TITLE: Revelation: Scene Six
PREACHER: Marcus Herbert
DATE: 15 SEPTEMBER 2013 – Sunday AM

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As Christians we continue to fight this battle where the systems of this world, and our culture, insist that the goal of our salvation is our own comfort. But God is unseating us. The goal of our salvation is to live an Apostolic Christianity.

In this church – Cornerstone – there are incredible people with incredible gifts. There are leaders in industry here. There are blue-collar workers. There is such a wide range of gifts and God wants all of these to be used primarily for his apostolic purpose. God’s desire is not that the leadership team in this church make and keep you comfortable. Rather, his desire is that we unseat you to live this Apostolic Christianity.

As we cover the sixth scene in Revelation, we’re going to talk about cities. In the book of Genesis we see that everything begins in a garden, but in the end – in this book of Revelation – it ends with a city. If you want to impact a nation these days you must impact its cities. We see this as part of Paul’s strategy where they reached the commercial junctions. There are influencing cities around the world – if you reach New York, you reach North America. If you reach Johannesburg, you reach South Africa. Singapore… we can mention others too.

Business people are able to get into these places through their abilities and be like Priscilla and Aquila from the Bible. We must keep this in mind. All the gifts in the church must be working – not just the gifts of preaching.

So let’s think of Apostolic Christianity as we address this next part of the book of Revelation, Revelation 17:1-19:10 (Scene Six).

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TITLE: Revelation: Scene Five – Part One
PREACHER: Marcus Herbert
DATE: 13 AUGUST 2013 – Sunday AM

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In this section we are going to talk about the wrath of God. It’s amazing how we misunderstand this and sometimes have a very one-dimensional approach to God. For some people today, God is just about wrath, taking great delight in residing over the ant farm of the earth and squashing us all day long. Meanwhile, others believe that God is so sweet and that it doesn’t matter what’s happened or what he has written in his word, we’re all going to live in a wonderful eternity with him on our cloud with our harp (and an eternity of boredom).

Setting the context

In this part we’re looking at the fifth scene in the book of Revelation (Revelation 15…). Before we get into the details, let’s back up a little bit and remember the structure of the book of Revelation and its context.

John the Apostle is exiled on the island of Patmos and while praying for the seven churches (at the beginning of the book) the Lord gives him a revelation of these churches and a revelation of what believers can expect until the end. So the book is basically preparing us for the end.

So Revelation covers what happens from the first coming of Jesus to his second coming, telling us what we are meant to be doing today – the present Gospel Age. The book of Revelation has to mean something to us today. Jesus, through dying on the cross has given us the Gospel, the good news that you don’t have to be punished for your sin because he was punished for you. It’s only through the Gospel that we can face the second coming in confidence, faith and peace.

The book has eight scenes overall and in each there is a change of scenery, like at a play. Each scene also has seven “somethings” – starting with the seven churches, moving to seven seals of a scroll, seven angels blowing trumpets of warning and now seven bowls of wrath. The bowls / plagues of wrath come after the trumpets as the trumpets were about God’s warning that goes out.

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TITLE: Revelation: Scene Four – Part Two: The Seven Visions
PREACHER: Marcus Herbert
DATE: 28 JULY 2013 – Sunday AM

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When most Christians see ‘666’ they think of the Illuminati or the Pope or some or other person secret organisation that this could be referring to. There are so many different characters who could fit the 666 bill, but we want to debunk all of that and bring in Biblical truth. The Illuminati don’t feature in Scripture but only in fiction and imagination.

The key issue of the book of Revelation is the interim period between the first coming of Jesus and His second coming. The first coming is all about Jesus, the Lamb of God, dying on the cross and becoming our sacrifice for sin. Through Him and in Him we are able to face the second coming without there being a punishment for our sin. For believers in Jesus, this second coming will be a time of reward. But if you have not received the sacrifice of the Lamb, you are going to have to endure the wrath of the Lamb at the second coming.

Revelation shows us, in real terms, the difficulties of life. We see this as we look at the context it was written in. The systems of this world bite us, chew us and spit us out. So how do we live in the present time before the second coming, which we are calling the Gospel Age? That’s the question this book is answering.

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