Revelation 20-21: The Book of Life and the Hope of Heaven

Introduction

"The Lord Who Makes All Things New" is the title Pastor Ruth of Fukuoka Agape Church in Japan gave to this message, preached on Sunday, October 25, 2026. The text is Revelation 20:11 to 21:8, read aloud by the congregation, two verses per person: the great white throne, the opened books, the book of life, then the new heaven, the new earth and the holy city coming down out of heaven.

John received these visions on the island of Patmos. He himself did not understand, in concrete terms, what they meant. He simply wrote down faithfully what the Lord showed him. For a long time, the pastor points out, Revelation remained a book that was hard to decipher, even after centuries. Today the movements of the world are becoming visible, and judging by how the world is developing around Israel, she sees Revelation "moving forward" before our eyes.

Still, she does not want to go through this passage point by point. She wants to draw two things from it: a glimpse of what heaven is like, and an understanding of where human beings go after death and what awaits them there. The rest of the message is an exhortation to live now in a state of preparation, lit up by a loss she had just experienced in her own family.

Outline of the message

1. The goal of the Christian life: returning to the heavenly city

The pastor often says it: a Christian does not walk through life to achieve his dreams, leave a name to posterity or have descendants. These human goals are not the reason for his life.
We were born into this world with a body of flesh. Our spirit has known God from the beginning, but it is by learning and seeking God of our own will that we meet our Creator.
Through fellowship with him, we walk more and more with the Lord, we carry out his will, and we live as worshipers who praise him and as workers who labor with him. Then we return to the heavenly city.
The place we will return to, she says, is decided entirely by how we have walked in this life.

2. Everyone will stand before the great white throne

"I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them" (Revelation 20:11). This is the judgment of the great white throne.
The text allows us to speak of a first and a second death. But every human being who lives in the flesh dies a first time. After death, he goes before God and is judged.
Christian or not, child or adult, everyone goes before the Lord for judgment. "I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works" (Revelation 20:12).
The pastor thinks of the many children who die around the world, from illness, because of war or because of their living conditions. Adults or children, all the dead first stand before God.

3. The book of life: keeping your name written to the end

To make herself easy to understand, the pastor describes the scene: when our body dies, angels open the book of life, and those who are to be judged wait in line. Each one gives his name. If it is not in the book, the angel tells him: "Your name is not here. You cannot enter heaven."
When we believe in God, walk with him, and reflect on his will through prayer, praise and reading the Word, our name is clearly written in the book of life.
But she warns: having been written once does not mean we can then live as we please. When we drift away from God, follow our own thoughts, look at the things of this world, and judge, decide and live by ourselves, the written name gradually fades.
God is gentle, and he waits a long time, saying: "That is not the way." But if someone keeps living far from him, by rules of his own making, or says he believes in God while following his own sinful nature rather than the Lord, the name can disappear completely.
The day you hear "your name is not here," everything is over. "The chance never comes back," she says. These people are dragged away in an instant, regardless of their will, toward the fire.
"If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). Hence her appeal: live with the Lord until the end of this life, so that the name stays firmly written.

4. The books of works and repentance every evening

The text also speaks of other books being opened. The pastor sees in them a record of our deeds: angels are beside us and, at nightfall, one of them goes to report to heaven on our whole day, on what we thought in our hearts, the words we spoke and the actions we took.
It is not only actions that are recorded, but also the hidden thoughts of the heart, the ones we have told to no one.
From this she draws a simple practice: before the sun sets, go back over your day and repent with the help of the Holy Spirit. When we repent with all our heart, the Lord erases these things.
Sins left aside without repentance, on the other hand, remain in that record and become, on the last day, the material of the judgment.
"The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works" (Revelation 20:12). To judge according to works is to judge according to the law, and the law is the Word of God. For us, she specifies, it is above all the words Jesus spoke in the Gospels that our actions will be measured against.

5. Heaven: God dwells with his people and wipes away every tear

After death, our spirit keeps on living forever. The question is whether it will live in heaven or in hell, and that is decided by how we live here below.
From Revelation 21:1 on, the Word gives us a glimpse of heaven. John sees the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down. It is an event at the end of this world, and the inside of this city, says the pastor, is already heaven.
"I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, 'Behold, God's dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God'" (Revelation 21:3). As citizens of heaven and children of God, we enter the New Jerusalem with him to live there forever.
"He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). Those who enter know no more sadness, suffering or sickness. They live forever in gratitude and joy.
God comforts everything that was hard in this world. He takes away the tears of sorrow and suffering and promises to turn them into blessing.
The one who sits on the throne declares: "Behold, I am making all things new" (Revelation 21:5). He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End: he reigns from the creation of heaven and earth to the end of this world.
"I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life" (Revelation 21:6). A glass of cold water brings you back to life when you are thirsty. In the same way, Jesus completely satisfies the hunger and thirst of the soul with the water of life.

