Author Archives:
Worth Repeating: Judgement
Many people don’t think of themselves as sinners worthy of judgement. But if you commit just three sins per day-if you are irreverent, dishonest, malicious, lustful, or covetous just three times in a day-and the great majority of us break God’s law in thought or deed at least that many times in a hour! -you will commit more than a thousand sins per year. If you live for seventy-five years, as many of us will, when you die you will arrive in God’s court with seventy -five thousand sins to be dealt with. How would a human judge respond to a criminal with seventy-five thousand violations of the civil law? Surely he would impose the maximum penalty! God hates sin more than any human judge, and He has decreed that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). How important it is, then, that we find a way to deal with our sin before appearing before God’s judgement.
Richard D. Phillips, Jesus the Evangelist, (Lake Mary,Fl.:Reformation Trust, 2007) 138
Worth Repeating: The Insignificance of the External
The Insignificance of the External
Let it never be forgotten that the material part of a Christian Church is by far the least important part of it. The fairest combinations of marble, stone, wood and painted glass, are worthless in God’s sight, unless there is truth in the pulpit and grace in the congregation. The dens and caves in which the early Christians used to meet, were probably far more beautiful in the eyes of Christ than the noblest cathedral that was ever reared by man. The temple in which the Lord Jesus delights most, is a broken and contrite heart, renewed by the Holy Spirit.
J.C. Ryle
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke volume 1, [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1986], 357. {Luke 21: 5-9}
The Gospel of John: Part 5 The Lamb
John 1:29–39 (ESV) — 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” 35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
Today we will be in John 1:29-39. We will refer back to the Old Testament books of the law several times to make sure we have the same imagery in our head that the original hearers would. The two things we will focus on the most today will be the phrases; “Lamb of God” and “What are you seeking?”
This section of scripture starts out with the author saying the next day. If you were here for the last lesson you already know that the day before this the Pharisees or Jewish religious leaders, which we compared to the ones who try to control the church, sent the priest to find out what John the Baptizer was doing. He informed them that the King or Messiah was coming and they should prepare as he was doing. If you weren’t here you can quickly read verses 19-28 and see the conversation.
We can assume John the author was there that day since he gives us so much information on what was said. So this is the next day, John and Andrew[1] are listening to their teacher the baptizer when he looks up sees Jesus and says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! He goes on to remind them that this is the man he was referring to the day before. The one that he said he was not even worthy to be a servant for.
- [1] See verse 40 to see where it tells us this is Andrew. The other is assumed to be the author since he knew the details and did not feel it was important to tell us who the other disciple was. ↩
Worth Repeating: Samuel Jones on Sin
During my lesson last weekend I wound up using this illustration to describe what repentance looks like.
Samuel Jones on Sin
There is no attitude towards God that is acceptable to Him except the attitude that turns with loathing away from sin. Here is a mother sitting quietly within her room. Her only child, little”Willie, just four years old, the pride of her heart and the joy of her life, sees mamma’s little pearl handled pen knife lying on the table. That little knife is the present of a friend, and mother values it highly. Little “Willie, unknown to mother, pick sup the little knife and runs out of the room; and in an hour mother wonders where he is, and directly the nurse comes in hurriedly and says:” Little Willie is lying all bloody in the front flower-yard;” and mother rushes out, and there is little Willie just gasping, and breathing his last.
He stubbed his little foot and fell and the blades pierced the jugular vein. The mother grasps the little almost lifeless child in her arms, and runs into the room, and just as she lays him on the little bed he breathes his last; and the mother kisses her child and says: “Sweet Willie, just speak one more time.” Next day mother carries little Willie to the grave and buries him, and comes back to her home with broken heart; and as she sits down and turns back the dark veil, the nurse comes out of the front yard and says: ” Madam, here’s the little knife. Here’s your little pearl-handled knife.” The mother looks at the knife and the blade all covered with the blood of her sweet child, and she shrinks back in horror and says: “Take that knife out of my presence. I never want to see it again. It has the blood of my precious child upon it.”
And when a Christian man or woman, under the light of God’s Holy Spirit, can see that every sin in the moral universe of God has been covered with the blood of the Son of God, then he shrinks back in horror and says: ” Oh I take it out of my presence. It is covered with the precious blood of my bleeding Saviour.” Oh, brother, you will never know what purity is until you see all impurity bathed in the blood of the Son of God. Oh, let us hate sin and abhor it, and turn away from it, and despise it utterly.
