Many commentators believe the horsemen of Revelation 6 represent God’s removing of his restraints on human depravity. Our natural tendencies get to progress without being checked. We lust and covet. We seek to acquire and possess. We hurt and kill each other to get it or protect it. A balanced peaceful life and economy disappear. The weak get trampled first, then the rest. Death has a field day. All this occurs when the Sovereign God lets us finally have what we demand.
Worthy Is the Lamb
September 22, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 5
Lesser gods are not worthy. But the Lamb who was slain and yet lives, he is the one who opens the scroll. He is the one who staked his life on a redeeming future. To the degree that we join our hearts and voices to his worship, our faith will flourish. And to the degree that are our faith flourishes, we will live in peace and hope. And to the degree we live in such trust, the world will be drawn to the gospel of the one true God, the Lamb on his throne.
Love Roller Coaster
September 15, 2024 • Scott Graham • Revelation 4
At the top of a rollercoaster, you see the entire park laid out before you. Revelation is the same, laying all of the previous books of the Bible out before us and firing our imagination with a vision that will exhilarate us through all of the shaking and rolling in life that will come.
What's Your Temperature?
September 8, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 3:14–22
Lukewarm is the problem Christ Jesus found with the church in Laodicea. You know the feeling when you pick up the wrong cup, and you get day old swill? That’s what the Lord was feeling about the church in Laodicea. Bland. Inoffensive and uninspiring.
Such independence of course generated not only the good pride of being responsible but the bad pride of needing no one, of not being challenged, of getting stuck in the complacency of having too much comfort.
Recovering First Love
September 1, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 2:1–7
First love doesn’t have to be cartwheels and euphoria. But recovering first love means keeping a line open and clear between where it all started and where you are now. It means scribbling a little star at the bottom of a page or on a bulletin, or even finding a star emoji so you can tell your Lord Jesus, “I really like you. I have for so long. I still do.”
Revealing Jezebel
August 25, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 2:12–17
The letters to the angels of the churches call us to examine our lives. What are we putting ahead of Christ? What good things are we substituting for him? What compromises have we agreed to make with the empire? How might we be keeping a true faith and yet colluding with destruction?
The Living One
August 18, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 1:9–20
The sight was so overwhelming that John fell down on his face like a dead man. But Jesus, in his tender mercy, put his right hand on John’s head, and spoke the words we hear God and angels say to trembling humanity throughout the Bible, “Fear not.” In other words, don’t be afraid, John. It’s me, your Jesus. I have not come to destroy you. But to give you a glimpse of my glory and power so that you may have confidence to face a hostile world.
Where’s This Gonna End Up?
August 11, 2024 • Gerrit Dawson • Revelation 1:1–8
You can dismiss Jesus. You can ignore him. You can try to say he didn’t say what he said. You can try to wave away this talk of resurrection as the fantasies of fools. But you will see him. You will see him whom you pierced. And it will cut you to the heart to know you got it wrong about Jesus. Of course, that truth does not allow believers to be smug. They too will look on him whom they pierced. Oh, yes, we love Jesus, and we will thrill to the sight of Christ Jesus in all his glory when he returns. But the more we gaze at the wounds, the more we will see how deep they are. How painful they were. How horrifying was the price he paid for us. He is the reality we must confront. For he will confront us, each of us, with his reality.
