Read in the book
Chapter 18: A New Heaven and a New Earth · Chapter 19: The Final Invitation and Jesus’ Promise
Five-day reading plan
Participant guide
Work through the book's own Reflect & Discuss questions for this week's chapters. The last question in each set is personal — no one should be required to answer it.
From Chapter 18 — A New Heaven and a New Earth
- Read Revelation 21:1–5 alongside Isaiah 65:17 and 25:8. Which of Isaiah’s promises reappear? What does Revelation add?
- The city is a cube (21:16), like the Holy of Holies (1 Kings 6:20), and it has no temple (21:22). What do those two details say together?
- Eternity is pictured as a restored world, not an escape from it. How does that change common ideas of “heaven”?
- The gates never close and the nations bring their glory in. What does that suggest about what will last from this world?
- (Personal; feel free to pass — and if you’d rather keep this one to yourself, that’s fine.) “He will wipe away every tear.” Which tears do you most long to see wiped away?
From Chapter 19 — The Final Invitation and Jesus’ Promise
- Read Revelation 22:6–21 and mark who is speaking in each verse. What does Jesus say, and what do others say?
- “I am coming soon” — after two thousand years, how do you understand that promise? What in this chapter, or in 2 Peter 3:8–9, helps?
- The Spirit and the bride say “Come” to Jesus, and then the invitation turns to anyone thirsty. What does it mean that the church’s longing and the world’s invitation are the same word?
- The invitation is “a gift, not a reward” — for the thirsty, not the impressive. Does anything make you feel unqualified to come? What does this chapter say to that?
- (Personal; feel free to pass.) Revelation ends with an invitation, not a puzzle. Where are you with it — ready, not ready, or not sure? Any of those is an honest answer.
Facilitator plan · about 60 minutes
- Open (5 min). Open in prayer, then read this week's key Scripture aloud together.
- Read (10 min). Let the passage speak first: what did people notice in the five-day readings?
- Discuss (35 min). Walk the participant-guide questions in order, letting everyone share who wants to. Where sincere believers differ, say so, and keep the group's eyes on Christ.
- Close (10 min). Commit together to each chapter's This Week step, and pray for one another.