Mckernan Baptist Church Podcast

Today we will further develop Pastor Lyle's depiction of the churches (Greek: ekklesiai) of Jesus as earthly "mini-cities" that seek fully to integrate the life and character of the heavenly city of God, the New Jerusalem, within their rural and urban locations in holistic ways. Our question today is not so much what is the heavenly city of God but rather "who" is that city and what difference does that political identity make to how we live corporately in the city of Edmonton. On this Thanksgiving Sunday, we'll explore what it means to live lives of gratitude that extend the restoring invitation of Christ to the world. There is something odd going on in Rev 21:9-14: The bride, the wife of the Lamb (the people of God) is symbolically depicted as being a cube-shaped heavenly city, called the New Jerusalem, which has 12 gates, 12 foundations, and crystal clear walls that are 2200 km high. But this New Jerusalem is not just a depiction of the future people of God (chs. 21-22), but also of the present people of G