In Vespers this week Pastor Joe meditated briefly on the meaning of “Thy kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer, noting that it is our prayer that we pray, and that it is a prayer that we are asking the king to take hold of his domain—king/dom—in a way that he hasn’t yet done. He also mentioned that the request “thy kingdom come” was not the gospel per se (it does involve the forgiveness of sins, etc), and also mentioned that the place of the kingdom is probably here on earth in the future and not in some kind of heaven (see Revelation 21-22).

But if “thy kingdom come” is NOT the gospel, per se, then what is? Most Christians think the gospel is that Jesus came to save sinners and say that prayer on the back of the tract and you’re sprung out of hell forever! A subset of those actually believe you have to believe in Jesus and love him and live for him.

But is salvation from sins the gospel of the bible? Is that the Good News that Jesus preaches when he shows up on lake Galilee? Is salvation by faith even new at that point (what did Paul teach about Abraham in Romans?) The actual proclamation of Jesus was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus says, “give up your old ways, for the kingdom of heaven is here. And how is it here? In my coming, in my appearance.” In other words, the Gospel of the New Testament, what is really new, is “Jesus is Lord.” In his appearance, the kingdom is present and he is the Lord of it because he is calling you, demanding of you, to turn from your old unbelieving ways and join him in his kingdom. The message he proclaims to everyone is “follow me” because “I am the I am,” because “I am the door,” because “I am the life of the world,” because “I am the bread of life,” because “I am the light of the world,” because “I am the Son of God, because “I am the Son of David,”etc. (to be continued)

Pastor Joe did a great job preaching the points of Revelation 18 last week!

But I want to focus on two things particularly that quite clearly apply to us believers and to St. Mark today. First, that of shunning the porneia that killed the harlot, and secondly, the complete and total death of the city/church as a result.

First, the harlot apostate city/church had “fallen” because of her flamboyant sexual immorality (porneia) that she engaged in openly (3, 7). For us today, that’s not just bad theology, but also the embracing of its evil practice. It’s ignoring the scriptural blessings and practices of single and married sexual life, sexual beliefs about pornography, sensuality, abortion, prostitution, fornication, adultery, etc. Our culture, even church culture, is as slovenly drunken with those sins as the harlot appears in 17:4-6. We must consciously deviate, personally and as a church, from any of the present day’s deviant deceptions.

Secondly, we must put off those sins and put on faithful biblical living if we as people and as a church are to live on with vibrant joyful sounds of life. The deafening silence of verses 22-23 are catastrophic! Today’s apostate churches have no baby voices, because abortion or birth control or false teaching on the blessing of children killed them all. There are no musical sounds in the church because there is no reason to praise God in our selfish nihilism. There are no sounds of craftsmen because we don’t believe in dominion anymore; Mother Nature owns everything! There are no sounds of food and no light because there are no more Lord’s Suppers; Jesus stands against all that the harlot stood for. Crucify him! There are no wedding bells because we hate the future and hate love.

All warnings to us to remain faithful to the true Groom, Jesus. Silence is death!

It’s Father’s Day, a cultural holiday designed to honor fathers while lining the tradesman’s pockets with cash spent on sentimental gifts for dad… but I digress.

While Pastor Joe has been focusing on the Father in his Vesper homilies, it might be good to remind fathers, on their day, that they are raising and training their children to move on, to leave, to mature from glory to glory to the point they can leave “father and mother and cleave” to their spouse (Genesis 2:24).

So often parents dream of their children living next door all their lives, having a compound with their children and spouses and grandchildren all around them, happily ever after. But those children all have separate households and wholly other spouses than mom’s and dad’s genes and things don’t always work out, leaving everyone in a huff because they finally learned that father-in-laws and mother-in-laws don’t have equal authority in their children’s families. No, their son or son-in-law is in charge, and he, in Jesus, might not see eye to eye with them.

So fathers, on your day, be thinking about how biblical fathers train their children to look outward, to build the kingdom with and from their own family, in their own calling, all to the glory of God. Fathers, be thinking about how to model masculinity to your sons, with Jesus as the model: fearless, compassionate, caring, teachable, but also a leader who knows the heavenly Father’s goals, etc. Fathers, be thinking about how to love your daughters so that they are filled with kind love that they’ll want to source from the right husband in the future, and not fall for any “love ‘em and leave ‘em” types. Teach them the value of masculine leadership and provision and protection, so they’ll seek that out from a godly man as well.

All of this, of course, flows from you imitating the heavenly Father.