Gulf Coast Community Church Podcast – St. Petersburg

Our text begins with the Lamb, looking as if he had been slain, opening the seals which will allow the scroll to be opened. It ends with the sealed people of God who suffered through the events of the seals standing on the side of the sea, before God’s throne, giving praise for their victory.

What are these “seals” and how are God’s people “sealed”? Who are these four horsemen? What’s the meaning of the 144,000? Who is this great multitude? We will explore the answers to these questions and God’s promise to His suffering people.

Why do God’s people need to be sealed? Why do they need a promise? Because of what it looks like to follow the Lamb. Because as Dana Harris writes:

“The power and strength (political, military, or other) of a lion is not what is needed to defeat evil kings or kingdoms. Instead, it is the surprising vulnerability and weakness of a Lamb, who was slaughtered and resurrected, that vanquishes evil and ushers in the new creation.”

Join us in worship as we explore Revelation 6—7 in our series Worship and Witness in a Winner-takes-all World.

What is the purpose of the book of Revelation? If, as we discussed last week, it is not to provide a timeline for when Jesus is coming back, then what is it? To understand this, we need to think about what a suffering church needs. What would a church tempted into the idolatry of the empire need? What would a church following a suffering Lamb need in a world in which power and wealth hold sway?

They would need the book of Revelation, which takes the cover off what we see to show us what is really going on in the world. In it we discover, as it were, that the emperor has no clothes! We learn to worship day and night in a chaotic world. We learn that the ways of the Lamb who was slain, though they require patient endurance, will win in the end.

Revelation comes at the end of a collection (the 65 others books of Scripture) that is about a cosmic war. The rulers of the world rage against God and His messiah and God laughs (Psa. 2). The rulers of this world conquer while God’s ruler is slain. Yet, in the end, the last laugh is God’s.

Join us in worship as we continue our exploration of Revelation focusing on chapters 4-5.

A couple of weeks ago I was wrestling with what our next sermon series should be at Gulf Coast Community Church. A thematic study of patience and the need for it as God’s strategy for mission and witness, or to finish our series in Revelation (recall that we left off last year after the 7 messages to the churches). Of course, the two themes aren’t unrelated. The events of last week made the decisions easy.

I don’t say that because the attack in the Gaza Strip is somehow predicted in Revelation, but because it isn’t. In fact, while all the frenzy is being stirred up about these events and how they (supposedly) relate to Bible prophecy, the church needs a good dose of sobriety. There is never a better time to focus on what Revelation is really about.

Let me be clear: there is no timeline in Scripture to tell us when Jesus is coming back. Unless you think telling us repeatedly “it will be a long time in coming” is a timeline. So if the book of Revelation isn’t a timeline of end time events, then what is it? Now that is an important question.

Join us in worship as we begin again our series: The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Worship and Witness in a Winner-takes-all World.

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:1-21

I thought we finished the series, Imagining the Kingdom, last week. However, I was encouraged by one of our members last week to consider covering these final verses on prayer (I won’t mention any names, Reggie). I immediately knew I would.

In fact, prayer is essential for a genuine kingdom imagination, and it is essential to experiencing the culture of the Gospel of peace. There’s no wonder that Paul’s message to the Ephesians has prayer woven throughout. It ends encouraging us to pray for one another and that the secret will be fearlessly be made known. That will require fearless words and fearless lives.

Join us for worship as we hear from Ephesians 6:18-20 and about an essential for Gospel culture—prayer. We will also hear from the book of nature, from ants in fact (thanks to An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Reality Around Us, by Ed Yong), about how essential prayer is for Gospel community.

One of the most well-known passages in the New Testament letters is that which calls us to “put on the full armor of God” (Eph. 6:10-18). One can even obtain plastic armor like that of a Roman soldier for their children to put on, though I’m pretty sure this does more to mask the text than help them understand it.

Paul has been building a theme that climaxes here in this final chapter. As the adopted children of God we are no longer children of rage but children of light. How proper then for us to wear the armor that God’s divine warrior-king, Jesus the Promised King, would wear. It will be necessary in order that we might wage a war that matches our message of peace—as if it were a war on war itself.

How any one of us ever fit into God’s armor? That’s where the secret lies. You can’t fit into God’s armor and were never meant to. Paul had something else in mind.

Join us in worship this Sunday as we freshly explore Ephesians 6 and the armor of God, learning how to imagine the kingdom of our King, Jesus!

During and following the 2016 presidential election, both sides claimed Russian interference in favor of their opponent’s campaign. It turns out, they were both right. In 2017 it was shown that both were correct (I dare not say “right”). In fact, it appears that the only goal the Russians have is to get our society to fight in order to tear itself apart. They may have succeeded.

The church hasn’t needed much help to accomplish the same thing, especially when it comes to verses like those in our text this Sunday: Ephesians 5:20—6:9. Wives submit. Children obey. Slaves obey. Or at least that’s what our minds are often drawn to.

Debates over these words from Paul are usually framed around modern questions and rarely helpful for the change of heart which Paul desires in the church. Was Paul a misogynist? Did he endorse slavery? Was Paul teaching mutual submission between husbands and wives, parents and children, slaves and masters? If so, how realistic is that?

Join us in worship as we seek to get to the heart of Paul’s instructions and hopefully, growing out of this, we will find answers to such questions. More importantly, we will hopefully be transformed into Christ’s likeness.

“Ships do not sink because of water around them, ships sink because of water that gets into them,” said the Pracin Jain in The Times of India (I’m not kidding!) In a day when it is not uncommon to hear Christians in a panic because of immorality of the world around us, this is a good reminder. The church isn’t going to sink because our culture (or any culture where the church is) slides into a pit of darkness.

The church isn’t threatened by sin in the world. It is only threatened by sin in the church. Our text this Sunday, Ephesians 5:3-20, reminds us of the importance for us, the church, to live as children of light. It is only as children of light that we can shine light that will expose deeds of darkness such that people might turn to the light and be saved.

Join us in worship as we continue in our series, Imagining the Kingdom.

Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is a living human.” I believe this truth is central to the purpose of the Gospel. James K. A. Smith writes, “The gospel is the way we learn to be human…. To be human is to be for something, directed toward something, oriented toward something…. We are like existential sharks: we have to move to live. We are not just static containers for ideas; we are dynamic creatures directed toward some end.”

What does it mean to be human? What is that “something” toward which we are oriented? What are we to be moving toward? Our text this Sunday, Ephesians 5:1-2, is all about that something toward which we are to be oriented. It is all about how the grand drama of the Gospel restores humanity to what we were made to be.

The fact is, as believers in Jesus, we have been cast as characters in the grand drama of the Gospel and we need to learn our  role and live it. Join us this Sunday as we continue our series, “Imagining the Kingdom.”

Text: 2nd Peter 1:3-11