Stuart, R. George,FAMOUS STORIES OF SAM P. JONES: Reproduced in the Language in Which Sam Jones Uttered Them
(Fleming H. Revell Co.,1908) p 12-13
The Gospel of John: Part 4 The Baptizer
John 1:19-27
And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”
John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.”
These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
We are now to the testimony of John the Baptizer. Before we get started I want to help you get an image of John in your head. We have to look into the other Gospel accounts to get that picture because John the author doesn’t give us details about John the Baptizer, because he expects the readers to already have encountered John in the other gospels and also he doesn’t want to overemphasize the Baptizer because he is just a messenger.
John comes from Godly parents. His father was a priest named Zechariah. His mother was a godly woman named Elizabeth. She also was from the priestly line being able to trace her family back to Aaron. (The brother of Moses.)[1] Elizabeth also happens to be related to Mary the mother of Jesus. While the bible doesn’t tell us their age it does tell us that they were elderly and Elizabeth was barren. So for what ever medical reason Elizabeth was unable to bare children, plus she was at an age were it was impossible.
One day dad Zechariah went to the temple to burn incense. This was a special privilege that rotated around. This is where you would go into the Holy of Holies and burn incense. Only a priest properly purified could enter. If the priest did something wrong then he would die and have to be drug out of the temple by ropes, since no one else could enter to retrieve him. As Zechariah is doing his duties an angel appeared.
Worth Repeating: Whosoever Will
That reminds me of the penitent down in Georgia at the altar. He was agonizing, praying. The preacher went up to him, trying to encourage him, and, “Well,” he said, “I am not one of the elect, I am one of the reprobates; I feel it all over “-and I dont reckon a poor soul ever did try to seek God that the devil didnt slip up with something of that sort-” You are one of the reprobates; God never died to save you”-and there he was in agony, and the preacher said to him:
“Well, my brother, listen to me a minute. Now,” said he, “if you could see your name, ‘James B. Green, written upon the Lambs book this minute, would you believe then Christ died for you and you were one of the elect?”
The poor fellow thought a moment and he said, “No, sir. There are other people in this world of my name.” (Laughter.)
“Well,” said the preacher, “if you could see it, ‘James B. Green, Sc riven County, Ga., would you believe it was you then?”
Well,” he says, “there may have been other people of ‘my name in this county before I was born. I dont know.”
“Well,” said he, “if you could see it, ‘James B. Green, Scriven County, Ga., and the year ’1867, would you believe it was you?”
“Well,” he said, “it may be there is somebody in this county now of my name.”
“Well,” said he, “if you could see it, ‘James B. Green of Scriven County, and the Nineteenth District and the year ’67, would you believe it was you?”
“Well,” he says, “I could not know definitely.”
“Now,” said he, “my friend, God Almighty saw all that trouble and he just put it into one word and he said: ‘Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
And the poor fellow jumped up and clapped his hands and said, “Thank God! I know that means me.”
Samuel P. Jones, Whosoever Will May Come
Worth Repeating:A Man Like Me
“Martin Luther was a great expositor of John’s Gospel, as I mentioned in the opening chapter, and at this point in his commentary he tells a story from folklore that illustrates this principle. He says that there was once a stubborn and unspiritual man—Luther called him “a coarse and brutal lout”—who showed absolutely no reverence for any of the great truths of Christianity. When the words “And was made man” were sung in church, this man neither crossed himself nor removed his hat, both of which were common practice in the Roman church of that day. When the creeds were recited the man would not kneel. Luther says, “Then the devil stepped up to him and hit him so hard it made his head spin. He [the devil] cursed him gruesomely and said: ‘May hell consume you. … If God had become an angel like me and the congregation sang: “God was made an angel,” I would bend not only my knees but my whole body to the ground! … And you vile human creature, you stand there like a stick or a stone. You hear that God did not become an angel but a man like you, and you just stand there like a stick of wood!’ ”
James Montgomery Boice, Gospel of John, The: The Coming of the Light (John 1-4)
The Gospel of John: Part 3 The Light
John 1:6-18 (ESV)
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)
16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
I started to group these verses with 19-34 since they are very similar and at first look I felt I would be giving the same message twice. Upon further thought I decided that there is too much that need to be broken down here to group it with the message on John the Baptizer. This is still part of the prologue and it deals more with Jesus than John. Try to keep with me since we will be talking about two John’s today. John the Baptizer and John the author of the gospel we are studying.
