1933 and 1939. Then there was, of course, the popularized “new world order” which Woodrow Wilson initiated following World War II.  In the 1970s and 1980s, there was “The Movement for a New Society.”  More recently a group of businessmen has launched, “Start a New World.”  It’s pretty clear that many feel we need some sort of new beginning.

 

Perhaps we should go back to the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus regarding “new beginnings.” For generations, it has been God’s plan all along to restart.  

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. –John 3:16,17. 

Whether it be a transformed life or a planet both are initiated by the love of God! We must guard ourselves against a merely narcissistic interpretation of God’s grand plans. As we’ve seen from our studies in the past, we don’t fully comprehend God’s plans!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

declares the LORD.

“As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isa. 55:8,9)

Quiz

 

1.     True or False? Given the fact that millions have died because of the pandemic, God’s greatest gift should be the gift of a longer life. (Jn 3:16)

 

2.    True or False? All diseases except dementia will be erased in the new earth. (Isa. 65:17)

 

3.    True or False? One author (C.S. Lewis) has said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.”  Is this true or false?  (Joel 2:12,13)

4.    True or False? Evangelism is witness and witness is worship and worship is stewardship. (Isaiah 66:19,20; Romans 15:16)

 

5.    True or False?” The transformation for the world’s “new” creation has begun. (1 Peter 2:9)

 

6.    True or False? God’s love is progressive? (PP:33; GC:678; Isa. 65:1,2; 1 John 3:1; 4:8 and Rev. 22:17)

New Heavens & a New Earth

God has a plan for our broken world, a lasting-solution, but it seems we have our own. Note the following and see if you detect the heartbeat of God.

All day long I have held out my hands

to an obstinate people,

who walk in ways not good,

pursuing their own imaginations —

Before God describes the “new heavens and a new earth” He explains how His heart yearns to give His new world to everyone. To those who have not known Him, we hear Him saying, look over here, “Here I am, Here I am” (Isa. 65:1). If we are to study God’s plan to have “new heavens and a new earth,” we must begin with what makes it all possible – a God who loves, a God who cares deeply for each one of us.” Pink clouds, golden harps, and streets of gold hardly describe the picture God has in mind. Consider God as Isaiah pictures Him, “All day long I have held out my hands.”  In the midst of our obstinacy, He is inviting us to come home to be with Him. With that picture in mind, we are ready to learn more about His plans for “New Heavens & a New Earth.”

 

1.    True or False? Given the fact that millions have died because of the pandemic, God’s greatest gift should be the gift of a longer life. (Jn 3:16)

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Note what Isaiah says of those who are transformed (Isa. 65:15b-17a),

to his servants he will give another name.

Whoever invokes a blessing in the land

will do so by the one true God;

whoever takes an oath in the land

will swear by the one true God.

 

A longer life like we have now would not be safe, would it?  Jesus didn’t come and die to we might have more of what we have now. This is where the “Prosperity Gospel” misleads. Quantity may be implied, but quality or a different kind of life both now and in the future new world is what Jesus had in mind when He told Nicodemus that he must be “born again.” So, it is with the “new earth” promised in Isaiah and Revelation.

 

1.    True or False? All diseases except dementia will be erased in the new earth (Isa. 65:17).

“See, I will create

new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered,

nor will they come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever

in what I will create,

for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight

and its people a joy.

Not remembered . . . but why?  The NIV begins with “See”, the NKJV has “For behold.” The attention is directed to God Himself. The extraordinary power which was displayed at the original creation will again be displayed in a new work of creation! This new world will so fully show the glory of our Creator that every desire and need will be fulfilled. Our former memories are not so much erased as dwarfed by what is experienced. Paul implies this when he wrote, “For Christ’s love compels us . . . the old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor 5:14, 17). Revelation 21 echoes this with the assurance that when God dwells with us tears and death will be no more, crying and pain will not be remembered . . .why? “for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev.21:4).

 

2.    True or False? One author (C.S. Lewis) has said, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.”  Is this true or false?  (Joel 2:13)

Who can doubt that we live in a broken world? Yet from the brokenness hope arises. As Ernest Hemingway wrote, “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” (A Farewell to Arms). Doesn’t this describe what God has been doing all along?  As we reflect on hardships and sufferings, if we listen carefully, we can hear God telling the world, “The way things are now was never my plan. I have something better in store for you.” Therefore . . . 

