We’re reading the first epistle of Peter over two weeks, with brief explanations and applications. The Bible text (NIV 2011) is in blue, so you can tell what bits are Scripture and what bits are my explanations.
1:1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect—that’s you; exiles—a minority mocked and excluded by the rest of society—scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, of Sydney, of Australia, of Asia, the Americas, Africa and Europe,
Coffee with the King is back! (We’re still debating how long the coffee supply will last, but we’re back for now…)
For the next two weeks we’re going to read carefully through the whole first epistle of 1 Peter. We’ll try—as much as we’re able—to experience it as a coherent letter. (Ideally, we’d read it all in one sitting; or better, listen to it read out all at once, just like the original recipients would have experienced it. But given the format of our daily readings, we’ll do it over 10 days.)
And to help this letter speak for itself, we’ll give only the essential commentary to explain and apply, taking our lead from Ezra, who, along with his priestly entourage:
Nehemiah 8:8 …read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.
On Monday, we began our Christmas week series through Revelation chapter 12. You need to start from the beginning of the week, or this won’t make sense.
So far, we’ve seen the dragon (Satan) defeated in his attempts to kill the young hero born to a woman. What’s more, he’s been cast down from the skies. Defeated, yes, but not yet destroyed. And as you might expect, the dragon isn’t particularly happy about being cast down from the sky. In fact, the voice from heaven gives us a bit of a warning:
On Monday, we began our Christmas week series through Revelation chapter 12. You need to start from the beginning of the week, or this won’t make sense.
So far, we’ve read Revelation 12 and identified the woman as “Mother Zion” – the true mother of the real saviour of the world (not Mother Rome and her emperor-son). The dragon is Satan, who – just like in Greek and Roman mythology – wants to kill the saviour-god who is born. But he’s thwarted in his plans, and is defeated by the young hero when he comes of age.
To end our Revelation series – and to prepare for Christmas on the weekend – we’re going to be looking at everyone’s favourite Christmas-themed passage: Revelation chapter 12. (What could possibly go wrong?)
But this is a very different telling of the Christmas story from the ones we’re most familiar with. It’s not the one from the Gospel of Matthew, written from the perspective of a Jew who saw Jesus’ birth as the fulfilment of OT prophecy. Nor is it the one from Luke’s Gospel, from the perspective of a Gentile historian, who saw Jesus’ birth as part of God’s great plan of salvation for all of humanity.
In fact, it’s not really told from a human, earthly perspective at all. But a heavenly one. A spiritual one. A vision given to a guy called John while he was exiled on the island of Patmos, and written down in what we call the book of Revelation.
Today we conclude our look at Revelation’s description of the future that awaits us – a recreated world in which there’s no more evil, in which sin’s curse has been undone, and in which we can see God face-to-face. If you’re just joining us, start with yesterday’s post.
Revelation 22:1-2 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
The river of the water of life reminds us of Eden, in Genesis 2:
Yesterday, we looked at the fate of those who remain opposed to God. Over the next two days, we end on a much brighter note – the future that awaits those who are faithful to God, and worship him only.
Revelation 21:1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
The chapter begins with a new heaven and a new earth, replacing or renewing the former ones. Although surfers may be disappointed that there’s no longer any sea, don’t panic: it’s symbolic. The sea symbolises the evil forces of chaos – just like in the creation story, where God subdued the chaos of the waters and caused dry land to appear.
Yesterday in our Revelation series, we saw the fate of those who remained true to Jesus, being invited to the great wedding supper of the Lamb. It was contrasted with the fate of those who remained opposed to him and who mistreated his people: the beast and the false prophet were thrown into the fiery lake, and the rest were destroyed. Today, we look at some final tidying up of things, before we get a glimpse, tomorrow, of our future in the age to come.
The millennium – mentioned only in this small section of Scripture – has strangely divided Christians for a long time into different camps: are you pre-millennial, post-millennial, or a-millennial. (Why? Let’s just say that one particular view tried to hijack the issue and link their way of understanding it to whether you took Scripture “literally” – so if you disagreed with them, it was a sign you were a liberal heretic. Thankfully, those days seem to be on the way out. See my overview on reading Revelation for a longer explanation.)
Yesterday in our Revelation series, we saw the prophesied end of the great prostitute (Rome) because of its exploitation of the empire and its persecution of God’s people. Today, we move into the next phase of God setting things right – into our future – when Christ returns.
We ended yesterday on a note of triumph – the vindication of God’s people, as the whore of Babylon (Rome) is destroyed. Today, we see a stark contrast with the Bride of Christ (the Church):
timmacbride.com 