As I stated last time, in this opening prologue John is trying to counter heresies that are creeping into the church and some of John the Baptizers followers are more concerned with him than Jesus. John is trying to point out that the Baptizers role was just to introduce Christ and people should not get hung up on who he is or was.
It’s kind of interesting how this still happens today. Some mega preachers have become like rock stars and people get so excited to hear them.
Worth Repeating: Behavior Change
There was an occasion when the army of Alexander the Great was engaged in a very serious battle, and in the course of the battle, one of the soldiers fled the scene. He was a coward. After the battle, the coward was apprehended and brought to Alexander’s tent. As the man stood trembling before his general, Alexander looked at him and said, “Why did you run?” The solider said, “I was afraid.” Alexander said,” So I see. What is your name?” The soldier mumbled his answer so Alexander couldn’t hear him, so the great warrior said: “Speak up. What is your name?” The young soldier looked at him and said, “My name is Alexander.” Alexander the great replied, Either change your behavior or change your name.”
If you are embarrassed by Jesus and you’re afraid to confess Him before men, either change your behavior or cease to call yourself a Christian.
R.C. Sproul,John (St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary)
The Gospel of John: Part 2 The Word
John 1:1–18 (ESV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
This is the beginning of John’s Gospel. It is usually referred to as the prologue. If this was a paper being written for a college class this would be called the thesis statement. John is telling us in a simple summed up way exactly what he is going to write in the rest of his gospel. To me this introduction is some of the most beautiful verses in the bible. It tells us that God came and dwelt with us so that we could have life. These verses tell us who Jesus was and what exactly He did for us.
Many believe that this was a hymn that was written by John and added here. Songs were often used to teach, since the catchy rhythms will get stuck in your head. Either way this is the beginning of John’s gospel and contains in a few verses the truth of Jesus.
As I prepared this it is kind of hard to figure out exactly how much I want to discuss here. So much information is given that it could be broken down in so many ways. James Montgomery Boice spends 15 chapters in his commentary on John breaking these verses down. When John Piper preached a series on John in 2008 it took 5 sermons to get through the prologue. John Macarthur spent 3 Sundays trying to get through the beginning of John. So there is a lot that is covered in a few verses here. If you try to outline these verses you come up with 7 points. So I want to try and move swiftly through this but I want you to realize there is a lot here for you to prayerfully study.
So let’s dive in. In the beginning was the Word. We are going to start with the word Word. In Greek it is Logos. John writes in a very deep and theological way, where the more you study and understand the words used the more meaning you will find. We need to also notice that in verse 14 John helps us see that “the Word” is referring to Jesus. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, [1]
The Greek
To the Greek reader the word was an impersonal creative force and source of wisdom and reasoning.[2] Heraclitus came up with this philosophy. He was A Greek philosopher whom lived between 535 B.C. and 475 B.C.[3] He established this term Logos and also made the famous statement you cannot step into the same river twice. Plato, another Greek philosopher that you probably have heard of often quoted Heraclitus and also expounded on this idea behind Logos being the source of reasoning and creator of the universe. Plato went on to say that maybe someday God would send forth a word, Logos that would explain everything clearly.[4],[5] When a Greek reads these opening verses talking about the word, to them this is screaming out, “Yes, God sent Jesus to make everything clear!”
The Jew
To the Jewish reader The Word was very significant. To them the word would be the very voice of God. It could be spoken through a prophet or it could be in scripture. To understand how significant John’s use of the word to describe Jesus was we have to look at the Aramic Targums and Jewish tradition. In the Hebrew scriptures the proper name of God is the tetragrammaton YHVH. We pronounce it Yahweh, sometimes it is said Jehovah as in the English translation of the American Standard Version. If you ever notice as you read through your English translation sometimes LORD is in all capitals. If you were reading your bible in Hebrew the word there would be Yahweh, where if it was Just the L capitalized it would be Adonai. Adonai would also be the word used in Hebrew scripture readings. Rabbonic law allowed only the high priest to use the word Yahweh during certain services.
