Covenant Presbyterian

The books of 1 and 2 Samuel are remarkable among ancient writing not least of all for the absence of monsters and demigods that populate ancient myths. The books of Samuel are profoundly human. Indeed the account begins not with kings or battles or royal intrigue but with the heartbreak of barren Hannah. The books […]

As we read on from Peter's condemnation of the false teachers and their heresies, it is clear that he is interested not only in defending the truth but demonstrating its practical impact on the lives of his readers. “Since everything will be destroyed in this way,” he asks, “what kind of people ought you to […]

Having denounced the false teachers for their immorality and greed Peter now demolishes their false teaching. These men had a deeply personal interest in denying the return of Jesus and the final judgment. The false teachers lived such recklessly sinful lives that they preferred a world which had no hope of final redemption through the […]

Most of us have experiences that demonstrate our forgetfulness in the routine tasks of daily living. This forgetfulness also carries over into our relationship with the Lord. And this is nothing new for God’s people. Throughout Scripture we see a theme of God reminding his people to remember his faithfulness. Old Testament religious life centered […]

As we finish Second Peter 2, Peter directs our attention to the real threat of the false teachers. They are not abstract concepts, but actually lead people astray even as they race toward their own destruction. Their false teaching is enticing due to their loud, incessant speech, their justification of sins like lust and greed, […]

The Old Testament prophets and later the apostles were given the responsibility to teach God's people about the seriousness of those who would introduce heresies into the covenant community. Peter dedicates a large portion of his letter warning the church that, just like false prophets in Judah, false teachers have arisen within the church (2:1-3). […]

Immediately following his greeting, the apostle Peter moves rapidly into the substance of his letter. Before addressing the danger of false teaching, he reaffirms and applies the knowledge of Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel. Peter highlights the power of the gospel not only for salvation but also for growth in godliness. Genuine […]

In his second epistle, the apostle Peter is concerned with the proliferation of false teachers and phony gospels that were appearing in the churches. He uses strong words to condemn those who would lead God's people astray with a false gospel into a false Christianity. With an impressive economy of words, Peter affirms to his […]

The final section of the Book of Revelation serves as an epilogue. These final words accomplish a great deal in a short amount of space. There are three main themes to be found in the epilogue: (1) the truthfulness of the entire book, (2) the immanence of Christ's return, and (3) the promise of blessing […]

Throughout Scripture, we see that God is very invested in our growth in godliness. Passage after passage talks about how to live as followers of Christ. Because we are sinners, that instruction includes a lot of emphasis on our need to change – change our behaviors, words, thoughts, and ultimately our mindsets. If you are […]

After seeing the church in her glorified completion, John is shown the new creation in which the church will dwell. And like the vision of the church, the new Jerusalem, this vision of the new creation is highly symbolic. It draws heavily from the vision of the prophet Ezekiel. In his vision of the new […]

John's vision of life in the eternal age to come continues on with the sort of symbolism that is so typical of apocalyptic writing in general, and the Book of Revelation specifically. What John sees in this portion of the vision strains the capacity of human language. He sees a city so massive it is […]

The first eight verses of Chapter 21 serve as both a conclusion to what has been going on so far in Revelation and a beginning of the final two chapters. Six times in chapters 19 and 20 John uses the words “Then I saw.”  Now for the seventh time, beginning in Chapter 21, he uses […]

At his first advent, Christ established his kingdom on the earth. Even as wickedness proliferated, the kingdom of Christ advanced progressively and has continued to do so. During this time, Satan is bound from deceiving the nations (vs. 3) and that means the light of the gospel would finally break through to the nations. This […]

Christ is the reigning King over all creation. His great millennial kingdom consists of the period between his first advent and his glorious return. During his earthly ministry, though weak from the viewpoint of the average onlooker, Jesus nevertheless repeatedly declared that in him the kingdom of God had now arrived. And indeed, the signs […]

