The book of Revelation (notice there is no "s" on the end) is one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible. It is not a book that describes how the world is going to end nor is it written scare people (though there are some scary images). Revelation is a book written to give hope and encouragement to Christians who were facing hardship and persecution in first century Asia Minor. The main message of the book is to remain faithful to King Jesus and don't compromise no matter what the cost. The reason this message is often lost on most readers is because it was written in a unique, yet common style of writing called Apocalyptic literature. The genre is described this way by Tim Mackie from Bible Project: "Apocalyptic literature is a prophet's symbolic dreams and visions that reveal God's Heavenly perspective on history and current events so that the present could be viewed in light of history's final outcome."  With this definition in hand, what we have in the book of Revelation is God's "Big Picture" plan of how history, and real time events are working to lead to the realization of God's Kingdom coming to fulfillment in a New Heaven and a New Earth. 

At the center of God's plan to bring about this fulfillment is Jesus. In Revelation there are three distinct images of Jesus given: a high priest, a slain lamb, and a king on a white horse. These three descriptions are essential in reminding the readers as to who Jesus is, the roles that he plays in our lives and why he is worthy of our allegiance and worship.

Give a listen to the conclusion of our Big Picture sermon series by taking a closer look at who Jesus is and why devoting our lives to him leads us to the destination our hearts desire.

One can't have a discussion regarding The Big Picture of the Bible without talking about God's Kingdom. From Genesis to Revelation, God's Kingdom pops up (though subtle at times) everywhere. Then, when Jesus arrives on the scene it literally becomes his main preaching point through out his ministry: "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!" ~ Mark 1:15 This gospel message from Jesus was a call for people to leave their old kingdoms and join God's Kingdom. Jesus pushes this idea even further when he says our prayers should include a request that God's Kingdom would advance on earth. We are to pray: "your kingdom come your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." ~ Matthew 6:10 The Kingdom of God was a big deal to Jesus. The question we must answer is this: Is the Kingdom of God a big deal for us?

We all are a part of a kingdom, be it our personal kingdoms, the kingdom of politics, or any kingdom of power in the world today. The problem with these kingdoms is that while they seemingly appear to offers us something, in reality they take, divide, and ultimately use...only to cast us away. On the other hand, Jesus tells us that in God's Kingdom the last are first, that those who mourn will be comforted, that those who are meek will inherit the earth, and that those who are peacemakers will be called children of God. What a dramatically different description then what we see in the kingdoms of our world.  In this latest installment of the Big Picture we discover why it is worth pledging our allegiance God's Kingdom.

A woman in Sunderland, England nearly leapt to her death in 2018 from Wearmouth Bridge, very well known as a place where people come to end their lives. She now returns to that site regularly to post messages encouraging others who are having a rough time to get help.

Paige Hunter, now 21, says that when she was a teenager suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, she found herself standing at the edge of the bridge, thinking about ending it all. That’s when a pair of Good Samaritans approached Hunter, telling her “You are worth so much more than this.”

That not only stopped her from jumping, but changed her life. The next day, Hunter wrote those eight words that were told to her on several pieces of paper and posted them all over the bridge where she had her epiphany. That’s where her campaign, Notes of Hope, began.

Since then, Hunter said she’s left over 1,000 laminated, handwritten messages on the Wearmouth Bridge encouraging others struggling with mental health issues to seek help. She’s received lots of feedback and thinks she’s saved dozens of lives through her efforts—and even improved her own. Hunter said, “It’s definitely therapeutic for me to write these messages.”

25-year-old Callum Doggrell said his life was saved by Hunter’s efforts. “I was going through a really rough patch, and I was at a point in my life where I didn’t want to be here anymore,” he said. That was in early 2019. He thought about his one-year-old son and other loved ones and decided to push past his trouble and carry on. He and Hunter are now in contact.

We can't talk about The Big Picture of the Bible without spending some time with it's most famous verse:  "16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." ~ John 3:16 We learn that God so loves his creation that he is willing to give his son to save people and generously provide them with eternal life. In a truly stunning move, God demonstrates the value of people; they are worth the sacrifice of his son. This amazing news means everything to those who believe in Jesus. To find ourselves in a place of despair and hopelessness only to discover there is a savior who can change the narrative forever! It reminds me of Paige Hunter's story and how words of hope can change everything. Paige took those words of hope and found a mission to help others. What about followers of Jesus? Do we not carry the same type of mission? There is a shift that occurs when a person chooses to follow Jesus. Before following Jesus we live as if the world revolves around us. However, in following Jesus we move into second place...the place where King Jesus and his mission takes first place in our lives. If our savior humbled himself to save us, shouldn't that be our posture as well? Check out part eight of The Big Picture and learn how to live a life of "second place" and take up the mission of Jesus.

