Icebreaker
When you were a kid, what did you picture heaven being like? How has that picture changed — or been corrected — over the years?
Read Together
Revelation 21:1-5 (ESV)
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth... He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Discussion
1
Kent said, ‘Death is a reality, but not a finality.’ Why does naming death as a real enemy (rather than a friend or a doorway) actually make the Christian hope stronger, not weaker?
2
‘Everybody lives forever; the only issue is location.’ How does that reframe the way we think about evangelism — and about our own assurance?
3
Heaven as a ‘way station, not a final destination’ surprises a lot of people. How does the promise of a new heaven AND a new earth change the way you hold the things you love in this life?
4
Romans 8 says creation itself groans for redemption — ‘perfected, not rejected.’ Where do you see that groaning, and where do you long to see it set free?
5
Revelation 21:4 — ‘he will wipe away every tear.’ Who in your circle is grieving right now, and how could the group carry that hope to them this week?
Pray
Thank God that in Christ death is a defeated enemy. Pray for anyone in the group carrying grief or facing a hard diagnosis, and ask God to make the hope of the new creation real — ‘even so, come, Lord Jesus.’
Leader Notes
This is a tender topic — several in the room may be grieving or facing illness. Don't rush. Kent preached it out of a fresh personal loss (his friend Dan), so model that honesty: grief and hope can sit in the same room. Land the group on the free offer of the gospel (anyone can settle their ‘location’ today) and on comforting one another with Revelation 21:4.