The Daily + Next Steps (Saturday) + Sunday Updates!
Good morning, Immanuel. Check out today's encouragement and updates on Student Seminars (and more)!
“But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades’” (Revelation 1:17-18).
There is a reality about death that we all know to be true–so true that it seems crass and even unkind to point it out. Death is permanent. It is final. Death is never in the past tense; it is always ongoing, always with us.
So when Jesus says, in Revelation 1:17-18, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades,” it should grip us. I died, and I am alive. I was dead, but I am the living one.
If this seems like a small thing to us, a mundane thing, an uninteresting thing, then we have lost touch with reality and mortality. The Bible tells us death is an enemy, and we know it is one we cannot defeat. But Jesus did. He didn’t just rise from the dead; he left the corpse of death in his own grave.
And when he says he is “alive forevermore” and has “the keys of Death and Hades,” it is a promise. He did not just defeat death for his own sake but for ours. And we can be certain that he will return and do away with death forever. So, while death is yet a fearful enemy, its days are more numbered than our own. Though death may bring us low today, we know that our tomorrows are held in the hands of the risen one.
This Sunday At Immanuel
Sunday Morning…
WORSHIP: All are welcome to join us for worship on Sunday during our 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. as Pastor Barnabas preaches good news from the book of Psalms!
NEW SEMESTER SEMINAR KICK-OFF!
9 am: Student Seminar Kick-Off! This Sunday, August 4th, our student Sunday seminar classes start back up during the 9AM service in the gym!
9 am: Studying the Bible Together, led by Dr. Tom Cox will meet in the cafe on Sunday, August 4th.
Next Sunday, Dr. Cox’s class will begin meeting in the staff lounge to kick off a new series in the book of Romans!
9 am: Russell Moore Seminar begins August 11th - Join us again on Sunday, August 11th, for Last Word: The Gospel of Christ in the Book of Revelation.
On the Horizon…
NEXT STEPS DAY TOMORROW—If you are interested in learning more about membership at Immanuel, our Next Steps Seminar is for you! Our next class will be held on Saturday, August 3, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Immanuel Cafe. RSVP here!