Revelation - Lesson 7

By Stafford North

The New Jerusalem

Revelation 21-22

Background Information for the Teacher

Objectives:

  1. The student can identify the main symbols in Revelation and explain its basic story.
  2. The student can apply lessons from Revelation to himself/herself.
  3. The student can share the hope of eternal life as pictured in Revelation.

Preparation:

  1. Post for students to see any pictures you want to use of the events in this lesson.
  2. If you choose to use them, have ready your visuals-overhead projector and transparencies, PowerPoint, or chalkboard
  3. Have enough of the Story of Revelation Worksheets ready for those who do not have one.
  4. Have copies of the Lesson 7 Worksheet.
  5. Have copies of Test 6 for students as they enter class.
  6. Have pens/pencils ready for use.
  7. All students should have access to a Bible.
  8. There will be an exercise in which it is suggested that students work in pairs for a few minutes so you may need to make some plan for arranging the seating to accommodate this.

Theme:

The main storyline of the Book of Revelation has been completed with the fall of the Roman Empire and the description of the destiny of the beast. At the end of chapter 20 the great judgment day was presented with two possible destinies for human beings: the Lake of Fire or the New Jerusalem. This lesson presents that contrast.

Lesson Plan for Conducting Class

Introduction: (about 10 minutes)

  1. Make the test available to students as they enter if you wish.
  2. Call the roll, welcome visitors, and make any necessary announcements.
  3. Songs (as desired)
    1. When We All Get to Heaven
    2. In the Land of Fadeless Day
    3. No Tears in Heaven
  4. Prayer thanking God for the hope of heaven made possible through Jesus.
  5. Give answers to Test No. 6. No. 1-a) the binding of Satan b) the reigning of Jesus with the martyrs. No. 2-b) so he could deceive the nations no more. No. 3-a) Who reigns?-martyrs of the Roman persecution b) Why do they reign?-to celebrate their victory over Satan and his allies. c) Where do they reign?-in heaven d) When do they reign?-from the fall of Rome (end of chapter 19) until just before the end of the world-only the short time separates. No. 4-Lake of Fire; New Jerusalem. No. 5-Have your name written in the Book of Life
  6. Ask students to get their Bibles, Worksheet for Lesson 7, and the Story of Revelation Worksheets ready.

Learning Experiences: (34 minutes)

  1. Someone to read Revelation 20:15 through 21:8. Class members read along in your Bibles because we will have some questions from these verses. No. 1. Q: Two eternal destinies are mentioned. What are they? (Lake of Fire, New Jerusalem) No. 2 Q: What determines whether a person goes to the New Jerusalem? (Is the person written in the Book of Life-20:15? No. 3 Q: How does one get his/her name in the Book of Life? (Check previous lesson about passages that describe the Book of Life. They must overcome (21:7) and they must be one in Christ's church (Rev. 3:5; Phil:4:3). No. 4. Q: How have those acted who are going to the Lake of Fire? (An immoral life-21:8) So two destinies and two paths of living. Q: What did Jesus once say that sounds similar? (Matt 7:13-14-two gates, two roads, to destinies)
  2. No. 5. Q: Again from Revelation 20:15 through 21:8, list some things that will be present and or not present in the two places of eternal destiny. (New Jerusalem: God, people who have overcome with moral living, saved people written in the Book of Life, joy. Lake of Fire: tears, pain, torment, Satan, all the immoral and sinful people.) Q: Which place would you rather spend all of eternity? Visual: Lake of Fire.

Lake of Fire(Teacher: if you are using PowerPoint or have posted the picture of the Lake of Fire, look at it now and let the students compare the picture to the biblical description.)

      3. No. 6. Read to yourself Revelation 21:12 through 22:6 and find the answers to the following: (Let students work in              pairs if you wish)

Jerusalem

  1. The wall has (12) gates , each made from one huge (pearl).
  2. The Jaster wall is 210 feel high.
  3. There are (12) layers of foundations, each of which bears the name of an (apostle) .
  4. The city is 1500 miles in each direction and so is shaped like a (cube).
  5. The streets are made of pure (gold.)
  6. The food comes from the (tree of life).
  7. Light comes from the presence of God and Christ.
  8. There is no (temple) in heaven because God is there in person.
  9. A river flows from the throne of God, and on each side of it are planted the trees of life. 

We'll look now at the answers to the worksheets. Two Visuals of Heaven.

Heaven (If you have the pictures of heaven on PowerPoint or posted, you can tell the students that you will look at the picture and see in what points it follows the description in scripture.)

      4. The Four Perfects. (Use the PowerPoint, an overhead, or the board.) John's vision of heaven suggests that heaven will           be perfect in four ways: perfect fellowship, perfect provisions, perfect protection, and perfect joy. Q: What do you see           in his symbolic descriptions that would suggest each of these? (fellowship-God, Christ, Holy Spirit and all the good               people and none of the bad ones; provisions-eat of the tree of life, drink of the river, light, beauty; protection-high             wall, 12 foundations, gates even open, perfect cube; joy-no pain or sorrow, no death, no sin to bring unhappiness.)

        5. Q: What does Jesus mean by "I am coming soon" in verse 7? (Options: 1. His second coming would be soon from                 when He spoke this but He was mistaken and did not come soon; 2. He meant that once He started to come it would           be over soon; 3. He was not referring to the second coming when He said He would "come soon" refers not to but               was promising to come soon to carry out the destruction of the Roman Empire. The third one is the best choice. This             would match the "soon" in Revelation 1:1.

      6. Someone read Revelation 22:14 and 15 and also Revelation 7:14. Q: Based on these verses, what are some specific             things you want to do or not do? (Want to be washed in the blood of the Lamb, baptism for remission of sins. Do not           want to practice magical arts such as—-. Do not want to be sexually immoral or tell a lie. Discuss some temptations             we face to do these things. This is a very important opportunity for practical application. Get down to specifics. Keep             pressing the class to move from generalities-don't tell lies-to the specifics of when we might do that.)

     7. Now get your Story of Revelation Worksheets and let's finish those. Look at Act II, No. F. Take a moment to fill these          in. (Lake of Fire, New Jerusalem, Eternal punishment of all thewicked, Eternal reward of all the righteous.)

Application: Already included

Assignment:

  1. Prepare for the test next time on Lesson 7.
  2. Also review your Story of Revelation Worksheets as we will give you a new copy of this worksheet and, as a class project, try to fill it in from memory.

Evaluation:

  1. A test over this lesson next time.
  2. General review lesson next time to help focus on remembering key items from this study.

TEST OVER LESSON 6

(To be given as part of Lesson 7)

Download test over Lesson 6 below.

Download Worksheets

Back to Revelation

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.