24 Aug
2025

New Heaven and New Earth

Passage: Revelation 21:1-7 & 2 Corinthans 4:16-18

“I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?” —Sam Gamgee in The Return of the King
“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.” —C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

SERMON OUTLINE
1.Hope for a broken system
2.Hope for a broken people

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

Christian hope is the confident expectation that God will fulfill his promises. What is one aspect of your life in which you are particularly longing for God to make right or renew?

Read Revelation 21:1-7 & 2 Corinthans 4:16-18. What do these passages show you about God’s character and about being his follower? What challenges, encourages, or sparks questions for you in these passages?

Theologian N.T. Wright wrote, “God’s plan is not to abandon this world, the world which he said was ‘very good.’ Rather, he intends to remake it. And when he does, he will raise all his people to new bodily life to live in it. That is the promise of the Christian gospel.” Heaven will come down and creation will be renewed. How does this reality impact the way we engage with our circumstances and surroundings today? How might this impact your purpose in your relationships, work, and identity?
On the cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” This reflected a physical thirst and a soul thirst, a longing brought about by sin, a hopelessness. Jesus took on our hopeless state in order to give us lasting hope in him. How have you experienced hope in Jesus?
As we learn, remember, and reflect on the reality of heaven to come and the hope we have in Jesus, what helps convince and compel you to trust in the promises of God? How can we actively remember heaven, especially when our circumstances are difficult?
What from these passages and this discussion is something you want to put into practice or be more aware of this week or praise God for?

 

PRAYER

Share with your group how they can be praying for you: what is weighing on you from this past week? What are you praising God for from this past week?

For to me
to live
is Christ
and
to die
is gain.

Philippians 1:23