The Kingdom of God, Student Workbook, SW02

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T H E K I N G D O M O F G O D

God’s Reign Consummated

Welcome in the strong name of Jesus Christ! After your reading, study, discussion, and application of the materials in this lesson, you will be able to:

Lesson Objectives

• Define eschatology and its significance for Christian discipleship.

• Outline briefly the biblical conception of death, and then discuss together the Bible’s teachings on the intermediate state. • Focus on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the resurrection from the dead and the final judgment, and the Kingdom consummated with God as All-in-all.

• Recite frommemory a passage related to the consummation of God’s reign.

Who Is Worthy to Consummate God’s Reign?

Devotion

Read Revelation 5.1-14 . In one of the loftiest visions regarding the end of time in John’s apocalyptic vision of the book of Revelation, we are transported to the very throne of Almighty God. In his right hand, the Mighty One held a scroll, which if opened, would begin the “beginning of the end” of God’s cosmic program to restore his reign to the universe. In a scene filled with anguish and angst, John saw that there was no one in heaven or in earth found worthy to open the scroll, or even to look at it. In response to this predicament, John said that he wept bitterly and much - in all of the universe no one was found to be worthy. Just at the climactic moment, one of the elders said to the weeping Apostle, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” John, turning again to the fateful scene, sees a Lamb standing in the midst of the throne and the four living creatures. This Lamb appeared to have been freshly slain, had seven horns (speaking of his authority) and seven eyes (speaking to the Spirit of God sent into the earth). It is at that moment that the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures sang a song of the worthiness of the Lamb because he was slain and redeemed to God a people from every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue.

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