Scripture: Hebrews 12:25-13:2, Haggai 2:3-9, 2 Chronicles 7:1-3, Do not refuse Christ who is speaking. God speaking by the prophets is different than when He speaks thru His Son. The Son keeps on speaking to us, in His Word and in the Divine Service. If you don't listen you are at risk of falling away. The created world is set to pass away, but things that cannot be shaken will remain: God Himself, His gifts and the people He has joined to Himself by grace.

Scripture: Revelation 20:7 - 21:8,

Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-24, You don't want to go back to the old covenant and Mt. Sinai, you have the new covenant in the Divine Service where you have access to God! In Divine Service we are in two places at once -- earth and heaven. They come together through the blood of Christ. Do you want Mt. Zion or Mt. Sinai? We are all first born because of Jesus and get our inheritance now by faith. When we go to church, we go to heaven.

Scripture: Revelation 20:1-7,

Scripture: Hebrews 12:12-17, The preacher to the Hebrews tells us to "strive for peace with everyone" and "strive for the holiness" without holiness no one will see the Lord. This admonition is for those who are already sanctified, those whom God sees through the blood of Christ. We are to see that no one fails to obtain the grace of God through daily repentance. We are to keep our "old Adam" down, and run to the cross for forgiveness when we fail. In forgiveness the Lord shares with us His holiness. Let us see Him face to face.

Scripture: Hebrews 12:1-11 Proverbs 3:11-12, In chapter 12, the preacher appears to focus on one sin of his audience, the sin of rejecting Jesus. He says "don't give up, look to Jesus", because Jesus is our model. He assures us that there is a great cloud of departed saints who are witnesses testifying to God's presence. We can look to Jesus for help, because He has taken the seat at the right hand of God. He is our great high priest interceding for us.

Scripture: Revelation 19:6-20:8,

The heavenly chorus praises God for the collapse and destruction of the great prostitute Babylon. Christ frees us from tyranny's grip and promises to share the spoils of His victory with us. God follows up His victory over Babylon by performing the marriage of His Son to His Bride, the Church. Though the Father earnestly invites all to come and be a part of this greatest imaginable marriage feast, some still resist the call of His Gospel. The Lord never gives up on them and until the end of time, God continues to extend His gracious invitation to believe on His Son's name and receive eternal life.

Scripture: Hebrews 11:5-40, Faith trusts even without sight what God has set forth in His Word. True faith is active in love and is steadfast under persecution. By His resurrection, Christ conquered death and now provides His Holy Spirit to strengthen us as it did for the Old Testament saints listed in this chapter. They possessed this saving faith and without seeing and hearing the promised Messiah they received the promises of God by this faith. They await their full resurrection, which will come for them and for us on the Last Day.

Scripture: Revelation 18:1-19:5, Two Beasts persecute the Church. One beast is political, the other is religious tyranny, described here as the Great Prostitute/Harlot. The political Beast turns on the Harlot and destroys all that "she" represents. The apostate church and the kings and merchants that take part in her wealth and evil weep and mourn over her destruction and their losses. This is a foretaste of the Final Judgment. Humans had been commodified and used in ungodly ways. They had been fattened before the reversal orchestrated by God through the political beast in just one hour. All who invested in the power of the earth through religious tyranny are weeping over the downfall of the Prostitute. Justice has finally begun to come.