CCF Weekly Services Podcast

Jesus is speaking to the church of Ephesus exactly like He spoke to the nations in the Old Testament. Addressing their hearts and lives, He calls them to greater fellowship with Himself the way God's word always does. He commends them for what they're doing right, corrects them concerning what they're doing wrong, and telling them exactly how to keep growing in their love for Him and each other.

1. God speaks in the New Testament book of prophecy the same way He did through the Old Testament Prophets.
2. Jesus speaks to the Church of Ephesus the same way God's Word speaks to us individually.
3. The goal of Jesus' correction and commendation is always to encourage restoration.

Leprosy was a death sentence physically just like sin spiritually. No one got healed from leprosy before the time of Jesus, yet it seemed to almost be a regular occurrence during His ministry. This was intentional. The lengthy investment of the Old Testament to set people up for how they'd know Jesus when He arrived are not only significant in how He healed, but why. Jesus didn't heal for healing's sake, but to ultimately make us realize that He is the source of those good things. While only one out of ten received the greater blessing, this passage is meant to be an encouragement. Be the person who not only obeys God's word when and how healing is offered, but uses every good thing form God as an opportunity to share how good He is to those around us.

1. Leprosy was an apt physical comparison to the work sin does in our lives spiritually.
2. God can use miracles just as often as doctors and medicine to answer prayers for healing.
3. The gift of healing is a secondary payoff to what God truly desires, which is restored fellowship with us.

John is given a revelation of Jesus Christ. Each and every trait is a direct reference to the Old Testament that intentionally all had God in mind. From the way He spoke to the way He looked, all were demonstrations of power and holiness that left John in a state of complete and utter terror. The only thing that brought peace to this proper reaction was a clarification of who He was and what He had done to prove it. God is bigger than us and beyond our control. Those are the key elements that inspire horror. Yet we know peace with God because this source of power didn't use it to destroy us, but to redeem us.

1. Jesus is described in the way He speaks and acts the same way God spoke to Israel in the Exodus.
2. Jesus is described in the way He looks the same way God revealed His glory to Daniel in his prophecy.
3. Jesus comforts John's terror in reaction to this holiness the same way He does to us. By pointing us to who He is and what He's done.

Jesus is addressing His disciples about the Christian life. Now that the account of the Rich Man and Lazarus has debunked the idea of material wealth as the mark of what makes someone right with God, He fills that void with reality. Without mercy, we're toast. Without the ability to show mercy, no one will see Jesus in us. Without faith, receiving or relating the mercy of God is impossible for us. By receiving even the smallest portion of faith from its source, that trust will equip us for even the unimaginable in the Christian life. That includes making us more like Jesus in our character.

1. Faith is a gift from God.
2. We don't have faith unless we receive it from God.
3. Faith is what separates the bitter and proud from the loving and gracious.

The Book of Revelation, just like all of the Old Testament books of prophecy before it, follows the same historical standard of why we trust and how we verify what is being said about what God said.

1. The Apostle John was a reliable and historically verified individual who we can confirm wrote Revelation.
2. The Book of Revelation was written at a very well attested time in history.
3. The Book of Revelation is about Jesus Christ.

Mercy is where we started in our relationship with God. Offering and demonstrating that mercy towards others is how it continues. In a world ruled by sin and full of people willing to go along with the system in rebellion against God, we go against the flow by treating people the way God treated us.

1. No one enters Heaven apart from receiving forgiveness from God.
2. No one wants God's forgiveness until God reveals to our hearts our need for His mercy.
3. No one follows Jesus more than living out the most basic principal of how He relates to us.

The Apostle John goes on from his introduction of Revelation to cite multiple Old Testament passages and applies them directly to Jesus Christ. The first identifies Him doing something God does. The second clarifies Him as the one predicted in Zechariah and Daniel. And the third calls Him the Greek equivalent of God's title, The First and the Last. In a book titled The Revelation of Jesus Christ, he isn't leaving that task up to guesswork.

1. John refers to Jesus as coming with the clouds because the Old Testament refers to God riding the clouds.
2. John quotes Zechariah's prophecy of the Messiah to draw to mind how Israel will react to how they treated their God.
3. John calls Jesus the Alpha and Omega in order to draw the nearest Greek equivalent to God's title in Isaiah.