Chag sameach Yom Teruah, a blessed Rosh Chodesh and Shabbat Shalom - welcome to this our 26th assembly of the Day of Trumpets, the fifth annual moed or appointment our Father commands us to keep each year, the first of the autumn (fall) festivals and the first of the last three festivals of Israel that remain unfulfilled.

The previous four festivals in the spring and summer are now memorials of prophetic events that have already come to pass:

• 1. the Death of the Sacrificial Lamb of Elohim (God), Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), at Passover;
• 2. His sin-free life at the Feast of Unleavened Bread;
• 3. His glorious Resurrection at the Day of Firstfruits; and
• 4. the anointing of His people with the Gift of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) at the first Messianic 'Pentecost'.

By contrast, the three autumnal (fall) festivals, beginning today, are days of longing, anticipation and hope as we await

• 5. the Saviour's Second Coming on a day like this on a future Day of Trumpets;
• 6. His judgment of the wicked on the Day of Atonements; and
• 7. the celebratory Marriage Supper of the Lamb on the Festival of Tabernacles.

These annual festivals, together with the weekly sabbath day, of which there are 4 every month, the monthly New Moon Day of which today this is the seventh this year, the seven-yearly Sabbatical Year and the fifty-yearly Year of Jubilee - all combine to define the tavnith or pattern of life of Yahweh's people, the rhythm of time which marks Torah-observant Evangelical Christians out as being a set-apart, holy people. For Yahweh has always commanded that His people be distinct from all others, both so that we can enjoy the richness of harmonious living and to serve as a beacon of deliverance to the unsaved and those living according to Satan's many other counterfeit patterns and systems. By this means our lives, which are thereby defined by Heaven and not man - this isn't something we have invenmted - by this means we glorify Yahweh our Heavenly Father and His Son, Yah'shua (Jesus). This doesn't make us 'better' than anyone else but is our obedient love-response.

This is also the way of life of the People of Elohim (God) that gives us meaning and purpose. And it has, sadly, been largely lost to Christendom who are following times and seasons that Satan has deliberately modified to align mankind with chaos masquerading as order. You will recall in Daniel 7:25 which speaks of a ruler (usually associated with the Antichrist) who, the text states, "shall intend to change the sacred season and the Torah (Law)" (NRSV) to oppose the Most High, Yahweh, and wear out believers. He does his atmost to repace our Father's appointments (moedim), feasts, calendars and moral rules with his own authority. This "spirit of the antichrist", the apostle John informs us, has been operating since the very beginning (1 Jn.4:3), and more so since the coming of Christ. If you go back a few chapters in the Book of Daniel, to chapter 2, verse 21, you will find that Scripture clarifies that absolute control over time belongs to Elohim (God) alone who "changes times and seasons, deposes kings and sets up kings" (NRSV) as He wills, straightening out calendars and ordaining spiritual celebrations in their correct order.

These divinely-ordained times and seasons constitute the optinmal rhythm of life in the Millennium. Present throughout this 1,000-year glorious period of peace will be the Holy City of Eden-Astara, the New Jerusalem, which will become the model for the way of life for the whole planet after the Millennium, a time that we anticipate on the final day of the autumn season known as the Last Great Day or Shemini Atseret, the last one of which will both mark the end of our current Æon or Age and the simultaneous beginning of the new one with our Messiah as our Regent on earth.

By failthfully observatingn these designated holy days that Messianic Evangelicals not only purposefully erect signposts to mark for the world to see what Heavenly Father's Rule looks like, showing how they live their lives, but it is how we individially and collectively "boast of Christ" in physical time and space. For the apostle Paul testified, as do we today:

"Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of Elohim (God) without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life (the Davar Chayim) - in order that [we] may boast on the Day of Christ...(that's today, the future Yom Teruah) - that [we] did not run or labour for nothing" (Phil.2:14-16, NIV).