The fine-tuning of the universe is shown in the precise strengths of four basic forces. Gravity is the best known of these forces, and the weakest, with a relative strength of 1. Next comes the weak nuclear force that holds neutrons together inside an atom. It is 1034 times stronger than gravity but works only at subatomic distances. Electromagnetism is 1,000 times stronger than the weak nuclear force. The strong nuclear force—which keeps protons together in the nucleus of an atom—is 100 times stronger yet. If even one of these forces had a slightly different strength, the life-sustaining universe we know would be impossible.

If gravity were slightly stronger, all stars would be large, like the ones that produce iron and other heavier elements, but they would burn out too rapidly for the development of life. On the other hand, if gravity were weaker, the stars would endure, but none would produce the heavier elements necessary to form planets.

The weak nuclear force controls the decay of neutrons. If it were stronger, neutrons would decay more rapidly, and there would be nothing in the universe but hydrogen. However, if this force were weaker, all the hydrogen would turn into helium and other elements.

The electromagnetic force binds atoms to one another to form molecules. If it were either weaker or stronger, no chemical bonds would form, so no life could exist.

Finally, the strong nuclear force overcomes the electromagnetic force and allows the atomic nucleus to exist. Like the weak nuclear force, changing it would produce a universe with only hydrogen or with no hydrogen.

In sum, without planets, hydrogen, and chemical bonds, there would be no life as we know it. Besides these four factors, there are at least twenty-five others that require pinpoint precision to produce a universe that contains life. Getting each of them exactly right suggests the presence of an Intelligent Designer.

Source: Charles Edward White, "God by the Numbers," Christianity Today (March 2006)

Every day we go about our lives, moving from one project to the next, not even stopping to marvel at how fortunate we are to even exist. To pause and consider that every little detail, from gravity to electromagnetic force, is precisely fine tuned for us to live and move about on this planet is truly remarkable. It's even more remarkable when you realize who made it happen. The apostle Paul writes: "For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities,; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." ~ Colossians 1:16-17 If Christ Jesus is the one who created gravity, and if he is the one who rules over all powers and authorities, and if in him all things hold together, what could he do with your life of chaos? To consider what a life with Jesus at the center looks like, check out part seven of the Big Picture! 

Listen to guest preacher David McCoy continue with part six of our sermon series, The Big Picture. 

Evan Osgood, the student ministry pastor from Antioch Christian Church continues our sermon series in part five of The Big Picture.

In middle school there was a very sophisticated way to determine if someone wanted to be boyfriend/girlfriend: We sent a note. Not just any old note mind you. The note was usually discreetly carried by an entrusted friend who would deliver the precious cargo while avoiding the scanning eyes of the teacher. The note simply read: Do you like me? Below were a series of boxes. One box indicated YES. Another box was NO. A third box was, MAYBE. Your job was to mark the appropriate box, get the message back to the trusted carrier, and depending on the box you marked, either make someone's day or break their heart. Millions of pre-teen relationships were formed in this somewhat risky, yet safer way of asking the universal question: Do you want a relationship with me?

God's design for all of creation was for it to live in perfect community. We were made for relationship with God and with every other human. However, because of the rebellion against God's design, humans now live in this broken world where they were made for relationship, yet so uncertain if God or other people will even accept them.  Therapist, Edie Weinstein puts it this way: ‌ “I have sat with clients of all ages who have expressed feeling like an outsider who doesn’t quite fit in, a square peg in a round hole, so different from others that they may have come from another planet. Some are adults, some children and teens and what they have in common is a longing to belong.” We all have a longing to belong and the good news of the Bible is that God wants you to belong in his human family! In part four of The Big Picture we will discover how we can know that God "marked the YES box" and the impact that invitation can have on our lives and our relationships with others. To learn more, give a listen to part four of The Big Picture!

