For to Christians, every moment God grants us to live is aimed toward “fruitful labor.” As riveting as it is to stimulate one another to live for Christ, being with Christ is ultimately better. We aim to exalt Christ in life and death.

John testifies of Jesus’ resurrection with three evidences of the empty tomb, His graveclothes, and His post-resurrection appearances. Jesus rose from the dead. The witnesses sealed their testimony with their own lives. What did Jesus convey to His people upon His resurrection? Not disappointment, displeasure, or condemnation for those who failed Him, but grace, pure, undeserved grace. He did this because He paid for their sins and He earned their peace with God through the cross. What’s more? He shares life with those who are one with Him. He invites them into a vital connection with their heavenly Father that they, too, might taste of the kindness of the Lord and their souls be satisfied with God.

Jesus’ return is marked by two suppers, one a celebration of the marriage of the Lamb and the other the aftermath of the Armageddon. The bride of Christ prepares herself for her groom while the rest of the world prepares to war with Him. May the Lord grant us to grace to be at peace with God, not at war with Him. In the end, there are only two ends, the wedding feast or the judgment feast. May the grace of God lead us all to follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

The driving theme of the passage is the progress of the Gospel through the proclamation of Christ. Many terms are used in the text to describe proclaiming Christ and none of them requires an official position of leadership. Instead, a trust in the Lord will lead us to be courageous and to speak the word of God without fear.

The call to depart from Babylon is the culmination of the multitudinous and resounding call of Scripture that God’s people be separate, be set apart from this world, and in some cases, actually leave the place of contaminants. In this study, we examine what Babylon is and what it represents and why our need for separation is reflected in the final call of God for the tribulation saints to leave Babylon. The implications of this call for us are these: 1) See the world for what it is, a harlot; 2) See the Devil’s ploy behind the harlot; 3) Delight yourself in the Lord; 4) Run from Babylon and run toward Jerusalem.