6. Overcoming, and driving out what closes the door of heaven

"He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son" (Revelation 21:7). To overcome, for the pastor, is not to let yourself be beaten by your emotions, by the storms of this world, by what other people say or by problems.
It is to hold on to the Word, keep the faith, pray, wait for the Lord and lean on him. Even in the face of problems that threaten us, the one who stays firm in faith overcomes them. Through these overcomers, the Lord shows himself, and they become his witnesses.
The greatest reason for gratitude: being welcomed as children of the Almighty God.
Verse 8 lists those who do not enter. First the cowardly: those who, facing a trial that seems as high as a mountain, become afraid and stop following the Lord and his Word. Fear keeps salvation from being fulfilled. We must drive out fear and worry in the name of the Lord and fight to keep walking according to his Word.
Then the unbelieving, whom the Japanese translation read to the congregation calls "those who are not faithful": people who say they believe but take from the Word only what suits them. "That is impossible, that is a bit too much..." They rewrite the faith to their own convenience. People may recognize them as Christians, but it is by God that we must be recognized.
For the abominable, the murderers and the sexually immoral, it is not enough to look at actions: with the help of the Holy Spirit, we must probe the deep motives of the heart, so as not to say false words or commit false acts out of self-interest.
The sorcerers: those who turn to divination or to the power of a spirit that is not the true God. These things must disappear completely from our habits of life.
Idolatry, finally, is the sin Christians fall into most easily. Hence the importance of receiving everything according to the Word rather than according to our own thoughts, and of constantly asking for the help of the Holy Spirit.
Her conclusion on this text: we live to prepare for our death. After death comes judgment, there is an eternal heaven and an eternal hell, and many things in this world want to keep us from entering. So we must fight and overcome.

7. A bereavement lived in the hope of the resurrection

The week before, the pastor learned that an aunt of hers, in Korea, had died on a Thursday morning. Weakened by illness, she could still speak the day before, then her breathing grew faint in the early morning. On Friday, the pastor was able to take a plane to Korea, and on Saturday the funeral service took place.
Her aunt's children live abroad. Sons, daughters and grandchildren arrived from everywhere, along with the family from the country. On Friday evening, everyone was gathered.
About two months before her cancer was discovered, this aunt had come to Agape Church for the first time in fifteen years, and had spent a happy week there. They had talked a great deal about heaven and hell, and about how to prepare for heaven.
A Christian, she had served in the choir for more than twenty years, until the age of 80. But the two of them had talked together about repenting sincerely, about removing from one's life everything one loves more than God, and about settling resentments with loved ones, brothers, sisters and children: forgiving, being forgiven, asking forgiveness.
The aunt understood that she needed to prepare. After the cancer was discovered, she lived her last days peacefully, kept by grace. Even when her body became less mobile, she kept giving thanks, repenting and preparing in her family relationships. The pastor testifies that the Lord showed her, by grace, her aunt's entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
At the funeral, the pastor says, the Lord, through a missionary, passed on to the family what the deceased had not been able to express well while she was alive. She sums up the essence of it: "I am now in a wonderful place! So all of you, prepare well for the rest of your life and be sure to come to heaven!" And again: "Really prepare yourselves, repent, and live the rest of your life with Jesus alone as your hope." Then: "Love one another in the Lord to the end, help one another, intercede and pray for one another."
The pastor would have liked her aunt to say these things more during her lifetime: to ask her children's forgiveness, to tell her brothers and sisters "I love you." As a family, they talked about what holds so many people back, shame and pride, and about the fact that once we leave the body of flesh, these sincere feelings can finally be expressed.
Everyone was comforted. There was the sadness of a separation for a time, but even more the joy of seeing cousins, uncles and aunts together, perhaps for the first time, since the family lives scattered. The members do not all have the same maturity in faith, and they promised one another to help each other and to intercede for one another so that all would enter heaven.
"This is what a Christian funeral is," she thought. She understood why there is more grace in going to a funeral than to a lavish feast (see Ecclesiastes 7:2: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart."). The saddest place in life can end with smiling faces, thanks to the hope of heaven.
She shares this testimony with the church: the members are not a family by blood, but God has gathered them as brothers and sisters. May they encourage one another to taste the same joy together in heaven.

Key takeaways

Every person, great or small, will stand before God after death and be judged according to his works, in the light of the Word.
The name written in the book of life is kept by walking with the Lord to the end, not by living as you please afterward.
Daily repentance, before sunset, erases what would otherwise be held against us on the last day.
In the New Jerusalem, God dwells with his people, wipes away every tear and makes all things new.
The hope of the resurrection can turn a bereavement into a time of comfort, reconciliation and mutual encouragement.

Personal application

When you look at your life today, are you walking with the Lord, or mostly deciding and living by yourself?
Do you take a moment in the evening to go over your day before God and repent with the help of the Holy Spirit?
What fear or worry makes you hold back from obeying the Word? Can you drive it out in the name of the Lord?
Is there someone in your family to whom you should say "I love you," "forgive me" or "I forgive you" while there is still time?
For whom, in your family or in your church, can you pray, and whom can you encourage this week, so that you may enter heaven together?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What is the book of life in Revelation 20?

According to Pastor Ruth, it is the book in which the names of those who enter the kingdom of heaven are written. On the day of judgment, anyone not found written in it is cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). She therefore calls us to walk with the Lord to the end, so that this name stays clearly written.

What does "Behold, I am making all things new" mean?

It is the declaration of the one who sits on the throne (Revelation 21:5). In the New Jerusalem, God dwells with his people, wipes away every tear and removes death, mourning, crying and pain. Pastor Ruth sees in it the promise that God comforts everything that was hard here below and turns it into blessing.

Who are "the cowardly" in Revelation 21:8?

For Pastor Ruth, they are those who, facing a trial that seems as high as a mountain, become afraid and stop following the Lord and his Word. She invites us to drive out fear and worry in the name of the Lord, and to fight to keep walking according to his Word.