The Good News Apocalypse

Apocalypse. What comes to mind when you hear that word? Good news or bad news? The last book of the Bible is an apocalypse, and it's good news. Many have tried to turn this book into something it isn’t, leading to much confusion and misunderstanding. When we read it with the right lens it becomes a powerful book that speaks to us in our present moment today. Join us this week as we start our new series on the book of Revelation, The Good News Apocalypse.

2023-02-12 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 1: Everything Is Not As It Seems, Pastor Matt Dyck

As we learned last week, the book of Revelation was first and foremost written to seven churches. It was written to them, but it is for us. Even though almost two millennia have passed since the letter was penned, we see that the threats and challenges to the church then are the same exact things we still face now.

2023-02-19 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 2: Their Story Is Our Story (1), Pastor Matt Dyck

The challenges that faced the first century church are the same as the challenges that face us today. Last week we addressed how three of the seven churches struggled with cultural assimilation. This week we will look at the challenge that the other churches had with complacency and persecution.

2023-02-26 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 3: Their Story Is Our Story (2), Pastor Matt Dyck

We all have expectations towards God. What he’s like, what he should do, how and when he should show up. Sometimes God doesn’t meet our expectations and he does something unexpected. The Good News of the Apocalypse was unexpected to the first hearers and even 2,000 years later we still seem to miss its significance. This week we will look into the most important twist in the entire Book of Revelation. If we aren’t clear on this part, we won’t be clear on anything else. It not only tells us how to read the rest of the book, it also tells us how we should follow Jesus today.

2023-03-05 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 4: What Did You Expect?, Pastor Matt Dyck

The image of the four horsemen in Revelation has captured people's imagination throughout history and shows up repeatedly in pop culture. What these horsemen leave in their wake is bleak and destructive. Yet the vision of Revelation shows us that the greater apocalypse (unveiling) isn't what happens when the four horsemen show up (people have been experiencing that hopelessness through all of history) but that somehow in the wake of violence, poverty, and death there is hope and victory.

2023-03-12 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 5: Hope And The Horsemen, Pastor Matt Dyck

When Jesus returns again what is going to happen? Many assume he is coming to rescue the church before the earth is destroyed. But is this actually an idea found in the Bible? This week we will look at why what we believe about the end of time matters today. Perhaps our understanding is based more on popular fiction than the Bible.

2023-03-19 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 6: Left Behind?, Pastor Matt Dyck

As we continue to journey into the middle of John's Apocalypse we are bombarded and perhaps overwhelmed by a multitude of numbers and intense images. But we don't need to throw up our hands and give up. Using the Old Testament as a guide we see a picture painted that is intended to encourage the church to follow the way of Jesus. We will discover that the good news is better than we think and that everything is not as it seems.

2023-04-23 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 7: Apocalyptic Arithmetic, Pastor Matt Dyck

This week we look at the centre of the book of Revelation, it is actually the central message of the book for the church. In Revelation 12 we are brought back to the Christmas story. There is something about that story that continues to help us understand what is going on in our story. As we look around our world today we can honestly say, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".

2023-04-30 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 8: It's Looking a Lot Like Christmas, Pastor Matt Dyck

The beasts in Revelation have been the source of fear, speculation, and predictions about the future. This week we will see that it is not as complicated as it has been made it out to be. Through these images, Jesus actually intended to give us clarity on how to follow him today. In fact, what Revelation 13 tells us is something I believe you already know intuitively. These last few years you have felt the temptation to follow the beast of the sea and the beast of the earth. Let's name it, and follow the Lamb instead.

2023-05-07 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 9: Master Of Puppets, Pastor Matt Dyck

Judgment is good news? Well, it depends on who you're asking. Many people feel that the judgment we read about is at odds with the loving God we read about. Yet as we'll see this week they are intrinsically linked and it may be our vantage point that is distorting our ability to see it.

2023-05-14 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 10: The Good News of Judgment, Pastor Matt Dyck

As we get to the last quarter of the Book of Revelation we are introduced to two cities: Babylon and the New Jerusalem. The city of the Dragon and the city of God. Babylon, for the first-century followers of Jesus, was Rome and its empire. But every stage in history has Babylons; cities, and cultures that are moving Jesus out of the centre to the fringes of society. Are we living in Babylon? If we are, how do we live as citizens of the New Jerusalem when we live in Babylon?

2023-05-21 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 11: Waking Up In Babylon, Pastor Matt Dyck

It's springtime, and among other things this means it's wedding season. Couples who got engaged over this last year are "tying the knot" as they gather their friends and family to witness the covenant and union of two people. The scene of a wedding and marriage is one of the dominant images in the book of Revelation (and the Bible). But who's getting married? And did you get an invite?

2023-05-28 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 12: Someone's Getting Married, Pastor Matt Dyck

Like the word apocalypse, Armageddon has been a very misunderstood concept. For many, it is a critical idea to how they understand what will happen at the end of time. It is perceived as a violent end of the world war. We are confronted in the book of Revelation that the Apocalypse is good news, and it turns out that Armageddon isn't the blood bath many think it is. The climactic battle turns out to be very ant-climactic! Armageddon is a war...that never happens.

2023-06-11 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 13: Armageddon - The War That Never Happens

We are now in the penultimate week of our series on the book of Revelation. Before we get to the new heavens and the new earth, we encounter numbers and images that are only mentioned here - yet have dominated many people's thinking and understanding of the end of the world. We are introduced to a thousand-year reign (what's that all about?), the final battle (again? I thought we already did that!), the Book of Life, and more... It's time to apply what we have been learning to make this millennium madness manageable.

2023-06-18 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 14: Millennium Madness Made Manageable, Pastor Matt Dyck

So here we are. We are at the end of the book of Revelation and consequently the end of history as we know it. But the ending is actually a beginning! This is not what most were expecting. How we understand the future significantly changes the way we live in the present.  While it may look like the world is unraveling before us, Jesus gives John a picture of the future where are all things will be made new. It really is a good news apocalypse!

2023-06-25 The Good News Apocalypse - Part 15: The Shalom Project, Pastor Matt Dyck

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The Good News Apocalypse

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