Zach's Blog

Viewing genuine, Spirit-indwelt, local churches as embassies for the Kingdom of Heaven scattered throughout the world is an analogy that works well on many levels. Here's a helpful post that works out some of the connections:  Churches: The Embassies and Geography of Heaven: 9Marks . And while there is nothing wrong with Christian teachers concocting their own creative illustrations (Mt 13:52), I would argue that the church-as-embassy metaphor is actually more than a man-made picture. Even though the language isn't explicitly in the Bible, Scripture leads us toward it. This embassy imagery first occurred to me while studying the book of Revelation. Of the many mysteries in John's Apocalypse, one of the earliest conundrums we encounter is why the letters to the seven churches (chp. 2-3) are addressed to the "angel of the church" in each of their respective cities? Long story short, at least part of the reason probably pertains to the fact that there are a number of...

Many a scholar and lay-reader alike has noted the palpable eschatological imminency of the New Testament. If Crystal Lewis had lived at the time, the most popular lyrics might have been, "People get ready. Jesus is coming. Soon we'll be going home." The early disciples were not mistaken to feel that way. The Bible itself exhorts followers of Jesus to live with a disposition that "the remaining time is short" (Romans 13:11-12, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-8, Hebrews 10:36-37, James 5:7-8, 1 Peter 4:7, Revelation 22:20). Indeed, it is not enough for believers to passively know that Christ could return at any time, nor is it even enough to live responsively  to that fact as we would to a pre-determined or pre-scheduled appointment. Rather, there is a call to God's people to actively speed up  the day of His coming: "Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting...

Some things that stick out to me as highlights from the post-Pentecostal advance of the gospel in the New Testament: A sense of urgency (2 Peter 3:8-13) Supernatural attestation of the authority of the message and its messengers (Acts 1:8ff) High prioritization of advancing the geographic frontiers even while the already-established house churches remained a small minority and politically impotent/irrelevant in the worldly system (Rom 15:19-24) Full consecration: a sense of "going all in" with tangible mutual love and provision among the brethren, sacrifice, and kingdom-seeking (Acts 2:42-47) Such fidelity to the royal decree of King Jesus that the persecutorial threats of human rulers would not quiet them nor the enticing treasures of worldliness entangle them (Acts 4:19-37)