The Bible Course Sample

The River, the Tree, and the Lord – a vision of the end 

Reflect  

Have you ever watched a sporting event that has already happened with a friend, when you know your team's won but your friend doesn't? Knowing the score completely changes your experience of the game.  

Revelation announces the final score before we’ve heard the final whistle. In the end, God will put all wrongs right, good will triumph over evil and we will enjoy a perfect creation. 

How would the echoes of Eden have encouraged the churches John wrote to? 

We started in a perfect world with the tree of life, and by the end, we’re back in a perfect world with the tree of life. It’s as if we’ve gone full circle. How is this possible?  

It's only because of the tree of death. As Christ died on the wooden cross, he took the curses of our fallen world so we can be blessed with a new creation. He took our hell so we could have heaven. He was shut out so we could come home.  

What do the words of Jesus, ‘I am coming soon’ mean for you today?  

The Bible ends with a simple promise from Jesus: ‘Behold, I am coming soon!’  

This reminds us that though we don’t know the date, we know Jesus will return.  

Sometimes it’s easier to live as if this were not a reality. But when life's pressures overwhelm and cloud our perspective, knowing there is something better waiting for us really matters. This isn’t our final destination; we’re all on the road, but hold on and remember you have a compass in Jesus.  

At the end of his Chronicles of Narnia, in The Last Battle, C.S. Lewis finishes the story with the followers of Aslan entering into a new earth and heaven: 

‘For them, it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world … had only been the cover and the title page: now, at last, they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.’ 

By the end of the Bible story, we have only arrived at the beginning of the real story. For those whose hope is in Jesus, the best is yet to come! 

Respond 

Take time to thank God today for inviting you in to be a part of this better story, and keep journeying with him.