Made New | Follow the Lamb Week 6
Our world is broken (that’s no surprise to us). In Revelation, John writes of a world made new; and if Revelation isn’t just a prediction about the end of the world, but a window into God’s work now, how do we make sense of the brokenness going on in the world? In this sermon, we’ll talk about what it means for God to make the world new, and how we (even amidst our brokenness) can join God in the work of repair.
A Marriage Made in Heaven | Follow the Lamb Week 5
“Let us rejoice and be glad, for the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready.” The single most compelling metaphor for salvation in the Bible is not a trial with God on the bench and humanity in the dock. It’s a wedding with Christ at the altar, awaiting the arrival of his bride, the Church. When we think of salvation in these terms, it changes almost everything about the way we live each day.
Redeeming Worship | Follow the Lamb Week 4
“I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven and the Voice I heard speaking to me said, ‘Come up here…’”. Despite the controversy over worship in the Church today, there is no confusion in heaven. Here, in what some call the center of Revelation, is an open door with an invitation to join the worship already in progress. When we join the worship of heaven it redescribes the world as we know it. It re-interprets all that is happening and empowers us to be faithful in the present age.
Breaking Evil | Follow the Lamb Week 3
The fool speaks folly, and his mind is busy with evil… but the nobleman makes noble plans and by his noble deeds he stands.” Sometimes we lost Jesus in our hurry to conquer evil in His name. Here in the middle of Revelation – when the minds of many are busy with evil – pay attention to the faithful, and how they overcome evil with good. John’s vision of Jesus’ victory over evil is bigger than our little fantasies of getting even because it involves the conquest over evil itself.
A Familiar Stranger | Follow the Lamb Week 2
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” What would Jesus notice if he came to Church, to His people, and looked at their heart? For some it would be an unnerving visit from a familiar stranger, someone they knew who knows everything about them. The seven letters of Revelation are descriptions of seven different souls. Which one describes us? Which describes you? And what would Jesus tell us to do?
Follow the Lamb | Follow the Lamb Week 1
Don’t be afraid. I am the First and the Last… I am alive forever and I have the keys.” Revelation is the last word on Jesus and what makes it so relevant is that it’s spoken in a time when everything is coming apart. It’s a commentary on all that’s happening in John’s day and in ours. It’s a manifesto of sorts to the faithful, calling us to resist the pull of empire and to follow the Lamb no matter what.