Do you understand what I am saying, brothers and sisters? By assembling to observe Father's sacred moedim or appointments with Him, we not only harmonise our lives with the rhythm of the Holy City whose appearance on the earth we long for because we wish to dwell in it, but in so doing we boast - we testify - to the world of Christ and His Second Coming which we specifically gather today to proclaim. Our lives are supposed to model the way of life of the Holy City-to-come. On this day of Yom teruah we therefore celebrate, in hope, a vitally important event in the divine calendar - the hope of the restoration of the fallen earth (the old creation) to where once it was before the Fall, in a New Creation. This is to be a restoration of the Paradise of Eden, only now it is a Garden-Vity and not just a beautiful garden. This is a process of gradual that will last a thousand years, a process that will necessarily be interrupted one last time at the end of the Millennium, because of one final permitted rebellion when Satan and his hosts are released from the pit to test those born during the Millennium, after which all evil will be permanently swept out of this universe. Then the final phase of the transformation begun at the start of the Millennium - at Shemini Atseret - will be completed and 'eternity' will officially begin. For then all that is imperfect, sinful and unalligned with the Holy City will be dissolved and replaced by a pure, resurrected world with only First Resurrection persons living in it. This final day was anticipated by the apostle Peter when he wrote:

"Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live qadosh (holy, set-apart) and godly lives as you look forward to Yom haElohim (the day of God) and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens (sky) by fire, and the elements (of the earth) will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness" (2 Peter 3:11-13, NIV).

And that, chaverim, is our motivation for living this way in our space-time continuum. That is why we live this way according to our Father's Divine Calendar. Time, to be meaningful to us, must be divided into segments so that we can mark it, because without markers we not only lose the sacred rhythm so essenial for the health and wellbeing of our physical bodies but we lose a degree of our spiritual focus too. Like it or not, we were created to be spiritual and physical beings, and though we lose our physical bodies at death, this is only temporary and for a short while (in terms of eternity) for our ultimate destination is not in a disembodied Heaven but on a restored, resurrected earth where heaven and earth combine into one. This is why the old earth and the old heaven must pass away as separate places and become joined together into one New World. Earth life was always our final destination - not the earth life we are experiencing now with its pain and sorrows, but a new earth free of thesew things, as Scripture testifies.

I'm sure most of you know of the wonderful prophecy in the Book of Isaiah but let's read it out aloud and bathe in its promises, for this is an integral part of our tiqveh - our hope - as Christians:

"Behold, I (Yahweh) will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people (Israel); the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.

"Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of My people; My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by Yahweh, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my qadosh (holy, set-apart) mountain,' says Yahweh" (Is.65:17-25, NIV).

Did you notice that this is a description of mortal people who will live to a very great age like the patriarchs of old? Clearly it still hasn't happened (since people aren't living for hundreds of years). It still points to a future time, and specifically, to the Millennium where such biological transformations are said to take place. Mortals will continue to be born. This is speaking, moreover, to a Jerusalem similar to the one that currently exists - namely, an earthly one. It is not a reference to the New Jerusalem - the Holy City - that will descend out of heaven and, as we shall see, co-exist with it the earthly one in some as yet undisclosed way. There's clearly more to the Millennium story that the churches are currently teaching.

As believers we need to be interested in what the Millennial Jerusalem and especially the New Jerusalem are like for a number of good reasons. The New Jerusalem, which we're told will be appearing during the autumn festivals, prefigures what the whole earth will look like at the end of the Millennium. Remember that the Millenium is but a stage in the bringing of heaven and earth together prior to the post-millennial world when they are brought permanently together planet-wide and (I believe) throughout the created Universe. The parallels are astonishlingly like the changes that believers go through when they receive Christ and continue working out their salvation the rest of their lives (Phil.2:12). As belivers in the pre-millennial fallen world, we remain as mortal fallen beings and yet the Kingdom is within us to a certain degree. Let's call it 'Stage 1' meeting of heaven and earth. The Millennium is 'Stage 2' for those not resurrected then who survive the Great Tribulation. 'Stage 3' is the stage of all humans on earth after the Millennium because all of earth's inhabitants will be resurrected beings of the First Resurrection which Paul likens to the glory and brightness of the sun. However, the Millennium will contain 'Stage 3' believers, those belonging to the Holy City descended from heaven

Alright we need to pause here to clarify some things. Misunderstandings often occur because of the way we translate Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words. We must iron out one area of the teachings of Christendom if we are going to find clarity. Those of you who have experience of both Orthodox Christianity and Messianism may already understand what I am about to say, but most Christians do not. Before we go on we must define some terms accurately. What we need to do to clear up one misunderstaning concerning the meaning of the word "NEW" in multiple Tanakh (Old Testament) passages.

