What's Next? Revelation Series With Skip Heitzigናሙና

Surprising Facts about Your Eternal Home

Path

Most people have ideas about heaven that are vastly different from how Scripture describes heaven. We turn now to what the Bible describes as the final phase of heaven--the eternal state.

Points

It Will Require Destruction (Revelation 21:1)

• Jesus holds all things together (see Colossians 1:17), and the Bible indicates that one day, He will let go and it will all come apart.
• Probe: Read 2 Peter 3:10-11. Since everything's going to burn, how should we conduct ourselves as believers?

It Will Be a Fresh Design (Revelation 21:5)

• In verse 5, new means something completely different from what has gone before--something new in quality, not just in chronology.
• Probe: God created the wonders of this world in six days; imagine what He can do with a couple thousand years!

It Won't Have an Ocean (Revelation 21:1; 22:1)

• There will be no sea, sun, or moon (see Revelation 21:1, 23).
• There will be water (see Revelation 22:1); the new heaven and new earth won't operate on the same principles as ours.
• Probe: No oceans also mean no separation among peoples. How are you building community now?

It Will Have a Capital City (Revelation 21:2-3)

• The new earth will have a headquarters: New Jerusalem, a cube-shaped city roughly the size of the moon.
• The city will be the new tabernacle (see v. 3).
• Probe: Read John 20:19-21, 26-27; Mark 16:12; Luke 24:36, 43. Think of how Jesus' glorified body functioned. What might our lives in New Jerusalem be like?

It Will Feel Unfamiliar (Revelation 21:4-6)

• Heaven is described in negatives--by what it's not--because we can hardly imagine what it will be like.
• There will be no more tears, death, sorrow, crying, or pain.
• Probe: Which of these missing things will you be the happiest about? Why?

Not Everyone Will Be There (Revelation 21:4, 24, 27)

• How do you become one who overcomes (see v. 7)? One word: faith.
• Probe: Take hope: many who have committed the sins listed in Revelation 21:8 will be in heaven because they came to Christ, repented, and had their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life (see v. 27).

Practice

Connect Up: Heaven will be God continually blowing your mind with His majesty, glory, power, and love. Paul said God intends that "in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).

Connect In: Read Hebrews 6:10; Galatians 6:10; Romans 12:9-13. Do you know someone who is dealing with chronic pain or sorrow? How can you pray for them, reach out to them, and serve them?

Connect Out: Knowing the common misconceptions people have about heaven, what can you do to surprise them with these facts about heaven?

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