Pastor Josh begins with a series studying the book of Revelation:
“Are you compromising so that you don’t receive persecution? The benefits that Rome had to offer exerted significant benefits to live like the culture around them - to assimilate, either to avoid persecution or to enjoy the bounty of what society had to offer. This is a great temptation and this is the temptation that is happening to us today. The temptation to live like the culture around us so that we can enjoy the things that the culture around us enjoys - and also to avoid persecution.
We are going to explore this - this is so relevant for our church today - as we continue through the book of Revelation.”
Key themes of Revelation
1. Christians belong to God; they are His bondservants.
2. Jesus is coming soon.
3. Christians are to imitate Jesus, the faithful witness.
4. Death is not the end of the story.
5. Jesus is the supreme ruler of this world, not Caesar.
Reading Instructions for Revelation
1. This message is to God's own people.
2. We must determine what Revelation would have meant to the first audience.
3. We must read Revelation in light of its complex genre.
4. We must read Revelation in light of the particular historical context to which it is addressed.
5. We must recognize that Revelation makes use of symbols and symbolic uses of numbers.
6. We need to recognize that Revelation often communicates using Old Testament symbolism and references.
7. We must notice and carefully consider Revelation's internal connections.
(Originally preached on January 7, 2018. The first few minutes of the sermon were unfortunately lost. Sermon prepared from Pastor Josh’s mentor and friend, Martin M. Culy, The Book of Revelation: The Rest of the Story (Eugene, Ore.: Pickwick, 2017).)