We pick up here with the next part of Dylan DeMarsico’s upcoming book “A New World.”
An Unshakable Kingdom
When Jesus arrived on the scene as the Jewish Messiah, He and His followers continued to believe that God was forming a new world. Jesus believed the new world was starting with Him, as He openly declared, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” Anyone could join His movement by repenting and trusting and following Him. A new era of the kingdom of God, or heaven, invading the earth had begun.
Jesus told His followers, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples, spoke in the book of Acts about a time when Christ would bring about the “restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). And again, in the New Testament, the author of Hebrews discussed the reality that God is shaking all things, so that “the things which cannot be shaken may remain” (Hebrews 12:27). He continued by explaining that we are “receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28).
The teaching that the whole world will be shaken to reveal a kingdom that cannot be shaken is a great way to understand the “end times.” There is certainly a coming day of judgment where God will judge the world. Everybody’s lives will be revealed and nothing will be hidden. God will reward everyone for all the good that they’ve done. And there will be judgment against all the bad that was done. But what is the purpose for all of this?
The purpose is that God is revealing a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The new heaven and new earth will be unshakable because they will be built on the three things that remain: faith, hope, and love (see 1 Corinthians 13:13). God has made it clear that everyone is invited to the new earth and His desire is that “all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). But there will certainly be consequences for those who reject God’s goodness.
Let’s continue to look at more elements of the new heaven and new earth God is building. The first disciples of Jesus had a very real and physical hope in a literal resurrection from the dead. They did not merely believe that we were going to be “spirits” or “ghosts” in the clouds forever. This is a common misconception and one that the enemy uses to discourage the saints. Let’s examine the way the New Testament believers thought of the future of the world and themselves.
Resurrected Bodies
Spiritually, we have already been raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:6). This is a tangible and actual reality that has direct influence in our day-to-day lives. When we pray, we are already spiritually in heaven on the throne with Christ. He has given this union with Himself as a gift to enjoy forever. We live from a complete victory that Christ already purchased through His death and resurrection (see my previous book Made Perfect for more on that). With that said, we have not been physically resurrected yet.
Paul warned Timothy about people who “have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some” (2 Timothy 2:18). Three days after Jesus died on a wooden cross, He physically and literally walked out of His empty grave. When Jesus first started appearing to His disciples after He came back to life, they thought he was just a ghost.
“They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.”
Luke 24:37-43 NIV
The fact that Jesus literally and physically rose from the dead is the very foundation of our faith. This is the hope of the world! He is the firstfruit of the new heavens and new earth in both spirit and body. The apostle Paul, the great Jewish teacher whose eyes were opened to Jesus as the Messiah, preached that Jesus’s resurrection was the first of many resurrections. “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).
We are called to believe in a physical resurrection. We will one day be physically raised from the dead, just like Jesus was. Look at this startling statement from Jesus: “Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out” (John 5:28). The “voice” He is talking about is His own. There is a day coming when people will wake up out of their graves and come back to life. Jesus is echoing the Jewish prophet Daniel who talked about people awakening from the dust of the earth (Daniel 12:2). So yes, this even includes those who chose to get cremated instead of buried. They too will get put together and reformed by the resurrection power of God (in a reverse Thanos snap). And the new world, which Jesus already inaugurated 2000 years ago, will continue now as His brothers and sisters walk around with a resurrected body just like His.