The end of the Bible predicts heaven coming to earth as the heavenly city descends to earth. This means earth will ultimately reflect what heaven now is in many ways. Ephesians 1 tells us how this is going to happen – Jesus is going to unite things in heaven and earth.
The key transition between Revelation 4 and 5 is the revelation of the Lamb. The revelation of Jesus is what brings man into his eternal calling and what will fill the earth with the declaration of God’s beauty.
The gospel does not replace the priesthood; it enables the priesthood God always wanted. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus God’s eternal purpose of a nation of priests can go forward. Humans are uniquely created to encounter the beauty of God and declare that beauty in the earth.
In the same way the elders and living creatures in heaven stand before God and use their authority to make God’s beauty known in the heavens, so also man must stand before God and use his authority on the earth to make God’s beauty known on the earth. This is key to the plan of redemption.
Revelation 4 provides the first glimpse at “must take place.” The first step to understanding what must take place is understanding the heavenly pattern that God wants on the earth and how that partner show affect the way we build the church.
When we think of the book of Revelation we often think of many things, but the book declares itself first of all to be the “Revelation of Jesus.” Priestly ministry is first and foremost a response to that beauty.
One of the more profound predictions the book of Revelation makes is that the blood of Jesus has restored humanity so that human beings can serve as priests on the earth. The subject of believers as priests tends to be one of the most neglected subjects in the church in comparison to how central it is in Scripture.
I wrote the book One King: A Jesus-Centered Answer to the Question of Zion and the People of God to deal with one of the major tensions of the New Testament: the New Testament redefines the people of God, but at the same time does not replace promises made to
When Jesus looked across all the mighty men of history who had been born up to that point, He singled out one man as the greatest. That man was John the Baptist. Why did Jesus make this staggering assessment?
In the middle of the crucifixion, Jesus cries out “My God! Why have You forsaken Me?” It’s a staggering exclamation. Jesus endured the physical agony of the crucifixion, but something happened just before He died that caused Him to cry out. Understanding that cry helps us understand the crisis of the human situation.
In Revelation 2-3 Jesus gives seven specific messages to seven churches. In each of these messages He identifies specific challenges the church in each generation faces, encourages us to overcome these challenges, and offers us profound rewards for overcoming these challenges. Each of these messages is timeless and intended to prepare us to overcome and receive significant rewards from Jesus.
Uma resposta cristocêntrica a questão de Sião e do povo de Deus. Poucos assuntos foram mais controversos, ao longo da história, do que Israel. Alguns dizem que seu significado terminou no primeiro século, mas se Deus terminou com o povo judeu, como Israel milagrosamente ressurgiu como um estado depois de