Lesson 8

John was the last of the apostles to die. The last book of the Bible, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, was written by him in his old age. Jesus predicted John would see him return. John saw Jesus return in a vision, then he wrote in down for us.

John 21:22-24 International Children’s Bible

22 Jesus answered, “Perhaps I want him to live until I come back. That should not be important to you. You follow me!” 23 So a story spread among the brothers that this follower would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die. He only said, “Perhaps I want him to live until I come back. That should not be important to you.”

24 That follower is the one who is telling these things. He is the one who has now written them down. We know that what he says is true.

Revelation 1:1-2 Modern English Version

1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show to His servants things which must soon take place. He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, 2 who bears record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

It’s through John’s vision that we learn how and when those, like babies, who never got the opportunity to believe in Jesus during their first lives, will get to believe in Jesus when they are resurrected into their second lives. Their second lives will be lived in a world free of satan. As promised by God in the Old Testament, that world will be ruled with his laws. Jesus and his followers will rule justly.  Revelation 20 tells us about how those resurrected in the first mass resurrection of saints will rule over the earth with Jesus when he returns. Verse 5 has an important side note that most people skip over, as John describes the first resurrection. 

Revelation 20:5 Easy-to-Read Version

5 (The rest of the dead did not live again until the 1000 years were ended.) This is the first resurrection.

Verse 5 gives us the time and location for the second major resurrection of mankind. It takes place after Jesus reigns with his followers for the first thousand years here on the earth. Do you know much about this or other resurrections? How can anyone be saved if they don’t believe in Jesus? How can anyone believe in Jesus if they haven’t heard about him? How can anyone hear about Jesus if no one told them? Who did Jesus say were the only ones able to follow and believe in him? When there is a second death for people, how many lives did they live?