Grace & Peace PGH

This is a sermon from the guest preacher, Rodger Woodworth.

“A Christian life in which we simply orient our lives around the teachings and example of Jesus with no real expectation of his bodily return to this earth is not the Christian life at all. The orientation of a Christian is leaning forward in anticipation of the next big event on the calendar of redemptive history: the second coming of Jesus Christ." – Nancy Guthrie, Blessed, 241.

“This picture of the new creation as a garden keeps us from expecting that this world is ever going to fully satisfy us. We’re thirsty for the living water. We’re hungry for the fruit of the tree of life. We long for the full and complete satisfaction that awaits us in the new and greater garden to come.” – Nancy Guthrie, Blessed, 237.

“…to be heavenly minded is to live in light of the age to come. To maintain a heavenly orientation is not to withdraw from the earthly creation but rather to view the earthly in light of the heavenly.” – Michael D. Williams, Far As the Curse is Found, 301.

“God is portrayed in Revelation, not as uncontrollably angry, but as inexorably just. God’s faithfulness to the creation, all humanity, and the church leads to the divine war against evil, Empire, and their lies, represented by the unholy trinity and named ‘Babylon.’ The three members of that unholy triumvirate together meet their final fate, along with those who ultimately refuse the mercy of God, as well as Death and Hades themselves… In other words, God wins: ‘It is done!’…." – Michael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly, 158.

“Evil must be destroyed, not only for the sake of God’s justice, but for the sake of the purity of the new world.” – Vern S. Poythress, The Returning King, 175.

“Brides who are in love can’t stop talking about the bridegroom. This is how we know we are really prepared for the wedding: we find that we can’t keep from talking about our bridegroom.” – Nancy Guthrie, Blessed, 200.

"The proper response to the vision is not fatalism but 'an altered life'... When readers become aware of their own complicity in the practices of the empire portrayed as Babylon and distance themselves from its ways, the vision has the effect for which it was written." —Craig R. Koester

"Revelation as a whole is a call to patient endurance as we wait for our king, the Lamb, our bridegroom, to come. And inherent in that patient endurance is faithfulness. To wait is going to require that we refuse the advances of any other lovers who seek to seduce us." —Nancy Guthrie

This week's sermon on Revelation 15-16. We apologize for the cutoff sermon. There was an issue with the recording.