There’s a well-known story about a famous violinist who took his $3.5 million Stradivarius onto a platform of a Washington DC subway and started playing music. He was dressed in a T-shirt and a ball cap. Joshua Bell was accustomed to playing for packed concert halls and getting paid $1,000 a minute. During his 43-minute solo concert in the subway a total of 1097 people passed by. But only seven people stopped to listen. He earned $32 in change.

J.T. Tillman, a computer specialist, was one of the people who walked by. He said, “I didn’t think nothing of it, just a guy trying to make a couple of bucks.” Tillman would’ve given him some cash, but he spent all his money on the lotto. When he was told that he stiffed one of the best musicians in the world, he asked, “Is he ever going to play around here again?” The reporter said, “Yeah, but you’re going to have to pay a lot to hear him.”

Exactly one person recognized Joshua Bell. Her name was Stacy. She positioned herself 10 feet away from Bell, front row, center. She had a huge grin on her face. She said, “It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen in Washington. Joshua Bell was standing there playing at rush-hour, and people were not stopping, and not even looking, and some more flipping quarters at him! Quarters! I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what kind of a city do I live in that this could happen?’”

In Genesis chapter three we read about this event often referred to as The Fall. A perfect garden paradise called Eden, two humans made in the image of God caring for the beautiful space and living in a everyday relationship with God. Everything is running according to design until a spiritual being, taking on the appearance of a snake, tempts the couple with a crafty half truth, and in a moments notice everything is thrown into disarray! The story of the Bible is about how God works to bring goodness back to from chaos. The good news of Scripture tells us that God invades the fallen world as Jesus of Nazareth. His job is to atone for the sin, but there's also another very important job as well: show people what it means to be human. Jesus is the perfect human and he models for us what it looks like to live as imagers of God here on earth.  What does any of this have to do with one of the greatest violin players in the world going unnoticed in a subway? Every day, Christians ignore the beautiful transformation that King Jesus gives us. The apostle Paul writes: "take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth." ~ Ephesians 422-24 CSB Everyday we go about our busy lives, looking like everyone else...all the while ignoring the beautiful example King Jesus provides us about how to live as God's people. To learn more give a listen to part three of The Big Picture.

My wife Suzi loves puzzles and is a master at putting them together. Me on the other hand, when I look at a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces, immediately thinks, "Chaos!" This is why I'm so amazed at how Suzi opens a puzzle box, and immediately employs her meticulous strategy, and within a handful of hours, has assembled a beautiful picture...with every piece in it's place! The Bible opens with these words: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." ~ Genesis 1:1-2 Two important truths we discover from these verses. 1) God created. There is an author, creator, architect, and designer. This is an important truth and must not be dismissed. To not be able to assign origin and design to someone or something can cause a person to feel untethered, anxious. To know where we come from and why we are here is essential in living a live of clarity and purpose. The good news of the Bible tells us that God is the Creator. 2) Chaos. The words, "formless and empty" convey the idea of chaos; just like a heaping pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Yet, God takes the chaos and begins to bring order, structure, meaning and purpose to all of creation. All of us have had moments in our lives where it felt like we were living in complete chaos; be it our finances, relationships, emotions, or our thinking. The good news of the Bible tells us that the Creator can bring something good from our chaos. 

To learn how these truths apply to your life, make sure and listen to part two of The Big Picture. 

So many of us do it: You get into bed, turn off the lights, and look at your phone to check social media one more time. Before you know it, you've spent hours incessantly scrolling through X, Tik-tok or Reels...a bottomless doom-and-gloom of negative information, thoughtless antics and cheap entertainment.   

This habit has become known as doomscrolling--the act of consuming an endless procession of negative or meaningless online content. According to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center, 66% of Americans feel worn out by the amount of news available. Other articles have found connections between doomscrolling and mental health issues like depression and anxiety, not to mention the impact on quality sleep. 

Recently, Dictionary.com named doomscrolling one of its “New Words We Created Because of Coronavirus.” There’s something else in the etymology, though. Particularly in the word doom. The act of doomscrolling, then, is to roll toward annihilation. Kind of an eerie word if you look at it that way. The bigger point in all of this lies in the simple truth: You become what you consume. The result of doomscrolling over time is a hunger for good news. News that satisfies, brings hope, give life, provides joy, and is true. In this new sermon series, we begin a journey of good news. In The Big Picture series, we will discover the singular good news message of the Bible and how we can track it every part of scripture. This series is going to provide us with a great opportunity to better grasp the grand narrative of the Bible. Give a listen to part one of the Big Picture, and join the conversation!