Heaven Study Guide 4: What will it be like to see God face to Face?
Community Group Study Guide — What Will it be Like to Behold God Face to Face? (Heaven Week 4)
Revelation 22:1-5
August 30, 2026
Study Information:
What would it be like to get to know someone from a distance and then meet them face to face? Maybe you’re a college student who got to know their future roommate over the summer before meeting them in person. Or, a new parent gets to anticipate meeting their newborn face to face. Things like ultra sound technology can be awesome and awe-inspiring but pales in comparison to that first moment you hold you new child and you gaze at them face to face. God made us to be relational beings and a big part of that is in person presence and face to face communication. Our eyes track small movements and changes in someone else when we talk; our brain then interprets that data to build relationship and understanding.
In the Bible someone’s face is almost synonymous with their presence, even the Hebrew word for “presence” is the same word for “face.” Followers of Jesus live with the hopeful promise that our eternity will be spent in God’s presence, face to face with God. Theologians throughout history have referred to this as the beatific vision which means the “happy vision.” We will behold God face to face and be filled with immense joy for all eternity. What will it be like to behold God’s face?
The Longing to See God Face to Face
1 John 3:2 and 1 Corinthians 13:11-12
Genesis 2 described the Garden of Eden as a place of beauty and God’s presence. God was present and walked with Adam and Eve in the “cool of the day.” Most of us do not read this literally but the term implies his presence and closeness. When Adam and Eve sinned and were expelled from the Garden, they lost access to God’s presence and the rest of the Bible is a story of God’s plan for restoration to be home with him. The Biblical theme here is one of exile and homecoming. We see this theme throughout scripture. Moses asked God on the top of Mount Sinai to see his face and got a vision and declaration of God’s glory (Ex 33:18-23). Elijah asked for and received a similar vision. The prophetic books are filled with stories of God’s presence showing up in the form of a throne room, a spinning wheel and smoke and fire. Jesus himself was the “word made flesh” and when Jesus taught on his own departure his disciples responded with “show us the Father and it will be enough for us.” Jesus replied, “if you have seen me you have seen the Father (John 14:9).” Jesus Christ was the answer to the human desire to see God face to face, and in New Creation we will have that same reality magnified.
Paul talked about our experience on this side of eternity as “seeing in a mirror dimly (1 Cor 13:11-12).” Meaning that here and now we can experience God’s presence and knowledge of God but it is murky and unclear compared to what we will experience when Christ’s returns. John described our process of transformation and change by beholding God in 1 John 3:2. We are incomplete in the here and now, but when Christ appears we will be “like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Beholding God changes us more and more into the image of Christ and in New Creation we will behold him as he is. We can look forward to eternity because that is when our human eyes will see the full beauty of God and it will overwhelm and change us.
If you are a follower of Jesus your eternal future will be filled with beauty and joy, not because New Creation is nice or just because you’re free from pain and suffering. You will be filled with beauty and joy because God’s presence will fill every aspect of your life in a way that we cannot fully comprehend until we realize that truth.
Revelation 22:1-5 gives us a picture of this through its use of Garden or Eden language and description of God’s presence with his people.
Fullness of Joy
Revelation 22:1-5
John opens almost every transition in the book of Revelation with the phrase “and I saw” or something similar. He immersed his readers in a visual spectacle of discipleship during a time of suffering with a hopeful message that God is king, judgement will come and an eternal future is secured for the people of God. Revelation 22:1 takes us to the City of God where the angel showed John a place that was like the Garden of Eden but better. Like Eden this place flowed with the water of life coming straight from the throne of God. This place also had the Tree of Life but now yielding twelve kinds of fruit each month, likely symbolic for the fullness of God’s people in that repetition of the number twelve to match the twelve tribes and twelve apostles. The leaves of this tree were for the healing of the nations, pointing back to God’s covenant with Abraham in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Next there would not be any accursed thing in this place because the curse from Genesis 3 would be overturned. And finally no light or lamp or sun because God’s glorious majesty would fill the place forever and ever with light. This light would be like seeing in a mirror clearly, not dimly, because the Lord’s presence will fill our eyes. These are promises that all the negative effects of Genesis 3 and the curse of sin would be overturned, and replaced with life, joy and God’s presence. A river, a throne, the tree of life, the removal of the curse and the fullness of light from God himself. This is a restoration and expansion of the Garden of Eden which was a place for humanity to dwell with God.
The central promise in this passage that makes all the other promises so meaningful and joyful is found in Revelation 22:4 “and they will see his face…” What makes heaven “heaven” is God’s presence, his face. There is a mystery of what this will be like but we can know a few things for certain.
First, God’s presence means fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). The word “beatific” comes from the same word for “beatitude” in Matthew 5 and it means “happy or flourishing.” Our eternity with God will be one of infinite joy and happiness because of being with God. That ache we have from separation, that feeling of distance will be gone forever.
Second, some of us wonder if heaven will be boring since the idea of “forever” is something that we cannot really grasp with our current mind. Boredom can be beneficial in our earthly lives because it leads to creativity and discovery, but that feeling of boredom is a result of sin. There is not singular verse that points to this, but boredom as a concept is a lack of wonder and malaise and we will not experience a lack of wonder in the presence of God and the new world he will make. Heaven will not be a perpetual time out or solo trip. It will be filled with people who love and trust God and God himself and as Jonathan Edwards called it, “heaven will be a world of love.”
Third, we will grow in our knowledge of God and enjoyment of God forever. This eternal state of New Creation will likely include a measure of meaningful work and rest and responsibility because that was all in the Garden of Eden, but it will be characterized by ever increasing closeness with God’s presence and knowledge of him because God is infinite and we can never hit our limit of knowing and enjoying him.
Finally, everything that was accursed will not only be removed but it will be replaced with things that bring life and fullness and joy. That was what was behind the idea of the throne, river of life and the fruit from the tree of life. Earlier in Revelation 21 we got these images that described the City of God with the same dimensions used for the holy of holies in the Old Testament and its description of twelve types of jewels in the city, all of which reflect and magnify light. God’s glory and presence shines as a lamp throughout the place where everything highlights love, joy and beauty found in God.
You may have more questions about heaven and that is a good thing because the Bible is not exhaustive in its description and much of it is kept as a mystery. But whatever heaven is like we can be certain that God himself will be the central feature and we will see him face to face which means ever growing knowledge and relationship with God and John tells us that we will be transformed by that experience! We can look forward to joy, beauty and love in the presence of God forever.
At your community group:
Take 15-20 minutes to share about how God has been at work in your life, prayer concerns and pray for one another.
How did God speak to you through the scripture and the sermon this week?
Discussion Questions:
Revelation 22:1-5
Read 1 Corinthians 13:11-12. What do you think Paul means by looking in a mirror dimly and how is that compared to what we read in Revelation 22:1-5?
John described in 1 John 3:2 that seeing Christ face to face will transform us to be like him. What are some reason that God’s presence is so uniquely transformative for us?
What features are described in this New Creation in Revelation 22:1-5. The Garden of Eden was the central image for unbroken presence with God. How do they connect back to the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3?
What do you think it will be like to be in God’s presence forever in a New Creation? What excites you about that hopeful future?
