Congratulations

Well done to everyone who has managed to follow the E100 blog from beginning to end... Genesis to Revelation.

The 100 posts from the last five months have taken us from God's creation, through wickedness, sin and man's desire to live for his own ends, to God's forgiveness through Jesus and to the certain hope we have of eternity with him. Phew! Quite a journey.

If you would like to keep on reading your Bible there are other studies you may want to follow. E100 was an initiative of Scripture Union who produce a variety of Bible reading guides. You can find out more from their website, scriptureunion.org.uk.

Two other organisations have partnered with Scripture Union on this project.

• The Bible Society, who also have a range of available resources to help you with Bible study on their Lyfe web pages.
• Wycliffe Bible Translators, who are currently involved in over 1,500 Bible translation projects around the world, for communities that don't yet have access to God's word in their own language.
  

The new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1 – 22:21)

‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea’ Revelation 21:1

Judging by this verse, a quick chorus of ‘I do like to be beside the seaside’ is unlikely to be heard ringing out in heaven! To western ears this seems a strange detail to add into the picture of Heaven. However, to the Jews of old, who were not a seafaring people, the sea represented the elemental forces of chaos and uncontrollable nature. As long as they had to look out on the sea with its rising and falling waves and its winds whipping inshore, there could be no peace in their hearts.

Of course, peace means much more than the absence of noise. Peace in its truest Biblical sense describes a sense of wholeness – of everything slotting into its perfect place and existing in harmony with all around it. These final chapters of Revelation paint a picture of just such a place – where man and woman dwell in perfect and fearless harmony with God and with each other. No wonder that the last word spoken to the human race by God in the whole Bible is “come” (v.17) – He doesn’t want anyone to miss out on this truly wonderful place.

In many ways the last pages of the Bible need to be cut out and pasted alongside the first pages of Genesis. In these closing verses we see the perfect restoration of everything which was lost from the perfection of Eden.

I’m really looking forward to it, although I’d maybe better get my fair share of paddling in whilst I can.

Richard Littledale is Minister of Teddington Baptist Church, and runs a Preachers’ Blog at: richardlittledale.wordpress.com. His new book on communication, Who Needs Words, is published in the Autumn by Saint Andrew Press.

Hallelujah! (Revelation 19:1 – 20:15)

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God for true and just are his judgements. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants” – Revelation 19:1-2

Years ago Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a poem entitled ‘sorrow and joy’, where he described the two as being like extremes of hot and cold – which alike can burn us. Isn’t it odd how sorrow and rejoicing often sit side by side? I can remember the feeling as a new pastor being inducted – it was like a wedding and a funeral all rolled into one. On the one hand I was delighted to be embraced by my new spiritual home, whilst on the other I had to wave a sad farewell to the party from my previous church.

Here, as Revelation moves towards its climax, it seems like a shame that a moment of pure praise should be sullied by an apparent gloating over the downfall of evil. The thing is, though, the triumph of good cannot be complete without the destruction of evil. We cannot have one without the other. If God were not to bring about some kind of punishment for those who have been violent, abusive and destructive – what kind of a God would he be? The ‘great prostitute’ to which John refers here is the city of Babylon, which had become a byword all through the Bible for every act of inhumanity and godlessness.

You may find it hard to rejoice over the downfall of evil, even in anticipation, but it might be worth spending some time today thinking how different the world might look with no evil in it. Who knows, you might even find yourself saying ‘hallelujah’?

Richard Littledale is Minister of Teddington Baptist Church, and runs a Preachers’ Blog at: richardlittledale.wordpress.com. His new book on communication, Who Needs Words, is published in the Autumn by Saint Andrew Press.

The Throne of Heaven (Revelation 4:1 – 7:17)

“They lay their thrones before the throne and say ‘you are worthy , our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power’ – Revelation 4:10-11

As a minister, it won’t surprise you to know that there are occasions when things don’t go entirely according to plan. A school visit with 90 children can easily descend into chaos, and I have known many a wedding rehearsal to turn distinctly rowdy. At those times there is one particular phrase which I dread hearing:

Who’s in charge here?

It must have been a phrase in the mind of John and many other Christians in the First Century. Christians were being harshly persecuted, the Roman Emperor was opposing the Gospel at every turn, and the idea of fulfilling Jesus’ command to ‘go into all the world’ looked utterly impossible. They needed to know whether God was still in charge, or whether they had fallen prey to some terrible kind of cosmic deception.

It is a question still asked today. People look around at the brutal persecution of the Christian church in some countries, they read their newspapers, they watch the accounts of natural disasters on the news and they ask ‘who’s in charge here’?

