4th June 2026

4th June 2026


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Romans 8v19-22) 


Message (Scott Woodburn) 


The Christian longs for Christ's return because on that glorious day we will be changed irrevocably. The resurrected body will have none of the limitations that we currently have, no more pettiness, no more loneliness, no more rage and no more sin. We will be raised to live forever and it will be glorious indeed.


But where will we live? We have spoken about Heaven as a real place beyond the first heaven (the sky) and the second heaven (the stars). Will our new bodies be lifted from this earth and taken to Paradise? No. Just as you have lived your life upon this earth, so you will spend eternity here and just as you will experienced a radical transformation at Christ's return, so too the heavens and the earth will be transformed.


It might surprise you to know that creation is longing for the return of Christ. Paul said that creation is eager for the revealing of the sons of God (v19). In other words creation looks forward to our resurrection because when we are raised it will also be time for creation to be raised to life. The world and universe has unwillingly experienced the futility of sin (v20) but creation will one day be set free from sin and experience the same freedom that we are promised (v21). Indeed, Paul described creation as groaning as if in childbirth (v22) longing for the day of new birth.


We'll consider next time what the resurrection of creation will be like but as I write it is a searingly hot day in Ballynahinch and as I work in the garden I am beneath a blue cloudless sky with the sun's heat upon my neck and the song of birds all around me. One of my dogs is sleeping on the chair while my other one is sniffing about the grass. Daisies blanket my lawn and something like cotton is falling from a tree and gently floating in the breeze. I have not exaggerated. Creation is already amazing and will soon become even more so.


You and I will not spend eternity in an intermediate state, rather we will spend eternity in our final state - new resurrected bodies with different qualities and abilities living here on a resurrected and extraordinarily beautiful earth. Heaven is our home and Heaven will be here on earth.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q87 What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.
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