Where has death — or the fear of it — been speaking loudest in your life, and what changes if it's already a defeated enemy?

Death feels final. It walks into our families and our friendships and seems to win every time — the world death rate, as the old joke goes, holds steady at 100%. Kent named death for what it is: an enemy. He doesn't hate it because he's morbid; he hates it because it costs us the people we love. But here is the gospel — death is a defeated enemy. When Jesus rose, he took its power into himself and broke it forever. It still stings, but it will not get the last word. One day it passes away entirely: no more death, no more mourning, no more pain.

If everybody lives forever and the only question is location, have you settled yours — and who in your life still needs to hear that it's free?

“Everybody lives forever,” Kent said. “The only issue is one of location.” At our last breath we step into eternity and stand before the One who made us. That's sobering — until you remember the cross. The bad news (we've all fallen short and face judgment) is exactly what makes the good news so good: God's salvation is freely offered in Christ to everyone who will receive it. You don't earn it. Confess your sin, ask for his mercy, receive the payment Jesus already made — and your forever is settled.

How would today look different if you really believed your final destination is a renewed creation where God lives with his people?

Here's something you don't hear often: heaven, as wonderful as it is, is not our final destination. It's the layover, not the home. Kent borrowed Randy Alcorn's picture — you don't say ‘I'm going to Dallas,’ you say ‘I'm going to L.A., with a stop in Dallas.’ The present heaven is real and good, but God has promised something more: a new heaven and a new earth, where he comes down to dwell with his people forever. We're not floating off to clouds and harps — we're headed home to a renewed creation.

What's one beautiful thing in this world you grieve losing — and how does ‘perfected, not rejected’ change the way you hold it?

God's plan isn't to scrap this world and start over somewhere else — it's to perfect what he made. The earth you love, the most beautiful places you've ever seen, will be there in the new creation, more glorious than you remember. Even the groaning creation, Paul says, is waiting eagerly for the day it's set free. What our first parents ruined in the fall, God restores in the end. Nothing good is finally lost.

Who do you know that's grieving right now — and what would it look like to carry the hope of Revelation 21:4 to them this week?

Kent preached this one with his friend Dan in view — a man he grew up with, who died just two weeks before the sermon. For everyone carrying grief, or sensing their own day is near, this is the promise to hold: God himself will wipe away every tear. Not numb it, not explain it away — wipe it away, with his own hand. Death, mourning, crying, pain — all of it among the ‘former things’ that pass away. So we grieve, but not as those without hope.

Read Revelation 21:1-5 out loud. The first thing John sees is a new earth, not only a new heaven. What in those five verses is different from the picture of life after death you grew up assuming?

What happens the moment after you die? Pastor Kent Keller closes our "What About?" series with the biggest question of all — and the surprising, hope-filled answer the Bible actually gives.

Kent laid out three possibilities for the moment you stop breathing: nothing at all, reincarnation, or standing before the one who made you. Which of the three have you actually been living as though it were true, and what in your life would show that?

What happens the moment after you die? Pastor Kent Keller closes our "What About?" series with the biggest question of all — and the surprising, hope-filled answer the Bible actually gives.

Kent borrowed Randy Alcorn's picture of an astronaut who trains for years to go to Mars and never once asks what Mars is like. Why do you think we spend so little time on where we are going? What has kept the subject off your radar?

What happens the moment after you die? Pastor Kent Keller closes our "What About?" series with the biggest question of all — and the surprising, hope-filled answer the Bible actually gives.

Like on YouTube Subscribe on YouTube

What About? (Week 12)

But What About Eternity? What Happens When We Die · Group Guide

Name: Christchurch Miami
Address: 8485 SW 112th Street, Miami, FL, 33156, US
Telephone: +13052715262
Price range: Free

Revelation 21:1-5

Kent Keller Sunday, June 28, 2026

Icebreaker

What is the most beautiful place you have ever been — somewhere you would go back to tomorrow if you could? What made it stick with you?

Discussion Questions

1
Read Revelation 21:1-5 out loud. The first thing John sees is a new earth, not only a new heaven. What in those five verses is different from the picture of life after death you grew up assuming?
2
Kent laid out three possibilities for the moment you stop breathing: nothing at all, reincarnation, or standing before the one who made you. Which of the three have you actually been living as though it were true, and what in your life would show that?
3
Kent borrowed Randy Alcorn's picture of an astronaut who trains for years to go to Mars and never once asks what Mars is like. Why do you think we spend so little time on where we are going? What has kept the subject off your radar?
4
"Heaven is a way station, not a final destination" — Kent compared it to flying Miami to Los Angeles with a layover in Dallas. Nobody says they are going to Dallas. What changes for you if the destination is a renewed earth rather than clouds and harps?
5
Kent named Miami without the traffic, the concrete, the mosquitoes or the hurricanes, and the places he says he will not get to in this life — the Serengeti, Cotopaxi, Machu Picchu. What is on your version of that list, and how does earth perfected rather than discarded change the way you hold it?
6
Kent spoke about sitting with people in their last hours and about losing his friend Dan Feltham two weeks earlier. Who in your life is grieving or has just had bad news from a doctor? Name one specific thing you will do for that person this week.

Subscribe to the podcast

Every Sunday sermon, in whatever app you already use.

YouTube Apple Podcasts Spotify RSS

See all our podcasts →

Take a Next Step

Plan a Visit Sundays at 11 AM in Kendall. Connect Card Tell us about your visit or ask a question. 2026 Bible Reading Plan A scripture-a-day journey through the Bible. Find a Community Group Where the church becomes a family.

But What About Eternity? What Happens When We Die · Group Guide

Revelation 21:1-5

Discussion Questions

Related Reading

What Happens When We Die?

Why Doesn't God Always Heal? A Chaplain's Field Devotion

Summer Solstice

Subscribe to the podcast

Take a Next Step