* 24 q Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, * take up his cross, and follow me.Ģ5 r For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” o 22 * Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.”Ģ3 p He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. * 21 n From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he * must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised. * Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”Ģ0 * m Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah. For flesh and blood * has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.ġ8 k And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, * and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.ġ9 l I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. * 13 h When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi * he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”ġ4 i They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, * others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”ġ5He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”ġ6 * j Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”ġ7Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. 5 d In coming to the other side of the sea, * the disciples had forgotten to bring bread.Ħ e Jesus said to them, “Look out, and beware of the leaven * of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”ħ * They concluded among themselves, saying, “It is because we have brought no bread.”ĨWhen Jesus became aware of this he said, “You of little faith, why do you conclude among yourselves that it is because you have no bread?ĩ f Do you not yet understand, and do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many wicker baskets you took up?ġ0 g Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?ġ1How do you not comprehend that I was not speaking to you about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”ġ2Then they understood * that he was not telling them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. 1 * a The Pharisees and Sadducees came and, to test him, asked him to show them a sign from heaven.Ģ * He said to them in reply, “Ĥ c An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” * Then he left them and went away.
It must describe the eternal earth.The Demand for a Sign. The absence of a sea assures us this verse does not refer to the millennial earth, because during the millennium large bodies of water will exist (Isaiah 11:9 Ezekiel 47:8–10, 15, 17–20 48:28 Zechariah 9:10 14:8). The word "new" in Revelation 21:1 is kainon, meaning "new in quality or fresh." Another word for "new" is neos, meaning "new in time." According to this verse, there will not be a sea on the new earth. Those who believe the heavens and the earth will undergo a renovation recall that God destroyed the earth with a flood in the time of Noah, but a new kind of earth emerged when the flood subsided. Those who believe earth and heaven will cease to exist point to Peter's statement that "the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire" (2 Peter 3:7). Others interpret it to mean a renovation. John writes that the first heaven and the first earth pass away, a statement that some Bible scholars interpret as complete annihilation.
The word translated as "heaven" most likely refers to earth's atmosphere and/or space. "The heavens" as referred to here, does not include the heaven where God dwells. John saw a vision of a new heaven and a new earth replacing the millennial heaven and earth.