Chatham Christian Church

What is it you want to ask Jesus when He comes back?

It's been nearly 2,000 years since Jesus left this world and promised to return... So where is He?

We are coming to the close of Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. At first glance it looks like he is simply closing with a series of unrelated admonitions and instructions for the church in Thessalonica.

If you drove home for Christmas with your kids, you probably heard, “Are we there yet?” And if their phones died, you no doubt heard an anguished, “How much further?” That might give you some idea how Paul must have felt when the Thessalonians started quizzing him about the second coming.

Paul touches on some of the basic concerns the Thessalonians had about those who sleep in Jesus. He doesn’t answer all possible questions about those who have gone on before us, but he does tell us what we need to know and explains it in a way that can help us understand.

The love of God was shown to us through the sending of His Son and we celebrate that expression of His love every Christmas. But the world doesn’t fully comprehend God’s love until it sees it expressed between brothers. That’s why we’ve been commanded to love each other and why we need to fully understand brotherly love.

Matthew begins his gospel with the genealogy of Jesus, and after seventeen verses that most of us pretty much skip over, he jumps right into the birth of Jesus. But he’s the only one who tells us something very important about Joseph...

Paul told the Thessalonians how he felt about them, and we need to do the same to those we love and care about.

Some of the Thessalonians were so sure that God was speaking through Paul that they accepted what he had to say. They received his word as the very word of God.

So what do we look for in a leader... and how do you know if you’ve found one?

No one wants their witness for Christ to be in vain... I don’t, you don’t, and the Apostle Paul didn’t.

The hope of Christ’s return should be the primary motivator in every Christian’s life. And if it were we too would be known for our work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope.

Make sure this letter gets read to all the brothers and sisters. Don’t leave anyone out.

All that remains is for John to bring the Revelation to a close, and he does so by affirming the truthfulness and the relevance of all we’ve seen.

Last week we were given a glimpse of the holy city, as John shared with us his vision of the new heaven and earth. Today that city comes clearly into view.

I don’t think we’re remiss in thinking of heaven, our eternal home, as a restoration of the original home God created for us.

How do you picture the final judgment? Does your picture frighten you? ...the final judgment doesn’t have to be a frightening picture at all. At least not for those of us who are in Christ.

This morning we come to the most controversial passage in the most controversial book of the Bible. We come to Revelation twenty and the millennium.

This morning we come to Armageddon!

Don’t let the wedding feast begin before you’re ready for it. Don’t make the king cast you into outer darkness because you failed to dress for the wedding.

We’ve all heard of Beauty and the Beast... Well guess what, we’ve got a beauty and beast story in the book of Revelation as well.

Justice demands that God act in the face of sin... and act He does.

They were already facing such monstrous forces of evil in the form of the Roman government. But to have their foes painted so vividly before their eyes must have been unsettling even for them. So what did they need to hear in the fourteenth chapter? How about the assurance of victory?

God is loving and merciful and gracious combined with infinite power. That's the Holy Spirit living inside of us.

God wants you to enjoy His supernatural peace made possible by the Holy Spirit while we are representative of Him on earth for this short period of time.