So notice now, when you look at the first and second resurrection, on the one hand you've got people who become ‘priests and kings’ to God, and rule and reign with Him for 1000 years. On the other, it doesn't say anything. It just says: they're all raised from the dead, and they will give account for their works; and if their name is in the Book of Life, that means they're believers. They go through into eternity in a resurrection body. The big issue is: whether we're in that first resurrection.
Here's another one, from the Book of Revelation - the promise that's made to the overcomer...
Revelations 2:26 - “Whoever overcomes, and keeps My work to the end, to him I will give power over the nations”.
Notice: ‘power over the nations’, to rule and extend Christ's kingdom and nation; and they're not given to anyone, but an overcomer.
Revelations 3:21-22 - “To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. If you have an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Notice again: to sit in the throne with Jesus; or to share His authority and dominion, and rule with Him in eternity, or in the coming kingdom - you must be an overcomer. That means, you've got to have something to overcome; and Revelation 2 and 3 tells us the various things we must overcome, the challenges all of us must overcome, and of course there's many other kinds of things.
We're getting towards the end of the study, just the last couple of thoughts related to it now... So where will we live in our resurrected body? If you've got a resurrected body, you've come into that resurrection... Where will you live? Where will you be? Will I need this house, for example? There's lots of things that you question, of course.
When you start to look at eternal things, the glory of the eternal, He says: I go to prepare a place for you. So those with resurrection bodies... the Bible indicates that they will ‘live’ in the new Jerusalem, and ‘reign’ on the earth. That means they will have instant transportation anywhere in the earth, just to carry out Jesus' commands.
If Jesus has declared He will ‘rule from Jerusalem, over the whole earth’, there will be the natural Jerusalem, and there will be the new Jerusalem, the City of Our God. He will be there. You must have the natural realm, and the supernatural realm, very close and interacting with one another. It looks as though, for all extents and purposes, God is reigning through the world through natural Jerusalem, just like He did with David. He reigned over the known world, through David, and then through Solomon.
But heaven was on earth. Heaven - there was an immeasure. The veil will be lifted. There will be the natural dimension... people carry on: they eat, they drink, they work, they sow, they plant, they do all the kinds of things they do. They study, they learn, they grow, they die. There will be all of that sort of thing happening; but all the human processes will be greatly enhanced by the glory of God being present - that's what will make a difference. Everything will grow better. Everything will work better, everything - the devil has been put in chains for 1000 years, so there's no demonic interference, no demonic structure. I think people will be amazed at just that one thing, what that does.
Then when you start to fill the place with the glory, things accelerate in the glory. Things thrive in the glory. Everything will thrive. The whole of the millennium will be a time of unprecedented world peace, prosperity and productivity, so who knows what things will be created? If you look at what's been created in Israel since they came back as a nation, and all the Nobel Prizes in Israel, you realise: creativity will be released; new ideas! New sources of energy will be released.
Those with resurrected bodies will interact with people on the earth, like Jesus did. Probably the best way to see what it looks like, is to go back to the 40 days between Jesus rising from the dead, and then when He ascended into heaven, and say: what happened then? That's one little glimpse you get of what this could be like.
Acts 10:40-43 - "God raised Him up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God - even to us who ate and drank with Him, after He rose from the dead”.
He was teaching them; He sat at a table, they ate together, they drank, they probably hugged Him; and He's appearing and disappearing all the time! Every day He disappears; everyday appears again; turns up, has a meal with them, teaches them, shares things of the kingdom with them. No doubt He prayed for them, and blessed them... then He's gone! He doesn't need to stay in the house; has got some other place, some other dimension. My goodness, isn't that exciting?