John Mark Hicks

Hebrews 12:18-29 You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order that was given, […]

“Because we know,” Paul writes. We don’t give up or lose heart in the ministry of reconciliation and we keep our eyes fix on what is presently unseen “because we know” resurrection life awaits us. This continues the theme Paul introduced in 2 Corinthians 4:14 – God will raise us up from the dead with […]

This past weekend, on February 20, I was honored to participate in the memorial service of a godly woman in Colonial Heights, Virginia. Rose Marie Paden–the beloved mother of the Paden boys and girls, and the second mother of the Hicks boys and girl–passed from this life on February 12, 2016. In 1953, Rose Marie […]

Who can stand on the days when the wrath of God and the Lamb are poured out on empires? That is the question asked when the sixth seal is opened in Revelation 6:12-17. The shaking of the Roman empire, as with all empires, will affect everyone from rich to poor, from free to slave. Who […]

This will be my last installmenet on the subject of the present status of those who have died in the Lord. Grievers are usually curious about their loved ones. There is some comfort in a pastoral word about how our loved ones live in the presence of God around his throne. There is comfort in […]

Revelation 20 is dangerous ground upon which to walk. To comment on it assumes so much. It assumes a particular way of reading the whole apocalyptic drama. It assumes a particular structure to the book. Consequently, there are many ambiguities, varied understandings and even some nasty polemical controversies associated with this text. Nevertheless, I will […]

However we might describe the “intermediate” state (the mode of existence for those who have died in the Lord), their sharing our sense of “waiting” for the fullness of God’s kingdom. Though they have passed from earth to the throne room of God through the portal of death, nevertheless they sense that their own journey […]

The sermon the church has called “Hebrews” is addressed to a struggling community of believers. Some have already given up the habit of assembling with the community, some are on drifting out of the community, some are regressing and others are discouraged. The preacher speaks a word of encouragement. The sermon assumes an assembled group […]

Humanity, in terms of its own resources, stands before death helpless and hopeless. It seems like our loved ones pass into nothingness as we are separated from their presence. But the death and resurrection of Jesus testify to a different reality that God will bring about in the new heaven and new earth–victory over the […]

My apologies for my long absence. Life is busy at the moment, but I have few excuses other than my sloth. 🙂 This month I am teaching at the Collegeside Church of Christ in Cookeville, TN on Wednesday evenings. I chose as my subject something that I have read, studied and reflected upon for many […]