Boyce’s Abstract of Systematic Theology
I’m reading James Petigru Boyce’s Abstract of Systematic Theology. Boyce was the founder and first president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. This Systematic theology is easily readable and at 534 pages in the print edition it isn’t overly long or complicated. I started reading a pdf version that is available at founders.org Wanting a quicker way to access the bible references I switched to using The Word bible study software for quicker bible reference look ups. The Word is free and can be customized in many ways for studying. I’ll include a screenshot of how I’m using it to read Boyce’s Abstract. If you look you can see how I have a popup open to read the reference. I also have a bible open to the left of the screen if I want to read further to see the context. I’m putting a second screenshot to show how it can be used with one of the more advanced predefined layouts. This allows me to have more than one bible open a dictionary, commentary, bible tree, and both bible and book searches. You can open even more in it plus it can be installed to run off a flash drive. Convenient if you need to be able to access it on more than one computer.
Boyce
The Word
Bible Study February 5
The Gospel Of John: Part 1 The Man
I did my first bible study on the Gospel of John last night. I’m including the manuscript I used to study here. I’ll also post a PDF of it on the resources page. If you were there then you will quickly notice its not word for word. That is because I just use it for studying and do not look at it while teaching.
We are going to go through the book of John. Each week we will go through the verses that seem to stay with the same subject. But before we get started looking at the scripture I think it’s very important that we understand who exactly wrote the book, when it was written, what was going on at the time, and why did the author feel he needed to write the book. Without understanding some of this it is hard to accurately interpret the text.
All that being said we are going to cover the specifics of who, what, when, where and why but more importantly we are going to look into the heart of the man that the bible calls the beloved disciple. We are going to look at a zealous young man following God and an elderly preacher pleading with his congregation not to abandon the faith to false teachers.
The bible contains 4 books referred to as gospels. They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the synoptic gospels because they are very similar. They look at Jesus’ life in a similar way. John leaves out many of the things that the others record for example: John does not tell us about Jesus’ birth or baptism, he does not give us any of the parables, there is no ascension mentioned. Plus there are many things such as Peter walking on water that John does not go into as much detail about. While he tells us about Jesus coming to the boat he doesn’t tell us about Jesus telling Peter to come out on the water.
On top of this John adds a lot of stuff, such as the changing of water to wine[1], meeting with Nicodemus[2], the Samaritan woman[3], the raising of Lazarus[4], and several discourses not included elsewhere[5]. So why is this gospel so different?
John
Bible Study Tonight
Friday’s Links 12/24/2010
I just finished reading Craig Keener’s Biblical interpretation. It’s an awesome book on hermeneutics. It’s available for free at the Pneuma Foundation.
Friday’s Links 12/17/2010
Haven’t had much time for reading this week, but this article that originally appeared in the Florida Baptist Witness was a real eye opener. The link is to the article on the Baptist press page.
Headrick said in the 14 years he and his wife have engaged in “bum ministry” at churches and college and seminary campuses, to his disappointment the Gospel message has only been shared with him 20 times.
Friday’s Links 12/10/2010
I haven’t posted a Friday’s Link in a long time, but this morning I noticed that Josh Harris is reposting his series on preaching notes and wanted to share it. It is extremely helpful on seeing how several pastors prepare to preach.
While your there if you have never read “The Room” check it out
Steven Furtick of Elevation church had this post about “Well, What If” faith. The things we can learn from kids can be amazing. “His faith in my love and my ability to save him compelled him to be bold and take a risk.”
The Plans I Have for You
In January I will be starting teaching through the Gospel of John. All my spare time right now is being dedicated to preparing for that. The series on John I was doing I will be discontinuing. I will be posting my manuscripts on here once I get started though. I’m praying on doing another series of short post on another book of the bible but I want to wait and see if its possible for me to find the time to do that.
I appreciate everyones Patience as this blog lies dormant for the next month. I also seek prayers for me and the people who will be coming. I also ask for prayers that God will lead me to a place to hold these lessons, since I have not yet acquired a place in Jackson yet.
In Christ,
MSW
The Gospel of John 6:22-34
The last time we studied John we talked about Jesus walking on water. Today we are going to start in John 6 verse 22 and go from John 6:22- 6:34. Let’s refresh our minds on the context we are talking about before we get started. At the beginning of chapter 6 Jesus feeds over five thousand people (Matthew 14:21) with 5 loves of bread and 2 fish (John 6:9). Then he sends His disciples on in a boat as he heads up the mountain to pray (Matthew 14:22, John 6:15). We then have the section about Jesus walking out on the water to his disciples. Which brings us to verse 22.
