HEAVEN CITY

What is Heaven City?
 

The original meaning of the word, Jerusalem in Hebrew, is “City of God.” David had a dream about it. In his time, he wanted to build a city where God is centered and at the same time people worship HIM. Ancient Israel also dreamed about the kingdom of God. Daniel wrote about an eternal kingdom: “It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation” (Daniel 4:2-3 NIV).

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The author of the Book of Hebrew mentions of Abraham’s vision:

 

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going. By faith he sojourned in the Promised Land as though it were not his, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. He looked forward to the well-founded city, designed and built by God (Hebrews 11:8-10 NJB).

 

In addition, the author adds what the city is like:

 

But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church of first-born sons, enrolled as citizens of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and to the spirits of the upright who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to purifying blood which pleads more insistently than Abel's  (Hebrews 12:22-24 NJB).

 

There is no permanent city for us here; we are looking for the one which is yet to be  (Hebrews 13:14 NJB).

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Jesus Proclaimed the Kingdom of God

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The reason or purpose of Jesus’ ministry is to proclaim the kingdom of God. He said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to do” (Luke 4:43 NJB). Even Jesus trained his disciples and sent them to do the same thing.

 

And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (Luke 9:2 NJB).

And he said to them, 'Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation (Mark 16:15 NJB).

 

From what Jesus mentioned, it is clear for us to know that the mission of Jesus is to let people know God’s presence at any moment in their life. Since God created the world, God is always among us.

 

For Jesus, the good news of the kingdom of God is about the nature of God who is always near to us. Where God is, is the kingdom of God. Then, those who are in God are already living in the kingdom. To know God is to recognize Jesus. A man, named Zacchaeus, in the Bible (Luke 19) recognized Jesus. Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to his house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man has come to seek out and save what was lost” (9). Zacchaeus was saved and experienced of God’s presence through Jesus. He saw Jesus and then knew God’s Immanuel with him.  

 

The formation of a kingdom, life in such a kingdom, is the fundamental end of life for Christ, as set forth in the Gospels. The length of his purpose horizontally is the inclusion of all people in such as cooperative community and height of it upward is the raising of all people to a full consciousness of sonship with God, in a family-fellowship, living to do his will. The emphasis of Christ is on life and action, not on theory and definition. The kingdom of God is something we do-not a place to which we go…. 

 

In Heaven City, its goal is personal and societal transformation, according to the words of God.
 

Three Key Foundations for Building Heaven City

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The mission of Heaven City is based on three key foundations: Jesus, Edification, and Discipleship, or JED. The JED can be found from Jesus’ great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus instructed his disciples:

 

Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time' (Matthew 28:18-20 NJB).

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Jesus

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The life and faith Jesus demonstrated is the way we should follow. He is our “forerunner” who walked on the path of salvific life in God. The faith of Jesus is the pattern of God-driven life revealed throughout the Bible stories.

 

In order to know God, it is the most important to know Jesus. Jesus needs to be our starting point. The disciple of Jesus believed that Jesus was “the way” to God the Father. Thus, following Jesus is essential to our formation. To follow him in life is to fully understand him. To fully understand him is to embark into the soul, the inner life, wherein the presence of Jesus transforms, yielding faithfulness that deepens our alternative presence in a world that does not see God as divine, authoritative or even alive.

 

Jesus was the living alternative, thrust into a world unaware that the course of history was about to change. He was God incarnate: a servant, a refugee, and savior of the world. He was not a kingly messiah. He brought the incarnation of justice, peace, hope and love. A real deal shalom activist. He offered hope for an alternative world grounded in a different reality. The alternative life is “the kingdom of God.” It was a kingdom reality that divinely inspired an alternative consciousness-the same consciousness preached by the Israelite prophets.

 

Edification

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To be followers of Jesus is to become citizens of God’s kingdom, which results in them becoming members of the ekklesia. The word, ekklesia, means the household of the faithful. It is the body of Christ, those obedient who crawled out from the darkness into the light to participate in the purposes of God and to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God.

 

Christians have to exercise the same degree of faith. They have to acknowledge the Lord’s means of salvation and display works as evidence of said faith. Paul to Timothy (1 Tim 1:19) and Peter (1 Peter 3:16; 21-22) mentions an appeal to God for a “good conscience.”

 

Therefore, in order to build a house of God, it is important for all of the households to be edified according to the Words of God. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:12 and repeatedly in 1 Corinthians 14:1-26 that edification is one of the reasons that spiritual gifts are given to believers. In 2 Corinthians, Paul states no fewer than three times that the “building up” of the church is the reason for his apostolic authority (10:8, 12:19, and 13:10). Paul’s goal was to edify. In 1 Corinthians 10:23 and Ephesians 4:16, he states that the church must work to edify itself for the overall health of each member. Finally, each of us is commanded to engage in edification (Romans 14:19; 15:2; Ephesians 4:29; 1 Thessalonians 5:11).

 

Discipleship

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There is no greater intimacy than to know Jesus in the soul and yield to God’s will. This is what it means to be a disciple, rooted in the divine, following Jesus, and being continually formed into the image of Jesus. To know Jesus is to follow him. Jesus commended his disciples: Go, therefore, make disciples…teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.”