Even now,” declares the LORD,

“return to me with all your heart,

with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

Rend your heart

and not your garments.

Return to the LORD your God,

for he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger and abounding in love,

and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:12,13)

3.    True or False? Evangelism is witness and witness is worship and worship is stewardship. (Isaiah 66:19,20; Romans 15:16)

 

Sometimes it is good for us to pause in our evangelistic endeavors and ask ourselves why we do what we do. Why do we want to win converts? Why! Consider these verses from Isaiah 66:18, 20-21.  Despite His disappointment with His specially called people and their plans,  God says,

“And I, because of what they have planned and done, am about to come and gather the people of all nations and languages, and they will come and see my glory.

And they will bring all your people, from all the nations, to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots and wagons, and on mules and camels,” says the LORD. “They will bring them, as the Israelites bring their grain offerings, to the temple of the LORD in ceremonially clean vessels. And I will select some of them also to be priests and Levites,” says the LORD.

Years ago, I read a statement by John Stott in his book, Our Guilty Silence, that I cherish to this day. For me it strips away the institutional tones so often associated with evangelism. 

This implies that neither evangelism (the preaching of the gospel) nor its immediate result (the winning of converts) is to be understood as an end in itself. Why do we want to win converts? What do we intend to do with them when they are won? Biblical evangelism never puts a full stop after conversion but regards conversion as the prelude to worship. The evangelist should look beyond the benefit which comes to the convert who is saved to the glory which comes to the God who saves him. Our ultimate aim is t ‘offer’ converts to God, in the sense that after conversion they offer themselves t Him as worshippers in word and deed. And once the convert becomes a true worshipper, he will find himself driven out again into the world as a witness. (p.26)

4.   True or False?” The transformation for the world’s “new” creation has begun. (1 Peter 2:9)

 

When Isaiah wrote,

They will build houses and dwell in them;

they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. (Isa.65:21)

he had more in mind the kind of activity that would happen in the new heaven and new earth. He was reflecting the prophecy that described what would happen as a result of disobedience as stated in Deuteronomy 28:30,

You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape her. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.

There is a whole new order of life! God’s planned earth will be given another start, but this time God’s people think differently. They live differently. They welcome the opportunity of living in the presence of God. God is the center of their life.

No longer will they build houses and others live in them,

or plant and others eat.

For as the days of a tree,

so will be the days of my people;

my chosen ones will long enjoy

the work of their hands. (Isa. 65:2)

For the Palestinian, the tree was a symbol of permanence and endurance. So, it will be in the home God has for His people.

 

When Jesus described His people in what we refer to as the Sermon on the Mount, He was not only admonishing us to live that way, but He was telling us the kind of life that characterizes His kingdom. We can get a taste of that kingdom even now through the transformed lives of those who have been “born again.” Peter alludes to the role God’s people play even now (1 Peter 2:9.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Concluding Reflections

 

5.    True or False? God’s love is progressive? (PP:33; GC:678; Isa. 65:1,2; 1 John 3:1; 4:8 and Rev. 22:17)

 

Is it God’s love that is progressive or is it our understanding of God’s that is progressive?

 

I find it interesting to see how Ellen White began and ended her massive work called The Conflict of the Ages Series. The first of the five-book, Patriarchs and Prophets, p32) series begins with these words,

“God is love.” 1 John 4:16. His nature, His law, is love. It ever has been; it ever will be. “The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,” whose “ways are everlasting,” changeth not. With Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Isaiah 57:15; Habakkuk 3:6; James 1:17.

The last book of the series, The Great Controversy, p.678, closes with these words,

The great controversy is ended. Sin and sinners are no more. The entire universe is clean. One pulse of harmony and gladness beats through the vast creation. From Him who created all, flow life and light and gladness, throughout the realms of illimitable space. From the minutest atom to the greatest world, all things, animate and inanimate, in their unshadowed beauty and perfect joy, declare that God is love. 

From the beginning of the “old” world to the beginning of the “new world” there is one conclusion, one principle throughout history and that is “God is love.”  Somehow the fake news over the centuries has concluded that heaven is all about “pink clouds on which we play our golden harps as we travel streets of gold.” Surely, we have missed the central point, “God is love” and, therefore, we are loved. Can there be any better news! It’s no wonder Isaiah’s concludes his vision of God’s people in the new earth this way, 

From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the LORD. (Isa. 66:23)

And the invitation remains,

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. (Rev. 22:17)

And Jesus reassures us,

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.