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Preacher: Jerry Cisar

The book of Proverbs personifies wisdom as a noble woman and folly as a seductive woman (Prov. 9, 31). The book of Revelation is also about two women: a harlot and a bride. One represents the human city in all it’s luxurious grandeur (despite most its residents living in a box the size of a closet). The other, a bride who represents the New Jerusalem which is 1,400 miles square… plenty of room for everyone! One rides the beast that comes up from the earth. The other comes down out of heaven from God. Living in one appears to be wise but is foolish. Living in the other appears to be foolish but is wise.

We often think that these cities live in chronological sequence: the earthly city and then the heavenly city. So that the call to come out of the earthly city is a call to isolate and wait. But Scripture doesn’t present it that way. Rather the citizens of each city bump shoulders on the streets of Ephesus, Smyrna, and Laodicea, as well as Tampa Bay and London. How we live reveals whether we live in the New Jerusalem or Babylon.

Revelation 17-19 are not a message about how things will be one day when the stars (or current events) align, but are a call to those in the church today; a call to come out of one city and live in another.

Join us in worship as we continue our series in Revelation.

Handout: https://gccc-recordings.s3.amazonaws.com/handouts/20231217.pdf