Covenant Presbyterian

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 […]

The section of Revelation which begins in chapter six presents readers with not only interpretive challenges but also significant theological questions related to God's judgment and mercy. One of the things we learn is that for justice to be done, particular acts of judgment are required. Justice is not an abstract idea but a reality […]

In his vision of heaven (chapters 4 & 5) John saw a throne with a figure of great majesty sitting upon it, a scroll sealed with seven seals, and a Lamb who appeared to have been slain. The figure on the throne handed the scroll to the Lamb. We read in chapter five that the […]

Scripture describes salvation not as a singular, once and for all moment. Rather, salvation consists of the Spirit's sovereign work of regeneration (the new birth), sanctification, and final glorification. The initial work of regeneration may be seen as a coin. On the one side is the Spirit's sovereign work. On the other side is our […]

Jesus has completed his great Sermon the Mount. The sermon serves as a kind of membership charter in the Kingdom of God. That is, citizens of God's Kingdom will be characterized by a particular way of life which reflects the Lordship of Jesus. Members of the new covenant community – the church – are possessed […]

As Jesus concludes his sermon, joining his inner circle of disciples are the crowds that have now gathered to listen to his words. It is safe to say that not even his disciples fully understand who he truly is. They are just beginning to understand that perhaps Jesus is the Messiah. But even the implications […]

Just as the crowd had broadened from the inner circle of Jesus' closest disciples to the large crowd, so too does the scope of his teaching. He warns them that the gate that opens to salvation life is as hard and narrow as the gate which leads to destruction is wide and easy. The first […]

The Sermon on the Mount is, in part, about the Christian's ethical obligations. Citizens of God's kingdom must live lives that are distinguished from the unrighteousness of the world. Genuine Christian righteousness is to govern our relationship to the church (5:17-48), acts of piety (6:1-18), material possessions (6:19-34), and our relationships outside the covenant community […]

In this week's passage, Jesus explains that Christians have a rich relationship with the one true God. By his design, God's intention is to have a dynamic relationship with his people by faith. Jesus likens this right relationship to a father-son relationship. If you are a Christian, God wants you to come to him with […]

The final section of the Sermon on the Mount zeroes in on how we treat others. Remember that Jesus is instructing his own disciples. He is not giving prescriptions for how sinners may be justified before God. Rather he is teaching his disciples what it means to be citizens of his kingdom. The opening words […]

This section concludes chapter six and builds upon the previous section as the logical consequence of understanding Jesus' teaching on storing up treasures in heaven. The Christian who understands the reality of the transient nature of all earthly things, as well as the inability of humans to exercise control over the few resources they have, […]

In this wonderful sermon, Jesus continues to declare to us the true nature of citizens of the kingdom of God. In our previous passages, He cautions us against hypocrisy and lays out a right heart attitude that leads to good rewards. Now He turns our attention toward what we treasure, what we hold dear, what […]

Jesus has offered three-fold instruction addressing giving, prayer, and fasting. The message is woven together by a unifying theme, hypocrisy. Jesus expresses his thesis statement for this section in Matthew 6:1, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your […]

Jesus continues teaching on righteous living, specifically, the practice of Christian prayer. The natural tendency for fallen sinful people is to pray in a way that benefits me first and foremost, albeit in Jesus's name. It might be better therefore to understand the prayer of a righteous person as “Kingdom prayer,” not only in Jesus's […]

In this tremendous sermon, Jesus has declared who is blessed. Those blessed ones, His people, will shine the light of Christ through their good deeds. In first century Judaism, good deeds would have been defined by the so-called religious elite. Jesus says that the righteousness of God's true children must exceed that of Scribes and […]

Matthew 5:43-48 is Jesus' final antithesis in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,' but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” He highlights how religious teachers of Jesus' day distorted the original intent of the Old Testament […]

The text for this sermon contains two often misunderstood teachings: the first is that we should never make oaths or vows, and the second is that we should not resist evil. These are strong statements that require us to look to other scriptures to help understand them. In doing so, we see that these statements […]

Jesus continues to reveal the original intention of the moral law, shaping not only external actions but also the heart. Here he addresses two serious moral issues with broad implications, adultery and divorce. In restating the 7th Commandment, Jesus makes the connection between the acts of the body and the heart. Lust is rooted in […]

In the previous text, Jesus set the stage for the remainder of his sermon. He has affirmed both his disciple's firm identity in himself, as well as his role to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. Now he pivots, launching into a series of teaching on the ethics of the Kingdom of God. His […]

In Matthew 5:16, Jesus tells his disciples to “let [their] light shine before others, so that [others] may see [their] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven.” These good works come from a place of positional righteousness before God – a righteousness that is not intrinsic to ourselves but rather one that is […]

Our passage this Sunday explores the identity and mission of Christians as “Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven,” grounded in Matthew 5:13-16. It begins by contrasting the perfect harmony of creation under God's rule with the present tension between Heaven and earth brought about by sin. Matthew's gospel underscores this divide between the Kingdom of […]

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most well-known sections of the book of Matthew and contains some of Jesus's most quoted teachings. The main theme of Matthew is introduced in Matthew 3 and 4, where John the Baptist and Jesus say, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Sermon […]

The first chapter of 2 Corinthians can be justifiably reckoned as the Bible's greatest passage on comfort. The word “comfort” appears ten times in both noun and verb forms in verses 3-7, one third of all 31 occurrences in the New Testament. And what gives this focus on comfort such resonance to this day is […]

In Luke chapter 24 we are told the story of two disciples who are walking along toward Emmaus, Cleopas and his unnamed friend. As they travel on the first day of the week, they are joined by an unknown stranger who inquires of their conversation. Confusion and disbelief have clouded the disciples understanding of the […]

Chapters four and five of Revelation form a vision of the throne of God. Chapter five amplifies what is recorded in chapter four by focusing on the Lamb, the eternal Son of God. The result is a vision of God's throne which is explicitly Trinitarian and focused on God's glory in the salvation of his […]

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A major concern of the Book of Revelation is to lift the veil and show to the church in every generation the spiritual reality below the surface of world events and the conflict that energizes the persecution against God's people. This unveiling begins with a vision of God's holiness as he is seated in majesty […]

Of all seven churches addressed directly by Jesus in the Book of Revelation, there is a case to be made that Laodicea is in the worst condition. Ephesus was in danger of being snuffed out as a church if they did not recover their first love. Nevertheless, the Lord still commends them for their many […]

Philadelphia is a compound word of two Greek nouns meaning love of brother. So Philadelphia was named with an admirable goal in mind: The city of brotherly love. But the Christians there seem not to have been included in the category of the beloved. The messages to the churches in Philadelphia and Smyrna are the […]

Philadelphia is a compound word of two Greek nouns meaning love of brother. So Philadelphia was named with an admirable goal in mind: The city of brotherly love. But the Christians there seem not to have been included in the category of the beloved. The messages to the churches in Philadelphia and Smyrna are the […]