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Realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God.
The Scriptorium

Kingdom, Tribulation, Patience Revelation: Introduction

Revelation 1.9
I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The Bride of Christ exists within a tension between the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God and the tribulation which we can expect in the world (Jn. 16.33). The key to realizing all the promise and potential the Lord has invested in us is in learning the patience or endurance which is ours in Jesus.

This is why Jesus sent John to His Bride with the message of Revelation. It’s too easy for us, finite creatures that we are, to fixate on the things we can see, the things happening around us in the world. But the Kingdom of God is not of this world. It’s from another place. It offers a different perspective, engenders a different passion, establishes a new priority and a new pursuit, and brings a new and spiritual power to bear in bringing us into the pleasure of God and the practice of His love.

We are in this Kingdom here and now; yet there is more, much more to come. By practicing the endurance Jesus showed, as He looked through the cross to the glory and joy set down before Him (Heb. 12.1, 2), we can bear up under the tribulations of the world and know the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom, unfolding within, through, and around us.

Revelation was written to make that possible, to enable the Bride of Christ to make and live within the Kingdom turn to which He has brought us by His Word and Spirit. Revelation tells us, Kingdom citizens and ambassadors, that we must suffer in this sinful world, even as Jesus did.

But, looking to unseen things and not-yet promises, Jesus prevailed and reigns. So can we.

Read Revelation 12-15
Here we discover the essence of our struggle as well as the power of the Gospel to make the kingdoms of this world into the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. What can you learn about the Kingdom of God and the tribulation we can expect to endure as citizens and ambassadors of that Kingdom?

Glory to Glory
Angels stand ready to assist us in the proclamation of the Gospel (chapter 14). How will you draw on that presence and help today to point someone to the Good News of the Kingdom?

Closing Prayer
Based on Psalm 46.2-5:

God, You are our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble!
Therefore we will not fear,
Even though the earth be removed,
And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Thoughits waters roar andbe troubled,
Thoughthe mountains shake with its swelling.
Come what may, Your grace flows like a river to make glad the city of God,
The holy placeof the tabernacle of the Most High.
You are in our midst, Lord Jesus,
In the midst of the candlesticks:
We shall not be moved!
You will help us, with the dawning of every new day.
 
Each week’s studies in our Scriptorium column are available in a free PDF form, suitable for personal or group use. For this week’s study, “Revelation: Introduction and Overview,” simply click here.
 

T. M. Moore

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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