It is our joy that we were able to go through what has been our longest book series throughout the history of our local church. For the past nine months, it has been our hope that, in one way or another, whether in our physical or in our digital way of gathering, that we have savored our opportunity to study & ponder upon God’s person & plan as He revealed those in the book of Revelation. When we started, we barely had any idea that a worldwide pandemic would come into context, but if anything, as we’ve looked into God’s sovereignty through the lens of His plan reaching its great & glorious culmination, we have also fixed our eyes and hearts on a hope that is greater & stronger than the difficulties we’re struggled through today-- as individuals, as families, as a church. Considering alone the premise that this very book we’ve studied through is one that’s been written a little less than 2,000 years ago already and is one that encourages His church yet even today, it is a comfort to know that He truly holds all things, and has laid out all things according to His plan & will. In truth, the biblical storyline begins and ends with this picture: with God dwelling with his people. In the beginning, at Genesis, there was the Garden of Eden and everything is in right relationship until sin entered the world. But because of Christ’s pivotal act of redemption, that is, His death for our sake & His resurrection bearing the promise of new life for those who believe in His finished work, we find the culmination of history not in our ultimate destruction, but in our reconciliation with God, once again with us in the new heaven and new earth, pictured in Revelation. The bookends of creation and new creation form the framework for the biblical storyline and for the Christian worldview. Genesis and Revelation are not only literally, but also thematically the bookends of the Bible. The scholars behind the ESV Study Bible put it this way: God’s ultimate purpose in redemptive history is to create a people to dwell in his presence, glorifying him through numerous varied activities and enjoying him forever. The story begins with God in eternal glory, and it ends with God and his people in eternal glory. At the center stands the cross, where God revealed his glory through his Son The biblical story of redemption must be understood within the larger story of creation. First Adam, and later Israel, was placed in God’s sanctuary (the garden and the Promised Land, respectively), but both Adam and Israel failed to be a faithful, obedient steward, and both were expelled from the sanctuary God had created for them. But Jesus Christ—the second Adam, the son of Abraham, the son of David—was faithful and obedient to God. Though the world killed him, God raised him to life, which meant that death was defeated. Through his Spirit, God pours into sinners the resurrection life of his Son, creating a new humanity “in Christ.” Those who are “in Christ” move through death into new, re-embodied life and exaltation in God’s sanctuary, there to enjoy his presence forever. The “bookends” concept of biblical theology illustrates that in the third-to-last chapter of the Bible (Revelation 20) God removes his enemies—Satan, death, and evil—that entered the story line in the third chapter of the Bible (Genesis 3), thus completing the story of redemption. The last two chapters (Revelation 21–22) don’t simply restore the first two chapters (Genesis 1–2); they go beyond them to a world that is fully ordered and holy, in which God is fully present with his people, completing the story of creation. -"The 'Bookends' of Biblical Theology", ESV Study Bible Notes Bearing these truths in mind as we close with our series on Revelation, we once again invite you to continue to marvel at the God we worship as we turn anew, now going from Genesis to Revelation for all of us to look into the God’s plan spanning across the ages.
If we are a people who call ourselves as disciples of Christ, we can live and abide by no other way. Through understanding the Gospel that has been entrusted to us, only then can we be faithful in our honoring God, making disciples, and proclaiming His truth to all the nations. Let us continue to come before God in worship, looking back in wonder of the things He has done, and looking forward for the day when Jesus returns to make all things right. Let us daily seek for that right relationship with God that we live out the two greatest commandments, a love for God and a love for others (Matthew 22:36-39), in a supernatural way that manifests itself in a life characterized by fruit that only God can cultivate in us (Galatians 5:22-23). == Our new series: “The Story of Scripture” will start on the first Sunday of October. == 🎨: “Creation, Covenant, Shekinah, Kingdom”, Donald Jackson (C) 2006, commissioned for The Saint John’s Bible Discussed by Ptr. Sonny & written by Ptr. Kevin, in behalf of the Pastoral Team.
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