Citizens of Heaven

Brothers, join in following my example, and note those who so walk,
as you have us for a pattern.  
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping,
 that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:  
whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly,
and whose glory is in their shame—who set their mind on earthly things.  
For our citizenship is in heaven,
from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,  
|who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body,
according to the working
by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
(Philippians 3:17-21)

Index to Articles on New Jerusalem
The Great House


The Three Heavens

In Jewish thinking, there are three tiers to the heavens.
Earth's atmosphere the weather and clouds, where the birds fly, is the First Heaven.
The planets, sun, moon and stars occupy the Second Heaven.
The Third Heaven is the abode of God and the Angels.
New Jerusalem, therefore is in the Second Heaven.
The Apostle Paul visited the Third Heaven, 2 Corinthians 12.

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The Third Heaven



The Second Heaven


Planet Earth

One hundred ninety five nations are found on the earth today, each accountable to God the Creator whose throne is in the Third Heaven.
The orbiting city of New Jerusalem is in the Second Heaven.

Worldometers.info reports the present world population as 8,059,944,210 people.

See God's Strange Servants on Human Government and its purposes, (Ray Stedman).

During His first visit to Planet Earth Jesus announced He would prepare a special place for His followers:

In My Father’s house (okia) are many mansions (mone);
if it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you to Myself;
that where I am, there you may be also.
And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Thomas said to Him,
“Lord, we do not know where You are going,
and how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him,
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through Me."
(John 14:2-6)

After His resurrection out from among the dead, Jesus spent the next forty days meeting with His disciples at various locations in Israel.

'Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”  Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for  the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 
You are witnesses of these things.  And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 
And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God." (Luke 24:44-53)

The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up,
after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering
by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “ which,”  He  said,  “you have heard from Me; 
for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 
And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,

who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, 
will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:1-10)



Prior to His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus focused all His time and efforts speaking to the people of Israel. He said something very remarkable on a visit to Mt Hermon North of the Sea of Galilee.

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”

So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, (Petros)  and on this rock (petra) 
I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ. (Matthew 16:13-20)

When He ascended Jesus did not stop in New Jerusalem, the place He had prepared for His Bride.
He ascended to the Third Heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father, "there to wait until His enemies should be made a stool for His feet."

1 The Lord said to my Lord,
"Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”
2 The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion.
Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
3 Your people shall  be volunteers In the day of Your power;
I n the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning,
You have the dew of Your youth.
4 The Lord has sworn
And will not relent, “You are a priest forever
According to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord is  at Your right hand;
He shall execute kings in the day of His wrath.
6 He shall judge among the nations,
He shall fill the  places with dead bodies, He
shall execute the heads of many countries.
7 He shall drink of the brook by the wayside;
Therefore He shall lift up the head.
(Psalm 110)

The Father is seen handing over the Title Deed of the Earth to His Son, Revelation 5:

And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
2 Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?”
3 And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.
4 So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it."
5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep.
Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst
of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain,
having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 
7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb,
each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense,
which are the prayers of the saints.
9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
10 And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And]we shall reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders;
and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth
and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
14 Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!”
And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

The Management of the Universe

The Left Hand of God

During the Seven-year Tribulation Period, Jesus and His Bride, the True Church, will oversee all that takes place down on earth.
The Lord will personally direct the great world-wide evangelism crusade of the 144,000.
The entire true church, all who know Jesus, will be removed from 195 different nations down on the planet---at the Rapture.
No more property taxes to pay, or income taxes. Totally honest weights, measures and balances!

"Salt" and "Light" will be taken up along with the church.
The Holy Spirit as a Person will depart also.

Earth's 195 nations (left behind) will quickly be merged into one entity headed by the Man of Sin.
One world government, one world religion! Guess Who is really running everything!

"Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners,
but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 
in whom the whole building, being fitted together,
grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 
in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
(Ephesians 2:19-22

City Living in New Jerusalem

Commonwealth

1: πολίτης 
(Strong's #4177 — Noun Masculine — polites — pol-ee'-tace )

"a member of a city or state, or the inhabitant of a country or district," Luke 15:15 , is used elsewhere in Luke 19:14; Acts 21:39 , and, in the most authentic mss., in Hebrews 8:11 (where some texts have plesion, "a neighbor"). Apart from Hebrews 8:11 , the word occurs only in the writings of Luke (himself a Greek). 

 2: συμπολίτης 
(Strong's #4847 — Noun Masculine — sumpolites — soom-pol-ee'-tace )

sun, "with," and No. 1, denotes "a fellow-citizen," i.e., possessing the same "citizenship," Ephesians 2:19 , used metaphorically in a spiritual sense. 

 3: πολιτεία 
(Strong's #4174 — Noun Feminine — politeia — pol-ee-ti'-ah )

signifies (a) "the relation in which a citizen stands to the state, the condition of a citizen, citizenship,"  Acts 22:28 , "with a great sum obtained I this citizenship" (AV, "freedom"). While Paul's "citizenship" of Tarsus was not of advantage outside that city, yet his Roman "citizenship" availed throughout the Roman Empire and, besides private rights, included (1) exemption from all degrading punishments; (2) a right of appeal to the emperor after a sentence; (3) a right to be sent to Rome for trial before the emperor if charged with a capital offense. Paul's father might have obtained "citizenship" (1) by manumission; (2) as a reward of merit; (3) by purchase; the contrast implied in Acts 22:28 is perhaps against the last mentioned; (b) "a civil polity, the condition of a state, a commonwealth," said of Israel, Ephesians 2:12 . See COMMONWEALTH. 

 4: πολίτευμα 
(Strong's #4175 — Noun Neuter — politeuma — pol-it'-yoo-mah )

signifies "the condition, or life, of a citizen, citizenship;" it is said of the heavenly status of believers,  Philippians 3:20 , "our citizenship (AV, "conversation") is in Heaven." The RV marg. gives the alternative meaning, "commonwealth," i.e., community. See COMMONWEALTH , FREEDOM. 

Note: Politeuo, Philippians 1:27 , signifies "to be a polites" (see No. 1), and is used in the Middle Voice, signifying, metaphorically, conduct characteristic of heavenly "citizenship," RV, "let your manner of life (AV, "conversation") be worthy (marg., "behave as citizens worthily") of the Gospel of Christ." In Acts 23:1 it is translated "I have lived." See CONVERSATION , LIVE.

 

Lambert Dolphin 



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