The last thing in the text about the followers of Jesus before He heads out to the apostles is in vs. 14-15 After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. That statement needs to stay in our minds as we proceed forward. So in verses 22-24 the crowd of followers has awakened. They realize that the disciples have taken a boat across the sea and Jesus is nowhere to be found. More boats show up so they go to find the disciples, more than likely thinking, “Surely, they will know where Jesus went.”
I love how in verse 25 they find Jesus and being unaware of how He got there they ask Him, “When did you get here?” Jesus skips the small talk and gets to the heart of the matter. In verse 26 Jesus answers “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”
Jesus who knows the heart of man is asking them, “Why are you looking for me?” So the question today is, why are you following Jesus? Jesus next tells them, “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
What we need to make sure we are seeing here is that back up in verses 14 and 15 it tells us their purpose for following Jesus. When they refer to the prophet has come they are referring to Deuteronomy 18. This Old Testament verse is where Moses tells the Israelites that someday a prophet like him will come and they are to listen to him. They just saw the miracle of Jesus feeding five thousand with 5 fish and 2 loaves. They are thinking back to Moses and the bread (manna from heaven). They did not have to work for food it was given to them by Moses. (It actually was given to them by God but as we will see in a minute they see it as being given to them by Moses.) Jesus also was able to give them food without them doing anything.
They are following Jesus for what He can give them. They ask what must they do to do the works of God and Jesus tells them to believe in Him. In turn they ask, what sign can you give us? Is that not amazing? They have just seen the miracle of the feeding of five thousand and now they say prove to us you can perform miracles. Then they give a hint as the type of miracle they need to see.
They tell Him that their forefathers ate manna in the desert so what can He do in comparison to that. This same problem exists today for the church. Many follow Jesus just as this crowd did. They will go through the trouble of following Jesus as long as they think they can get something. When things get hard or it is not convenient to follow Jesus they turn away just as we see these men are going to do (John 6:60).
Even when Jesus tells them that the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life, they respond by saying, “Give us this bread.” I’m going to stop there today to keep this post from becoming overly long and I will continue with the Bread of Life statement next time.
The Gospel of John 6:15-21
Today I’m going to discuss just a couple of verses. I’m starting at John 6:15-21. I started to just skip over these verses, because John really doesn’t say a whole lot about this miracle compared to Matthew 14:22-33 who discusses Peter walking on water and Mark 6:45-52 who along with Matthew records the wind subsiding.
Yet John does have some significance that needs to be looked at. The first thing that I’m going to point out is that Matthew and Mark both talk about Jesus climbing into the boat and the wind dying down(Matthew 14:32, Mark 6:51). John tells us the disciples had rowed for 3 to 3 and half miles, when Jesus walked out to them. We see in the other gospel accounts that they landed their boat at Gennesaret. A straight course which they would not have taken because they would want to get a little ways off the shore would be at least 4 miles. Since we don’t know exactly where they launched their boat from the distance could have been a little farther.
John tells us that when Jesus got in the boat they were immediately at the shore. It strikes me interesting as soon as Jesus was with them, they were where they were going. It kind of reminds me where Phillip was taken by the spirit as soon as the Ethiopian was baptized.
The other thing in this passage is that John shows by leaving out some details he put it here not so we would know what happened, (since he knows we have already heard about it from the other gospels) but to point something out to us. It’s reminds me of the wedding at Cana where only the servants saw the miracles. John wants us to see that this was a special miracle (especially Peter walking on the water) for those who truly serve Jesus. I believe the next section we will study will help strengthen that view.
More Than Conquerors
This is the sermon from Sunday Night
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More Than Conquerors
What a beautiful set of verses. I believe we all know Romans 8:28 well. I believe it is our pastor’s favorite verse. But this whole chapter is full of hope. It starts out screaming there is no condemnation in Christ. Then it moves on to talking about sonship and future glory then the promise that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
So let’s look at how that promise plays out. I imagine everyone can think of a time when they had to wonder how in the world this could work out for good. Let’s start with Jacob. He lost his favorite son, the wife he loved died in childbirth and as he is trying to find away to get his family through a famine, the ruler in Egypt takes away another son and demands he sends his youngest son back. As Jacob is feeling hopeless he cries out, “You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!” [2]
The Shadow of the Cross
Here is the sermon I preached this morning.
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John 1:1–3 (NIV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
- Jesus
-
- Jesus has always been there.
-
- Jesus and God are the same but separate.
- Man
- God gave everything to men except the fruit from one tree.
- Man ate the fruit of the forbidden tree.
- Man suffered the consequences.
- God
- God suffered the consequences.