The word for 'new' in Hebrew is chadash which carries two possible meanings:

• 1. Its ROOT MEANING which is fresh, brand new or restored to its original strength; and
• 2. It's BROADER USAGE where it is tied to the word for "new moon" (which today is) which is chodesh, the feminine form of chadash and represents something that is re-newed in a cycle rather than completely wiped out. When we see a moon phase, we know it isn't 'brand new' but 'renewed'

Let's take a look at one of those passages, beginning with Isaiah who speaks of it in the chapter after the one we have just read:

"'As the [re]new[ed] heavens (sky) and the [re]new[ed] earth that I make will endure before Me,' declares Yahweh, 'so will your name and descendants endure. From one [Re]New[ed] Moon (Rosh Chodesh) to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before Me,' says Yahweh. 'And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against Me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind" (Is.66:22-24, NIV).

The word rendered "new" in nearly all our English translations like the New International Version (NIV) I just cited should properly be "renewed" because the Hebrew word is chodesh not chadash, and it is so correctly rendered in many messianic translations 8like the AENT and HRV which are Aramaic-based, because there is an important difference betweem something which is entirely 'new' (like a brand new refridgerator) that which is 'renewed' (like a broken refridgerator that has been repaired and some old parts replaced with new ones). The earth of the Millennium is a renewed earth with a renewed sky (heavens, atmosphere), not an entirely 'brand new' resurrected earth which is what comes to pass at the end of the Millennium. There will still be regular families, as now, with babies being born but in this renewed earth they will live to a great age just as they did before the Flood - for hundreds of years, with maybe even some living a full thousand years, as Methuseleh nearly did (for you will remember, he lived to be 969 years old). There will be a renewed Jerusalem on the earth then too, like the present one, but there will also be a New Jerusalem which comes from Heaven ready made by the Father which will be the abode of the immortal, resurrected qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) of the First Resurrection.

I repeat - because this is so important - if you check the Aramaic (which is a Hebraic language that Yah'shua/Jesus and the apostles spoke) of the New Testament you will see that 'New Jerusalem' of Revelation 21:1-4 is not a 'renewed one', but 'brand new' and is so rendered in the Hebraic Roots Version (HRV, translated by James Trimm) and Aramaic English New Testament (AENT, translated by Andrew Roth). Thus there will be two separate Jerusalem's on the earth simultaneously - a renewed present one (presumably rebuilt after all the destruction of the Great Tribulation) and the New Jerusalem or Holy City in which the conditions are identical to the conditions that will prevail when the earth is completely and finally transformed after the Millennium.

A way I like to look at this phenomenon of two different Jerusalem's is the way the Ruach haQodesh or Holy Spirit is described by Paul as a "deposit" in several passages of Scripture. Let me read the first of two to you:

"Now it is Elohim (God) who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his Seal of ownership on us, and put his Ruach (Spirit) in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" (2 Cor.1:21-22, NIV; also 5:5).

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the Davar haEmet (Word of truth), the besorah (gospel) of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are Elohim's (God's) possession - to the praise of His glory" (Eph.1:13-14, NIV).

Here Paul makes a distinction between what is now (present salvation in a mortal body) and future salvation in an immortal, resurrected body. What we have now, as mortals, in terms of the Ruach (Spirit), is like a deposit compared to the fullness of the Ruach (Spirit) which we shall receive when we are raised from the dead. For now e are '[re}new[ed] creatures' in Christ - 'renewed' because we're not yet perfected - but in the Day of Resurrection...the future Yom Teruah...we shall be entirely brand new. For recall that salvation is past (the day we were saved), present (possessed by those who have remained in their salvation) and future (when those who remain faithful are completely transformed, not just in their spirits but in their bodies too). This is the opposite of the false 'Once Saved, Always Saved' doctrine of many churches.

In a sense, the New Jerusalem of the resurrected exists in us as a deposit for the future and final Yom Teruah. Perhaps you can understand better why Yom Teruah is not only the Day of Trumpets specifically, (twin silver trumpets) but also the Day of Shouting - for not only will the resurrection be announced with trumpets (not Shofars) but we will be shouting with joy upon receiving our new glorified physical bodies!

Are you with me so far? I realise there's a lot to take in, but bear with me as I draw all of this together for you. It's actually not so complicated once you understand what's going on. The deposit we have is not insignificant by any means for it is the guarantee of what is to come if we hold onto it! Try to imagine you're selling a house to someone. They have given you a deposit by way of committing to the full purchase so that no one else can make a bid. Should the full purchase not go through, the deposit can be returned to the buyer. Meantime, the deposit signals the buyers intent to buy the house outright, and when he pays the full price, the house is his. We must not spend that deposit until the complete sum is received kjust in case the deposit has to be returned to the purchaser. Therefore with this picture in mind, Paul says to Timothy:

"Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) who lives in us" (2 Tim.1:13-14, NIV).