John’s picture of a heavenly throne, surrounded by worship and with the crowns of Kings scattered before it, is a reassurance that God has not been unseated. Like much of this book of Revelation – it allows us to have a sneak peek at the back page before the rest of history is written. We may not see much evidence of it, but someone is in charge here.

Richard Littledale is Minister of Teddington Baptist Church, and runs a Preachers’ Blog at: richardlittledale.wordpress.com. His new book on communication, Who Needs Words, is published in the Autumn by Saint Andrew Press.

Messages to the Churches (Revelation 2:1 – 3:.22)

‘These are the words of Him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands’ – Revelation 2:1

A new and somewhat nervous student arrived on campus to begin her university career. Tucked under the door of her study bedroom was an important-looking envelope bearing the university crest. With great excitement she ripped it open only to read:

Dear Student 3561/a

We take a personal interest in you…

Clearly it wasn’t that personal!

One of the things which makes these letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor so special is that they are deeply personal. In each one the description of Jesus and the closing warning are different. Not only that, but each church is rebuked or congratulated accordingly with reference to their particular circumstances. This is not some heavenly round robin, produced with mail-merge on God’s computer. No, these are deeply personal letters to churches with whom God was so familiar. The description of Jesus standing in amongst the lamp stands, each of which represents a church, is deeply significant – he is there in the thick of it and he knows what he is talking about.

Often we feel as if God has far more important things to think about than me. Whilst it is true that he has many such things – they are neither more nor less important than me. These letters show us that God is acquainted with the details of each life, and will respond accordingly.

Richard Littledale is Minister of Teddington Baptist Church, and runs a Preachers’ Blog at: richardlittledale.wordpress.com. His new book on communication, Who Needs Words, is published in the Autumn by Saint Andrew Press.

A Voice and a Vision (Revelation 1:1 – 20)

‘On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet’. - Revelation 1:10

‘Stop talking when I’m interrupting’ is one of those phrases you used to see on bumper stickers and postcards in dubious shops at seaside resorts. It was supposed to be funny, but given that the only people to whom it really applied were those to whom you would never dare give it, the joke was rather lost.

When the apostle John penned these words he was in dire straits. He was holed up in the Roman penal colony of Patmos – a kind of First Century equivalent of Robben Island of apartheid fame. Far from his home, his church and the people he loved, he was doing his best to keep his eyes on God in these testing circumstances. In a bid to retain some sort of normality he was holding his own little personal church service in prison…when God interrupted it.

Thanks goodness He did! Out of John’s interruption flowed a vision of God’s power and a glimpse of history’s final chapter which has kept Christians going for centuries. By assuring them that God has everything sewn up n the end,, it has enabled them to withstand even the harshest persecution because they know that better is yet to come. Had John not been interrupted like this, the church would have been impoverished as a result.

Sometimes an interruption from God can be the best thing to happen in anyone’s day. I wonder whether you’ll get interrupted today?

Richard Littledale is Minister of Teddington Baptist Church, and runs a Preachers’ Blog at: richardlittledale.wordpress.com. His new book on communication, Who Needs Words, is published in the Autumn by Saint Andrew Press.

Love one another (1 John 3:11-4:21)

In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 John 4:10-11.

John Stott once wrote that ‘if we are looking for a definition of love, we should look not in a dictionary, but at Calvary’. A profound statement, but Stott was merely echoing the view of Christians since the first century, that Jesus’ death for our sins is the supreme example of love.

As the Apostle John emphasises here, this example is not just for our admiration but for our imitation. Our knowledge of God’s love spurs us to show love to others, particularly here to other believers. Just as the fact of Christ’s death on the Cross is one of the fundamental truths of Christianity, so love for others is one of the fundamental marks of being a Christian.

Reflecting God’s love in our relationships will mean being deliberate and active, just as God took the initiative in sending his Son when we were dead in our sins. John emphasises that we should not just talk about loving, but love ‘in deed and in truth’, in a way that meets others’ needs (3:17-18). True love is therefore self-sacrificial, following Christ who ‘laid down his life for us’ (3:16).

As we look at this example of love, we will be aware of our own failings and sin. But as we believe in the Lord Jesus, God’s love will continue to transform us to be more like his Son. We need to continue to pray for God’s help as we seek to actively and self-sacrificially love others.

Adam Thomas works as an intern for Wycliffe Bible Translators, serving in an administrative role at their UK headquarters. A recent university graduate, Adam is currently considering long-term options in mission work.