In Revelation 11:15-19 the seventh trumpet sounds signaling the final judgment and the return of Christ. This is something for which God will be praised on the last day. Though many think God unjust in his judgments or think them horrible, on the last day, all of creation will rejoice when it comes. This is because the day of judgment is a demonstration of perfect righteousness, the time when the righteous are delivered, and the kingdom fully consummated.

In Genesis 18:20-33 Abraham famously intercedes for Sodom. His intercession is a picture and foreshadowing of the glorious intercession of Christ as our faithful high priest.

In Revelation 11:7-14, the two witnesses are put to death and, like their Lord, are raised from the dead. We understand from this that the church and her ministry will always follow the pattern of her Lord. She will conquer by death and resurrection like her Lord.

Guest sermon from Pastor Nathaniel Vroom of First OPC Sunnyvale

If Christ really is fully God and fully man, if this glorious incarnation has truly happened, what is its purpose? Why did God actually become man? We are told the answer in the record of his birth in Matthew 1:18-25. He came to save his people from their sins. This he did by dying. The Son of God became man, so that he might die.

If the birth of Christ really is the Word becoming flesh, then he is, in himself, the greatest revelation of the Father. He is the exegesis of the Father in his very person. He is the one who came down from heaven to testify of the things that are in heaven. He is the one of whom it can be said, "If you have seen him, you have seen the Father." Such are the prophetic implications of the incarnation, and the glory of the one who is fully God and fully man.

In Hebrews 4:14-16 we are told that Christ is a glorious High Priest who has passed through the heavens. He is like us in every way except without sin. As the one who is fully God and fully man, he is perfectly fitted to be the priest who reconciles man to God. He is able to make a full atonement for our sins, intercede for us forever, and to be a compassionate High Priest, sympathizing with us in our weaknesses.

If Christ is fully God and fully man, what does that tell us about who he was born to be? When the angel Gabriel announces the birth of Christ to Mary, he tells her that he will be great, and that he will be given the throne of his father David, and that there will be no end to his kingdom. Christ being fully God and fully man, the eternal Son of God who took on human flesh, means he was born to have a kingdom that will never end.

In Matthew 8:23-27 Christ calms the storm and the waves of the sea on the Sea of Galilee. This causes the disciples to ask the question, "What kind of man is this?" They are seeing one who is truly a man, and yet the things he is doing are demonstrating that he is God. How do we understand this reality, that Christ is both fully God and fully man? The mystery is profound, and the doctrine incomprehensibly glorious, that Christ can be fully God and fully man, in two distinct natures and yet one person, forever.

Christ is not only fully God, but he is also fully man. The glory of the incarnation is seen in the humility of the eternal Son of God who took on the form of a man, even the form of a servant for us. He has become fully man for us, having both a true body and a rational soul. This is the glory of Christ, who is both fully God and fully man.