The Lord's Prayer

Click here to download the sermon.

Recap of 2/24/13 (John 17:1-19):

1.  John 17 is the Holy of Holies of the New Testament. “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies.  Yet distance makes no difference.  He is praying for me.” (Robert Murray McCheyne).

2.  Jesus’ willingness to go to the cross would bring glory to God the Father.  His “hour” had come, the hour of His death, burial, and resurrection. By His obedience God would be honored;sin, death and Satan would be vanquished.  Jesus chose the glory of God despite the suffering.

3.  “Every sorrow, every pain, every bit of suffering, every circumstance, every joy, everything that comes into your life is going to be for the glory of God.  Do you ever think of it that way?  There’s no place for self-sympathy, growling, and grumbling.  Why?  Because it is all going to ‘redound to the glory of God’ (2 Corinthians 4:15).”  “Whatever the past may have been between you and the Lord, dear reader—whether you see only failures and weaknesses in the years behind you—may I suggest something?  Get down before the Lord and say, ‘Lord, from here on I desire to live for the glory of Christ.’” (Mitchell)

4.  Eternal life is a personal, intimate relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  To know Him intimately is have eternal life, not just endless existence but abundant life here and life with God through all eternity.  Everyone will live forever, the only question is where and with whom; with God in His presence, or with Satan and his angels in the lake of fire.

5.  Believers are “set-apart” to God (sanctified), that is separated from the world and set-part for God’s special use.  We are set-apart by the Word of God which is truth.  As we read, study, and meditate upon the Word, God applies it to our lives and uses it to make us useful to Him, as well as productive in our spiritual life.

6.  Jesus completed the work God the Father had given Him to do.  All who make God’s glory and will central in their lives can say the same.  “How few of us feel, under the shadow of death, that life is complete, that its work is finished!  What a pathetic series of beginnings and failures and imperfect endeavors it does seem to be.  Yet, if one does the will of God, the symbol of life need not be a broken column.” (Erdman)

Peace in a World Of Hurt

Click here to download the sermon.

Recap of 2/17/13 (John 16:12-33):

1.  Jesus would be taken away from the Disciples but they wouldn’t be left alone, so He tries to encourage them with four truths:

-The Holy Spirit would minister to them and be with them in Jesus’ stead (vv. 12-15)

-They had been prepared for what would come because Jesus told them in advance what was to come.  Their confidence in Jesus would be bolstered by His knowledge of the future (vv. 16-22)

-They would have access directly to the Father in prayer (vv. 23-28)

-They would have victory and peace despite their faltering faith and failure (vv. 29-33)

2.  The Holy Spirit, when He came, would glorify Jesus, not Himself.  “When a person claims to be filled with the Holy Spirit, look for the evidence of the heart and character of Christ in that person.” (Mitchell)

3.  In 16:13, Jesus, authenticates the yet to be written New Testament.  It would be the product of the promptings of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the Disciples and others. (2 Peter 1:18-21; 2 Timothy 3:16,17)

4.  Knowing the coming failure of the Disciples Jesus challenges them about their faltering faith.  G. Campbell Morgan comments:  “Two lessons of great importance may be learned here.  The first is that our faith is a poor foundation; indeed that it is no foundation.  We do verily believer to-day, but to-morrow may bring storms which will for the moment strain faith to the breaking-point, and make it of no value.  The other is that He is faithful, and that is the foundation.  In the fiercest hour of upheaval, He it is Who creates some possibility for our failing faith to gather strength.”

The Dynamic Duo

Click here to download the sermon.

Recap of 2/10/13 (John 15:26-16:11):

1.  The theme of the hatred and opposition of the world to the Christian begun in John 15:18 continues into John 16 verses 1-11.  The Lord is telling His disciples that these are the facts of the Christian life.  ‘I have suffered.  You will suffer as well.  You can’t expect any better treatment from the world than I received.’  The moment you take a stand for the Savior, you have opposition.” (Mitchell)

2.  Though it seems counter-intuitive, the proper response to the world’s opposition is to witness as to who Jesus is and what He came to do in conjunction with the ministry of the Holy Spirit (John 15:26,27).  We too often seek escape from the world or are silent about our commitment to Jesus.  “As the Apostles witnessed, the Holy Spirit persuaded, and people were saved” (Blum).

3.  Jesus warns believers about the world’s hatred and opposition so that we will not be thrown by it.  That it will not trip us up or cause a crisis of faith or a weakening of faith.  He tells His disciples in advance what is coming so that they can have even greater confidence in Him.

4.  Jesus enunciates a Biblical principle when He tells the disciples that what was painful for them now, would turn out for their good later.  This is a principle seen throughout the Word of God.  Some examples are: Jacob (Genesis 42:36); Joseph (Genesis 50:20); and Moses (Exodus 2-4). The principle is expressed in Rpmans 8:28.

5.  The Holy Spirit would work in conjunction with our witness to convince unbelievers that they are guilty of sin because of their rejection of Jesus, that they lack the necessary righteousness to enter Heaven and that unless they turn to Christ they will share Satan’s judgment and fate.

Not Feeling The Love

Click here to download the sermon.

Recap of 2/3/13 (John 15:18-25):

1.  Starting in John 15:18 the topic of Jesus’ teaching changing dramatically.  He had commanded them to love each other, the reason this love was so necessary was because believers would be hated by the world. The words “hate” or “hatred” replaces the word “love” as the topic of this section.

2.  “One thing is certain—no Christian who was involved in persecution could say that he had not been warned.  Persecution came to the Christians because they put Christ first.  Persecution always comes to the man who does that.” (Barclay)  Friendship with Jesus brings the hatred of the world.  The world treats us as it treated Jesus. The reason for this hatred is clear: the more we are like Jesus the more the world will hate us.

3.  Believers are different once coming to Christ.  We are being transformed by the Word of God (Romans 12:2), we no longer think like the world (1 Peter 4:4).  People hate those who are different, whose lives are a rebuke to their own lives.

4.  Believers must be careful not to compromise in order to be popular with the world.  James warns against friendship with the world which he says makes us an enemy of God (James 4:4).

5. The world in ignorance hates Jesus and rejects His words, life, works, and miracles which clearly mark Him out as from God, God incarnate, the God-man.  “…-the revelation of the Father that Christ had given to the world—rendered the world inexcusable (vs. 22).  Christ’s life and words revealed the righteousness of God and provided a pattern of the kind of life that a man must live in order to be acceptable to God.  Before Christ came, the world might have pleaded ignorance of God’s demands as an excuse for their sins; but now that Christ had come and spoken, the world had no excuse for their sin.” (Pentecost)