In his vision, John now sees another angel descending from heaven, seizing, chaining, and locking the dragon away in the pit for a thousand years. This is done, we are told, to keep the dragon from deceiving the nations for a particular period of time. In verses 4-6 John sees thrones and the souls of […]

In Christian history, this passage has almost universally been taken as an account of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Lord is depicted as returning in his regal glory, no longer a lowly servant but the reigning King. The dragon and the beast are cast into the lake of fire, along with all those […]

The last few chapters of Revelation have shown us both the wickedness and ultimate destruction of Babylon, that deceiver of nations. In so doing, a choice is pressed upon us. It is a choice between masters. Will we follow the beast or the Lamb? Will we seek our home in Babylon, the great prostitute, or […]

The angel continues to unfold a vision begun in chapter 17 of the destruction of Babylon (see also 14:8; 16:19; 17:16). Here the focus is on Babylon's economic collapse. Those loyal to Babylon wonder in horror at the complete devastation of the once mighty power. The economic impact is devastating for all who boasted in […]

The Book of Revelation is full of challenging passages, and none more so than chapter 17. In this portion of the vision, what John hears becomes progressively more prominent than what he sees. The section is dominated by an accompanying angel who explains to John what he is seeing. This pattern will continue through the […]

The way to get ahead in the world is to either be born into the right family, right social status or right caste, or (and this is predominantly in the U.S.) you work really hard and take advantage of opportunities that come your way. That may be true in the world when it comes to […]

A benediction is a good or blessed word. It is a prayer for God to bless the recipients in particular ways. Paul concluded most of his epistles with a benediction to his readers. There are benedictions in the Old Testament as well, perhaps most famously that which Moses instructed Aaron and the other priests to […]

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The account of Jesus' crucifixion completes the passion narrative and fulfills the Lord's earlier prophecies concerning his suffering and death (Matthew 20:19). Jesus told his disciples that he would be “mocked and scourged” by the Gentiles and then killed. His death fulfilled the Messianic Psalms concerning the righteous martyr (Psalms 22 & 69). The prophecies […]

We shift gears this week and begin a short series through a well-known portion of the Gospel of Matthew. As we anticipate Easter, we will consider the historical record of the highest imaginable offense: the trial and crucifixion of the Messiah. At that time, the high council in Jerusalem, known as the Sanhedrin, had been […]

The Book of Revelation is not a coded forecast of 21st-century geopolitics. As John writes in verse one, the entire letter is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is written in the highly symbolic language of prophetic apocalyptic literature and, in keeping with the method of apocalyptic literature, Revelation pulls back the curtain on earthly […]

The title of the sermon is taken from the auto-biography of Frederick Douglas as he considered his grandmother, a slave, who, after years of cruel captivity, was sent off to die alone once she was no longer useful to her master: “Will not a righteous God visit for these things?” It is the question that […]

What John records in chapter 15 serves as a final segment of the interlude between the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of God's wrath. He sees “another sign in heaven, great and amazing.” Seven angels are entrusted with the final “plagues” of God's judgment in the world. The next chapter will bring to completion […]

In the Apostles Creed, Christians affirm that the Lord Jesus will one day return to “judge the living and the dead.” This final judgment has always been a part of essential Christian belief. Indeed, to deny the coming day of final judgment would be to deny a host of specific passages in the Bible. Denying […]

Central to the large middle section of Revelation is three sets of seven: seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. Each cycle of seven depicts the unfolding of God's judgment in the world during the time between Christ's two advents. As part of the interlude between the seven trumpets and seven bowls, chapter 14 presents […]

For the better part of the previous two chapters, John's vision has involved three strange and terrifying figures: the great red dragon (Satan) and two beasts, one that rises from the sea and the other which comes from the land. The coercive power and deceptive tactics of this unholy alliance are leveraged to lead the […]

As we move on through Revelation, the beast from the sea will be referred to as simply “the beast.” The beast from the land will be referred to on three separate occasions as “the false prophet” (Revelation 16:13; 19:20; 20:10). What John sees is a blasphemous false trinity: the dragon (Satan), the beast, and the […]