- God knows everything before it happens.
- Review and look at life in the shadow of the cross.
Jesus has always been
I’m going to start with John chapter 1 vs.1-3. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2)He was with God in the beginning.
(3)Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that had been made.
When we read John’s prologue there is no way to deny that the bible teaches that Jesus has always been there. The Word is referring to Jesus. If you look down at vs. 14 John shows us that. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. The word is Jesus and it says he was there in the beginning. He was there at creation.
Look at Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Jesus was there.
Look at Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.
Jesus was there.
Look at Daniel 3:25 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are being thrown into the fiery furnace . Nebuchadnezzar looks and says Daniel 3:25 (NIV) — 25 He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”
Jesus was there! The next thing I want us to see.
The Gospel of John 6:1-15
In John 6:1-15 we have John’s account of the feeding of 5000. All four gospels record this event. We discover from Luke’s account that they are near Bethsaida on the North coast of the Sea of Galilee. Verse 2 is interesting because in the previous section Jesus had discussed how they did not believe him. Verse 2 tells us the crowd is following Jesus because of the miracles he is performing on the sick. I do not believe the people have yet figured out that this is the salvation that God has promised. They are following him and listening to his teaching but they do not believe that He is the Son of God. They are not following Him because He can save them from sin and death, but because of what He can do for them.
I point this out to say that there are many in church today that realize there was a Jesus and that He was sent by God. They understand that he died for their sins. Yet the only reason they go to church is for what it can do for them. They do not serve in any of the church’s ministry yet they constantly seek more ministries that can serve them. The seek positions in the church not so they can help others but so they can have power and prestige.
So Jesus goes up on the mountainside and sets with His disciples when He sees the crowd getting closer, He asks, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” First notice that Jesus was with those who believed in Him. He was teaching and disciplining those who love Him when he saw unbelievers that had a need and He wanted to know what the disciples were going to do about that need.
Philip immediately thinks there is nothing that they can do for such a large crowd. He thinks of the money they would have to spend to help these people. Philip is not thinking that He is with Immanuel (God with us) and nothing is impossible. Andrew on the other hand jumps in with a solution. There is a boy here with 5 loaves and two fish. Granted he doesn’t know how that could possibly help so many people but he knows that he serves an amazing God.
The parallel here today is , are you a person or church that looks at the overwhelming need of the community and say its hopeless or do you look to the heavens and say this is what we have God, what can you do with it?
Jesus tells the disciples to organize everyone into groups and He thanks God for providing for their need. How often do we look at impossible circumstances and thank God for providing before we even see Him do it? That is what happened here. Jesus knew God would meet the need that they had to supply these followers with food. Sometimes we must believe God is going to provide without any idea how He is going to do it.
Afterwards Jesus had the disciples gather the leftover bread and it filled 12 baskets. God not only provided for the needs of this crowd but He gave even more abundantly than was needed. We as a church should always seek how to serve our community. How can we show the love of Jesus to a lost and dying world? We should always know that if we are seeking to be the hands and feet of Jesus, he will provide.
Savannah’s Post
Randy Warren 04/30/1949-09/08/2010
My father, Randy Warren was the type of man I pray that I can be. He taught me so much on how to be a father, a husband, and a man that others looked up to.
Dad taught me integrity. To say what I mean and mean what I say. To be the same person when I’m alone, as I am when I am with others. He taught me what it means to be a gentleman. To treat women with respect, to respect my elders, and to be someone others looked up to.
He taught me how to be a husband to one woman for 42 years. He showed me how to show a wife that she is and will always be the love of my life and my best friend.
He taught me to be a great dad. The kind that his children look up to and want to model their life after. He was a dad not just to me and my sister, but anyone that needed a father figure in their life.
God truly blessed me when he gave me Randy Warren as my father. A man that taught me to always respect God, put my family first, love my country, and to give a110% to anything I put my hand to.
The bible says when a man accepts Christ as his savior he will start to mirror Jesus. Dad did not wear his religion on his sleeve, but you didn’t have to look hard to see the characteristics of Jesus.
Dad loved everyone. The qualities he taught me he taught others. He couldn’t stand to see anyone suffer and would give the shirt off his back to a complete stranger if they needed it.
It hurts to know that Dad will not be there for me to call upon anymore, but if your hope is in Christ like mine, then you realize life is just a blink of an eye and someday I will stand in a paradise unlike anything that can be imagined and I’ll see my dad again.