This deposit is extremely impotsnt because it is the ticket, as it were, to the complete resurrection package-to-come. It is the guarantee of immortality and permanent eternal life which is represented by the [Brand] New Jerusalem. The [Brand] New Jerusalem is what we get when rise to meet the Saviour in the air when He returns. Our salvation in the here-and-now - what we enjoy today in mortality - is the guarantee of the final resurrection salvation, when we simultaneausly receive our rewards for all the deeds done in the flesh in the span of this life. All of this is to say, returning to my original point, that the [Brand] New Jerusalem is what is guaranteed to those mortals who are trusting in Christ and obeying the Torah mitzvot (commandments), the overcomers, those who live the renewed 'Jerusalem' life right now. Thus the renewed millennial Jerusalem inhabited by mortals living to a great age is distinct from the [Brand] New Jerusalem that will co-exist with this renewed Jerusalem in the millennium. So there are two Jerusalem's in the Millennium. When those, say, of our children born to us in the Millennium are resurrected at their death (during the Millennium - it will be an instantaneous tranformation just like that of those who are alive at the Second Comind. Thus those born in during the Millennium, living to a great age, will, once resurrected, qualify to enter the [Brand] Bew Jerusalem and immedsiately transvfer their residency there. They will 'move house'. Listen to the way John describes the [Brand] New Jerusalem and you will discern the difference between the two millennial cities:

"I (Yah'shua/Jesus) am coming soon," He says to John. "Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of My Elohim (that is the temple that is the [Brand] New Jerusalem of Yahweh-God our Heavenly Father). Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of My Elohim (God = Yahweh) and the Name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem (the Holy City of Eden-Astara), which is coming down out of heaven from My Elohim (God = Yahweh the Father)" (Rev.3:11-12, NIV).

Here we see that "New Jerusalem" is not only a heavenly city transported from Heaven but has a name - the [Brand] 'New Jerusalem', the Holy City of Eden-Astara. This perfect, complete city, made in Heaven, gives the word 'new' an added and distinct meaning from 'renewed'. The New Jerusalem is brand new, not of earthly origin, and therefore is not 'renewable'. It's unchangeable, pemanent, just as a resurrected person is. It comes perfect, without need ever for repair or modification. On the other hand, the early millennial Jerusalem - the renewed Jerusalem - has been constantly changing over the Millennia as building projects are more or less underway to accommodate all the children born to their resurrected parents in the [Brand] New Jerusalem. Both of these millennial Jerusalems are, in their turn to be contrasted with the 'renewable' Jersauem which exists today and will be permanently replaced when Christ returns. Not that we all literally live in the Jerusalem of today's Israeli Republic, of course - rather today's Jewish-Arab Jerusalem is a picture of where wherever we live on earth - me here in Sweden, you werehever you live in the world. In the passage from 1 Timothy I read to you, Paul is contrastinf today's Jerusalem, with the heavenly [Brand] New Jerusalem to come by comparing the two Abraham's two principal wives in the Genesis story. Let's go to Galatians 4:24-26 to learn more about that:

"These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant (the old) is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of (first century) Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the ([brand] new) Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother" (Gal.4:24-26, NIV).

This passage alone is dense with symbolism which we don't have time to fully unpack today. I have done so elsewhere in other sermons and teachings. Paul loves to make such comparisons, he is the master at it, because they help us to see otherwise hidden truths. But in a nutshel and with regard to the aspect I am discussing with you today, the old earthly Jerusalem is inferior and spiritually is after the carnal Hagar who was not the mother of the Messiah. It will be 'renewed' so that mortals born during the Millennium may inhabit it during the Millennium. The old 'Hagar Jerusalem' will therefore cease at Christ's return after its renewal but even then it is inferior [Brand] New Jerusalem arriving from Heaven at the final Yom teruah and at the end of the Millennium will be completely replaced by it because there will be no mortals left once the Millennium is over. The [Brand] New Jerusalem is only for immortal, resurrected believers of the First Resurrection. Is that clearer now?