One of the weaknesses of the strictly futurist reading of Revelation is that it misses the significance of John's words for the churches he was writing to in Asia Minor. The futurist reading also fails to catch the significance of Revelation for every generation of Christians. As we have said before, Revelation is not to […]

This week we continue in 2 Corinthians 5. Paul, being thoroughly convinced of his future home with Christ (5:5), now seeks to persuade the church even further of the glorious truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ (5:11). Paul will cover substantial theological ground in a few short verses, tapping into the roots of redemption, […]

The next two Sundays we will be preaching through 2 Corinthians 5. Paul begins this chapter picking up where he left off at the end of chapter 4 where he says, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed…So […]

This passage recapitulates the same story depicted in the previous section but this time in greater detail. There is a basic progression at work: Christ triumphed, Satan attacked, God protects his people. This is the way that human history unfolds. The devil and his angels make war against Christ and His angels and His people. […]

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The prologue of John's Gospel is one of the most beautiful statements on the Person and work of the Lord Jesus in the entire Bible. Indeed, there may be no more theologically significant statement in all of Scripture than, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (vs. 14). John takes us into Trinitarian […]

Revelation 12 forms another kind of theological break in the action. It stands in the very center of the book and helps to explain further the source of all the church's trouble in this world. Remember the state of the churches addressed in chapters two and three. Some are patiently enduring heavy persecution. Some are […]

The seven seals ended with a surprising silence. When the seventh seal was broken, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. It was the calm before the storm, the final judgment. The seven trumpets recapitulate the same epoch as the seven seals. The Seals and the trumpets both follow a pattern of four […]

There is perhaps no more hotly debated passage in the Book of Revelation than chapter 11. It is a particularly complex passage filled with challenging allusions to various Old Testament texts such as Zechariah, Daniel, Exodus, 1 Kings, and Ezekiel. It is a passage filled with temple imagery and the symbolic use of numbers. The […]

The Book of Revelation employs a great deal of recapitulation, that is viewing the same set of circumstances or events from various angles. You may recall that between the sixth and seventh seals there was a theological interlude which included two views of God's people (chapter seven). The full number of God's redeemed were depicted […]

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There is no way to talk about Christianity in any substantive way without giving special attention to repentance. To repent is to turn away from one thing in favor of something else. In the Bible, repentance means to turn away from sin and turn in faith to the Lord. It is a firm “no” followed […]

With the breaking of the sixth seal, John saw the final judgment of God upon the fallen creation (6:12-17). The seven trumpets present another vantage point of the Lord's judgment. There seems to be an intensification which may be due to the fact that the trumpets are instruments of warning. This descriptive intensification may also […]

In the trumpet and bowl judgments we find some of the most frightening images in the Book of Revelation. It is vital that we understand these visions within the symbolic categories in which they are written. We must also understand how these visions are shaped by Old Testament imagery and how they would have been […]

Chapter eight begins with the breaking of the seventh seal which depicts a silence in heaven following the final judgment depicted in the breaking of the sixth seal (6:17). The silence in heaven is that of holy awe following the final judgment. It may also be considered the quiet before the storm as the vision […]

The opening of the sixth seal commences the final judgment and the destruction of the present fallen world. But before the opening of the seventh seal there is a dramatic pause while the redeemed of God are assured of the Lord's protection even as they endure calamities. They are sealed from spiritual harm which harkens […]

As we move into chapter seven of Revelation we enter into territory over which there is strong disagreement between Christians. Our approach toward a proper understanding of Revelation is to begin by taking it on its own terms. As we saw at the beginning of the series, the Book of Revelation began as a letter […]

The descriptions of God's judgment upon the earth are fierce and unsettling. The four riders depicting the initial signs of God's judgment are terrifying on their own (6:1-8). They symbolize the world's all too common experience of death by violent conquest, war, famine, and pestilence. Even God's own beloved people pay a heavy price while […]