There's one more passage we need to consider in the Book of Revelation to confirm what I have just been telling you. Let's take a look at it. It is dense with symbolism, not to be taken literally, which I will leave you to mediatet further on:

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Qodesh (Holy, Set-Apart) City, the [Brand] New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from Elohim (God), prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of Elohim (God) is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and Elohim (God) Himself (Yahweh) will be with them and be their Elohim (God). He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Rev.21:1-4, NIV).

I am now going to do something with you that I have never done before. I want to share a vision with you of how I believe the scene will look to someone visiting Jerusalem in the Millennium. As he approaches the city, he will see the renewed and rebuilt Jerusalem on the spot where the current Jerusalem lies. Picture the landscape as it exists in present day and on it a new city, full of white buildings. And then, suspended in the air above this renewed Jerusalem, the the [Brand] New Jerusalem, partly in our dimension and partly in the heavenly one, a giant glowing cube as described in the Book of Revelation. Why it is in the air? Because it is not fully in our dimension yet, and cannot be, until the end of the Millennium. Now for you to understand how this dovetails with Yom Teruah, I want to invite you to turn with me to 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4, and verses 16 and 17:

"For the Master (Yah'sua/Jesus) Himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the chief malak (archangel) and with the trumpet call of Elohim (God), and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Master in the air. And so we will be with the Master forever" (1 Thess.4:15-17, NIV).

In orde to leave a visual representation for you, I have created a picture which you'll find at the top of the online article. It depicts what I believe the Millenial reality of the two Jerusalem's will look like until there is only one [Brand] New Jerusalem. The [Brand] New Jerusalem, the Holy City of Eden-Astara, won't be fully on earth when the Millennium begins and cannot be until the final purging - when the demonic host are released from the pit one last time - and when the sons and daughters of the Millennium have been fully tested, the complete merging of heaven and earth takes place. It is to this location of the [Brand] New Jeruslem that the dead in Christ, newly raised and immortal, will assemble with Christ along with those living at His Coming.

We will, in some way, be as Christ was when He was on earth, both on earth and in heaven. Let me once more remind you of this passage in which Yah'shua (Jesus) is speaking to Nicodemus by night. It is in the Byzantine Text of the New Testament and in the King James Bible so don't go searching for it in your NASB, NIV or ESV because you won't find it in those and similar English translations:

"...no man hath ascended into heaven but He (Christ) that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (Jn.3:13, KJV).

This literally reads in the Greek as follows, so you're absolutely clear as to to its meaning:

"And no one has ascended into the heaven, except He (Christ) out of the heaven having descended, the son of the man, the being in the heaven" [1]

You'll also find this rendition in the William Tyndale & Coverdale translation of 1535 as well as the Geneva Bible of 1560, the Douay Version of 1582, the Tischendorf translation of 1869, the Knox Translation of 1945, and the Newberry Bible of 1959, and the New King James Version of 1982, to name but a few of the Bible versions I have in my personal library - I have not had time to check out other languages. I know one or two of you who use the Coverdale and Geneva Bibles which appeared in the century before the King James Bible.

I know this concerpot is going to be hard for you to grasp because you're so accustomed to being in only one place at a time in this fallen, denser sphere. But we really shouldn't be at all surprised to learn that a resurrected being will be able to simultaneously coexist both on earth and in heaven during the Millennium until the distinction ends after the Millennium. The mortal Christ, as we have seen, was both on earth and in heaven because he was both man and Elohim (God). Resurrected beings have far more abilities than mortal ones such as we are now, as you would expect, since they inhabit two different dimensions simultaneously and will do so until heaven and earth become permanently one!

These beings - the children of the First Resurrection - will be able to move between the New Jerusalem and the earth quite freely, but mortals will not be able to enter it until they have died and been raised s immortals. This is what I have been shown to share with you this Yom Teruah which I hope will give you an even keener sense of awareness at this time of the year than perhaps you have enjoyed before. There's more that could be said, and you'll doubtless have questions, but let's end it there. I look forward to seeing you at Yom haKippurim, the Day of Atonements, in a few days' time. May Father bless you with ever new insights into His Word and constantly renew your hope in Him is my prayer in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] John 3:13 has a long and complex manuscript history which numerous translations in the offing that is beyond the scope of this sermon to analyse. A good review facing translation choices may be found NET Bible: Full Notes Edition (Thomas Nelson: 2019), fn D, p.2002.